December 21, 2005

The Thinkpad Is Fucked

The WSJ reports: Lenovo Replaces Its Chief Executive With Dell Official. Time to buy a Mac.

November 27, 2005

Dog Crazies Create New Site

Those San Francisco dog nuts have done it again. They've created a website defending pit bulls. They have all these cute pictures of dogs with signs saying, "we didn't do anything wrong," along with a threat that these wacks are going to vote against the democrats because of "breed-specific legislation." Can you believe it? Single-issue dog voters?

Ha! How's this?

November 15, 2005

Harper's Lapham to Retire

The New York Times reports:

Lewis H. Lapham, the editor of Harper's Magazine for nearly 30 years, said yesterday that he would retire as editor in the spring.

October 14, 2005

What Gun and Dog Defenders Have in Common

California just loosened its ban on breed-specific dog laws, thus allowing cities like San Francisco to take measures to address pit bulls and the like. I have tried to keep an open mind in this debate, and so I read some of the websites that oppose breed-specific legislation ("BSL"). And you know what, they use the same arguments that the NRA uses. Check it out--this is from Pitbulllovers.com:

Why breed specific legislation will never work

BSL is a flawed concept from the moment it is conceived. In most cases the dogs are targeted leaving the owner, which is the responsible, rational thinking party, out of it.

Some impose fines along with their laws but are often not enforced to the maximum so the owner gets away with a slap on the wrist.

Dogs are not the problem and BSL does not reconize this. People are the problem and until we find a way to punish people for their neglectful actions which allow dogs to bite and terrorize the public we will never stop the problem.

First problem is, take one breed away, these people will find another breed to replace it.

Since the APBT bans the Rottweiler is now on the rise as the most popular breed.

Now these dogs are taking heat from the general public and the BSL supporters. Again they are restricting the dogs and not the people.

BSL can be compared to gender profiling or racial profiling. Simply because a dog appears to be a dog on the restricted list it is treated as one.

What if you were driving down the road and the police took you to jail, sentenced you, and placed you on death row just for looking like a certain ethnic group? BSL does exactly that to dogs.

So why is it then that more BSL laws are implemented daily? God forbid a person have to take responsibility for their irresponsible actions and BSL supports these people by not placing very harsh punishments on them.

October 12, 2005

Vice Magzine: Kill Your Parents

Ha! Vice Magazine has published a tirade against the baby boomers. Just imagine what will be said about "Generation X" by some future cohort labeled (and defined) by the marketing industry.

July 22, 2005

CDC: Chemicals Are in Your Bloodstream

The Wall Street Journal reports on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's third annual survey on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals:

Legal restrictions have lowered Americans' exposure to certain toxic substances such as lead and cigarette smoke, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But dozens of other potentially dangerous chemicals -- from pesticides to the fragrances in cosmetics -- appear to be nearly ubiquitous in Americans' bloodstreams, the agency found.

The full report is online.

July 18, 2005

Animal Hoarding "Not Highly Unusual"

The Washington Post has an interesting article today about Animal Hoarding, as a result of this case in Mount Vernon where one person had 488 cats. I became interested in this article upon seeing the headline on washingtonpost.com, which was somewhat Onion-like:

Cat Hoarding Not Highly Unusual

Caching pets is a national phenomenon, scientists say, but a Fairfax case might be a regional record.

As part of the coverage, Paul Duggan and Leef Smith discuss the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, "a group of eight human behavior and animal experts in the Boston area who have been studying the phenomenon nationwide for the past few years, interviewing dozens of hoarders." Awesome!

...most of the hoarders interviewed by Patronek's group [Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium] said their motivations were humane -- they wanted to protect the animals. "But we don't think that's really what's going on here," Patronek said.

Without commenting on Knueven, he said: "Ultimately it's not about sheltering or rescuing. . . . The explanation that they're running a sanctuary or shelter is just really disingenuous. They may in their own heads somewhat believe that. But it's really about the animals providing them with something, not vice versa. . . . It's about [the animals] fulfilling a human need they have."

[...]

After interviewing nearly 50 hoarders, Patronek said, "We're starting to tease out a profile of somebody who probably suffered childhood trauma. They may have had absent parents or unstable parenting. Animals were the only stable fixture in their lives. And perhaps they developed unusually strong bonds with their animals."

In many instances, he said, the obsessions with pets disappeared in early adulthood.

"But ultimately they turn back to animals later in life, and when that return occurs, it's really in a dysfunctional kind of way. And we see the hoarding begin."

Patronek said he wasn't surprised to learn that Knueven kept dozens of her dead felines in clear, plastic containers.

"We think these people have behavioral deficits, which includes avoidance behavior," he said of the hoarders interviewed by the consortium. "They have trouble with responsibility, with making decisions." Some ignored their dead pets. "So you literally walk into a house and you're stepping over carcasses," he said. "But then in other cases, it's not uncommon to see them ritually store the dead animals in some fashion."

July 09, 2005

Where are the Broadcast-Flag-Free HDTVs?

I’m in the market for a LCD or plasma HDTV, but I don’t want one that contains the Broadcast Flag. You probably already heard that the forces of good invalidated the FCC mandate that required the flag to be installed in TVs. Despite this huge win, I can’t find a single HDTV made today that 1) has digital outputs and 2) lacks the broadcast flag.

I read in the Washington Post last week that some manufacturers incorporated the flag some time ago (RCA), while others simply removed the digital outs (Phillips). In most cases, the manufacturers' websites do not speak to the copy protection issue, and the issue is at a level of detail that most salespeople can't answer it.

I wrote to Panasonic a week ago, asking about digital outs and the broadcast flag. Here is their response. To their credit, they answered in a timely fashion and didn’t try to upsell me with some BS, but their televisions have the Flag:

Dear MR HOOF

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the Panasonic PT50DL54. We apologize
for the delay in providing you a reply to your inquiry, and we hope that
this delay has not caused you any inconvenience. The PT50DL54 does not
meet the requirements you have listed. All Panasonic HDTV televisions will
have HDCP (High Definition Copy Production). The PT50DL54 does not have
digital audio and video outputs.

Thank You,
Panasonic Consumer Support

July 06, 2005

Advertising Adds Thousands to Cost of New Vehicles

This article in the Wall Street Journal mainly discusses automakers giving "employee discounts" on sales of new cars. It also includes this graphic, showing how much automakers spend on advertising per car sold!

Be Poked and Prodded by MIT

Give Up!

Brother Mark sez Give Up!

I've written a positive argument directed at liberals for a new form of progressive federalism or "Blue states rights" based upon scientific evidence that proves liberal policies have actually been more successful on a state level. My approach is to consider empirical differences between the states by compiling publicly available information into maps which demonstrate that Blue states are actually far better at serving their citizens' needs than the Red states. These maps are the centerpiece of my argument, and synthesize the vast amount of information on effects of governance into evidence for progressive policy on a local level.

July 05, 2005

Econ Becoming Popular

The Wall Street Journal brings us bad news: economics, that religion posing as science, is becoming popular at colleges.

U.S. colleges and universities awarded 16,141 degrees to economics majors in the 2003-2004 academic year, up nearly 40% from five years earlier, according to John J. Siegfried, an economics professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who tracks 272 colleges and universities around the country for the Journal of Economic Education.

June 26, 2005

Cooking Could Inflate My D???

How can it be that Conviser's mnemonic for specific performance, cooking could inflate my d???, is not online. Sam thinks the D word is "duff;" I think it is "duck."

June 16, 2005

Newspaper Execs Who Inflated Circulation Arrested

If you deceive the public and get caught, you're likely to be simply fined by the FTC. If you deceive advertisers...you get thrown in jail! The Wall Street Journal reports:

Three former executives at Tribune Co. newspapers were arrested yesterday for their alleged involvement in circulation schemes to get advertisers to pay millions of dollars in inflated fees at two of the company's newspapers, Long Island's Newsday and Spanish-language Hoy.

May 31, 2005

Cranky Consumer: Many E-mails Go Unanswered

The Wall Street Journal's Crany Consumer Column focuses on response times to customer service e-mails:

...over a quarter of the emails that consumers send to companies are ignored altogether, says the Customer Respect Group, a consulting company that sends out thousands of test messages each year. And while the rate of lost emails is dropping in most industries, there are exceptions. The computer products and services industry, for example, saw its no-reply rate rise to 36% in the fourth quarter of last year, from 32% in the second quarter of 2003, according to the CRG.

We decided to email companies in five different industries to see how quickly they responded to our queries -- and how relevant and helpful the responses were...

INDUSTRY: Telecommunications
OUR AVERAGE WAIT: 68 hours
TOP PERFORMER: Cingular took only 27 minutes to reply
DISAPPOINTMENT: Packet8 never replied at all -- company said our email may have been mistaken as spam.
COMMENT: Those companies that responded offered helpful information.
* * *

INDUSTRY: Technology
OUR AVERAGE WAIT: 14 hours
TOP PERFORMER: Microsoft's email techs were attentive to the point of neediness.
DISAPPOINTMENT: Google forced us to jump through too many hoops before showing our question to a live human.
COMMENT: Despite industry stats on missing emails, tech companies performed best for us.
* * *

INDUSTRY: Airlines
OUR AVERAGE WAIT: 33 hours
TOP PERFORMER: Northwest's speedy reply was in keeping with the airline's sleek site.
DISAPPOINTMENT: JetBlue's 69-hour response time was the worst in our test.
COMMENT: Without JetBlue, the airlines' average was only 7 minutes longer than that of tech companies.
* * *

INDUSTRY: Hotels
OUR AVERAGE WAIT: 70 hours
TOP PERFORMER: Marriott was the third-fastest company in our test.
DISAPPOINTMENT: Best Western replied only after we contacted a spokeswoman and identified ourselves as a reporter.
COMMENT: Service ran the widest gamut -- from a 7-hour wait to a week.
* * *

INDUSTRY: Consumer products
OUR AVERAGE WAIT: 83 hours
TOP PERFORMER: When we asked about the possibility of defective batteries, Energizer volunteered to mail us coupons for free batteries.
DISAPPOINTMENT: Talk about commitment phobia: Colgate's site told us we "should receive a response in the coming weeks."
COMMENT: We're still were waiting to find out whether it's safe to use excessive amounts of whitening toothpaste.

May 22, 2005

Your Healthcare, Living Wage Is Hung on a Wall

The New York Times reports:

Alice L. Walton, the Wal-Mart heiress whose family foundation bought a coveted Asher B. Durand landscape from the New York Public Library this week for more than $35 million...

May 17, 2005

Debt, Debt, Debt

Debt is going to be the end of us! And there is a whole series of articles about Americans being overextended in today's newspapers. The Washington Post reports that even the federal bank regulators, wholly-owned subsidiaries of the industry they oversee, have called for a cooling in the home equity loan market:

Federal banking regulators yesterday warned banks and other lenders to be more selective about who can get home equity loans and lines of credit because rising interest rates may make it harder for people to repay their loans...

...At issue is the fast-growing market for home equity lending, which rose to $881 billion at the end of 2004 from $492 billion at the end of 2000, up 79 percent, according to the Federal Reserve. Overall mortgage indebtedness nationwide climbed 57 percent, to $7.54 trillion at the end of 2004 from $4.8 trillion at the end of 2000.

With average wages growing less than inflation, many homeowners have turned to home equity loans or lines of credit to make purchases, renovate their residences, consolidate credit card debt and pay bills they otherwise couldn't afford, such as medical expenses.

Turn over to the Wall Street Journal, and you'll find two gems. Better coverage of the problem is provided by Ruth Simon:

...The data, from the Mortgage Bankers Association, show that adjustable-rate and interest-only mortgages accounted for nearly two-thirds of mortgage originations in the second half of last year...

..."The situation with interest-only ARMs is just one of several very scary things going on in the mortgage industry," says Stu Feldstein, president of SMR Research Corp., a market-research firm in Hackettstown, N.J. The rise of interest-only loans, combined with other factors such as higher debt levels and changing bankruptcy laws, are likely to cause foreclosures to rise, he says, "possibly dramatically."

And check out this information box provided by the Journal:

LOAN HAZARDS

If you borrow $350,000 with an interest-only mortgage that carries a fixed rate of roughly 4.8% for the first five years, here's what you will pay:

The monthly payment on the loan would be $1,403 during the initial period.

Even if interest rates don't rise, the monthly payment would jump to $2,008 after five years.

If rates jump by two percentage points instead, the monthly payment would jump by 73% to nearly $2,500.

Source: Dominion Bond Rating Service

Bob Davis, also of the Journal, reports on the growing problem of growing consumer credit card debt. After a series of examples of people who charged too much (including Benjamin Franklin Baggett, engraved below), and discussion of bankruptcy rates in Utah, he writes:

Economists Fabrizio Perri of New York University and Dirk Krueger of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, trace the credit surge to the widening income gap between the rich and the rest of U.S. society. The gap between the incomes of those at the top and the bottom widened substantially between 1970 and 2000, but the gap in consumption widened much less as moderate-income Americans turned increasingly to debt. Cornell University economist Robert Frank sees house sizes, which have grown 30% since 1980, as an indication that middle-income Americans are battling to keep pace with the wealthy homeowners who build king-size McMansions...

Yet many fear credit has spread so widely that many Americans are overextending themselves, leaving a growing number anxiously in debt and, increasingly, bankrupt. Outstanding household debt doubled to more than $10 trillion between 1992 and 2004, after accounting for inflation. Because of low interest rates, consumers' monthly debt burden didn't increase nearly as rapidly.

Despite all of this talk about debt, my advice to you focuses on being engraved. If you are so unfortunate to be featured in the Journal as someone who went into debt, bankruptcy, and divorce, don't hit absolute rock-bottom--avoid being engraved as a mouth breather.

NYT Confusion Over Marketing Practices

David Leonhardt writes a confused article in the New York Times that discusses a number of annoying marketing behaviors, including "shrouding," a practice of hiding prices associated with a product:

...the features that add to the price of a new car, the warranty from Best Buy, the burgers at the ballpark and the surcharge Ticketmaster puts on concert tickets. The price you hear is not the price you end up paying.

This article is not timely. Anyone who has worked in consumer law knows that shrouding, often referred to as "packing," has been a problem for a long time. Take wireless phone service, for instance. When was the last time you paid $49.99 for the service advertised for $49.99? Nevertheless, Leonhardt approaches it as a new issue: "Welcome to the à la carte economy, where consumers seem to face new decisions every few minutes and businesses know precisely when their customers are most vulnerable." (Here, he's actually describing upselling.)

Some of the article deals with poor advertising practices that hide important, secondary costs of owning a product. He gives the example of Hewlett Packard printers. The company makes it extremely difficult to determine the cost per page for printing, which btw, is the most important aspect of a general-use printer.

I'm not blogging this article to criticize Leonhardt (although he does begin the article with the most inconsequential example of "upselling," not shrouding, with an appeal to Zagat-reading fools who run up their bill by ordering Pellegrino at a restaurant), but rather to point out a trend that I think is critically important in consumer protection:

There really are two types of consumers when it comes to shrouding: one who takes advantage of the murkiness and another who gets taken advantage of. To make matters even worse, the less savvy group ends up subsidizing the more sophisticated one...

These are the smart, unprofitable customers. They are also the ones who would be attracted to a competitor that was being more upfront about prices than Hewlett-Packard...

I wrote in an EPIC report, Privacy Self-Regulation, A Decade of Disappointment that consumers are on the edge of increasingly invasive profiling activity to separate the savvy from the stupid:

There is a growing movement in the "customer relationship management" or profiling industry where businesses are encouraged to eliminate customers who complain or who return goods. Jim Dion, president of retail consulting firm Dionco Inc., recently urged storeowners to create disincentives for certain customers. Dion characterized 20% of the population as "bottom feeders," who complain and have low-levels of loyalty. Businesses, he argues, should try to eliminate these customers: "It'd be cheaper to stop them at the door and give them $10 not to come in." An article in DMNews quotes Dion as suggesting that retailers "should consider a preferred-customer database­prefer that they don't shop here."

And major businesses are adopting these recommendations. Best Buy's consumer exclusion tactics were recently detailed by the Wall Street Journal. Literally, Best Buy is trying to eliminate its most savvy customers, ones that recognize good deals, in favor of less thrifty customers that the company can charge more. Other companies engage in consumer exclusion in more subtle ways, for instance, Harrah's casinos automatically identifies callers and charges them for hotel rooms based on their perceived profit potential. The company hides the profiling system because consumers, if fully informed, would find the practices creepy.

Mysterious Bog People in the Federal Register

The Federal Register brings us determinations concerning the Mysterious Bog People:

...I hereby determine that the objects to be included in the exhibition, ``The Mysterious Bog People,'' imported from abroad for temporary exhibition within the United States, are of cultural significance. The objects are imported pursuant to loan agreements with the foreign lenders. I also determine that the exhibition or display of the exhibit objects at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from on or about July 9, 2005, to on or about January 22, 2006, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, from on or about March 16, 2006, to on or about September 10, 2006, the Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from on or about October 22, 2006, to on or about January 21, 2007, and at possible additional venues yet to be determined, is in the national interest.

May 09, 2005

Why Is Citibank Failing?

I found this flyer near Powell and Ellis Streets. It makes little sense.

May 07, 2005

LP on Stopping Libertarians from Blowing People Up

This is a bit old--I grabbed it from Google cache. A press release from the Libertarian Party explaining how to prevent libertarians like Timothy McVeigh from blowing people up. You guessed it--it recommends that America should become more libertarian, just like McVeigh wanted it. But wouldn't that be giving in to the terrorists? I wonder if the Taliban has a press release called, "What now? Five suggestions to prevent the next OBL."

June 12, 2001

What now? Five suggestions to prevent the next Timothy McVeigh

[June 12] WASHINGTON, DC -- Now that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has been executed, there are specific actions the government should immediately take to prevent such a horrific act of domestic terrorism from ever happening again, Libertarians say.

“Of course, no one can guarantee that another Timothy McVeigh-style psychopath won’t try to murder scores of innocent people,” said Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party national director. “However, Libertarians have five concrete suggestions for the government, each of which would reduce the chance of such a crime being repeated.”

On Monday morning, McVeigh was executed by lethal injection at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for his role in the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people in a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Now, the government should act quickly to try to change the political climate that helped spawn a Timothy McVeigh, said Dasbach. Such reforms could include:

(1) Prosecute government officials who commit crimes.

“McVeigh said he blew up the building in Oklahoma City to protest the federal government’s actions in Waco -- and he was quickly apprehended, tried, and punished for his crime,” noted Dasbach. “That was proper, even if you might disagree with the morality of the death sentence.

“However, not a single FBI or BATF agent was arrested for their role in the fiery deaths of 86 people at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. There should not be one standard of justice for ordinary Americans, and another for government officials. Until that injustice is eliminated, many Americans will continue to view their government with suspicion, fear, and bitterness.”

(2) Embrace an open, vibrant political system.

“People tend to turn to violence only when they feel they have no other way to be heard,” said Dasbach. “It is the government’s responsibility, then, to make sure that political discussion is not restricted, regulated, or suppressed.

“When Americans feel they have a role in the political system, they will work through the political system to make productive changes. When that avenue is blocked -- either by restrictive ballot access laws, legal curbs on political speech, exclusion from debates, or by attempting to discredit unpopular political speech -- the Timothy McVeighs of the world turn to violence.

“That’s why robust political debate -- especially about the abuse of government power -- is a healthy way to change the system. And that’s why stifling such debate is downright dangerous.”

(3) Reject violence on principle.

“Over the past 20 years, the United States government has intervened militarily in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Haiti, Panama, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and other nations,” said Dasbach. “In each case, these military actions resulted in innocent civilians being killed, and were done without the benefit of a formal declaration of war.

“The message of these actions is simple: It’s proper to use violence to achieve political goals. That’s a message the government should not send. Instead, a commitment to nonviolence should start at the top.

“Unless the security of the United States is directly threatened, the U.S. government should not bomb, invade, or drop missiles on people in other nations. Violence breeds violence, and it’s time for our government to lead by example and stop the bloodshed.”

(4) Repeal the Omnibus Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996.

“This legislation, rushed through Congress after the Oklahoma City bombing, grants the president arbitrary power to declare individuals ‘terrorists,’ authorizes the use of secret evidence, and reverses the presumption of innocence for suspects,” said Dasbach. “Repealing this law would expand freedom without hindering the ability to catch real criminals.

“The freedoms recognized under the Bill of Rights are our strongest bulwark against terrorism. Security measures that infringe on those freedoms will inevitably lead to abuse, ultimately making us less secure in our lives and property.”

(5) Reduce the size and power of the federal government.

“No, we’re not saying that the growing power of the federal government justifies what Timothy McVeigh did,” said Dasbach. “But the fact is, millions of Americans view their own government with suspicion and distrust.

“Americans see a government that can recklessly seize our property under asset forfeiture, eminent domain, or environmental laws; that can detain us at roadblocks for not wearing a seatbelt; that forces banks to spy on their own customers; that shoots innocent people dead in the name of the War on Drugs; that can secretly read our e-mail; that allows the IRS to seize our bank accounts; and that can violate our civil liberties in a thousand different ways.

“A government that was limited to its Constitutionally defined role would be smaller, less intrusive, and less threatening. It would be a government that honors fundamental American liberties, instead of undermining them. And it would be a government that gives Americans little reason to view it with apprehension.”

Those five suggestions have something in common, said Dasbach: They would all change the political climate in a positive way -- and make future Timothy McVeighs less likely.

“We can never bring back the men, women, and children who were killed in Oklahoma City,” he said. “But by using this tragedy to honor and reaffirm our nation’s fundamental liberties, we can help make sure that the 168 people who died in Oklahoma City did not die in vain. It would be America’s way of standing up and saying: ‘Never again.’ ”

May 04, 2005

May Day Is Loyalty Day Under Bush

Ha.

Presidential Documents

[[Page 23773]]

Proclamation 7892 of April 29, 2005

Loyalty Day, 2005

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Generations of men and women have sacrificed to defend
the basic principles of liberty upon which our Nation
was founded. This spirit of selfless service helps keep
America strong and free. On Loyalty Day, we join
together to celebrate this bond that makes our country
great.

For more than two centuries, our military has given us
examples of courage and patriotism that make every
American proud. Today, more than a million Americans
are stationed around the world, taking great risks and
making personal sacrifices to secure the blessings of
liberty for our country and to spread peace and
freedom. These brave men and women are unrelenting in
battle and unwavering in loyalty. Their service
exemplifies our Nation's ideals, and they have our
gratitude and support.

Volunteer service is also a proud American value. Our
Nation relies on compassionate souls who look after
their neighbors and surround the lost with love.
Through good works, we can extend the promise of our
country into every home and neighborhood. This year, I
announced a new initiative, Helping America's Youth,
led by First Lady Laura Bush, to help young people
overcome the challenges they may face and emphasize the
importance of loving, caring adults in every child's
life. By educating and preparing today's young people
to be the leaders of tomorrow, we strengthen our
country and pass on the liberties we cherish to rising
generations.

The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, as amended, has
designated May 1 of each year as ``Loyalty Day.'' On
Loyalty Day, we honor our great Nation and the people
who help keep it safe and strong. I ask all Americans
to join me in this day of celebration and in
reaffirming our allegiance to our Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1,
2005, as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the
United States to join in support of this national
observance, and to display the flag of the United
States on Loyalty Day.

[[Page 23774]]

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand five, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-ninth.

(Presidential Sig.)B

[FR Doc. 05-9032
Filed 5-3-05; 8:48 am]

Billing code 3195-01-P

Expats in the Federal Register

If you decide to leave the country and give up your citizenship permanently, you'll eventually appear in the Federal Register:

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Internal Revenue Service

Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To
Expatriate, as Required by Section 6039G

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice is provided in accordance with IRC section 6039G,
as amended, by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPPA) of 1996. This listing contains the name of each individual
losing United States citizenship (within the meaning of section 877(a))
with respect to whom the Secretary received information during the
quarter ending March 31, 2005.

April 30, 2005

WSJ on US Chardonnay: Don't Buy It (for under $20)

Ouch! WSJ's Gaiter and Brecher go after the inexpensive US Chardonnays this week:

If you were planning to head to the wine store tonight to pick up a bottle of American Chardonnay under $20, we have one word of advice: Don't.

[...]

Earlier this year, we conducted a tasting of inexpensive Australian Chardonnay and were disappointed by what we found...The wines were dull and lifeless. They tasted like water with some wood added.

[...]

Generally, we found the wines sweet and lacking charm, often with hints of pickling spices and far more wood than fruit. "Fake," "like Kool-Aid mix," "Scuppernong funkiness" -- these were just a few of our descriptions. Many of the wines were even more unpleasant on the finish than in the mouth, as though the overlying sugar got stripped away in the mouth and simply left the skeletal essence of the bad wine in the throat.

[...]

Of more than 50 wines, we can only recommend four -- and, to our surprise, one of them is from Rutherford Vintners, made by the producers of Two-Buck Chuck.

The Dow Jones Inexpensive American Chardonnay Index

In a tasting of American Chardonnay under $20, all from the 2003 vintage, these were our favorites.

Vineyard/Vintage Price Rating Tasters' Comments

St. Francis Winery & Vineyard (Sonoma County) $10.99 Very Good/ Delicious Best of tasting and best value. Tastes expensive, with tight, nicely acidic fruit, nutmeg and cinnamon and a good underpinning of earth and chalk. Classy and full. Good with lobster.

Clos du Bois (North Coast) $11.99 Very Good Vibrant. Easy to drink, with lovely, ripe fruit. Good to sip alone or with food.

J. Lohr Winery "Riverstone" (Arroyo Seco, Monterey) $11.99 Good/Very Good Rich and tart, with some mouthfeel. Interesting, with fruit and vitality. Well-balanced. Great with pork or veal.

Rutherford Vintners "Barrel Select" (Stanislaus County) $9.99 Good/Very Good Clean and fresh. The oak doesn't get in the way of the nice fruit.

April 25, 2005

Simon as Michael Jackson

At the CFP Conference Big Brother Awards Ceremony.

On this Site in 1897 Nothing Happened

On Church near Cesar Chavez.

Welcome to Looney Valley!

Who says that there are no conservatives in SF! This is a storefront on 24th near Castro St.

5,000 Workplace Deaths A Year

The Corporate Crime Reporter reports on the "stop the corporate killers" campaign initiated by National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH). Check it:

Campaign to Stop Corporate Killing

Every year some 5,000 workers are killed on the job and thousands more die from illnesses caused by occupational exposures. Many of these deaths are determined by state and federal OSHA investigations to be due to employers' reckless disregard for worker safety. But, as documented in a recent New York Times series, prosecutions of recklessly negligent employers are extremely rare. Of the 170,000 workplace deaths since 1982, only 16 convictions involving jail time have resulted. This despite the fact that 1,798 cases involving worker deaths were determined by OSHA to involve "willful" violations by employers--that is, violations in which the employer knew that workers' lives were being put at risk.

Killing a worker is currently considered a misdemeanor under federal law, with a maximum sentence of six months in jail. Even for willful violations, fines are typically under $25,000. Conviction for unlawful aerial harassment of mule deer, in contrast, can bring up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. It is time to reconsider our reluctance to employ significant criminal penalties in cases where gross negligence results in the death of a worker...

Botero Paints Abu Ghraib

50 works, to be exhibited in Rome in June.

April 20, 2005

More Vehicle Theft Data

Our friends at the Federal Register have published this notice from NHTSA listing cars that have abnormally high theft rates.

This final rule announces NHTSA's determination for model year (MY) 2006 high-theft vehicle lines that are subject to the parts- marking requirements of the Federal motor vehicle theft prevention standard, and high-theft MY 2006 lines that are exempted from the parts-marking requirements because the vehicles are equipped with antitheft devices determined to meet certain statutory criteria pursuant to the statute relating to motor vehicle theft prevention.

[...]

The purpose of the theft prevention standard is to reduce the
incidence of motor vehicle theft by facilitating the tracing and
recovery of parts from stolen vehicles. The standard seeks to
facilitate such tracing by requiring that vehicle identification
numbers (VINs), VIN derivative numbers, or other symbols be placed on
major component vehicle parts. The theft prevention standard requires
motor vehicle manufacturers to inscribe or affix VINs onto covered
original equipment major component parts, and to inscribe or affix a
symbol identifying the manufacturer and a common symbol identifying the
replacement component parts for those original equipment parts, on all
vehicle lines selected as high-theft.

[...]

The agency annually publishes the names of the lines which were
previously listed as high-theft, and the lines which are being listed
for the first time and will be subject to the theft prevention standard
beginning in a given model year in Appendix A to Part 541. It also
identifies in Appendix A-I to Part 541 those lines that are exempted
from the theft prevention standard for a given model year under section
33104. Additionally, this listing identifies those lines (except light-
duty trucks) in Appendix B to Part 541 that have theft rates below the
1990/1991 median theft rate but are subject to the requirements of this
standard under section 33103.

[...]

Appendix A to Part 541--Lines Subject to the Requirements of This
Standard

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer Subject lines
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALFA ROMEO................... Milano 161 and 164.
BMW.......................... Z3, Z8.
CONSULIER.................... Consulier GTP.
DAEWOO....................... Korando, Musso (MPV), Nubira (2000-2002).
DAIMLERCHRYSLER.............. Chrysler Cirrus, Chrysler Fifth Avenue/
Newport, Chrysler Laser, Chrysler
LeBaron/Town & Country, Chrysler LeBaron
GTS, Chrysler's TC, Chrysler New Yorker
Fifth Avenue, Chrysler Sebring, Dodge
600, Dodge Aries, Dodge Avenger, Dodge
Colt, Dodge Daytona, Dodge Diplomat,
Dodge Lancer, Dodge Neon, Dodge Shadow,
Dodge Stratus, Dodge Stealth, Eagle
Summit, Eagle Talon, Jeep Cherokee
(MPV), Jeep Liberty (MPV), Jeep Wrangler
(MPV), Plymouth Caravelle, Plymouth
Colt, Plymouth Laser, Plymouth Gran
Fury, Plymouth Neon, Plymouth Reliant,
Plymouth Sundance, and Plymouth Breeze.
FERRARI...................... Mondial 8, 328.
FORD......................... Ford Aspire, Ford Escort, Ford Probe,
Lincoln Continental, Lincoln Mark,
Mercury Capri, Mercury Cougar, Merkur
Scorpio, and Merkur XR4Ti.
GENERAL MOTORS............... Buick Electra, Buick Reatta, Buick
Skylark, Chevrolet Nova, Chevrolet
Blazer (MPV), Chevrolet Prizm, Chevrolet
S-10 Pickup, Geo Storm, Chevrolet
Tracker (MPV), GMC Jimmy (MPV), GMC
Sonoma Pickup, Oldsmobile Achieva (1997-
1998), Oldsmobile Bravada, Oldsmobile
Cutlass, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
(1988-1997), Oldsmobile Intrigue,
Pontiac Fiero, Saturn Sports Coupe (1991-
2002).
HONDA........................ Accord, CRV (MPV), Odyssey (MPV),
Passport, Pilot (MPV), Prelude, S2000,
Acura Integra, Acura MDX (MPV), and
Acura RSX.
HYUNDAI...................... Accent, Sonata, Tiburon.
ISUZU........................ Amigo, Impulse, Rodeo, Rodeo Sport,
Stylus, Trooper/Trooper II, VehiCross
(MPV).
JAGUAR....................... XJ.
KIA MOTORS................... Optima, Rio, Sephia (1998-2002), Spectra.
LOTUS........................ Elan.
MASERATI..................... Biturbo, Quattroporte, 228.
MAZDA........................ 626 (1987-2002), MX-3, MX-6.
MERCEDES-BENZ................ 190 D, 190 E, 260E (1987-1989), 300 SE
(1988-1991), 300 TD (1987), 300 SDL
(1987), 300 SEL, 350 SDL (1990-1991),
420 SEL (1987-1991), 560 SEL (1987-
1991), 560 SEC (1987-1991), 560 SL.
MITSUBISHI................... Cordia, Eclipse, Lancer, Mirage, Montero
(MPV), Montero Sport (MPV), Tredia,
3000GT.
NISSAN....................... 240SX, Sentra/200SX, Xterra.
PEUGEOT...................... 405.
PORSCHE...................... 924S.
SUBARU....................... XT, SVX, Baja, Forester, Legacy Outback
(1995-2004).
SUZUKI....................... Aerio, X90 (MPV), Sidekick (1997-1998),
and Vitara/Grand Vitara (MPV).
TOYOTA....................... Toyota 4-Runner (MPV), Toyota Avalon,
Toyota Camry, Toyota Celica, Toyota
Corolla/Corolla Sport, Toyota Echo,
Toyota Highlander (MPV), Toyota Matrix
(MPV), Toyota MR2, Toyota MR2 Spyder,
Toyota Prius, Toyota RAV4 (MPV), Toyota
Sienna (MPV), Toyota Tercel, Lexus
IS300, Lexus RX300 (MPV), Scion xA,
Scion xB.
VOLKSWAGEN................... Audi Quattro, Volkswagen Scirocco.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix A-I--High-Theft Lines With Antitheft Devices Which are
Exempted From the Parts-Marking Requirements of This Standard Pursuant
to 49 CFR Part 543

[[Page 20484]]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer Subject lines
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTIN ROVER................. Sterling.
BMW.......................... MINI, X5, Z4, 3 Car Line, 5 Car Line, 6
Car Line, 7 Car Line, 8 Car Line.
DAIMLERCHRYSLER.............. Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler Conquest,
Chrysler Imperial, Chrysler Town and
Country MPV.
FORD......................... Lincoln Town Car, Mustang, Mercury Sable
(2001-2004), Mercury Grand Marquis,
Taurus (2000-2004), Thunderbird.\1\
GENERAL MOTORS............... Buick Lucerne, Buick LeSabre \2\, Buick
LaCrosse/Century, Buick Park Avenue,
Buick Regal/Century \3\, Buick Riviera,
Cadillac Allante, Cadillac Deville,
Cadillac Seville, Chevrolet Corvette,
Chevrolet Cavalier, Chevrolet Classic,
Chevrolet Impala/Monte Carlo, Chevrolet
Lumina, Monte Carlo (1996-1999),
Chevrolet Malibu (2001-2003), Chevrolet
Uplander, Chevrolet Venture (2002-2004)
\4\, Oldsmobile Alero, Oldsmobile
Aurora, Oldsmobile Toronado, Pontiac
Bonneville, Pontiac Grand Am, Pontiac
Grand Prix, Pontiac Sunfire.
HONDA........................ Acura CL, Acura Legend (1991-1996), Acura
NSX, Acura RL, Acura SLX, Acura TL,
Acura Vigor (1992-1995).
ISUZU........................ Axiom, Impulse (1987-1991).
JAGUAR....................... XK.
MAZDA........................ 6, 929, MX-5 Miata \5\ RX-7, Millenia.
MERCEDES-BENZ................ 124 Car Line (the models within this line
are): 260E, 300D, 300E, 300CE, 300TE,
400E, 500E, 129 Car Line (1993-2002)-the
models within this line are: 300SL,
500SL, 600SL, SL320, SL500, SL600, 202
Car Line (the models within this line
are): C220, C230, C280, C36, and C43.
MITSUBISHI................... Galant, Starion, and Diamante.
NISSAN....................... Nissan Altima, Nissan Maxima, Nissan
Pathfinder, Nissan 300ZX, Infiniti G35,
Infiniti I30, Infiniti J30, Infiniti
M30, Infiniti M45, Infiniti QX4, and
Infiniti Q45.
PORSCHE...................... 911, 928, 968, 986 Boxster.
SAAB......................... 9-3, 900 (1994-1998), 9000 (1989-1998).
TOYOTA....................... Toyota Supra, Toyota Cressida, Lexus ES,
Lexus GS, Lexus LS, Lexus SC.
VOLKSWAGEN................... Audi 5000S, Audi 100/A6, Audi 200/S4/S6,
Audi Allroad Quattro (MPV), Audi
Cabriolet, Volkswagen Cabrio, Volkswagen
Corrado, Volkswagen Golf/GTI, Volkswagen
Jetta/Jetta III, Volkswagen Passat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Granted an exemption from the partsmarking requirements beginning
with MY 2006.
\2\ The Buick LeSabre was renamed Buick Lucerne beginning with MY 2006.
\3\ The Buick Regal/Century was renamed Buick LaCrosse/Century beginning
with MY 2005.
\4\ The Chevrolet Venture was renamed the Chevrolet Uplander in MY 2005.

\5\ Granted an exemption from the partsmarking requirements beginning
with MY 2005.

April 11, 2005

TRAC: "Only About One Out of Three Large Corporations Were Audited" by IRS

A new TRAC report finds:

...IRS data show far fewer agency audits aimed at large corporations providing investment advice, various kinds of banking and credit services and insurance than to corporations in other businesses. The big disparities -- documented in previously undisclosed data obtained and analyzed by TRAC -- concern corporations with $250 million or more in assets. The new IRS data document that on an overall basis only about one in three were audited. Other data show that despite recent IRS claims that it is vigorously enforcing the tax laws, the audit rate for all corporations has continued to decline along with the face-to-face audits of wealthy taxpayers.

April 08, 2005

Wal-Mart Exec's Corruption, "Union" Projects

What's amazing about this article is not that the executive was leeching cash from the company, but that he could be reimbursed for "union" projects! The Wall Street Journal reports:

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Last November, Thomas M. Coughlin, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s vice chairman, approached a lieutenant with an unusual request. He wanted Jared Bowen to approve around $2,000 in expense payments without any receipts.

Mr. Bowen, then a 31-year-old vice president, recalls that Mr. Coughlin briefly mentioned the money had been used for a "union project."

[...]

The tale involves another mystery: the "union project." Mr. Coughlin told several Wal-Mart employees that the money was actually being used for antiunion activities, including paying union staffers to tell him of pro-union workers in stores, according to people familiar with the matter. The fake invoices, Mr. Coughlin told these people, were simply a roundabout way of compensating him for out-of-pocket expenses in his antiunion campaign.

If Mr. Coughlin did pay union staffers for information, it would represent a criminal offense under the federal Taft-Hartley Act and ratchet up debate over the retail giant's labor policies. Wal-Mart has vigorously opposed unions since the time of Mr. Walton, who founded the company in 1962. That stance has roiled the retail industry as competing companies with unionized workers have tried to slash wages and benefits in an attempt to keep up with Wal-Mart's rock-bottom prices.

People familiar with the matter say that Mr. Coughlin is expected to use the "union project" as part of his defense to the charges about misappropriation of funds. These people give an explanation that wouldn't necessarily involve criminal activity: The payments went to former, rather than current, union people who had information about union activities at Wal-Mart. Even such payments, if made, could raise legal questions. According to Fred Feinstein, the former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, they could violate the National Labor Relations Act and carry civil penalties.

However, it remains unclear whether any payments were made or whether the union project existed. It is possible that Mr. Coughlin's talk of antiunion work was a cover story to conceal misuse of Wal-Mart funds for personal or other purposes.

[...]

Mr. Coughlin embraced another longtime Wal-Mart tradition: antiunionism. Led by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, labor organizers have tried for years to unionize Wal-Mart's U.S. workers, who currently number 1.3 million, but they have met with fierce and well-organized opposition. Whenever Wal-Mart headquarters gets word that union sentiment is growing in one of its stores, it quickly dispatches a "labor team" to the site. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman says the team, which includes a company lawyer, makes sure that store managers obey laws on organizing.

A group of meatcutters at a Wal-Mart in Texas voted to unionize in 2000. Several weeks later the retailer announced it was introducing a new nationwide policy of stocking only prepackaged beef and would no longer need butchers. This month, Wal-Mart is set to close a store in Canada that voted to unionize. Wal-Mart says the store is not profitable....

April 03, 2005

Chirac Shunning the Vox Populi

The economist reports:

...French students are doing what all students do: surfing the web via Google. Now President Jacques Chirac wants to stop this American cultural invasion by setting up a rival French search-engine. The idea was prompted by Google's plan to put online millions of texts from American and British university libraries. If English books are threatening to swamp cyberspace, Mr Chirac will not stand idly by.

He asked his culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and Jean-Noël Jeanneney, head of France's Bibliothèque Nationale, to do the same for French texts—and create a home-grown search-engine to browse them. Why not let Google do the job? Its French version is used for 74% of internet searches in France. The answer is the vulgar criteria it uses to rank results. “I do not believe”, wrote Mr Donnedieu de Vabres in Le Monde, “that the only key to access our culture should be the automatic ranking by popularity, which has been behind Google's success.”

...Googlephobia is spreading. Mr Jeanneney has talked of the “risk of crushing domination by America in defining the view that future generations have of the world.” “I have nothing in particular against Google,” he told L'Express, a magazine. “I simply note that this commercial company is the expression of the American system, in which the law of the market is king.” Advertising muscle and consumer demand should not triumph over good taste and cultural sophistication.

March 31, 2005

A. V. Ristorante

Sorry for the excessive New Yorker blogging, but there are a lot of good articles in this issue. One is on Scalia, discussing his "Originialist" interpretation of the Constitution. That stuff is just crazy talk. I'm paying more attention to this portion of the article:

While he was at Georgetown, he also discovered A.V. Ristorante, a dim, wood-panelled Italian place-it's still on New York Avenue, still serves garlicky pizzas and pastas, looking fundamentally unchanged since the fifties, and Scalia still goes there.

Do we really want our law written by a guy who thinks that A.V. Ristorante (607 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-737-0550) is a good place to eat?

The food at A. V. sucks. Period. It's bland and boring. Don't eat there. Take D.C. Chowhound's advice, if you find yourself in that crappy area of D.C., walk somewhere else to eat.

March 29, 2005

New Yorker on Snow Golf

David Owen has a great article in the New Yorker this week discussing golf courses in Manhattan and environs (not available online). I like the article for the following two observations:

Ten years ago, I had to fly overnight from Phoenix to Newark by way of Las Vegas. The crowd that boarded the plane in Las Vegas consisted mainly of guys with beards and leather jackets who hadn't brought anything to read and women with arm tattoos trying to jam bottles into the mouths of crying babies. The plane smelled like cigarettes, even though no one was smoking. These passengers, I decided, represented three filtrations of human desperation: they had elected to use family vacation time to travel more than two thousand miles to lose money playing slot machines; they had decided to fly home after midnight so that they could get in as much money-losing as possible without having to pay for one more night in a hotel; and they lived in or near Newark...

...the course was packed, mostly with Koreans, who are probably the second most golf-addled ethnic group in New York, after the Irish. The starter, who was also Korean, paired Hacker and me with two Korean men. One of them turned out to be the retired owner of a Manhattan wig shop. He told me that his clientele had included many famous actresses, among them Nancy Sinatra and Ann-Margret, but that actresses are undesirable wig customers because they don't like to pay. The best customers, he said, are strippers, who favor huge blond wigs and don't care what anything costs...

Harper's Weekly

There are some real gems in Harper's Weekly, a free listserv of funny and sad stuff:

In Minnesota, an overweight loner Chippewa neo-Nazi goth teenager shot and killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend, then went to his high school and shot and killed a security guard, five students, a teacher, and himself. The National Rifle Association suggested that such rampages could be stopped if teachers armed themselves. Foghat's guitarist died, and Florida lawmakers were considering an Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, intended to stamp out "leftist totalitarianism," that would allow students to sue teachers who insist that evolution is factual. Several IMAX theaters in the American South decided not to show a film about volcanoes because it might offend Christians, and a study found that the stealing habits of rhesus monkeys are similar to those of humans...

Terri Schiavo, a brain-dead woman in Florida, was still
alive. The Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought by
Schiavo's parents to force the reinsertion of the woman's
feeding tube. Outside of Schiavo's hospice, protesters
knelt in anguished prayer; many wore red tape across their
mouths with the word "life" written on the tape. Disabled
protesters cast themselves from their wheelchairs onto the
driveway, shouting. Schiavo's parents asked the protesters
to go home. A North Carolina man was arrested for trying
to have both Schiavo's husband and the judge who denied
the request to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube killed, and
a man who wanted to "rescue" Schiavo was arrested for
attempting to steal a gun from a Florida gun shop. Senator
Bill Frist--a doctor who as a Harvard medical student
adopted pound cats as pets, then killed them to practice
his surgical technique--diagnosed Schiavo from afar,
suggesting that her condition could improve, and it was
discovered that Tom DeLay permitted his brain-dead father
to be taken off life support in 1988, even though his
father lacked a living will...

March 23, 2005

Chris Tries A Mac Part 1

Okay, since I'm now in San Francisco, I thought I'd try switching to a Mac. I've been a PC and Linux user, now it's time for OSX. So, here I will catalog my annoyances and pleasant surprises from the Mac world.

-I go to the Apple store on Thursday the 17th to buy a 12" Ibook with bluetooth and an upgraded harddrive. Annoyances:

• In San Francisco, at the Apple Store, they can't sell me the damn computer as I've configured it! The larger hard drive and bluetooth adapter will have to be installed at the factory and shipped to me! This is in San Francisco, mind you, not Podunk.

• In order to order the Mac, you first have to sign in, enter your credit card information, and only after that are you given the grand total with taxes and shipping charges. That sucks. The make you register first approach is an e-commerce trick to make you not abandon your shopping cart. It's dirty! When I complained, the salesperson seemed not to care.
  

-Today, Wednesday the 23rd, my pretty little Ibook arrived. Annoyances:

• When you boot it, the volume is entirely too loud.

• When you go through the start up process, it *requires* you to submit your name, address, phone number, and information about the computer's use to Apple. WTF? A PC wouldn't do that!

• So, I put in fake information, and the computer could tell it was fake, and required me to put in a different address and phone number! It wouldn't let me put in 415-555-1212 as my phone number! What business is it of theirs to have my personal information? Apple, you're getting a SB 27 letter from me.

• I unplugged my network cable to stop the registration process. That seemed to work. Now I need to remember to delete the registration file, which the computer kindly installed at my "home."

• The computer ships with wi-fi and bluetooth on (and discoverable). However the wi-fi software is very nice, much better than the PC interfaces that I've used.

Boeing: Seal Killer

According to the friendly Federal Register, Boeing has applied to kill seals in order to test the "Delta IV/Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle."

On December 21, 2004, NMFS received an application from Boeing requesting an authorization for the harassment of small numbers of Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardsi) and California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) incidental to harbor activities related to the Delta IV/EELV, including: transport vessel operations, cargo movement activities, harbor maintenance dredging, and kelp habitat mitigation operations. In addition, northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) may also be incidentally harassed but in even smaller numbers. Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) were issued to Boeing on May 15, 2002 (67 FR 36151, May 23, 2002), May 20, 2003 (68 FR 36540, June 18, 2003), and on May 20, 2004 (69 FR 29696, May 25, 2004) each for a 1-year period. The harbor where activities will take place is on south VAFB approximately 2.5 mi (4.02 km) south of Point Arguello, CA and approximately 1 mi (1.61 km) north of the nearest marine mammal pupping site (i.e., Rocky Point).

March 11, 2005

The Decline and Fall of America

Started with the introduction of bottled water for pets. The Wall Street Journal reports:

...Springmill Products Inc...ships a line of bottled water called PetRefresh for finicky critters nationwide. From their new headquarters on a former tobacco farm in Lawsonville, N.C., the Felses sell their pet water for $1.49 per 20-ounce plastic bottle.

People have developed a big thirst in recent years for bottled water, many of them because they don't like tap water. It seems their pets are no different, and entrepreneurs like the Felses are jumping in to serve the creatures.

A Wallace, Calif., company named Pawier Inc. pioneered the industry in 1990 with a vitamin-enriched water for dogs, which it has now replaced with a water-soluble vitamin supplement. Dog Ventures LLC of West Palm Beach, Fla., sells "DogWater" in containers that double as throwing toys. Then there's K9 Water Inc., a Valencia, Calif., start-up whose catalog lists products such as "Gutter Water" and chicken-flavored "Toilet Water."

[...]

It's also costly to slake a pet's thirst from bottles. With the average 60-pound dog drinking a liter of water a day, that's a roughly $400-a-year habit at $2.29 per 2-liter bottle of PetRefresh.

March 10, 2005

Wireless Phone Use Coming to Your Airline?

The FCC seeks comment on a proposal:

...to replace or relax the ban on the airborne usage of 800 MHz cellular handsets as well as proposes other steps to facilitate the use of wireless handsets and devices, including those used for broadband applications, on airborne aircraft in appropriate circumstances. These actions should benefit consumers by adding to future and existing air-ground communications options that will provide greater access for mobile voice and broadband services while airborne.

DATES: Comments are due on or before April 11, 2005, and reply comments are due May 9, 2005.

[...]

Comments may be filed either by filing electronically, such as by using the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), or by filing paper copies. Parties are strongly urged to file their comments using ECFS (given recent changes in the Commission's mail delivery system). Comments filed through the ECFS can be sent as an electronic file via the Internet to http://www.fcc.gov/e-file/ecfs.html.

March 09, 2005

No More Pillows on Delta?

Man, look at this notice from Delta!

--Effective March 15, we will no longer carry pillows on flights within the 48 contiguous states or flights between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Central America or the Caribbean.

We are transforming Delta to provide you with an experience that is simpler, more consistent and offers everyday value. And, of course, you can continue to expect the outstanding service and warm hospitality of Delta's people. We appreciate your support, and we thank you for flying with us.

March 03, 2005

Daimlerchrysler Wins Auto Theft Rates

The 2003 NHTSA statistics on auto theft are out. Daimlerchrysler swept the top twenty by percentage of cars stolen divided by the number manufactured. In raw numbers of thefts, the Toyota Corolla and Ford Taurus won.

Manufacturer Make/model (line) Thefts 2003 (Mfr's) 2003 vehicles
produced)

1 DAIMLERCHRYSLER................... DODGE STRATUS.......... 682 62,496 10.9127
2 DAIMLERCHRYSLER................... DODGE INTREPID......... 392 40,366 9.7111
3 MITSUBISHI........................ MONTERO................ 94 13,604 6.9097
4 MITSUBISHI........................ DIAMANTE............... 57 9,981 5.7109
5 TOYOTA............................ TUNDRA PICKUP.......... 162 28,981 5.5899
6 DAIMLERCHRYSLER................... SEBRING................ 180 35,599 5.0563
7 MITSUBISHI........................ MONTERO SPORT.......... 174 35,508 4.9003
8 MITSUBISHI........................ GALANT................. 468 97,418 4.8040
9 JAGUAR............................ XJR.................... 4 845 4.7337
10 DAIMLERCHRYSLER.................. DODGE NEON............. 590 127,902 4.6129
11 DAIMLERCHRYSLER.................. CHRYSLER SEBRING 61 13,337 4.5737
CONVERTIBLE.
12 DAIMLERCHRYSLER.................. CHRYSLER CONCORDE...... 61 13,690 4.4558
13 DAIMLERCHRYSLER.................. CHRYSLER 300M.......... 61 13,719 4.4464
14 SUZUKI........................... AERIO.................. 150 33,931 4.4207
15 FORD MOTOR CO.................... FORD MUSTANG........... 598 143,823 4.1579
16 NISSAN........................... SENTRA................. 293 71,734 4.0845
17 GENERAL MOTORS................... OLDSMOBILE ALERO....... 333 86,229 3.8618
18 MITSUBISHI....................... LANCER................. 283 75,585 3.7441
19 JAGUAR........................... XK8.................... 8 2,151 3.7192
20 VOLVO............................ S40.................... 111 3,014 3.6496

49 TOYOTA........................... COROLLA................ 786 330,244 2.3801

57 FORD MOTOR CO.................... FORD TAURUS............ 757 334,329 2.2642

February 13, 2005

Businessspeak

Dug this one out of the archvive. It's from a story concerning Alcatel's use of Martin Luther King's image in advertisements.

Alcatel spokesman Brad Burns dismisses such criticism, saying that "with any impactful campaign, you'll always get a handful of negatives."

February 09, 2005

Coburn on Fake Boobs

Al Kamen relates:

...physician-Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)...was at last week's meeting on a bill restricting class-action suits. "You know," he said, "I immediately thought about silicone breast implants and the legal wrangling and the class-action suits off that.

"And I thought I would just share with you what science says today about silicone breast implants. If you have them, you're healthier than if you don't. That is what the ultimate science shows. . . . In fact, there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and, in fact, they make you healthier."

January 20, 2005

Vending Hot Dogs, American Women

Elsewhere in the Post, one will find this gem:

FBI and Department of Homeland Security officers have arrested an Egyptian man who allegedly ran a business from a hot dog cart on 17th and L streets NW that provided American brides for Middle Eastern men seeking green cards, officials said yesterday.

Pissing in the Wind

The Washington Post covers a meeting of some inaugural protestors:

Inside protest headquarters, up a flight of stairs from a discount tire shop on New York Avenue, a recent coordinating meeting veered toward chaos.

The 70 activists, who had plenty of ideas but no apparent leader, got bogged down in making a decision about whether the group had the power to make decisions. People needed to lean in to hear one another over the din made by a drummer warming up in another room. Someone confessed he'd made 150 copies of an important proposal but forgotten to bring them, and a baseball cap made its way around the circle -- the evening's main attempt at fundraising...

"We just go with the flow," antiwar activist Jose J. Rodriguez of Alexandria announced in the middle of the two-hour meeting, undaunted. "We're like water going downhill. They can't stop us."

Yeah, they can't stop you, but they sure as hell won't be listening.

January 08, 2005

Use of "Hoodie, " "Scrunchie" Before 1990

Here's one for T & S: The Oxford English Dictionary is seeking an example of the use of the word "hoodie" before 1990 and "scrunchie" before 1989:

Words or phrases which appear on the Appeals List are those currently being drafted or revised for the OED for which the documentary evidence is incomplete. Often these are slang or colloquial items which cannot be researched in specialist texts and are most likely to be found by a general reader in non-specialized or popular literature...

hoodie (n.: a hooded jacket, sweatshirt, or other garment)
antedate 1990...

scrunchie (n.) antedate 1989...

Please send submissions to oed3@oup.com

This and other interesting word news appears in the OED Newsletter.

Ain't No Party Like a Sally Party Because A Sally Party Don't Stop!

December 25, 2004

Foreigner Belt

Arbitration on Harvey Birdman

Arbitration is for people too small for real court.

Goulet on TV Funhouse

This has to be the low point of Robert Goulet's career.

December 22, 2004

Lessons From This Week's MMWR

• If you get bitten by a bat, go see a doctor.
• Don't shoot your gun into the air, and stay inside on New Year's, esp. in Puerto Rico. And finally,
• Don't drive around with dry ice in the cabin of your truck

December 14, 2004

Bush Administration Euphemisms Listed by Milbank

In his review of Bush Administration Euphemisms, Dana Milbank forgets "Secure Flight," "Clear Skies," and "Healthy Forests."

...Death in Iraq is gently described by the "folded flag" given to parents and spouses. Federal borrowing for Social Security is called "upfront transition financing." The absence of forbidden weapons in Iraq has become the presence of "weapons of mass destruction program related activities."

Tort reform is now "reducing lawsuit abuse." Abortion melts into "a culture of life." Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is softened as part of "a comprehensive energy plan." And just as surely as a "frank exchange" has always been used to describe a testy meeting, woe to the person described, as U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan was recently by McClellan, as "someone we will continue to work closely with."

At times, Bush inadvertently drops the euphemism, as he did in 2002 when he declared, accurately but prematurely: "The policy of my government is the removal of Saddam." Moments later, he amended: "Maybe I should be a little less direct and be a little more nuanced, and say we support regime change."

At the moment, the most favored euphemism is "We never speculate." Of course, Bush and his aides speculate all the time, about democracy in Iraq, improvement in the economy and victory at the polls. But when McClellan declines to speculate -- as he did an impressive 13 times in Monday's afternoon briefing -- he's merely stating, "I will not answer."

Canada to Reduce Trans Fats

Our friends at the Journal report that Canada is attempting to restrict trans fats in the country.

Following a motion adopted last month by Parliament, the Canadian government is forming a task force to develop recommendations within a year for regulations limiting trans fat content "to the lowest levels possible."

...Trans fats, which appear on food labels as "partially hydrogenated" or "hydrogenated" oils, deliver a cardiovascular double whammy, raising "bad" cholesterol levels and lowering "good" cholesterol. Food processors like them, however, because they improve shelf life, taste and texture of cookies, crackers, cereals and myriad other products.

...Trans fats came into vogue largely in response to past health worries, first about animal fats and then about tropical oils, such as coconut and palm kernel oil, which are high in saturated fat. But more recent research has shown trans fats to be the most unhealthy fat of all.

More on Wireless on Airplanes

Keith Alexander reports on the upcoming FCC meeting where Commissioners will consider whether to proceed with a plan that could allow people to use wireless phones while in flight.

...Both the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration must approve the use of cell phones in airline cabins. If the FCC rules in favor of a change, the FAA still isn't likely to seriously begin grappling with the question until 2006, pending results of its own studies.

For its part, the FAA has banned cell phone use aboard commercial flights because of concern that the transmissions could interfere with aircraft navigational equipment. The agency has commissioned a report by the nonprofit RTCA Inc., formerly the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, to examine the issue. So far, the FAA has not proved conclusively that cell phones interfere with navigation. But the agency has long preferred to err on the side of caution.

"The problem is there is no data or evidence that cell phones do or do not cause a problem," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown.

In its review, the FCC will address whether cell phones used on airliners are a problem for communications on the ground. An FCC study in 2000 found that dropped or blocked calls on the ground increased because passengers overhead were talking on their cell phones. Cellular signals coming from high altitudes are spread across several base stations, interfering with callers on the ground who are using the same frequencies.

...Airlines, aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and telecommunication companies such as Verizon have lobbied hard on the issue. Several carriers, recognizing that business travelers crave to remain connected, have won approval from the FAA and FCC to test how cell phones affect their own aircraft systems. American Airlines and Qualcomm Inc. conducted tests in the summer.

Professional Steroid Users Rarely Prosecuted

In the double standards department, the Wall Street Journal reports that:

Overshadowed by headlines from the federal investigation into steroids distribution at a San Francisco-area laboratory is a little known fact: The U.S. already has criminal laws governing the use of steroids, but they are almost never applied to elite professional or Olympic athletes.

Instead, the steroids users police are far more likely to bust are men who never compete in any sport but work out in local gyms to look good when they take their shirts off. The major U.S. sports sanctioning bodies -- some of which regularly snare athletes with urine tests to screen for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs -- say they don't generally turn information about violations over to law enforcement agencies.

The sanctioning bodies say they know of few, if any, steroids arrests among their athletes over the past five years. No Olympians. No pro baseball players. No pro football players...

"For all the hand-wringing about steroids in sports, the guys who are getting put in handcuffs are the gym rats," says Rick Collins, a Carle Place, N.Y., attorney who specializes in defendants charged with steroids violations.

December 13, 2004

Dollar Sticker

Found in Brooklyn, near Hoyt Street.

Store Display in Berkeley, CA

Zombie Reagan

Found near 16th and L Streets NW.

December 09, 2004

CDC: Avoid Ladders and Roofs This Holiday Season

Don't decorate that xmas tree! In the first ever study on holiday-related falling injuries, the CDC released statistics today showing that, "during 2000--2003, an estimated 17,465 persons were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (EDs) for holiday-decorating--related falls." Read on, you holiday risk takers!

For this analysis, the holiday season was defined as November 1--January 31, when decorating or related activities (e.g., stringing and removing outdoor lights) usually occur...

During 2000--2003, a total of 225 fall-related injuries that occurred to persons treated in participating EDs were attributed to holiday decorating or related activities, yielding a weighted national estimate of 17,465 (95% CI = 12,751--22,179) injuries, an average of 5,822 injuries per season. The overall injury rate was 8.1 per 100,000 population (CI = 5.9--10.3). The majority of injuries (62%) occurred to persons aged 20--49 years. Persons aged >49 years sustained 24%, and persons aged 0--19 years sustained 15% of fall-related injuries.

Males sustained more injuries than females (58% versus 42%, respectively), although the rates for males (9.6) and females (6.7) did not differ significantly (relative rate [RR] = 1.4; CI = 0.8--2.1) (Table). The majority of falls were from ladders (e.g., while hanging holiday lights), followed by roofs (e.g., while mounting an artificial Christmas tree on the roof), furniture (e.g., while standing on a table decorating a Christmas tree, standing on a chair hanging holiday decorations, or standing on a step stool when hanging a tree topper), stairs, and porches. Other falls were caused by tripping over or slipping on holiday-related objects (e.g., tree skirts or ornaments). Among 46% of injured persons, injuries occurred to the extremities (i.e., arm/hand and leg/foot); most persons (88%) examined in EDs were treated and released, and 12% were hospitalized. Fractures were the most commonly reported injury (34%); approximately half (51%) of the fractures were caused by falls from ladders. Of those who fell from ladders, nearly half (47%) were hospitalized.

FCC to Consider In Flight Wireless Use

Buried in the Business Section of the Washington Post, you'll find an article discussing next Wednesday's FCC 's meeting (PDF) where the agency will consider whether to start the process of eliminating the ban on in-flight use of wireless phones:

Loosening the ban could benefit wireless carriers such as Sprint Corp. as travelers use in-flight time to work and communicate, though most cell phones won't work once a plane reaches its cruising altitude, said Sprint spokeswoman Mary Nell Westbrook...

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency doesn't have its own ban on in-flight cell-phone use, though it has supported the FCC's rule and individual airline policies that regulate whether a traveler can make calls once a plane lands and before it reaches the gate.

While the FCC prohibits in-flight cell phone use because of concerns that communication by callers in airplanes will interfere with calls between on-ground users, the FAA is focused on whether cell phone use will interfere with a plane's navigation system, Brown said. An independent organization is reviewing that issue for the agency, she said.

How to Identify a Muslim, Sikh

Justice has created posters apparently to help security guards tell the difference between Sikhs (PDF) and Muslims (PDF).

Via BoingBoing.

U.S. Department of Justice
• Show Respect.
• Explain why you
need to conduct
search.
• Offer private
room for search,
if available.
• Searches should
be done by members
of the same sex.
• Review applicable
policies and procedures
for more information.
Common Sikh American Head Coverings
Sikhism is a religion that originated in South Asia during the 15th Century and is
distinct from both Islam and Hinduism.
religious reasons, practicing Sikhs do
not cut their hair.
long hair with a turban or pagri
(see photo a), a practice that typically takes 10-15 minutes.
hair
in a smaller under-turban or patka, with their hair knotted on top of their head
(photo b).
turbans (photo c); however, many opt for a
cloth or chunni to cover their head (photo d).
a. Man with pagri
b. Boy with patka
d. Woman with chunni
c. Woman with pagri
Points to Keep in Mind when searching
someone wearing a Sikh Head Covering:
Produced by the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division,
Sikh head coverings provided by the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART).
For
Sikh men wrap and knot their
Sikh boys wrap their
Some Sikh women also wear
Images and descriptions of
2004.

U.S. Department of Justice
• Show Respect.
• Explain why you
need to conduct
search.
• Offer private
room for search,
if available.
• Searches should
be done by
members of the
same sex.
• Review applicable
policies and
procedures for more
information.
Common Muslim American Head Coverings
Followers of the Islamic faith are called Muslims.
cover their head, based on religious belief and the Islamic injunction to
dress modestly. They may wear a full head covering or hijab, or a simple
scarf over their hair.
a skullcap or kufi based on
religious tradition.
Points to Keep in Mind when searching someone
wearing a Muslim Head Covering:
Produced by the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division,
Muslim head coverings provided by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).
Some Muslim women
Some Muslim men wear
Some images and descriptions of
2004.

December 08, 2004

Cut Me Down!

This is a screenshot from The Reagans, the Movie about Ronald and Nancy Reagan that CBS shitcanned. It's supposed to a poster in opposition to Reagan's bid for president in 1980. It shows some trees and reads, "Cut me down before I kill more."

Bush: For or Against Rebuilding the Temple?

On "Scottie and Me," you can read questions (taken straight from the official White House transcript) posed by Russell Mokhiber to Scott McClellan, the White House Secretary. More often than not, you get the question but not the answer.

Mokhiber: Scott, on the Middle East - many evangelical Christians in the United States are supporting right-wing Jews in Israel who want to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They (Evangelical Christians) believe this is a prerequisite for Christ's return to earth.

They believe that when Christ returns to earth - they call this the rapture - he will take back with him the true believers. And the rest - the non believers - Jews, Muslims - will be left behind to face a violent death here on earth.

My question is, as a born again Christian, does the President support efforts to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount?

Scott McLellan: Russ, we can sit here and talk about religious issues. I will be glad to take your question, and if there is more, I will get back to you on that.

Mokhiber: Is he a born again Christian?

Scott McLellan: Thank you. (McLellan abruptly ends the press briefing and walks out.)

December 07, 2004

Good Times in Berkeley

I just returned from a short stay in the East Bay. Berkeley has a lot of character. I saw Doug Minkler, a Berkeley art professor who sells his prints every weekend on Telegraph. Here's one he did to encourage citizens to report police brutality.

There are a lot of people who basically pretend to be down and out in Berkeley who probably are middle class kids. One was holding a sign that read "take me home," another, "will take exams." Some of these guys have dogs. I feel bad for those dogs. They probably would do better unencumbered by their ineffectual owners.

Anyway, Orwell used to pretend to be poor to see how he was treated by society. In Down and Out in Paris and London (reviewed by John Baggaley here), Orwell discussed his jobs, traveling around, his companions, etc. It's an excellent read. And, the San Francisco Chronicle now has a series of articles about the homeless problem in that city.

Hummel Figurine

Don't get this for Mark.

I'm sorry; I had to scan this in. There is something about this ad--the idea that Hummel figurines are a good investment, the newspaper boy selling a self-congratulatory "aren't we great!" publication, etc. This is divine.

December 05, 2004

Bird-X

There's a funny article in the New orker discussing Bird-X products, various devices and chemicals that attempt to scare away flying rats:

...every seven or eight minutes, during the daylight hours, a loud and unfamiliar dose of birdsong overwhelms the block for about forty seconds: wailing, whistling, screeching; one distinctly unpigeon-like call after the next, in rapid succession.

...Parks Department officials, acting at the request of the mall association, installed the speaker two months ago, in an attempt to ward off the pigeons. They bought it from a company called Bird-X, and it is designed to project the sounds of various predators. It is the first and only such device in use in the city—an experiment. And perhaps it ought to remain that way.

Shortly after the elderly woman had departed, another woman, bundled up for a day outside, shuffled over, unzipped her jacket, and removed a plus-sized bag of Cheerios, which she then emptied, with a smile, on the patch of mostly bare ground behind the bench. Hundreds of pigeons descended, spilling over even into the path of northbound traffic. The woman began muttering in a foreign language and retreated to a bench across the street, in Verdi Square.

...Later, at dusk, a man named Greg Pappas passed by the mall on his way home. He paused below the Bird-X speaker. “It’s annoying, and it doesn’t work,” he said. “I live on the sixth floor over there, on Amsterdam, and I can hear that thing through my window all day.”

He went on, “The problem is, there’s this woman who comes here and feeds them, like, every day.” He turned and faced the dirt behind the bench. “And, whatever the pigeons don’t eat, the mice do. It’s disgusting—look, there’s hundreds of them.”

December 02, 2004

TRAC: Federal Prosecutors Not Charging Civil Rights Cases

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse has found that federal prosecutors decline to file criminal charges against most of the police officers, prison guards and other government officials who the investigative agencies have determined should be prosecuted for violating the civil rights of individual Americans, according to authoritative Justice Department data.

Under a law going back to the period immediately after the Civil War, the government has long been the court of last resort in these kinds of cases. The statute makes it a crime to deprive any person of their rights "under color of law." Justice Department data going back for more than 25 years show that the high proportion of declined cases under this law has existed in every administration. In addition to national data, TRAC's report also provides information about how each US Attorney's office in the country has dealt with these sensitive cases in the last few years.

Metro Board Members Don't Ride the Bus, Rail

Metro Board Members, the people who control the policy for our rail and bus system, rarely even use the system:

A majority of Metro directors, who set policy for the region's subway and bus system, say they have never ridden a Metrobus or can't recall the last time they did. About half rarely or only occasionally ride the subway. And none is a daily passenger on either bus or train.

This really is no surprise. I think most of the boards in Washington are comprised of people who might not be the best fit for the specified mission. Just look at the Federal Trade Commission--I often wonder whether any of the five Commissioners have ever represented an actual consumer with an actual dispute against a business. Most appear to be big firm lawyers. Probably only represented businesses.

November 30, 2004

Agreements Limit Med Mal Jury Awards

The Wall Street Journal reports today on medical malpractice awards, noting that although jury awards are very high, defendants usually pay only a fraction of the amount.

Earlier this year, a New York state jury awarded Elizabeth and John Reden $112 million in a medical-malpractice case filed on behalf of their brain-damaged daughter.

But the Redens didn't get $112 million. They got $6 million...

...Many plaintiffs settle for less than a jury's verdict, to eliminate delays and the uncertainty of appeal. Sometimes, even before a jury rules, a plaintiff has signed an agreement that limits how much money actually changes hands...

In 2000, Pennsylvania reported three of the largest medical-malpractice verdicts in its history, all of them rendered in Philadelphia: one for $100 million, another for $55 million and a third for $49.6 million...

But each of the three biggest Philadelphia verdicts was settled for much smaller sums, according to plaintiffs lawyers and court records. The $55 million case settled for $7.5 million, according to the lawyer for the plaintiff. The $49.6 million case settled for $8.4 million, according to court documents. And the $100 million case settled for an undisclosed sum. Andrew J. Stern, the lawyer representing the plaintiff in that case, says the amount of the settlement was significantly less than $100 million...

Last month, the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care, a Washington-based group that advocates for tort reform on behalf of hospitals, doctors and others, cited in a news release a $269 million verdict in Texas.

Although the release didn't say so, the case involved Rachael Martin...she was allegedly given 10 times the recommended dose of the sedative propofol. Her muscle cells began disintegrating, and the content of those cells was secreted through her kidneys. Her urine changed color and eventually turned black. A short while later, Rachael went into cardiac arrest and died...

In 2000, a jury awarded the Martins nearly $269 million...

The Martins got a fraction of that amount. The jury assigned 25% of the liability in the case -- or $67 million -- to the doctors. But before the trial had even begun the doctors and their professional group had agreed with the Martins to settle the case for just $3 million, says Charla Aldous, the Martins' attorney. That sum was just under the total policy limits of the three physicians involved and their practice group, each of which was insured for $1 million.

November 29, 2004

Two Great Shots from Sealab

Church of Alvis

Why are cats so cute?

November 28, 2004

Dalton on Materialism

Washington Psychologist Patricia Dalton comments on materialism in the Washington Post:

If there were evidence that increasing affluence made people happier, there might be occasion to rejoice. Even though GDP per capita has tripled since World II, and houses have grown bigger, cars more luxurious, clothing and food easier to afford, we seem to be working mindlessly to acquire more. In fact, there is ample evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, that once people attain a reasonably good standard of living, making more money and buying more has no appreciable positive effect and in some cases has negative effects.

The biggest cost I see is intergenerational. Materialism is taking a drastic toll at home. There is considerable strain involved in generating the money needed to acquire so much. Many of the parents who come to my office describe living on the earn-and-spend, earn-and-spend treadmill that Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild describes. Parents are exhausted. Children are neglected. Marriages get put on hold. One professional woman reported to me that she felt so overwhelmed that she came home one evening and started breaking plates on the floor in front of her three little kids. Stories like this make me realize we are allowing ourselves to be robbed of what is most precious and counts the most: free time...

I am seeing a new level of competitiveness, not just on the athletic fields and in the classroom but increasingly over possessions. I think of it as the Keds-to-Nike transformation. One status-conscious teenage girl (whose parents checked out my diplomas before they even sat down) said she couldn't understand why she had trouble making and keeping friends. This girl had learned much more about domination than cooperation, and she formed alliances to get what she wanted rather than making real friends.

The scientific literature supports my office observations. A comprehensive review of more than 150 studies on happiness and wealth by psychologists Ed Diener and Martin Seligman showed that there has been no appreciable rise in life satisfaction over the past decades, despite our increased material wealth.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation issued a report that is sure to give ambitious and acquisitive parents pause. It found an inverse relationship between self-reported child happiness and parental income. Blue-collar and middle-class kids identified themselves as happier than wealthy ones. Kids need their parents on site -- in the foreground when they are young, and in the background as they get older. That's simply not possible in many of today's go-getter households.

So here we are: a generation of fashionistas and Samurai shoppers with full closets and empty hearts. Instead of listening to our souls, we have fallen for a new field of retail anthropology that advises businesses on how to get people in the mood to buy, buy, buy. I saw a catchy phrase that headlined an article in this newspaper's business section several months ago: Appliance Lust. It referred to hunger for eight-burner Viking ranges, built-in woks and Sub-Zero refrigerators with custom wood paneling and door alarms. Those of us who lived through the '60s seem to have forgotten the warning that everything you buy owns you.

WP on Repubs, Anti-Americanism in Canada

All sorts of fun nuggets in the Washington Post today.

Juliet Eliperin notes:

When the House Republican Conference decided on Nov. 17 to make sure that a possible indictment by Texas prosecutors would not cost House Majority Leader Tom DeLay his leadership post, Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee had the temerity to ask if the voice vote could be recorded so that the public could learn how many of his GOP colleagues were invested in protecting the controversial leader.
Wamp's motion was rejected by a resounding chorus of "No's."

Nora Jacobson describes her post-2000 election move to Canada, urging Americans not to expatriate. The full article is worth reading:

Although I enjoy my work and have made good friends here, I've found life as an American expatriate in Canada difficult, frustrating and even painful in ways that have surprised me. As attractive as living here may be in theory, the reality's something else. For me, it's been one of almost daily confrontation with a powerful anti-Americanism that pervades many aspects of life. When I've mentioned this phenomenon to Canadian friends, they've furrowed their brows sympathetically and said, "Yes, Canadian anti-Americanism can be very subtle." My response is, there's nothing subtle about it.

November 24, 2004

Is the FDA Smearing a Whistleblower?

I wish I had blogged this earlier! Less than a week ago, the Washington Post reported on the testimony of David Graham, a drug safety official at the FDA. Now, most of the time, agency testimony is not at all dramatic. Everyone knows what is going to be said before it is said. Trust me on this, I've testified half a dozen times in Congress. Graham bucked the trend:

A veteran Food and Drug Administration safety officer said yesterday at a Senate hearing on the abrupt recall of the arthritis drug Vioxx that five other widely used drugs should either be withdrawn or more sharply restricted because they have dangerous side effects.

Describing the agency he works for as incapable of stopping dangerous drugs from entering and staying on the market, David J. Graham, associate director of the Office of Drug Safety, told the senators that the FDA's role in reviewing and approving new drugs sometimes conflicts with its duty to address safety issues.

Asked by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) to identify the five drugs, Graham hesitated and then named them to the startled listeners: the popular cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor, the weight-loss drug Meridia, the painkiller Bextra, the acne medication Accutane and the asthma medication Serevent.

Each poses different issues, Graham said in response to senators' questions, but all require more aggressive FDA action.

Damn! This never happens. But retaliation for this type of speech happens all the time. Today's Washington Post describes underhanded attempts at the FDA to undermine Graham:

Managers at the Food and Drug Administration last month anonymously called a group that protects whistle-blowers in an attempt to discredit an outspoken agency safety officer who was challenging the FDA's drug safety policies, the legal director of the whistle-blower group said yesterday.

Tom Devine of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project (GAP) said the anonymous callers did not identify themselves but he is "100 percent positive" they were managers at the FDA because of their phone numbers and other identifying information. He said he initially took the callers' concerns seriously but later came to see the calls as an effort to smear the whistle-blower, Associate Director David J. Graham of the Office of Drug Safety...

Although the FDA initially sharply criticized Graham's testimony -- one top official called him "irresponsible" and a practitioner of "junk science" -- the agency yesterday tightened the restrictions on one of the five drugs Graham had criticized, the acne medication Accutane...

"The calls came under the guise of being anonymous whistle-blowers," Devine said. "They were clearly working together and shared allegations -- mostly that Dr. Graham's research was unreliable and that there were serious questions of possible scientific misconduct with his study. They said Graham wouldn't address their concerns, and that he was a demagogue and a bully."...

In that account, Devine said the FDA was "employing a classic law of whistleblower reprisal -- the smokescreen syndrome -- which shifts the spotlight from the message to the messenger. The agency attempted to discredit Dr. Graham rather than provide any scientific evidence contradicting his conclusions."

November 23, 2004

Secret History of the Credit Card--Tonight!

Tonight at 9 PM on PBS, Frontline is airing an important show on the credit industry and how it hooks individuals on debt. I helped with some of the research for the program. Here is the press release and here is coverage in the NY Times.

Tune in!

Here is the show's website:

The average American family today carries eight credit cards. Credit card debt and personal bankruptcies are now at an all time high. With no legal limit on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry: more than $30 billion in profits last year alone. FRONTLINE and The New York Times examine how the credit card industry became so pervasive, so lucrative, and so politically powerful.

People Really Do Hunt with Assault Rifles

It's really not funny, but I wanted to point out for all the advocates of gun control that yes, people do go hunting with assault rifles. So perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to ban them. The Washington Post reports:

The survivors said the shooting was entirely unexpected. Hunters on private property had told Chai Soua Vang that he was trespassing and needed to leave the deer stand, where he had taken a position on Sunday morning with his SKS assault rifle.

Vang climbed down and walked about 40 yards. He took the scope off his rifle, turned and opened fire, Sawyer County Sheriff James Meier said Monday. One of the wounded men radioed for help. Others headed to the rescue, but Meier said Vang also opened fire on them, leaving five dead and three seriously wounded.

Abu Ghraib in the WSJ

More great reporting in the Wall Street Journal on the Abu Ghraib torture. Today's article focuses on Charles Graner, a Corporal "with a strong personality and red flags in his record [who] apparently triggered a descent into horrific behavior while a distracted Army hierarchy failed to stop it."

A May investigative report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba concluded that some military-intelligence and other government interrogators "actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses." Cpl. Graner, according to his lawyer, "is not a ringleader."

...The prison's population ballooned to nearly 7,000. From outside, insurgents pummeled it with mortars. Abu Ghraib had a hellish reputation under the Hussein regime as a place of torture and execution. To the Americans it was a different kind of hell: cold, cramped and full of detainees prone to riot. Some soldiers felt like prisoners themselves.

Those assigned to Tier 1A worked in a particular dank place, rotten with the smell of feces and body odor. Yet in some ways they were more fortunate, working in a strong building and handling only about 50 detainees. Those on the night shift operated with little oversight....

In 1973, a psychology professor at Stanford University conducted a famous academic exercise in which students played the role of either prison guard or inmate. The professor, Philip Zimbardo, says that once the "guards" grew acclimated to their work, those with the most aggressive personalities began behaving sadistically -- and then "guards" with more passive personalities followed. Soon, "guards" began abusing "prisoners," and even students who didn't condone the abuse made no effort to stop it.

Sgt. Davis, asked by investigators why he didn't refuse to go along with the abusive conduct at Abu Ghraib and report it, answered with a comment that could have been lifted from the Stanford experiment: "I assumed that if they were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would have said something." Sgt. Davis faces a military trial next year. His lawyer plans to argue that his client was following orders from the highest levels of government...
.
..One night, Sgt. Frederick told the military court, he saw a detainee standing on a box in the shower, with wires dangling nearby. He testified that Cpl. Graner said intelligence officers "wanted him stressed out."

Sgt. Frederick said he wrapped a wire around one of the detainee's fingers, while Sgt. Davis attached a wire to the Iraqi's hand, Spc. Harman attached one to his toe, and someone attached a wire to the detainee's penis. While the naked and hooded prisoner waited, anticipating a jolt, Sgt. Frederick and Spc. Harman snapped pictures with a digital camera. An attorney for Sgt. Davis says that his client denies attaching wires and that other soldiers have given sworn statements clearing his client.

The Taguba report listed more misbehavior, most of it over just a few days in early November 2003: "Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick; and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threat of attack, and in once instance actually biting" one.

Abu Ghraib detainees questioned by the Army described most MPs by their appearance or uniform, but some knew Cpl. Graner by name. They described him as being at the center of the action, while others stood by taking pictures.

Cpl. Graner, one inmate told the Army, "cuffed my hands with irons behind my back to the metal of the window, to the point my feet were off the ground and I was hanging there for about 5 hours just because I asked about the time, because I wanted to pray. And then they took all my clothes and he took the female underwear and he put it over my head. After he released me from the window, he tied me to my bed until before dawn ... Graner and the other two soldiers were taking pictures of everything they did to me."

...The pyramid of naked Iraqi detainees was "no big deal," according to Mr. Graner's lawyer: "Cheerleaders all across America form pyramids every day, and it doesn't hurt people," he says. "This was a control technique."

He also contends that guards in civilian prisons routinely put collars on inmates' necks. "This was not the result of soldiers becoming sadistic and brutalizing people," the lawyer says. "It was a matter of the intelligence community being under tremendous pressure to produce and get evidence that could be turned into intelligence. I think everything that was done there was perfectly lawful."

His client, Spc. Graner, suffered no moral crises, Mr. Womack adds. "He wasn't ashamed of it. His psyche was fine. He was following orders."

Eisner's Corporate Governance Outed in Ovitz Trial

The Wall Street Journal today gives us a taste of the boardroom politics at Disney. The article concerns the Ovitz case, a shareholder lawsuit involving the hiring and firing of Michael Ovitz, who received a huge compensation package for a short stint at the company. Check it:

...The trial, plus interviews from depositions, provides an unusual behind-the-scenes peek into the brutal sport of corporate boardroom politics. In particular, the case shows how Mr. Eisner wielded power during his controversial 20-year run at Disney and clung to that power even as the company's performance sagged.

Time and again, testimony in the Ovitz case -- including Mr. Eisner's own account -- illustrates how he operated with little regard for conventional rules of corporate play. He allowed rivalries to fester until they become irreparable, lied publicly when it was convenient, and once hatched a plot with a director to report details of a private conversation with Mr. Ovitz.

November 22, 2004

TRAC Finds Civil Rights Enforcement Down Under Bush

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reports:

While drug enforcement and white collar crime filings remained essentially unchanged, civil rights and environmental cases were definitely down. These distinctly different trends -- down for civil rights and environment and up for immigration and weapons -- suggest that unannounced policy decisions by the government also may have played a role.

November 17, 2004

A Quick Response to Anne Applebaum

I wrote a little response to Anne Applebaum's column in today's Post, in which she wrote:

In ATMs, Not Votes, We Trust

By Anne Applebaum
Wednesday, November 17, 2004; Page A27

When the ATM asks whether I want a receipt, I usually say no. When a Web site wants my credit card number, I usually say yes. When I pay bills online, there is no paper record of the transaction. In my failure to demand physical evidence when money changes hands, I am not very unusual. Most Americans now conduct at least some of their financial transactions without paper, or at least sleep happily knowing that others do. Yet when it comes to voting -- a far simpler and more straightforward activity than electronic bank transfers -- we suddenly become positively 19th century in our need for a physical record.

It is, if you think about it, quite inexplicable.

I really don't like this attitude of inevitability when it comes to new technology. Designed properly, new technologies can give us more, not less. When we settle with this attitude we are ensured that we will get less. Also, there is a major problem with the people who write about technology--they tend to be members of the "elite," and they simply don't think about the problems and consequences that others face when consumer protections are not in place. Anyway.

Greetings Ms. Applebaum,

Regarding today's editorial:

"It is, if you think about it, quite inexplicable."

No, it is explicable. You receive regular statements about bank activity and balances. You can balance your checkbook. Banks are liable for fraud that occurs on your account. If you withdraw money on my ATM card, or if you forge one of my checks, the bank is liable.

The legal liability gives one protection from ATM security, which isn't perfect. See http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/national/03ATM.html The banking industry has done everything it can to hide ATM security problems. They've even obtained gag orders to stop public dissemination of the problem. Top computer security experts--Ross Anderson and others at the Cambridge Computer Science Lab work on this. See http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mkb23/phantom/

Now on the other hand, what proof/accountability exists in a situation where your vote isn't counted? You have law to protect you from black-box ATM technology. What is there to address black-box voting technology?

Paper is good for some things. For instance, when it comes to electronic billing, and you have a dispute, how are you going to prove anything? What if you have an electronic contract and wish cancel your phone service? How do you know that the version on the website is the same that you signed nine months ago?

These problems have yet to be worked out. But they need serious treatment, and the consideration that people involved in billing and contract disputes aren't usually well-educated, politically-connected editors of important newspapers.

Regards,
Chris

November 15, 2004

What's Wrong with our Nation in Brief?

Check out the first sentence of the articles in today's Nation in Brief:

MIAMI -- Police have acknowledged using a stun gun to immobilize a 12-year-old girl just weeks after an officer jolted a first-grader with 50,000 volts.

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A woman and her boyfriend are accused of plotting to sacrifice the woman's three children on a church altar.

KITTANNING, Pa. -- A man was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday in the starvation death of his 4-year-old daughter, whose body was found in a picnic cooler left for trash pickup outside his home.

GOLDEN, Colo. -- A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated animal cruelty for stealing five puppies and burning two of them to death.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Attorneys for a man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart have asked a judge for additional competency evaluations, potentially delaying a trial already held up for months over the issue.

November 12, 2004

2 Firm Items

1. Great article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday describing Adrienne Ashby, a lawyer who left a firm to work for Atlanta Legal Aid:

Ms. Ashby, a then-28-year-old graduate of the University of Virginia law school, had recently left a six-figure salary as an associate in a private law firm to become a $39,000-a-year legal-aid lawyer. "I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing," says Ms. Ashby, who grew up in a Norfolk, Va., public-housing complex, the daughter of a single, teenage mother. Her conscience, she says, "was picking at me."

2. What do you do when you're an administration official and you have to resign because you have allegedly assaulted someone? You join a corporate lobbying firm. There is a place for every rotten person in this world.

November 10, 2004

Flying? Don't Drink the Coffee

The Washington Post reports:

Some of the nation's largest airlines yesterday agreed to stricter inspection and monitoring of the drinking water used on their aircraft, two months after a federal study of 158 planes found that 1 in 8 failed government health standards...

In September, the EPA found that drinking water in an estimated 12.6 percent of the nation's aircraft tested positive for various forms of bacteria, including coliform, and failed to meet EPA standards...

Tanks in an aircraft's belly supply water to the lavatories as well as the plane's galley. While most aircraft serve either bottled or canned water to passengers, the onboard supply is used for coffee and tea.

Twelve airlines agreed to abide by the new procedures: Alaska, Aloha, American, America West, ATA, Continental, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Midwest, Northwest, United and US Airways...

In its earlier study, the EPA found that of the 158 planes that were tested, the water in 20 had coliform bacteria, which generally do not cause illness, while two planes tested positive for potentially harmful E. coli...

FTC Warns Media Companies Carrying Ads for Bogus Products

Historically, media companies have been one of the biggest opponents of consumer protection law. Why? Because they benefit from advertising revenue generated by scam products. They also can "come to the rescue" with news pieces exposing the very products that they advertise.

The FTC just warned media outlets about advertising bogus products:

...the FTC staff has sent reminder letters to media outlets that ran advertisements challenged in the six law enforcement actions announced today. The purpose of these letters is to assist media in identifying and rejecting weight-loss ads that contain facially false claims. The media letters include: (1) a copy of the problem advertisement; (2) a copy of the Commission’s Reference Guide for Media on Bogus Weight Loss Claim Detection; and (3) a description of each Red Flag Claim contained in the problem advertisement.

Rael: 85% Chance of Self Destruction

Our friend Rael announces:

BUSH RE-ELECTED: HUMANITY FACES 85% CHANCE OF SELF DESTRUCTION

Revenue Generating States Went For Kerry; Drains on the Country Went for Bush

I was reading this essay, and remembered this little nugget of information:

All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it’s a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.

November 05, 2004

One Half Of One Percent of Aviation Employees Test High, Less Are Drunk

The Federal Aviation Administration is going to keep its current rate of alcohol and drug testing, because last year, less than one percent of employees tested positive for drugs. Even less tested positive for alcohol. It's interesting to see that the current standards require a random testing of 25% of employee for drugs, but just 10% of employees for alcohol.

...Pursuant to 14 CFR part 121, appendix I, section V.C, the FAA Administrator's decision on whether to change the minimum annual random drug testing rate is based on the reported random drug test positive rate for the entire aviation industry. If the reported random drug test positive rate is less than 1.00%, the Administrator may continue the minimum random drug testing rate at 25%. In 2003, the random drug test positive rate was 0.56%. Therefore, the minimum random drug testing rate will remain at 25% for calendar year 2005. Similarly, 14 CFR part 121, appendix J, section III.C, requires the decision on the minimum annual random alcohol testing rate to be based on the random alcohol test violation rate. If the violation rate remains less than 0.50%, the Administrator may continue the minimum random alcohol testing rate at 10%. In 2003, the random alcohol test violation rate was 0.10%. Therefore, the minimum random alcohol testing rate will remain at 10% for calendar year 2005.

November 04, 2004

Craig's List Starting to Suck

You've probably heard that ebay picked up a 25% interest in Craig's List. Although we haven't seen any major changes to CL, I have notice a huge increase in the number of Ebay-like scammers on CL. Check out this posting. This jackass is selling a Time Magazine from 2001, claiming:

Worth $$$ now, and will really be worth $$ after his capture or departure!

Water has been spilled on this book! It's in fair condition. Once you plastic it, you got a investment!

Start Bidding

Selective Service to Match Records with Department of Education

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it is a little weird to find this notice in the Federal Register just a day after the election.

It calls for a new "matching" system, which is a data mining program, between the Selective Service and the Department of Education.

1. Name of participating agencies: The Selective Service System (SSS) and the Department of Education (ED). 2. Purpose of the match: The purpose of this matching program is to ensure that the requirements of Section 12(f) of the Military Selective Service System Act [50 U.S.C. App. 462 (f)] are met...

[Federal Register: November 4, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 213)]
[Notices]
[Page 64353]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04no04-86]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM

Computer Matching Between the Selective Service System and the
Department of Education

AGENCY: Selective Service System.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 522a), as
amended by the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988
(Pub. L. 100-503), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Guidelines on the Conduct of Matching Programs (54 FR 25818 (June 19,
1989)), and OMB Bulletin 89-22, the following information is provided:
1. Name of participating agencies: The Selective Service System
(SSS) and the Department of Education (ED).
2. Purpose of the match: The purpose of this matching program is to
ensure that the requirements of Section 12(f) of the Military Selective
Service System Act [50 U.S.C. App. 462 (f)] are met.
3. Authority for conducting the matching: Computerized access to
the Selective Service Registrant Registration Records (SSS 10) enables
ED to confirm the registration status of applicants for assistance
under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended
(20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.). Section 12(f) of the Military Selective
Service Act, as amended [50 U.S.C. App. 462(f)], denies eligibility for
any form of assistance or benefit under Title IV of the HEA to any
person required to present himself for and submit to registration under
Section 3 of the Military Selective Service System Act [50 U.S.C. App.
453] who fails to do so in accordance with that section and any rules
and regulations issued under that section. In addition, Section
12(f)(2) of the Military Selective Service System Act specifies that
any person required to present himself for and submit to registration
under Section 3 of the Military Selective Service System Act must file
a statement with the institution of higher education where the person
intends to attend or is attending that he is in compliance with the
Military Selective Service System Act. Furthermore, Section 12(f)(3) of
the Military Selective Service System Act authorizes the Secretary of
Education, in agreement with the Director of the Selective Service, to
prescribe methods for verifying the statements of compliance filed by
students.
Section 484(n) of the HEA [20 U.S.C. 1091(n)], requires the
Secretary to conduct data base matches with SSS, using common
demographic data elements, to enforce the Selective Service
registration provisions of the Military Selective Service Act [50
U.S.C. App. 462(f)], and further states that appropriate confirmation
of a person's shall fulfill the requirement to file a separate
statement of compliance.
4. Categories of records and individuals covered:
1. Federal Student Aid Application File (18-11-01). Individuals
covered are men born after December 31, 1959, but at least 18 years old
by June 30 of the applicable award year.
2. Selective Service Registration Records (SSS 10).
5. Inclusive dates of the matching program: Commence on January 1,
2005 or 40 days after copies of the matching agreement are transmitted
simultaneously to the Committee on Government Affairs of the Senate,
the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives,
and the Office of Management and Budget, whichever is later, and remain
in effect for eighteen months unless earlier terminated or modified by
agreement of the parties.
6. Address for receipt of public comments or inquires: Richard S.
Flahavan, Associate Director, Office of Public and Intergovernmental
Affairs, Selective Service System.

Dated: October 28, 2004.
Jack Martin,
Acting Director.
[FR Doc. 04-24634 Filed 11-3-04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8015-01-P

Norquist: Dems Neutered, Must Accept Their Powerlessness

Richard Leiby reports in the Reliable Source that:

Rock-ribbed Republican Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform [said] that Democrats must accept the finality of their powerlessness. "Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they've been fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don't go around peeing on the furniture and such." Norquist assured us that he meant neutered "psychologically" and his metaphor was "facetious."

November 03, 2004

Cheney O' Lantern

Maureen's Ashcroft o' Lantern was a hit last year. This year, Mark has made a Cheney o' Lantern:

November 02, 2004

Should We Be Surprised?

The Wall Street Journal reports:

When Merck & Co. pulled its big-selling painkiller Vioxx off the market in September, Chief Executive Raymond Gilmartin said the company was "really putting patient safety first." He said the study findings prompting the withdrawal, which tied Vioxx to heart-attack and stroke risk, were "unexpected."

But internal Merck e-mails and marketing materials as well as interviews with outside scientists show that the company fought forcefully for years to keep safety concerns from destroying the drug's commercial prospects...

As academic researchers increasingly raised questions about Vioxx's heart safety, the company struck back hard. It even sued one Spanish pharmacologist, trying unsuccessfully to force a correction of an article he wrote. In another case, it warned that a Stanford University researcher would "flame out" unless he stopped giving "anti-Merck" lectures, according to a letter of complaint written to Merck by a Stanford professor. A company training document listed potential tough questions about Vioxx and said in capital letters, "DODGE!"

The revelations shed new light on the interplay between marketing and science at Merck as bad news piled up about a blockbuster drug used by some 20 million Americans. Amid growing danger signs, Merck fought a rearguard action for 4½ years, clinging to a hope that somehow Vioxx's safety could be confirmed -- even though its research chief had already privately acknowledged its risks...

A Merck internal marketing document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, addressed to "all field personnel with responsibility for Vioxx," provided an "obstacle handling guide." If a doctor said he was worried that Vioxx might raise the risk of a heart attack, he was to be told that the drug "would not be expected to demonstrate reductions" in heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems and that it was "not a substitute for aspirin." This wasn't a direct answer.

One training document is titled "Dodge Ball Vioxx" and consists of 16 pages. Each of the first 12 pages lists one "obstacle," apparently representing statements that might be made by a doctor. Among them are, "I am concerned about the cardiovascular effects of Vioxx" and "The competition has been in my office telling me that the incidence of heart attacks is greater with Vioxx than Celebrex." The final four pages each contain a single word in capital letters: "DODGE!"...

Merck also went on the offensive against academic researchers who began to question Vioxx's safety. Gurkirpal Singh of Stanford University, a prominent Cox-2 expert who was giving lectures sponsored by Merck and other companies, says he pressed Merck repeatedly for more cardiovascular safety data. When Merck refused, Dr. Singh added a slide to his presentations that showed a man -- representing the missing data -- hiding under a blanket. "This was the first time they didn't answer my questions," he says. "With Vigor, suddenly it was a clampdown."

November 01, 2004

Commercial Child Molestors Strike

Found on Bay Street, Toronto, Canada.

IRS Audits Down

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reports:

The latest available data from the IRS show that the pace of corporate audits is running well below the record-low levels of FY 2003...The finding about slumping corporate audits conflicts with repeated statements by IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson in the weeks before the April 15 tax-filing day asserting that the agency had halted the long slide in the government's efforts to police corporate non-compliance. Both the IRS Oversight Board and the GAO have expressed concern about the impact of the decline in IRS audits.

October 29, 2004

It's Mismanagement to Question the Chinese

Here and there one comes across an article demonstrating how shareholders can interfere with the creative content and activities of media organizations. Today's Washington Post reports:

Plaintiffs in a shareholder lawsuit over former Walt Disney Co. president Michael Ovitz's $140 million severance package attempted Thursday to portray Ovitz as a dishonest bumbler who botched the hiring of a major television executive and pushed the release of a movie that angered the Chinese government, damaging Disney's business prospects in the country...

...The first movie (Martin) Scorsese made for Disney was "Kundun," which dealt with the Dalai Lama and included material critical of the Chinese government. (Shareholder Attorney) Schulman displayed a Disney memo in which executives at the company warned that the film would anger the Chinese. Ovitz acknowledged that the Chinese did loudly complain before the film was released.

"Were you not alarmed for the business of Disney by the reaction of the Chinese government given that one of your primary areas of responsibility was to build up the company's business in the Far East?" Schulman asked.

Ovitz responded that he was alarmed but "not panicked." He said that he called friends in China and that anger over "Kundun" quickly subsided. "It didn't do anything to hurt the Disney relationship in China," he said. "There is a [theme] park being built there right now." Ovitz is to take the stand again Friday.

So, media companies that make our movies should be sensitive to thug governments and engage in censorship?

What Is Greenspan Smoking?

The Washington Post's Steve Pearlstein asks, "What has the chairman of the Federal Reserve been smoking?"

As it turns out, Greenspan is a better rhetorician than he is a forecaster. In his recent speeches and testimonies, he cleverly frames his what-me-worry message in apposition to the more extreme doomsayers who warn that the world is about to run out of oil or that foreign investors are about to trigger a financial meltdown by dumping their dollar assets. He's also careful to include hedges and caveats that he can point to when things don't turn out as swimmingly as he suggests.

But through it all, the consistent message is that global financial markets have become so gloriously efficient and flexible in pricing risk and intermediating capital that they can cushion any shock, correct any imbalance and cure your lumbago besides. In the World According to Greenspan, the only real threats come from those who would tamper with this machinery by reversing the march toward deregulation, open markets and the free flow of capital.

Unfortunately, what Americans desperately need now is not a Fed chairman pushing an ideological agenda -- not a Paul Wolfowitz of economic policy -- but a clear-eyed pragmatist willing to tell Americans the truth that nobody else dares: That they are living beyond their means, that their profligacy has put the global economy out of whack and that the only way to avoid a bad ending is to save more, import less, raise taxes and accept lower levels of government services and benefits.

Comment Sought on Rocket Launches and Pinnipeds

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is seeking comment on: "a request from the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation (AADC) for Authorization to take by harassment small numbers of pinnipeds incidental to rocket launches from the Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC) on Kodiak Island, AK."

Pinnipeds? They want to harass pinnipeds with rockets? You might not care...until you learn that the pinniped they are referring to is the Northern Sea Lion. One of these cute animals.

Comments to NOAA are due by December 13, 2004.

October 28, 2004

Can You Hear Me Now?

Cryptome has lots and lots of pictures of President Bush's ear.

October 27, 2004

Rael: Vote Kerry

Someone subscribed me to the Rael news list, and I love it! This is the religion that claimed 2004 as the international year of atheism, created the "Association for the Denunciation of Paedophilic Catholic Priests," appeared in Playboy, and asked San Francisco to create an independent gay state.

This is an exciting religion, but I have no idea what it is about. The website claims that it is: "the world's largest Atheist, non-profit UFO related organisation - over 60,000 members in 90 countries - working towards the first embassy to welcome people from space...destroying the myth of god and sweeping the world with the most politically incorrect and fearlessly individualistic philosophy of non-conformism." I really doubt that aliens visiting Earth would care whether we built an embassy for them. And if you click on "join," Rael just tries to sell you books, making it look like a scientology-like scam.

Whatever. His "holiness," Rael, is voting for John Kerry:

"I never get involved in politics when politics are only about social choices, but here we have the choice between peace and war, good and evil, freedom of science or religious conservatism which is creating a modern inquisition, either helping poor countries or state-sponsored terrorism against them under the false pretext of "war against terror", democracy or fascism, respect for the wonderful American Constitution or concentration camps like Guantanamo. (whose horrible atrocities are just starting to emerge thanks to authors like Seymour Hersch) Additionally, with Bush in office we face limits on human cloning, stem cell research, contraception, abortion, gay rights, etc. Kerry's stance on these issues is wisely in opposition to Bush and would prove beneficial to all if he is elected.

Out of respect for United States laws, the US Raelian Movement cannot officially endorse one candidate over another but can recommend voting against George Bush, who many understand illegally stole the first election, is preventing the release of the findings of the 9-11 commission until after the election because of the condemning findings (Oct 19 by Robert Scheer), is mixing church and state thus trading democracy for a theocracy, and worst of all, took the US into an illegal and completely immoral war. For me, the choice would be clear. John Kerry would be a much better president and lead humanity more safely into the future.”

Bush Spending Up, Even Before 9/11

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports that:

...The latest available information on overall federal expenditures shows that per capita spending by the government is up 15% since President Bush assumed office, even after adjusting for inflation and the growth in the nation's population. This increase in expenditures has been steady and began even before the events of 9/11/2001. By contrast, during President Clinton's eight years in the White House, per capita inflation-adjusted spending dropped by 1%. The data further show that in relation to population there are large variations in all kinds of spending among the 90 different federal judicial districts.

Coke and Carrots

The Wall Street Journal reports that Coca-Cola is supporting research to question whether sugar is a health problem, in anticipation of the threat of lawsuits and anti-obesity campaigns likely to affect the company's products:

Many nutrition researchers are pointing the finger at increased consumption of sodas and other sugar-laden foods as a major cause of rising obesity world-wide. But at the three-day conference, the think tank, Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, aims to show that sweeteners aren't solely to blame and can be part of a healthy diet.

The nonprofit group is respected by many in the nutrition and health community for debunking some of the myths of the low-fat fad in the 1990s. It says it wants to set the record straight on the science surrounding sugar, and at the same time find effective ways to teach people how to control excessive intake of sweets.

The meeting is sponsored by Coke's Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness, an arm of the Atlanta company established in March to support nutrition research and education. Four sugar and sweetener makers that Coke's institute invited to participate also are helping foot the bill: Cargill Inc., Celanese AG's Nutrinova, Tate & Lyle PLC and Ajinomoto Co. of Japan....

Conflicting studies and assertions have confused consumers about the health effects of sugar and other sweeteners, says K. Dun Gifford, Oldways' founder and president, who in an earlier career was the national campaign coordinator for Sen. Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Some nutritionists blame sugar and sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup, used in soft drinks and many processed foods in the U.S., for the nation's weight gain, while others say the links aren't so clear.

Mr. Gifford says he chose to take on sweetness as a topic because of the challenges of communicating effectively to people about how to manage their intake. The real problem that needs to be addressed, he says, is how to "manage sweetness," i.e., not eat too much of it.

Mr. Gifford -- who is an adviser to Coke's Beverage Institute -- says the financial support from Coke won't impair his organization's efforts to probe sweeteners. "We did not invite scientists who had the appearance of being too closely tied to industry, or critics of industry whose claims appear extreme," the organization said in a introduction handed out to conference participants...

Researchers at the gathering presented evidence yesterday to counter some popular assertions about sugary foods and drinks. Contrary to a 2003 report by the World Health Organization, soft drinks are not energy-dense foods (which have been blamed by some experts for obesity), said Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology and medicine and director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. Their high water content gives them the energy density of fresh carrots, he said. "The WHO did not get quite everything right," he said.

From PR Watch.

October 26, 2004

Left Behind: "Idiotic Hallucinations of the Cow States"

Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" series has received a number of reviews in recent months. Joan Didion weighed in at the New York Review of Books. Ann Banks reviewed the series in the Washington Post. Banks' review captures the issue--Left Behind is a extra chromosome conservative rant gelled in loosely connected Biblical authority:

Because he is a Romanian citizen, the Antichrist will not be voting for president in November. But there's no doubt about which side he'd favor, given his advocacy of causes such as peace, disarmament, global cooperation, aid to Third World countries, interfaith dialogue and environmental treaties. Nicolae Carpathia, as he is named, is the secretary general of the United Nations and the primary evildoer of the wildly popular "Left Behind" novels, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. His creators have endowed him with progressive opinions whose political overtones are hard to mistake: The Antichrist is also the anti-Bush.

And now, Gene Lyons reviews the books in the November issue of Harper's, pointing out how not only is the book anti-progressive, it's also an advertisement for SUVs and suburban life:

...On a purely mimetic level, the novels scarcely exist as realistic or even as allegorical fiction. These are novels for people who don't read novels...

There's a scene in Nicolae in which Buck Williams, by now a so-called tribulation saint...hears on CNN radio that Nicolae the Antichrist has nuked Manhattan...Fleeing Chicago, Buck sees a mushroom cloud rising near O'Hare airport. Thinking fast, he drives across the median, whips into a Land Rover dealership, plunks down a company credit card, and drives off--"carefully," we're told--in a "beautiful, new, earth-toned Range Rover."

...Even the most rudimentary realism is beyond the LaHaye-Jenkins team's imaginative reach. World War III has begun, the city is under nuclear attack, and car salesmen are sitting around the showroom writing up contracts and--somewhat improbably--accepting credit cards...

It's not until Glorious Appearing, the twelfth and final novel...that the comic-grotesque aspects of this whole rapture business become simply disturbing. Here are our heroes, zipping around the Hold Land on ATVs, when G.I. Jesus finally materializes in the sky, mounted on a white horse and costumed like a professional wrestler..."On His robe at the thigh a name was written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS..."

...The books are pagan tribalism writ large, complete with soothsayers and magic spells. All of history has conspired to turn suburban Americans into apocalyptic superheroes. The end is near, and dude--you're, like, the star!

Gov't Complains About MS DRM

Sorry for blogging this so late. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the government complained about Microsoft's release of technical data in rights-protected format:

...The Justice Department and 17 states that negotiated a landmark antitrust deal with Microsoft said the company's current plan "significantly limits the practical usability" of the information Microsoft was compelled to reveal to its competitors.

...The government said Microsoft's preferred format doesn't support sophisticated search techniques to make the information easier to navigate and effectively prevents rival software engineers from making notes. Also, it can be viewed only using Microsoft's own browser software, the government said.

Microsoft's lawyers contend that the protected document format, known as "MHT," could be viewed through rival Web browser software designed to support it; the company acknowledged, however, there are no non-Microsoft browsers that currently can view such files.

...The company's lawyers praised the MHT format as offering "the best available combination of navigational and usability features, familiar viewer interface, ability to handle very large document files and security."

The actual order is here (PDF). It reads in relevant part:

...Microsoft proposes to offer the revised technical documentation to licensees in a file format that is a rights-protected derivative of HTML. Plaintiffs are concerned that this format significantly limits the practical usability of the documentation. For example, a licensee cannot annotate the documentation or use bookmarks to facilitate collaboration with other authorized users of the documentation and the licensee. This format also does not support sophisticated search techniques that would make the documentation easier to navigate and use. Finally, the documentation in its current form can only be used with Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer browser. Microsoft has agreed to meet with the TC to discuss this matter and has promised to provide a report within 60 days on additional measures that it would be willing to take to improve the usability of the documentation.

The question is whether you will be able to complain to a judge about rights-protected material. Fat chance!

Citigroup Spanked by Japanese

We won't be having Citihall in Japan. No, in Japan, the Citigroup executives are bowing to atone for their sins! The New York Times reports:

Last month, the Financial Services Agency, Japan's bank regulator, ordered Citigroup to close its private banking business, which caters to clients with more than 100 million yen ($932,400) to invest, after finding that a lack of internal controls enabled some employees to engage in fraudulent transactions. In particular, the regulators discovered that the office did little to monitor against money laundering and had misled customers about investment risk.

Mr Bling Gold Teeth

Broadway and 13th, Oakland, CA.

I apologize for the quality of this picture.

Cat Attack!

Have you been following Mark Trail? Last week, Otto's cat attacked the evil smuggler, giving Mark the distraction he needed to tackle the crooked captain.

October 21, 2004

Bush: Bad on Homeland Security

Public Citizen has released a series of reports showing how the Bush Administration's ties to industry and big money have left your Water, Ports, Hazardous Materials, Nuclear Materials, and Chemicals unsecure. While you get probled at the airport, big business gets a big pass on homeland security responsibilities!

Professor Leiter comments, "No wonder al-Qaeda endorsed him!"

[Professor Leiter, forgive me for pilfering this information from your blog]

From the New York Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 7 · April 29, 2004

Max Rodenbeck, [3] A
statement from al-Qaeda following the Madrid bombings clarified this
intent. It said the organization hoped George Bush would win
reelection, "because he acts with force rather than wisdom or
shrewdness, and it is his religious fanaticism that will rouse our
(Islamic) nation, as has been shown. Being targeted by an enemy is what
will wake us from our slumber." Quoted on the Arabic news Web site
www.elaph.com: "Bayaan lil qa'ida yuhhammal tawqi' kataib abu hafss al
massri," March 17, 2004.

Evilism in the Federal Register

We, who have chosen to expatriate, officially flip you the bird (by appearing in the Federal Register on pages 61906, 61907, 61908, 61909, and 61910).

For more on this issue, see "Expatriation for Dummies" in the October 2004 issue of Harper's Magazine.

October 20, 2004

Pope's Panties in a Wad Over Progressive Politics

The Washington Post reports that the Vatican is "alarmed" by recent political developments around the globe. Chris reports that he is alarmed by the continuing intransigence of the Vatican!

Anyway, back to the Post:

The Vatican is becoming increasingly alarmed at what it regards as official anti-Roman Catholic sentiment and secular trends in Europe, as government after government approves measures on abortion, family law and scientific study that run counter to Catholic teaching...

...trends that go against the preaching of the pope are more advanced in parts of Western Europe than in the United States, some Vatican officials contend. To the Vatican, Europe's moral landscape is bleak.

...The lay offensive, as some Vatican officials call it, has prompted the pope to intensify the search for common ground with non-Catholics on key moral and ethical issues. In particular, the pontiff has called for teaching and promoting the philosophical notion of "natural law," unchanging truths that underlie human activity across religion and cultures.

...DiNoia said that over the past 20 years, John Paul and senior Vatican officials have become disillusioned with moral and ethical trends in Europe. He said the pope, more than any of his predecessors, had embraced Western democracy on the assumption that it was rooted in natural law, including a consensus for the protection of life at conception and the sanctity of marriage and family.

Dialogue with Europeans is complicated by histories of violent religious conflict that in some cases left behind strong sentiments against the Catholic Church, and not only in Protestant countries. Spain's civil war in the 1930s pitted Republicans against Fascists who were backed by large segments of the Catholic clergy. Catholic support for the long rule of the dictator Francisco Franco colors today's view of the church among Spain's Socialists, historical heirs to the Republican backers of the civil war...

Army Fails to Meet Recruiting Goals

The Wall Street Journal reports:

For the second straight year, U.S. Army recruiters fell short of their goal for signing up enlistees in the first month of a new recruiting cycle.

For the first 30-day period in its new recruiting year, the Army was 30% shy of its goal of signing up 7,274 recruits. The Army had a particularly hard time recruiting for the Army Reserve, on which the Pentagon has relied heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Enlistments for the reserves were 45% below the target.

In the same period last year, the Army came up 25% short in its goal in the first month for enlisting 6,220 regular recruits and 40% short of its reserve enlistment goal.

...this year, the Army entered fiscal 2005 with an unusually low number of recruits in the bank, about 16,000, or 21% of its overall goal for the year. By contrast, a year ago, it began fiscal 2004 with 33,000 prospective soldiers -- meaning 45% of its recruiting goal already had been met. That also means its monthly goals in fiscal 2005 are higher than they were a year ago.

The reason for the gap: To make its numbers in fiscal 2004, the Army pushed many new enlistees into reporting for duty within a month. While that helped it make its 2004 goal, it depleted the bank for this year.

Gov't Okays Navy's Killing of Mammals During Missile Testing

The Navy has been given permission by the NOAA to kill three types of marine mammals when testing missiles off San Nicolas Island, CA.

Oct. 15 Was White Cane Safety Day

Our President declared that October 15, 2004 is "White Cane Safety Day:"

The Congress, by joint resolution (Public Law 88-628) approved on October 6, 1964, as amended, has designated October 15 of each year as "White Cane Safety Day.''

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 15, 2004, as White Cane Safety Day. I call upon public
officials, business leaders, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to join with me in ensuring that all the benefits and privileges of life in our Nation are available to individuals who are
blind and visually impaired, and to observe this day
with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and Programs.

October 19, 2004

Limp Bizkit Used as Torture Device

How bad does Limp Bizkit suck? So bad that they are using it to torture prisoners in Cuba, according to Harper's Weekly:

United States military personnel who worked at Camp Delta, the largest prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, revealed that many prisoners there were tortured by being forced to endure strobe lights and cold temperatures and extremely loud recordings of Limp Bizkit.

Citihall

Our future government, as envisioned by Futurama.

Gladwell on Drug Prices

Malcolm Gladwell argues in the New Yorker that drug companies alone should not be blamed for high drug prices. Doctors, who prescribe patent-protected drugs when generics would suffice; people are taking more drugs than in the past; and because insurance companies do not discourage people from taking generics. Gladwell also argues that while Americans pay more for patented drugs, they pay less than European and Canadian counterparts when it comes to generics.

Whatever the merits of these arguments, the drug companies' activities still need correction. Just read Gladwell's explanation of Prilosec:

Ten years ago...AstraZeneca launched what was known inside the company as the Shark Fin Project. The team for the project was composed of lawyers, marketers, and scientists, and its focus was a prescription drug known as Prilosec...The patent on the drug was due to expire in April of 2001...

The Shark Fin team drew up a list of fifty options. One idea was to devise a Prilosec 2.0—a version that worked faster or longer, or was more effective. Another idea was to combine it with a different heartburn remedy, or to change the formulation, so that it came in a liquid gel or in an extended-release form. In the end, AstraZeneca decided on a subtle piece of chemical reëngineering. Prilosec, like many drugs, is composed of two “isomers�—a left-hand and a right-hand version of the molecule. In some cases, removing one of the isomers can reduce side effects or make a drug work a little bit better, and in all cases the Patent Office recognizes something with one isomer as a separate invention from something with two. So AstraZeneca cut Prilosec in half.

AstraZeneca then had to prove that the single-isomer version of the drug was better than regular Prilosec. It chose as its target something called erosive esophagitis, a condition in which stomach acid begins to bubble up and harm the lining of the esophagus. In one study, half the patients took Prilosec, and half took Son of Prilosec. After one month, the two drugs were dead even. But after two months, to the delight of the Shark Fin team, the single-isomer version edged ahead—with a ninety-per-cent healing rate versus Prilosec’s eighty-seven per cent. The new drug was called Nexium. A patent was filed, the F.D.A. gave its blessing, and, in March of 2001, Nexium hit the pharmacy shelves priced at a hundred and twenty dollars for a month’s worth of pills. To keep cheaper generics at bay, and persuade patients and doctors to think of Nexium as state of the art, AstraZeneca spent half a billion dollars in marketing and advertising in the year following the launch. It is now one of the half-dozen top-selling drugs in America.

...Nexium is little more than a repackaged version of an old medicine. And the hundred and twenty dollars a month that AstraZeneca charges isn’t to recoup the costs of risky research and development; the costs were for a series of clinical trials that told us nothing we needed to know, and a half-billion-dollar marketing campaign selling the solution to a problem we’d already solved.

October 18, 2004

Archangel Bush Profiled by Suskind

Check out the Sunday New York Times Magazine for an article by Ron Suskind discussing Bush's infallibility and ability to channel Jesus:

In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. In those days, there were high hopes that the United States-sponsored ''road map'' for the Israelis and Palestinians would be a pathway to peace, and the discussion that wintry day was, in part, about countries providing peacekeeping forces in the region. The problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman -- the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress -- mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.

''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''

Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.

Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''

The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.

That's quite a POTUSOID!

Suskind continues:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

October 13, 2004

Poland: You are not Forgotten!

From Keith.

No Pissing!

A sign found by the 'rents in Hidelberg, Germany.

MTV Still Sucking

There was a time when MTV was against censorship. The station even staged rallies to open channels of communication and expose people to ideas. Now, MTV acts more like a censor. Earlier, I blogged on MTV's refusal to show ads for Supersize Me! and the channel's refusal to show Adbusters spots. Now the channel won't show political and issue ads. The Washington Post reports:

Young people tend to watch a lot of MTV. Political activists tend to spend a lot of time trying to connect with young people. It would seem only natural that buying ads on MTV and its sister channels would be a great way to reach young people with a political message.

But there's a roadblock. On Viacom's MTV Networks, which owns MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central -- all popular with younger viewers -- no issue advocacy ads are allowed; some channels do allow advertising directly from candidates...

An official with MTV Networks said that public affairs issues are regularly raised through programming, but the company has a long-standing policy of turning down advocacy advertising.

No political advocacy. They don't want anything that would trouble a youth and perhaps stop her from grabbing that next Pepsi.

October 12, 2004

Bible Used as Tool to Get Beer

Shamelessly stolen from Modern Drunkard Magazine

The Rogersville Review reports that:

...three inmates have been indicted and a fourth has entered a guilty plea to escape charges after authorities allege the men escaped from the jail, purchased beer at area stores and then returned...

The inmates reportedly used a small Bible to prop open the door and were able to create a small hole in the exercise yard fence.

Although inmates normally wear orange uniforms because of a large number of inmates some were wearing their own clothing and the four inmates were able to borrow clothing to make their shopping excursions to two different stores on two separate occasions. Authorities believe the inmates returned with three 12-packs and an 18-pack of beer which were purchased with money collected from other inmates in the cell block....

You've Been Bugged

James Atkinson offers 26 warning signs that you've been bugged!

October 11, 2004

Reagan Channeler Dead

The Washington Post reports that Joyce Jillson, Nancy Reagan's astrologer, has died. I guess Jillson's counsel was better than Bush's god worship, which seems to be a mix of reverence for Old Testament hatred and the glory of Mammon.

As the official astrologer for 20th Century Fox Studios, Ms. Jillson was consulted on the best opening days for Fox movies. She picked the opening date for 1977's "Star Wars," which is the second-highest grossing movie ever.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ms. Jillson made numerous appearances on television and radio shows. Besides Hollywood clients, Ms. Jillson made astrological forecasts for Ford Motor Co. and the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of her duties at KABC Radio.

In 1988, Ms. Jillson was linked to the Reagan White House after former chief of staff Donald T. Regan wrote in a book that first lady Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers.

Ms. Jillson contended that she advised Reagan campaign aides to select George H.W. Bush as Ronald Reagan's running mate in 1980. Ms. Jillson said she "spent a lot of time" at the White House after the March 1981 assassination attempt on the president. (White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said at the time that the Reagans did not know her.)...

"She had a complex and very intellectual approach to astrology," he said.

Property Data Verification in DC

Early Sunday morning I spotted a white with big cameras creeping up 18th Street, taking pictures of buildings. It turns out that this is DC's Property Data Field Verification Program:

vans specially equipped with state-of-the-art photo imaging cameras and computer-assisted mass appraisal technology will survey and gather data on the more than 140,000 parcels of real property in the District of Columbia. The vans will photograph each building, confirm the street address, verify property characteristics, and geo-code (GPS) each building’s location.

Baltimore recently made news with reports that the city is using photography in a similar manner to detect roof decks and other housing developments that have property tax implications. I guess in DC too we can expect this system to "more accurately" assess our properties, which no doubt will mean even higher property tax payments.

Acid Rain Stains Your New Car

I found this on a car at an auto dealership. I didn't even know that the auto industry acknowledged the existence of acid rain! In any case, they now want to sell us products to protect our cars from it.

October 09, 2004

Is Economics A Science?

Professor Leiter has reposted a great discussion on economics and its status as a science. BTW: Did you know that the Nobel Prize for economics isn't really a Nobel? Check out this post where it is explained that the Bank of Sweden, in order to heighten the status of the field of Economics, endowed the award in the 1960s.

Update: I finally found this 2001 Article from the New York Times that more fully describes the origin of the imitation Nobel Prize:

...The prize was tacked on to the original awards in 1969 as a marketing ploy on behalf of Sweden's central bank...

...officially the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - has long been disdained by other laureates. Murray Gell-Mann, who won his Nobel in physics the year that economists were first honored, said he shocked a colleague when he mentioned the two winners of the economics prize while describing the awards ceremony. "You mean," the colleague said, aghast, "they sat on the platform with you?"

Of course, economics as a distinct discipline is a creation of the 20th century. Economists have little patience with scientists who fret that economics is not a "hard" science. "Whether economics is a science or not is irrelevant," said David Romer, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "It's serious scholarship, and it's great to have that recognized."

...Even in the early years, when acknowledged giants like Paul A. Samuelson, Milton Friedman and Kenneth Arrow were being honored with economics Nobels, Swedes as prominent as Gunnar Myrdal issued calls to abolish the prize. Even grateful recipients have sometime expressed reservations. Friedrich Hayek, whose reputation for Viennese courtesy rivaled that for his libertarian views, toasted the King and Queen of Sweden during the Nobel banquet by saying that, had he been consulted, he would have "decidedly advised" against creating the prize in the first place.

October 07, 2004

George W. Bush

Over 2,000,000 Layoffs Served. Found near Fort Tryon Park.

October 06, 2004

Tom DeLay: Girlie Man

Al Kamen reports:

People on the Hill had been talking about how House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is looking different these days. Something about his eyes.

Turns out he has had plastic surgery to touch them up a bit. The Hammer has "joined the nip-and-tuck club," Roll Call reports, and everyone says he looks great.

"I had my eyes checked by my ophthalmologist," he told the paper's "Heard on the Hill" column. His upper lids had become so heavy, as apparently they are prone to do with age, that they were "blocking my vision."

Ah, the old "vision" thing.

"Goodbye, Johnny!"

Check out today's Post on the details of John Gotti Jr.'s appearance in court:

John Jr.'s sister, Victoria Jr., a petite woman with bleached blond tresses that fell below her waist, leaned against the wall. She wore a short plaid skirt and black leather boots, much as she looks in her own A&E reality show "Growing Up Gotti."

The back row was filled out by three large men in Hawaiian shirts, with jet-black hair combed straight back. They cracked knuckles, told jokes during court breaks and were not overly responsive to queries from a reporter...

In the end, Gotti took the news that he was remaining in prison until his trial in phlegmatic stride. As marshals came to take him away, he clapped his attorneys on the back and reassured them that he was fine. And in the back, two women with deep tans and diamonds encrusted on their high heels blew kisses and whispered, "Goodbye, Johnny."

October 05, 2004

MDM: Boycott Jack Daniel's

Our friends at Modern Drunkard Magazine have urged us to boycott Jack Daniel's:

For the second time since the Brown-Forman Corporation acquired the distillery in 1956, they have lowered the proof of Jack Daniel's Black Label Tennessee Whiskey. Fifteen years ago they dropped its original 90 proof to 86, and very recently, and might I say with zero fanfare, they degraded it to 80 proof.

Quick, sign the petition:

We the undersigned petition that Jack Daniel's "Black Label" be returned to it's former glory of 86 - 90 proof.

Debt Ceiling Approaches; Tax Cuts Still Coming

Read page A4 of the Washington Post:

The government should hit the national debt's $7.4 trillion ceiling this month, and the Bush administration told Congress again yesterday that it should raise the limit.

And compare with page A8:

President Bush signed into law a fourth tax cut in less than four years, extending relief for married couples, parents and businesses during a well-timed ceremony in this battleground state...

The $146 billion law will keep the $1,000-per-child tax credit intact for five more years and will protect many married couples from paying higher taxes than if they filed as singles. It will extend for six years the 10 percent tax bracket on the first $14,000 in income, which amounts to a $200 break for most taxpayers. While Bush talked mostly about benefits for individual taxpayers, the biggest chunk of the package, about $13 billion, will go to businesses to help fund research and development.

FCC Promoting DTV Sales

According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is using its resources to pitch digital television:

Using the slogan "DTV: Get It!," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell announced a major initiative by the agency to educate the public about what digital television is and what is needed to get it. "For years, the transition has moved along sluggishly," said Mr. Powell, who likened the resistance to what existed when color first came to a nation dominated by black-and-white TVs. "The FCC felt the need to jump in and provide some leadership."

To that end, the FCC has launched www.dtv.gov, a Web site that provides shopping tips such as what equipment is necessary to make digital television work. It also tells details what shows currently air digitally in various areas. In one random neighborhood in Washington, for example, CBS's "CSI: Miami" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" are available in the high-definition format, as well as ABC network's "Monday Night Football." For those without Internet access, a toll-free phone number, 1-888-CALL-FCC, is available.

October 04, 2004

George Carlin on War, Choice

On Real Time with Bill Maher, George Carlin made a pretty strong statement on choice:

War is rich old men protecting their property by sending middle class and lower class young men to die. It always has been. It's all about owning things.

All of this back and forth and debate implies that there are really choices in this country...it's an illusion...There is no real choice. They say "freedom of choice." You're given an illusion of choice. Americans are meant to feel free by the exercise of meaningless choices. You know what the choices are in this country? Paper or plastic. Aisle or window. Smoking or no smoking. Those are your real choices.

September 30, 2004

Chief Ike's: Shutdown!

I hate to blog this, but my favorite bar, which I think is called Chaos, sits atop Chief Ike's...and Chief Ike's was shut down for evidence of rodents and unclean food contact surfaces. The critical question here is why anyone would eat at Chief Ike's. You frequently have to share the bar with roaches there!

Chief Ike's Mambo Room
1725 Columbia Rd. NW

Closed Sept. 22 for no certified food manager, unclean food contact surfaces and equipment and evidence of rodents. Reopened last Thursday

September 23, 2004

Help Put Jimmy Swaggart in Jail

In a television interview on September 12, 2004, according to this article in the Washington Post, Jimmy Swaggart said that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically: "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry...And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died."

Isn't our mandate clear? If you see Jimmy Swaggart, gaze upon him as romantically as you possibly can.

Okay, I know it's difficult to imagine a romantic encounter with this guy, but just imagine this fat fuck attacking you and your response in self-defense! 50 points for whomever breaks his nose. And just think...if you manage to break his jaw...

Product Placement

Check out today's Wall Street Journal for an article on television product placement. Just this week, Commercial Alert sent a letter signed by journalism professors across the nation urging magazine publishers to adopt rules against product placement in magazines. The letter sums up the problem caused by the advertising industry--that it has no borders, and must become more and more invasive in order to remain profitable:

Magazine editors in the U.S. are under increasing pressure to weave advertising into their editorial content. In the past, advertisers have sought to influence stories, often with success. Now they are going further, and seeking to turn ads into articles.

[...]

In recent months, publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, PR Week and the Christian Science Monitor have reported on how advertisers are leaning on editors to blend advertising with editorial content. This is part of broader efforts by advertisers to increase the impact of their advertising spending. Other media – especially television, movies and video games -- have acceded to advertisers demands for more product placements.

Now advertisers are trying to gain similar concessions from magazines, too. “The only way we’re going to be more successful is to get even more creative and try to find ways to address this church-and-state,” meaning the high wall between advertising and editorial, Matthew Spahn, director of media planning at Sears, Roebuck, told Advertising Age.

Now the Wall Street Journal article demonstrates the situation in the television world, where it is sounding more and more like programming is a commercial itself:

In a scene last season on the WB network comedy, the show's star, Amanda Bynes, is eating a bowl of the Kraft Foods Inc. cereal when her sister, played by Jennie Garth, pushes her out of the kitchen.

"I want to sit at a table like a mature adult and eat my Fruity Pebbles," exclaims a frustrated Ms. Bynes. Several minutes later, Ms. Garth yells, "Your Fruity Pebbles are on my folder."

[...]

The 45-year-old Ms. Ganguzza, who counts P&G rival Unilever as one of her clients, isn't the only one feeling the pinch. As consumers increasingly tune out conventional TV commercials, marketers are scrambling to embed their products in the programming itself. As a result, big ad firms, media buyers, talent agencies and entertainment-marketing start-ups are piling into the product-placement field, muscling aside the tiny firms like Ms. Ganguzza's that have dominated it for decades.

[...]

Independent product placers like AIM, of Astoria, N.Y., make money by charging marketers annual fees ranging from about $20,000 to $80,000 or more to get products on a program's set or into the hands of a show's actors. TV-show staffers get the products in exchange for the possibility -- but not a guarantee -- of airtime. In exchange for her retainer, Ms. Ganguzza guarantees her clients a minimum of five placements a year, but last year one client got 68.

These days, firms that buy ad time are trying to include product placements in their ad deals with networks. For example, Havas SA's MPG media-buying arm is placing Tyson Foods Inc.'s chicken nuggets on a coming episode of "Still Standing" on CBS, as part of a big airtime package it bought from CBS parent ViacomInc. that also included traditional commercials and a sponsorship deal.

[...]

But such arrangements could end up costing TV and cable networks big money, because media-buying firms, ad shops or talent agencies, property masters say, are less likely to do them the kind of favors that the small independents do all the time. "Product-placement companies are saving us thousands of dollars," says Mel Cooper, a set decorator on the WB comedy "Grounded for Life," adding, "Some sets need $20,000 worth of products."

Sabrina Wright, who was property master on "Sex and the City," agrees. "I would set my budget at $15,000 for episode and I would only spend $6,000 because I could get that many products for free through product-placement firms," says Ms. Wright, who had Ms. Ganguzza's help in finding everything from a crib to empty bottles of the wrinkle fighter Botox. "Without companies like AIM, I would have never come in under budget."

Frankentwinkies!

The Wall Street Journal reports on Interstate Bakeries' attempts to extend the shelf life of Twinkies and Wonder Bread:

About three years ago, company executives concluded they had found a formula that would revolutionize their processes and save big on costs. It was a way to double shelf life without losing taste or quality. But in rolling out newly long-lived Ho-Hos and Wonder Bread, they ran into a series of setbacks that hurt sales, ate into profits and turned off some customers. In an era when much of business is obsessed with cutting costs, the case shows how a plan that seems sure to yield coveted savings can have unintended consequences.

[...]

The shelf-life program began when company food technicians decided to deconstruct a crumb cake that seemed to stay fresh forever. Examining its recipe, the researchers found the cake included an ideal amount of a gum whose role was to keep it extra-moist. With great caution, they decided to try adding more of that ingredient to Zingers, a Dolly Madison cake. "One of the scariest things in the food business is to change your recipe," says Mr. Dirkes.

The new Zingers tasted fine. So the company added more gum to Hostess Twinkies and the rest of its line of snack cakes. Suddenly the cakes, which used to last on store shelves for as few as seven days, could stay there at least two weeks.

The implications were huge: Interstate could reduce waste. That meant it should be able to close some plants. And it could cut the frequency of deliveries.

A big question was whether the technology could be applied to bread, which makes up more than half of the company's sales. It had always had a shelf life of only about three days, far less than cakes.

Bread proved far more complicated. The gum didn't mix well with it. An early attempt to create a longer-lived loaf burned out the motor of a bread-dough mixer.

The company sought the help of Innovative Cereal Systems, an Oregon company that specializes in mixing freshness-enhancing enzymes for bakeries. Enzymes bind water molecules to the bread, making it softer and slowing the process of going stale.

Innovative Cereal was convinced it had the right formula for extending the life of bread -- a recipe that didn't include the gum inside Zingers. But Interstate wasn't its only client. The whole bakery industry was seeking to prolong shelf life. Sara Lee Corp., another large bread maker, was also working with Innovative Cereal.

Interstate experimented with the Innovative Cereal formula and determined that it worked in Wonder Bread, the nation's top-selling brand. In 2001, Interstate began shipping Wonder loaves that could stay soft and fresh for seven days, more than twice as long as before.

[...]

Mitchell Pinheiro, a food analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott, says he was touring an Atlanta supermarket in June 2003 when he noticed that Interstate's Merita bread looked gummy and doughy. "It was so heavy that the sides weren't able to support the weight," Mr. Pinheiro says. He questioned a delivery driver, who, he recalls, thought the bread never should have made it to store shelves.

Quality was especially a problem in the company's Southeast division. Sales there were off 25% by April 2003, according to David C. Nelson, a food-industry analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Consumers started complaining on Twinkies.org, a Web site not affiliated with Interstate. "I've been eating Merita bread for decades," but "the taste seems to have changed," an anonymous consumer wrote in a posting in 2003. Wrote another: "Whatever has happened or is happening we do not like it and have gone to another brand."

September 22, 2004

Sample Some Liqour

The Wall Street Journal reports that in a number of states now, you can sample liqour at stores:

...Smith & Vine in Brooklyn, N.Y., is one of many stores around the country taking advantage of recent changes in state laws that now allow them to serve free samples of spirits to customers. Other liquor stores are doing everything from demonstrating how to sautée shrimp in vodka to throwing Caribbean-themed parties complete with rum samples and island music.

Liquor laws vary widely state-by-state. In some states, only liquor stores are permitted to provide free tastes of distilled spirits, while in others only bars and restaurants can host a tasting.

...Today, 23 states plus Washington, D.C., allow liquor-store sampling.

September 21, 2004

Soy Sauce: Brewed Versus Fake

The Washington Post has a neat story surrounding an international dispute on standards for Soy Sauce:

In 1998, the Japanese asked the Codex Alimentarius Commission, whose committees have "harmonized" hundreds of food standards since the 1960s, to set a standard for soy sauce that would mirror the Japanese one. They wanted to make what they thought were important distinctions between traditional soy sauce, which is brewed and fermented from soybeans, and a popular American knock-off that contains an extract of soybean or some other protein, flavor enhancers, and artificial coloring.

This is my favorite part of the article, where our friends at Hogan and Hartson, who incidentially are paid by the American creators of fake soy sauce, prove a negative:

The Japanese labeling proposal has not gone down smoothly with the International Hydrolyzed Protein Council, whose members make and supply the basic ingredient for the U.S.-made competitor. "These products have been manufactured here and around the world for decades and sold as soy sauce, and there have been no complaints from consumers," said Martin J. Hahn, executive director of the trade group and a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP.

Well, I am complaining, and I suggest that you do too. This problem of fake-ass products has existed in the marketplace for too long.

In 1906, the U.S. Pure Food and Drugs Act passed--that law prohibited adulterated or misbranded food. But it did not allow the government to set standards for food products. It also allowed "distinctive name" products, such as "Bred-Spred." There remained no labeling requirement for these distinctive name products, so individuals had no way to know the true contents. The quality of food actually declined. Egg noodles were sold in deceptive ways--one product was just normal noodles placed in a yellow bag so that they would appear to be yellow. There were also meat products that were deceptive. The packers would actually put chicken in a glass jar with a thin veneer of white meat on the outside with dark meat on the inside. Bizarro tonics were marketed, such as "Warner's Safe Cure for Diabetes" and Hamlin's Wizard Oil.

The distinctive name exemption also created bad practices. One of the best examples was "Staley's Maple Syrup," a product that actually only contained 1.7% maple syrup. Simply adding "Staley's" made this okay.

In many ways, we're in the same situation again. If you go to the supermarket and buy syrup or jam, chances are it is mostly corn syrup. If the makers of these products were forced to actually label their crap correctly, it wouldn't be able to compete. Would you buy "Maple-Flavored Corn Syrup?" We'd have higher quality products.

So, here's my complaint letter:

Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:19:39 -0400 (GMT-04:00) To: mjhahn@hhlaw.com Subject: Soy Sauce Complaint [u] Cc: skrzyckic@washpost.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Earthlink Zoo Mail 1.0 X-ELNK-AV: 0

Dear Mr. Hahn,

I am writing to complain. I do not like the idea that La Choy and other companies can label their products as soy sauce when they are not brewed, especially when the product appears to have the same ingredients as Pepsi. That doesn't fit with consumer expectations, and including a small label that it is not brewed will not help. Ultimately, it will force the real producers of this product to water down their products to compete with cheaper brands that really are mislabeled.

If you look at the history of low-quality food, you'll see that many misbranded products tend to drag down the practices of legitimate companies. Look at maple syrup, jam, etc. Many of the products on the market are just corn syrup because they've beaten out the real products as a result of being mislabeled. If they were clearly labeled what they were--maple flavored sugar--they wouldn't be able to compete.

Ms. Skrzycki, I love your column and I read it regularly. But I am also writing to complain about reporters who quote lobbyists and trade groups for the proposition that "there have been no complaints from consumers." First of all, this is a negative proposition...unless one has been sitting at the dinner table of every consumer, how could one state that this is true? Second of all, it is highly unlikely that no one has complained. And now, I have complained. So there.

Sincerely,
Chris Hoofnagle

September 16, 2004

Defeat Photo Radar/Red Light With a Spray

The Washington Post reported back in July about a spray that apparently reflects the flash that photo radar/red light cameras use:

Former Baltimore police officer Bob Kleebauer conducted his own road test. Late one night in March, he drove to the intersection where his wife got a photo-radar ticket. His license plate coated with PhotoBlocker, he waited until no cars were coming, then ran the light.

He took that "$75 chance" because he believes red-light cameras are
revenue traps targeting decent people, says Kleebauer, now a telecom
salesman. "Ninety-nine percent of the drivers who get caught are
law-abiding citizens who do it accidentally. You are approaching a
yellow light and you have a tenth of a second to brake or go. Make
the wrong decision and they got you."

His test finding: "The flash went off behind me, but I've never
received a ticket."

The Denver Police Department, at the behest of Fox News, conducted a
road test two years ago and found that PhotoBlocker was effective,
plate covers less so. Similar results were found by TV news programs
in Great Britain, Australia and Sweden.

[...]

Ray "Radar Ray" Reyer, whose online firm Radarbuster.com sells Photo Fog and PhotoStopper, says roadside and weather conditions and camera angles can affect clarity. And the "flash-back" sprays have no effect against digital cameras that don't flash, like the ones Howard County recently began installing.

[...]

Speed Measurement Laboratories -- consultants to police departments
and radar and radar-detector makers worldwide -- has tested most
products designed to defeat photo enforcement, including car waxes
and stealth sprays that claim to make cars "invisible to radar,"
photo-flash devices designed to flash back at cameras and the
high-gloss tag sprays.

"There's a lot of good people in the industry who are honest and a
lot of charlatans. But it doesn't work, that's the bottom line,"
says Carl Fors, owner of the Fort Worth company.

The bounce-back-the-flash concept does work sometimes, he says, but
only on positive images traffic cameras produce. "If we reverse the
image, go to a negative image, we can read every letter on a license
plate," he says.

Fors says the firms that make and operate radar camera systems and
analyze the photos for municipalities routinely check negatives
where license plates look unreadable. "Going to the negative image
is no big deal," he says.

Restroom "Concerns" Should Be Reported

A sign in one of the bathrooms in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Bush and Jeebus

The Washington Post explores Bush's relationship with his buddy Jesus:

[...]

Bush has said many times that he is a Christian, believes in the power of prayer and considers himself a "lowly sinner." But White House aides said they do not know whether the president believes that: the Bible is without error; the theory of evolution is true; homosexuality is a sinful choice; only Christians will go to heaven; support for Israel is a biblical imperative; or the war in Iraq is part of God's plan.

Some political analysts think there is a shrewd calculation behind these ambiguities. By using such phrases as the "culture of life," Bush signals to evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics that he is with them, while he avoids taking explicit stands that might alienate other voters or alarm foreign leaders. Bush and his chief speechwriter, Michael J. Gerson, are "very gifted at crafting references that religious insiders will understand and outsiders may not," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of the evangelical journal Sojourners.

[...]

Though he was always somewhat religious, Bush said, a turning point came in a private talk with the Rev. Billy Graham along the coast of Maine in 1985. Graham's words planted the "mustard seed in my soul" that eventually led to a decision to "recommit my heart to Jesus Christ," he wrote.

Remember Machiavelli's advice...Five hundred years ago, Machiavelli wrote in The Prince that "A prince...should appear, upon seeing and hearing him, to be all mercy, all faithfulness, all integrity, all kindness, all religion. And there is nothing more necessary than to seem to possess this last quality...

September 15, 2004

USA Singles Week

Are you ready for National Singles Week, September 19-25? For some reason, I don't think President Bush will be issuing a Proclamation celebrating this event. Bush has proclaimed that September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. But wait a minute, on the same day, Bush also proclaimed that September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Which is it, Bush, you flip flopper?

September 08, 2004

Zell Miller: Flip Flopper!

So Keith pointed out this speech that's on Senator Miller's web site. Zell is sang a different tune about Kerry at the RNC Convention.

Introduction of Senator John Kerry

Democratic Party of Georgia's
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner

March 1, 2001

It is good to be back in Georgia and to be with you. I have been coming to these dinners since the 1950s, and have missed very few.

I'm proud to be Georgia's junior senator and I'm honored to serve with Max Cleland, who is as loved and respected as anyone in that body. One of our very highest priorities must be to make sure this man is re-elected in 2002 so he can continue to serve this state and nation.

I continue to be impressed with all that Governor Barnes and Lieutenant Governor Taylor and the Speaker and the General Assembly are getting done over at the Gold Dome. Georgia is fortunate to have this kind of leadership.

My job tonight is an easy one: to present to you one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders ­ and a good friend.

He was once a lieutenant governor ­ but he didn't stay in that office 16 years, like someone else I know. It just took two years before the people of Massachusetts moved him into the United States Senate in 1984.

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its "Digital Dozen."

John was re-elected in 1990 and again in 1996 ­ when he defeated popular Republican Governor William Weld in the most closely watched Senate race in the country.

John is a graduate of Yale University and was a gunboat officer in the Navy. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three awards of the Purple Heart for combat duty in Vietnam. He later co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America.

He is married to Teresa Heinz and they have two daughters.

As many of you know, I have great affection ­ some might say an obsession ­ for my two Labrador retrievers, Gus and Woodrow. It turns out John is a fellow dog lover, too, and he better be. His German Shepherd, Kim, is about to have puppies. And I just want him to know … Gus and Woodrow had nothing to do with that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Senator John Kerry.

###

August 29, 2004

Al-Qaida Says...

Cryptome has: "a collection of 21 al-Qa'ida statements. At 131 pages long it is, at time of release, the most complete collection of statements available to the English speaking public. Normally such things are suppressed and then read only within law enforcement circles."

August 27, 2004

Poor Recordkeeping Found at Accounting Firms

The Washington Post reports:

Initial reviews of the nation's largest accounting firms have turned up numerous rule violations and shoddy recordkeeping practices, as regulators embarked on a new effort to regularly examine auditors' work.

The inspections mark the first independent scrutiny of the so-called Big Four firms, which had previously operated under more than 70 years of self rule. Congress mandated the examinations in a 2002 law designed to clean up the troubled accounting industry. Accountants' lax reviews and overly cozy relationships with clients have been blamed for fueling corporate scandals that wiped out billions in investments in the past few years.

[...]

The most oft-cited problem in the reports relates to how public companies treat credit agreements on their books. Inspectors said that across each of the four firms, auditors mistakenly allowed some client companies to classify certain debts as long-term rather than as current liabilities.

That "serious error" helps companies understate their current obligations and overstate the amount of their working capital, according to George H. Diacont, the accounting board's director of registration and inspections. Twenty companies restated their financial statements based on debt issues the inspectors found.

Inspectors also cited all four audit firms for faulty recordkeeping practices, which can make it difficult to determine how stringently the auditors checked such basic things as cash reserves and inventory.

August 26, 2004

WTF?

The storefront model in Benetton's Sisley in Dupont Circle.

CACI Employees Referred for Prosecution

You've probably already forgotten that CACI hired Steptoe & Johnson to do an internal investigation into the consulting firm's involvement in torturing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib. The Washington Post reported earlier in August that:

CACI said its investigation, conducted by the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, has not found "credible or tangible" evidence supporting the claims in the report prepared by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. The company described the investigation's results as "preliminary" and said its probe is still ongoing.

[...]

Last week the company was awarded a new contract worth up to $23 million to continue providing interrogators and other intelligence services to the Army in Iraq. "The message from our customer has been consistent throughout and this is what they have shared with us: They are pleased with our work," Brown said.

Today, the Post reports:

The three generals investigating the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison determined that six civilian contract employees participated in or failed to report abuse of prisoners, and they referred those individuals to the Justice Department for prosecution.

The employees worked for CACI International Inc., of Arlington, which provided interrogators at the prison, and Titan Corp., which provided translators. The report, which also said the Army failed to properly monitor contractors, provided the clearest view yet of the role contractors played in the prison abuses.

The report alleged that CACI interrogators used dogs to scare prisoners, placed detainees in unauthorized "stress positions" and encouraged soldiers to abuse prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Titan employees hit detainees and stood by while soldiers physically abused prisoners, according to the report.
[...]

Another CACI interrogator allegedly encouraged a soldier, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick, to abuse a detainee after a shooting incident at the prison, and did not stop Frederick from covering the detainee's mouth and nose, preventing him from breathing. Frederick has pleaded guilty to some charges of abuse of prisoners. The interrogator also allegedly used Frederick's presence as a threat to prisoners and used dogs during the roundup of detainees.

A third CACI employee is accused of humiliating a prisoner by shaving his head and beard and forcing him to wear red women's underwear.

The report also alleges that a civilian interpreter wearing a military uniform raped a 15- to 18-year-old male detainee while a female soldier took pictures. The incident's date and participants could not be confirmed, but the report said the description of the interpreter partially matches that of a Titan employee. The allegation is still being investigated, the report said.

August 25, 2004

DC Pandas: Someone Please Kidnap Them!

Vaclav Havel, an artist who decorated a cow in Prague as part of a similar public art program, made me rethink my objections to the pandas. He said: "Maybe some people can't bear to look at anything nice, unusual or ornamental, maybe they can't even bear to look into the mirror." That's a powerful quote, but I have still come to the conclusion that the Pandas are a menace to art.

Don't agree with me? Well have you seen Pamela Anderson Panda? WTF? It looks more like Miss Piggy than a panda. There at least needs to be discipline in the medium here! And if we're going to put monuments to trashy women, why not have a Jenna Jameson Panda, for that matter?!

And what is this?

Catholicism Wow!

Say "hi" to Buddy Christ!

August 23, 2004

Alcohol Without Liquid?

Choof.org's scientific team is hard at work evaluating AWOL, the Alcohol Without Liquid (AWOL) vaporiser!

Fox News Alert
Our first medical expert reports that AWOL is probably just a Nebulizer, a commonly-available device used to deliver medicated air.

Trip to Ottawa

I had a very nice weekend at Ottawa while speaking at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business on privacy regulation in the 108th Congress. Had lots of time to check out Ottawa.
Perhaps the best experience was a visit to the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, which had a great exhibition of the work of Josh Massey.

This is the Currency Museum.

Sparks Street, a pedestrian mall area. It appears to have no relationship to the caffinated-malt-liquor drink of the same name.

Justice at Canada's Supreme Court.

The Parliament Building is beautiful.

The American embassy, which looks like the Holocaust Museum and has more security than any other building in Ottawa.

The Peacekeeping Memorial.

Department of Readiness

Q. Now, what did we learn?
A. It's good to be readiness?

Declare Pandas Non-Art!

Perhaps Washington would benefit from a visit by the Stockholm Militant Graffiti Artists. They could do something about our pandas. Reuters reports:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish graffiti artists kidnapped a fiber-glass cow from the international art exhibit CowParade, held power drills to its head and threatened to "sacrifice" it unless the sculptures were declared "non-art."

[...]

"We demand that the cows are declared non-art. Otherwise the hostage will be sacrificed," said a voice on the video. The group gave the organizers of the Stockholm exhibit till noon on Aug. 23 to comply with their demand.

[...]

Vandalism marred the Prague show, prompting ex-president Vaclav Havel, who decorated one cow, to say: "Maybe some people can't bear to look at anything nice, unusual or ornamental, maybe they can't even bear to look into the mirror."

August 20, 2004

More Likely to Die in a SUV

The New York Times reports:

People driving or riding in a sport utility vehicle in 2003 were nearly 11 percent more likely to die in an accident than people in cars, the figures show. The government began keeping detailed statistics on the safety of vehicle categories in 1994.

[...]

Industry groups have insisted for years that S.U.V.'s are at least as safe as passenger cars, if not safer. One group run by industry lobbyists, called the Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America, says on its Web site that it is a myth that S.U.V.'s guzzle gas or that their higher rollover rate makes them more dangerous for their occupants. Ron DeFore, a spokesman for the group, cited statistics from the insurance industry, which found last year that fatality rates for newer sport utility vehicles were markedly improved from older models.

[...]

The traffic agency has also released new rankings of rollover risk for many 2004 models. It calculated that the Honda Pilot S.U.V. has only a 16 percent chance of rolling over during a single-vehicle crash, compared with a 26 percent chance for the Chevrolet Tahoe and for many versions of the Ford Explorer.

[...]

Complicating the safety question is what happens to people in the other vehicle in a collision. Because of the higher ground clearance of sport utilities and large pickup trucks, their bumpers often skip over the crash structures of passenger cars, raising the likelihood that an occupant of the car will be killed or seriously injured.

Data online here

It's not too late to get your SUV: Roll Over and Die sticker.

August 19, 2004

Lapham's Advice to Bush

Lewis Lapham gives some advice to our president:

"The only way forward is enlightened, multilateral foreign policy. Give up the notion that we can run the world as if it were a prison, Warden Bush. It didn't work for the Romans. And it won't work for us."

August 14, 2004

Closure

at last! NIN claims that it will release a 2 DVD version of Closure. My sanity is smashed up.

We're All Numbers Here...

Coming to a mailbox near you.

August 12, 2004

Hamdi Nearing Release

WTF? If Hamdi is so dangerous that he had to be held without a lawyer for two years, why can they now just let him go? They aren't even going to charge him? Makes you think that the administration is just making shit up. Good thing Hamdi won his case at the Supreme Court...otherwise he probably would have been held forever along with whomever else the administration determines poses a threat to our precious bodily fluids.

The Washington Post reports:

"The U.S. government, which has held Yaser Esam Hamdi incommunicado in a Navy brig for two years without charges, much of the time without a lawyer, indicated yesterday that it is nearing a deal that would free him altogether.

"The government is negotiating with Hamdi's lawyers about "terms and conditions acceptable to both parties that would allow Mr. Hamdi to be released from . . . custody," according to documents filed in federal court in Norfolk. The legal papers, submitted jointly by federal prosecutors and Hamdi's attorneys, asked the court to stay all proceedings for 21 days while negotiations continue.

"Terms of the release are still being hammered out but, according to people familiar with the situation, are likely to include that Hamdi renounce his U.S. citizenship, move to Saudi Arabia and accept some travel restrictions, as well as some monitoring by Saudi officials. In addition, he may have to agree not to sue the federal government over whether his civil rights were violated.

August 09, 2004

Fair and Balanced!

August 05, 2004

At Florida and 18th

August 02, 2004

Up to Our Eyeballs in Debt!

Yikes! The White House announced that the deficit is going to be $445,000,000,000! Our current national debt is $7,308,426,855,798.06! That's over $24,000 for each man, woman, and child!

But another important number that's often ignored is the amount of private debt in the US. In July, that figure rose to $2,031,200,000,000 last month! Yes, two trillion dollars in credit debt! $742,800,000,000 of that is in revolving accounts!

So our actual debt is $9.3 trillion. That's almost $32,000 for each man, woman, and child in the country!

Cover the Conventions!

In a largely delusional editorial published in the Washington Post, ABC News president David Westin argues that we shouldn't blame the networks for not covering the convention. Why? Because these criticisms are out of date. We now live in a media democracy where we don't need the networks as much as we used to: "This changes fundamentally the decision a news division makes about what it covers. If we broadcast extended convention coverage when most Americans would rather be watching something else, our audiences will flock to the alternative programming." And besides, the conventions are boring: "If the conventions themselves were as interesting as they were in 1948 or 1956 -- or even 1968 -- then we wouldn't have this problem. But as we all know too well, they aren't. As much as we might like to coerce people into watching what we think to be good for them, we simply don't have that power."

Well, Bill Maher's Real Time has the answer to Westin. It's so good that I've transcribed it below. This is from the July 30, 2004 episode.

And finally, new rule: Political conventions are important and they deserve to be broadcast and viewed in their entirety.

You can't call everyone in Washington morons if you don't know exactly what it is that makes them morons.

Now the conventional wisdom on conventions is that they are no longer worth of our attention because they are too produced and there is no drama...

We're picking a president here, not the last comic standing.

The media treats conventions like pointless interruptions of their real job, covering the Scott Peterson trial. No surprises, no excitement? Hey, you know what's exciting? It's exciting when politicians get drunk with power because people aren't keeping an eye on them. No one expected that we would retaliate for 9/11 by attacking Iraq! Unpredictable! Exciting!

And the reason the conventions are so produced is because if they weren't the networks wouldn't air any of it. And the site of John Kerry last night rushing through his speech in cold sweat so that he wouldn't go over time and force viewers to miss the first two minutes of Elimidate was one of the saddest moments in the history of democracy. The man is proposing how to rule the globe and we treat him like it's an audition at the Improv and he just got the light.

I'm not saying everyone has to pour over the issues and read everything that is out there. We can't even get our president to do that.

But the conventions are one of the only times when the election isn't reduced to sound bytes and attack ads. You can get to know these people a bit. It's not exciting enough just to hear Theresa Heinz Kerry? Oh I'm sorry, next time we'll get Justin Timberlake to whip her tit out.

Maybe the conventions aren't boring, maybe it's the people who don't participate in our society who are boring. Once every four years the two parties put on a little pageant for you. These are our faces, these are our voices, this is our vision of America's future. You'd think that would be a little more interesting than reruns of celebrity poker...

If you think the Democratic convention was too slick? Wait until the Republicans and their convention with OBL making a grand entrance in chains from the back of the arena like King Kong!

July 31, 2004

Schering Fined for Ripping off Taxpayers

The Washington Post reports that Schering Plough is going to pay $346 million in fines for overcharging for drugs in the medicaid program.

"...The pharmaceutical company said it would also plead guilty to a federal criminal charge concerning a payment to a managed care customer. Federal law requires drugmakers to give their lowest prices to Medicaid, but a group of whistle-blowers accused the company of giving some private health care providers better deals on its drugs by offering them under-the-table "patient education" grants."

July 27, 2004

KFC Chicken

There is just no way that this type of processing could create tender, juicy chicken.

July 26, 2004

Rules Rules Rules

So I have returned from a nice weekend in Charlottesville, VA. While there, I visited Club 216, a fun club that has too many rules. There are signs hung everywhere telling you not to do things and to do other things. Check out their online list of rules, which is by no means comprehensive. Inside the club there are many more rules, including a prohibition on drinking on the dance floor. And if you want to join, you have to provide your social security number! What's up with that?

Modern Drunkard Magazine advises us that it is important not to have too many rules:

It’s A Party, Not a Penitentiary

Along with inviting a large group of people into your home comes the natural proclivity to lay down some rules. Resist this urge with all your might. Forcing your guests to use coasters will make tomorrow’s clean-up slightly easier, but it may also trigger an Uptight Principle/Juvenile Delinquent vibe. A party is about extending freedoms, not curtailing them. Do not enforce any rules that are not enforced in a bar. Do not guilt your friends off a perfectly good bar stool so you may lord over them.

But Club 216 isn't the only place with a lot of rules in Charlottesville. Check out this sign posted on the door at Rapture, a decent restaurant that has a healthy bar scene. It's pretty clear that they are aimed at the local black community, and they are so vague that they could easily be selectively enforced against the unwanted.

July 24, 2004

Tyranny of Petty Coercion

Marilynne Robinson's essay on The Tyranny of Petty Coercion is excerpted in Harper's Magazine. She writes in part: "Moral and intellectual courage are not in nearly so flourishing a state (compared to physical courage), even though the risks they entail--financial or professional disadvantage, ridicule, ostracism--are comparatively minor...They threaten or violate loyalty, group identity, the sense of comme il faut. They are, intrinsically, outside the range of consensus."

[...]

It is sad to consider how much first-rate courage must be devoted in this world to struggling out of the toils of sheer pettiness. The Saudi women who first drove automobiles risked and suffered penalties, overcame inhibitions, and shattered norms, heroic in their defiance of an absurd convention. We have our own Rosa Parks. That such great courage should have been required to challenge such petty barriers is a demonstration of the power of social consensus. How many minor coercions are required to sustain similar customs and usages? How aware are any of us, absent direct challenge, of how we also deal in trivial coercion?

[...]

Cultures commonly employ the methods of cults, making their members subject and dependent. And nations at intervals march lockstep to enormity and disaster. A successful autocracy rests on the universal failure of individual courage. In a democracy, abdications of conscience are never trivial. The demoralize politics, debilitate candor, and disrupt thought.

July 23, 2004

NSA Crypto Museum and Retarded Ciphers

Mark and I went to the National Security Agency National Cryptologic Museum and he pointed out the difference between the Confederate and Union Ciphers. The Confederate one is about as complex as a cracker jack toy.

An Alpaca

Low Carb Craze Out of Control

This is a low carb vending machine in Suburban Hospital, Bethesda MD.

Don't Poop, Doggies

My Vernon Street neighbors have this nice no pooping sign.

My sex shop neighbors have this nice Bush-Cheney Dog Sign.

The Awakening!

Haines Point, DC

Two New Stickers on Florida Ave

Oakland Pigs

And Full Contact Bowling

Pictures

I have taken many pictures but have forgotten to post them!

Use a fake ID and the Century Council will get you!

July 22, 2004

Hinkley Hilton Now the Rattus Norvegicus Hinkley Hilton Washington & Towers

The best section of the Washington Post reports the following health code violations:

Freedom Market

1901 New Hampshire Ave. NW

Closed July 13 for unclean food contact surfaces and equipment and no hot water. Reopened July 14.

Washington Hilton Hotel

1919 Connecticut Ave. NW

The Gazebo closed July 12 for unclean food contact surfaces and equipment, inadequate basic sanitation and evidence of rodents. Reopened July 15.

July 20, 2004

Ads Are "Clutter," Better to Have Less

Clear Channel, in an attempt to increase the prices it can charge for ads, is reducing the number that its radio stations can play in any given hour. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Under its new rules no station can run more than 15 minutes of advertising in a single hour. In addition, no commercial break will run longer than four minutes or contain more than six commercials."

"In many markets that would represent a significant cut. A recent study from J.P. Morgan showed that some shows, particularly news talk shows during the morning and afternoon consumer drives, cram in as much as 22 minutes of advertising an hour. Radio averages 15 minutes of advertising an hour, compared with 12.5 minutes for television."

The Washington Post quotes Clear Channel saying that fewer ads means an improvement in "the value of radio to listeners and advertisers." Fair enough. But check out this quote--John Hogan, Chief Executive of the Radio Unit said, "Clutter is a major issue in our industry, and our decision to limit the amount of commercial time and length of breaks while reducing promotional interruptions will benefit listeners, advertisers and the industry as a whole," he said.

Newspaper Accountability Part II

Being responsible for inflating a bunch of lies and PR into a war where tens of thousands die causes embarrassment.

Being responsible for inflating circulation numbers and defrauding your advertisers causes the publisher to be fired.

July 14, 2004

Today is Mad Cow Day

Watch out! According to our trusted friends at the FDA, your cosmetics may contain mad cow disease causing materials!

"Cosmetics may be made from a variety of cattle-derived ingredients. These ingredients include: Albumin, brain extract, brain lipid, cholesterol, fibronectin, sphingolipids, collagen, keratin, and tallow, and tallow derivatives. Tallow derivatives, particularly fatty acids and glycerin, are the predominant cattle ingredient used by the cosmetic industry. Cattle-derived ingredients serve many functions and may be used as skin conditioning agents, emollients, binders, and hair and nail conditioning agents."

"There are several routes through which cosmetics contaminated with the agent that causes BSE could transmit disease to humans. Transmission of the BSE agent to humans through intact skin is not likely; however, cosmetics may be ingested or applied to cut or abraded skin or to mucosal tissues, particularly in the eye, which could provide direct routes for infection."

In a separate notice, FDA is prohibiting the use of certain cow "materials" in food, cosmetics, and supplements: "Prohibited cattle materials include specified risk materials, small intestine of all cattle, material from nonambulatory disabled cattle, material from cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption, and mechanically separated (MS)(Beef). Specified risk materials are the brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column (excluding the vertebrae of the tail, the transverse processes of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, and the wings of the sacrum), and dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months and older; and the tonsils and distal ileum of the small intestine of all cattle. Prohibited cattle materials do not include tallow that contains no more than 0.15 percent hexane-insoluble impurities and tallow derivatives."

And the government wants your suggestions about stopping mad cow. Just send email to fdadockets@oc.fda.gov and include Docket No. 2004N-0264 and Regulatory Identification No. (RIN) 0910-AF46 in the subject line of your e-mail message.

July 13, 2004

Food Pyramid Under Review

Here's your chance to stick it to the dairy industry! USDA is reviewing the food pyramid. For some reason, the agency isn't accepting electronic comments. So, you can participate in two ways:

1. Written comments on the proposed plan for revising the food
guide's graphic presentation and consumer education materials can be
submitted and must be received by the Agency on or before August 27,
2004.

2. A public meeting for stakeholder input will be held on August
19, 2004, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Requests to participate in this
meeting must be received by 5 p.m. e.d.t. on August 12, 2004.

ADDRESSES: 1. Submit written comments to Food Guide Pyramid
Reassessment Team, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, 3101
Park Center Drive, Room 1034, Alexandria, VA 22302. No electronic
written comments will be accepted or considered.

2. The public meeting for stakeholder input will be held at the
Jefferson Auditorium, USDA South Building, 1400 Independence Avenue
SW., Washington, DC. Submit requests to participate to respond@cnpp.usda.gov.

Newspaper Accountability

See...there is accountability at newspapers when they break certain rules. That is, when they bite their masters' hands. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Three Newspapers Are Sanctioned

By ELENA CHERNEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 13, 2004

"TORONTO -- Seeking to strengthen advertisers' confidence in newspaper-circulation figures, the industry group that audits North American newspaper sales took the unusual move of placing sanctions against three U.S. newspapers for "fraudulent" practices.

"The board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Schaumburg, Ill., suspended the Chicago Sun-Times, Newsday and Hoy newspapers from ABC's closely watched, semiannual FAS-FAX report, which gives advertisers and media buyers a preliminary look at circulation figures.

"In addition to the one-year suspension, the newspapers, all of which reported inflated circulation numbers to ABC, will have their circulation numbers audited every six months instead of annually for the next two years.

July 12, 2004

Reason Number 101 Why Lieberman Can't Be in the White House

He's active in the leadership of reactionary groups. In addition to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Lieberman co-chairs the "Committee on Present Danger." The Washington Post
reports:

"The Committee on the Present Danger -- an off-and-on organization of anti-Soviet policymakers and strategists founded in the early 1950s and revitalized in 1976 -- is re-forming for a third incarnation. This time, the main target is terrorism, not Moscow-based communism.

"The bipartisan group, co-chaired by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), held a mid-June conference on the war in Iraq, which drew little attention beyond The Hill newspaper. Among the group's tenets is support for preemptive strikes against nations with ties to terrorist organizations.

Customer No Service Rampant

Howard Kurtz rants on the problem of customer no service:
"How many hours of our lives are we supposed to spend sitting on hold or being shuttled from one unhelpful rep to another? I know corporations need to save money in this era of global competition, but some academic study will surely find this institutionalized runaround is costing us billions in lost productivity -- not to mention medical bills for ulcer treatment.

[...]

It's time for the masses to rebel, to file complaints, to reject the culture of non-help that too many companies embrace. Our call is not important to them. And for that infuriating attitude, they should pay a price.

MADD's Inflated Numbers

A shot at MADD in the Post:

Your July 4 editorial "Back and Fourth, Safely" equated drunken-driving highway deaths and "alcohol-related" highway deaths. They are not the same at all. The misnamed "alcohol-related" term has nothing to do with drunken driving. All it means is that those involved in the accident had some level of alcohol in their system. It does not mean that they were legally impaired or at fault. The victim could have been sitting at a bus stop after having one beer and been crushed by a careless though sober driver.

Real drunken-driving deaths are tragic, but those numbers are much lower than the silly "alcohol-related" statistics bandied about by those seeking to scare the public, raise money and make drinking all but impossible. In addition, these pied pipers are behind efforts at criminalizing non-impaired drivers and supporting Soviet-style checkpoints that are a gross waste of taxpayer money as well as an infringement on our basic rights as Americans.

-- Michael McGuire

MADD really is out of control. If you look at their legislative priorities, they are pushing all sorts of laws that look like neo-prohibition efforts rather than anti-drunk driving initiatives. They want to ban happy hour, to impose liability on private individuals who have parties, and to require keg registration.

Parents Parenting into Adulthood

The Washington Post reports:

" Admissions office staffers and high school guidance counselors say parental over-involvement comes in many forms. Some parents refuse to let their children apply to schools that don't rank high enough on the U.S. News & World Report list of prominent colleges. Some rewrite application essays. Some intrude on even the simplest parts of the process.

"I am always shocked when a parent and student come in and I'll ask the student their name, and the parent will literally jump in front of their child to answer for them," said Georgia Summers, a Georgetown University senior working this summer at the school's undergraduate admissions office. "I've even had parents fill out the basic info sheet on behalf of their child."

[...]

"Nate Pancost, 19, who took a year off before enrolling as a math major at U-Md. in the fall, said he liked his parents' hands-off approach, compared with what he has seen among other Montgomery Blair High School families.

"Pushy does not even begin to describe some of the parents of my friends at school," he said. "Ultimately I feel like it works against the kids, because once Mommy and Daddy aren't there pushing, they stop working, and there goes a $40,000-a-year education."

July 06, 2004

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property

This week's Now with Bill Moyers includes an interview with Sissela Bok. What's unsaid is that her answers to questions are an attack on many neocons who basically have changed "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" to "Life, Liberty, and Property."

MOYERS: Have our expectations (of happiness) changed over the century?

Particularly living in this constant siege of advertising that accelerates, accentuates and exacerbates our longing for everything we see, wanting all of it that's out there. What about that? Have expectations changed?

BOK: It does seem that peoples expectations especially when it has to do with income or with objects such as houses, for instance, or automobiles or something like that. Yes, that they change depending on what other people have. And again many philosophers, many religious theorists... other people have argued, yeah, but you don't have to go that way, there are other ways of being happy.

MOYERS: Someone has said that the unhappiness a person feels is often directly in relationship to his imagined or his exaggerated understanding of other people's happiness. That you're so happy, something must be wrong with me.

BOK: There must be something wrong with me.

MOYERS: Yeah.

BOK: People say that. On the other hand, people also say that especially in America there is this attitude, "Oh, yes, we're all so happy. We all have to be so happy." People use the word "happy" in different ways in America.

Even, for instance, when they say, "I'll be happy to do such-and-such." You wouldn't use the word "happy" in French or German or some other language if you just say, "Yeah, I'd be glad to do whatever it is you ask me." So, that's the notion in America that it is so important to be happy and for everybody else to notice that you are so happy can, indeed, then make a number of people say, "Well, what's the matter with me if I am not that happy?"

[...]

MOYERS: It is so hard to weigh our own desire to achieve happiness against the misery, the contrast between misery and opulence. That is so evident today.

BOK: Yes. And opulence of course many psychologists are now finding, Economists as well. And I think you could read about it in the Bible. Opulence was never the thing that actually makes people happy. And if you go back to the Declaration of Independence the pursuit of happiness was never about dying with the most toys for instance as the expression goes. Meaning accumulating, accumulating.

MOYERS: What do you think the founders meant when they talked about the pursuit of happiness?

BOK: From what I understand, what they meant was something very different from the very individual pursuit that people now often talk about. They really had in mind... the society that they were shaping, of course, the society pursuing happiness for the entire community. And I think that they might come back to us and say, "Look, this is what still is so important."

Cleary in WCP

There is a nice article on Manon Cleary in the current issue of the Washington City Paper. See her work here and here.

July 05, 2004

Mass Hysteria Caused by Prospect of Some Workers' Rights

The Virginia legislature accidently reinstated a series of "Blue Laws," causing the business community to totally freak out. Check out the stuck pigs squealing:

"The gun has sort of been removed from the head and put back in the holster," said Hugh Keogh, president and chief executive of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "There's no panic. To affect the level of confidence, we may still need a special session."

(Senate Majority Leader) Stosch added: "We ought to schedule it as soon as we can. The business community deserves to have this resolved."

"I am pleased that Judge Markow's injunction allows everyone to take a deep breath," (Governor) Warner said. "We will continue to work with leaders of the legislature and others on this issue."

Now, how much harm would there really be if some of these laws were retained? For instance, Virginia code 40.1-28.1 requires employers to give "at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in each calendar week." Other portions of the code require employers to give their nonmanagerial employees the right "to choose Sunday as a day of rest..." or Saturday as long as the employee "actually refrains from all secular business and labor on that day." There are exceptions for emergency situations.

How far we haven't come. There used to be promises of a 35 or even 30 hour work week. American workers are far more productive than ever, and we can't even give people one day off a week.

July 01, 2004

DC Police Auto Theft Bait Car Stolen (Successfully)

The Washington Post reports that a "group of officers was watching the car at about 12:35 p.m. when a man jumped into the sedan and drove it two blocks. He then got out of the vehicle and vanished from sight, police officials said."

[…]

A few minutes later, police said, the man again hopped behind the wheel and motored off.

So far, so good. But as officers trailed several blocks behind, the tracking signal died.

The car and suspect vanished just over the Maryland line.

It took police two days to find the car in Prince George's County. An $80 videocassette recorder in the car's trunk, which was used to record the sting operation, was missing, police said.

Health Violations of the Week

There is something about the name of these restuarants that should suggest some problem. Anyway, "Chuckies Chicken House" was "Closed May 17 for unclean food contact surfaces and equipment, no certified food supervisor, improper temperatures of potentially hazardous foods, uncovered and unprotected food on display and refrigerated equipment incapable of keeping proper temperature." Now what's really impressive is that it wasn't reopened until June 17th, which the longest I've ever seen a restaurant closed.

The "New Big Wong Restaurant" on H St. NW was closed for "unclean food contact surfaces and equipment, improper temperatures of potentially hazardous foods, refrigerated equipment incapable of keeping proper temperature, inadequate basic sanitation and evidence of rodents."

And in the good old "Free State," Le Petit Bistro in Montgomery Mall was closed for a "fly infestation and operating without hot water." Fly infestation? What does that mean? Sounds scary.

October 09, 2003

Illegal Art Stamps

Among other things, Michael Hernandez de Luna has sent self-created stamps through the mail bearing the likeness of Catherine the Great, Los Straightjackets, and good old fashioned boobs.

October 07, 2003

Novak Leak II

Dana Milbank's column in today's Washington Post has an interesting story about a former Robert Novak column with a classified information leak:

"Actually, this occurred in December 1975. Novak, with his late partner Rowland Evans, got the classified leak -- that President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were ready to make concessions to the Soviet Union to save the SALT II treaty. Donald H. Rumsfeld, then, as now, the secretary of defense, intervened to block Kissinger.

"The main leak suspect: Richard Perle, then an influential aide to Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-Wash.) and now a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and a confidant of neoconservatives in the Bush administration. The account was described in a 1977 article in The Washington Post, noting Perle's "special access" to Evans and Novak.

Apparently this info was dug up by a "new" "liberal" think tank called the Center for American Progress.

October 06, 2003

Misperceptions Behind Public Support for War; Fox Watchers Lead Pack

Frank Davies of Knight Ridder reports:

"A majority of Americans have held at least one of three mistaken impressions about the U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to a new study released Thursday, and those misperceptions contributed to much of the popular support for the war.

[...]

"The analysis released Thursday also correlated the misperceptions with the primary news source of the mistaken respondents. For example, 80 percent of those who said they relied on Fox News and 71 percent of those who said they relied on CBS believed at least one of the three misperceptions.

"The comparable figures were 47 percent for those who said they relied most on newspapers and magazines and 23 percent for those who said they relied on PBS or National Public Radio.

The actual report is online here (PDF).

September 28, 2003

Nature Attacks, Avenges Development in C-Ville

That big storm colluded with the tree pictured below to drop an enoromous branch on my parents' home!

September 24, 2003

Universal Adjusting Terms of Price Drop

The Washington Post reports that pressure from big retailers such as Best Buy has resulted in Universal changing its price drop policy to one where the company won't directly print the new price on the CD. What's really interesting is the wholesale price of a CD:

"Shortly after the Sept. 3 announcement, Universal Music sent a letter to its retailers, saying it would place the $12.98 sticker on most of its new CDs beginning around Oct. 1. In addition, the world's largest music company, which accounts for about 30 percent of all music sales, would lower its wholesale price to $9.09 per CD, from $12.02.

September 22, 2003

Medea Challenges Perle to Visit Iraq, Sans Bodyguards

I am very fond of Medea Benjamin, one of the organizers of Code Pink, a pro-peace org. She organized a Xmas caroling event outside Rummy's house last winter that was great.

Tonight Medea was on the offensive against Richard Perle on the Newshour. The full excerpt is below. Perle makes some good points, and I don't fully agree with Medea, but nevertheless, it was one of the better debates on the Newshour. Perle prinicpally objected to Medea's arguments by poisoning the well--by accusing her of being a liberal, and by characterizing the U.N. as a "bureaucracy." Medea challenged him to actually visit Iraq:

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, I challenge to you go there with me, Mr. Perle, because I was there in July, I was there in August, I don't stay in the presidential palace, I don't go around with bodyguards and helicopters and sniffing dogs like Paul Bremer and Colin Powell. I challenge to you go with me, without any bodyguards and let's walk around the streets of the cities of Iraq and see what it looks like six months after the U.S. occupation...

RAY SUAREZ: For more on the funding request and how to spend the money, we get two perspectives. Richard Perle serves on the Defense Policy Board, which advises the secretary of defense, and was assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.

Medea Benjamin is founding director of Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization. She recently visited Iraq with human rights organizations tracking the reconstruction.

Medea Benjamin, we all just heard Paul Bremer lay out the spending plan and the priorities for the Iraq reconstruction. Is it the right plan, and is it the right amount of money?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: No, it's not the right plan. Bremer doesn't have an idea what he's doing. I just came back from Iraq, it's a disaster, people don't have electricity, water, garbage collection, sewage collection, jobs. They're angry, they're bitter. They say the United States money is not getting down to the people, it's going to Halliburton, it's going to Bechtel. We should not approve this $87 billion, instead there should be immediate transition over to the United Nations and as soon as possible to Iraqi self rule.

Bremer's focus and spending priorities

RAY SUAREZ: Richard Perle, did Paul Bremer's plan sound right to you both in its focus and its spending priorities?

RICHARD PERLE: Yes, it did, and I find it a bit ironic to listen to someone say there's no electricity, there's no water, therefore we must not spend money on electricity and water. What we are attempting to do in Iraq is precisely restore essential services, as Ambassador Bremer indicated, provide security, and open the way to a decent Iraqi government and a private Iraqi economy.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: But we haven't been able to do it in six months.

RICHARD PERLE: Of course it can't be done in six months, no one is proposing that it could be done in six months--

MEDEA BENJAMIN: It certainly can and should have been done in six months. The electricity should be up and running, if the Iraqis were in charge they would have done it themselves. The water supply should be running, the telephone system should be up and running. There is no reason to have this chaos that's in Iraq right now. And it's because the U.S. Administration doesn't have a clue about what it's doing. That's why it needs to be an immediate transition the U. N., and then to the Iraqis who know how to rebuild their own economy much better than Paul Bremer.

RAY SUAREZ: Richard Perle.

RICHARD PERLE: Well, I certainly believe that the Iraqis should be involved in the rebuilding their economy, and they will be. Much of the work that will be done under this program will be carried out by Iraqi workers. I can't for the life of me see how adding the United Nations bureaucracy to this is going to expedite getting Iraqis to work, rebuilding their country.

The contested effectiveness of reconstruction

RAY SUAREZ: Let's return to the -- Ms. Benjamin, let me continue here. By many accounts inside the Senate there is no appetite for turning down this package. Can we look at the money that's been spent in Iraq already and see that it's been spent well so that there's some confidence that the next $87 billion might be spent well also?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: No, we can't at all. We've already spent $78 billion.

RAY SUAREZ: Let Richard Perle answer that question, then I'll give you a chance.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Sure.

RICHARD PERLE: The amounts that have been spent on reconstruction up until now have been spent under extremely difficult circumstances. And I have no reason to believe that that money under those circumstances has not been spent reasonably or spent well. This is not a situation in which you can go out and offer contracts where contractors are free to employ work forces without security concerns. It's a very difficult situation. And so if one were to go back and do an audit, I suppose you'll find that some of the standards of peacetime stable societies didn't apply. But on the whole, given the circumstances, I think we've done rather well.

RAY SUAREZ: Medea Benjamin?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, we've done miserably, Ray. Just think -- Halliburton is making $2 billion, Bechtel is making $1 billion. And they haven't been able to turn on the electricity or turn back the water supply. They can't do the job, plus they're wasting massive amounts of money. Even the governing council that was hand-appointed by the U.S. is saying that the money being spent is being wasted because it's U.S. companies in charge instead of Iraqis.

RAY SUAREZ: So you would suggest immediate turning over of authority to the U. N. Does the U. N. have a track record in these matters that's more encouraging than America's thus far?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, it certainly has a track record that's more encouraging than the Americans. It's been six months since this occupation, and even the Iraqis who welcomed the U.S. with open arms and were so happy to get rid of Saddam Hussein are now extremely bitter and angry. The resentment will only grow unless the U.S. turns this over to a legitimate authority, which is the United Nations, which will have a quick time line for Iraqi self rule and that the money that is pledged by the U.S. and the international community -- and let's remember the international community will not pledge money unless it is in the hands of the United Nations -- and that money should go directly to Iraqis and not to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel that are profiteering from this war.

RICHARD PERLE: What you just heard is a tirade against American companies in the left-wing tradition that she represents. Her characterization of the situation in Iraq is not at all borne out by many conversations I've had with Iraqis, including members of the governing council she's been referring to.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, I challenge to you go there with me, Mr. Perle, because I was there in July, I was there in August, I don't stay in the presidential palace, I don't go around with bodyguards and helicopters and sniffing dogs like Paul Bremer and Colin Powell. I challenge to you go with me, without any bodyguards and let's walk around the streets of the cities of Iraq and see what it looks like six months after the U.S. occupation.

RICHARD PERLE: With all due respect, your sojourns in the cities of Iraq are hardly the appropriate measure of how well we have done in restoring electricity and getting water back on track. I don't think --

MEDEA BENJAMIN: You know better sitting in Washington, D.C.?

RAY SUAREZ: Let him finish, please.

RICHARD PERLE: Let's be clear. This is a massive undertaking and very significant progress has been made, and it makes no sense for to you sit there and say nothing has been accomplished when a great deal has been accomplished.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: It's an absolute disaster, Mr. Perle, and I think you know it, but go with me and you'll see with your own eyes.

An eventual political price?

RAY SUAREZ: If we are in a situation where even by Paul Bremer's own admission, things are not where they wanted them to be by this point in the occupation, is there also a political price that's eventually paid -- as far as working with a civilian population that is becoming impatient, regardless of what happened before the invasion, but becoming impatient with American administration right there at the moment?

RICHARD PERLE: People are impatient when they can't get electricity. I was without it until earlier today. For four days. And I was awfully impatient, after the storm we had here. So it's perfectly understandable that people are impatient. It is also very clear that no one wants Saddam Hussein back. That was a regime of terror and we're well rid of it and the Iraqi people are well rid of it and they are a good deal more tolerant than some Americans, as we've just seen. They're prepared to work with us, they're eager to work with us and they are working with us, and the bitterness that I just heard described is not the prevailing sentiment in Iraq.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Because you haven't been there - go on any street corner.

RAY SUAREZ: Did you see no electricity in evidence, no public utilities in evidence? I mean all the reporting that's coming out of Iraq shows that these things are sporadic, perhaps not as reliable as they should be, but in some evidence.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: The electricity is sporadic, it's less available than it was under Saddam Hussein. The streets are full of green bubbling sewage, there is no decent garbage collection. There is no decent access to water. There is an unemployment crisis because so many people have been thrown out of their jobs, and perhaps worst of all, there is no law and order. Women, particularly, are afraid to go out of their homes, afraid to go out on the streets.

There will be no law and order until the U.S. troops leave Iraq, it's turned over to the United Nations, and then becomes in the hands of the Iraqis themselves, that's the only way this situation is going to improve for the Iraqis themselves, and let's remember that many Americans feel there's a much better use of $87 billion to put into our schools, our health care system, our public transportation system, instead of spending it to put our boys and girls in harm's way in Iraq, a country where they don't want to be and a country where the Iraqis don't want us.

RICHARD PERLE: Now we've gone full circle. We've come from deploring the situation in Iraq, to saying that things have to be done to fix it, to saying we shouldn't spend any money to fix it. I think it's very clear that she's just not the least bit interested in the people of Iraq.

RAY SUAREZ: But can American policymakers expect the kind of help that they're looking for from the U.N. without ceding some oversight of the reconstruction?

RICHARD PERLE: I don't know what help we're looking for from the United Nations. You asked earlier about the track record of the United Nations. I had a conversation with a very senior Afghan official, a cabinet minister, just recently, who said to me everything the U. N. does in Afghanistan costs three times as much as what we are able to do for ourselves. We do it -

MEDEA BENJAMIN: The governing council in Iraq is saying that it's costing ten times…

RICHARD PERLE: Could I -

RAY SUAREZ: Let him finish, please.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: … to give to the U.S. what would be used in Iraq.

RICHARD PERLE: We -- we do agree on one point, which is that the sooner the people of Iraq are in control of their own destiny, the better. And the way to facilitate that is by providing a jump start, by providing some money that will start the reconstruction. This is a country in which there was virtually no investment for three decades, there was nothing but tyranny and murder. And so it is at the beginning in every respect, with respect to electricity, with respect to water, with respect to --

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, there's less electricity, there's less water, there's less jobs available. People are miserable, Mr. Perle. This is not working, it is I quagmire, we need the world community to invest funds into Iraq because we can't do it alone and the only way we're going to get that help from the international community is if we turn the situation over to the United Nations, the only legitimate authority to oversee the transition to Iraqi self rule.

RAY SUAREZ: We have to end it there. Medea Benjamin, Richard Perle, thank you both.

September 21, 2003

A Trend in College Football?

Bill Maher on Taxes

Bill Maher's Real Time is one of the better political talk shows on television. He commented on taxes recently:

"How did taxes get to be something that people think just don't belong in society at all?"

[…]

"Teachers spend an average of $589 a school year of their own money buying school supplies. Somebody should sit the kids down and say, 'kids you know what, no matter what daddy tells you, or what the politicians tell you, nothing gets between daddy and his tax cut.'"

September 18, 2003

Sept. Harper's is Awesome

As usual, Lewis Lapham has served up another excellent issue of Harper's.

Here's a portion from Lapham's notebook, which contains a colloquy between President Bush and a reporter on the California recall:

The President (insulted): It is the biggest political story in the country? That's interesting. That says a lot. That speaks volumes.

First Reporter: …You don't agree?

The President (irritated): I don't get to decide the biggest political story. You decide the biggest political story. But I find it interesting that that is the biggest political story in the country, as you just said.

Second Reporter: You don't think it should be?

The President (cute and sarcastic): Oh, I think there's maybe other political stories. Isn't there, like, a presidential race coming up?

Lapham continues: "In California the Hollywood press corps would have known better. It's never any good mentioning the names of two action-movie stars at the same news briefing….

Parents: Are Your Kids in a Gang?

Find out by reading the Fairfax County, VA Signs of Possible Gang Activity Guide:

BTW: Doesn't "Nut Up" refer to ejactulation?

[...]

Some Common Slang

Gang banger: an active gang member.
Home boy or home girl: gang member.
Jump in: gang initiation.
Nut up: angry.
OG: original gang member.
Packing: gang member with a gun.
Shooter: a gang member who uses a gun.
Tagger: someone who uses graffiti.
Wannabe: youngster who wants to be a gang member.

September 17, 2003

9th Cir: Liberal or Conservative? Neither?

There is an interesting article in today's Washington Post on whether the Ninth Circuit, which encompasses California, Guam, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Hawaii, is conservative or liberal. The 9th is so big that it has more judges than other circuits.

Conservatives have long targeted the 9th Circuit, saying that it is out of control and that as a result, the Supreme Court spends an inordinate time reversing opinions from the 9th. But Erwin Chemerinsky, a prof from the University of Southern California Law School, argues that this is not true:

"…in its past term, the Supreme Court reversed 74 percent of the cases it reviewed from all of the appellate courts and 75 percent of the cases it heard from the 9th Circuit. He (Chemerinsky) said the 9th Circuit's reversal rate has closely tracked the national average the last several years.

"Chemerinsky also said that the 9th Circuit's reputation for unbridled liberalism was the result of a "very unfair and inaccurate attack" by conservatives.

"It's absolutely diverse ideologically, and its reversal rate is right at the national average," he said. "For every liberal there is a very conservative judge. For every moderate liberal you can point to a moderate conservative. There is no consensus on the court, certainly no liberal consensus."

September 16, 2003

Machiavelli on Perception of the Past, Present

One of the best discussions of fondness of the past and condemnation of the present times was written by Machiavelli in his Discourses. The full text is in the extended entry.

"Men always praise the ancient times and find fault with the present, but not always with good reason; and they are such partisans of things past, that they celebrate not only that age which has been recalled to their memory by known writers, but those also which they remember having seen in their youth...

Men always praise the ancient times and find fault with the present, but not always with good reason; and they are such partisans of things past, that they celebrate not only that age which has been recalled to their memory by known writers, but those also which they remember having seen in their youth. And when this opinion of theirs is false, as it is most of the times, I am persuaded the reasons by which they are led to such deception are various. And the first I believe is that the whole truth which would bring out the infamy of those times, and they amplify and magnify those others that could bring forth their glory. Moreover, the greater number of writers so obey the fortune of the winners that, in order to make their victories glorious, they not only exaggerate that which is gotten by their own virtu, but they also exaggerate the actions of the enemies; so that whoever afterwards is born in either of the two provinces, both the victorious and the defeated ones, has cause to marvel at those men and times, and is forced summarily to praise and love them. In addition to this, men hating things either from fear or envy, these two reasons for hating past events come to be extinguished, as they are not able to offend or give cause for envy of them. But the contrary happens with those things that are in operation and are seen, which because you have a complete knowledge of them as they are not in any way hidden from you; and knowing the good together with the many other things which are displeasing to you, you are constrained to judge the present more inferior than the past, although in truth the present might merit much more of that glory and fame; I do not discuss matters pertaining to the arts, which shine so much by themselves, which time cannot take away or add a little more glory which they merit by themselves; but I speak of those matters pertinent to the lives and customs of men, of which such clear evidences are not seen.

I repeat, therefore, that the custom of praising and blaming as mentioned above is true, but it is not true that you err in doing it. For sometimes of necessity our judgment is the truth, as human affairs are always in motion, either ascending or descending. And we see a City or a Province well-organized in its government by some excellent man, and for a time always progressing toward the better through the virtu of that organizer. He who is born in that state, and praises the past more than the present, deceives himself; and his deception is caused by those things mentioned above. But if they are born in that City or province after the time when it has begun to descend to its bad times, then he does not deceive himself. And in thinking of how these things go on, I judge that the world has always been in the same condition, and that there is as much good as there is bad in it; but this bad and good vary from province to province, as is seen by the historian of those ancient Kingdoms which varied from one another because of the variations in customs, while the world remained the same: the only difference was, that where virtu first found a place in Assyria, it then to Media, afterwards to Persia, and from there came to Italy and Rome: and if after the Roman Empire no other Empire followed which endured, and where the world kept together all its virtu, none the less it is seen to be scattered in many nations where people lived with virtu, as it was in the Kingdom of the Franks, the Kingdom of the Turks, that of the Soldan (of Egypt), and today the people of Germany, and before then that Saracen Sect which accomplished such great things and occupied so much of the world after having destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire. In all these provinces, therefore, after the Romans fell, the Sects possessed, and yet possess in part, that virtu which is desired and lauded with true praise. And whoever is born in them and praises the times past more than the present, may deceive himself: but whoever is born in Italy and Greece, and has not become either an Ultramontane in Italy or a Turk in Greece, has reason to find fault with his times and to praise the others, for in the past there are many things that make him marvel, but now there is not anything that will compensate for the extreme misery, infamy, and disgrace in these times where there is no observance of religion, of laws, or of military discipline, but are stained by every brutish reasoning. And these vices are even more detestable as they exist more in those who sit in the tribunals, commanding everyone, and desiring to be adored.

But returning to our argument, I say that, if the judgment of men is corrupt in deciding whether the present or the ancient age is better, in those things where because of their antiquity they cannot have a perfect knowledge as they have of their own times, the old men ought not to corrupt themselves in judging the times of their youth and their old age, they having known and seen the latter and the former equally. Which thing would be true if men throughout all the periods of their lives had the same judgment and the same appetites. But as these vary, things cannot appear the same to those men who have other appetites, other delights, and other considerations in their old age than in their youth. For as men wane in strength but grow in judgment and prudence, so it is that those things which in their youth appeared supportable and good, will turn out unsupportable and bad, and where they ought to blame their judgment, they blame the times. In addition to this, human appetites being insatiable because by nature they have to be able to and want to desire everything, and to be able to effect little for themselves because of fortune, there arises a continuous discontent in the human mind, and a weariness of the things they possess; which makes them find fault with the present times, praise the past, and desire the future, although in doing this they are not moved by any reasonable cause. I do not know, therefore, whether I merit to be numbered among those who deceive themselves, if in these Discourses of mine I shall laud too much the times of the ancient Romans and censure ours. And truly, if the virtu that then reigned and the vice that now reigns should not be as clear as the Sun, I would be more restrained in talking, being apprehensive of falling into that deception of which I accuse others. But the matter being so manifest that everyone sees it, I shall be bold in saying openly that which I learned of those times and these, so that the minds of the young men who may read my writings can avoid the latter and imitate the of the former, whenever fortune should give them the opportunity. For it is the office of a good man to show others that good which because of the malignity of the times and of fortune, he has not been able to accomplish, so that some of those more loved by Heaven can accomplish them.

Bush the Son

Couldn't resist posting this one...from Reuters.

September 15, 2003

Palahniuk At Press Club

Saw Chuck Palahniuk tonight at the National Press Club. He read an excellent short story called Guts, a three-part story of the risks of weird masturbation. He also remarked that some of his writing was intended to challenge the idea that individuals will find hapiness in money.

Despite the darkness of the topics he covered, Palahniuk's talk was uplifting. He clearly has a love for life. He didn't describe his personal life in detail--he only said that he was happily married, and that he lives somewhere where there is no broadband.

Zoellick's Rhetoric

Robert Zoellick accuses the poorer countries that broke up the trade talks of using "rhetoric as opposed to negotiation," but then employs rhetoric to defend his position:

"Whether developed or developing, there were 'can-do' and 'won't-do' countries here," Zoellick said in a statement. "The rhetoric of the 'won't-dos' overwhelmed the concerted efforts of the 'can-dos.'"

September 14, 2003

Flying Anytime Soon?

...check out Air Disater.com first.

September 13, 2003

John Ritter: Dead at 54

"Three's Company's" John Ritter died yesterday at 54. Although he was best known for that inane sitcom, I saw him at the Kennedy Center in A Dinner Party, and he was excellent. Oddly enough, that production of the play also had the guy who played "The Fonz," and he was terrible!

A One-Party Two-Party System?

So it seems that some of the Democratic candiates are haunted by their past votes, where they supported the PATRIOT Act and other obnoxious legislation...What does this say about Nader's assertion that we have a one-party two-party system?

Two Excellent Letters to the Ed in the Post

Often the letters to the editor in the Washington Post are more insightful than the columists. Here are two excellent ones from Friday:

The Blame Game
Friday, September 12, 2003; Page A30

Seventy percent of Americans think Saddam Hussein had a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Seventy percent of Arabs think the Israelis were behind Sept. 11. The Arabs read a controlled press. What is our excuse?

THOMAS P. LOWRY
Woodbridge

After listening to President Bush's address to the nation Sunday night, I found it interesting to note that more chemical weapons have been found in Spring Valley than in Iraq since the end of the war.

JOE COFFEY
Chevy Chase

September 11, 2003

Are Prisons The New Form of Lynching?

There is an excellent summary of David Garlan's Do Not Pass Go: The Culture of Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society in the current issue of the New York Review of Books. In reviewing Garlan's book, Jerome Bruner asks whether prisons have become a new form of lynching for unsucessful blacks:

"I mentioned earlier the deplorable epidemic of lynching in the South in the 1890s and in the three decades following (the subject of the book David Garland is currently working on). Has imprisonment now become the covert but official method of dealing with "disorderly" blacks in America, with capital punishment its extreme expression? Is "indifference" to the huge imbalance of blacks in our prisons less an expression of "indifference" than of denial, of wanting to turn away from the problems of race in America? After all, the Supreme Court affirmed the principle of integration in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954: it's up to "them" now. To paraphrase Loïc Wacquant's remark, mentioned earlier, yes, we build prisons to provide housing for the black poor. And yes, of course, we have come to accept better-educated blacks who have made it. Prison is for the blacks who haven't. Is this progress?

September 06, 2003

MDMA Study Withdrawn

So it seems that Science has withdrawn that hysterical study on Ecstasy that found that a single dose of the drug could cause permanent damage. The study's author, Johns Hopkins University Professor George Ricaurte receives a lot of money from NIDA, and his study was conveniently delivered to Congress when the Judiciary Committee was considering the Anti-Rave Act. That bill, which punishes organizers of events where certain drug use occurs, has no place in a free society.

September 03, 2003

Hinckley Field Trips

So, John Hinckley is said to be well enough to go out on his own. I've thought that it would be interesting to erect a statue of Hinkley and place it on the grounds of the Hinckley Hilton, which just happens to be one block away from my little home.

* is Evil

Ah! There is so much evil in the world! Via Robotwisdom.

August 31, 2003

Damn Show Pac-Man

My friends at the Damn Show have sunk to a new low. First, it was the Yucko Insult O' Matic, now it is a pac-man game featuring Wack Man. I hope they are proud of themselves.

August 28, 2003

40th Anniversary of "I Have a Dream Speech"

The Lehrer Newshour broadcast the entire "I Have a Dream" Speech tonight, as it is the 40th anniversary of the address and the march on Washington.

August 27, 2003

Rabbit Proof Fence

I saw Rabbit Proof Fence tonight, a movie about forced segregation of interracial aboriginal children in Australia. Great movie.

August 24, 2003

Geoghan Killed In Prison

This also happened to Jeff Dahmer.

Homeland Security Light Signal

This device can warn the public of silly bullshit from miles away.

August 21, 2003

Harper's on Ed.

The feature article in this month's Harper's Magazine argues that public education is designed to create citizens who do not think. The author, a former teacher, explains briefly that social engineering has long been a fundamental purpose of public education. Harper's articles are not online, but they have started a weekly review mail list that is often hilarious.

August 18, 2003

Sex Terrorist

People tend to toss the terrorism word around casually these days, but when Kenyan women speak of the threat to their autonomy posed by their sex cleanser, one should take it seriously: "His breath fumes with the local alcoholic brew. Greasy food droppings hang off his mustache and stain his oily pants and torn shirt...He's too skinny and has, as the women point out, terrible taste in clothes. His latest hat is a visor styled from shabby paper stolen off a local cigarette billboard...But for all of his undesirable traits, Akacha has a surprisingly desirable job: He's paid to have sexual relations with the widows and unmarried women of this village. He's known as "the cleanser," one of hundreds of thousands of men in rural villages across Africa who sleep with women after their husbands die to dispel what villagers believe are evil spirits...

Wash Them Hands!

In any given year, you're more likely to die of food poisoning than terrorism.

For more interesting tidbits on risks to your life and health, check out the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and to see what your sons and daughters are up to, see the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a report that some right-wingers are always trying to kill, because it reveals that we like unsafe sex, alcohol, drunk driving, drugs, violence, and guns.

May 12, 2003

Modern Drunkard Mag.

Check out the Washington Post's review of Denver's Modern Drunkard Magazine.

March 21, 2003

Secretary of Offense

Robbie Conal's "Secretary of Offense" has just be released! I am the proud owner of an older Conal work, "Tower of Babble.

February 25, 2003

UGA SGA History Database

I just noticed that the UGA SGA Institutional History Database wasn't linked on the site. Anyway, this database contains basically every document that the Student Government Association at University of Georgia created from 1998 to 2000. (They didn't produce much...) But, SGA did in fact create the Arch Society, a group of students who look good and don't talk much. When I brought this to the attention of Arch Society members, they didn't appreciate it...

December 31, 2002

Baitsell.com

Keith and Amy have driven all over the US & part of Canada. Check out the pics and text at Baitsell.com.

June 06, 2002

Lung Gun?

When fixing lunch, do you think they used the Lung Gun before the Spinal Cord Remover or vice-versa?.

December 27, 2001

A Shorter Wake?

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. A shorter Wake on RobotWisdom.

December 16, 2001

Dr. Strangelove Movie Night

Movie Night: Dr. Strangelove on December 19.

December 07, 2001

Communication from Paul

Communication: Goddamn you, Hoofnagle.

November 21, 2001

POTUSOIDS. YOU?

Are you suffering from POTUSOIDS?

November 05, 2001

A Good Man is Hard to Find

John McCain is a good man. Jimmy Hoffa is a good man. Vladimir Putin is a good man.

August 20, 2001

Motion to Kiss My Ass

If it may please the court, your honor, I submit this consolidated motion to kiss my ass, motion to behoove an inquisition, motion for judex delegatus, motion for restoration of sanity, and motion for deinstitutionalization.

July 12, 2001

ACS is Formed

Sick of the Federalist Society? Join the Madison Society.