Posts from — November 2007

The problem with the “debates” is they are press conferences, not debates. Even with 8 candidates it would be possible to send all a copy of the issues to be covered and then give each an equal amount of time to address the issues. Presidents don’t have to think on their feet all that often, most of the job is accomplished by gathering facts and making decisions based on those facts. I don’t care what the moderator thinks, I want to know what the candidates think.

Looking at the United Hollywood post, Pencils2MediaMoguls, which provides the addresses of the six-pack of corporations that control the content in the movie and television industry, only one, GE(NBC/Universal) in Universal City, is actually in Hollywood. Disney is very close, in Burbank, but four of the six are in New York City. A lot of the shows may be made in California, but the decisions are made in Manhattan. I know, facts are really annoying.

As we await the latest assault in the collectivization of the media by the FCC, one has to wonder how allowing fewer and fewer corporations to own more and more of the media promotes competition. Deregulation under the Hedgemony would seem to promote monopolies, or at a minimum, cartels, not competition.

Fallenmonk reminded me that today is the anniversary of The Gettysburg Address.

The first Republican President was engaged in a war to preserve the Union from what would, in the twentieth century, become the base of the Republican Party.

Der Verrückte Philosoph at Peripetia has found the The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation for the CEO President.

This is going to sting, guys – from MSNBC Livescience Despite flash, males are simple creatures Females evolve slower, but it’s because they’re more complex:

The secret to why male organisms evolve faster than their female counterparts comes down to this: Males are simple creatures.

In nearly all species, males seem to ramp up glitzier garbs, more graceful dance moves and more melodic warbles in a never-ending vie to woo the best mates. Called sexual selection, the result is typically a showy male and a plain-Jane female. Evolution speeds along in the males compared to females.

I think we should wait for this information to fade before entering into any more “where are the female bloggers” discussions.  It’s the price we pay for Y chromosome.

“What we’ve got here is…failure to communicate.” [Strother Martin, playing the prison warden in Cool Hand Luke]

Reading Jack’s post at the Grumpy Forester, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou Working about the misadventures of Howard “Cookie” Krongard, state Department Inspector General, and his brother, Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, I was struck by the thought that the only people who still use childhood nicknames when they qualify for Medicare are trailer trash and Ivy League grads [Princeton in the case of the Krongards], two groups that have a rather difficult time growing up and acting like responsible adults.

[Note: you don’t have to be Southern or poor to be trailer trash, an amazing percentage locally are from the Midwest with good, hardworking families who try to make amends for the problems caused.]

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Scorpio did this at Eccentricity, so I plugged this place and it came back with:

which I’m not sure I accept. YMMV

Associated Press notes the Homeless camp outside New Orleans City Hall

NEW ORLEANS – The homeless of New Orleans have left the city’s shelters and gutted buildings to set up camp on the mayor’s doorstep.

About 250 homeless people have erected pup-tents – the only affordable housing they say they could find since Hurricane Katrina – and created a colony of despair in a grassy plaza outside City Hall.

Mayor Ray Nagin’s second-floor office faces the camp, and its residents rally almost daily with the chant: “Hey, Ray! How about a house today!”

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When looking at the Lessons of Spitzer’s license reversal they missed the biggest lesson: reason will almost never triumph over bigotry and ignorance.

I was born in New York state. I was in law enforcement in New York state. I voted in New York state. I had a driver’s license in New York state. I know what a New York state driver’s license proves, and what it does not prove.

A New York state driver’s license is proof that you have passed the requisite tests to operate a motor vehicle on the public roads. It is proof of your date of birth, as you have to present your birth certificate to obtain the license. [I was annoyed by that as I had a Texas driver’s license and was, I thought, transferring my license, but New York made me go through the whole process because I was under 18.]

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Congresscritter Marion Berry is a Blue Dog Democrat representing the First District of Arkansas and is a rice farmer with a net worth between one and a half and six million dollars. His annual Congressional paycheck is $165K and he is getting farm subsidies. This is wrong.

CBS News covers him and other well off people that the taxpayers give money to in the Farm Bill. There is no means testing, so the bulk of the money is being handed out to huge factory farm operations. That’s not what the program is for, and we can’t afford to do that anymore, if we ever could.

The Associated Press was a little weak on the headline, Senate votes to block Iraq war funds, but they nailed it on the subhead, Republicans halt Iraq withdrawal plan and block bill to pay for Iraq:

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic proposal to pay for the Iraq war but require that troops start coming home.

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war without strings attached.

The Republican measure failed 45-53, 15 short of the number of votes needed to go forward.

The Repubs blocked the funding, and that’s the story. The troops aren’t going to get the money because the GOP Senators voted against it.

I would write about the Democratic debate but this is more important than Wolf Blitzer parodying himself in Vegas: Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster

(AP) — When some of the world’s leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They’ll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion.

The appearance of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting gives a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a phenomenon that first emerged in 2005, during the debate in Kansas over whether intelligent design should be taught in public school sciences classes.

It is actually a serious discussion of the function and formation of religion, and not simply an excuse for grad students to display their comedy talents.

WSMV, channel 4 in Nashville, is reporting: Vintage Whiskey May Be Poured Out

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.

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The MSNBC reporting: Hundreds killed, missing in Bangladesh storm

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh’s coast with winds up to 155 mph has killed at least 425 people with hundreds more unaccounted for, including 1,000 fishermen, officials and news reports said Friday.

The disaster triggered an international relief effort to help the army-backed interim government cope with helping victims.

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Mikey

Bugger off!

[Editor: Mikey hates everyone, but me especially. I give him food and he hisses and spits the entire time. He goes to the feeding area and takes his customary spot, but when I’m putting down the food in front of him, as always, he hisses at me.]

Friday Ark