While I've felt there was a rush to judgment on the Roberts nomination for the supreme court, the Alliance for Justice does a good job of making me worried about him with their
analysis of John Roberts. Not that it looks like there will be any serious opposition in congress; I don't think there will even be a serious grilling.
FIrst off, someone emailed me this joke:
Heaven
A man died. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?"
St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move."
"Oh," said the man, "Whose clock is that?"
"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never
moved. She never told a lie."
"Incredible!" said the man. "And whose clock is
that one?"
St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's
clock. The hands have moved twenty times.
Abe told only twenty lies in his
entire life."
"Where's George Bush's clock?" asked the man.
"George's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using
it as a ceiling fan."
I was very amused. But somehow I thought I'd heard it before, so I googled it. This joke has been around. At first it seemed like it was originally a Republican joke that had been used against Clinton and Kerry and had recently been repurposed for Bush and Tony Blair. But a little more research found it had also been used for Jean Chretien (Canada PM), Jacob Zuma of the ANC, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (Philippine President, O.J. Simpson, Paul Martin (another Canada PM), "Shrub" (apparently a republican politician) and someone named DJ that appears to just be a member of a forum someone else wanted to dis.
I'm just curious as to where this joke came from. The earliest posting on the Internet makes it an O.J. Simpson joke, although it could well have been taken from a standup routine referring to someone else entirely.
Well, I find it interesting, anyway.
A study shows women who flirt to get ahead in the office place get less promotions. The implication is that there is a boomerang effect, but I don't know if that's the reason or not. It seems just as likely that women who are good at their job are less likely to flirt to try to get ahead; that it's the desperate, incompetent women doing most of it.
I'm having a lot of trouble achieving certainty regarding Bush's Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts. I've received emails requesting I write my congressman and demand he fight the nomination, or that I sign a petition against Roberts, but I haven't, because I'm not convinced he's a bad guy. I mean, he's been nominated by Bush and Bush is evil so there's a good chance he will be a horrible justice, but reading an analysis like the one in
the Times doesn't really indicate one of those terrifying Bork-style judges that are obviously going to be trouble. Organizations like MoveOn base much of their anti-Roberts arguments on stuff he did years ago as a lawyer, as though paid lawyers arguments represent their fundamental beliefs. And the most recent quote on abortion in which he says it's the accepted law of the land causes them to accuse him of flip-flopping because as a lawyer he represented the anti-abortion argument.
On the Daily Show a report the day after the nomination said, "Democrats have been upset with Bush's nominee for weeks," and that's pretty much the case. It didn't really matter who Bush nominated, all the petitions and protests were going to happen regardless. And it strikes me as pretty much a knee-jerk reaction. It also strikes me as a huge waste of time. Bush has a nominee with good credentials and no solid evidence of the sort of right-wing slant that could make him easy to challenge. Democrats are not going to spend their teensy amount of political capital fighting someone who appears to be qualified. And if Roberts were rejected, Bush would choose someone else just as bad. Remember that after stopping Bork we just wound up with the quieter but just as conservative Kennedy.
I kind of feel that, as painful as it is, and in spite of the knowledge that the Republicans would think nothing of fighting a qualified candidate for partisan reasons, I feel you have to show some respect for the process, and the president does have the right to choose a qualified respected judge for the Supreme Court. If serious evidence appears indicating Roberts is incompetent or his judgments are biased, well, I'll sign a petition, but for now I am going to just wait and see.
In an article in the New York Times on conservative efforts to influence Bush's supreme court nomation (Conservative Groups Rally Against Gonzales as Justice - New York Times), there's an intersting quote.
"'They don't need me lobbying on this stuff - they know what to do,' said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group with close ties to the White House. 'My only recommendation is that they nominate someone who is 12 or 13 years old,' to ensure as long a conservative legacy as possible."
I don't think that's a joke. The fact is, hard-core conservatives don't care about the competence or experience of Supreme Court nominees as long as they adhere to the party line. They would be perfectly willing to throw all their support behind a 12-year-old right wing idealogue. They are scary people.
It's a shame I'm not very fond of watching people sing, because I find the TV series Hit Me Baby One More Time an interesting curio.
The show has five different bands each week, mainly one-hit wonders from the 80s, although a couple might have actually managed to get a couple of hits. The first half of the show they do whatever big hit they had, the second half they cover a recent hit song of someone else's.
Acts vary, both in their ability to cover a new song and their ability to cover themselves. Flock of Seagulls and Missing Persons both suffered from lead singers who basically couldn't sing anymore. Ironically, Flock of Seagulls did better on their cover song because it required a less melodic voice.
It's interesting to see how bands handle the cover song. Some just sound like a bar band cranking out their best copy (The Knack), some take a shot at reinterpreting the songs (The Motels, who tried to rock out on a Norah Jones song and came off like a slightly more interesting bar band than The Knack) and some just try and sing it nice. In the later category you get a lot of people who sound like American Idol finalists, but some of those people are really pretty good; Juice Newton did a nice job countrifying an Ashlee Simpson song and Howard Jones did an absolutely lovely version of a Dido song (and a lovely version of his own song, for that matter - he has a very easy going style even though the hyped-up, possibly hand-picked audience of surprisingly young and pretty 80s enthusiasts clap along as wildly with ballads as with rockers).
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the show is that almost all the winners have been African American. The exception is Vanilla Ice, who I don't think won because he appropriated a black form of music or because he covered a Destiny's Child song (if a song that uses a three word phrase from a song and in no other way resembles it can be called a cover) but because it was just a really lousy week.
The winners have tended to take whatever song they've got and give it a lot of soul. I still would have voted for both Jones and Juice in their respective weeks. but for the most part it's true, the black one-hit-wonders seem to be putting more energy and imagination into the show than the white kids.
Sometimes I worry that my lukewarm reviews of highly praised games are an indication that I'm just too picky, so I was pleased to read this post about a Gamespy review that was altered by the editor. The game gained a star and a half in the rating over the reviewer's original review and some of the language was changed. Gamespy's argument is that the editors felt the review was unreasonably harsh and that since it contradicted their previous laudatory previews and disagreed with their review of the first Donkey Konga game even though they are essentially the same, that it made sense to alter the review to keep it in line with their general editorial attitude.
So basically, Gamespy as a corporation decides whether a game is valuable rather than leaving it up to some erratic individual who might actually have the temerity to disagree with the editors. And if that is common then it explains a lot about the lockstep critical attitude one finds in reviews of high profile games.
Fortunately, I don't think my editors even play videogames, so I get to form my opinions without help from above.
I went to First Warm Night a week ago, but haven't had a chance to write about it. It was supposed to be an impromptu celebration of the first night of spring, although it was only semi impromptu (they sent out notices to those who had signed up on their site two days before) and not all that warm (because it's just not been a very warm spring. I heard about it through someone at my yoga class, it was just a word of mouth thing.
The email said come to a location on Houston at 6:27. There was a brass band (which turned out to be the Hungry March Band) and a couple of hundred people with no clear idea of why they were there. We were all told to take the subway to Brooklyn (at which point my friends Sharon and Cheryl both dropped out because they had things to do later that night) and got off and were lead to a park. Some people were very colorfully dressed with angel wings and bunny ears and the like, others were just dressed in whatever. At the park they tried to run a hundred-person game of spin the bottle, which resulted in amusement but no kissing, some people played twister and the band played while the band's sexy dancers jumped around (these girls were very energetic and apparently leather-hided, since they would do sommersaults on cobblestone streets). Colored chalk was passed around so people could draw on the park pathways and people played catch with beach balls and an inflatable shark.
It was like something from the 60s, although the mainly under-30 crowd probably is a bit vague on the whole hippie thing. Unlike the 60s there wasn't much evidence of drugs, although there were a lot of people lining up to buy ice cream cones from a vendor.
After an hour we marched off again to the pier where there was more dancing and slides projected on the walls. Then some people jumped in the water and the police closed the pier and as I was leaving police and fire trucks were heading their direction, although I later learned the party relocated to a free club and continued on.
On the way home the subway ride was livened up by a guy with a guitar playing Madonna songs while his companions (or complete strangers who had just struck up on quick acquaintance) sang along. It turns out Material Girl is a much better sing-along song than Like a Virgin.
All in all it was cool, although I got a little bored due to my inability to start conversations with strangers. I probably would have found this more fun 20 years ago, but now I'm a bit more difficult to excite. Still, a neat thing, and you should put your name on their mailing list because they promise to do it again someday, although a guy with a bullhorn announced setting up this one took several months and a couple hundred people (mainly a core group of 50) so don't expect something real soon.
I found a couple of pictures of me at the event:
Just happened to discover that I've got a listing in
Moby Games. That is just so remarkably complete. I spoke about three sentences in Grand Theft Auto 3 and now I have a listing just like Sid Meier. I guess it's not cool to anyone but me, but it's neat.
Alright, a Japanese businessman has to auction houses compete for the rights to sell a $20 million art collection by playing
rock paper scissors. That's pretty funny, but what is interesting is the different approaches. Christies asked a couple of kids what they would do, Southeby's said, it's a game of chance, we'll just hope for the best. I'm sorry to admit I would have a Southeby's attitude, but Christies was right; the kids said go with scissors, they went with scissors and they won. It reminds me of a Mark Twain story in which someone is arrested for running a poker game, because games of chance are illegal. He sets up a poker game between professionals and amateurs (or something) and the professionals win every time, proving it is a game of skill. As is, it turns out, rock paper scissors.
The government has come out with a new food pyramid for us all to ignore. Apparently the idea is that different people need different pyramids according to weight, age and amount of excerside. I haven't seen my pyramid because when I put in my stats at mypyramid.gov the site just spins its wheel.
But I don't care about the pyramid. What interests me is, apparently at some point the design indicated foods like fruits and vegetables hould be eaten "daily" and foods like pastries should be eaten occasionally. And that is now gone. Nabisco doesn't want the government telling people they shouldn't eat cookies every day.
Would this have happened if Kerry were president? Hard to say. But it can be said that this was certain to happen with Bush as president. The government is dropping almost all pretence of actually trying to do what's right for people. Even in little things like this.
I just saw a commercial for the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie that I found fascinating because it in no way suggests that the movie is, as is likely, a comedy. Instead, it basically is an advertisement for Star Wars, a big adventure with special effects and things blowing up. I went to the movie's website to see if the same trailer exists there, and while it doesn't, trailer number 1 is pretty similar. On the other hand, trailer #3 is a good attempt at a trailer that evokes at least some of the classic HGTTG humor, and trailer #2 is a sort of standard comedy movie trailer (to some extent the trailer that is being made fun of in Trailer #3).
The studio is trying to make different markets think this is different sorts of movies. Somebody is bound to be hurt.
I recently discovered that the comments on this site don't work. Now admittedly it is possible, even probably, that no one has ever commented on one of my scarce posts nor ever will, but it's always good to give people options. So I'm making this post specifically so I can add a comment to it.
I was just recently saying that I would be able to hold my own in conversation if the subject was video games, and yesterday I was at a party full of twenty-somethings and wound up talking with a bunch of guys who were very serious about their games. That wasn't all we talked about, but it kept coming back to that. So I guess the alternative to becomming literate and well informed is to just hang out with a younger crowd.
God I hate the post office. Here's why.
I posted this at my3cents, a site devoted to letting consumers blow off steam. Those who enjoy my infuriated rants can also read about my experiences with AT&T.
I was at my friend Francis' birthday party, and Francis's friend Daniel told
me I never update my blog. I knew that, of course, but I didn't realize
anyone else did, except Francis, who had mentioned he checks it every few
months. It is strange to think anyone knows my blog exists; even most of
the people I told when I started it have forgotten by now.
But then, some people are true blog afficienados. Me, not so much. I used
to read Utopia with Cheese (which I don't need to link to because it's
listed on the right) but it's moribund, and I read Francis' blog Heaneyland
(also linked to on the right) sometimes, although since I read it on my
Pocket PC using Avant Go and turn off images and links because of space
limitations I can't make sense of it all.
But other people read tons of blogs, as I discovered at Francis' party,
where his frighteningly smart and clever friends all seem to be familiar
with certain blogs, certain magazines, certain books. It's like one of
those Woody Allen movies where a whole roomful of people have read Nietze.
Alas, unless the conversation turns to television or old movies (as when I
valiantly defended the underated Bob Hope; go watch Paleface before you
dismiss me, dammit!) I don't have much to contribute. Unfortunately video
games haven't quite reached that critical mass to be a major area of
conversation at parties (unless I start going to keggers), so unless I start
reading books and magazines and blogs and the like (which seems highly
improbable) I'm afraid I will always be more like the slightly out-of-place
hooker at the Woody Allen gathering.
Anyway, it turns out everyone is familiar with the blog BoingBoing, and Francis has created a parody of it called BoringBoring. The parody is quite amusing, but I can't for the life of me figure out why BoingBoing is so
popular, because skimming through it I can't say I was particularly
enthused. So this whole long post was just to plug his parody. I could
also plug his book, the Holy Tango of Poetry, but as a professional critic I can't plug anything I haven't received a free copy of. But if you read, which I don't, go ahead and buy a copy.
Like most middle-aged guys, I don't really know what's happening with the
young people, but today I learned that, at least with the young people on my
block, fashion dictates the wearing of t-shirts that come down to your
knees. I was talking to the friendly Indian guy Jamal in the little shop
next door, and teenage boys kept coming in buying these monstrous t-shirts.
A kid 5' 4" would come in, say "what size is that sky blue t-shirt," Jamal
would say "4x," the kid would say, "that's no kid, you got any 5x?" Not
that oversized clothes are anything new; it was a big thing in the zoot suit
era and in the last few months I've seen the oversized pants, but it's
always a little startling the very first time you see the latest fad, and
since I know I'm a major source of information for the zero people who read
my almost-never-updated blog, I thought I should let you know what's up with
the kids.
Finally someone has come up with a really useful purpose for technology: making expensive dinners float in the air. I like it when someone is working on things even science fiction writers never thought of. (Okay, I have no idea if science fiction writers have thought of floating food or not, but I haven't read it.)
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > When the Sous-Chef Is an Inkjet
Just got this press release from an internet monitoring company called
Hitwise. I bet lots of the people visiting the gay sites are the same
people who voted against gay marriage. You always hear stories about some
hardcore anti-gay guy who one day is found giving head in a restroom
somewhere. If people would stop hating themselves they wouldn't have to
take it out on everybody else.
SWING-STATE OHIO AMONG MOST LIKELY
TO VISIT GAY, LESBIAN WEB SITES
NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2004 - Socially conservative voters in Ohio turned out in
great numbers to support a proposed state ban on same-sex marriage on Nov.
2. But this deciding state in the 2004 presidential election also had among
the highest visitation levels to gay and lesbian community Web sites.
According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive Intelligence
service, Internet users in Ohio were 52 percent more likely to visit a gay
or lesbian community site than all other sites, when compared to users in
all other states, for the week ending Nov. 6, 2004. Ohio was second only to
Washington, D.C. and New Mexico, which were 110 percent and 60 percent more
likely, respectively.
"While the data points are not entirely conclusive of the beliefs or
standpoint of visitors, they would suggest that there is an active and
sizeable gay and lesbian community in Ohio," said Bill Tancer, vice
president of research at Hitwise. "This offers another glimpse into just how
decisive the issue of same-sex relationships is in a state that ended up
favoring a ban on same-sex marriage, as well as determining the outcome of
the presidential election."
The states least likely to visit gay and lesbian community sites than all
other sites were: Wyoming, Vermont and North Dakota. These sites were 46, 61
and 72 percent less likely, respectively, versus all U.S. states.
Lifestyle Segmentation of Total U.S. Visitors to Gay and Lesbian Community
Sites:
(Data period: four weeks ending Nov. 6, 2004)
. According to the most recent Hitwise/Claritas Segmentation report,
"Mainstream Singles" are 62 percent more likely to visit gay and lesbian
community sites than all other sites when compared to other life-stage
groups. Mainstream Singles is characterized by young, hip singles who've
recently settled in metro neighborhoods. Conversely, people belonging to the
"Accumulated Wealth" segment are 50 percent less likely to visit a gay or
lesbian site. This group is characterized by upscale professionals, the
presence of children and sprawling homes beyond the nation's beltways.
. "Midtown Mix" and "Urban Cores" are the two social groups most
likely to visit gay and lesbian Web sites (77 and 41 percent more likely,
respectively). Midtown Mix is characterized by people of average income,
ethnically diverse, childless and socially active; Urban Cores is
characterized by relatively modest incomes, modest education and rental
apartments. On the other hand, individuals belonging to "Landed Gentry" -
characterized by wealthy Americans who migrated to smaller boomtowns beyond
the nation's beltways - are 42 percent less likely to visit a gay or lesbian
site.
Demographics of Total U.S. Visitors to Gay and Lesbian Community Sites:
(Data period: week ending Nov. 6, 2004)
. Men represent 80 percent of visitors while women represent 20
percent.
. Visitors 35 to 44 years old represent the largest age segment at
31 percent. Conversely, visitors 55 and older are the least represented at
10 percent.
. At 33 percent, the largest household income bracket among visitors
is $30,000 to $60,000. At nine percent, visitors with a household income
greater than $150,000 represent the smallest bracket.
Saw an ad in the subway for the
Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald law firm. The ad was telling people if their kid is autistic or retarded there might be someone that can be sued for it. Okay, we live in a litigious society and lawyers advertise in subways for clients, and that's how the world is. But in the ad, the company was offering a free cap with their logo (a leprechaun with boxing gloves) to anyone who came in for a consultation. That is just so fundamentally wrong that I am not even going to bother eplaining why that is so fundamentally wrong.
