Only in Atlanta

I went to the all night convenience store last night on a beer run after we ran out at the recording studio. Ahead of me in line was an obvious heroin addict (lots of track marks) wearing pajamas. Behind and to the side of me was was an attractive debutante type having a loud conversation on her cell phone. The heroin addict is having a loud conversation with the clerk about her kids (apparently it's a lot of work but they're worth it); the debutante is having a loud conversation on her cell phone that ended with "Some people have NO MANNERS!".

I savored the irony for an hour or so.

Bringing light to the world

Via PurpleSlog, this is priceless

Your saturday morning reading

• Dead Left - Jon Chair on Naomi Klein
• The Atlanta PD and their odd hat history
• Radley Balko and the non-existent presidential crime policies of the candidates
• American Murder Mystery - everyone should read this, it's about the current and future face of crime.
• Report: Rich Consistently Outearning Poor

  Armbrister stressed that it would be premature to draw any final conclusions from the 550-page report, cautioning that "much supplementary research must still be done."
  
  "Yes, we do need more data," she said. "But regardless, it is apparent that a severe gulf exists between rich and poor. And this cannot be mere coincidence. There is clearly an unknown mitigating factor at work here, and I strongly suspect it may be financial in nature.

  
  

A convincing case for Bush impeachment

is made by former Reagan official Bruce Fein on BloggingHeads. And for the record, I still prefer Bush over Kerry. It won't happen due to the fact that Bush was smart enough to enlarge presidential powers for all subsequent presidents, so no one will have the incentive to give any of them up.

Massive insight - Obama in Europe edition

With the rich, popular, and good looking candidate playing in Europe to adoring crowds, and with McCain unable to draw flies here in America, despite being the more experienced deserving candidate; McCain must feel like he's in an Adam Sandler movie.

Company Endorsement

This one goes out to Delta Machinery, who capably fixed my jointer and planer for free (both were under warranty). An easy process with very little need for documentation.

Just giving credit where credit is due.

Random insight from the ride back: Modern politics

The Bush administration has been like a movie version of a Jimmy Carter book, starring Steven Seagal, and lasting eight years.

Watchmen Trailer!

It's out early

Watch it here

Random business insight

Coming up with value-adds are usually a sign that you're on the wrong track.

Link clearing blog post

• Garet Garrett - an early libertarian writer, I just added his Atlas Shrugged precursor novel to my amazon.com wish list
• This story about a black widow who has just recently been revealed

Jeff Carstensen was spooked when he learned his grandmother planned to buy him a $100,000 life insurance policy -- and name herself the beneficiary.


"She told me that people of our stature have insurance policies on each other," he said. "That way, if something happens to you, you take care of me, and if something happens to me, I take care of you. It was all too suspicious. So I got out of there any way I could, as soon as I could."

Home is where they feed me

Assuming no one calls from the found dog signs I'll be putting up tomorrow, it looks like Drex has a new playmate. Her name is tentatively Frida. I think someone abandoned her today. She's very sweet and submissive and gets along surprisingly well with Drex. They both seem to have agreed that he is the Alpha of the two. Beyond that he doesn't really care. Hopefully she can stop him from freaking out during thunderstorms.

Sunday reading

• Cities and Ambition -

  "A friend who moved to Silicon Valley in the late 90s said the worst thing about living there was the low quality of the eavesdropping."

  I've always judged cities by the quality of the homeless and convenience stores, but there's all sorts of different metrics I suppose.
• What if politicians pandered to economists?
• The AJC now has foreclosure listings

I play with video

From my new tiny video camera. The sound quality is impressive, the degree to which YouTube Crunches it is not welcome.

A decent article about Barr and the LP

In Time magazine no less.

Thursday rapid fire

• Zinger of the day - Cop's special treatment after DUI examined - it's the usual "How did this happen" finishing with "But he said he didn't anticipate any criminal charges against anyone involved in Stephens' release." Lame.
• Bike boxes
• John Templeton has passed away - he started his financial company in the 1930s! That fills me with awe for some reason, I'm not sure why.
• PublicDomain4U.com - cool stuff
  

The rare wise move from the APD

Finally the Atlanta Police department cracks down on the idiotic critical mass rides.

After years of looking the other way, Atlanta police recently cracked down on a monthly bicycle ride through the city streets that includes blocking cars and flouting traffic laws.

At least 10 officers, eight on motorcycles and two in patrol cars, followed more than 300 bicyclists through downtown Atlanta, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland on June 27 from about 6:30 to 8 p.m. Most of the bicyclists stopped for red lights they normally would have ignored. At least two bicyclists were ticketed for disobeying traffic laws.
...
Highsmith, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, said Critical Mass would not be the same if the bicyclists followed the rules.

"The little bit of disruptiveness and the civil disobedience is a part of raising awareness [about bicycles] in a more conspicuous way," he said.

The group wants both better infrastructure for bicycles, including bike racks and lanes, and to show drivers that they, too, can hop out of the car and onto a bike.

Now honestly, if the cyclists are lobbying for better infrastructure, how does NOT using the infrastructure that's already there help matters? Why should anyone pay for more bike lanes when the existing lanes aren't being used and the people agitating for them are as boorish as possible?

Not that many people will care about this, but it's been a pet peeve of mine for years...

Tom Waits

Last night I saw Tom Waits playing the Fox Theater. The show was wonderful; he did about half the songs I was hoping he would do. The only fly in the ointment was the massive array of hoops that TicketMaster made everyone jump though; only two tickets per household, original credit card required to enter, ticket checks every 20 feet, etc. It was a bit like the old Soviet Union. Security was much tighter at the show than at my visit to the capital last year actually.

And an addendum - I was talking to a long time Waits fan after the show and she said that the security concerns probably were Waits' idea; apparently he's willing to go a long way in his vendetta against scalpers.

Here's a first

I actually donated money to a political candidate for the first time in my life. Go Barr!bob