CalJunket |
|
|
Campus personalities present and past Rebecca C. Brown and Tommaso Sciortino tackle the issues. This week on a very special CalJunket: Rebecca learns not to chew with her mouth open and Tommaso finds out his best friend is addicted to no-doze. Site feed: caljunket.blogspot.com/atom.xml
AIM Rebecca:
Archives
|
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Final version of that darn ASUC Tabulator (v3.5)
http://www.squelched.com/files/ASUCTabulator.zip
(0) comments |
Kerry transcends innocuousness into the realm of supportability.
For those of you who missed John Kerry's nomination acceptance speech (as I did), please take the time to read it here.
Very surprisingly, I think the speech was fantastic. There was minimal usage of those time-tested yet utterly repulsive taglines (his being "Hope is on the way"), he managed to appear positive while also delineating where the Bush administration has failed, and he offered enough specific numbers and plans to offer undecided voters something tangible to put in their pockets. I found his series of statements about Bush not valuing families especially impressive. His assertion that patriotism and the symbol of the flag do not belong solely to the Republicans was strong without being harsh.
After doing more research about Kerry, and after reading this speech, my feeling toward him has elevated from amiable apathy to mild support. I look forward to doing even more research, and I greatly look forward to the debates. I still feel he's watered down on the gay marriage issue, but could very well be strategic. I certainly hope that his pledge to the environment will not be forgotten when he takes office.
That's right; I said "when."
Thanks to The Facts Machine for the speech link.
(0) comments
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Time to humanely euthanize some misconceptions about pit pulls.
Part two: Statistical and representational analysis
Not a month ago, an elderly Walnut Creek woman was mauled to death by a dog, reportedly a pit bull. As with all dog attack stories said to involve pit bulls, this event spurred many Bay Area residents to yet again pick up their pitch forks and decry the ownership of this breed; some even resurrected the idea of a breed ban (which, for several reasons, has yielded predictable yet unconsidered side effects for communities that have adopted such bans). This article by C. W. Nevius from the Chronicle parses out the most common arguments against pit bull ownership, and I would like to explain the fallacy in each of the author's main points.
Pit bulls, because of their breeding (and not upbringing), are inherently more dangerous to people than other breeds.
Breeds commonly used for fighting have been bred for aggression toward other dogs only; conversely, loyalty and kindness toward humans has been selectively bred into pits. Aggression toward humans is commonly a result of habitual mistreatment by an owner or is prompted by the victim inadvertently threatening the dog's space or food in some way. (Nearly every breed of dog, right down to the snuggly Westland Terrier, is prone to snap when another creature invades its territory or gestures toward the animal's food. That's what we get for making pets out of wolves.) As is the case with any dog (or human, for that matter), pits may occasionally bite or attack for seemingly no reason at all.
Pits are more aggressive than other breeds.
Toward other dogs, yes. When it comes to their behavior toward your mom and cousin and baby sister, there isn't any definitive evidence to support that assertion. The findings of the American temperament Test Society even show APBTs and American Staffordshire terriers having excellent temperaments compared to many more beloved breeds.
Look! Look at these statistics! They prove that pits are more prone to bite people.
Pit bulls are far and away the number one breed cited in dog bites and fatalities. That much is indisputable. However, these statistics are questionable for a number of reasons. First, as the author notes so astutely later in the article, the pit bull is one of the most common breeds found in urban areas, especially in the last decade. Because there are no statistics that definitively reveal how common each breed is, no one knows how much of the dog population is pits. If what the author infers from shelter populations is true, though, and even close to half the dogs in an urban region are pits, it would be perfectly logical that pits would be responsible for half of all dog bites and fatal attacks. Instead, the author lists only raw numbers and not percentages, but my own research shows that pits and Rottweilers together usually represent about 50% of dog attack fatalities. In non-fatal bites, even severe bites, pits are implicated in a much lower proportion, sometimes lower than 10%. Again, emphasis must be put on the fact that raw numbers are painfully unhelpful unless we know the proportions in which each breed comprises the entire population.
Second, pit bulls are very likely to be falsely implicated in attacks, both in animal control reports and especially in media coverage. For people not very well-versed in the art of recognizing breeds and mixes (which is, oh, just about everybody), if a dog is muscular, has a stalky snout, is medium-sized, and is growling, it is assumed to be a pit bull. Less than a year ago, Rebecca C. Brown could not have told you the difference between an APBT and a Staffie, a Staffie and a shepherd/Shar Pei mix. Even now, after hours of internet research on pits, I need to pause to distinguish a pit from another stout, medium-sized breed. What these statistics don't account for is that Joe Bystander probably didn't get up-close and personal with the pup before it ate his neighbors face off. So, when asked what the breed was, he might just answer with whatever mean dog breed he can think of first.
Third, when analyzing statistics based on media reports, it goes without saying that pit attacks are more likely to be publicized than chihuahua attacks. Along those lines, pit bites are probably more likely to be reported to animal authorities than beagle bites. I can't claim that a terrier will do as much damage with his jaws as an APBT, but to attribute these statistics to inherent dog behavior is irresponsible.
C. W. Nevius is not alone in his opinions. Even usually informed people normally cautious of media generalizations will make judgments about the breed before doing research of their own.
For more information about pits (and to look at adoptable pups), please visit www.badrap.org. The story of Bullet is especially engaging.
(0) comments
Monday, July 26, 2004
Feigning excitement about the announcement of a new chancellor.
Tomorrow the Regents are gonna announce whom they've chosen to succeed Robert "Bobby" Berdahl for the title. It's going to be Birgeneau. I know for a fact. Or at least I think I do. I don't know anything about him yet. What matters most is I already know whose name will litter the Squelch Newsflash pages for the next several years.
Speaking of which, don't forget to give all your funny to submit@squelched.com. Articles, newsflashes, top tens, cover ideas, graphics ideas; we want it all. Even if you're a Republican.
(0) comments
Friday, July 23, 2004
Any way you slice it, Ken's number one.
Good news, folks. Ken Jennings has put himself in the annals of Americana, joining the likes of Joe Louis, John F. Kennedy, and Ralph Macchio, by holding the record for the most money earned in one day on Jeopardy! His $75,000 victory today even surpasses the pre-doubled dollar amount one-day record (set by Jerome Vered in 1992 with $34,000) when adjusted for Jeopardy! inflation. Here's to the irrepressible American spirit, and the "Potent Potables" category.
Just as Ken closes this season on Jeopardy! with a record-breaking victory, on Sunday Lance Armstrong will undoubtedly win an unprecedented sixth consecutive Tour de France, barring any accidents or wild raccoon attacks. Very clearly, having two testicles really weighs a man down, both literally and figuratively.
Vive le domination!
(0) comments
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Time to humanely euthanize some misconceptions about pit pulls.
Part one: An introduction
Most everyone who knows me with the least bit of intimacy by now knows that I've got a big, soft, chewy bosom of a soft spot for dogs categorized as "pit bulls." (An overarching breed term, this includes the American pit bull terrier, Staffordshire terrier, bull terrier, bull mastiff, and the seemingly infinite mixes that result when one of these breeds gets it on with another breed.) My favorite is the American Pit Bull Terrier, a breed characterized by its loyalty, playfulness, physical affection, and semi-permanent "smile" built into its muzzle. Here's a handsome textbook APBT, replete with dopey grin, rippling triceps, and tail mid-wag. So cute.
Admittedly, these pups weren't bred for smarts. Instead, their history begins in Elizabethan England in the tawdry epicenters of pedestrian entertainment: ye olde bull baiting ring. The mastiffs and similar breeds that were used to bait and attack bulls were selectively bred to better meet the baiting task, yielding the stouter, short-snouted English bull dog. Bull baiting was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1835, thus making dog fighting the cruelty of choice among the isle's downtrodden. The bull dog was crossed with the region's smaller terriers, and individuals were selectively bred for agility, dog aggression, and human affection. The result was something along the lines of a Staffordshire bull terrier.
When financially desperate Limeys and the Mics immigrated en masse to the United States in the mid-1800s, they brought their beloved bull terriers with them and continued to breed them for fighting. The American pit bull terrier was refined in Confederate America over the next half-century, making friends and (mostly) enemies since then. They remain the breed of choice among this country's fight wranglers because of their strength, powerful jaws, and general amiability towards us people folk.
Fascinating, isn't it?
It's late and I'm tired.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 15, 2004
More specific tallies for ASUC executive candidate election
See, look here!
Whee! Many thanks to all 452 of you (besides myself) who voted for me first place.
Now if only we knew how the second, third, etc. place votes played out....
(0) comments
Monday, July 12, 2004
Could a well-written conservative and/or Bush supporter please explain why this legislation is acceptable?
Sometimes I understand the mentality and moral convictions behind certain Republican legislation, even if I couldn't in a million years agree with it. (For example, while I could never pretend that I think an embryo is a person, I can appreciate that some people do and have what they believe is strong justification for this belief.) But when it comes to logging, I'm stumped. I'm sure one of my intelligent right-wing colleagues can help me out here.
[Article summary: Bush is proposing opening up more national forests to logging, reversing last-minute Clinton administration legislation that blocked road building in a big chunk of forests. Under the proposed bill, governers could petition the Department of Agiculture to block logging in their state, but the states in which this legislation will bear the most effect (such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah) have traditionally been pro-logging.]
(0) comments
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Farenheit My Birthday
David Duman and I finally saw "Farenheit 9/11" this weekend, and though I felt that Michael Moore glossed over some critical information and analyses, I give the film my endorsement. Less emotionally cloying than "Bowling for Columbine," and equipped with more hard visual data and less Michael Moore trouble-making than either of his first two films, this movie I hope will prove to be the impetus for many moderates or apathetics to visit their local post offices and libraries and pick up an application to register to vote. I'm grateful that someone encapsulated into a 30-minute sequence the behind-the-scenes business relationships, political friendships, and familial ties that "just happened" to coincide with a Bush Florida victory and a virtually uncontested (and infinitely profitable) war in Iraq. When many Americans feel compelled to vote Republican because they feel the party represents "good values," it's imperative that someone point out the moral hypocracies of that party's leaders. (In a rally speech on Friday, Bush lambasted insider trading and pledged to bring about a "culture of good values" to America, even though he magically knew to sell stock in his Texas oil company right before it lost millions, and even though Ken Lay of Enron was one of Bush's highest contributers in 2000.)
Here's what I thought could have been made more prominant in "Farenheit 9/11":
- The discrepency between what Bush & Co. purported Hussein's weapons capabilities to be and what they actually were. (This may already be well-known information to most Americans, I suppose.)
- How Bush planned to invade Iraq before he even took office.
- The extent to which Democrats bended over backward to let Bush invade Iraq and limit civil liberties. (I concede that this would be a poor strategy in an election year. Moore is quicker to judge Democrats in his books; fewer people read books, I guess.)
- Exactly how much the Bush administration knew about forthcoming terrorist attacks prior to September 11, 2001. (He shows the wonderful clip of Condi Rice remembering the name of one of the pre-9/11 secuirity briefings ["Bin Laden Determined to Attack on US Soil" or something to that extent], but he didn't explain clearly why this information wasn't given attention.)
I was very emotionally impressed by the soldier interviews, both by the troops' crassness at some points and their disgust and compassion at others. It's too easy to cenceive troops as faceless people who are all too eager to kill and be killed. Instead, soldiers are mostly young, poor men who were told that joining the armed forces would be a weekend gig. Ads for the Army portray the job either like a scene from He-Man or very literally as a video game.
Along those lines, Moore incisively paid great attention to the fact that the men and women who are sent to be killed and wounded in Iraq are poor and uneducated. Though asking congresspeople to sign up their kids for combat is a silly and pointless stunt, the point is made that US armed forces mostly do not glean soliders from wealthy families. They actively recruit people who feel they don't have alternatives.
Mostly I enjoy footage of George W. Bush looking ignorant. Not once have I seen him on prime time news or Fox News or C-SPAN revealing himself to be anything more than a vessel for meaningless appeals to "traditional values" or poorly phrased metaphors. Either he is in fact a very dim man, or he deserves the Oscar more than Michael Moore does.
(0) comments
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The Wednesday, July 7, 2004 4:19pm update report
Kerry and Edwards. Eh, not surprising. I refuse to believe as many pundits purport that a Southern Vice Presidential candidate will make a significant difference in the voting patters of white Southerners. All the juicy populism and home-grown home-growniness in the world can't overshadow ignorant voters' misinformed notion that Republicans have Good Values whereas Democrats have Bad Values.
Ken Jennings. He picked up a measley $14K last night, his smallest victory thus far. Let's see if he can't spread the mustard a little thicker tonight.
Cool Heuristic Squelch gear. Thanks for asking. You can buy it here. Much more to come in the next few days.
Your Heuristic Squelch submissions. Thanks for asking. We want them put here. Articles, newsflashes, Top Tens, graphics ideas...you want it, we want to critique it.
Rebecca C. Brown. Still oh so very awesome.
(0) comments
Monday, July 05, 2004
To live and die in LA.
My better half David and I got back from our Los Angeles County tour this afternoon without a hitch. His new (to him) 1997 Volkswagon Golf got us there via the 5 at 31 mpg and scooted us around LA at 28 mpg. Those Germans know how to build a vehicle, I tell you what.
Our tour stops included Calabasas, West Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Tarzana, Long Beach, Torrance, and more - certainly one of the more representative selections of locations if one wants to get a feel for the County of Angels. Calabasas, for example, is blessed by the residency of such celebrities as Sinbad, Priscilla Presley, Will Smith, and Billy Blanks (of Tae Bo fame). In Culver, however, well, it's pretty easy to find a streetside velvet painting vendor or buy oranges from a traffic island at a red light. Long Beach, of course, is home to the world's largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia, has a thriving gay and lesbian community, and is home to one of the ten busiest ports on the planet.
For all my complaints that Los Angeles is inhabited exclusively by 90-pound blond women who drive Chevy Tahoes and vapid white kids who wouldn't recognize hard work if it booted them in the butt, I must be fair and concede that my description only applies to a select few. It's a richly diverse (ethnically, socioeconimically, religiously, politically, etceterally) area whose residents are unified only by a tolerance for smog, a generally amiable attitude toward the Lakers, and a willingness at some level to comingle with people who look, speak, and act differently from themselves. Just don't get me started on the proportion of SUVs on the road.
The Knyght Ryder show for the City of Torrance annual fireworks show was fantastic. If you live in SoCal and need some 80s entertainment, you'd be a fool to miss them. They do public venues, clubs, weddings, and baptisms. Had they been a band when I was 13, and has I been raised Jewish, they totally would have done my Bat Mitzvah.
Oh, and for those of you craving a Ken Jennings update, he's now won $774,960 over the course of 24 appearances. Effing A.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Ken Jennings: American Hero
In case you regularly choose to spend your 7:00pm-7:30pm weekday timeslot watching last night's The Daily Show, or doing something stupid like studying or feeding the poor, then you probably haven't seen network television's newest sensation: 22-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Murray, Utah. He's uh-maze-ing. The man usually goes into Final Jeopardy! with more than twice the moneys of his nearest opponent, and in his score plus two victories he's acrued $737,720. (He added $40k to his total tonight. The Final Jeopardy! category was "Fruit.")
Why this man isn't a national hero making headline news in all the major newspapers is a mystery to me. Not only does he have more information in his brain than most anyone I've seen on the show, he's got a good sense of humor and amiable, humble demeanor to boot. Tonight Alex asked him something to the effect of, What about winning this many times has affected your life, to which Ken responded something like, I'm changing my mind about the Bush tax cuts. Zing!
What's more, he has a website where he lists his 10 favorite movies for every year since 1931, with less complete lists for 1921-30. He's got some sappy entries, but some really great ones too, such as "The Station Agent" and "MST3K: The Movie."
Anyhow, I'm going to be in Southern California until Monday night, and consequently without internet access for a long weekend. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone.
(0) comments
Part two: Statistical and representational analysis
Not a month ago, an elderly Walnut Creek woman was mauled to death by a dog, reportedly a pit bull. As with all dog attack stories said to involve pit bulls, this event spurred many Bay Area residents to yet again pick up their pitch forks and decry the ownership of this breed; some even resurrected the idea of a breed ban (which, for several reasons, has yielded predictable yet unconsidered side effects for communities that have adopted such bans). This article by C. W. Nevius from the Chronicle parses out the most common arguments against pit bull ownership, and I would like to explain the fallacy in each of the author's main points.
Pit bulls, because of their breeding (and not upbringing), are inherently more dangerous to people than other breeds.
Breeds commonly used for fighting have been bred for aggression toward other dogs only; conversely, loyalty and kindness toward humans has been selectively bred into pits. Aggression toward humans is commonly a result of habitual mistreatment by an owner or is prompted by the victim inadvertently threatening the dog's space or food in some way. (Nearly every breed of dog, right down to the snuggly Westland Terrier, is prone to snap when another creature invades its territory or gestures toward the animal's food. That's what we get for making pets out of wolves.) As is the case with any dog (or human, for that matter), pits may occasionally bite or attack for seemingly no reason at all.
Pits are more aggressive than other breeds.
Toward other dogs, yes. When it comes to their behavior toward your mom and cousin and baby sister, there isn't any definitive evidence to support that assertion. The findings of the American temperament Test Society even show APBTs and American Staffordshire terriers having excellent temperaments compared to many more beloved breeds.
Look! Look at these statistics! They prove that pits are more prone to bite people.
Pit bulls are far and away the number one breed cited in dog bites and fatalities. That much is indisputable. However, these statistics are questionable for a number of reasons. First, as the author notes so astutely later in the article, the pit bull is one of the most common breeds found in urban areas, especially in the last decade. Because there are no statistics that definitively reveal how common each breed is, no one knows how much of the dog population is pits. If what the author infers from shelter populations is true, though, and even close to half the dogs in an urban region are pits, it would be perfectly logical that pits would be responsible for half of all dog bites and fatal attacks. Instead, the author lists only raw numbers and not percentages, but my own research shows that pits and Rottweilers together usually represent about 50% of dog attack fatalities. In non-fatal bites, even severe bites, pits are implicated in a much lower proportion, sometimes lower than 10%. Again, emphasis must be put on the fact that raw numbers are painfully unhelpful unless we know the proportions in which each breed comprises the entire population.
Second, pit bulls are very likely to be falsely implicated in attacks, both in animal control reports and especially in media coverage. For people not very well-versed in the art of recognizing breeds and mixes (which is, oh, just about everybody), if a dog is muscular, has a stalky snout, is medium-sized, and is growling, it is assumed to be a pit bull. Less than a year ago, Rebecca C. Brown could not have told you the difference between an APBT and a Staffie, a Staffie and a shepherd/Shar Pei mix. Even now, after hours of internet research on pits, I need to pause to distinguish a pit from another stout, medium-sized breed. What these statistics don't account for is that Joe Bystander probably didn't get up-close and personal with the pup before it ate his neighbors face off. So, when asked what the breed was, he might just answer with whatever mean dog breed he can think of first.
Third, when analyzing statistics based on media reports, it goes without saying that pit attacks are more likely to be publicized than chihuahua attacks. Along those lines, pit bites are probably more likely to be reported to animal authorities than beagle bites. I can't claim that a terrier will do as much damage with his jaws as an APBT, but to attribute these statistics to inherent dog behavior is irresponsible.
C. W. Nevius is not alone in his opinions. Even usually informed people normally cautious of media generalizations will make judgments about the breed before doing research of their own.
For more information about pits (and to look at adoptable pups), please visit www.badrap.org. The story of Bullet is especially engaging.
(0) comments
Feigning excitement about the announcement of a new chancellor.
Tomorrow the Regents are gonna announce whom they've chosen to succeed Robert "Bobby" Berdahl for the title. It's going to be Birgeneau. I know for a fact. Or at least I think I do. I don't know anything about him yet. What matters most is I already know whose name will litter the Squelch Newsflash pages for the next several years.
Speaking of which, don't forget to give all your funny to submit@squelched.com. Articles, newsflashes, top tens, cover ideas, graphics ideas; we want it all. Even if you're a Republican.
(0) comments
Friday, July 23, 2004
Any way you slice it, Ken's number one.
Good news, folks. Ken Jennings has put himself in the annals of Americana, joining the likes of Joe Louis, John F. Kennedy, and Ralph Macchio, by holding the record for the most money earned in one day on Jeopardy! His $75,000 victory today even surpasses the pre-doubled dollar amount one-day record (set by Jerome Vered in 1992 with $34,000) when adjusted for Jeopardy! inflation. Here's to the irrepressible American spirit, and the "Potent Potables" category.
Just as Ken closes this season on Jeopardy! with a record-breaking victory, on Sunday Lance Armstrong will undoubtedly win an unprecedented sixth consecutive Tour de France, barring any accidents or wild raccoon attacks. Very clearly, having two testicles really weighs a man down, both literally and figuratively.
Vive le domination!
(0) comments
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Time to humanely euthanize some misconceptions about pit pulls.
Part one: An introduction
Most everyone who knows me with the least bit of intimacy by now knows that I've got a big, soft, chewy bosom of a soft spot for dogs categorized as "pit bulls." (An overarching breed term, this includes the American pit bull terrier, Staffordshire terrier, bull terrier, bull mastiff, and the seemingly infinite mixes that result when one of these breeds gets it on with another breed.) My favorite is the American Pit Bull Terrier, a breed characterized by its loyalty, playfulness, physical affection, and semi-permanent "smile" built into its muzzle. Here's a handsome textbook APBT, replete with dopey grin, rippling triceps, and tail mid-wag. So cute.
Admittedly, these pups weren't bred for smarts. Instead, their history begins in Elizabethan England in the tawdry epicenters of pedestrian entertainment: ye olde bull baiting ring. The mastiffs and similar breeds that were used to bait and attack bulls were selectively bred to better meet the baiting task, yielding the stouter, short-snouted English bull dog. Bull baiting was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1835, thus making dog fighting the cruelty of choice among the isle's downtrodden. The bull dog was crossed with the region's smaller terriers, and individuals were selectively bred for agility, dog aggression, and human affection. The result was something along the lines of a Staffordshire bull terrier.
When financially desperate Limeys and the Mics immigrated en masse to the United States in the mid-1800s, they brought their beloved bull terriers with them and continued to breed them for fighting. The American pit bull terrier was refined in Confederate America over the next half-century, making friends and (mostly) enemies since then. They remain the breed of choice among this country's fight wranglers because of their strength, powerful jaws, and general amiability towards us people folk.
Fascinating, isn't it?
It's late and I'm tired.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 15, 2004
More specific tallies for ASUC executive candidate election
See, look here!
Whee! Many thanks to all 452 of you (besides myself) who voted for me first place.
Now if only we knew how the second, third, etc. place votes played out....
(0) comments
Monday, July 12, 2004
Could a well-written conservative and/or Bush supporter please explain why this legislation is acceptable?
Sometimes I understand the mentality and moral convictions behind certain Republican legislation, even if I couldn't in a million years agree with it. (For example, while I could never pretend that I think an embryo is a person, I can appreciate that some people do and have what they believe is strong justification for this belief.) But when it comes to logging, I'm stumped. I'm sure one of my intelligent right-wing colleagues can help me out here.
[Article summary: Bush is proposing opening up more national forests to logging, reversing last-minute Clinton administration legislation that blocked road building in a big chunk of forests. Under the proposed bill, governers could petition the Department of Agiculture to block logging in their state, but the states in which this legislation will bear the most effect (such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah) have traditionally been pro-logging.]
(0) comments
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Farenheit My Birthday
David Duman and I finally saw "Farenheit 9/11" this weekend, and though I felt that Michael Moore glossed over some critical information and analyses, I give the film my endorsement. Less emotionally cloying than "Bowling for Columbine," and equipped with more hard visual data and less Michael Moore trouble-making than either of his first two films, this movie I hope will prove to be the impetus for many moderates or apathetics to visit their local post offices and libraries and pick up an application to register to vote. I'm grateful that someone encapsulated into a 30-minute sequence the behind-the-scenes business relationships, political friendships, and familial ties that "just happened" to coincide with a Bush Florida victory and a virtually uncontested (and infinitely profitable) war in Iraq. When many Americans feel compelled to vote Republican because they feel the party represents "good values," it's imperative that someone point out the moral hypocracies of that party's leaders. (In a rally speech on Friday, Bush lambasted insider trading and pledged to bring about a "culture of good values" to America, even though he magically knew to sell stock in his Texas oil company right before it lost millions, and even though Ken Lay of Enron was one of Bush's highest contributers in 2000.)
Here's what I thought could have been made more prominant in "Farenheit 9/11":
- The discrepency between what Bush & Co. purported Hussein's weapons capabilities to be and what they actually were. (This may already be well-known information to most Americans, I suppose.)
- How Bush planned to invade Iraq before he even took office.
- The extent to which Democrats bended over backward to let Bush invade Iraq and limit civil liberties. (I concede that this would be a poor strategy in an election year. Moore is quicker to judge Democrats in his books; fewer people read books, I guess.)
- Exactly how much the Bush administration knew about forthcoming terrorist attacks prior to September 11, 2001. (He shows the wonderful clip of Condi Rice remembering the name of one of the pre-9/11 secuirity briefings ["Bin Laden Determined to Attack on US Soil" or something to that extent], but he didn't explain clearly why this information wasn't given attention.)
I was very emotionally impressed by the soldier interviews, both by the troops' crassness at some points and their disgust and compassion at others. It's too easy to cenceive troops as faceless people who are all too eager to kill and be killed. Instead, soldiers are mostly young, poor men who were told that joining the armed forces would be a weekend gig. Ads for the Army portray the job either like a scene from He-Man or very literally as a video game.
Along those lines, Moore incisively paid great attention to the fact that the men and women who are sent to be killed and wounded in Iraq are poor and uneducated. Though asking congresspeople to sign up their kids for combat is a silly and pointless stunt, the point is made that US armed forces mostly do not glean soliders from wealthy families. They actively recruit people who feel they don't have alternatives.
Mostly I enjoy footage of George W. Bush looking ignorant. Not once have I seen him on prime time news or Fox News or C-SPAN revealing himself to be anything more than a vessel for meaningless appeals to "traditional values" or poorly phrased metaphors. Either he is in fact a very dim man, or he deserves the Oscar more than Michael Moore does.
(0) comments
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The Wednesday, July 7, 2004 4:19pm update report
Kerry and Edwards. Eh, not surprising. I refuse to believe as many pundits purport that a Southern Vice Presidential candidate will make a significant difference in the voting patters of white Southerners. All the juicy populism and home-grown home-growniness in the world can't overshadow ignorant voters' misinformed notion that Republicans have Good Values whereas Democrats have Bad Values.
Ken Jennings. He picked up a measley $14K last night, his smallest victory thus far. Let's see if he can't spread the mustard a little thicker tonight.
Cool Heuristic Squelch gear. Thanks for asking. You can buy it here. Much more to come in the next few days.
Your Heuristic Squelch submissions. Thanks for asking. We want them put here. Articles, newsflashes, Top Tens, graphics ideas...you want it, we want to critique it.
Rebecca C. Brown. Still oh so very awesome.
(0) comments
Monday, July 05, 2004
To live and die in LA.
My better half David and I got back from our Los Angeles County tour this afternoon without a hitch. His new (to him) 1997 Volkswagon Golf got us there via the 5 at 31 mpg and scooted us around LA at 28 mpg. Those Germans know how to build a vehicle, I tell you what.
Our tour stops included Calabasas, West Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Tarzana, Long Beach, Torrance, and more - certainly one of the more representative selections of locations if one wants to get a feel for the County of Angels. Calabasas, for example, is blessed by the residency of such celebrities as Sinbad, Priscilla Presley, Will Smith, and Billy Blanks (of Tae Bo fame). In Culver, however, well, it's pretty easy to find a streetside velvet painting vendor or buy oranges from a traffic island at a red light. Long Beach, of course, is home to the world's largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia, has a thriving gay and lesbian community, and is home to one of the ten busiest ports on the planet.
For all my complaints that Los Angeles is inhabited exclusively by 90-pound blond women who drive Chevy Tahoes and vapid white kids who wouldn't recognize hard work if it booted them in the butt, I must be fair and concede that my description only applies to a select few. It's a richly diverse (ethnically, socioeconimically, religiously, politically, etceterally) area whose residents are unified only by a tolerance for smog, a generally amiable attitude toward the Lakers, and a willingness at some level to comingle with people who look, speak, and act differently from themselves. Just don't get me started on the proportion of SUVs on the road.
The Knyght Ryder show for the City of Torrance annual fireworks show was fantastic. If you live in SoCal and need some 80s entertainment, you'd be a fool to miss them. They do public venues, clubs, weddings, and baptisms. Had they been a band when I was 13, and has I been raised Jewish, they totally would have done my Bat Mitzvah.
Oh, and for those of you craving a Ken Jennings update, he's now won $774,960 over the course of 24 appearances. Effing A.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Ken Jennings: American Hero
In case you regularly choose to spend your 7:00pm-7:30pm weekday timeslot watching last night's The Daily Show, or doing something stupid like studying or feeding the poor, then you probably haven't seen network television's newest sensation: 22-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Murray, Utah. He's uh-maze-ing. The man usually goes into Final Jeopardy! with more than twice the moneys of his nearest opponent, and in his score plus two victories he's acrued $737,720. (He added $40k to his total tonight. The Final Jeopardy! category was "Fruit.")
Why this man isn't a national hero making headline news in all the major newspapers is a mystery to me. Not only does he have more information in his brain than most anyone I've seen on the show, he's got a good sense of humor and amiable, humble demeanor to boot. Tonight Alex asked him something to the effect of, What about winning this many times has affected your life, to which Ken responded something like, I'm changing my mind about the Bush tax cuts. Zing!
What's more, he has a website where he lists his 10 favorite movies for every year since 1931, with less complete lists for 1921-30. He's got some sappy entries, but some really great ones too, such as "The Station Agent" and "MST3K: The Movie."
Anyhow, I'm going to be in Southern California until Monday night, and consequently without internet access for a long weekend. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone.
(0) comments
Good news, folks. Ken Jennings has put himself in the annals of Americana, joining the likes of Joe Louis, John F. Kennedy, and Ralph Macchio, by holding the record for the most money earned in one day on Jeopardy! His $75,000 victory today even surpasses the pre-doubled dollar amount one-day record (set by Jerome Vered in 1992 with $34,000) when adjusted for Jeopardy! inflation. Here's to the irrepressible American spirit, and the "Potent Potables" category.
Just as Ken closes this season on Jeopardy! with a record-breaking victory, on Sunday Lance Armstrong will undoubtedly win an unprecedented sixth consecutive Tour de France, barring any accidents or wild raccoon attacks. Very clearly, having two testicles really weighs a man down, both literally and figuratively.
Vive le domination!
(0) comments
Time to humanely euthanize some misconceptions about pit pulls.
Part one: An introduction
Most everyone who knows me with the least bit of intimacy by now knows that I've got a big, soft, chewy bosom of a soft spot for dogs categorized as "pit bulls." (An overarching breed term, this includes the American pit bull terrier, Staffordshire terrier, bull terrier, bull mastiff, and the seemingly infinite mixes that result when one of these breeds gets it on with another breed.) My favorite is the American Pit Bull Terrier, a breed characterized by its loyalty, playfulness, physical affection, and semi-permanent "smile" built into its muzzle. Here's a handsome textbook APBT, replete with dopey grin, rippling triceps, and tail mid-wag. So cute.
Admittedly, these pups weren't bred for smarts. Instead, their history begins in Elizabethan England in the tawdry epicenters of pedestrian entertainment: ye olde bull baiting ring. The mastiffs and similar breeds that were used to bait and attack bulls were selectively bred to better meet the baiting task, yielding the stouter, short-snouted English bull dog. Bull baiting was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1835, thus making dog fighting the cruelty of choice among the isle's downtrodden. The bull dog was crossed with the region's smaller terriers, and individuals were selectively bred for agility, dog aggression, and human affection. The result was something along the lines of a Staffordshire bull terrier.
When financially desperate Limeys and the Mics immigrated en masse to the United States in the mid-1800s, they brought their beloved bull terriers with them and continued to breed them for fighting. The American pit bull terrier was refined in Confederate America over the next half-century, making friends and (mostly) enemies since then. They remain the breed of choice among this country's fight wranglers because of their strength, powerful jaws, and general amiability towards us people folk.
Fascinating, isn't it?
It's late and I'm tired.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 15, 2004
More specific tallies for ASUC executive candidate election
See, look here!
Whee! Many thanks to all 452 of you (besides myself) who voted for me first place.
Now if only we knew how the second, third, etc. place votes played out....
(0) comments
Monday, July 12, 2004
Could a well-written conservative and/or Bush supporter please explain why this legislation is acceptable?
Sometimes I understand the mentality and moral convictions behind certain Republican legislation, even if I couldn't in a million years agree with it. (For example, while I could never pretend that I think an embryo is a person, I can appreciate that some people do and have what they believe is strong justification for this belief.) But when it comes to logging, I'm stumped. I'm sure one of my intelligent right-wing colleagues can help me out here.
[Article summary: Bush is proposing opening up more national forests to logging, reversing last-minute Clinton administration legislation that blocked road building in a big chunk of forests. Under the proposed bill, governers could petition the Department of Agiculture to block logging in their state, but the states in which this legislation will bear the most effect (such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah) have traditionally been pro-logging.]
(0) comments
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Farenheit My Birthday
David Duman and I finally saw "Farenheit 9/11" this weekend, and though I felt that Michael Moore glossed over some critical information and analyses, I give the film my endorsement. Less emotionally cloying than "Bowling for Columbine," and equipped with more hard visual data and less Michael Moore trouble-making than either of his first two films, this movie I hope will prove to be the impetus for many moderates or apathetics to visit their local post offices and libraries and pick up an application to register to vote. I'm grateful that someone encapsulated into a 30-minute sequence the behind-the-scenes business relationships, political friendships, and familial ties that "just happened" to coincide with a Bush Florida victory and a virtually uncontested (and infinitely profitable) war in Iraq. When many Americans feel compelled to vote Republican because they feel the party represents "good values," it's imperative that someone point out the moral hypocracies of that party's leaders. (In a rally speech on Friday, Bush lambasted insider trading and pledged to bring about a "culture of good values" to America, even though he magically knew to sell stock in his Texas oil company right before it lost millions, and even though Ken Lay of Enron was one of Bush's highest contributers in 2000.)
Here's what I thought could have been made more prominant in "Farenheit 9/11":
- The discrepency between what Bush & Co. purported Hussein's weapons capabilities to be and what they actually were. (This may already be well-known information to most Americans, I suppose.)
- How Bush planned to invade Iraq before he even took office.
- The extent to which Democrats bended over backward to let Bush invade Iraq and limit civil liberties. (I concede that this would be a poor strategy in an election year. Moore is quicker to judge Democrats in his books; fewer people read books, I guess.)
- Exactly how much the Bush administration knew about forthcoming terrorist attacks prior to September 11, 2001. (He shows the wonderful clip of Condi Rice remembering the name of one of the pre-9/11 secuirity briefings ["Bin Laden Determined to Attack on US Soil" or something to that extent], but he didn't explain clearly why this information wasn't given attention.)
I was very emotionally impressed by the soldier interviews, both by the troops' crassness at some points and their disgust and compassion at others. It's too easy to cenceive troops as faceless people who are all too eager to kill and be killed. Instead, soldiers are mostly young, poor men who were told that joining the armed forces would be a weekend gig. Ads for the Army portray the job either like a scene from He-Man or very literally as a video game.
Along those lines, Moore incisively paid great attention to the fact that the men and women who are sent to be killed and wounded in Iraq are poor and uneducated. Though asking congresspeople to sign up their kids for combat is a silly and pointless stunt, the point is made that US armed forces mostly do not glean soliders from wealthy families. They actively recruit people who feel they don't have alternatives.
Mostly I enjoy footage of George W. Bush looking ignorant. Not once have I seen him on prime time news or Fox News or C-SPAN revealing himself to be anything more than a vessel for meaningless appeals to "traditional values" or poorly phrased metaphors. Either he is in fact a very dim man, or he deserves the Oscar more than Michael Moore does.
(0) comments
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The Wednesday, July 7, 2004 4:19pm update report
Kerry and Edwards. Eh, not surprising. I refuse to believe as many pundits purport that a Southern Vice Presidential candidate will make a significant difference in the voting patters of white Southerners. All the juicy populism and home-grown home-growniness in the world can't overshadow ignorant voters' misinformed notion that Republicans have Good Values whereas Democrats have Bad Values.
Ken Jennings. He picked up a measley $14K last night, his smallest victory thus far. Let's see if he can't spread the mustard a little thicker tonight.
Cool Heuristic Squelch gear. Thanks for asking. You can buy it here. Much more to come in the next few days.
Your Heuristic Squelch submissions. Thanks for asking. We want them put here. Articles, newsflashes, Top Tens, graphics ideas...you want it, we want to critique it.
Rebecca C. Brown. Still oh so very awesome.
(0) comments
Monday, July 05, 2004
To live and die in LA.
My better half David and I got back from our Los Angeles County tour this afternoon without a hitch. His new (to him) 1997 Volkswagon Golf got us there via the 5 at 31 mpg and scooted us around LA at 28 mpg. Those Germans know how to build a vehicle, I tell you what.
Our tour stops included Calabasas, West Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Tarzana, Long Beach, Torrance, and more - certainly one of the more representative selections of locations if one wants to get a feel for the County of Angels. Calabasas, for example, is blessed by the residency of such celebrities as Sinbad, Priscilla Presley, Will Smith, and Billy Blanks (of Tae Bo fame). In Culver, however, well, it's pretty easy to find a streetside velvet painting vendor or buy oranges from a traffic island at a red light. Long Beach, of course, is home to the world's largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia, has a thriving gay and lesbian community, and is home to one of the ten busiest ports on the planet.
For all my complaints that Los Angeles is inhabited exclusively by 90-pound blond women who drive Chevy Tahoes and vapid white kids who wouldn't recognize hard work if it booted them in the butt, I must be fair and concede that my description only applies to a select few. It's a richly diverse (ethnically, socioeconimically, religiously, politically, etceterally) area whose residents are unified only by a tolerance for smog, a generally amiable attitude toward the Lakers, and a willingness at some level to comingle with people who look, speak, and act differently from themselves. Just don't get me started on the proportion of SUVs on the road.
The Knyght Ryder show for the City of Torrance annual fireworks show was fantastic. If you live in SoCal and need some 80s entertainment, you'd be a fool to miss them. They do public venues, clubs, weddings, and baptisms. Had they been a band when I was 13, and has I been raised Jewish, they totally would have done my Bat Mitzvah.
Oh, and for those of you craving a Ken Jennings update, he's now won $774,960 over the course of 24 appearances. Effing A.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Ken Jennings: American Hero
In case you regularly choose to spend your 7:00pm-7:30pm weekday timeslot watching last night's The Daily Show, or doing something stupid like studying or feeding the poor, then you probably haven't seen network television's newest sensation: 22-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Murray, Utah. He's uh-maze-ing. The man usually goes into Final Jeopardy! with more than twice the moneys of his nearest opponent, and in his score plus two victories he's acrued $737,720. (He added $40k to his total tonight. The Final Jeopardy! category was "Fruit.")
Why this man isn't a national hero making headline news in all the major newspapers is a mystery to me. Not only does he have more information in his brain than most anyone I've seen on the show, he's got a good sense of humor and amiable, humble demeanor to boot. Tonight Alex asked him something to the effect of, What about winning this many times has affected your life, to which Ken responded something like, I'm changing my mind about the Bush tax cuts. Zing!
What's more, he has a website where he lists his 10 favorite movies for every year since 1931, with less complete lists for 1921-30. He's got some sappy entries, but some really great ones too, such as "The Station Agent" and "MST3K: The Movie."
Anyhow, I'm going to be in Southern California until Monday night, and consequently without internet access for a long weekend. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone.
(0) comments
See, look here!
Whee! Many thanks to all 452 of you (besides myself) who voted for me first place.
Now if only we knew how the second, third, etc. place votes played out....
(0) comments
Could a well-written conservative and/or Bush supporter please explain why this legislation is acceptable?
Sometimes I understand the mentality and moral convictions behind certain Republican legislation, even if I couldn't in a million years agree with it. (For example, while I could never pretend that I think an embryo is a person, I can appreciate that some people do and have what they believe is strong justification for this belief.) But when it comes to logging, I'm stumped. I'm sure one of my intelligent right-wing colleagues can help me out here.
[Article summary: Bush is proposing opening up more national forests to logging, reversing last-minute Clinton administration legislation that blocked road building in a big chunk of forests. Under the proposed bill, governers could petition the Department of Agiculture to block logging in their state, but the states in which this legislation will bear the most effect (such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah) have traditionally been pro-logging.]
(0) comments
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Farenheit My Birthday
David Duman and I finally saw "Farenheit 9/11" this weekend, and though I felt that Michael Moore glossed over some critical information and analyses, I give the film my endorsement. Less emotionally cloying than "Bowling for Columbine," and equipped with more hard visual data and less Michael Moore trouble-making than either of his first two films, this movie I hope will prove to be the impetus for many moderates or apathetics to visit their local post offices and libraries and pick up an application to register to vote. I'm grateful that someone encapsulated into a 30-minute sequence the behind-the-scenes business relationships, political friendships, and familial ties that "just happened" to coincide with a Bush Florida victory and a virtually uncontested (and infinitely profitable) war in Iraq. When many Americans feel compelled to vote Republican because they feel the party represents "good values," it's imperative that someone point out the moral hypocracies of that party's leaders. (In a rally speech on Friday, Bush lambasted insider trading and pledged to bring about a "culture of good values" to America, even though he magically knew to sell stock in his Texas oil company right before it lost millions, and even though Ken Lay of Enron was one of Bush's highest contributers in 2000.)
Here's what I thought could have been made more prominant in "Farenheit 9/11":
- The discrepency between what Bush & Co. purported Hussein's weapons capabilities to be and what they actually were. (This may already be well-known information to most Americans, I suppose.)
- How Bush planned to invade Iraq before he even took office.
- The extent to which Democrats bended over backward to let Bush invade Iraq and limit civil liberties. (I concede that this would be a poor strategy in an election year. Moore is quicker to judge Democrats in his books; fewer people read books, I guess.)
- Exactly how much the Bush administration knew about forthcoming terrorist attacks prior to September 11, 2001. (He shows the wonderful clip of Condi Rice remembering the name of one of the pre-9/11 secuirity briefings ["Bin Laden Determined to Attack on US Soil" or something to that extent], but he didn't explain clearly why this information wasn't given attention.)
I was very emotionally impressed by the soldier interviews, both by the troops' crassness at some points and their disgust and compassion at others. It's too easy to cenceive troops as faceless people who are all too eager to kill and be killed. Instead, soldiers are mostly young, poor men who were told that joining the armed forces would be a weekend gig. Ads for the Army portray the job either like a scene from He-Man or very literally as a video game.
Along those lines, Moore incisively paid great attention to the fact that the men and women who are sent to be killed and wounded in Iraq are poor and uneducated. Though asking congresspeople to sign up their kids for combat is a silly and pointless stunt, the point is made that US armed forces mostly do not glean soliders from wealthy families. They actively recruit people who feel they don't have alternatives.
Mostly I enjoy footage of George W. Bush looking ignorant. Not once have I seen him on prime time news or Fox News or C-SPAN revealing himself to be anything more than a vessel for meaningless appeals to "traditional values" or poorly phrased metaphors. Either he is in fact a very dim man, or he deserves the Oscar more than Michael Moore does.
(0) comments
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The Wednesday, July 7, 2004 4:19pm update report
Kerry and Edwards. Eh, not surprising. I refuse to believe as many pundits purport that a Southern Vice Presidential candidate will make a significant difference in the voting patters of white Southerners. All the juicy populism and home-grown home-growniness in the world can't overshadow ignorant voters' misinformed notion that Republicans have Good Values whereas Democrats have Bad Values.
Ken Jennings. He picked up a measley $14K last night, his smallest victory thus far. Let's see if he can't spread the mustard a little thicker tonight.
Cool Heuristic Squelch gear. Thanks for asking. You can buy it here. Much more to come in the next few days.
Your Heuristic Squelch submissions. Thanks for asking. We want them put here. Articles, newsflashes, Top Tens, graphics ideas...you want it, we want to critique it.
Rebecca C. Brown. Still oh so very awesome.
(0) comments
Monday, July 05, 2004
To live and die in LA.
My better half David and I got back from our Los Angeles County tour this afternoon without a hitch. His new (to him) 1997 Volkswagon Golf got us there via the 5 at 31 mpg and scooted us around LA at 28 mpg. Those Germans know how to build a vehicle, I tell you what.
Our tour stops included Calabasas, West Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Tarzana, Long Beach, Torrance, and more - certainly one of the more representative selections of locations if one wants to get a feel for the County of Angels. Calabasas, for example, is blessed by the residency of such celebrities as Sinbad, Priscilla Presley, Will Smith, and Billy Blanks (of Tae Bo fame). In Culver, however, well, it's pretty easy to find a streetside velvet painting vendor or buy oranges from a traffic island at a red light. Long Beach, of course, is home to the world's largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia, has a thriving gay and lesbian community, and is home to one of the ten busiest ports on the planet.
For all my complaints that Los Angeles is inhabited exclusively by 90-pound blond women who drive Chevy Tahoes and vapid white kids who wouldn't recognize hard work if it booted them in the butt, I must be fair and concede that my description only applies to a select few. It's a richly diverse (ethnically, socioeconimically, religiously, politically, etceterally) area whose residents are unified only by a tolerance for smog, a generally amiable attitude toward the Lakers, and a willingness at some level to comingle with people who look, speak, and act differently from themselves. Just don't get me started on the proportion of SUVs on the road.
The Knyght Ryder show for the City of Torrance annual fireworks show was fantastic. If you live in SoCal and need some 80s entertainment, you'd be a fool to miss them. They do public venues, clubs, weddings, and baptisms. Had they been a band when I was 13, and has I been raised Jewish, they totally would have done my Bat Mitzvah.
Oh, and for those of you craving a Ken Jennings update, he's now won $774,960 over the course of 24 appearances. Effing A.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Ken Jennings: American Hero
In case you regularly choose to spend your 7:00pm-7:30pm weekday timeslot watching last night's The Daily Show, or doing something stupid like studying or feeding the poor, then you probably haven't seen network television's newest sensation: 22-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Murray, Utah. He's uh-maze-ing. The man usually goes into Final Jeopardy! with more than twice the moneys of his nearest opponent, and in his score plus two victories he's acrued $737,720. (He added $40k to his total tonight. The Final Jeopardy! category was "Fruit.")
Why this man isn't a national hero making headline news in all the major newspapers is a mystery to me. Not only does he have more information in his brain than most anyone I've seen on the show, he's got a good sense of humor and amiable, humble demeanor to boot. Tonight Alex asked him something to the effect of, What about winning this many times has affected your life, to which Ken responded something like, I'm changing my mind about the Bush tax cuts. Zing!
What's more, he has a website where he lists his 10 favorite movies for every year since 1931, with less complete lists for 1921-30. He's got some sappy entries, but some really great ones too, such as "The Station Agent" and "MST3K: The Movie."
Anyhow, I'm going to be in Southern California until Monday night, and consequently without internet access for a long weekend. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone.
(0) comments
David Duman and I finally saw "Farenheit 9/11" this weekend, and though I felt that Michael Moore glossed over some critical information and analyses, I give the film my endorsement. Less emotionally cloying than "Bowling for Columbine," and equipped with more hard visual data and less Michael Moore trouble-making than either of his first two films, this movie I hope will prove to be the impetus for many moderates or apathetics to visit their local post offices and libraries and pick up an application to register to vote. I'm grateful that someone encapsulated into a 30-minute sequence the behind-the-scenes business relationships, political friendships, and familial ties that "just happened" to coincide with a Bush Florida victory and a virtually uncontested (and infinitely profitable) war in Iraq. When many Americans feel compelled to vote Republican because they feel the party represents "good values," it's imperative that someone point out the moral hypocracies of that party's leaders. (In a rally speech on Friday, Bush lambasted insider trading and pledged to bring about a "culture of good values" to America, even though he magically knew to sell stock in his Texas oil company right before it lost millions, and even though Ken Lay of Enron was one of Bush's highest contributers in 2000.)
Here's what I thought could have been made more prominant in "Farenheit 9/11":
- The discrepency between what Bush & Co. purported Hussein's weapons capabilities to be and what they actually were. (This may already be well-known information to most Americans, I suppose.)
- How Bush planned to invade Iraq before he even took office.
- The extent to which Democrats bended over backward to let Bush invade Iraq and limit civil liberties. (I concede that this would be a poor strategy in an election year. Moore is quicker to judge Democrats in his books; fewer people read books, I guess.)
- Exactly how much the Bush administration knew about forthcoming terrorist attacks prior to September 11, 2001. (He shows the wonderful clip of Condi Rice remembering the name of one of the pre-9/11 secuirity briefings ["Bin Laden Determined to Attack on US Soil" or something to that extent], but he didn't explain clearly why this information wasn't given attention.)
I was very emotionally impressed by the soldier interviews, both by the troops' crassness at some points and their disgust and compassion at others. It's too easy to cenceive troops as faceless people who are all too eager to kill and be killed. Instead, soldiers are mostly young, poor men who were told that joining the armed forces would be a weekend gig. Ads for the Army portray the job either like a scene from He-Man or very literally as a video game.
Along those lines, Moore incisively paid great attention to the fact that the men and women who are sent to be killed and wounded in Iraq are poor and uneducated. Though asking congresspeople to sign up their kids for combat is a silly and pointless stunt, the point is made that US armed forces mostly do not glean soliders from wealthy families. They actively recruit people who feel they don't have alternatives.
Mostly I enjoy footage of George W. Bush looking ignorant. Not once have I seen him on prime time news or Fox News or C-SPAN revealing himself to be anything more than a vessel for meaningless appeals to "traditional values" or poorly phrased metaphors. Either he is in fact a very dim man, or he deserves the Oscar more than Michael Moore does.
(0) comments
The Wednesday, July 7, 2004 4:19pm update report
Kerry and Edwards. Eh, not surprising. I refuse to believe as many pundits purport that a Southern Vice Presidential candidate will make a significant difference in the voting patters of white Southerners. All the juicy populism and home-grown home-growniness in the world can't overshadow ignorant voters' misinformed notion that Republicans have Good Values whereas Democrats have Bad Values.
Ken Jennings. He picked up a measley $14K last night, his smallest victory thus far. Let's see if he can't spread the mustard a little thicker tonight.
Cool Heuristic Squelch gear. Thanks for asking. You can buy it here. Much more to come in the next few days.
Your Heuristic Squelch submissions. Thanks for asking. We want them put here. Articles, newsflashes, Top Tens, graphics ideas...you want it, we want to critique it.
Rebecca C. Brown. Still oh so very awesome.
(0) comments
Monday, July 05, 2004
To live and die in LA.
My better half David and I got back from our Los Angeles County tour this afternoon without a hitch. His new (to him) 1997 Volkswagon Golf got us there via the 5 at 31 mpg and scooted us around LA at 28 mpg. Those Germans know how to build a vehicle, I tell you what.
Our tour stops included Calabasas, West Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Tarzana, Long Beach, Torrance, and more - certainly one of the more representative selections of locations if one wants to get a feel for the County of Angels. Calabasas, for example, is blessed by the residency of such celebrities as Sinbad, Priscilla Presley, Will Smith, and Billy Blanks (of Tae Bo fame). In Culver, however, well, it's pretty easy to find a streetside velvet painting vendor or buy oranges from a traffic island at a red light. Long Beach, of course, is home to the world's largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia, has a thriving gay and lesbian community, and is home to one of the ten busiest ports on the planet.
For all my complaints that Los Angeles is inhabited exclusively by 90-pound blond women who drive Chevy Tahoes and vapid white kids who wouldn't recognize hard work if it booted them in the butt, I must be fair and concede that my description only applies to a select few. It's a richly diverse (ethnically, socioeconimically, religiously, politically, etceterally) area whose residents are unified only by a tolerance for smog, a generally amiable attitude toward the Lakers, and a willingness at some level to comingle with people who look, speak, and act differently from themselves. Just don't get me started on the proportion of SUVs on the road.
The Knyght Ryder show for the City of Torrance annual fireworks show was fantastic. If you live in SoCal and need some 80s entertainment, you'd be a fool to miss them. They do public venues, clubs, weddings, and baptisms. Had they been a band when I was 13, and has I been raised Jewish, they totally would have done my Bat Mitzvah.
Oh, and for those of you craving a Ken Jennings update, he's now won $774,960 over the course of 24 appearances. Effing A.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Ken Jennings: American Hero
In case you regularly choose to spend your 7:00pm-7:30pm weekday timeslot watching last night's The Daily Show, or doing something stupid like studying or feeding the poor, then you probably haven't seen network television's newest sensation: 22-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Murray, Utah. He's uh-maze-ing. The man usually goes into Final Jeopardy! with more than twice the moneys of his nearest opponent, and in his score plus two victories he's acrued $737,720. (He added $40k to his total tonight. The Final Jeopardy! category was "Fruit.")
Why this man isn't a national hero making headline news in all the major newspapers is a mystery to me. Not only does he have more information in his brain than most anyone I've seen on the show, he's got a good sense of humor and amiable, humble demeanor to boot. Tonight Alex asked him something to the effect of, What about winning this many times has affected your life, to which Ken responded something like, I'm changing my mind about the Bush tax cuts. Zing!
What's more, he has a website where he lists his 10 favorite movies for every year since 1931, with less complete lists for 1921-30. He's got some sappy entries, but some really great ones too, such as "The Station Agent" and "MST3K: The Movie."
Anyhow, I'm going to be in Southern California until Monday night, and consequently without internet access for a long weekend. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone.
(0) comments
My better half David and I got back from our Los Angeles County tour this afternoon without a hitch. His new (to him) 1997 Volkswagon Golf got us there via the 5 at 31 mpg and scooted us around LA at 28 mpg. Those Germans know how to build a vehicle, I tell you what.
Our tour stops included Calabasas, West Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Tarzana, Long Beach, Torrance, and more - certainly one of the more representative selections of locations if one wants to get a feel for the County of Angels. Calabasas, for example, is blessed by the residency of such celebrities as Sinbad, Priscilla Presley, Will Smith, and Billy Blanks (of Tae Bo fame). In Culver, however, well, it's pretty easy to find a streetside velvet painting vendor or buy oranges from a traffic island at a red light. Long Beach, of course, is home to the world's largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia, has a thriving gay and lesbian community, and is home to one of the ten busiest ports on the planet.
For all my complaints that Los Angeles is inhabited exclusively by 90-pound blond women who drive Chevy Tahoes and vapid white kids who wouldn't recognize hard work if it booted them in the butt, I must be fair and concede that my description only applies to a select few. It's a richly diverse (ethnically, socioeconimically, religiously, politically, etceterally) area whose residents are unified only by a tolerance for smog, a generally amiable attitude toward the Lakers, and a willingness at some level to comingle with people who look, speak, and act differently from themselves. Just don't get me started on the proportion of SUVs on the road.
The Knyght Ryder show for the City of Torrance annual fireworks show was fantastic. If you live in SoCal and need some 80s entertainment, you'd be a fool to miss them. They do public venues, clubs, weddings, and baptisms. Had they been a band when I was 13, and has I been raised Jewish, they totally would have done my Bat Mitzvah.
Oh, and for those of you craving a Ken Jennings update, he's now won $774,960 over the course of 24 appearances. Effing A.
(0) comments
Ken Jennings: American Hero
In case you regularly choose to spend your 7:00pm-7:30pm weekday timeslot watching last night's The Daily Show, or doing something stupid like studying or feeding the poor, then you probably haven't seen network television's newest sensation: 22-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Murray, Utah. He's uh-maze-ing. The man usually goes into Final Jeopardy! with more than twice the moneys of his nearest opponent, and in his score plus two victories he's acrued $737,720. (He added $40k to his total tonight. The Final Jeopardy! category was "Fruit.")
Why this man isn't a national hero making headline news in all the major newspapers is a mystery to me. Not only does he have more information in his brain than most anyone I've seen on the show, he's got a good sense of humor and amiable, humble demeanor to boot. Tonight Alex asked him something to the effect of, What about winning this many times has affected your life, to which Ken responded something like, I'm changing my mind about the Bush tax cuts. Zing!
What's more, he has a website where he lists his 10 favorite movies for every year since 1931, with less complete lists for 1921-30. He's got some sappy entries, but some really great ones too, such as "The Station Agent" and "MST3K: The Movie."
Anyhow, I'm going to be in Southern California until Monday night, and consequently without internet access for a long weekend. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone.
(0) comments