Blogging will continue to be light over the next few days

As work continues to pummel me mercilessly.

In the meantime, take comfort in the fact that Abe Vigoda is alive, and looking out for us all.

Sql Hell

I've been in SQL hell for the past two days. Quite a lot of suck.

I start using Google Adsense on the blog

I found a format I like. It's the one above.

Any thoughts?

I'm back

No photos, I got my first speeding ticket in 10 years though.

Blogging will be light the next few days

As I visit the old country. Photos to come.

An entire article on....

Rounded corners

Interesting

Jose Padilla is being charged with actual crimes, and not as an enemy combatant. This is a good thing I think. American citizenship does and should draw a clear line on who gets charged with what.

My first live blog

Here I am at Jake's recording a jam. This will be the first real test of the technology. I'll keep you all posted.

Lines of the moment

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.
- Italian Proverb

I'm not saying I beat the devil but I drank his beer for nothing
-Johnny Cash

Quick round up

• An article from Newsweek which has some interesting stats on American feelings on abortion.
  
• Saudi teacher sentenced to 750(!) lashes for blasphemy. Among other things he was charged with "defending Jews". No one seems to have adopted him as the new Scopes.
• "Ban Asian marriages of cousins, says MP"
  

  The report, commissioned by Ann Cryer, revealed that the Pakistani community accounted for 30 per cent of all births with recessive disorders, despite representing 3.4 per cent of the birth rate nationwide.

  ...

  "I think this should be applied to the Asian community. They must look outside the family for husbands and wives for their young people."

  It is estimated that more than 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, resulting in an increasing rate of genetic defects and high rates of infant mortality. The likelihood of unrelated couples having the same variant genes that cause recessive disorders are estimated to be 100-1. Between first cousins, the odds increase to as much as one in eight.

  55%!?

• This is way cool.
  

Kind of a cool site

It's not consistently good, but I do like the open look of MLT Creative. They're right down the road too.

From Cathy the Blogless

I give you "Redneck Dogs"

New Client Site

Actually it's a new version of a site I did a few years ago, Mark Hill Photography.

Another community radio station

I've long listened to WRFG's bluegrass programming, and complained about it's political programming, seemingly designed to irritate me. They live up to every stereotype of the hard left and it can be painful to listen to.

Then, while googling Michael Sheuer I came across the Weekend Interview Show with Mike Horton. It's part of a shortwave network I've never hear of before.

Anyway, it's an interesting thing. The host is a libertarian of the Lew Rockwell/Anti-War.com school (paleo-libertarian to take it to too fine of a point) and from what I listened to on their site Horton has mostly authors and pundits of a similar mindset.

After listening to the interviews I was left with the feeling that there are still regional differences in world outlook (American regions, I'm not sure why I came away with that).

On the whole it's interesting how people with similar premises can come to differing conclusions and how different premises can come to similar conclusions.

Ah, my upload is done. More thoughts on this later.

This is cool

Safe for work despite the name, it's for a television manufacturer I've never heard of. Link via CodePoet.

Wow

The $100 dollar laptop appears to exist for real.

Random thoughts

• Castro might have Parkinsons
• Dennis Prager actually has something interesting to say. Personally I think there's much to Eric Hoffer's notion that a well-written and internally coherent religious text holds back civilization.
  

Wednesday rapid fire

• Driving with Mr T.
• Poorly written and misleading article in Newsweek about poverty. To quote:

  The picture is clearest when you look at the number and fate of the world's middle- class countries (rather than middle-class individuals, although the story there is not so terrific, either).

  and

  The absolute income levels of the poorest may be creeping up. But with the notable exceptions of India and China and a few others
  

  Why is there no critical thinking anymore?
• Michael Jackson uses ladies room in Dubai
• Woman to marry man who shot her
• More on modded hybrid cars
• Solar power and Sterling Engines make the best chance for meaningful solar power I've seen so far.
  

Is anyone there?

I haven't had any comments in a while, is anyone there?

Just ordered

Visual Studio 2005. Full scouting report in around 3 weeks or so.

Job security inspires low standards all around

I was reading the two education related articles Schools want Beltline voice and Decatur tries to close racial gap in the AJC and was astonished by the poor quality of the writing and thinking. Nothing but one and two sentence paragraphs and no information that couldn't be found on a press release.

A fine point

I forget how I got to this examination of the French riots, but this is a pretty good explanation

What you’re seeing in the riots now is really just the same thing that happens when the government tries to privatise some public company, and the unions go on strike.

This is the French banlieu criminal union going on strike.

Dinosaur attack

In what I can only assume is an attempt to keep their names in the paper, both Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader have taken sides on the Terrell Owens affair.

The civil rights activist said the level of punishment could have been warranted if Owens had been caught shaving points, selling drugs, carrying a gun or fighting fans without sufficient restraint.

Synchonicity

Whilst going to see the A-Sides at Limerick junction last night I experienced a weird coincidence of sounds and scene. I was listening to the Waco Brothers album "To The Last Dead Cowboy" and for two miles the alienation of the music matched the inherent alienation of an urban landscape.

I was driving up McClendon, which actually goes for quite a ways. The neighborhoods were very nice, and very pricey, but also very old. It occurred to me that the builders and original dwellers of the neighborhood were long gone; it gave the neighborhood a strange, bruised feel. The houses had character and style, but they seemed lost without their original owners. The separation was somehow palpable (with the soundtrack).

Reading over this I don't think I've captured the thought accurately.

Long time no blog

The riots in France continue. Is it me, or is it very strange that there is a national strategy on what is essentially a local law enforcement problem, albeit a common one.

I still think some of the French politicians are playing a "the worse, the better" game with the rioters, to wit, the worse the riots, the more the anti-immigration sentiment, which bodes well for le Pen's party. Or it could be that the French government simply lacks the ability to end the riots.

Wednesday round up

1. Torture Warrants - it deals with everything honestly I suppose.
2. Google founders buy a private jet - and yet "We've worked very hard to make sure our [net] impact on the environment is positive"
3. The gutlessness of the Republican party is amazing.
4. Kinky!
5. Topless protesters - though after a certain age one's cause doesn't really break even in effectiveness. The organization is called "Breasts not bombs" though I see no reason why we can't have both.
6. Ayn Rand's cover illustrator is still alive and has some wonderful art on his site. I highly recommend it. His prints are exhorbitantly expensive sadly.
7. Wonderful pulp art (the Shadow) from Micah Wright, who it would seem is a fraud in his other endeavors.
8. Twinsparc has released SaySo.org
   

Band of the moment

The Barnyard Playboys - nothing complicated, just good old country punk. I got their album after seeing them at the Star Bar about six years ago (during my rockabilly period) and I haven't listened to it in about 4 years. Still good, unpretentious stuff. Where else can one hear "Someone shaved a yeti" in song?

Time between

It just occurred to me that the notion of Christmas is always better retrospectively than prospectively. That is to say thoughts of Christmas future pale in comparison to memories of Christmas past.

I wonder why.

And on the 13th day

The riots continue, and seem to escalate a tad.. I am a believer that this underclass was created by perverse incentives of the French welfare system, who have nothing to lose by indulging in Jane Galt "breaking stuff is fun" meme.

That being said though, are the French actually trying to stop the rioting? Their efforts have been somewhat subtle. It seems like there's something larger afoot here.

But what about Biggie?

link via The Agitator, Cynthia McKinney brings America.... the

SEC. 4. TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR RECORDS COLLECTION AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES.

(a) In General- (1) Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the National Archives shall commence establishment of a collection of records to be known as the `Tupac Amaru Shakur Records Collection.' In so doing, the Archivist shall ensure the physical integrity and original provenance of all records. The Collection shall consist of originals or record copies of all Government records relating to the life and death of Tupac Amaru Shakur, which shall be transmitted to the National Archives in accordance with section 2107 of title 44, United States Code. The Archivist shall prepare and publish a subject guidebook and index to the collection, including the central directory described in paragraph (2)(B), which shall be available to the public and searchable electronically.

And

SEC. 5. CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

(a) Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the National Archives shall appoint an independent Citizens Advisory Committee, subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C., App.), as defined in App. 2, from candidates solicited from and nominated not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act by non-governmental organizations from the Society of American Archivists, the National Bar Association, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc., and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, the civil rights, civil liberties, entertainment and African American community, which will consist of appointees--

(1) who have not had any previous involvement with any official investigations into the life and death of Tupac Amaru Shakur,

(2) who were never employed or engaged by any Federal, state or local intelligence or law enforcement agency which is covered in the scope of this Act's search for records related to the life and death of Tupac Amaru Shakur,

(3) who shall be impartial private citizens, none of whom is presently employed by any branch of the Government, and

(4) who shall be distinguished persons of high national professional reputation in their respective fields who are capable of exercising the independent and objective judgment necessary to the fulfillment of their role in ensuring and facilitating the review, transmission to the public, and public disclosure of records related to the life and death of Tupak Shakur,

(A) who possess an appreciation of the value of such material to the public, scholars, and government, and

(B) who include at least three scholars in current history, at least 3 members of the civil rights community, at least 3 experts on civil liberties, and at least one member of the immediate family of Tupac Amaru Shakur.

IIRC I think there is only one immediate member of Shakur's family.

I think we saw the gutlessness of the Republicans with the failure of the Coburn amendment. If this makes it though Congress I suggest we hand the keys to the country to Walmart and call it a day.

Weird stuff

They now have vanilla flavored toothpaste, which I like a good bit. It's like brushing your teeth with cookies.

Not even wrong

In this article by Joe Conason on Salon. Conason makes so many errors it's best just to point you to the Agitator's take on the matter. I thought Salon was a serious publication. Oh well.

Lines of the moment

The dry

Those who would wish to take Jimmy Carter and his ideas seriously will find little assistance in this book.

The vivid

It's a soothing gargle of antiseptic mouthwash prior to flossing with a razor blade.

Weird Site

The Blog of Death

One day he'll be Senator The Cable Guy

A decent, but overly analytical profile of Larry the Cable Guy in Slate. He is one of the few comedians out there that still tells occasionally tells jokes in the Borscht Belt tradition instead of funny anecdotes and observations.

Are the French even trying?

We enter day 11 of the European intifada.

So now the French cops found a Molotov Cocktail factory and rioters are shooting at cops and attacking firemen. They seem to be doing a successful job of ghettoizing (or creating their own autonomous areas) themselves. I suppose the French will eventually call in the military once this whole thing starts to lose steam and then call it a triumph of civilization.

One of the commenters over at the Belmont Club observed:

But are letting the burnings and insurrection go on so as to give the Muslims plenty of rope to hang themselves. Perhaps a decision exists within the French government that Muslim labor is not needed when less criminally-inclined, less subversive alternatives exist in Latin America, India, Asia......and that they have decided Islam cannot assimilate and the riots are a good way of convincing the public of that fact..

Which is an interesting thought. Not practical, and a bit too clever. It also ignores the (I think) obvious observation that when you pay people to stay out of the economy you create an underclass and breed resentment. I would imagine that would happen with most immigrant groups.

Also from Belmont

Car burning is spectacular, serious enough to get attention yet -- and this is the vital point -- not serious enough to provoke lethal force

which is probably true. That means these things can go on forever and probably continue for another week or two. All of this points to large gains for le Pen's far right party whenever their next election happens.

Zell

Zell Miller has a good idea from a (IMHO) a faulty premise in the AJC.

Why does everyone insists on thinking of the Plame affair as a grand epic?

Quick round up

1. It's now six nights of rioting in Paris.
2. Secret CIA detention camps around the world. I'm reminded of Wretchard's line one time that when Truman ordered Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed, he had "the sand" to do it under his own name.
3. I finally got the proper wireless adapter for my Tivo, which I got to work without incident. Sadly it uses Wep, but with 3-4 totally unprotected networks around me I would imagine I'm not worth pursuing.
4. It's amazing how much lists and visual sign of progress can affect one's mood.
   

Before I forget to post about these

From an Agitator post about a senator naming a building after himself (much like Cynthia McKinney and Memorial Drive).

It'd be swell to see the GOP sweeped out 1994-like next year. Not that the Democrats would be any better -- or worse. I'd just like to see the Republicans get smacked around a little for their arrogance. But it won't happen. They've (a) passed incumbent-protecting McCain-Feingold, and (b) gerrymandered the bejesus out of the congressional map to make sure they're immune from accountability.

He leaves out the Roe Effect but beyond that has it about right. When will people come around to term limits?

And infrared sniper detection is cool.

You would think that five nights of rioting in Paris would be bigger news, but you're wrong. You would also think that people would bring up the fact that the rioting is happening in Algerian immigrant neighborhoods but it seems to be not that way.