Category: Personal

I was hoping, really hoping, that I would find something positive to write next in this blog, on any topic. Maybe funny, perhaps uplifting, even pleasantly pornographic. Instead, I am left with the following letter to the editor to the Mercury News:

Alma Taylor wrote in today’s letters section that “Putting weapons of mass destruction aside, is there anyone naive enough to think that, if Saddam Hussein had not been removed from power, Libya and Iran would have come forward and revealed their weapons of mass destruction programs?”

Her statement, however, is a typical straw man argument that completely misses the key problem many Americans now have with the Bush Administration. My problem, echoed by many others with whom I’ve spoken, is that President Bush, cabinet members and others in positions of leadership in our nation lied to us. On many occasions one of them stood up in front of an audience and claimed that we needed to go to war in Iraq, NOW, because Hussein had significant quantities of weapons of mass destruction.

If we cannot trust our President, Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, and so on down the list to tell us the truth in such a significant situation, when over 500 Americans and thousands of Iraqis have died as part of this war, how can we trust them to tell the truth on any subject?

Maddox hits his target: Bill O’Reilly is a big blubbering vagina

I wish I could laugh but Garret, it’s all about more for the haves and less for the have-nots these days. Doesn’t matter what aspect of government or business considered, that’s the low down truth and you have five different posts today alone that show it.

Ooh look, I am now a moderator in the Slimbrowser Forum! I feel so special.

Ed Felten makes an interesting point in Googlocracy, that people who complain about things like googlebombs affecting PageRank and such are whining over nothing, but I think Felten misses a big piece with the following:

The web authors have a certain number of Google-votes, and they are casting those votes as they think best. Who are we to complain? They may be foolish to spend their votes that way, but they are entitled to do so.

Web authors, as a practical matter, really don’t have a “certain,” or limited, number of links but are essentially unlimited in the sense that almost any of us have the time to add one or two more links on any given day. Which means millions of links, in the aggregate, and nothing in the software or publishing process really limits this. So adding a link for a googlebombing or other group purposes can not be considered foolish in the sense Felten intends, as the expenditure of a scarce resource.

Later: Joe sent an email spanking me for misspelling the professor’s last name (Felten, as I’ve corrected this post to read, rather than my original Felton). Of course, this more or less ruins the pun in the title leaving me all a-tizzy. What to do, what to do…

Michael Watkins wrote a detailed essay on the recent event of his not being granted tenure at Harvard Business School, On Not Getting Tenure/Academic Parasitism at HBS, which went into far more detail and discussion of what he sees as negative developments at the venerable institution than you’d expect. But I think this is an example of how blogging is changing, for some people, just what is acceptable to say in public versus the kind of discretion most of us expected 10 or 20 years ago. Then Watkins probably would have had a few beers with pals and vented for an evening; now he’s published something that, due to various linkage, will probably be read by several or many thousands.

Scoble’s blog vacation is leaving a 24 minute hole in my daily reading time. The bastard!

The view of the snowy backyard outside my folks’ home a couple of weekends ago when TS1 and I visited. And a bonus, a lovely crying face, hammered in copper, that my parents bought on a trip to Greece years ago.

David Gelernter’s company Mirror Worlds Technologies is applying his LifeStreams model to an RSS aggregator, interesting [via Larkfarm]

No scoring in the first or third quarters, lots in the second and fourth. I have no explanation except perhaps in the third the players were still stunned by the halftime entertainment; I’m not just talking about the pasty on Janet’s breast but the overall who cares of the whole show. For those of you expecting something creative with the ads, sorry, there weren’t really any ads worth watching, much less writing about. Amusing in-game SportsFilter thread though.

Top five reasons why High Fidelity is one of my all time favorite movies:

1. A romantic comedy with intelligence and wit, a plot that is in constant motion, well-contrasted characters who find organic growth. More laughs and smiles per square meter of film stock than you can shake a stick at.
2. John Cusack is one of the great American actors whether he gets the credit for it or not. High Fidelity uses his ability for believability and physical humor and contrasts him so well with Jack Black (going over the top) and Todd Louiso (just the opposite, barely animated).
3. Lots and lots of great music, much of which is woven directly into the plot and not just used as background. And the artists are all over the place: Springsteen, Aretha, Bow Wow Wow, Belle & Sebastian, Liz Phair, Ann Peebles, Illinois Jacquet, Stiff Little Fingers and more.
4. You can watch it many times and see some new bit or some scene in a new light each time. Plus it’s difficult to get tired of seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones pull off her top.
5. Bruce Springsteen makes a cameo, sitting back playing his Telecaster and giving Rob sage advice

More top fives about the movie from Ben Guaraldi.

absolutely recommended

Dear William Lazar,

Walgreens and Medco Health Solutions have reviewed pharmacy transactions related to your health benefits plan’s prescription coverage from mid-1999 to early 2001. The review identified certain co-payments paid by you that could have been lower.

Therefore, consistent with Medco’s and Walgreen’s commitment to customer satisfaction, please accept the enclosed check to fully reimburse you for the difference.

Sincerely,

Walgreens

The enclosed check was for 50 cents. W00t, I’m rich again.

John Sayles makes what I call fictional demographies; that is, films that take a place at a specific point in time and explore the kind of people you’re likely to encounter there and then, at least in his mind. Even from the first of his own works, Return of the Secaucus 7, to my personal favorite Baby, It’s You and the classics Lone Star and The Secret of Roan Inish, Sayles’ focus is far more on the people and what’s happening to them rather than such niceties as plot and excitement.

2002’s The Sunshine State is much the same. Set on a small, white trash/old black inhabited island near Jacksonville, Florida, that’s finally attracted the attention of developers, we’re mostly concerned with two women of the same age, late 30s, one white, one black and the people in their orbit. Oddly, although both were raised in this small place, neither Marly (Edy Falco) nor Desiree (Angela Bassett) seems aware of the other.

The women recognize the time has come to deal with the results of childhood events and how that’s still affecting their relationships, especially with one particular parent. Unfortunately in neither case does the dialog rise to the situation. Falco and Bassett both do fine acting jobs, as do most of the others in this large, sprawling cast, but Sayles, serving as his own editor, looses everything in a langerous, overlong final cut. For instance, there are several scenes where Gordon Clapp is trying to kill himself but this has almost no relation to the rest of the movie that Sayles makes clear. I expect that if he had cut the movie from about 135 minutes down to, say, 105-110, the end product would have been much more entertaining.

not recommended

Louis Saha, making his Manchester United debut today against Southampton, showed he was worth every pound the Reds paid for him by scoring the first goal of the match and assisting on the second (scored by the excellent Paul Scholes) after a contentious transfer saga. Diego Forlan had previously been Ruud van Nistelrooy’s striking partner but I think after seeing the first result that the Argentinean will be sitting on the bench most of the remainder of this season. Since Arsenal do not play until tomorrow, the win puts ManU at the top of the EPL; however, this novice fan clearly noticed that their defense badly missed the suspended Rio Ferdinand in the first game they played without him as there was much confusion and poor clearances throughout, accounting for both Soton goals.

Meanwhile, Saha’s former squad Fullham picked up American national team star Brian McBride from the Columbus Crew as a replacement and he too scored in his team debut, putting the Cottagers’ winner in the back of the net eight minutes after coming on as a sub at the hour mark.

Finally, due to FIFA’s newly-imposed transfer window rules, San Jose star/American Player of the Year Landon Donovan will not be loaned to Portsmouth because the rules would have meant the player could not appear for the Earthquakes until mid-August (as opposed to late May). The experience would have been good for him though I think the rest–he’ll have a busy February but not too much action in March as the team prepares for an April 3 opener–will be very helpful after a crammed 2003.

Garret saw Gen. Clark last night in Santa Fe and has a nice photo gallery posted.

Having a cold really sucks, makes me feel like every movement, every breath, is like being emerged in thick ether sprinkled with gritty sand that gets in my throat and under my eyelids.

Tonight’s episode (Bringeth It On) of Joan of Arcadia wasn’t too much of a rip-off of Sugar & Spice! Conversely, Monk had a terrific outing (Mr. Monk and the TV Star) with an episode that poked fun at itself, right down to the fan complaints about the Randy Newman theme song.

One of the aspects of our system of organization (that is, both government and corporate) is that “nobodies” like me or you, Dear Reader, can actually get straight, honest answers from people in positions of authority. So when Somebody makes a decision or pronouncement that makes no sense at all (in terms of consistent internal logic), the great unwashed masses have no way to reach clarity. The list below has three strong examples of out and out falsehood by our Chief Executive but the latest Cringley has a similar analysis of the offshoring problem.

1. “How is it patriotic to place one’s re-election worries before the need of the American people and the 9/11 families to know what mistakes were made leading up to the worst attack on American soil?” Andrew Rice, brother of 9/11 victim David, on the Bush Administration’s opposition to extend the work of the committee investigating the events of that day.
2. Somehow, two months ago it was $400 billion; now it’s $540 billion. The real question is how could the Administration not have known the difference, or rather, why weren’t they honest in the first place? Because, of course, at the higher figure the bill would have never passed Congress.
3. The biggest lie is that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I’m sick when I think back to the days just before the US attacked Iraq and I was thinking that, well, those are some pretty serious weapons and if he has them, he needs to go. Now I realize that people are dying over there, Americans, Iraqis, Brits, Italians and more, because so many Americans believed the words coming out of Bush’s mouth. Hell, just last week Cheney was over in Davos claiming there is evidence yet to be found. Now the party line is that Hussein was a bad, bad man (no doubt about that) and he just had to go; if he didn’t quite have NBC ready to go, he surely would soon have gotten there soon.

Perhaps listening to Kevin Phillips on the Bush dynasty would be a good refresher course for those who doubt what Bush is all about. And perhaps one of you Dear Readers can explain to me how we, the Sheep, can get honest answers.

Joe has an odd sense of humor; I’m not saying I disagree, mind you, just that I’d have never thought of his fundraising idea.

Someone at Microsoft does too. Because typing is what the Web’s all about, right?

Everybody say Yowsa!

The guy who wrote the Finding Nemo script, David Reynolds, will write the adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s young adult classic science fiction novel Have Spacesuit, Will Travel.