If you haven't ever read Scott Adams* blog, you should. He's a great writer, and he's got a lot of wonderful opinions about a very broad range of subjects. Kinda reminds me of myself, in some ways. Mostly all the ways that don't have to do with him being a uber-cartoonist and me being ... well ... not. Still, he's right up my alley, especially with this particular post.
Check it out.
* For those of you who don't know, Scott is the creator of Dilbert**
** For those of you who aren't nerds, Dilbert is a comic strip.
3.26.2007
3.23.2007
Stupid People Vs. Children
You thought this post was going to be about "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" didn't you? Well, it's not. But only cause I didn't even think of that until just now.
No, this post is about how stupid rich people and their views on things like money and the value of material possessions and their stupid sense of superiority above all else. You can read the story whole story here. via Consumerist.com
No, this post is about how stupid rich people and their views on things like money and the value of material possessions and their stupid sense of superiority above all else. You can read the story whole story here. via Consumerist.com
3.22.2007
One Man's Journey Into Music Piracy
The funny thing is, his definition (and the RIAA's definition) of piracy is exactly the problem. At any rate, you can read his essay here. Via one of my favorite blogs ever, Consumerist
3.08.2007
Please Make It Stop!
Seriously, are the monkey-robot-putting-together people working overtime this week, or what? Must have been a slow February for everyone else too. Seriously though, I'm not kidding. You have to put an end to this before they realize what you've done. I mean, what's next, monkey Transformers? Oh God ... Please don't do that!
From MSNBC, via Dethroner
From MSNBC, via Dethroner
3.05.2007
Pushbutton Power
The Neilsen ratings are a way for the people in charge of television programming to tell what a random selection of people are watching and therefore, what kind of crap they should develop to feed you next year. It's a system that works by blah, blah-blah technical details blah blah. They don't really need any of that. All they need is some way to tell when I turn off my TV because I see that a particular show is coming on next. Not change the channel. Turn off.
TV: "Another show like Survivor, but now with even less watchability!
Me: "Click"
TV: "Coming up next, The Black Donnelly's, in place of that other show you like with the compelling scripts and decent acting."
Me: "Click"
TV: "Lost, up next! You'll be ... lost ... Haha. Get it?"
Me: "Click"
TV: "American Idol?!"
Me: "AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! Click!"
TV: ... um ...(sheepishly) ..."The New Adventures of Old Christine?"
Me: "No ... Click"
TV: "Another show like Survivor, but now with even less watchability!
Me: "Click"
TV: "Coming up next, The Black Donnelly's, in place of that other show you like with the compelling scripts and decent acting."
Me: "Click"
TV: "Lost, up next! You'll be ... lost ... Haha. Get it?"
Me: "Click"
TV: "American Idol?!"
Me: "AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! Click!"
TV: ... um ...(sheepishly) ..."The New Adventures of Old Christine?"
Me: "No ... Click"
iDon't Get It
I've still got my doubts about the new Apple iPhone. (If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, you might want to mosey along now) On the other hand, I've just watched the commercial for it which, in my opinion, is one of the best pieces of advertising I've seen in a very long time. (most likely since I first watched Cog) I absolutely cannot believe they didn't roll this out during the SuperBowl. It would have been 1984 all over again.
2.23.2007
This Should Anger You
You should read this article about Bush's proposed budget from the Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi.
I really started to get angry about a quarter of the way through. Let's see how far you get!
This part got me, especially:
If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family, the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.
The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.
I really started to get angry about a quarter of the way through. Let's see how far you get!
This part got me, especially:
If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family, the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.
The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.
2.21.2007
Oh dear ...
I knew this was going to happen.
The Monkey-Robots have come for us. If any ninjas get involved, I'm heading for the hills.
The Monkey-Robots have come for us. If any ninjas get involved, I'm heading for the hills.
Speeching
Sometimes, I stutter.
I don't have a speech impediment, or anything.
No, what happens is that I edit all the time, even when I'm speaking. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a sentence, I realize that it doesn't express quite the right sentiment, or there's another way to say the same thing, just slightly better.
And then I stutter, until the new, better words find their way out.
I don't have a speech impediment, or anything.
No, what happens is that I edit all the time, even when I'm speaking. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a sentence, I realize that it doesn't express quite the right sentiment, or there's another way to say the same thing, just slightly better.
And then I stutter, until the new, better words find their way out.
12.06.2006
More Refreshing Than The Usual
Apparently the CEO of Seagate, Bill Watkins, is a very candid, down-to-earth sort of a fellow. He's impressed me with his honesty, and that takes a lot.
In an interview in San Francisco on Tuesday, Bill put it straight: "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."
Thanks, Bill.
I mean, we pretty much knew that anyway. But it's really great to hear that you know it too. : )
In an interview in San Francisco on Tuesday, Bill put it straight: "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."
Thanks, Bill.
I mean, we pretty much knew that anyway. But it's really great to hear that you know it too. : )
11.06.2006
11.04.2006
Vocabulary
I didn't have a word for it, before, but I knew the concept existed nonetheless. Apparently, what WalMart is, is a monopsony.
10.05.2006
Also ...
I have a great idea for collection and recycling of valuable space junk that could make someone a mint. Anyone wanna spot me a few mil for research?
Um...
Please ... ?
Um...
Please ... ?
The Best Thing I've Heard All Week ...
Ze Frank said, "You kill more terrorists with honey than you do with vinegar."
Good stuff.
From the show with Ze Frank. Always incredible. Always pertinent.
Good stuff.
From the show with Ze Frank. Always incredible. Always pertinent.
10.03.2006
When in Rome ...
This was in this weekend's NYT. I couldn't find a link (read: didn't try), so I figured I'd post the whole thing. For those of us who already know our history and have an opinion on the current state of affairs, this is an affirmation. For the rest of you, this will be too long, boring, and not contain nearly enough of whatever it is that compels you to watch Prison Break.
In either case, enjoy!
Pirates of the Mediterranean
By ROBERT HARRIS
Kintbury, England
IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world's only military superpower was dealt
a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very
heart. Rome's port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet
destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards
and staff, kidnapped.
The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention
from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely
a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a
fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the
attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the
destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty.
One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.
Consider the parallels. The perpetrators of this spectacular assault
were not in the pay of any foreign power: no nation would have dared to
attack Rome so provocatively. They were, rather, the disaffected of the
earth: "The ruined men of all nations," in the words of the great
19th-century German historian Theodor Mommsen, "a piratical state with a
peculiar esprit de corps."
Like Al Qaeda, these pirates were loosely organized, but able to spread
a disproportionate amount of fear among citizens who had believed
themselves immune from attack. To quote Mommsen again: "The Latin
husbandman, the traveler on the Appian highway, the genteel bathing
visitor at the terrestrial paradise of Baiae were no longer secure of
their property or their life for a single moment."
What was to be done? Over the preceding centuries, the Constitution of
ancient Rome had developed an intricate series of checks and balances
intended to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single
individual. The consulship, elected annually, was jointly held by two
men. Military commands were of limited duration and subject to regular
renewal. Ordinary citizens were accustomed to a remarkable degree of
liberty: the cry of "Civis Romanus sum" -- "I am a Roman citizen" -- was
a guarantee of safety throughout the world.
But such was the panic that ensued after Ostia that the people were
willing to compromise these rights. The greatest soldier in Rome, the
38-year-old Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known to posterity as Pompey
the Great) arranged for a lieutenant of his, the tribune Aulus Gabinius,
to rise in the Roman Forum and propose an astonishing new law.
"Pompey was to be given not only the supreme naval command but what
amounted in fact to an absolute authority and uncontrolled power over
everyone," the Greek historian Plutarch wrote. "There were not many
places in the Roman world that were not included within these limits."
Pompey eventually received almost the entire contents of the Roman
Treasury -- 144 million sesterces -- to pay for his "war on terror,"
which included building a fleet of 500 ships and raising an army of
120,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. Such an accumulation of power was
unprecedented, and there was literally a riot in the Senate when the
bill was debated.
Nevertheless, at a tumultuous mass meeting in the center of Rome,
Pompey's opponents were cowed into submission, the Lex Gabinia passed
(illegally), and he was given his power. In the end, once he put to sea,
it took less than three months to sweep the pirates from the entire
Mediterranean. Even allowing for Pompey's genius as a military
strategist, the suspicion arises that if the pirates could be defeated
so swiftly, they could hardly have been such a grievous threat in the
first place.
But it was too late to raise such questions. By the oldest trick in the
political book -- the whipping up of a panic, in which any dissenting
voice could be dismissed as "soft" or even "traitorous" -- powers had
been ceded by the people that would never be returned. Pompey stayed in
the Middle East for six years, establishing puppet regimes throughout
the region, and turning himself into the richest man in the empire.
Those of us who are not Americans can only look on in wonder at the
similar ease with which the ancient rights and liberties of the
individual are being surrendered in the United States in the wake of
9/11. The vote by the Senate on Thursday to suspend the right of habeas
corpus for terrorism detainees, denying them their right to challenge
their detention in court; the careful wording about torture, which
forbids only the inducement of "serious" physical and mental suffering
to obtain information; the admissibility of evidence obtained in the
United States without a search warrant; the licensing of the president
to declare a legal resident of the United States an enemy combatant --
all this represents an historic shift in the balance of power between
the citizen and the executive.
An intelligent, skeptical American would no doubt scoff at the thought
that what has happened since 9/11 could presage the destruction of a
centuries-old constitution; but then, I suppose, an intelligent,
skeptical Roman in 68 B.C. might well have done the same.
In truth, however, the Lex Gabinia was the beginning of the end of the
Roman republic. It set a precedent. Less than a decade later, Julius
Caesar -- the only man, according to Plutarch, who spoke out in favor of
Pompey's special command during the Senate debate -- was awarded
similar, extended military sovereignty in Gaul. Previously, the state,
through the Senate, largely had direction of its armed forces; now the
armed forces began to assume direction of the state.
It also brought a flood of money into an electoral system that had been
designed for a simpler, non-imperial era. Caesar, like Pompey, with all
the resources of Gaul at his disposal, became immensely wealthy, and
used his treasure to fund his own political faction. Henceforth, the
result of elections was determined largely by which candidate had the
most money to bribe the electorate. In 49 B.C., the system collapsed
completely, Caesar crossed the Rubicon -- and the rest, as they say, is
ancient history.
It may be that the Roman republic was doomed in any case. But the
disproportionate reaction to the raid on Ostia unquestionably hastened
the process, weakening the restraints on military adventurism and
corrupting the political process. It was to be more than 1,800 years
before anything remotely comparable to Rome's democracy -- imperfect
though it was -- rose again.
The Lex Gabinia was a classic illustration of the law of unintended
consequences: it fatally subverted the institution it was supposed to
protect. Let us hope that vote in the United States Senate does not have
the same result.
Robert Harris is the author, most recently, of "Imperium: A Novel of
Ancient Rome."
In either case, enjoy!
Pirates of the Mediterranean
By ROBERT HARRIS
Kintbury, England
IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world's only military superpower was dealt
a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very
heart. Rome's port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet
destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards
and staff, kidnapped.
The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention
from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely
a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a
fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the
attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the
destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty.
One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.
Consider the parallels. The perpetrators of this spectacular assault
were not in the pay of any foreign power: no nation would have dared to
attack Rome so provocatively. They were, rather, the disaffected of the
earth: "The ruined men of all nations," in the words of the great
19th-century German historian Theodor Mommsen, "a piratical state with a
peculiar esprit de corps."
Like Al Qaeda, these pirates were loosely organized, but able to spread
a disproportionate amount of fear among citizens who had believed
themselves immune from attack. To quote Mommsen again: "The Latin
husbandman, the traveler on the Appian highway, the genteel bathing
visitor at the terrestrial paradise of Baiae were no longer secure of
their property or their life for a single moment."
What was to be done? Over the preceding centuries, the Constitution of
ancient Rome had developed an intricate series of checks and balances
intended to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single
individual. The consulship, elected annually, was jointly held by two
men. Military commands were of limited duration and subject to regular
renewal. Ordinary citizens were accustomed to a remarkable degree of
liberty: the cry of "Civis Romanus sum" -- "I am a Roman citizen" -- was
a guarantee of safety throughout the world.
But such was the panic that ensued after Ostia that the people were
willing to compromise these rights. The greatest soldier in Rome, the
38-year-old Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known to posterity as Pompey
the Great) arranged for a lieutenant of his, the tribune Aulus Gabinius,
to rise in the Roman Forum and propose an astonishing new law.
"Pompey was to be given not only the supreme naval command but what
amounted in fact to an absolute authority and uncontrolled power over
everyone," the Greek historian Plutarch wrote. "There were not many
places in the Roman world that were not included within these limits."
Pompey eventually received almost the entire contents of the Roman
Treasury -- 144 million sesterces -- to pay for his "war on terror,"
which included building a fleet of 500 ships and raising an army of
120,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. Such an accumulation of power was
unprecedented, and there was literally a riot in the Senate when the
bill was debated.
Nevertheless, at a tumultuous mass meeting in the center of Rome,
Pompey's opponents were cowed into submission, the Lex Gabinia passed
(illegally), and he was given his power. In the end, once he put to sea,
it took less than three months to sweep the pirates from the entire
Mediterranean. Even allowing for Pompey's genius as a military
strategist, the suspicion arises that if the pirates could be defeated
so swiftly, they could hardly have been such a grievous threat in the
first place.
But it was too late to raise such questions. By the oldest trick in the
political book -- the whipping up of a panic, in which any dissenting
voice could be dismissed as "soft" or even "traitorous" -- powers had
been ceded by the people that would never be returned. Pompey stayed in
the Middle East for six years, establishing puppet regimes throughout
the region, and turning himself into the richest man in the empire.
Those of us who are not Americans can only look on in wonder at the
similar ease with which the ancient rights and liberties of the
individual are being surrendered in the United States in the wake of
9/11. The vote by the Senate on Thursday to suspend the right of habeas
corpus for terrorism detainees, denying them their right to challenge
their detention in court; the careful wording about torture, which
forbids only the inducement of "serious" physical and mental suffering
to obtain information; the admissibility of evidence obtained in the
United States without a search warrant; the licensing of the president
to declare a legal resident of the United States an enemy combatant --
all this represents an historic shift in the balance of power between
the citizen and the executive.
An intelligent, skeptical American would no doubt scoff at the thought
that what has happened since 9/11 could presage the destruction of a
centuries-old constitution; but then, I suppose, an intelligent,
skeptical Roman in 68 B.C. might well have done the same.
In truth, however, the Lex Gabinia was the beginning of the end of the
Roman republic. It set a precedent. Less than a decade later, Julius
Caesar -- the only man, according to Plutarch, who spoke out in favor of
Pompey's special command during the Senate debate -- was awarded
similar, extended military sovereignty in Gaul. Previously, the state,
through the Senate, largely had direction of its armed forces; now the
armed forces began to assume direction of the state.
It also brought a flood of money into an electoral system that had been
designed for a simpler, non-imperial era. Caesar, like Pompey, with all
the resources of Gaul at his disposal, became immensely wealthy, and
used his treasure to fund his own political faction. Henceforth, the
result of elections was determined largely by which candidate had the
most money to bribe the electorate. In 49 B.C., the system collapsed
completely, Caesar crossed the Rubicon -- and the rest, as they say, is
ancient history.
It may be that the Roman republic was doomed in any case. But the
disproportionate reaction to the raid on Ostia unquestionably hastened
the process, weakening the restraints on military adventurism and
corrupting the political process. It was to be more than 1,800 years
before anything remotely comparable to Rome's democracy -- imperfect
though it was -- rose again.
The Lex Gabinia was a classic illustration of the law of unintended
consequences: it fatally subverted the institution it was supposed to
protect. Let us hope that vote in the United States Senate does not have
the same result.
Robert Harris is the author, most recently, of "Imperium: A Novel of
Ancient Rome."
9.15.2006
More Delicious Rebuttal...
She had actually gotten up to speak on a different topic, but:
In light of the rantings that went on for 30 minutes by two colleagues from the other side, I'd like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism; America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party that has sent six and a half billion a month to Iraq while the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. That led this country to attack Saddam Hussein, when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. Who captured a man who did not attack the country and let loose a man that did. Americans are tired of boneheaded Republican leadership that alienates our allies when we need them the most. Americans are most certainly tired of leadership that despite documenting mistake after mistake after mistake, even of their own party admitting mistakes, never admit they do anything wrong. That's the kind of leadership Americans are tired of." I'm not going to sit here as a Democrat and let the Republican leadership come to the floor and talk about Democrats not making us safe. They're the ones in charge and Osama bin Laden is still at loose
—Senator Mary Landrieu (D) Louisiana
Awesome.
In light of the rantings that went on for 30 minutes by two colleagues from the other side, I'd like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism; America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party that has sent six and a half billion a month to Iraq while the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. That led this country to attack Saddam Hussein, when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. Who captured a man who did not attack the country and let loose a man that did. Americans are tired of boneheaded Republican leadership that alienates our allies when we need them the most. Americans are most certainly tired of leadership that despite documenting mistake after mistake after mistake, even of their own party admitting mistakes, never admit they do anything wrong. That's the kind of leadership Americans are tired of." I'm not going to sit here as a Democrat and let the Republican leadership come to the floor and talk about Democrats not making us safe. They're the ones in charge and Osama bin Laden is still at loose
—Senator Mary Landrieu (D) Louisiana
Awesome.
Delicious Little Sundries...
Another fabulous quote from Bill Maher, in describing the right-wing view of those who disagree with them re: the war in Iraq being effective in the war on terror, "It's like saying to the exterminator,'Look, I don't think that hitting the vermin on the head with a hammer is the way we should get rid of them,' and being accused of being 'for the rats.'"
9.11.2006
9:11 a.m.
I looked at my watch this morning at exactly 9:11. These little moments happen to me occasionally, it's a by product of having a (sometimes excessively) observant personality. In those little moments I used to think of the Porsche of the same name. 7:47 was another time of day which always inspired a moment like that. Today, being the 5th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, the time on my wrist inspired different thoughts.
I, like the majority of Americans, was not directly affected by the attack. By which I mean that I didn't see it, I wasn't there. I don't live in New York, and I lost no loved ones or friends, or even any acquaintances. Not directly affected, but affected, to be sure.
I was disillusioned before 9-11. Most of us were, I would say. The idea had never occured to me that there are groups of people in the world for whom my religion, my lifestyle, my country are so grievous that my life is of no consequence to them. The very idea is so completely backwater and uncivilized that it stunned most of us, I think.
I'm not honestly sure anymore where I was going with this.
We'll move on. It will be slow, but we started on 9-12 and no one can stop us. Not Islamic or any other brand of terrorists, and not the elected officials who would try to leverage our fear.
..||..
I, like the majority of Americans, was not directly affected by the attack. By which I mean that I didn't see it, I wasn't there. I don't live in New York, and I lost no loved ones or friends, or even any acquaintances. Not directly affected, but affected, to be sure.
I was disillusioned before 9-11. Most of us were, I would say. The idea had never occured to me that there are groups of people in the world for whom my religion, my lifestyle, my country are so grievous that my life is of no consequence to them. The very idea is so completely backwater and uncivilized that it stunned most of us, I think.
I'm not honestly sure anymore where I was going with this.
We'll move on. It will be slow, but we started on 9-12 and no one can stop us. Not Islamic or any other brand of terrorists, and not the elected officials who would try to leverage our fear.
..||..
8.24.2006
People Who Say Things Better Than I Can
Author Resa Aslan, on my only source for fair and balanced news, the Daily Show, sometime last week: "This notion that democracy is a force that can transform that region (the Middle East), I believe this. But it's going to take a level of sophistication that I think this administration has yet to show."
And also: "The entire War on Terror is at its core a marketing campaign. Now, how the United States is losing a marketing campaign to people who live in caves, I ... "
I need to read this guy's book.
And also: "The entire War on Terror is at its core a marketing campaign. Now, how the United States is losing a marketing campaign to people who live in caves, I ... "
I need to read this guy's book.
8.21.2006
The Dumbening of America
The Fox network's fall season starts off with a bang tonight. They're back with their (insert superlative) new show Prison Break, and I, for one, won't be watching. It's crap. Complete and total crap. In fact, Fox is lucky I watch any of their programming at all, after they preemptively ended the absolutely amazing Arrested Development. That, and the fact that they have the Sunday cartoons Family Guy, American Dad (slightly less-good Family Guy) and the still-ok Simpsons are the only things keeping me around. I can honestly say that I don't feel like they've developed any great new shows for a good 5 years or so. I know I expect too much from the moving picture box sometimes, but jeez, guys. I mean, c'mon! My suspicion is that the American people, at least the TV-watching ones, are becoming more and more unintelligent, and thus demanding simpler television programming which is easier to understand for their tiny, tiny brains.
Tiny brains.
They're stupid.
Dumb.
They ... uh ... well. You get the point.
Tiny brains.
They're stupid.
Dumb.
They ... uh ... well. You get the point.
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