Tres Producers

2002-09-24T11:45:00.000-04:00

Hear Ye, Hear Ye
Okay, it's official my friends. I am now permanently based at Blogcritics.org. We have had a great run - thanks Mike and Marty - and it's possible Tres Producers will be revived at some point, but all of my new posts are going up at Blogcritics. Please add us to your permanent blogrolls if you haven't yet done so, and check out our cool Blogcritic logo/link that you can install on your own site. Thanks and see you over there.

2002-09-11T13:54:00.000-04:00

It's Here
I hope your 9/11 is safe and thoughtful.

2002-09-10T13:03:00.000-04:00

Frank Black Interview Is Up
The new Frank Black interview is up at Blogcritics - pretty wild.

2002-09-10T13:01:00.000-04:00

NPR Today
Hey, hello. I'm on NPR from 1-2pm ET on Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi talking blogs and blogging and 9/11. New layout at Blogcritics as well. Please check it out.

2002-09-04T10:45:00.000-04:00

Frank Black Interview
Hey, over at Blogcritics.com we are looking for questions to ask Frank Black, former leader of the Pixies, in our interview later this week. Go put your questions in the comments section here. Thanks!

2002-09-02T18:39:00.000-04:00

Hope Your Holiday Has Been Great!
We've had a great, if low-keyed weekend. There is a wealth of news, reviews and funky stuff over on Blogcritics.com. Things are going splendidly over there, with some big changes right around the corner. It's the place to be.

2002-08-30T09:44:00.000-04:00

Residents Interview
I'm very excited about the interview with Residents rep Homer Flynn next week on Blogcritics.com - the Residents have been gracing the world with their unique form of music/performance art for 30 years! In celebration, the anonymous Bay Area eyeballs have much in store, including the release next week of their most melodic record in years: Demons Dance Alone.

Check out Blogcritics.com for more details.

Have a super holiday weekend everyone! Making good progress on book proposal, back to normal blogging next week, but with some surpirses and changes. Thanks for your interest.

2002-08-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

Down the Bloggy Block
I'm adding a lot of music reviews and essays over on Blogcritics.com, and we will have some big changes over there sometime tonight or tomorrow. Please check it out. See you over there.

2002-08-28T20:14:00.000-04:00

Checking In
Hey all - things are going pretty well on the book proposal. At the moment I am sorting through the history of Tres Producers for choice nuggets to go into the book. It's a lot of fun - this site has been pretty good so far, if I do say so myself. I am posting a lot of music and publishing news over on Blogcritics.com, as well as my radio playlists and music reviews and essays. Please come on over and check it out.

Tres Producers isn't going away, but after I get my book proposal done (maybe later this week) and other career-type stuff straightened out, I will likely move all new writing over there. So come on over and root around a bit: it's a cool site and likely to be my new home. I'm in a much better mood by the way. You guys rule - hope you are well.

2002-08-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

And In Other Concerns
As was doubtless evident from this post, I have been in the middle of something of an existential dilemma, which specifically centers around my financial situation and the fact that we have found an ideal house which is ours for the taking as long as I can make the mortgage payments. In order to make that happen, I am going to take a few days off from this site to get my professional writing career back in gear and get my life straightened out in general.

I will continue to post to Blogcritics - please check it out - and when I come back here, I will also have some big surprises to announce. I believe blogging is moving into some exciting new areas and modes of operation - tell you about it soon. Thanks for reading.

2002-08-26T10:30:00.000-04:00

All the Stuff
The Blogger Fiesta - which certainly included more than bloggers - was about as wild I want things to get at this stage of my life, teetering on the edge of virgin sacrifice and the like. When adults are being held upside down and drinking straight from a keg at 3am, playing spin the bottle at 6am, eating tequila-spiked watermelon face first, and frightening the poor teenagers who were present and found cowering in a closet the next morning, you know the envelope was pushed.

Enormous thanks to all who came, helped, participated, and gave of themselves. Though the general scene is remarkably clean now, much furniture remains to be resituated and my head is still very fuzzy. I can only pray that that no one feels the need to "top" this gala next time around, because I fear the next step would involve law enforcement and mental health workers.

There are now, or will be, superior roundups from Dawn (note action photos) and our exalted guests - every one of whom is a real friend - in rough order of appearance: Marc Weisblott, who took the bus from Toronto, kept a watchful eye on the house, and is a major dude - we will be very sad to see him go today; Sulizano, the sweetest of women who ventured to the far north from Alabama, prepared a bewildering array of gourmet delights, and was in truth the soul of the party; Dave Hogberg, who drove all the way from Iowa (and back it would appear), an excellent fellow whose "Cornfield Commentary" shirt I proudly wear at this moment; Doug Dever, who cohosted in the finest style, provided fruits of the vine and field (the tone of the party shifted markedly when Doug and his two charismatic henchmen, Dave and Chuck - who created our party logo by the way - busted through the front door with a full keg of beer and demonic smiles), ferried citizens about town, and was an all-purpose top-shelf social lubricant; our beloved and charming little Moxy, who was SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST all the way from L.A.; the perspicaceous and stalwart John Scalzi, who drove all the way from the Dayton area and back again at 5am, damn!; my remarkably youthful high school classmate Sassafrass, who was doing a keg stand at 3am and smiling beatifically through it all; Chas Rich and his lovely wife, who were venturing out socially for the first time since the birth of their daughter nine weeks ago and were excellent sports about it; and the intrepid Caleb Brown, who winged his way from Kentucky and appeared gamely in the midst of full-tilt revelry, and survived to tell the tale.

Proving that bloggers CAN mix with citizens with remarkably little harm to either camp, we also had a terrific turnout of friends and family from all corners of Ohio, including celebrity chronicler Steve Woo: in all a smashing good time from which I am still recovering cheerfully. Thanks again to one and all. And if you missed it, we will have another affair when we move in a few months. Can't wait - I should be back to normal by then.

2002-08-24T13:07:00.000-04:00

Madness
It's Saturday - party day!! - I'm in a much better mood. Thanks for all of your general and very specific input and support. Today is beyond crazy: Marc Weisblott came in Thurday night, Sulizano got here yesterday. David Hogberg DROVE in from Iowa late last night (stud), and the trickle turns to a flood today. Just packed Kristen, Chris and two friends off to the Indians game. I'm headed for the airport in a few minutes tp pick up SPECIAL OUT OF TOWN GUEST, and the hits just keep on coming.

Pictures and drunken commentary later - there are already some actions photos up on Dawn's site. Let the madness begin.

2002-08-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

Status
I'm off to record radio show, please see the Ira Robbins interviews at Blogcritics, and all of the other fine material there as well.

This is where I am right now - I really appreciate the positive input, but there are still only four freaking comments, not a dime in the PayPal and the traffic isn't soaring. I'd say the questions have pretty well answered themselves.

Will be meeting people coming into town for the Blogger Fiesta, going to watch my son play in the marching band at their first football game, etc. etc. Will report at some point. Have a good one.

2002-08-23T00:41:00.000-04:00

Patriot Act Data Scuffle Follow-up
I reported yesterday on the confrontation between the Justice Department and the House Judiciary Committee over data regarding usage of the Patriot Act. Today

An attempt to restore a few checks and balances.

2002-08-23T00:11:00.000-04:00

Strange Twist to Fort Bragg Saga
Strange movement in the Fort Bragg murder cases after a lull over the last few weeks. The situation is discussed here, here, here, here, and here.

The Fayetteville Observer reports an anti-malarial drug may have driven the soldiers to psychosis:

The domestic violence people aren't buying it:

Other than the case of the wife and daughter who killed the husband/father, which was still violence against a gender: the opposite one.

2002-08-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

On My Mind
This has been one hell of a week. We have been going through all of the usual pre-party machinations, making arrangements, confirming reservations, cleaning up the house, all of that stuff which is leading to maximum fun, but is low-grade stressful in the preparation.

Saturday is coming fast, and we can't wait, but in the meantime there is a shitload of work to do. (The first to arrive, Marc Weisblott, is here!, having bused his way from Toronto. He is eating pizza in the kitchen, talking to Chris right now. He will tell you about his adventure at the US border in his own time.)

But that's the least of my concerns: we had a tremendous launch of Blogcritics.com last week with all kinds of coverage, links, traffic, and attention, much of it do to the interview with RIAA pres Cary Sherman, thanks to a genius inspiration from Matt Welch, who hooked up with a publicist for the RIAA at a bar one night and had the brainstorm. All of the excitement, interchange of ideas, suggestions and sweat from lots of great people (see the Special Thanks list at Blogcritics, our roster of Blogcritics - thanks to you all!) made the thing go super smoothly (Glenn Frazier did the hard tech work).

But now that we are up and running, there is the inevitable emotional letdown as attention turns elsewhere, traffic levels off, contributions slow down, minor problems arise, you know, life occurs and once a project like Blogcritics.com is up and running, to keep it running requires, you know, work

I have spent the last week with my attention divided between Blogcritics and here, and I have anxiety about finding the right mix of my time and attention. I fear I have cannibalized my own readership and divided it somewhat between the two sites: traffic has been down here exactly since last Tuesday's launch, which really frosts my flake and causes me to toss and turn at night. It surely doesn't help that Dawn's traffic has been kicking the llama's ass down the street and into the stormdrain over the same period. And it pisses me off even more that it pisses me off when my wife is doing better than I am: what kind of a dick worries about such things? I am even considering folding this site into Blogcritics and cutting down on the redundancies - would that bother anyone out there?

It also pisses me off that it seems like my traffic is at its lowest, and I get the least general attention out there in the land of the midnight blog, just when my writing is at its best. I'll think I have reached a brilliant concept, or keenly followed some thread of truth, or composed a bold swath of eloquence, and.... NOT A FUCKING THING HAPPENS: no comments, no big jump in traffic, few or no links on the matter. It's perverse - the more excited I am about a post, or series of posts, the more certain it is that no one will give a diseased rat's glute about the matter. I would be greatly remiss not to mention, though, that Bill Quick, Pej, and Steve Green have rocked me very well this last week, and many others of you have hooked me up as well. Thanks - it means a lot to me - I'm just being a baby.

And then there is the comments issue. With the kind of traffic we get here - even though this has been a down week - we should get way more comments than we do. There are entire days that have passed with, like, ten comments. This is absurd. I haven't snapped at anyone's ass in a long time - I respond to most comments in a timely manner. I don't have the slightest idea why I still get more emails than comments, when comments are so much quicker and easier. I throw my hands up on that one, but it pisses me off.

But now we come to the real issue - all of the above is pretty much petty whining, which I do periodically - but the real deal is I have to make a huge life decision right now, and I don't know which way it's going to go. We were going to build a house on some land my parents own, but there were many complications and extra expenses - like a freaking $50,000 driveway to get from the street to where the house was supposed to go - and a bunch of other crap like finishing the house before hard winter set in, but the real problem has been the down payment. It's up to me, and I haven't come up with a way to come up with it. I still don't have a book deal for America.com, nothing much is coming in from this blogging nonsense, and I feel a fool and a failure.

So now we have another chance. We can trade in our crappy little house as a down payment on a beautiful new house on a hill almost completed in a great area - down payment resolved, but I have to be able to make the payments. Dawn works like a dog at a real job, and on her blog, and with the kids, and I am a fucking worthless slug. I have to come up with the steady income to make a substantial house payment every month, or my entire family - three generations - will disown me.

The time has come. And Paypal - which rings not nearly often enough by the way - isn't ever going to solve this problem. I basically need to find real money on a regular basis, and find it within about two months when the house payments will start. That's the real issue, time to return to being an adult and take care of the family.

2002-08-22T15:31:00.000-04:00

Hail Wars
Rural teenage Chinese girls blast hail out of the sky in 30-year tradition:

This is, needless to say, a classic line coming from a Communist Party cadre, who has doubtless been using the same logic to explain much of his behavior.

Having girls man the guns is a matter of tradition and practicality:

Even if it isn't scientifically accepted that the girl's method works against hail, it must be very psychologically satisfying to believe you have what humanity has craved since time immemorial: control over the weather:

BLAM! "Take that hail! We defy you, storm! Ha Haaa!" Imagine the power a young, poor, under-educated, rural Chinese girl would feel at blowing holes in storms and saving the village. They'd probably do it for free. Sometimes science doesn't have all the answers:

2002-08-22T13:36:00.000-04:00

Backing Off....Some
It seems clear to me that Stratfor was right about the Bush administration backing off on attacking Iraq in the immediate future:

The Bush administration

More than dissent from both sides of the aisle at home or public criticism from abroad, the critical need to keep open the channels of intelligence regarding al Qaeda and other Islamist terror organizations forced the administration's hand.

Listen to the change in tone from the president:

Note use of the words "dipomacy," "consultation," "deliberation," "patient." You don't have to be in the Foreign Service to pick up on these signals: "Okay, you win for now. There are options other than military for us to seriously consider - perhaps we have not yet exausted all of those options. We need your continued cooperation with intelligence in particular."

Bush claims Iraq didn't even come up in meeting with his defense team yesterday: if it really didn't, then that is the surest indication of all that military plans have been delayed - not that Saddam is any less dangerous than before, however:

Regarding the defense team meeting:

NBC’s Tammy Kupperman reported that the absence of Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who as head of Central Command would oversee any military campaign in Iraq, appeared to lend credence to the denials by the White House, as did Rumsfeld’s plans to take the rest of the month off at his ranch in Taos, N.M. Yet, John Hillen writes in the NY Post that while the timing may have been changed, America must remove Saddam in due course:

Maintaining this delicate balance between temporary acquiescence and determination, the U.S. ambassador criticized German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in remarks published Tuesday for his refusal to support any attack on Iraq:

Finally, assuring us that Saddam will be around for us to kick, was this announcement today:

2002-08-22T10:45:00.000-04:00

Round Trip
In the first of several trips to the airport over the next few days with the Blogger Fiesta at our house Saturday, I must depart to haul my parents there. Back shortly - please check out the tiff below over Patriot Act data.

2002-08-21T21:24:00.000-04:00

Ira Robbins Interview On Blogcritics.com Tomorrow
Be sure to stop by Blogcritics.com tomorrow for our exclusive online interview with legendary rock writer Ira Robbins. We will talk about the future of the music industry, the revival of Trouser Press online, favorite music, his work with MJI, and your questions.

Blogcritics.com - "a sinister cabal of the web's best writers on music, books and popular culture miscellanea" - launched August 13 with a much heralded and controversial interview with RIAA president Cary Sherman.

In its first week of operation Blogcritics.com posted over 150 CD and book reviews and news items, and received over 40,000 page views from approximately 20,000 visitors - a most auspicious debut.

Please be sure to pass on the word about Ira's interview with us tomorrow, and visit the site often. Many more surprises are in store.

2002-08-21T19:15:00.000-04:00

Book Groups Support Congressional Demand For Patriot Act Data
Edward Nawotka writes today in the PW Daily Newsletter:

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

Association of American Publishers

PEN American Center

The FBI can walk into any bookstore or library with a search warrant, demand sales or lending records for anyone suspected of "international terrorism" or "clandestine activities." The employee has no recourse but to turn the records over, then cannot discuss this activity with anyone other than his/her attorney. The House Judiciary Committee and representatives of booksellers want to know how many times this has happened. I'm not sure that the booksellers have any right other than courtesy to the information, but surely the House Judiciary Committee, with legal responsibility for overseeing the Patriot Act, does.

Again we see a near-paranoid aversion to divulging any information to anyone from John Ashcroft's Justice Department - a condition that only leads others to a similar state of paranoia in others, with or without cause. Why give so-inclined people the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild? When people perceive a pattern of unwarranted secrecy, they suspect the worst. Ashcroft's Justice has handled this general problem very poorly in both word and deed.

the book groups said that

Whether this is happening or not, the perception is there that it may be.

Judith Platt, who directs the Association of American Publishers' Freedom to Read Program, stressed that "an individual's right to read without the government looking over his shoulder is the most basic right in a free society. If we allow this freedom to be abridged in the interest of law enforcement, we have a right to demand the most stringent standards of judicial and Congressional oversight."

In an interview Monday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Rep. Sensenbrenner, a Republican,

Giving Sensenbrenner's position on the Patriot Act data some perspective is his position on a related matter:

Isn't this a man with whom Ashcroft should be trying to work?

2002-08-21T15:40:00.000-04:00

Hookers and Junkies Want Piece of the Pie
And you thought mind-reamingly audacious lawsuits were confined to the US?

Do you mean that people who earn money from illegal acts shuld be paid when those acts are "interrupted" by legal commerce? On what possible grounds? That they feel like it?

Why, do they imagine, has so much production been driven from Hollywood making places like Vancouver attractive in the first place? Absurd and burdensome rules and fees and labor requirements not unlike what is being asked for here.

I am sympathetic to the homeless, druggies, and whores: I think the government should provide a place to stay for everyone who needs it with a requirement that they work off their housing costs a la "workfare"; prostitution and drugs should be legalized, regulated, and taxed by the government, just like topless dancing and alcohol. But I do not think that those accustomed to squatting on public land or private land they do not own for the purpose of committing illegal acts are owed shit when they are inconvenienced by those performing legal and licensed acts, like film production.

Those involved get credit for substantial balls, but surely the powers that be must call bullshit on this one.

2002-08-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

California Coercion?
Dawn and I had a spirited discussion with several bloggers and others about homeschooling (interesting that the word/phrase is variously spelled "home school," home-school" and "homeschool" - get it together) last week. We both softened our positions against it, but still believe it is very difficult to do right, and requires a huge commitment from student and teacher alike.

Although found in the deeply conservative Washington Times, this story is quite troubling nonetheless if this boils down to bureaucratic coercion for financial purposes:

Obtain a teaching credential to homeschool? Seems heavy-handed. The state has every right to mandate what PUPILS must know at what point, and testing for such is absolutely appropriate, but as long as the student achieves this, what is the point of mandating what the teacher knows? The proof is in the pudding, and the net result would not seem to be better-educated homeschooled students, but rather a great deal fewer of them, as the Times alleges is the point.

The fact that California would be the ONLY state to have such a requirement, and coincidentally, it also has a $23 billion education deficit certainly serves as circumstantial evidence at the least. But then on the other hand you have this overheated rhetoric:

"There is an attempt to coerce these people to send their children to public schools," said Gary Kreep, founder and president of the U.S. Justice Foundation in California. "Some officials don't like home schoolers because they are the last bastion of independent thinkers, the last bastion of individuality. If these children are not in public school, teachers can't tell them that homosexuality is normal and permissible, which is what's being taught in California." Gary, for some people homosexuality is "normal" and therefore "permissible," and for such an "independent thinking" "individualist," you are awfully judgmental and closed-minded. There would appear to be plenty of ideology to go around on both sides, although I can think of no good excuse for the state to unduly burden those who would choose to homeschool beyond mandating levels of achievement for the students. Aren't they who this is supposed to be about?

2002-08-21T13:14:00.000-04:00

Anarchy
David Kaplan has an idea for baseball negotiators:

National Economic Research Associates

I like the idea of single-year deals for the players to keep them honest; and I like releasing the across-the-board pressure toward escalating salaries that removing arbitration would bring; and the teams would have to pay players what they were worth any given year, not for what they have done in the past nor what they may do in the future; but if fans don't like the lack of stability on teams now, with this plan entire rosters could come and go from year to year - it might be chaos but it wouldn't be boring.

UPDATE
Chas Rich says this idea is not new:

UPDATE
Dan Lewis says nyet:

As I understand Kaplan, contracts would be guaranteed but just for one year; then they would be free agents again. Or does "guaranteed" mean more than one year?

2002-08-21T12:29:00.000-04:00

Search the Nun, the 90 year-Old Eskimo, and the Pilot - Let the Basketball Player Go
They are not full of shit this time:

Maybe we do have a caste system.

2002-08-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

Shades
Yes Oliver, I am a practitioner of voodoo and am lucky and whatnot, but the "multi-hued" part is Photoshop: that couch is actually a dirty cream color.

2002-08-21T11:57:00.000-04:00

Department of Duh
Per Hot Buttered Death,

Caregivers in Copenhagen

Danish job description: "Protitute for the elderly and disabled; subcategories: gay male [Scott Thorson], gay female [Anne Heche], straight male [Kronk], straight female [Anna Nicole Smith]. Subjects with experience in animal breeding or raisin humping preferred."

This is all rather self-evident, but isn't the Danish approach a bit clinical? Why not just point the elderly in the direction of each other? Isn't the Grumpy Old Men approach a bit more romantic and psychologically pleasing than a visit from a sex worker with a rubber glove and a frown?

After Saturday night porno, just turn the golden agers loose on each other in a padded room with Viagra, dildoes and Crisco. Problem solved.

2002-08-21T11:27:00.000-04:00

Your Daily Clinton
I think this makes a lot of sense:

Seriously, communicating about a lot of complicated stupid shit is what Clinton does best, and a daily show would be the perfect forum for him to rehabilitate his tarnished image before a generally receptive audience of bored housewives. Of couse, Clinton's attention could well wander after his success was assured - that's his pattern - but a daily show could also evoke the archetype of perpetual campaign within Bill's brain, with ratings paralleling poll figures, and he might happily stump the airwaves in perpetuity. He'd probably insist on having hot babes on the show everyday, though: maybe he could hire Rosie's staff, they're already used to that requirement.

UPDATE
Frank Martin favors the wife.

UPDATE
Glenn R finds another twist to this one:

CBS, who had

2002-08-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

Cloning Lite
This article subheading is a bit misleading:

In an eerie recreation of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie "Jurassic Park", scientists are planning to clone an extinct animal to be the central attraction of a wildlife park. Sort of, what they are actually planning to do is this:

Mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago, but using a technique that involves impregnating an Indian elephant -- its closest genetic relative -- with mammoth sperm and then repeating the procedure with its offspring could produce a creature that is 88 percent mammoth in 50 years, the report said. Per the Times article:

So although cloning techniques are involved, it's really more like retro selective breeding, approaching the desired creature by degrees over generations.

This would seem to bring up issues such as what if the specimen, buried in an avalanche 25,000-30,000 years ago, bears some sort of untreatable pathogen that currently there is no immunity for, and the like; but assuming no disasters of this sort occur, the scientists appear to have plenty of margin of error as there are estimated to be ten million mammoths buried in the permafrost of Siberia: a cryogeneticist's wet dream. Rather than go through all of this cloning nonsense, why don't we just wake them up?

2002-08-21T10:37:00.000-04:00

SPF-Dumbass
We all know that sunburn is a BAD THING, but once again there is some pretty amazing legal nonsense going down in Ohio:

FELONY ENDANGERMENT?? For sunburn?? The stupid bitch clearly wasn't paying any attention, and the delicate skin of a 2 year-old and two 10 month-olds must be carefully protected. The woman should be ostracized, vilified, kicked in the ass, ridiculed, but isn't the cudgel of the law a bit much here? Maybe this is a pattern and the kids should be taken away from the woman, but in and of itself, is sunburn really grounds for felony prosecution? Make her take a course on child safety, make her do volunteer work with a dermatologist. She has already been in jail a week pending today's preliminary hearing. Does it do society any good to lock this woman up for 15 years for neglecting sunscreen?

I am very pleased that a deputy was vigilant enough to notice that three babies were badly sunburned - that's very commendable and the guy deserves several "attaboys" for his keen eye and compassion; but does the image of this hapless mother hunched in the corner of her cell, mumbling to herself all day for 15 years, "Must put sunscreen on the babies, must put sunscreen on the babies, must put sunscreen on the babies...," evoke thoughts of justice from anyone?

UPDATE
Glenn Reynolds has a report from the front lines:

Fred Abdala was interviewed via telephone on Fox News by Brigette Quinn this morning. The first words out of his mouth were that the county was NOT seeking 15 years for this mother & that he had no idea where that rumor started (we all know). She's been in jail for about 7 days, is being released today and will be given probation and placed under the "watchful eyes" of CPS (his words, not mine). Apparently, this mom is "familiar" with CPS and the end goal is to train her to properly care for her children. So, tax dollars are at work here and Sheriff Abdala seems pretty reasonable.

2002-08-20T21:50:00.000-04:00

Yes, But Not As Often
Ocean Guy Jim B notes one seismic difference between men and women.

2002-08-20T21:45:00.000-04:00

A Ball and A Bush
Atrios leads us to an alternate Bush Iraq plan, this one involving clubs, but no baby seals:

Zowie! Just as I was writing this in my office adjacent to the 14th fairway, a golfer sliced one but good and bounced it off of our roof, agitating the squirrels. Kismet!

2002-08-20T21:26:00.000-04:00

Kill Your Television
Via the mysterious the OmbudsGod, Andrew Cline recoils from the forthcoming TV offerings on 9/11:

2002-08-20T21:07:00.000-04:00

Out of the Blue
Was it a flash of inspiration? No, it was a real lightning bolt that struck Michael King's place:

Okay, family accounted for and no one injured. What's the next priority for a modern guy? His computer of course:

I finally took a look over at the computer, fearing the worst. The PC had gone into standby mode, and was OK. The cable modem wasn't so lucky. No lights showed up on the face. Once I woke up the PC and tried to query the modem, I got nothing. Fair enough. I ran a quick check on the remainder of the system - everything else was OK. Phew.

2002-08-20T17:18:00.000-04:00

Nature Shaped By Man
Natalie Angier says humans, like all primates, are programmed to both love and fear nature:

My favorite places are where man has guided nature toward his own ends without destroying nature's original framework. I love botanical gardens, Asian landscape paintings, Pacific Island shrines in the jungle: places where man and nature meet on friendly terms. I'm not that big a fan of zoos because man has taken a Noah's ark worth of creatures and constructed artificial living spaces: man is too much in control. Conversely, I don't like the very rawest nature where there are lots of bugs and things that want to eat you and no discernable order to the tableau: not enough human input there. But where they meet on more or less equal terms and respect each other's needs, those are the places I love best.

The Na Pali Coast of Kauai is wild and rugged and effulgent with nature's bounty, BUT it also has a trail cut through it that not only makes passage possible, but reassuringly shows the nondestructive hand of man in the middle of the lushest landscape. I think these kinds of settings are where man's love of nature and instinct to control it come together in the most satisfying way. Now I want to go back - I shouldn't have talked about that.

2002-08-20T14:17:00.000-04:00

Seekies
Maddie has a big, sweaty, smelly, perpendicular, extemporaneous, seething, apoplectic, smoking killer hotass secret in her cute little bustle: to be revealed Saturday.

2002-08-20T13:20:00.000-04:00

Why Ask Why?
Bitter Girl Shannon is being interviewed in exile for the same upcoming feature on blogs for which Dawn and I have been corralled:

2002-08-20T12:53:00.000-04:00

Stay of Execution?
Stratfor says the Bush administration is backing off plans to attack Iraq:

The key weapon those opposed to an attack on Iraq have brandished is intelligence. The US needs intelligence and cooperation from a number of nations to continue its thus far successful campaign to contain and crush al Qaeda, and with elections approaching, the last thing the administration thinks it needs is another terrorist attack on the US.

Forced to prioritize, the administration is picking al Qaeda, according to the report:

Stratfor opines that there will be little fallout from the reversal at home or with allies, but the US will need to be very careful in its dealings with the Islamic/Arab world, which may be emboldened by the reversal, assuming it is true.

Thanks to reader William Utley for the heads up.

2002-08-20T12:16:00.000-04:00

Batty
While I was absorbed with the Blogcritics.com launch last week, Ken Layne discussed bats:

In theory I like bats: they have cool sonar and they eat bad bugs and you can use their poop to make bombs and stuff - we just had a good time checking them out at the Cleveland Zoo (7th oldest zoo in the US!).

But as Ken notes, the big problem with bats is rabies:

What people are

So bats up in your nutsack are bad news. My junior year of college, I lived in a big old house with a bunch of other students, and we had a communal rec area up in the attic. It seemed like every other week or so, some damn bat got up in the room and frightened the civilians and we had to kill it because there were no windows up there (how did they get in? we always wondered).

The answer? Bat tennis. Upon hearing the cry of "bat!," we would snag our tennis rackets and charge up the stairs in an effort to be the first to "serve" the bat. There were lamps and bongs and crap up there, so we had to be careful where we swung, but once in place, we stood still, made little bat noises and waited for the winged rat to take flight, whereupon we took to dramatic displays of serving technique, which sooner or later led to the bat being propelled into a wall, ceiling, fellow student, floor, etc.

You had to be wary: if someone else got hold of the little furry shuttlecock and launched it in your direction, you would have to volley the bastard lest it meet its end up against your forehead or something. Once we volleyed our winged visitor no less than four times before it got lodged in the couch. It looked a little worse for wear: head dinged up pretty good but still smiling, even in bat death.

While all of this may sound a bit callous or even cruel, it was nothing of the kind: the impact of the racket on the bat's skull invariably killed or at least stunned it instantly, and racket impact killed nicely without dismembering and making a big freaking mess of bat parts everywhere. To this day, if I am in bat country I carry a tennis racket for the protection of myself and loved ones. Usually just seeing the racket scares the rabid little neck-biters away.

2002-08-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

Marketplace
Picture this dispute at a university in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Iraq, where the "marketplace of ideas" is virtually nonexistent:

Surely there is nothing wrong with studying ABOUT any religion, and what religion has been more in the news over the last year than Islam? It is shameful that North Carolina legislators in the state House voted to ban the use of public funds for the assignment. This is the worst kind of political granstanding on what should be a purely academic matter.

Time makes note of the fact that this particular book on the Quran focuses on Muhammad's early teachings, before he became a political entity:

Balance is a key element of academic responsibility, but we must trust the marketplace of ideas to regulate itself, as it has in this case by drawing protests from those who contest the image of Islam as presented in the book. It seems to me the system, other than the grandstanding by the NC House, worked very well in thos case, with all sides getting their say. It is never a violation of the separation of church and state to simply teach ABOUT religion, as legitimate an academic pursuit as physics or 18th century Russian literature, as long as that teaching doesn't veer into advocacy.

The Religious Tolerance site has a nice overview of the case with links to all involved except the Family Policy Network, whose site seems to be down.

2002-08-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

The World of Arbitrary Justice
Two seemingly unrelated cases bring up the disconcerting issue of unevenly distributed justice. As I mentioned yesterday, here in Ohio, in tiny Vinton County with only 13,000 residents, a judge has starkly acknowledged economic reality in a murder case:

The problem is that economics aren't supposed to be such a determining factor in justice. Justice is supposed to be blind and distributed as evenly as possible throughout: with an eye on the law, not on the purse strings. If the death penalty is applicable in this case - and it would appear to be:

then the county in which the crime occurred should not be a determining factor as to how the case should be prosecuted. Justice should be the same in every corner of the state: rich, poor, north, south, east west.

"What the judge is saying is that there's a death penalty in Ohio but not in Vinton County," said Joe Case, a spokesman for the attorney general's office. "There is nothing in the law that would allow the judge to dismiss the death penalty components of the charges. The people have a right to prosecute the case." Despite the fact that I am against the death penalty, I completely agree that the law should be applied evenly across the board, even if I don't like the law. In order to retain respect for the system and the law, it must be seen as impartial and not subject to such vagaries as the budget of a given county. The county's budget matters not a whit to the murder victim or her family.

Halfway around the world, an uneven application of justice appears to heading toward an even more appalling result:

As discussed often in these pages, sharia is an hellish anachronism whose time was past a few hundred years ago, but what's worse here is that sharia is not the law of the land, just the law of about a dozen states in northern Nigeria:

While we do have variation in laws from state to state, and some states have the death penalty and some don't, the difference here is between life without parole and the death penalty for the very worst of crimes such as aggravated murder, and the difference in Nigeria is between death by stoning for having a child outside marriage, where elsewhere such behavior ISN'T EVEN A CRIME. This is an absurd level of variation, reducing justice in Nigeria to a bad mordant joke.

While the spectrum is wide and the Nigerian case makes our justice problems seem relatively trivial, the difference between the Vinton County case and the Nigerian stoning case are different only in degree, not in kind: justice arbitrarily and unevenly applied is justice denied, and is wrong anywhere it rears its ugly head.

UPDATE
Eugene Volokh says I am wrong about the Ohio case:

2002-08-19T19:53:00.000-04:00

Stupid Criminals Pt 365
Carjacking is a cowardly violation, but carjackers usually pick their targets a little better:

Very zen: they turned his momentum against him and held him in the car, Jack. The foiled carjacker was heard to say, "This just ain't my week - I got all poked up when I tried to jack an old ladies' knitting team a few days ago. I'm going back to pimpin' ho's."

2002-08-19T17:13:00.000-04:00

Too Much Or Not Enough?
As discussed here, Nevada is voting in the fall on whether to decriminalize possession of up to three ounces of marijuana for those over 21. Relevant to Nevada, my question here is whether or not this kind of behavior is due to too much or not enough ganja:

Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world with 600 so far this year in a country of only 2.7 million, after a record 1139 murders last year.

Everything is not irie in the home of rasta. This is all pretty embarrassing given that Jamaica is right down our global street. Isn't there something we can do to help them get their shit together? Jamaican gangsters have caused a fair amount of trouble here as well.

2002-08-19T16:33:00.000-04:00

"Gaza First"
IDF leaves Bethlehem:

That's probably a good sign if extremists on both sides hate the plan.

UPDATE

2002-08-19T15:02:00.000-04:00

Culture of Military Failure?
Norvell de Atkine notes that assessment of enemies based upon cultural assumptions has often proved unhelpful:

Thus, the U.S. Army in the 1930s evaluated the Japanese national character as lacking originality and drew the unwarranted conclusion that that country would be permanently disadvantaged in technology. Hitler dismissed the United States as a mongrel society and consequently underestimated the impact of America’s entry into the war. American strategists assumed that the pain threshold of the North Vietnamese approximated our own and that the air bombardment of the North would bring it to its knees. Three days of aerial attacks were thought to be all the Serbs could withstand; in fact, seventy-eight days were needed. Yet de Atkine looks for cultural reasons as to why "Arabic-speaking armies have been generally ineffective in the modern era."

A rather damning litany of cultural attributes leading to military deficiencies. One could take this list of cutural attributes and ascribe them to the general failure of Arabic-speaking societies in relationship to the West, and in particular the United States: fiefdoms of information, lack of trust and/or coordination between units, rigid hierarchy with disregard for those beneath you on the ladder and resentment toward those above, an emphasis on placing blame rather than taking responsibility and getting things done, lack of personal initiative.

One does not wish to take this argument too far into religious rather than cultural territory, but surely a factor in all of this is a religion whose highest dictates are "submission" and "modesty". Can Islam be reconciled with a modern, democratic, secular society that is now the paradigm of worldly success: cultural, economic, military, technological? Maybe, maybe not; but in the coming years I wouldn't want to be a soldier on their side.

2002-08-19T14:24:00.000-04:00

Goat Balls
Via Gene Healy, if you live in a town where the mayor is a goat, don't ask for a beer from a working man and give it to the goat without expecting some ramifications.

But castration? Seems harsh. In the famous Idaho case of the town with a beaver for a mayor, the faux pas only drew a swift kick in the posterior. This seems more in line with the offense in question.

2002-08-19T13:55:00.000-04:00

More Tedious Warnings For Dumbasses
The insure-ification of America continues:

That would ruin my day: scald my scrotum right off my body AND run over a nun as a result. Clue: don't drink anything really hot while you're driving, which seems to inevitably require fairly abrupt changes in momentum, thereby causing liquids to slosh about and land in your unsuspecting lap. If the liquid is hot, it will burn and cause discomfort, you shit-for-brains.

In response, I'd say that if you can't eat a fucking candy bar while you're driving without causing an accident, it's amazing you lived to driving age in the first place. Same with doughnuts - candy and doughnuts are just egregious empty calories anyway. Screw candy and doughnuts, eat a carrot.

Only a mongoloid would try to eat anything that falls apart on contact, has hot sauce dripping all over the place, or requires two hands and a table to eat successfully, like soup. If I see you eating soup while you're driving, I will try to make you spill it and laugh when you do.

There's a good rule of thumb to follow when you are driving: don't be a complete fucking insentient peabrained mindsuck and you won't need lists like this.

2002-08-19T13:18:00.000-04:00

One Life
9/11 victims came from all over the world, but Bill Moskal came from the Cleveland area:

In the flood of 9/11 tributes that will surely flow over us, perhaps numbing us a bit to the reality and details of lives snuffed out midbreath, try to take a little time to focus on a particular life or two and allow the nightmare to be real for you once again - if only for a short time - and then remember the words of Lorraine Moskal:

"I want terrorism to stop," she replied after a long pause. "There is only one way to stop it, and that is to pursue it and put an end to it. It will not just disappear."

2002-08-19T12:11:00.000-04:00

Talk to Us
I go along with the man with too many consonants and not enough vowels on one key issue:

The rest is State Department crap about "one more chance" for weapons inspections, respecting the sensibilities of our allies and "Arab friends," and fretting about the "character of the international system." But at least Brzezinski acknowledges this:

without a respected and legitimate law-enforcer, global security could be in serious jeopardy. America must thus walk a fine line in determining when, in what circumstances and how it acts as such in initiating the use of force. It is critical for Bush to explain to the American people in as great detail as possible why we need to fight Saddam, why now, and what the possible consequences are: that done, he can get on with it as he sees fit. There is too much confusion and indecision right now because people just don't know what the hell is going on. Bush needs to trust his people to follow his logic, assuming he has a logical case to make. As many of us have said all along, the rest of the world will follow where America leads as long as it makes sense and the American people are behind the journey. It's up to Bush to rally this support.

UPDATE
Thomas Friedman wants to see the case made as well:

There are those who use this excuse as a delaying tactic for a war they don't want to see happen, period. But there are others, such as myself, who see clarification as the next step toward successfully waging a necessary war. Let us hope the administration doesn't confuse the two camps.

UPDATE
Peter Beinart says Bush is half right, and that the Democrats can take up the banner of the other half:

UPDATE
Steve Green agrees with Beinart:

UPDATE

2002-08-19T11:04:00.000-04:00

Blogger For Rent
Bill Quick is looking for a real job, and is taking the novel approach of spreading the word via blog:

All I can say is I'd hire Bill for about anything to do with writing or writing management. If this works, it will benefit us all. Think about it.

2002-08-19T10:40:00.000-04:00

Repair?
I do not wish to appear insensitive to the heinousness of the institution of American slavery, and the grievous stain it has left upon our history, but the issue of reparations at this point should be moot. Who should pay what to whom? "White people" in general? What about people of mixed blood? What part of them is responsible to what other part? Should "predominantly white people" of mixed ancentry pay themselves?

It may be facile to say so, but we've had reparations in the form of affirmative action for about 40 years. With the reverse discrimination elements of affirmative action causing even it to be shut down, how could we hope to implement an even more direct and punitive measure against those who are not the decendants of slaves?

As the Roanoke Times says:

Like with welfare reform, which has been a nearly unqualified success, we need to continue to help people to help themselves: not hand out checks for the wrongs of ancestors upon ancestors in the fast-fading past.

Those at the rally said it was time for action:

This drive is like playing the lottery: a wasteful distraction from actually getting things done. Individual responsibility and action should be the focus now: the politics of group victimization distracts people from availing themselves of the opportunities for self-improvement and upward mobility that are already in place.

I have no problem with a formal apology - why not? A collective admission that slavery is/was and shall always be evil and unacceptable does no harm and may help put aside collective guilt and resentment respectively, but there is no remedy that can attend such an apology beyond a collective determination to vigorously fight discrimination against ALL INDIVIDUALS now residing in the U.S.

UPDATE
Oliver Willis has no use for this concept:

Black activist Louis Farrakhan told the crowd, "America owes the black people a lot for what they've endured."

"We want reparations -- not next century, not 10 years from now, but now," Conyers said. "These wrongs can only be corrected in the House of Representatives, only Congress can do what we want now. All congressmen ought to be here today."

"You have to really make some noise just to be heard," Edna Russell, who traveled from Denver, told Reuters.

UPDATE
John Venlet with more:

The big news from the rally is this quote from one Charles Barron, a member of the New York City Council, "I want to go up to the closest white person and say 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing' and then slap him, just for my mental health." Nice. And we're supposed to take this kind of talk seriously?

2002-08-18T20:02:00.000-04:00

Hot
I feel misunderstood. It has come to my attention that I am regarded as a veins-in-the-teeth, drooling warmonger in some quarters. While I am strongly infavor of zealous prosecution of the war on terror, including regime change in Iraq and perhaps elsewhere, please don't extrapolate out from THIS war to war in general. I was opposed to the war in Vietnam, still don't understand what Grenada was all about, and the War of 1812 really pissed me off.

In an effort to show another side of me, let's talk about women. They are beautiful the world over, but some corners of the globe are more renowned for hot babes than others. Why is this? I truly believe that women of all races, creeds, and colors are fundamentally equally beautiful, but CULTURALLY there are huge descrepancies in what can loosely be called "hotness."

Think back to the Soviet Union: the women there were routinely denigrated as frumpy babushkas. Comes the end of communism, a change of clothes, a little makeup, a new attitude, and they are now smoking hot babes. Besides my wife, arguably the hottest woman on earth now is Russian. The current Miss Universe is also Russian. They've come a long way baby.

Now it is the Islamic women, especially those laboring under fundamentalism, who are subjected to jokes about their appeal. What do you expect with dictates like this?

Hard to be alluring under those circumstances (no purfume either), but I know they're in there, just waiting to bust out. Yep, it's hard to be hot looking like this, but the Afghani women are coming out of their shells and even smiling a bit.

There's some potential for hotness in here, but it's still nascent. However, this Islamic babe is enough to give the world hope, and Miss Trinidad and Tobago, a Muslim, was criticized by the Islamic world for taking part in the skimpy bathing-suit competition in the Miss Universe competition this year. That's the best news yet, my friends. Perhaps "Islamic hotness" will not be an oxymoronic phrase forever.

2002-08-18T14:05:00.000-04:00

Unholy Remains
Andrea Harris has some ideas on what to do with the terrorist bodies found at the WTC:

Whatever you do, don't make Frisbees out of them: this would confuse and disturb the heirs of Steady Ed.

2002-08-18T13:47:00.000-04:00

The Peculiar Case of Joseph Smith
There are two new books out on the life of Mormon-founder Joseph Smith, reviewed in the NY Times today. I realize that everyone else's religion sounds absurd, but what explains the enduring appeal of this loon's ravings?

Born in 1805 to frontier drifters on a hardscrabble farm in Sharon, Vt., Smith was raised in a revivalist culture (the family had settled in Palmyra, N.Y.) and claimed the first of several religious visions at 14. In 1823, three and a half years later, he had a far more momentous illumination, when an angel or resurrected being called Moroni appeared to him and told him of a hidden gospel, inscribed on golden plates, which had been buried 1,400 years before in a mound called Cumorah in nearby Manchester. Joseph dug them up, and found that they were inscribed with ancient characters or hieroglyphics (later called ''Reformed Egyptian''), which he was able to translate with the help of two supernatural stones (or magic spectacles) called Urim and Thummim, set ''in silver bows.'' The result was the Book of Mormon, first published in 1830, which purports to contain a history of America from its colonization at the time of the confusion of tongues to the fifth century A.D., during which Christ is said to have planted his church in the New World. Its narrative (ascribed to an ancient American prophet by the name of Mormon) links the native Indians to the lost tribes of Israel, foretells the rebuilding of Zion and, in the fullness of time, the reign of Christ on earth. The reviewer, Benson Bobrick, doesn't buy a sympathetic treatment of Smith's life:

In practice, however, his narrative tends to include, accept and enlarge upon them in the way it flows along. For example: ''It is interesting to note that so much of Joseph's life, as reported by Mormon sources, has parallels in the Gospels. Since he believed -- he always believed -- that he had been chosen by God to restore the true church, he must have known that, like Christ, he might be expected to sacrifice his life in order to validate his mission. When the moment came for a final decision, he willingly consented to it.'' Not really. Smith tried to escape his fate in a shootout in a jail, and his last conscious act, before attempting to jump out a window, was to punch a man in the neck. That makes him human; it doesn't make him much like Christ. Once a particular belief reaches critical mass, it becomes self-perpetuating socially; but what, other than owning the state of Utah, was the original appeal here? Maybe if you gave any cult leader his own state, the results would be the same. I don't think Mormons are evil, just bizarrely misguided - I find the whole issue deeply perplexing.

2002-08-18T13:25:00.000-04:00

Whores and Bongs
C.G. Hill is keeping a twinkling eye on Nevada, the libertarian paradise:

There are worse people to have hanging out, pursuing their collective mellow, wandering around in the desert, getting lost, taking a nap, dying of dehydration. On second thought....

2002-08-18T13:08:00.000-04:00

No Money For the Hangman
The death penalty is a deeply-felt issue (see comments as well), and one causing problems with international relations. Now, here in Ohio, justice has taken off the blindfold and rather starkly acknowledged economic reality:

One has to wonder if the judge is using the financial angle to pursue his own political agenda.

As an opponent of the death penalty, I am pleased with the result here, but I am concerned about the broader precedent. I understand that financial considerations come in to play as a practical matter in many cases, but to state up front that a different course of action is being pursued from the beginning of the case due to financial considerations seems to fly in the face of the theory that justice is to be distributed evenhandedly across the board as a matter of principle.

I am very curious what our bloggy attorneys like Glenn, Ann or Chas think about this.

2002-08-18T12:22:00.000-04:00

Opera Would Be Great If It Didn't Suck (Kidding)
Dawn has a spunky interview with new Blogcritic and opera aficionado Sasha Castel:

2002-08-17T18:53:00.000-04:00

A Rift Among Godless
There is a conflict among the "godless":

Sort of reminds me of the battles between homosexuals and bisexuals (who "will fuck anything"). NOBODY loves the Satanists: the great monotheistic religions revile them as diabolical worshipers of evil incarnate, and the atheists think they're a-rational crackpots - literally the dark side of the theistic coin.

The United Satanic Convenire issued a statement on their website:

All I can say is this person should start a blog: we don't have enough Satanists in the blogosphere.

The march organizers are trying to smooth things over, but also to make a point:

And with that he threw himself on the ground, rolling with paroxysms of laughter from which he could only be revived with a kick in the head. The Order of Perdition hasn't addressed the matter directly on their site:

Wasn't there just a movie made about them? With Tom Hanks? Man, that's out of character for him.

The Order seems to be ecumenical in its own way:

None of that silly live sacrifice for them - no sir - those are the Satanists down the street.

It appears the atheists are convinced, since both Satanist organizations still appear on the official roster of participating organizations. I want to see the Satanists march next to the Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists (notice they don't mention bisexuals - they'll fuck anything).

UPDATE
Paul Palubicki has infiltrated Satanic inner circles:

Dude, are you telling me I look like Pacino?

Do I look like a pimp to you?

I said, Do I look like some kind of pimp to you?

Oh, so you think I should spend all my time trying to get you fuckers laid, is that right? I got some heavy shit going on with the Old Fart upstairs, but Junior here wants some bearded clam, so I should just drop all my Heavenly War shit just to help pop your cherry

You know, that's a good fucking question. How the hell am I supposed to be taken seriously and inspire fear in the hearts of Men with ass-clown geeks like you representin' me? I'm supposed to be leading Men's souls to their dooms with Pizza Face the Pied Piper! Tell me why I shouldn't strike yo sorry ass, down muthafuckah!

Damn.

2002-08-17T17:30:00.000-04:00

Entitlement
With the Major League Baseball players strike date set, saturation coverage of the announcement yesterday, and my ongoing preoccupation with the danger of Islamist word and deed, I probably shouldn't have been surprised to have had an oddly vivid dream last night.

Despite the fact that I staunchly believe in the need to root out militant Islamism in the most severe manner, I don't want to give the impression that I dehumanize people who happen to have adopted this unfortunate view of the world. And suddenly last night I had a flash of empathy with them. Islamism still must be utterly discredited and rooted out ruthlessly, and those who refuse or are incapable of an ideological transformation may need to be killed before they can kill us - one of their professed goals - but at least I now have a door through which to enter the Islamist mind.

In my dream, I sat in the stands at Jacobs Field, home of the Cleveland Indians since 1994, in a fast-forward through every winning home game over the past 8+ seasons.

Not coincidentally, with the opening of the "Jake" in '94, the Indians began a tremendous run of on- and off-field success, winning six Division titles in seven years between '95 and 2001, reaching the World Series twice, and selling out an outrageous record-setting 455 games in a row. Though they didn't win the World Series, expectation was there for them to do so every year, and it was a resonable expectation at that. That run ended with a thud this year with the clearing out of virtually the entire roster of expensive veterans, with the stated purpose of rebuilding with (cheap) youth over the next few years.

So in my dream I saw this riveting panorama of success flash by me and sooth my soul. I realized I had COME TO EXPECT IT: hence my disappointment and outrage, and resentment this year when ownership just threw in the towel and broke up the team. When I woke up, I thought about my dream, and even imagined myself as a Yankees fan and the exceptionalism that would come from a fascistic run of 20 championships between 1923 and 1962, then another run of four titles in five years between '96 and 2000. Imagine the fan's disbelief and horror and disrupted sense of ENTITLEMENT whe the Diamondbacks came back and upset them in the 7th game of hte Series last year: "HOW CAN THIS FUCKING BE???????????? IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS."

This all sounded familiar to me:

Imagine the Yankees' run lasting SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS (Johnson's 1000 years is something of an exsggeration, but the point is made). This is where the exceptionalism comes from: it is not dissimilar to what Yankees, and to a lesser extent, Indians fans feel when their hegemony is somehow thwarted. I hate the Yankees not because I really hate the Yankees, but because I resent their superior success to that of my team. I resent ANY team that is superior to my team, and right now that's most of them.

In the real world, this sense of resentment hasn't faded with time in the Islamic world, but has festered and boiled and intensified over the last several hundred years, and spurred by the total collapse of Islamic power with the end of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, has finally come to throbbing venomous head. We still have to lance the head and destroy the infection with extreme prejudice, but at least I can empathize with its origins. Go Tribe.

2002-08-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

Headline

Closet Secrets of the Pros

Turns out it's about closets - I wasn't aware that there were closet professionals, although I am certain there are many professionals in the closet.

2002-08-17T16:16:00.000-04:00

Iraq Etc
In the interest of continuity, I have kept all news and opinion on Iraq to one post. Please see here for background and the latest developments.

2002-08-17T13:43:00.000-04:00

In a Name
Dr. Weevil has more on the pseudo-blogo-nym issue. I haven't said anything about it heretofore, but here are my brief thoughts. All blogs are avatars of their creators: they are cyberspace projections of whatever aspects of a person's personality they choose to project. No blogs are "really real," therefore the name attached is simply part of that projection. Just because I call myself "Eric Olsen" doesn't mean that what I write is any more or less "real" than if I called myself "Projectile Vomit" or "Mephistopheles" or "Humbert Humbert."

A blog is a persona and the name attached doesn't make it more or less so. If a pseudonym helps someone to get "into character," then that name is more "real" for that blog than the person's birth name. I also have no problem understanding work or personal pressures that may lead a person writing under his/her own name to be "less real" than when working under the umbrella of a pseudonym. Therefore I see "authenticity" as a non-issue.

Either the WRITING is authentic or it isn't: the name attached doesn't much matter. I don't much care if there is a disconnect between blog and person because like any work of art, the blog exists on its own, like a cyber-child. With the disconnect inevitable, what difference does it make to place the added layer of a pseudonym? None, to my thinking.

Write under whatever name you want, just be interesting and don't suck - a name is just a label stuck on what really counts: the writing.

P.S. - As Dr. Weevil notes, it would be a real shame if anyone wre driven from blogging due to pressure to "reveal" themselves. Don't go "Edward."

2002-08-16T22:14:00.000-04:00

Grace
It's been 25 years since Elvis died on the toilet, a big fat freak of 42. He was an old man, but two years younger than I am now. Think about this: Elvis has been dead longer than his career lasted, and I'm including the crappy 70s. Yet the King remains as popular as ever (to the tune of $37 million last year). I would say that the real Elvis has been lost under the tidal wave of Elvis-the-cultural-icon, but that isn't really true because people still listen to his music, and his music is the REAL Elvis.

In the car I was listening to NPR's tribute to Presley (they have an excellent page with a wealth of audio and textual resources) in a somberish mood. The Elvis story always makes me melancholy: the revolutionary music with Sam Phillips, the meteoric rise, the "commercialization," the dead period of bad movies in the 60s, the comeback, the decline unto a pathetic death. But then going into the break, they played an extended portion of "Suspicious Minds," and I remembered how - for all his otherwordly gifts - charmingly real and fragile Elvis was, and this was as big a part of his appeal as the wondrous voice and the animal magnetism.

Elvis KNEW his movies were mostly shit, his music in the middle-60s shlock, and by the time of his comeback TV special in '68, he was insecure and unsure of his ability to deliver anymore. But deliver he did and the joy of that connection, or rather reconnection, was truly lovable. His best music undoubtedly came from the '50s and early-60s, but the best Elvis was the magical return to grace in '68/'69, capped by the Memphis glory of "Suspicious Minds," his first #1 in seven years and the last #1 of his life.

Hearing the stark soul groove highlighted by Reggie Young's curling guitar and Gene Chrisman's light but insistent backbeat, and Elvis's restrained/powerful/yearning vocal - living the lyric, loving the music - almost brought a tear. At that point in his life and career, Elvis and his fans needed each other equally: you can sense the energy flowing both ways, restoring Elvis and rewarding his fans for their faith and support. That moment of equilibrium is the Elvis I love best.

Mike Hendrix loves Elvis too:

A friend of Mike's visited Vernon Presley at Graceland a year or so after Elvis's death:

He goes into a small room, and there Vernon sits, with a half-eaten breakfast on a TV tray pushed off to the side. It just so happens that an Elvis movie is on TV. I can't remember which one, but I think maybe it was either "Loving You" or "King Creole;" one of the good ones, anyway. They chat a bit about this and that, and then the conversation flags a bit as both men turn their attention to the movie. Vernon then said, "This was always my favorite one" and Mike agrees, and the next thing you know Vernon has burst into tears, the grief over the loss of his son still as fresh as a bleeding wound. Mike is touched and a bit overwhelmed by the overall situation and ends up hugging Vernon, both men crying on each other over a loss that each felt in very different ways. There's nothing like the loss of a child, even if that child is Elvis Presley, and reading that from Mike really did make me cry.

there really is only one voice in the whole cacophony of opinion about Elvis that really counts, as Peter Guralnick says at the end of his incredible Elvis bio. And that voice is the one that leaps off the old Sun .45's, full of vitality and eagerness and fresh, wild exuberance, the one that started a musical revolution the likes of which the world has never seen before, and never will again.

2002-08-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

New Recruit?
Doubting Thomas reviews a veritable library of books here. How about joining Blogcritics.com, Mr. Literary?

2002-08-16T15:07:00.000-04:00

Commissioner Steve
Newly-married Vodka Steve has a creative take on the restructuring of professional baseball:

The man is a thinker.

UPDATE
And not just a thinker - how about this for timing:

With the Indians sucking sewer water, this is the year for it - maybe we'll finally end up with a real restructuring that actually makes sense. It's hard to sympathize with the millionaires or the billionaires and their vile, duplicitous leader. Bring on Commissioner Steve!

2002-08-16T14:57:00.000-04:00

Why He Does It
There has been a fair amount of talk this summer, including here, about some of the dark side of blogging: time and energies spent, neglect of other duties and pleasures, and the like. David Hogberg has a very nice piece of the positive side of blogging - his glass is more than half-full:

Very encouraging - check it out. And regarding the latter, we are very much looking forward to meeting Dave at the Cleveland Blogger Fiesta/Bash next Saturday.

2002-08-16T14:08:00.000-04:00

Another Blow
We reported last week on the conflict developing between the major labels and the independent promotions companies over fees paid to get songs played on the radio. RCA and Atlantic had reduced fees paid as of last week, now Universal is slashing fees by 50%:

2002-08-16T13:36:00.000-04:00

From the Mind of the Bunny
The Big Bunny has some innovative thoughts on integrating bloggers with the mainstream media - makes a lot of sense:

The guy is always thinking, and both "institutions" would certainly benefit from the plan. I have some pondering to do, hmmmmm...

2002-08-16T11:48:00.000-04:00

Iraq Today
Pressure is building on all sides regarding Iraq: if we could direct all of that brain power, we could vaporize Saddam and call it a day. What is the basic case against Saddam? It hasn't changed much since this BBC report from March, other than with every passing minute the likelihood of disaster inexorably grows:

Anything new on these fronts? Iraq is still playing the same old games regarding inspections:

Even the U.N. is fed up:

"Sure - we'll talk as long as no one makes any demands upon us or asks us to do anything we don't want to do. We're not looking for a fight, but we will give them the MOTHER OF ALL MOTHERS OF all fights if the Great Satan, I mean the U.S., should choose to attack." The "a new situation and a new confrontation" sure sounds like a threat to me, and the only thing "new" Iraq could unleash at this point would be some form of unconventional weaponry, whose development the arms inspections were put in place to prevent. And any of this is supposed to reduce our sense of urgency?

Israel - immediately in the line of fire and likely first target of an Iraqi assault - says get them NOW:

This from the most likely and immediate target of such an attack.

Ah yes, the beloved international coalition of George Bush the elder. The results of that coalition - Israel not retaliating against Iraq for the Scud attacks, the decision to leave Saddam in power in the interest of "stability" - don't look all that impressive now, and it is my opinion that even within the penumbra of "victory" in the Gulf War, latent dissatisfaction with the lack of closure in Iraq contributed to Bush 1's defeat in the '92 presidential election. But apparently this is a lesson that some original Bushies have failed to learn:

It would appear Brent Scowcroft is a Rip Van Winkle for our time: he has just awakened and thinks it's 1991. The "virtual consensus" against taking out Saddam by force is all in Rip's fuzzy mind, apparently when you are asleep you can't read things like this:

But it's not just Jordan:

Opponents of an assault on Iraq assume that the US will not try to get endorsement from the UN security council. In fact, not only is the US likely to ask for security council support, but it will probably get it. This is the freaking Guardian, mind you:

The writer is grudging, but does not doubt international support for the attack on Iraq. Of course, just to remind you that this is the Guardian, he ends:

In short, the ceasefire resolution of 1991 placed further action against Iraq in the context of a global system for the management and elimination of armaments. That objective has been discarded. It should remain the basis of a modern international security strategy. There are many in the US who oppose the fundamentalist policies of the present White House team. We need to forge stronger links with them to begin to craft a strategy of containment. There's that magic word, "containment": that's really what we're talking about isn't it? Containment brings back fond memories of the Cold War, a war we won, right? If by "winning" you mean the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, perhaps, but the cost was extremely high: 90,000 American lives lost between Korea and Vietnam, 7 million Korean and Vietnamese lives lost; these in addition to proxy wars in Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Angola, Mozambique. In The Cruel Peace, author Fred Inglis estimates 16 million people died directly or indirectly due to Soviet-American hostilities during the "Cold War": doesn't sound very "cold" to me.

Back to Scowcroft, he, like the Guardian leftwinger (strange bedfellows?), sees "instability," "disorder," threats to the "international system" as the greatest threat of all:

In sum, if we will act in full awareness of the intimate interrelationship of the key issues in the region, keeping counterterrorism as our foremost priority, there is much potential for success across the entire range of our security interests--including Iraq. If we reject a comprehensive perspective, however, we put at risk our campaign against terrorism as well as stability and security in a vital region of the world. Yes, "stability" is so vital in the region: wouldn't want anything to happen to our friends the Saudis. Another little problem with Scowcroft's view: Iraq isn't a distraction from the war on terrorism - it's an integral part of the war on terrorism. Terror isn't simply al Qaeda, Brent.

Apparently Scowcroft isn't the only Republican getting antsy about Iraq:

You don't know why we have to do it now? Let us recall what Israel - with the most to lose and under the greatest threat from Iraq - had to say just today:

Kissinger is in on the act too:

Like now you mean? We lead, the "international security framework" will follow. Richard Perle is the voice of reality on this one:

Exactly, if you are looking for an excuse not to take action, then you will find one. Here's another from the State Department:

Or, it may get them excited, since this would mean that the people of Iraq had been liberated from the vicious yoke of Saddam, and that people were dancing in the streets a la Afghanistan. Seems like something to look forward to, rather than a "sobering effect."

Lastly, we are hearing from the military structure itself:

But ultimately, we can count on our people in uniform:

Of all the many difficult requirements we levy upon soldiers, not the least is the obligation to present their views with utter honesty in private, but to maintain silence in public. That tradition has eroded; indeed, there are those who no longer understand its importance, and others who are willing to evade it by surreptitious leaks to journalists. But judging by the behavior and pronouncements of senior military leaders, from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on down, there are more than enough who understand and value the heritage of George C. Marshall to carry us through yet another difficult period of civil-military tension, sensational stories about unhappy generals notwithstanding. I'm certain this is true, but would like to hear from Paul on the matter.

Saddam needs to go - all agree, but he needs to go the sooner the better. The Israelis - who have to most to lose - say Saddam is only becoming more dangerous as the days go by. We have all the international support we need - whether its expression is tacit at this point or not - and "instability" is the very best thing that can happen in the region, a region mired in festering stability: the festering autocratic stability that has produced violent militant Islamic fundamentalism. It is time to lance the wound, expose the infection, and begin the healing process as quickly as possible.

UPDATE
Gene Healy says Iraq isn't Vietnam and Donald Rumsfeld isn't Robert McNamara unless it is:

Iraq is not Vietnam, and Rumsfeld--a man for whom I have a great deal of respect (among other things he worked with Milton Friedman in the 70s to end the draft)--is assuredly not McNamara. But some of the Beltway hawks, in their casualness about war and their assumption that the world is their chessboard--evoke in me the same sort of contempt the Times editorialist felt for the former Defense Secretary. Does this mean we shouldn't plan, shouldn't plot, shouldn't devise strategy, shouldn't do the best we can? When we plot strategy we don't really think of those "on the ground" who must carry it out as chess pieces, but if war is necessary (see above re the case for why it is) then FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE ON THE GROUND, it's pretty damn necessary to plan and strategize as if the forces were chess pieces for the very sake of those forces.

MEANWHILE
Bill Quick reported, as of Friday afternoon (ET), operations are already under way in and around Iraq:

Via InstaPundit, GedankenPundit ponders geography after Saddam:

Turkey, for one, will not be digging it, but life is not perfect.

UPDATE
Jim Henley's opinion was not transformed by my magical words:

new

yet

That's okay Jim, and I appreciate the response and attitude. Disagreement is no sin. But as to the points:

Jim's argument would appear to be that of the slippery slope: that bad ideas inspire ever-expanding efforts to implement them, a task that can never be completed because the idea was flawed in the first place. He mentions such flawed notions as socialism, the War on Drugs, and the Gulf War as examples of flawed ideas alibied by their proponents as having "failed" due to lack of sufficient rigor in application.

But this doesn't tell anything specific about whether or not forcible regime change in Iraq is a good idea or not. It just tells us that Jim doesn't like the Gulf War, socialism, or the War on Drugs. I reiterate that Saddam is dangerous to us and others, that he is only growing more so, that those who have to most to lose from an aggressive Iraq - namely Israel - are all for regime change NOW despite the fact that military action by us will almost certainly precipitate hostile acts toward THEM, and the fact that Saddam has illegally barred weapons inspectors from doing their job for five years makes military action on our part legal and warranted from an international standpoint.

ANY possible fallout from a deposed Saddam can only be better than the fetid stability reigning now, including the breakup of Iraq. It is only gravy that removing Saddam, the most powerful of the Islamic dictators, will send a very strong signal to other Islamic dicatators that their end is nigh, that the caliphate is not returning, that it is time to join the rest of mankind in the 21st century, and that Allah does not support totalitarian theocracies, nor secular totalitarian regimes for that matter.

Claiming that the Gulf War was conducted as well as it might have been, that it was a failure, and therefore the IDEA behind it must have been faulty is clever but itself a flawed concept. It seems rather self-evident that military action against Saddam's Iraq was necessary and inevitable under the circumstances of his military aggression and rhetoric, and that the job should have been completed with his ouster. It is historical fact that this final action was not pursued due to fears of "INSTABILITY" in the region (thanks to reader Tom).

Stability as an inherent good is grossly overrated by diplomats, such as our State Department, whose perceived self-interest is served by stability regardless of the pathology of the status quo. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking ruled the day at the penultimate moment of the Gulf War, and we have been paying the penalty ever since. Setting the matter right, now, is called "learning from your mistakes," not perpetuating a bad idea. It's a matter of perspective.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

U.S. and British jet fighters

Meanwhile:

2002-08-15T23:50:00.000-04:00

Woodstock 33rd
Fellow Blogcritic Sheila Lennon metaphorically went back to Woodstock for today's 33rd anniversary:

All kinds of good stuff - she's looking for your memories as well. I remember the freaking traffic driving, purely coincidentally, along the nearest highway to the 25th anniversary show in 1994, on the way back to Cleveland from Boston. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on until I heard it on the radio - my mind was elsewhere. I caught a back road and snuck around the mess, only slightly tempted to partake of the mud and the blood and the madness. Maybe I'll make the next one, and maybe university-educated monkeys will hang-glide out of all our asses.

2002-08-15T23:08:00.000-04:00

Of "Evil" and "Jingoism"
In last Sunday's NY Times, the Week In Review section did a "Word For Word" on 9/11-related songs:

The Drums of War: It didn't take long for bewilderment to give way to battle chants — and they sometimes came from some surprising sources. Neil Young, whose high-pitched warble graced antiwar tunes a generation ago, introduced a payback anthem that one music critic called "jingoistic" In another op-ed in the same section, Michael Azerrad called Young's "Let's Roll" a "failure." Bob Cohen, in a letter to the editor, took offense:

I'm not as fond of the song as Cohen, but that isn't really the point. The point is that many, if not most, critics are very wary of lyrics as plain and unnuanced as Young's in "Let's Roll."

It would appear that the unnamed critic labeled the song "jingoistic" because Young used the word "evil" to describe the terrorists. Critics, good relativistic postmodernists in the main, are made deeply uncomfortable by moral judgments of any kind, and especially ones as stark and "simplistic" as "evil." I wish the song worked a little better myself, but I have nothing but respect for Young's willingness to take a stand and pass moral judgment, whether it was "cool" or not; and I have nothing but contempt for those who would denigrate him for doing so.

2002-08-15T21:40:00.000-04:00

Two More Years
Our friend in Greece harbors grave doubts about the 2004 Athens Olympics:

ATHOC (the Athens Organizing Committee) has been changing gears laterly, with heavy emphasis on wining and dining foreign reporters who have harbored doubts about the Athens dustbowl... I guess our tax euros are convincing some that things are "smooth." What is really happening on the ground is another matter. He is not persuaded by this optimistic report on the city's progress:

You stay on top of that for us Nik: the Olsen Olympic clan is counting on you.

2002-08-15T19:36:00.000-04:00

Western Roots of Militant Islam?
John Gray surveys the roots of militant Islam in the Independent:

The mullahs are postmodernists? Now that's a thought. If so, how do you get from "nothing is absolute" to "Islam is absolute"?

Gray also address a new book by Tariq Ali:

If we interpret universalism as a uniquely Western phenomenon, then perhaps we could make this claim. But Gray fails to take into account the fact that while Islam was a relatively tolerant master in its prime, it ALWAYS made claims to be THE only true religion, with nonbelievers to be subjugated and/or converted. There is nothing "Western" about this.

Much has been made of Islam's hegemonic tolerance, but this was an imperious tolerance, a tolerance grounded in a smug sense of superiority, not out of respect for other traditions or points of view, and certainly not out of a sense that other religions were worthy of respect in their own right. The germ of Islamist universalism was written in the Koran, not by "Marx or Hayek."

Scott Johnson writes:

They didn't much like this, and still don't. Qutb may have fine tuned militant political Islam for the modern world, but he didn't make it up from whole cloth, nor did he create the element of universalism. As long as Islam kept marching forward, absorbing, conquering, it was in a magnanimous mood, but it also assumed that this march would continue until its rule was universal. When Christianity became ascendant and suddenly leaped to dominance, the mood of Islam changed and the resentment has been building ever since: nothing new, just old grievances coming to a head. Islam has always been universalist, it has just become more strident of late.

2002-08-15T18:58:00.000-04:00

The Trouser Returns
I am so happy to see good bud and legendary rock journalist Ira Robbins' Trouser Press site back up and rocking. Even though there's nothing new since '96, I STILL use my Trouser Press Guide to 90s Rock ALMOST EVERY DAY to look some obscure band or record up, and his discography is still the best for modern rock to be found anywhere.

Need to know everything about Cleveland's My Dad Is Dead? Head to the Trouser Press:

Yowsa. The contents of all five Trouser Press Guides are available online for free - now that's a deal.

Here's a bit on the history of TP online:

online interview

Ira was very enthusiastic about The Encyclopedia of Record Producers, hooking us up with some of the producers we interviewed for the book, helping us promote through the MJI Broadcasting network, and writing a great blurb for us:

This exceptionally well-researched and far-ranging book shines a long overdue spotlight on the often unsung heroes of recorded music. Thanks Ira and welcome back!

2002-08-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

KIll It
This is another reason to kill the death penalty in the U.S.:

I am not one to get particularly worked up over international pressure - I sure don't give a shit what the rest of the world thinks about our anti-terrorist policies - but this one cuts both ways. We don't want other countries applying penalties THAT EXCEED OUT OWN to our citizens. We think sharia is barbaric: we don't dig hacking off body parts as crime control, and we don't think of much Islamic law as applicable in the "real world" anyway, but our death penalty exceeds the highest penalty of most of our allies and is a needless source of friction.

The fact that Suarez's citizenship status was unclear is immaterial:

We don't need this kind of publicity:

The death penalty serves no positive purpose I can apprehend. My basic views on the death penalty can be found here:

ACLU's position

just war

republicanism

and here.

2002-08-15T10:03:00.000-04:00

May All Your B-days Be Gummi, And All Your Christmases Be White
It's Gummi Rebecca's birthday as well - a mega-B-day in that she's 30:

Oh fuck me with a running chainsaw, Im thirty. Time to buy a minivan and retire my baggy pants collection. Nah, fuck that, I loves me some baggy pants. So this moring without further ado, I would like to send some love across the thingie here that makes this thing work and shit and give my props and sycophantic type love to all of you who have sent me cards, pictures, emails, e-cards, t-shirts, and panties on my specialest of days! Okay? Let's begin. Let's take it to DefCon 4. She takes stream-of-consciousness to new levels. Happy B-day!

2002-08-15T00:03:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN OLSEN
I love you, am very proud of you, and know how lucky I am to have you!
xxxxoooo Eric

2002-08-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

Rosenberg Reviews
Fellow blogger and Salon editor Scott Rosenberg reviews Motavalli's "Bamboozled at the Revolution" and Weinberger's "Small Pieces Loosely Joined.":

Fascinating.

2002-08-14T21:20:00.000-04:00

Across the Jordan
Bill Quick finds a fascinating behind the scenes look at Jordan's role in the impending attack on Iraq, which I promise to address at length tomorrow wKen:

The Bush administration

Bill says:

Implicit in the analysis is that a. there will be such an attack, and b. Jordan will be a principal ally in it. This also implies a two-pronged attack at minimum, from Jordan and Turkey... This goes directly to the heart of what Dean has been saying in my comments section with regularity: just because Iraq's neighbors aren't publicly lining up to kick down his door when the U.S. attacks, that doesn't mean they aren't going to help make it happen, nor that they will be sad when Saddam's head is kicked down the street like Moussolini.

2002-08-14T18:51:00.000-04:00

What's Funny?
Humor IS different. Material written as humor, especially satire, should be judged differently from other forms of speech. Is it funny? Does it make its point well and economically? are the central issues; not, is it in good taste? or, is it mean? Most, if not all satire is mean to the objects of its derision.

On Dawn's very first day as a blogger she wrote a satire on the "massacre" accusations thrown in the aftermath of the Israeli incursion into Jenin:

"I have seen a lot of strange things at Jenin. After we survey an area and mark it off our list as having been checked, we are then having dead bodies pointed out to us that we must have missed. From the looks of it, these bodies must have been tortured, even dipped in acid. Many are nothing but bones. This is very disturbing. Obviously we are going to have be more thorough in our searches."

Being that this satire took on Palestinian perfidy and U.N. gullibility, it was quite popular with the blogging population. Neither Palestinian nor U.N. spokesmen were heard from. There was a nice value fit between the satire and its intended audience.

But then last week Dawn wrote this:

Mad Cow's Disease

Now were dealing with gun advocacy, the NRA, Alzheimer's: topics near and/or dear to many a blogger's heart and/or experience. There was, not surprisingly, outrage. What was pointed satire at shared topics - Palestinians, the U.N. - was tasteless and outside of the range of possible humor for these topics. It's understandable but unfortunate when people forget that humor isn't meant to be taken literally, personally, or even seriously. It's meant to make a point - in this case Alzheimer's becomes the pathology that explains Heston's fervent gun advocacy - and be funny. Whether it's funny or not is up to you, but don't lose sight of the satirical context.

As Maddie said, if the story would have appeared in the Onion, no one would have thought twice about it, because what this really comes down to is expectations, and people expect this sort of thing out of the Onion, but apparently they don't expect this sort of thing from Dawn.

Jim Treacher addressed the topic too, but in his patented OBLIQUE manner, which no doubt deflected criticism. Besides, Jim doesn't have a comments section:

"You damn dirty grapes!! Wait, no... No, no, I'll get it, I'll... Okay. You dandy, uh... derby... it's... Soylent Green is peanuts!!" To his credit, Heston addressed the matter not without humor himself:

"If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway," said Heston of the memory loss that is characteristic of Alzheimer's. Responding to Dawn, Spoons was taken aback:

You see, that's exactly my point: "decency" is always the term hurled at those who make fun of something we hold dear. "Decency" is directly related to whose ox is gored. No one would bother to call the Onion "indecent," of course it's indecent - that's kind of the point - but indecency doesn't make something not funny. You may say, "This isn't funny and here's why...," but decency really has no bearing on the matter.

The other reason you wouldn't call someone at the Onion indecent is because you wouldn't confuse the writer's product - which is supposed to be funny and scandalous at the same time - with the writer, but that is exactly what was done to Dawn. She is just as much a writer as anyone at the Onion; her blog is every bit the literary forum that the Onion is, and she and every other blogger should be afforded the courtesy of not confusing their written output with the contents of their immortal soul. Attack the work, sure, but don't confuse the work with the writer.

Rachel Lucas grasps that point rather well, and she is exactly in the demographic most likely to take offense at Dawn's humor. She left this comment on Dawn's site:

On her own site Rachel wrote:

With any other celebrity, you'd expect a videotaped announcement like this to be obnoxiously self-important and condescending. Heston didn't do it like that. He engaged in a preemptive farewell rather than just fading away like Ronald Reagan (I miss Reagan - yearnings for childhood I guess). I got the feeling when watching the tape that he really just felt like he needed to tell whoever wanted to listen that he'll soon be confused and might not be the man America has known for the last several decades. He's one of the most respected and well-known celebrities America has ever known, and he felt a duty to tell us himself that he's leaving us soon. Now that's some perspective.

Humor is all a matter of context and under the right circumstances virtually ANYTHING can be funny, if only as a small break from disaster and tragedy: why do you think they call it "comic relief"? As I wrote on Spoons's site:

I'm not trying to pick on Spoons - he's a good guy - but I am trying to call attention to the fact that satirical bloggers should be given the latitude of any other satirical writer, and we should all try harder to not take humor to heart. Say, "That's not funny to me," not, "You're an indecent person for writing that." There's a big difference.

2002-08-14T16:13:00.000-04:00

"Ever since acoustic became electric we've responded with a pool of money and a fair - but not perfect - way of splitting up the spoils"
Pho's Jim Griffin on the state of the biz:

All I can say is "Whoa," and I didn't know "incent" was a word - you learn something every day.

UPDATE
Bob Bellin of MP3Player.com questions Griffin:

MORE
Rusty Hodge of SomaFM is even more pointed:

UPDATE
Griffin retorts:

2002-08-14T15:42:00.000-04:00

Frisbee Dude Flicks His Last Flying Disc
"Steady" Ed Headrick, inventor of the Frisbee, died at 78:

Twisted but somehow appropriate.

Wham-O Inc

Lay in peace, Steady Ed. I love Frisbee: other than baseball, it's the sport I'm best at. I played on the Ultimate Frisbee team in college, and even was on a demonstration team for a little while. The Frisbee is magical. A lot of people who are good with a ball, have a hard time grasping its subtleties. You don't "throw" a Frisbee, you loft it, and that distinction makes all the difference. You don't propel it so much as send it on its way, hovering on the wind, spinning and moving in a linear manner simultaneously. I can still spend hours playing Frisbee - not so much throwing and catching as moving rhythmically to the Frisbee flow: inhaling and exhaling, receiving and expelling, very natural, very zen. Too bad it's raining right now and I've got a shitload of work to do.

2002-08-14T14:50:00.000-04:00

Orzel Critiques the Critics
Chad Orzel has some very penetrating thoughts on the Sherman interview, and on Blogcritics in general. He should join us, shouldn't he?

On Sherman:

It sounds impressive

On Blogcritics:

Interesting guy - maybe we should think about that. I'm not sure it is our responsibility to provide context for the readers, though. Some things readers have to do for themselves.

2002-08-14T14:41:00.000-04:00

Um, One Problem: It Sounds Like Shit
Blogger Pontifex addresses MP3s and other Blogcritics topics:

Dude has a point - I don't like the sound of MP3s - as I have mentioned before - and it's too much work to convert them to WAV files. I want CDs until I can get something that is as convenient and sounds just as good.

2002-08-14T12:35:00.000-04:00

King, Smiley and Those Damned Schools
Our Blogcritic friend and self-proclaimed "black conservative" Michael King has made the jump to the big time:

"The Tavis Smiley Show

Harvard Civil Rights Project's

12 noon, ET

I have very mixed feelings about this: in the past it was clear that separate was not equal. We have made strides in this regard, but have we come far enough that minority-predominant schools, with their generally lower tax bases, are no longer inherently unequal? And if they are still unequal, how to achieve the socially worthwhile goal of educational equality without exerting undue governmental pressure on school children to be moved around like pawns on a chessboard? Are vouchers the answer?

All of this is very much up in the air right now. I am also a bit leery of Michael's statement about "comfort" being a determining factor: do we want our children as "comfortable" as possible, or do we want them to get the best possible education. Of course, all of this also ties in with the issue of homeschooling, very much on the collective tongue at the moment.

Josh Clayborn tosses another log on the fire:

Daniel Silliman

I think Josh makes perfect sense on this: all players in the educational game need to feel the pressure of competition to bring out their best, the very genius of the capitalist system, and homeschooling should NEVER be "the only option." While I have come around to accept the notion that homeschooling can be a viable option, it takes an extraordinary amount of work and dedication from all involved to make it the best option, including sustained efforts at involving the children in social settings with their peers.

Daniel, I am reminding you to tell me why homeschooling is the "only viable option":

Apparently this homeschooled brilliance does not value the proper spelling of the word "their." Also, I am always suspicious of such broad self-congratulation, which seems to include with it rather large blindspots.

2002-08-14T12:16:00.000-04:00

Blogcritics.com
Been catching up with Blogcritics this morning - here are my thoughts:

Wow! What a first day. Sometimes things just fall into place, and Blogcritics just fell with a cheerfully resounding thud. We had ove 7000 unique visitors in our first 24 hours - tremendous. Thanks for all of your links, attention, comments, opinions, suggestions.

Thanks again to Cary Sherman, who stood in the line of fire and did a fine job of stating his industry's positions. We can agree or disagree with any/all individual points he made, but he did present them well.

I have privately heard from a number of people who were anywhere from mildly surprised to astonished that Mr. Sherman was willing to stick his neck out in such a manner. The guy has balls and we admire balls around here. Keep coming back to the site because we will have more special interviews very soon!

Remember, we are collecting questions and comments for a future interview, your 2 cents are greatly appreciated. Speaking of 2 cents, we also encourage you to give us your thoughts on the site in general or in particular - we are brand new and flexible, making changes as we go and flowing like a freaking river - kumbaya, baby.

Our blogcritics rule with an iron fist. What an impressive initial batch of posts we have received - we thank you all.

Observations for writers: we are streamlining the system. Soon you will receive codes that enable you to enter your own posts on this site, make changes and edit your own work. With this autonomy comes responsibility, though. I have received many questions about what form we want reviews in, and concerns about style and "fitting in."

HERE'S THE RULE: we don't want you to fit in, we want you to be as eccentric, personal, free, weird, freakish, bizarre, etc., etc., as you would like. We want you to treat this LIKE A BLOG.

As many have said, there are a million review sites, BFD, but there aren't any other review/commentary sites that feature the individuality and eccentricity of blogs. So go crazy, write whatever you want however you want, just find some way to tie it into an available CD or book. We will be adding DVDs and other pop culture products shortly.

While we want you to be yourselves with a vengeance, we also need to meet a few standards: please be very careful with your spelling, make a resonable attempt at coherent sentence structure, and please note the Amazon info at the bottom of each post. When you start inputting your own posts, you wil need to add the Amazon code yourself. That's all we ask, the rest is up to you.

We encourage all of you to use your material on your own sites and link to your work here - the more exposure, the more traffic, the better for us all. Your writing here will always be linked back to your site, let's make the links go both ways to our collective benefit.

New writers: we have plenty of room for new writers. Simply send me an email with your name, blog name and general description of your site, a brief listing of your writing interests, and your first post. NO NEED TO SEND ME ANYTHING UNTIL YOU HAVE SOMETHING WRITTEN FOR THE SITE.

Let's use Blogcritics as an opportunity to show off our best work and send people scurrying back to our own sites for more. Thanks again, I'm very excited.

2002-08-13T23:05:00.000-04:00

The Hawk At Dawn
Hawkgirl Emily Jones interviewed Dawn - AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE!

Carry on ladies.

2002-08-13T22:23:00.000-04:00

More Teeth
Dan Gillmor has some dental problems:

When I was 4 I was bold, foolhardy even. One evening, I was taking a bath after watching the Acapulco cliff divers on TV with great wonder. I decided to give it a try. I stood on the lip of the tub and dove in - it was fun so I did it again, and again. The next time I hit my mouth on the side of the tub and knocked out my two upper front teeth. Rather, I didn't actually knock them out, I broke them off.

I spent many an hour in the dentist's chair after that. He had to remove the stumps and fit me for a plate; until my permanent teeth grew in I wore two false teeth. When I felt really feisty, I would run up to a girl, get up in her face, flick the plate out of my mouth and catch it in my hand to an invariable scream, or at least a yelp.

I found the plate in a box a few years ago, couldn't believe how small it was, like the fragment of a child's jaw with teeth still in it that we found in an indian burial ground unearthed when they were building the Abalone Cove Shore Club in PV over 35 years ago. Both are way out of context and literally out of time now, no longer usable by whom they were made for.

2002-08-13T21:39:00.000-04:00

Free Like Air
Glenn got to go to a show I would have hurt someone to attend:

Guilt about free tickets? It is my BIRTHRIGHT to get free tickets - the rule pretty much is this: if it isn't free, I don't go.

Backstage CAN be a lot of fun too, although in general it's overrated: mostly a bunch of smelly roadies running around tripping over cable and feeling up teenagers. But I had a great time backstage with the Clash at the US Festival back in the early-80s, a ball at the first Lollapalooza in the early-90s with Trent Reznor, Living Colour, Butthole Surfers (when they weren't puking), Jane's Addiction and the general circus feel.

I also had WAY too good a time when I booked Marshall Tucker to play at Wittenberg in the late-70s. After the show they invited me to join them and a bunch of skanky townie girls on the bus. I don't remember much, but I do remember singing drunken harmony with Doug Gray on a very ragged "Heard It In a Love Song," and getting home very stinky at about 7am.

I've never seen Creedence or John Fogerty, though - that would be a treat.

2002-08-13T20:28:00.000-04:00

The Language of Love
Maddie on the persuasive powers of a French accent:

Does it really work that way, Emmanuelle?

2002-08-13T20:16:00.000-04:00

Chow
We have a menu for the August 24 Blogger Fiesta/Bash, as posted by the charming and radiant Sulizano:

My mouth waters in anticipation.

2002-08-13T19:34:00.000-04:00

Jeff's Teeth
Have I mentioned lately how much it warms my heart when Jeff Goldstein rhetorically sinks his teeth into stiff-boweled, thought-policing rigid-o-crats who would cover the color red for being too bold? Well it does:

Hey, I thought those little "TM" things had been banished to the poorer quarters where the ragged people go. Anyway, this one gave me a little tingle. I agree with him about embroidery as well - maybe in a dirty glass I guess.

2002-08-13T18:43:00.000-04:00

More Schooling
The subject of homeschooling has been much amended and masticated since my original post yesterday. Please go back here for updates relating to input from Bobby Allison-Gallimore, Josh Clayborn, and Ben Domenech. Both Bobby and Ben were homeschooled themselves.

Dawn has a passel of interesting comments on her original post, and the comment section here has some great input too.

Just added: Phillip Winn has been around the education block a time or two:

A very thorough and touching post - there is much more there, please check it out. I realize that homeschooling can be done well if everyone involved is committed, but it sounds like a VERY major commitment: nothing but respect and best wishes to those who do so.

2002-08-13T18:24:00.000-04:00

The Other Side of the Coin
I now find myself on the very useful Pho mailing list, joining the cognoscente in the discussion of issues related to the digital delivery of art, especially music, movies and books. Yowza. I just received a reaction to our interview with RIAA president Cary Sherman from Pho-member Fred W:

That would be the other side of the coin, wouldn't it?

2002-08-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

In the Air
How's this for timing? Forrester Research denies that file-swapping is to blame for the recording industry's slump of the last two years:

They'll figure it out and start wearing shades again:

Well there you go - next topic please.

2002-08-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

The Next Step
Fine you? Peanuts. Electronic disruptions? Child's play. We will throw your ass in jail for file-swapping:

Probably the best that could happen under the circumstances is a trial:

2002-08-13T15:42:00.000-04:00

Rob Pegoraro On PressPlay and Rhapsody
The dialogue continues:

PressPlay launched

Rhapsody

2002-08-13T14:20:00.000-04:00

Singing and Blogging
Madeleine Begun Kane, aka MadKane is at it again with her amusing song parodies - this one about bloggers:

2002-08-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

What Was Going On In November?
ANOTHER blogger birthday today: our good pal Alex Whitlock, who rocks it RAW. He has some pithy commentary on adoptions, abortion and 9/11 anthems today - always worth a read and a great guy too. Happy B-day Alex! Lovely Assistant Poster Girl Kelly sends her special regards as well.

2002-08-13T13:35:00.000-04:00

Launched
Okay then - back to our regular programming. Special thanks to Cary Sherman for giving us two hours of his time for this experiment, which I think went very well. At least the dialogue has begun. Thanks to Mr. Sherman, Allan Mayer - who served as liaison, and Matt Welch for dreaming up the interview idea in the first place. Blogcritics.com will be updating throughout the day with new reviews and commentary - check in often.