4.30.2004

Some days I despair over conservatives who back Bush. The guy spends money as freely as Teddy K, but talks a good line to the conservatives and they buy it!

When they bring up the war on terror, it gets worse. If you want to take the fight to the enemy (which I'm sorta okay with), you have to find an actual enemy. UPDATE: You have to find the enemy, not create him.

For some reason, the conservatives don't mind hitching our wagon to Saudi Arabia and Packistan. They don't mind continuing support of Egypt. Basically, a big portion of the bad actors you can think of, we continue to back.

We keep going to sleep with dogs, we'll wake up with fleas, again. For "dogs," read "evil-corrupt strongmen ruling nations full of hopeless young people that we, by doing nothing, radicalize," and for "fleas," "additional enemies throughout the world."

End of rant.

Rock on, (Mario) bros.
Hehe, fundies are funny.
Funny funny funny stuff. Crazy blimps.
For all your Iraq-reconstruction needs, click here.

4.29.2004

NPR is spending way too much time commemorating the fall of apartheid. Really- let's not have a whole week of people saying essentially the same thing over and over. They do that enough already.

4.28.2004

In L.A. they put a placard in the window of each restuarant, displaying its hygiene grade. The results?
Wanna take a look? Take a look.
Let the people decide...

Hummus: yea or nay?
Phrases such as:
Where is my rug? 
¿Dónde está mi manta? 

Have you found your sea legs? 
¿Ya no se marea? 

4.27.2004

Cabbage: bitter or sweet? We Report, You Decide.
This is interesting.

4.26.2004

Welcome to lovely Yamhill. But you'd best not be practicing any mesmerism.
Iraq by numbers. Interesting stuff. Via Yglesias. An adobe pdf- save it from here.
Now this is a fine thing. Way to go, Bowie.
Good Op-ed in the New York Times. Read the whole thing, but here's a snippet from the end:
The Bush administration has escalated the war on marijuana, raiding clinics that offer medical marijuana and staging a nationwide roundup of manufacturers of drug paraphernalia. In November 2002 the Office of National Drug Control Policy circulated an "open letter to America's prosecutors" spelling out the administration's views. "Marijuana is addictive," the letter asserted. "Marijuana and violence are linked . . . no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana."
It seems that if you replace "marijuana" with "alcohol," the ONDCP might be on to something.

4.24.2004

This is an example of intellectual dishonesty, I think. Via Washington Monthly.
So those commercials with the little bouncing egg-creature are heart wrenching. This, however, is hilarious.

4.23.2004

I went outside to walk around in the sun for a bit. It's 80 out and lovely. I saw a big yellow butterfly flapping around like he was having a seizure. When I looked more closely, I could see a tiny wooden spoon between his butterful teeth. Apparently it was a seizure.

Okay. There was no spoon.
Interesting economic data.
Here's a cool picture from the Mt. Wilson webcam. It looks out upon Pasadena (center front), Los Angeles (center)- about 16 miles away, and the ocean (back)- about 30.
What, I should have to eat trayf chinese food? Oy vay.
Check out a potentially interesting audio project here. I can't listen to it at work- no sound card.

4.22.2004

Go, England! You guys are so smrt. D'oh!
So Eugene appears to be very fastidious blogger. I recommend the Conspiracy; they've got some thoughtful persons over there.
Has anyone heard the song lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise? They played part of it on TOTN today (NPR program). 'Tis hilarious.
Timeline. I can't vouch for the veracity in the right column, but some of the things are known.
An original limerick that happens to coincide with Neal Stephenson's latest.
Newton had confusing notations
for his derivatives and integrations.
He said "For a mind like mine, it's
no more difficult than Leibniz',"
and ignored poor Hooke's protestations.
Sometimes, there are interesting ideas posted at this guy's blog. Mostly, though, he's just an unpleasant nut.
This is just plain nuts.

4.21.2004

"A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs. He immediately mailed in his $40."

4.20.2004

Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers.
My computer is full and the files seem to be all over the place.Defragment more often than I.
Ooh- meta
Do you think Dogbert would write my resume?

4.18.2004

You know what else is funny? Coach Z doing the Cabbage Patch

4.16.2004

Mitch Hedberg, you crack me up. You do, too, Steven Wright. Sometimes Dorothy Parker is funny, too.
I hope Amy doesn't participate in any RA pranks.

4.15.2004

This kicks ass. More people should be doing it.
More quiz fun. This one is from the Harvard Institute of Politics. Via Matthew Yglesias
Help! Bill O'Reilly is in my pocket!

4.14.2004

4.13.2004

Yeah, the middle class is doing really well.
I'd like my$871,046, please.

4.12.2004

More visual humor.
More excellent science from the UK.
Maybe if we convinced then it was a lottery, the Repugs. would pay attention to the budget. I mean, it has lots of numbers...
Hey! Come back here with my shoes!

4.10.2004

Sorostitutes are victims, too!

4.09.2004

Well I've decided to try adding comments. So do.
This thing is really neato.

4.08.2004

For all the Strong Bad goodness you can take:
http://starbase.globalpc.net/~bhz/cgi-bin/strongbad/index.html

Overheard:
The West Wing is political pornography for liberals

Now I wouldn't want anyone to think Susan and I are all-porno-posters, but this is insane, too:

Here's a nice government owned website.

And here's how it got that way.

For another way of looking at same, see the article in Reason.

4.07.2004

Good old-fashioned humor.

Which button would you press to reboot this?


Presidenting is hard! You'll see...

Now check out this quiz to see if you're cut out for it http://www.ejectbush.com/wiggumorbush_page.html


4.06.2004

Yeah, I'm so glad to see my tax dollars hard at work, paying government wages so a roomfull of feds can watch porn for 40 hours a week.
That article Susan posted was illuminating...

Ashcroft, a religious man who does not drink alcohol or caffeine, smoke, gamble or dance...

I, too, am glad that there's someone in charge of the D.O.J. who wants protect me from myself. And porn. Why waste money that could be used in waging the war on freedoms terror?
Wow, thank goodness our government is spending money on the really important stuff.
Uh oh...Strong Bad's in the slammer and Strong Sad does tai chi

4.05.2004

These polling data are interesting. Via Nasi Lemak.

This story should also be made to ring from the (now coal-y) mountainsides...

“I've been in government since Richard Nixon. I've been through the Reagan administration, Carter and Clinton. I've never seen anything like this.”

What [Spadaro is] talking about is what he calls a government cover-up of an investigation into a disaster 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill.

It happened in October of 2000, when 300 million gallons of coal slurry - thick pudding-like waste from mining operations - flooded land, polluted rivers and destroyed property in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. The slurry contained hazardous chemicals, including arsenic and mercury.

...and some happy little clouds livehere...

Bob Ross really is like human prozac. If Big Brother exists in the future, we might expect him to pipe Bob's programs directly into our brains. In some sense, that would not be unlike Harrison Bergeron, where even the aesthetically pleasing is sacrificed to dull homogeneity.

So Bob Ross is the antidote to "watercolor harrassment," whatever that might mean.

4.04.2004

This is worth reading. Picked it up via Marginal Revolution.

A Business Idea for Heathens

Call it 'A Sacred Cow.'

Serve foods that are trayf, haram, whatever. Ham it up.

Around the world, by degrees.

4.03.2004

Death Gets a Website
Susan's Favorite Brad Pitt Movies (in order):

1. Fight Club
2. Ocean's Eleven
3. 12 Monkeys
4. Snatch
5. Interview w/ the Vampire
6. The Mexican

(Though it should be noted that I've never seen A River Runs Through It, which seems to be fairly well-regarded.)

Tom's favorite Brad Pitt movies:

(in all particular orders)

Fight Club
Ocean's Eleven
A River Runs Through It

Fight Club
A River Runs Through It
Ocean's Eleven

A River Runs Through It
Fight Club
Ocean's Eleven

A River Runs Through It
Ocean's Eleven
Fight Club

Ocean's Eleven
A River Runs Through It
Fight Club

Ocean's Eleven
Fight Club
A River Runs Through It

Max's favorite Brad Pitt movies:

(no particular order)

12 Monkeys
Ocean's Eleven
True Romance
Spy Game
A River Runs Through It
Snatch
Sleepers
Interview with the Vampire

4.02.2004

Um... wow?
This is something everyone should check out. Though I have always thought of Yetis as Northern hemisphere creatures, really.
Here it is. I suppose it was only a matter of time.