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Paul Murray's weblog, with news you may have missed and my $0.02 worth on a number of topics. "You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
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Thursday, September 30, 2004
Ill-prepared. Again.
One of the frustrating things about Democrats is how amateurish they can seem compared to Republicans, who go all out for victory. Today's example:
Earlier this week, [the Bush campaign] launched a massive rapid-response effort called Debate Facts to rebut challenger John Kerry's assertions during the debates. The campaign will provide a live feed to about 5,000 conservative blogs that subscribe to its news alerts.... And what are the Kerry people doing (emphasis added)? The rapid-response effort by the Kerry campaign apparently won't be as comprehensive. When asked about Kerry's response operations early Wednesday afternoon, a representative said the campaign was still working on it. Amanda Michel, a member of Kerry's internet team, e-mailed members of its Media Corps -- supporters who contact newspapers, radio stations and TV shows -- telling them that the campaign would provide a response after the debate. Four years ago, conservatives convinced everyone that George Bush did better than Al Gore in the first debate. They're ready to do it again tonight with John Kerry. And the Kerry people don't seem to appreciate its importance. This stuff drives me nuts. Wednesday, September 29, 2004
The "Africantown" brouhaha continues.
Various minorities are up in arms about the idea of a government-funded plan for economic development that targets a single racial group. The latest:
Members of Detroit's Latino, Asian and Arab communities demanded a public apology from the City Council on Tuesday, denouncing the body for embracing an economic development plan that would exclusively benefit black business owners.
Questions for the candidates.
Editor & Publisher solicited noted journalists for questions they'd like to see asked at tomorrow night's debate. (Which is not really a debate, of course, just a joint press conference.)
I think the Kerry folks made a mistake in negotiating the terms; I would have offered two debates (which the Bush camp preferred) in exchange for the ability of the candidates to directly interact with each other. (via Romanesko)
Are you registered to vote?
If not, and you want to know how, go here. (Apparently you may even be able register online these days.) Some deadlines are as soon as this Saturday, October 2, so act fast.
Another "red state/blue state" comparison.
The Tax Foundation issued a study that reports on which states are net gainers or losers when it comes to Federal taxes; i.e., if a state pays in more than it receives back in spending, it's a net loser, and vice versa. So what happens when a tax professor compares this data to the state's political leanings?
17 of the top 20 net gainers (collecting more than they contribute) are rural "red states" that voted for Bush in 2000. 11 of the bottom 14 (net losers, paying more than they get back) are urban "blue states" that voted for Gore in 2000. In other words, states where the GOP does well with its "big government is bad" message are the very ones who benefit the most from it. At least Michigan did a bit better in 2002 than 1992; we're up to getting back 90 cents on the dollar, giving us a ranking of 38. Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Rather vs. Bush.
Not to defend Dan Rather, but this is an interesting comparsion:
Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor 1. given documents he thought were true 2. failed to thoroughly investigate the facts 3. reported documents to the American people as true to make his case 4. when confronted with the facts, apologized and launched an investigation 5. number of Americans dead: 0 6. should be fired as CBS News Anchor George W. Bush, President of the United States 1. given documents he thought were true 2. failed to thoroughly investigate the facts 3. reported documents to the American people as true to make his case 4. when confronted with the facts, continued to report untruth and stonewalled an investigation 5. number of Americans dead: 1100 6. should be given four more years as President of the United States (via Daily Kos)
What George Bush doesn't want you to know.
It's probably too late to change the Bush-orchestrated image of John Kerry as a flip-flopper on Iraq, but I'll try and do my part. The San Francisco Chronicle has actually looked at what Kerry said, and lo and behold:
[A]n examination of Kerry's words in more than 200 speeches and statements, comments during candidate forums and answers to reporters' questions does not support the accusation. But this is what happens when you let your opponent define you. (via Talking Points Memo)
Science marches on, but not quickly enough.
Things that are starting to matter: Why a baldness cure is taking so long. Monday, September 27, 2004
Local weirdness.
I've lived in Detroit for all of my 41 years, but I've never heard of Nain Rouge until I stumbled across it today in the Wikipedia entry for Detroit.
Let the brouhaha and backpedaling begin.
Last Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reported on this unbelievably bad idea:
A majority of the Detroit City Council wants to implement an economic development plan it commissioned for $112,000 that preaches racial isolation and rails against immigration in its bid to gain economic success for poor blacks. I held off posting it here while I pondered what to say about it. I was thinking along the lines of "let's swap the race in this story with another one and see how it reads." Today's Freep reports on the resulting controversy:
There's also plenty of backpedaling: "I have a problem with the whole approach to this issue," said [Council President Maryann] Mahaffey, one of the seven who voted for the plan. "I think it's wrong pitting one group against another. What we're saying is one group has been left out and we want to make sure they get a piece of it." Ah yes, our City Council at work.
Make your point, Senator!
I've been expressing my frustration with John Kerry to my co-workers. Why can't he express a thought as clearly as George Bush (when he's scripted, I mean)? Well, it's not just me. Stanley Fish identifies and explains the problem much better than I could in this NYT op-ed piece.
Ironically, Bush and Kerry had the same oratory teacher and debate coach at Yale. Sunday, September 26, 2004
Soup for you.
This is about two weeks old, but I just saw it: the man who inspired the Soup Nazi character on "Seinfeld" is going to franchise. It's an entertaining read. But check out those prices! Thursday, September 23, 2004
Irony is alive and well.
Guess what "60 Minutes" story CBS delayed so that they instead could run the piece with the fake Bush documents? Go ahead, guess.
(Hint: “This is like living in a Kafka novel,” said Josh Marshall, who collaborated on it.) In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger. Wednesday, September 22, 2004
You need to update Windows -- now.
A flaw was recently discovered that allows malicious code to enter a Windows PC when a JPEG is opened. Now it's no longer a theory: someone has "helpfully" posted an example of how to do it.
"Within days, you'll likely see (attacks) using this code as a basis," said Vincent Weafer, senior director of security response for antivirus-software company Symantec. "This is dangerous in a sense that everyone processes JPEG files to some degree." Go here for information and update instructions. (If you've installed Win XP's Service Pack 2, you're already set.)
Now that's funny.
I laughed out loud today when reading an article by Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press about John Waters' new movie "A Dirty Shame", which received an NC-17 rating. (Summary: After receiving a concussion, suburban housewife Tracey Ullman turns into a sex addict.) Here's what got me laughing:
To acknowledge his appreciation of his longtime distributor New Line (which releases Waters' films through its Fine Line art house subsidiary) and co-chairman and Detroit native Bob Shaye, Waters appeared before the Motion Picture Association ratings board to ask them what would have to be cut to get "A Dirty Shame" an R-rating. Priceless.
Sony gets a clue.
Well, I see that someone at Sony finally gets it: they're going to add native MP3 support to at least some of their portable music players. (Sony's current players don't play MP3s; you have to convert all your music files to their proprietary, DRM-protected ATRAC3 format. That's apparently what happens when part of your company sells music and movies; their obsession with preventing piracy cripples the hardware people's attempts at innovation.)
However, if you parse the Sony rep's statement carefully, you can tell that not everyone there is ready to drink the MP3 Kool-Aid: "We're discussing plans to bring flash players to the United States that support MP3 files" (emphasis added). So presumably the hard drive-based players like their much-ballyhooed "iPod killer" won't do this ... which means they still won't sell. Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Paved with good intentions.
Rafe Coburn has this short but incisive criticism:
I think one of the reasons I'm so obsessed with missile defense is that I find that the program is emblematic about every initiative pursued by the Bush administration. Success is judged by intentions rather than by results. He's not the first to observe this -- Fareed Zakaria made a similar point in Newsweek awhile back, specifically about Iraq -- but to see it expressed so clearly and simply is illuminating, I think. The point of that particular post was missile defense, and he pointed to this Slate article noting that it still doesn't work yet we're still throwing billions of dollars into it. Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Tinkering.
I've decided to make the Recently Consumed Media sidebar (movies, music, books, etc.) into a separate page, because there were times when I felt constrained by the amount of space available. The look is not final; it's what came with the template. There are many things I like about it but some that I don't, and I'll try adjusting as soon as I can figure out how to do it. (I admit it, CSS is confusing to me. I know it's more powerful than HTML, but I'm lost at it.)
What happens to the recordings?
It's sad to read about the decline of classical music at two labels, Sony Classical (née Columbia, then CBS Masterworks) and RCA Red Seal, which are now merging. Both were once giants of classical recording:
the vaults of each company hold a priceless trove of master tapes that document the work of many of the greatest musicians of the last century. More broadly, these recordings offer an overview of American musical life through the late 1970's, when both companies began to lose interest in recording the top American orchestras, and European labels like Decca and Deutsche Grammophon moved in to take up the cause.
More reasons why Bush is not a real conservative.
Another one of those pesky facts that most people aren't aware of:
What's the deal with Chechnya?
Late one night earlier this year I heard a BBC News segment on the radio about Chechnya; I learned more in those 10 minutes than I ever had before about the area and what the fighting is all about. That segment is not available as a Web page, unfortunately, but this Slate article is the next best thing -- better than this BBC News page, ironically.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Logical incongruity.
I see someone has updated a list that made the rounds four years ago: Things you have to believe to be a Republican today. Some of them are cheap shots, but some are so deadly accurate that it's not funny.
Friday, September 10, 2004
And now for my Larry King impersonation.
Well, not really, but I want to quickly note a few things:
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
A priceless comeback.
So Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper are discussing the DVD release of The Passion of the Christ when ... well, I'll let the guy at TVBarn2 who saw it tell you: I caught a bit of Ebert/Roeper over the weekend. Roeper was lamenting the fact the DVD for "Passion of the Christ" didn't have any bonus features. Without missing a beat, Ebert cut him in two by asking, "What do you want, an alternate ending?"As someone added, it's exchanges like this that made Siskel & Ebert worth watching, but which has been in short supply in its successor.
Cue up the Weird Al song...
Warning: You may not want to read this purported spoiler about Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!
Update: Independently confirmed. TVWeek and Newsday have picked it up; the show will not confirm it.
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