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Saturday, May 14, 2005This Month is Teacher Appreciation Week...Visited a couple education stores today. They were nice, friendly, cheerful places. The kind of places where you see some neat stuff that might really inspire the nation's youth to learn. And yet, one gets the nagging feeling that something is amiss.  Wouldn't that be Teacher Appreciation Month? Inside another store, one finds these charming sets, designed to increase cultural sensitivity. Like these for Hispanics and the Physically Challenged:  Very nice, but I find this a touch insensitive:  What are they trying to tell us? Everybody else has a nice, full, sensitive family package, but one person in the Black family is missing. By the way, the other sets had the full family - it's the mom that was missing. We're not going to overanalyze this, but, boy, oh boy, it's amazing the number of un-PC observations lurking in an improperly assembled sensitivity toy set. 
posted by gbarto at 11:21 PM Got tapped by a Yellow Cab tonight. The TurkeyGal and I were stopped at a red light. He went when the light changed, as opposed to when the traffic in front of him had actually advanced. No biggie. Happens all the time. Here's the weird part. We pulled over and said we wanted to exchange information just in case a problem came up. The driver did not want to exchange information. But if there's a collision, that's what you're supposed to do, no? He said that if we were going to get into that, he wanted the cops there to notice that our bumper wasn't marred. I said that I didn't care about the bumper, my neck was marred and I wanted his insurance info. He didn't have any. He informed us - and subsequently the police - that Yellow Cab drivers don't carry insurance papers. Says he, they're locked in a safe at central dispatch, which will reopen Monday. The nice officer who had to deal with several ornery and contentious people (the cabbie and I) got us a number to call on Monday to obtain the insurance info. Let me restate something here, just in case you missed it: According to this Yellow Cab driver, Yellow Cab drivers don't carry insurance papers!If this is incorrect, somebody might want to inform the driver, and the Campbell police officer who seemed remarkably unconcerned about a taxi driver - or many taxi drivers - cruising the streets with no discernible proof of whether or not they're actually complying with the state's requirement that all drivers be insured. Yellow Cab can let us know too. The e-mail's to the side, though we'll probably find out what's up when we call Monday. In any case, until corrected, let the record show that Yellow Cab drivers don't carry proof of insurance!Inspires confidence, eh?
posted by gbarto at 10:59 PM Lots going on in Uzbekistan, apparently. Just to state the obvious: this ain't fun for us. If I recall correctly, Uzbekistan is one of the few places in the region where we have a decent base of operations. When dust starts settling and the nation that advocates liberty for all and everywhere stumbles upon the authoritarian regime that has now fired on its own people, where do we go? This whole region has the potential to be a pain in the... Lest we forget, Clancy's second novel (Red Storm Rising) was about angry Muslims lighting the refineries in - was it Kazakhstan? - the south of the Soviet Union. The Soviets are still sort of there, especially in the autocratic stylings of a couple regional leaders. The Muslims are still there too. The area, from what I know, is sort of cobbled together: Everyone speaks a Turkish dialect that mutates across the sweep of the old Silk Road, and if you live on a border you're more likely to understand the "foreigners" one village over than "fellow citizens" from the other end of the country. (Persian dialects with similar variations are spoken here and there.) In the Ukraine, in Georgia and elsewhere we've had the good fortune to be standing alongside westward looking revolutionaries. Are we on the verge of having to pick between an authoritarian who plays nice with the West and revolutionaries who won't? Which way shall we go? Glad I'm just a blogger.
posted by gbarto at 10:50 PM Friday, May 13, 2005Fun bit from Cicero about solipsism.
posted by gbarto at 10:48 PM Now that Mickey Kaus has shown that Limbaugh blew it on the Starr on filibusters question, Limbaugh would be smart to be bloggerly about it: He can argue till he's blue in the face that the tape shows something other than what it shows, or he can tell us that he had the impression Starr was on the same page as other conservatives, that his conviction this would be the case led to a less than careful reading and that, "Oops, my bad, but unlike CBS, I'm not going to stonewall for months before issuing a mealy-mouthed correction..." The only question is: Is Rush as smart as the average blogger? Okay, the other question, wisely asked by Kaus, is why Republicans keep treating the vilified Starr as the go-to-guy for all things jurisprudential. (via Instantman)
posted by gbarto at 10:22 PM Fay ce que vouldras hedonists? Derbyshire claims to object to them, but I'm dubious about the morality of anyone who can quote Rabelais in the original. Sounds to me like there's a Trojan Thelemite running with the Corner crowd.
posted by gbarto at 12:06 AM Wednesday, May 11, 2005 If you've been flipping through the news today, you've probably seen the new computerized imaging of King Tut. This Science Daily story has a pretty good write-up.However, for all the fine work being done in the furtherance of our understanding of Tutankhamun, not a single story I've found mentions why he and Sinead O'Connor have never been seen together. Enquiring minds want to know!
posted by gbarto at 11:08 PM Jarvis is looking (yet again) at blogs, citizens, media, etc. Specifically, he's looking at Jon Stewart's shots at blog segments on television. Wish I had some good observations, but... I don't have television. Living in the mountains, I almost went crazy over the lack of television... for nearly two weeks. Somehow, though, I've survived two years without Survivor, FoxNews and all the other fun stuff. It's actually kind of nice. I do watch the web broadcasts on CSPAN for major presidential addresses and that sort of thing. Sometimes I'll even run the audio feed in the background while working on other things. That's my big media. It's all online. Jarvis is concerned with how to get podcasts to the media, yada yada yada. Why not cut 'em out of it? We've got our own sites, our own ads... if we're willing to pay for the bandwidth (I'm not) we can have video. As bloggers, it's fun to dream about being television stars someday, and not just guys in pajamas. But if you look at the numbers, this internet thing is cutting into tv viewing as well as newspaper readership. So, when does citizen media go all the way? Forget about getting your blog read on air by the folks at MSNBC. I'm waiting for the day when there's a fire in Dubuque, your Aunt Bessie lives there, and your first instinct isn't to see whether it's big enough for CNN to cover, but whether your Aunt Bessie has posted anything. Yeah, nothing much is going to happen in ninety percent of the world - at least the part of the world that people with the resources to be bloggers inhabit (electricity, phone or DSL, computer), but the ultimate check on the media comes when the old fashioned word of mouth about how the town paper isn't playing the story straight goes high tech and the world of blogs starts supplanting big media because the blog gives the feeling that someone you "know" lives there.
posted by gbarto at 5:07 PM A gay search engine? spidergay.com sends along an e-mail indicating that a) their site has indexed one of my pages and b) that I can have it removed if I've got a problem with that. Thought it was good to make the second offer. I personally don't care who sends me traffic, except that I'd prefer a demographic that clicks on ads and gets out their credit card (by buying things from our links, you help us out, hint, hint.) I know, though, that others are touchy. The "We're here, we're queer, but we won't force anything on you if you're not into that..." approach strikes the right note. This site isn't, of course, a gay site, though it has leapt into the fray on gay marriage and other issues. Probably how I came up in their listings. Anyway, if you're gay or looking for sites gay-related, now you've got a place to click. Happy searching.
posted by gbarto at 1:11 PM Monday, May 09, 2005Missed it over the weekend, but here's Cicero with an interesting look at the trickle down effect of agribiz subsidies. Would more people go hungry if the fat cats at ADM weren't so fat? Quite possibly.
posted by gbarto at 3:41 PM Evil Rumsfeldian Maneuvering For the last couple days, the New York Times and others had chortled not so silently about the "successful" Bush-Putin meetings. While they hadn't necessarily made it explicit, the coverage left little doubt that they did not see the talks as successful. As speculation grew about Bush's effectiveness in the world, though, a surprise was in store. This morning, once again, the Bush team showed that if it can't manage the world, it can manage the press. Questioning the chipper remarks about the Bush-Putin meeting, a New York Times reporter got a question in response to his question: "Are you implying that there isn't a multilateral solution here?" The reporter knew at once that he'd been had, but no one was prepared for what happened next. Standing before a crowd of reporters in the White House press room, the President of the United States tore away a putty mask, revealing that he was in fact Donald Rumsfeld. "I told you multilateralism would never work," the Defense Secretary cackled. "There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns. But there's one known known: multilateralism with thugs will only get you cheated and conned. And that's why we're going it alone from now on!" The Times reporter might have been cheered by his scoop, but he was too crushed by the shattering of his Weltanschaung to derive any joy from the moment. At press time, he was being led away for counseling. Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, the actual President said, "A putty mask! That's pretty funny. I knew I could count on Rummy." The President then turned away to resume his meeting with the Trilateral Commission. "About oil prices..." he was heard to say before the door was closed...
posted by gbarto at 2:43 PM Be sure, sure, sure to read the best VodkaPundit post in a long time. Congrats to Stephen and Melissa and kudos on a sharp post about liberty for me, but not for thee.
posted by gbarto at 12:45 AM Sunday, May 08, 2005Huey Rides Again!Public Enemy Number Two by Aaron McGruder I'm given to understand that a lot of people, particularly from my side of the ideological spectrum, don't like The Boondocks. I don't fully understand this. The Boondocks does from time to time push the outer limits of good taste. And there are certain sensibilities it fails to respect. But the strip is self-aware. McGruder at his most outrageous seems to recognize that a lot of readers are going to respond with a disgusted "Whatever!" The problem with hating The Boondocks, though, is that it's so darn funny. Maybe they'll have to yank my right-wing credentials, but thumbing through the latest I just couldn't help laughing out loud. My personal favorite goes something like this: Huey: Last night I dreamed I got control of all the television network signals and told the American people the ugly truth about the lies, deceit and evil actions of their government. Caesar: Wow, what happened? Huey: An angry mob chased me down and pummeled me for interrupting Survivor. [Not a transcription] Sure, it's the voice of McGruder, still dismayed that we won't come to his point of view. But it's so true it's hilarious. Any good cartoonist on the right could have offered us the same thing at the height of the Lewinsky cover-up. The American people get outraged about many things, but none moreso than being spurred to outrage when they're trying to get away from it all and be entertained. Equally hilarious were the meditations on what a couple Black kids were doing trying to defend three white Southern women - the Dixie Chicks. And you've gotta love Caesar's impassioned defenses of Kobe. And the conservative granddad's efforts to explain - or avoid explaining - the topic of gay marriage. Still, as a right-winger I have to admit my favorite bits of The Boondocks are those targeted at the race establishment, notably BET and Jesse Jackson. Not to mention the send-ups on the Democratic party's response to Al Sharpton's candidacy. Particularly delicious is the strip's black liberal DNC foot soldier Tom kidnapping Ralph Nader so the Dems will have a chance in '04. The Boondocks has plenty to offend, then, but also plenty to amuse. If you take yourself too seriously, you're not going to like it whether you're on the Right or on the Left. But if you're a bit bothered by the hypocrisies of both and are willing to check your own hypocrisies at the door for a few hours, McGruder offers a delightful skewering of sacred cows on all sides that is fresh, brash, vicious and just plain fun.
posted by gbarto at 11:24 PM The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Finally saw the new Hitchhiker flick. Very nice. Above all else, it managed to avoid confirming my worst fears about what Hollywood would do with it. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the film, at least from where I was sitting, was the Python influence. The opening number, "So long and thanks for all the fish" was in the spirit of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," from Life of Brian, while the chasing of Vogons with a towel simultaneously evoked the ridiculous terror caused by the Knights who say Nih and the screams of King Arthur's men as they fled the killer rabbit. According to the credits, Adams was one of the two screenwriters. That was obligatory. More surprisingly, a fair amount of the script seemed to fit him, if not the Hitchhiker story known to fans of any of the previous incarnations of the series. The Pythonesque bits fit this to a tee. More dubious is a certain romantic interest that unfolds during the film. I won't mention who is involved or how things unfold, lest fans of older series who haven't seen the film simply renounce doing so. But I will note that it's in keeping with Adams' observation that Mostly Harmless had turned out to present a rather bleak view of Life, the Universe and Everything, including love, due to problems in his own life, and that he would have steered things in a cheerier direction if he had it to do over again. The biggest problem with the picture should not be one for Hitchhiker fans, but for those who are new to the experience. The film is a bit disjointed in places, leaping between in-jokes that follow in logical sequence if you know the structure of the Hitchhiker mythos but which lack logical connection for those new to the story. One expects the purists and the novices to be equally taken aback, then, while those who enjoyed the earlier incarnations for their wit, their cynicism and their earnestness - but not too much - will be delighted with what is two parts cheesy spacy opera, but one part hopeful story of the last earthman and his quest for hope.
posted by gbarto at 11:10 PM |
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