June 13, 2008
Friday The 13th
You may have seen the story on Drudge today about the big blackout in downtown Dee Cee this morning.
Regular reader ChrisN puts in words what was no doubt in thousands of other people's minds:Was just wondering if Robbo was caught up in (or sent home from) the Friday the 13th blackout this morning. Thought I might see a post on that today. My agency was just outside the blackout zone. We may not have gotten sent home, but at least we never lost air conditioning. I must say that getting out of the Farragut West station in near total darkness was an interesting experience, though.To tell the truth, as I came through Farragut West on the metro, it did seem a bit on the dark side, but I thought that was just me being especially needful of my morning coffee. My building wasn't directly affected. However, our servers housed in another building were right in the midst of teh blackout zone. Without email or access to our various document drives (both of which just came up again a while ago), it's been a pretty slow day.
Posted by: Robert at 03:20 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
"Get Reaaaady! The Woooooorld Is Coming To An Eeeeend!" ***
Gregg Easterbrook notes a maddening paradox that has been much on my mind lately as I scan the intertoobs:
Democratic attacks on Mr. McCain and Republican attacks on Mr. Obama both seek to punish impermissibly positive thoughts. At a time when there exists a sense of crisis over the economy, fuel prices and many other issues, this reinforces the odd, two realities of life in the United States today: The way we are, and the way we think we are. The way we are could use some work, but overall, is pretty good. The way we think we are is terrible, horrible, awful. Possibly worse.Actually, I believe the first I read of this phenomenon was in Peej O'Rourke's All The Trouble In The World from back in the mid-90's. But it certainly seems to be spiking pretty hard at the moment. Easterbrook lays a good bit of the blame at the feet of the pervasiveness of the media culture:
Increasing pessimism from the news media is surely a factor – and the media grow ever-better at giving negative impressions. Now we don't just hear about threats or natural disasters, we see immediate live footage, creating the impression that threats and disasters are everywhere. Whatever goes wrong in the country or around the world is telecast 24/7, making us think the world is falling to pieces – even when most things are getting better for most people, even in developing nations. If a factory closes, that's news. If a factory opens, that's not a story. You've heard about the factories Ford and General Motors have closed in this decade. Have you heard about the factories Toyota, Honda and other automakers opened in the U.S. in the same period? The jobs there have solid, long-term prospects. The relentlessly negative impressions of American life presented by the media, including the entertainment media, explain something otherwise puzzling that shows up in psychological data. When asked about the country's economy, schools, health care or community spirit, Americans tell pollsters the situation is dreadful. But when asked about their own jobs, schools, doctors and communities, people tell pollsters the situation is good. Our impressions of ourselves and our neighbors come from personal experience. Our impressions of the nation as a whole come from the media and from political blather, which both exaggerate the negative.Which is why I tend either to ignore the media, or else to take its pronouncements cum an extremely large grano of salis. Nonetheless, or perhaps because I treat the media Cassandras with such skepticism, I snarfed a fair bit of coffee when I clapped eyes on this poster filched from the Galley Slaves:
*** Spot the quote.
Posted by: Robert at 02:59 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Important Questions For A Friday Afternoon
Posted by: Robert at 11:04 AM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Summertime, And The "Good Night" Is Easy
Is there anything more delightful to parental ears than having a dinner-table full of children who have been splashing about in the pool all afternoon positively begging to be allowed just to go to bed?
I think not.Posted by: Robert at 10:20 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 12, 2008
The Gitmo Decision
The decision for the Court and the dissents of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia are here. The dissents are scathing in their analysis and in their predictions.
We tend to see the world through the prism of our professions and lawyers are no different than anyone else and I say this as an attorney. The Court's opinion reflects the dangerous desire to turn every argument of policy into a legal one which must therefore be decided by life-tenured lawyers sitting on the benches of the various federal courts. The decision to wage war is ultimately a political one and by that I mean it is made by the political leadership of the country which chooses to go to war. The desired end-state and the methods and means by which that war is waged is committed to the political branches, the President and the Congress, who have the staff, the resources, and the time to debate and weigh far better than the judiciary ever will. The fate of those captured on the battlefield belong to the captors and it is appropriate we debate and decide how such detainees should be treated and their status reviewed, weighing the exigencies of war and the overriding need to ensure the security of the American people. Those decisions must be made by those who can be held to account by the electorate. Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen can be voted out of office. Life-tenured judges cannot. They are accountable only to other judges. This is why elections matter. As the dissents point out, today the court made a procedural mechanism, habeas corpus, available to unlawful combatants, without stopping to explain what rights such a mechanism would enforce. Today, the court overruled 59 years of precedent to hold that aliens not held in the United States have recourse to the Great Writ. Today, the Court made it likely our military will be faced with a cruel choice: release dangerous men or release classified information the disclosure of which will make it more dangerous for troops on the battlefield.Posted by: LMC at 09:14 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Special Commentary
What exactly is it about Keith Olberman that makes him think 1) anybody outside of your typical Bush-hating, frothing-at-the-mouth, bitter Lefty isn't snickering at how seriously he takes himself and 2) that brevity is for losers.
Dude, make your point and get on with it. You make a "special commentary" and you state a position, back it up with two or three examples and summarize. You don't ramble making the same point six or seven different ways.
"You see that vein throbbing on my forehead? That means I'm serious, dammit! Take me seriously!!"
Posted by: Gary at 08:09 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Lobsters Are People, Too!
Either the good folks at PETA are just looking for cheap headlines, or else somebody has been drinking sea water out of Casco Bay. What else would explain the proposed Lobster Empathy Center?
SKOWHEGAN, Maine - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent a proposal to the Somerset County commissioners to lease their jail for the world’s first Lobster Empathy Center. The central Maine county is constructing a new jail and has put the century-old jail in downtown Skowhegan up for sale. The Realtor handling the sale called the offer "likely a publicity stunt." "A prison is the perfect setting to demonstrate how lobsters suffer when they are caught in traps or confined to cramped, filthy supermarket tanks," PETA wrote in a June 2 letter to the commissioners. "The center will teach visitors to have compassion for these interesting, sensitive animals while also commemorating the millions of lobsters who are ripped from their homes in the ocean off the coast of Maine each year before being boiled alive." * * * * * * PETA said the center would include educational displays and "testimonials from top independent scientists confirming that lobsters feel pain just like other animals." PETA said the center would feature interactive exhibits such as a human-size lobster trap where visitors can have their fingers wrapped in large rubber bands that will remain on for their entire visit. "At that point, visitors can be moved to a small, filth-strewn glass tank where they will be crammed together and confined for up to an hour," the proposal states. The center also would include a concession stand that would include faux lobster treats, and children would receive free stuffed toy lobsters labeled "Lobster Are Friends, Not Food." "Mainers have been dragging lobsters from their ocean homes for generations," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "It’s time for them to learn that these fascinating animals deserve more than being treated as mere commodities."Yips! to Chris Johnson at Midwestern Conservative Journal who dubs the proposed center "Dachau-On-The-Kennebec". Me? I dunno. After reading the article I'm suddenly all hungry...... Oh, and as for being confined to a small, filth-strewn glass tank and crammed together for an hour? Heck, I do that every day. It's called riding the metro.
Posted by: Robert at 12:27 PM | Comments (26) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
I'd Buy One
Our old friend Cranky over at Six Meat Buffet has been brainstorming some new products with which to stock the aisles of Le Mart de Wal (as GroovyVic likes to call it). A sample:
1. Dye Squirell Dye Special ammo for the paintball gun that marks squirrels with an eco-safe but permanent dye. Hours of fun tagging the squirrels that loot your birdfeeder! Get to know these little furry-tailed rats by their hue.Heck, add some skin-eating acid and I'd even pay for the premium load. Skootch on over and check out the rest of his mint-making ideas. UPDATE: Speaking of such things, you lot remember the Yankee Flipper, don't you? Fun, right? Well if you ever decide to get one, for Heaven's sake make sure to anchor it securely to whatever pole or wire you decide to hang it from: Mine lasted about three months before the bastard squirrels bounced it off its hook, causing it to fall to the patio and crack its battery case. It lasted a couple more months before the squirrels and a raccoon managed to smash the perch assembly altogether. My YF still hangs outside the basement door. (These things are close to a hundred bucks apiece and dammit, I'm a-gettin' my money's worth!) Most of the smaller birds have adapted to perching right on the edge of the feeding holes, while the larger ones hoover the ground underneath. But the squirrels have also figured out how to hang from the bottom by their hind feet, curling up to help themselves to snacks. The raccoon? He still just knocks it down.
Posted by: Robert at 11:14 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Things That Never Cease To Amuse Me
(Image lifted from the Minnesota Lawyer Blog.)
Posted by: Robert at 11:04 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Literary Observation
Posted by: Robert at 09:43 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Random Commuter Observations - "Summertime, And The Living Is Sticky" Division
Regular readers will already know of my long time belief that the Founders should have endowed the newly-created United States with both a Winter and a Summer Capital. The northern end of the Virginny Tidewater is pleasant enough eight or nine months out of the year, but only a maniac likes being here between Memorial and Labor Days.
At first I thought that Seattle might make a nice alternative to beat the heat, but on further consideration decided that it just wouldn't do. Too remote. Plus, it's full of hippies. Then I thought that perhaps Maine would serve nicely, especially as I head up there for vacation in August anyway. However, I skotched that idea after the Mothe, speaking on behalf of the entire population of the Pine Tree State, stated in no uncertain terms that Uncle and all his minions should just stay the hell away. I'm still working on the Northeastern coast concept. This year, however, my vision has expanded somewhat and the proposal that I have sent up the chain of command now involves the annexation of one or more Canadian maritime provinces. Given that it's already mid-June and we've been through our first heat wave in Dee Cee, I hope the authorities get cracking right away.Posted by: Robert at 07:51 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Aging very gracefully
Today is Frances O'Connor's day according to the local rag.
LMC full disclosure: I am partial to brunettes.
Posted by: LMC at 06:04 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 11, 2008
Gratuitous Literary Observation
We Llamas have been getting an awful lot of Google traffic the last couple days from people looking for Harry Potter's nonmagical offspring of wizard parents and similar expressions.
I should note that despite some talk of collapsing like the Maginot Line last fall, I still never have got round to reading any of the durn books, and am now happily ensconced back in the screw 'em camp.Posted by: Robert at 03:18 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Gardening Division
Our old pal Babs drops this report in the Tasty-Bits (TM) Mail Sack:
This year I started about 120 heirloom tomatoes from seed. Unfortunately, I have only 4 takers which account for about 20 tomatoes. Can you imagine that I am going to throw at least 80 tomato plants onto the compost pile, after raising them up as babies? Sniff… Math doesn’t work for you? I will be planting the overflow in every nook and cranny of my garden, including pots on my deck! I am fascinated with heirloom tomatoes. Not only because they are the absolute best eating fruit on the planet, but also because I have done a bit of research, through growing trials and reading, about where the best tomato varieties come from. It seems that Russia and Pennsylvania produce the best tomatoes! Weird, huh? I wonder if there is a connection. When we were in Romania and Bulgaria a few years back, I ate the best tomatoes I have ever eaten! And, everyone seemed to have at least a couple of bushes; growing outside apartment buildings, these squat bushes with not that appealing fruit on them. But boy, they were good eating! In fact, this month long tour we were on… the Americans started diving for the tomatoes every time they saw them! I stand by Caspian Pink, from Russia , with Brandywine a close second, from Penn. And, BTW, Brandywine has now been hybridized with “Brandywine OPV.” I will be doing a side by side taste test this year… I remind myself of a Jay Leno skit when he was trying to disparage John McCain. “You remind me of a guy that wants to tell me about his tomato plants!” Well, yeah, I do.Heh. I must admit that I happen to dislike tomatoes myself and always have (although I don't mind them as an ingredient in some dishes). The guy you really want to talk to about tomatoes 'round here is Steve-O. Indeed, I believe it is high time that he came out with his annual report on the various salsas, gazpachos and other Lycopersicon-based dishes that he concocts from his own harvest. Steve? That's your cue......
Posted by: Robert at 11:07 AM | Comments (22) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Quote of the Day
My email quote-of-the-day source passes on one today that caught my fancy:
"It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion." - W.R. Inge (1860-1954, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 1911-1934)Wise words.
Posted by: Robert at 10:36 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
A La Recherche Du Temps Dorky
I got a call out of the blue last evening from a gal I knew in high school, but with whom I have not spoken in 21 years. Our 25th reunion is later this month and she was checking up to see if I might be interested in attending.
Yikes. "Zoom! What was that? That was your life, mate. Oh, that was quick. Do I get another? Sorry, mate." *** Actually, I loathed high school. I was, as they say, a late bloomer (indeed, there are those who are of the opinion that I am still a work in progress), and never really fit into any of the social cliques at school (the band geeks, the jocks, etc.). Instead, I was one of those odds & sods who orbited about the fringes and as a result, generally had a pretty lonely time of it. And when I did get close to somebody, I usually managed to make a hash of it. (Indeed, when I say that I knew this gal, I am over-simplifying our relationship greatly.) Ah, well. Water under the bridge and all that. I eventually grew up and turned out more or less normal after all. (Mom: See? What did I always say? Such a nice boy! Who wouldn't love this boy?) So anyhoo, we chatted for a while. I haven't kept up with a single other soul from those days and she filled me in on what some of them were up to. I had had absolutely no intention whatsoever of going to the reunion (apart from anything else, starting next week I am going to be out of town on bidness more or less until the Fourth of July), but after our chat I have to admit that I was beginning to be mildly intrigued. Perhaps I'll make it to the 30th.*** Spot the quote. UPDATE: Quote fixed, so don't send any cranky emails.
Posted by: Robert at 09:43 AM | Comments (24) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 10, 2008
Gratuitous Nats Posting
I've been on travel and sooper-busy the past few days, so last evening was the first time I got the opportunity to catch a Nats game in a while. Imagine my surprise to see all the players decked out in green hats:
I had no idea what this was all about. Indeed, the only plausible explanation I could come up with was that the Nats had thrown their support behind the Celtics in the NBA Championship, but that didn't seem very likely.
A quick check on the intertubes today reveals the explanation. As with most stupid ideas, the root cause is political:
WASHINGTON -- Major League Baseball's most eco-friendly park will get a little more so on Wednesday when the Washington Nationals host "Get Your Green On," a one-night program encouraging their fans to be more environmentally conscious. The first 5,000 fans who exit the Navy Yard Half Street MetroRail Station will receive a loaded farecard that will pay their way back home, and fans who enter the Half Street entrance in center field will walk up a green carpet to the gate. In addition, Nationals players and ushers will wear green hats for the game, and the Nat Pack & Racing Presidents will wear green shirts in the spirit of the event. Planet Green, a new TV network dedicated to ecoconscious living, will launch its first broadcast from the park as well. Discovery Corporation president & CEO David Zaslav will throw out the first pitch and Eileen O'Neill, Planet Green president and general manager, will bring the lineup card out before the game. Adding star power to the festivities, famed chef Emeril Lagosse will begin the game in in the nightly tradition by saying, "Washington ... Let's play ball!"Sigh. Guys? Lose the freakin' green hats. Combined with your red and white home uniforms, you look like Santa's Elves. And considering you've won 2 of your past 11 games and are 14 games out of first, that would be Santa's AA club as well.
Posted by: Robert at 10:16 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Random Commuter Observation - Tourons Behaving Badly Division
That certain emptiness regular readers may find themselves feeling these days can no doubt be explained in part by the fact that so far this year I have not indulged in my annual ranting and raving about the tourons that flock to Your Nation's Capital.
Well, folks, help is on the way. I was walking up E Street this morning behind a party of very fat, very loudly dressed out-of-towners. For some perverse reason, one fellah in the party seemed to be taking a real pleasure in snapping pics of the three or four bums and derelicts strewn on benches and in doorways along the way, and then showing the pics to the rest of his companions. Friends, unless you're collecting data for some sociological study, don't do this. Gawking is bad enough, but snapping pics is even worse. Whatever their condition, these are still people, not side-show attractions. Simple respect would dictate that you leave them alone.Posted by: Robert at 08:45 AM | Comments (22) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Random Commuter Observation - Grammatical Petulance Division
The walls of the Metro Center station are covered these days with posters put out by the West Virginia Tourist Board (or whatever the entity calls itself). The posters are a series of photographs of mountains, streams, woods, etc., etc., with one-word captions written across them - words like "Breathe" and "Clarify" and "Peaceful".
"Okay, Tom," you're saying warily to your collective selves, "What's the problem?" Well, I'll tell you. You see, the copy employed by the WVTB is grammatically inconsistent. Some of the words are verbs, some adjectives. And there's absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. I find that quite jarring to the senses. Indeed, the more I see it, the grumpier it makes me. Hence this post. Isn't this kind of sloppiness violative of some basic rule of advertising?Posted by: Robert at 08:33 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 09, 2008
Natalie Portman
whose abs were the only thing that saved The Attack of the Clones.
Posted by: LMC at 06:30 AM | Comments (26) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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