Musings from Brian J. Noggle: August 2005

Musings from Brian J. Noggle

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Twenty Year Trivia Turnabout

Joaquin Phoenix had a brother, River Phoenix, who was also an actor.

Compare/contrast this with trivia questions ca 1990.

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:21 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Bush Prepares the Keynesian Free Market Wrecking Ball

Bush may tap strategic oil reserve as prices soar:

Hurricane Katrina disrupted Gulf Coast petroleum output and rattled energy markets on Monday, sending oil and natural gas prices soaring and setting the stage for a spike in the retail cost of gasoline.

The Bush administration said it would consider lending oil from the nation's emergency stockpile to refiners that request it and the president of OPEC said he will propose a production increase of 500,000 barrels a day at the cartel's meeting next month.

Given that the Middle East remains relatively unstable, that one of the largest exporters in this hemisphere has a mad-on for freedom, and that a rising rival power's consumption of the existing supply is growing, I'd rather we save the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for just in case the s really hits the f beyond consumer inconvenience and price increases. Call it a foolish consistency, but I opposed the last president's proposed release as well.

I mean, where does the government's meddling in free markets end? With increased home seizures when the housing bubble "bursts," so better to spur demand and keep the supply tight? Oh, no, you say? Why the heck not?

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:02 PM 0 comments

Brian Ends The Foreign Policy Debate With a Witty Riposte

I am a chickenhawk. I eat chickens. Are you a chicken?

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:59 PM 0 comments

Monday, August 29, 2005

Book Report: Movies and TV: The New York Public Library Book of Answers by Melinda Corey and George Ochoa (1992)

I paid $1.00 for this book last week at the J. I totally consumed it because I'm into trivia. Speaking of which, this book has the longest title of anything I've read in the last two years.

This book is kinda like a FAQ, especially FAQs like a former employer wanted me to write back when I was a technical writer: Just make up some questions. Actually, this is a little different, as someone did ask these questions of the New York Public Library.

The book focuses on movies, mostly classic movies, and television, mostly early television. Hopefully I have absorbed enough information to keep me competitive with MC Jazzy Pianist, the other anchor of the North Side Mind Flayers but sometimes a rival in non-official trivia events.

So I now know where RKO studios went and who played Joe Friday's partner in the second television go-round of Dragnet (although I already knew that--perhaps I'm not keeping up after all). I did note an interesting confluence, whether real or perceived: a lot of long-running television series went off of the air in the early 1970s. A lot of shows seemed to run from the radio days through the new medium and right up until 1971 or 1974 or whatever. Someone could make a persuasive paper about how this reflects the changing of the guard from the "Greatest Generation" to the "Me-est Generation." No doubt more academically-minded people than I have tried.

So is the book worth a buck? Of course not, Mike. Nothing to see here. Move along.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:32 PM 0 comments

Husband Pleads Innocent

Somehow, some way, this blog is the number 1 search hit on Yahoo! for:

when your husband thinks you are better than him

I plead innocent, honey.

Update: Certain elements of the household have shown me how, due to the unique nature of Yahoo! algorhthyms, this result isn't always number one on different computers, even different computers in the same house. Ah, well, obviously I've already had the incident purged from my record.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:15 PM 2 comments

Book Report: Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen (1993)

I paid $1.00 for this book at the annual J book fair last Sunday. I've already read it. I like Carl Hiaasen. Perhaps it's because he doesn't write series (of which I'm aware), so he has something different going on in each one and can't just phone in a rehash of previous novels without any forward momentum on recycled characters.

This book starts off too slowly, really, with a hodgepodge of characters with something happening, but little risk or empathy to drive me along. When an out-of-control philandering Congressman goes nuts in a strip club and beats a bachelor attending his bachelor party unconscious, his fixers have to deal with the aftermath: a customer infatuated with a dancer who recognizes the Congressman despite his disguise, a smalltime chiseling lawyer soon-to-be-related to the bachelor by marriage who thinks blackmail, a well-read bouncer who wants to get rich on fraudulent lawsuits, and a stripper who only wants to get her little girl back from her felonious ex-husband, and the ex-husband who wants more pills and a better buzz for more audacious wheelchair theft.

It's a crime fiction farce of the Hiaasen mold, with the southern Florida landscape to explain the eccentricity and a social message hidden among the shenanigans. Man, 1993. What an innocent time.

As I mentioned, the book starts jumbled and slow, but if you stick with it, you'll come to enjoy it. Although it's hopefully excused for its shortcomings by being early in Hiaasen's career, it's worth a buck.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:13 PM 0 comments

Sunday, August 28, 2005

That's a Big Pile of Unpaid Parking Tickets

In a story entitled City worker surrenders to face drug charges, we have this novel means of immobilizing cars:

A veteran municipal employee, Meyer has been suspended without pay from the parking division's boot crew, which immobilizes cars with unpaid parking tickets.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:46 PM 0 comments

At Least I'm Not Jimmy Stewart

John Wayne
You scored 52% Tough, 4% Roguish, 28% Friendly, and 14% Charming!

You, my friend, are a man's man, the original true grit, one tough talking, swaggering son of a bitch. You're not a bad guy, on the contrary, you're the ultimate good guy, but you're one tough character, rough and tumble, ready for anything. You call the shots and go your own way, and if some screwy dame is willing to accept your terms, that's just fine by you. Otherwise, you'll just hit the open trail and stay true to yourself. You stand up for what you believe and can handle any situation, usually by rushing into the thick of the action. You're not polished and you're not overly warm, but you're a straight shooter and a real stand up guy. Co-stars include Lauren Bacall and Maureen O'Hara, tough broads who can take care of themselves.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test.

(Link seen on Rocket Jones.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:02 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Book Report: Deliver Us From Evil by Sean Hannity (2004)

I received this book as a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law, so I feel almost bad about savaging the book, but since she doesn't read the blog any more, like everyone else but you, gentle reader, I will do so.

For starters, when I opened the book, I thought I would hate it more than I did. Because I don't like the sound of Sean Hannity's voice. I can't fathom how someone with a voice like that could make it big in broadcasting whereas someone with a deep, soothing voice like mine toils away on a backblogwater like this, but there you go. So I prepared to trepid (to coin a verb from a noun like all the cool kids do) this book.

I've found myself avoiding books of the current events polemic sort since I spend a lot of time reading blogs and commentary on the Internet. These books don't add a lot to the columns, to the radio program commentary, to the blog entries of writers who collect or stretch them. Nor do they expect a long shelf-life of backlist sales or continuing relevance. Face it, any of these books with the commentator's picture on the cover is designed to face outward on the book stores' shelves. The minute they're turned spine out, forget it. They're on the remainder shelf.

But I digress. The point of the book is that appeasers of evil are themselves evil. That is, Democrats who didn't oppose the Nazis, the Communists, or the Islamofascists are evil. Hardly a novel idea, but Sean Hannity draws from voluminous sources, duly end-noted, to support his thesis. Unfortunately, my cursory glance at the end notes indicates that most of Hannity's support comes from other commentary making his same arguments. So it's just like reading a log blog entry.

A year after this book was written, it's already showing its age. His roll-up of potential 2004 Democrat candidates for president, for example, was worthless in its handicapping and won't even merit a footnote in history, since history will pick better sources. Considering it collects common arguments, thoughts, and clichés, I will have forgotten this book by the time next Christmas rolls around.

But, on the bright side, I didn't hear Hannity's voice in my head after a couple dozen pages. And the book didn't challenge me, like Sartre, Doestoyevski, or George Frost Kennan, so it didn't take too long.

Sorry, Ms. Igert.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:26 AM 0 comments

It Pays To Specialize, But Sometimes Not Much

Thieves specialized in taking change from unlocked cars, police say:

Bicycle-riding bandits rode the trails between Edwardsville and Granite City at night, hopping off their bikes to steal from hundreds of unlocked cars in subdivisions during the past six months, Granite City police allege.

They didn't damage any vehicles, and it appears they ignored expensive stereos, preferring to steal cash and change, said Capt. Jeff Connor. "Their main goal was to gather all the change they could," he said. And they ignored vehicles with locked doors, he said.

One would hope this crime would bring less of a sentence than, say, a football player killing someone while driving drunk, but with today's court system, who can say?

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:14 AM 1 comments

Carry a Liaision Down The Road That I Must Travel

Just One Minute reaches its hand up the arrears of a French noun and pulls out a verb:

But, per Shaffer's original account to the Times, Able Danger did not attempt to liase with the FBI until the summer of 2000.

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as though a million infinitives cried out at once and were silenced.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:43 AM 1 comments

Countdown to the Memory Hole

This story made a big splash in the conservative blog clique yesterday and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered it, but we can begin the countdown until it's forgotten: Girl's story of dad was a hoax, paper says:

For two years, Carbondale residents have been riveted by the writing of a little girl imploring her father in Iraq: "Don't die, OK?"

Only now are they learning there was never any danger of that.

The Daily Egyptian, Southern Illinois University's student-run newspaper, today will admit to its readers that the saga - of a little girl's published letters to her father serving in Iraq - was apparently an elaborate hoax perpetrated by a woman who claimed to be the girl's aunt.

In fact, the newspaper will report today, the man identified as the girl's father was never in Iraq, and it was the woman who apparently wrote the letters and regular columns that were published under the little girl's name - and even impersonated the girl in telephone interviews.

For starters, let's be clear this is not a Carbondale newspaper, it's a University newspaper. This doesn't excuse the way it occurred, but it does explain. They weren't professionals. They were professionals in training. As sad as that prospect is, we're not talking reporters nor editors with decades of experience. One would expect most editors on the paper had a couple of years of experience at the most.

It also might explain how the students' ideology could have played a greater role in their ignorance if possible: students don't even have to temper their drive to improve the world by remaking it in their image. In real papers, editors, publishers, and the positions to whom student reporters often aspire have to at least genuflect to the concepts of circulation and shareholders, but school papers exist at the indulgence of the schools and don't have to even consider remaining palatable to customers.

Here's a sample of the writing that "captivated" Carbondale, or at least the university students, or perhaps no one really but the paper itself:

"I'm rily mad at you and you make my hart hurt,"' she purportedly wrote in one published letter to the president. "I don't think your doing a very good job. You keep sending soldiers to Iraq and it's not fair. Do you have a soldier of your own in Irak?"

Still, I'm probably not the only one to notice that scandals involving more populist/liberal newspapers involve making it all up, a la Michael Barnicle, Jayson Blair, the rest of the staff of the New York Times, Stephen Glass, and so on. Conservative commentators tend to get smeared not for making crap up, but for selling their writing talent for money (numerous lesser lights whose names I forget), for payola (that Armstrong guy I never heard of) or for unrelated issues (Rush Limbaugh).

So there you have my thoughts on the matter. Here are some others:

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:22 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 26, 2005

Minutiae

Crikes, I've got this mosquito bite on my neck like an inch from my jugular. You know that mosquito will be telling his friends about that bite, ad nauseum, for the rest of his life.

Probably a week tops, unless he tries that stunt again, in which case I'll spill my own blood if needed to truncate his existence.

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:28 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Four Drug Minimum

Lawsuit calls execution method cruel:

Even as the state prepares to execute Timothy Johnston next week for killing his wife, a lawsuit questioning the method of execution remains unresolved.

The suit on behalf of Johnston, 44, claims Missouri's three-drug method of lethal injection violates his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. It was filed more than a year ago in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, and the court denied the state's motion to dismiss it as frivolous.

Being a logician who understands Boolean logic, if everyone gets the three-drug execution, it's not cruel and unusual.

One wonders what number of injections it takes to be humane.

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 PM 1 comments

No Original Ideas Left for Movie Lawsuits, Either

Court reinstates Terminator lawsuit:

An appeals court has ruled that an Australian couple can sue director James Cameron over an effect used in the film "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."

Filia and Constantinos Kourtis claim that they came up with the idea for a character that changes shape for a 1987 movie called "The Minotaur."

Meanwhile, ancient tribes from the British Isles have consulted their lawyers for the Kourtises' theft of the concept of the changeling, shapeshifting "monsters" who stole children (like the young John Connor--see?!) and ancient Greeks have filed preperatory paperwork on the title, which refers to a monster first slain by Theseus, whose story was told by entertainers in Athens before even James Cameron was born.

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:52 PM 0 comments

Dancing on the End of a Pin

This distinction seems rather superfluous:

Al-Banna has been accused of carrying out one of Iraq's deadliest suicide bombing -- the February 28 attack in Hillah that killed 125 people.

But the Jordanian government and al-Banna's family said he carried out a different suicide bombing in Iraq in which he was killed. The terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the Hillah bombing.

I mean, does this affect some sort of over/under betting or what?

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:51 PM 0 comments

The Smell of Unelected Legislatures In the Morning

Someone loves them, and no surprise, it's the unelected legislatures themselves:

Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont came together in 2003 to form a coalition, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, in order to explore a market-driven cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emissions in the absence of mandatory emissions reductions at the national level.

Phil Cherry, policy director at Delaware's Department of Natural Resources said the proposal, as it is currently written, caps emissions of carbon dioxide at 150 million tons a year starting in 2009. Under the proposed guidelines, emission reductions would be required starting in 2015, which would ramp up to a 10 percent cut in 2020.

"The proposal is a draft and some of the details have yet to be worked out," Cherry told Reuters. He said that the document will be sent to power producers who will have a chance to comment on it formally at a meeting on September 21.

Once a final agreement is reached, legislatures or regulators in the nine states will have to approve it.

Not a state legislature and not Congress, but a "regional initiative" appoints itself to make laws for the states under its jurisdiction. I fail to see how this could pass an Interstate Commerce Clause challenge, but then again, it regulates interstate commerce and not individual states' internal legislation.

Well, what else can the rulers do when the unwashed, power-loving masses elect people of the wrong mindset?

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:42 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Good Governance 2005

Samples of good governance and bureacracy, August 2005:

Country Club Hills Mayor is charged with theft and forgery:
Two convicted in vote-buying scheme in East St. Louis rehired:

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:52 PM 0 comments

Norman Mineta Determines Vehicles Are Too Inexpensive, and You Are To Dumb to Participate In Supply and Demand

New fuel economy rules unveiled:

Speaking from Atlanta, Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Jeffrey Runge, the current administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that under the new plan, the light truck segment will be broken into six different categories based on weight and vehicle type, with the smallest vehicles forced to get better mileage than larger ones.

Minivans, which are currently bound by federal standards to get 21 miles per gallon, will be required to have a fuel efficiency of 23.3 miles per gallon by the time the program is fully implemented in 2011.

The fuel economy of small SUVs would improve by as much as nine miles per gallon from their current standard of 19 miles per gallon, Mineta said.

"This plan is good news for American consumers because it will ensure that the vehicles that they buy will get more miles to the gallon and ultimately save them money," said Mineta.

Personally, I await the dicta that:

Bubblewrap completely surround all exterior vehicle surfaces to ensure that the vehicles that American consumers buy will not sustain damage in accidents;
Catalytic converters include potpourri burners to ensure that the vehicles that American consumers buy will produce sweet-smelling pollution with each mile driven.
Onboard computer vocal reminders of local laws being broken to ensure that the vehicles that American consumers buy will remind them, but not prevent them, from committing moving violatations. (Removed at request of local municipalities and states)
White noise machines to ensure that the vehicles that American consumers buy will block out distractions like cell phone conversations, conversations with passengers, the radio, and other sounds which might prove distracting and make driving more dangerous.

Because The Government must make decisions for you, infantile citizen. Increasing costs of petroleum prices won't cause you to alter your travel habits or inspire you to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles. Instead, like all addictions, your dependence upon petroleum will drive you to steal, rob, and murder to support your habit.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:27 PM 0 comments

Preemptive Strike

Thought, circa 2011, when Venezuela fields its first North Korean- or Chinese-provided medium range nuclear missiles capable of raining fire upon the entirety of the 48 contiguous states:

You know, maybe Pat Robertson was right.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:25 PM 1 comments

Monday, August 22, 2005

Free Rhyme for Your Poetry

Gentle poet, here is a bit of advice as you compose your next sonnet for your beloved:

Femur rhymes with lemur.

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:39 PM 0 comments

Unwarranted Snark

The blood is running in the streets of Milwaukee: 4-homicide weekend pushes city to grim point:

Like a runaway freight train, this year's homicide total in Milwaukee equaled the 88 recorded for all of last year as of early Sunday and gave no signs that religious, civic and governmental efforts to make this a safe summer were slowing the deadly increase.

Snark as follows:

Good thing Governor Doyle vetoed concealed carry in Wisconsin, ensuring the safety of its citizens from homicidal predators.
Sure, it's another record, but what's the count when adjusted to constant 1980 homicides?

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:37 PM 1 comments

Book Report: Caravan to Vaccares by Alistair MacLean (1970)

I bought this book at the library at the same time as I bought Partisans, and for the same price. So pretty soon after I completed Partisans, I cracked open this book.

It, too, presented a quick read with a typical MacLean plot. A caravan of gypsies has come to France, bearing dark doings and dangerous characters. A British layabout and a French Duc, as well as a couple of vacationing British hotties, encounter dark doings and dangerous char--oh, I said that already, didn't I?

There's something familiar about MacLean's works when one has read a number of them, more than once. Since he eschewed series characters and instead worked with similar heroes, the books carry enough difference when looked at as a whole to remain engaging without becoming metronomic. So if you can pick it up for a quarter, I'd recommend this book. Maybe even a buck.

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:36 PM 0 comments

Getcher Urban Legends Here

Panera Bread, parent company of the St. Louis Bread Company and the name by which it conducts business elsewhere, was formed by an Egyptian cult, the Pane of Ra movement. This group believes that the consumption of bread prepares one for the afterlife, and that if one has bagels with hummus or some other concoction of cibatta and cream cheese, one can survive the journey.

- posted by Brian J. @ 4:38 PM 0 comments

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Tasers Hurt Cops, Too

Police chief sues maker of Taser gun:

A police chief in Boone County has filed suit against Taser International and two police equipment supply companies, saying he was severely injured when shocked with a Taser weapon during training.

The suit by Jacob "Pete" Herring joins more than 30 others from around the country that claim Tasers caused or contributed to injuries or deaths. More than 7,000 law enforcement agencies worldwide use the devices as a nonlethal alternative to firearms, according to company numbers.

The suit by Herring, chief of police in Hallsville, Mo., says he suffered at least two strokes, loss and impairment of his vision and hearing, neurological damage, a head injury and "significant cardiac damage" after being shocked by a Taser M26 during a class on April 20, 2004. He seeks unspecified financial damages.

Nonlethal, perhaps. But they're overused in the field, resulting in a number of deaths that could be avoided.

And shocking each other in training, what the heck? Do cops hit each other with batons just so they know how it feels?

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:15 PM 1 comments

What Would Leslie Fish Say?

Angelina Jolie Grabs Monster-Mom Role, Teams with De Niro:

Finally, an Angelina Jolie movie her kids can watch. Jolie has signed on to star in a big-screen adaptation of the epic English poem "Beowulf" to be directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump").

The film, like Zemeckis' previous movie, "The Polar Express," will use performance-capture technology to transform live acting into computer animation, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The story of the Scandinavian hero of the sixth century who slays a beast will star Ray Winstone ("Sexy Beast") as Beowulf, who saves the Danes from Grendel the monster, portrayed by the always creepy Crispin Glover ("Willard," "Charlie's Angels").

Jolie, who played Colin Farrell's youngish mother in "Alexander," will again portray a maternal character in the film, taking on the role of Grendel's mom.

Fortunately, with Zemeckis at the head, it's unlikely that Grendel will be an allegory for the imperialistic American hegemon and Angelina Jolie will channel Cindy Sheehan, but one never can tell with Hollywood....

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:11 PM 0 comments

Government Officials and Their Toys

Schools spend big on recreation centers:

Bob Lyons remembers - not fondly - the old gym at the University of Missouri at Columbia: It was cramped, had the odor of smelly socks and could get so hot in summer that "you just wanted to die," said Lyons, a recent graduate.

Contrast that with the new $50 million, jungle-themed recreation center that is nearly twice the size and virtually finished.

"It's just awe-inspiring," said Lyons, who helps oversee the center's 42-foot climbing tower.

Eleven large plasma screens line the wall of the "jungle gym." The gym features about 100 pieces of cardio equipment, some of which have individual DVD players.

In the "tiger grotto," there is a swirling vortex, lazy river with waterfall, whirlpool and dry sauna. Towering above it all is a jumbo, Vegas-style display board that blasts music videos on "ZouTv," an internal station that plays music selections based on weekly Internet polls.

I would dare Mizzou to find a single freaking student that chose the University of Missouri of Columbia over another college because of its swank recreational facilities, but someone at Mizzou could probably trot out some stooge as though a single student or small cadre would justify spending fifty million dollars on such an endeavor.

It's one thing if an alumnus donates a pile of cash for the privilige of diverting students from their studies, but students, and that's all students, not just the "health-conscious" students who want "a gathering place to see and be seen," will have to cough up $150 a year to subsidize a meat market for college students who don't suffer from a dearth of gathering places to find the next one night stand or starter marriage.

No, friends, this is what happens when our localish government agencies become high school cliques, and when expenditures are driven by the all-the-cool-people-have-them mentality. Suddenly, we're shelling out money for bike trails, rec plexes, and whatnot because all the other schools/counties/municipalities/states have them.

Not because they're necessary government services, but because they're cool.

I wish our leaders would grow up.

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Book Report: Star Trek 10 by James Blish (1974)

This book represents the last of the Star Trek paperbacks I bought at three for a dollar at Hooked on Books in Springfield, Missouri. I don't have much to say about it that I haven't said with the others (most recently Star Trek 9, oddly enough).

Still, as I read it, I wanted to brag about it. This represents the 67th book I've read this year. Nyah nyah. I read a lot and therefore am better than you, at least in this regard, most likely.

- posted by Brian J. @ 12:53 PM 0 comments

Book Report: Partisans by Alistair MacLean (1983)

I read a large number of Alistair MacLean books in high school. Because we were poor, living in a poor community, my reading was indelibly guided by the reading tastes of the all-volunteer Community Library's volunteers and donors. Ergo, I read a lot of McBain, Parker, and MacLean because the storefront library had a large number of old paperbacks by its donors' favorite authors, some of whom became my favorite authors, too.

Perhaps it's fitting, then, that I bought this book at the Bridgeton Trails branch of the St. Louis County library for a quarter as it sells off its books to make room for more Internet connections. So I happened upon a couple of Alistari MacLean books I'd read before and would like to revisit.

This book, as its title suggests, takes place in the former Yugoslavia during World War II. A Royalist sympathizer helps to smuggle a group of other royalist sympathizers into Yugoslavia from its ally Italy, where they can help the war effort of their friends the Germans and the leaders against the Partisans. One does need a bit of grounding in history, particularly World War II in the middle of Europe, to understand the overarching framework of the novel. Since it's less straightforward than the English versus the Germans, a reader might be forgiven for forgetting which group is the good guys and which group is the bad guys.

Of course, as it's MacLean, the master of the suspenseful switchback, regardless of which group is the good guys and which group is the bad guys, the main character is either not on the side that he starts on, or he is actually on the side he starts on but is pretending to be a double agent to find out the real double agents, or.... Well, it's enough to say that MacLean books are quite romps in which anything can happen.

But this book, with its slightly more obscure setting and almost esoteric historical plotline, doesn't work on all levels because of the unfamiliarity with the macroplayers. It also doesn't present a very clear picture of the problem that the group is supposed to solve at the end of the book. Take down the artillery on a Mediterranean island? Breach an impregnable Alpine fortress? Nah, just get into Yugoslavia. It strikes me more like a Star Trek device: We're traveling through the Adriatic, and something happened. Since it's MacLean, it's something complicated, but nevertheless the reader lacks a compelling goal to draw one along.

Still, it's a pretty good book. Its writing style alone merited my enjoyment. British and mid-century in its character (although written later), it plays with longer sentences and more elaborate phrasing than contemporary suspense fiction. That alone carried me through the substandard (for MacLean) plot and characterization.

- posted by Brian J. @ 11:02 AM 1 comments

Friday, August 19, 2005

Esoterica

Two thoughts that struck me as amusing, but I'll probably be the only one:

Upon seeing the vanity license plate MO4 LL:

We sure thought that "Alice" would make a credible candidate for president....
Somehow, I think even Peter Scaffer fans think me crazy when I go to the ballpark and cheer for the Cardinals' lead off hitter by chanting:

Eck....Eck.....Eck....Eckstein.

Because these things bounce around my disparate thoughts during the course of the day. Instead of a billion dollar idea, I get these.

- posted by Brian J. @ 11:21 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Perhaps the Goals Are Misunderstood

Work-zone safety blitz still limited: Drivers say that new laws haven't reduced number of violations:

Motorists complain that speeding, tailgating and aggressive driving are still all the rage in Illinois construction zones, despite tough laws the state passed last year to reduce violations.

A camera-enforcement program to deploy Illinois State Police troopers in vans was supposed to have started this month, but officials are still finalizing contracts with equipment suppliers, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The program may begin in September, officials said.

The plan for the pilot project involves taking photographs from inside just two roving vans to capture the faces and license plates of drivers, along with the speed of their vehicles, in work areas on hundreds of miles of Chicago-area expressways and on the Illinois Tollway system. Tickets carrying minimum fines of $375 will be mailed to vehicle owners.

An impersonal ticket arriving in infractors' mail boxes a week in the future will not make the drivers slow down or behave. Nor will signs indicating that this might happen. Troopers pulling over drivers would make them slow down for a couple days and would make other drivers who see the troopers slow down.

Hidden cameras capturing drivers' infractions but distancing the infraction from the sanction? Give me a break.

This is a revenue-enhancement program, not a safety program. And this is the reason why I'm going to fly to Milwaukee or travel through scenic Iowa on my way home in the future. Because I fear speeding through more than one of the Illinois "Construction Zones" (that is, the barrel storage technique that intersperses a couple barrels miles apart between construction zone signs) at a time and coming home to a mailbox full of budget-gap-closers from Rod Blagojevich.

- posted by Brian J. @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

Noggle's Law

Based on the number of Google searches that have lead to this post, I propose Noggle's First Law:

If you post a list of names of Internet users, sooner or later they will all find your post when Googling themselves.

- posted by Brian J. @ 4:33 PM 0 comments

Oppressive Bush Regime Dissident Round-Up Misses Virulent Bush Opponent

An author insults one of his readers:

[Mark] Kurlansky said he was surprised to hear that Bush had taken his book to the ranch: "My first reaction was, 'Oh, he reads books?' "

The author said he was a "virulent Bush opponent" who had given speeches denouncing the war in Iraq.

"What I find fascinating, and it's probably a positive thing about the White House, is they don't seem to do any research about the writers when they pick the books," Kurlansky said.

But now that you're on record, sir; prepare for the firing squad.

What a humpwit. Not only has he insulted the president based on common, cliché groupthink from the virulent Bush opponents, but he's risked angering whatever readers and potential book buyers exist in the majority that elected Bush.

A pretty poor marketing decision, but perhaps he's just standing for his principles, which would seem to include not much beyond mauvais mots.

(Link seen on Ann Althouse.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 3:57 PM 0 comments

Thanks For Checking In

Bobby McFerrin stops in to tell us he's going on vacation:

For years he's been telling people, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Now Bobby McFerrin has decided it's time to take his own advice.

"I've got one week left, and then I'm done for a year," a weary McFerrin told The Associated Press during a weekend visit to UCLA, where he was accepting an award from the Henry Mancini Institute for his contributions to music.

"I haven't had a sabbatical, I haven't taken a year off from touring in 15 years at least," said McFerrin, whose bright and bouncy ditty, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," seemed to put his name on everybody's lips in 1988 when it won Grammys for song of the year and record of the year.

Some of us might be forgiven in thinking that McFerrin's been on vacation for about 17 years, give or take.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:15 AM 1 comments

Wal-Mart Hands Its Critics a Spiked Club, Asks, "Please?"

Insurer wants woman's crash settlement:

Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau, Mo., until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a tractor-trailer. Her Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills. Proceeds from a lawsuit helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her ability to talk to her husband and three sons.

"She'll ask about the boys, she'll ask about the cat," said her husband, Jim Shank. "Whenever I'm there, she thinks it must be a mealtime. We don't really hold a conversation."

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Unfortunately, some insurance company functionaries lack the imagination for how the general public will perceive a lawsuit against a disabled woman, and how anti-Wal-Mart fanatics will use the incident against Wal-Mart. If those opponents could have their way, they'd make sure that Wal-Mart lived down to their rhetoric and did not provide insurance for its employees (the fact that Wal-Mart medical insurance exists and paid out half a million dollars for this catastrophe, but that Wal-Mart is evil because it doesn't provide insurance for its employees--the paradox in their rhetoric will never surface).

The paper throws in an obligatory response from a spokesperson:

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the health plan has made no decision on whether to pursue this case; the suit puts a legal foot in the door before the deadline to file it passes. "This is kind of a standard procedure, and it just preserves our options," Marty Hires said.

The SOPs of the byzantine and, let's face it, often-suspect insurance and legal industry don't improve the image of insurance, lawyers, or their clients. I'm sure someone with Wal-Mart could have come up with a better response, but who knows if the papers would publish them, because the current storyline casts Wal-Mart as the villain.

Now that the broken story's broken, any doing-of-the-right-thing by Wal-Mart--such as not actually pursuing the suit or apologizing, will be reported as cynical damage control. If the papers follow up at all.

Yeah, I'm so cynical, I sometimes don't even trust my own blog.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:36 AM 0 comments

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Prelude to a Sandwich

Fresh bread and fresh kittenlet.....mmmmm.....

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:29 PM 2 comments

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Where Angels Fear To Tread

When the free market cannot profitably develop a site, the governments step in:

Government 1: The City
Two businesses who are in designed to make money couldn't, even with the city's help.

Time to call in reinforcements.
Government 2: The County
"they'd" being the operative tense. They would bid on the land if the government would make the conditions right. That is, the deal itself will not be profitable in and of itself in a free market economy, but if the county would sweeten the deal, its preferred developers would happily bid on it. Once the taxpayers guaranteed a profit.

But that's contingent upon....
Government 3: The Federal Government
Because the federal government should make its decisions based upon convenient shopping for its employees and visiting dignitaries? WTF? The county is swinging for the fences on this one. Why not couple it with curing schnucking cancer while you're at it?

It's a trifecta of government intervention into the free market at the expense of some:

The 40-acre retail project would rise on land that's now a hodgepodge of houses, small businesses and vacant factories. In 2001, Overland - without county help - launched redevelopment efforts there.

Friends, that means eminent domain. Remember that nasty thing which the Supreme Court just okayed? Greenlit governments to seize livelihoods from citizens to the benefit of developers and, of course, the agnostic and disinterested governments:

"It's a depressed area that was blighted years ago," said Robert Dody, Overland's mayor. "It's an ideal area to redevelop. ... The city and the county would both like to get more tax revenue from it."

I know the area they're talking about. It's five minutes up I-170, a short spur of the Interstate system, from Clayton, one of the hottest areas in the county. Left to the free market, this area would redevelop on its own as its relatively cheap land would grow into suburbs of Clayton. But that's not good enough for our elected officials, who could not take immediate credit for future growth based on their hands off governance today.

Instead, they spend tax money and tax-salaried time playing businessmen. Meanwhile, look at the land for sale listings on Hilliker Corporation's Web site. See all of those properties on Woodson Road? Those are about 1/2 mile from the area in question (Google map; note the pin related to the intersection of Page and Woodson, the redevelopment site in question). The land prices and parcels are ripe for an entry-level developer wanna-be to get in and buy one or more for redevelopment or investment. I've had my eyes on the area since I lived nearby, for the reasons I've listed above. As I reach a time where I have some money for extraneous business ventures, I hoped to invest properties in this area, to help organically elevate Overland.

But forget it. Bob Dody, Mayor, via signage, welcomes me to Overland every time I pass through. But his eagerness to team the government of Overland with large developers certainly doesn't welcome smaller outside concerns to invest in real estate (that he might later have to reallocate to THF, so sorry, here's a couple bucks) in his community nor does he welcome small businesses nor certain home owners to remain in their property in his community (although they're welcome to spend their just compensation on other property elsewhere in Overland, natch, until he or Sansone needs that, too).

I'd like to wrap this up with a snappy, pithy conclusion, but I'm too disgusted.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:18 AM 0 comments

Book Report: The Best of National Lampoon #3 (1973)

I bought this book at a garage sale or such, probably for a quarter. I'd hoped to turn it into a vast eBay profit back in the day when a small timer could hobbyhorse a bit of profit out of eBay, but those days are gone and the book made up a small part of the 16 boxes of unsold speculative books I had in my closet. I culled through them one final time to find books I might like to read before I get rid of the lot, and this one filtered out.

You know, I've always found National Lampoon more amusing than funny. I even had a subscription to it, briefly, in middle school or high school because my mother, funder of all magazine subscriptions at that time, didn't realize it had the occasional boobies (please don't tell her now, for it would break her heart to know that she enabled her hormonal teenage boys in any way). I didn't get a lot of yuks out of it even then, and the boobies were marginal at best.

This book collects pieces from 1971 and 1972. Unfortunately, that means that 50% of the topical humor applies to topics before I was born. A lot of Vietnam humor, which I don't find particularly amusing, much less funny. I could appreciate some of the non-political humor, such as Chris Miller's parody of a Mike Hammer story, but I've read my share of late sixties pulp to access it.

So this book doesn't hold up well. Also, no O'Rourke and only a little Beard. Worth a glance or browse if you've got nothing else, maybe even worth a quarter if you're not over sticking it to that lying bastard Nixon. If it's too funny, you're too old.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:05 AM 0 comments

Book Report: Cyber Way by Alan Dean Foster (1990)

Based on my previous experience with Foster, I bought a number of Alan Dean Foster books last May at Downtown Books in Milwaukee (including Codgerspace, The Dig, and Midworld). Like those, I paid $2.95 for this book, and I offer the same criticism: It reads like a stretched out short story.

Foster does have a predilection for prediction though; in this book, written in 1989 or before, future police officers carry PDAs and hook into the Internet frequently. However, as he wrote the books before Netscape opened the World Wide Web, things have different names (mollyspinners and whatnot), but the intervening 15 years have not rendered the futuristic technologies obsolete; instead, life has developed along those lines, making the book very approachable in 2005.

When an art collector is murdered in Tampa, the methodical detective Vernon Moody draws the case. The industrialist collector died in his art display room, and the murderer also destroyed a Navaho sand painting. Early investigations indicate that someone had argued with the collector about the painting on numerous occasions. The department sends the homebody moody to the southwest to determine the Navaho connection. Unfortunately, Moody not only finds a murderer, but a world beyond his imagination where sandpaintings and medicine men can tap into something more powerful than police.

An enjoyable, imaginative short story stretched into a short novel with the addition of a lot of filler talk and speculation. Worth a couple of bucks undoubtedly, particularly if you appreciate Alan Dean Foster.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:42 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 12, 2005

Connecting the Dots, or Maybe a Dot and a Flyspeck, or Perhaps the Flyspecks

Carl Icahn, in 1985, takes over Trans World Airlines....

Carl Icahn, in 2005, makes his move on AOL Time Warner....

Query: What does this fellow have against the letters A, T, and W?

(Story seen on Professor Bainbridge.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

No Business Like Anonymously-Sourced Government Leak Journalism Business

Sources: CIA finds Iranian president likely not hostage-taker:

A CIA report has determined with "relative certainty" that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was not involved in the taking of U.S. hostages 26 years ago, three government officials told CNN on Friday.

The officials insisted on anonymity, saying they did not want to speak for the CIA about its report.

Another U.S. official said the tone of the report is that there is no evidence to date that the new Iranian president was among those who held U.S. diplomats hostage.

The officials cautioned that the analysis is not final.

Meanwhile, the officials also report that the Soviet Union's industrial output will increase again this year and that its current premier has secured a grip on his position and has met with other Warsaw Pact leaders secretly to get their fealty and promise the support of the mighty Red Army in quelling internal dissent.

Also, the next paragraph of the CNN report:

Two former hostages told CNN they remain certain Ahmadinejad was involved in plotting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, in which 52 hostages were held for 444 days.

The two also said they saw the man they identify as Ahmadinejad many times while they were held, and that he appeared to be in a supervisory role.

Loosely translated, that's the or your damn lying eyes part of the punchline.

- posted by Brian J. @ 2:13 PM 0 comments

Mr. Green Espoused Iraq War Talking Points in 2004

Compare and Contrast: Mr. Green: "We've Got To Stop Killing People, Matt."

Iraqi war protestor: Mother begs for end to killing.

(Second link seen courtesy McGehee.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:40 PM 0 comments

Rottweilers More Equal Than Poodles

Bill would give underage soldiers a break: Lawmaker wants fines for drinking reduced to $5:

Wisconsin soldiers who are 19 and 20 would be fined no more than $5 for underage drinking, under a bill lawmakers will likely consider this fall.

The effort by Rep. Mark Pettis (R-Hertel) to loosen underage drinking penalties for soldiers comes just six months after he wrote a bill that would allow 19- and 20-year-olds in the military to drink legally.

This is a wrong-minded attempt to "support the troops" and to reward soldiers by giving them additional rights that non-soldier citizens cannot enjoy or reducing sanction for criminal offenses for soldiers. It runs opposite to what this country stands for, or should stand for, to segregate rights and apportionate them differently to soldiers and non-soldiers. This is a republican democracy, not a platonic Republic.

Understand that this is not an incentive program or a veteran's affairs allocation of money; it's changing the law to apply differently to volunteers who passed muster than to those who would not or could not serve. That's right. Flat feet, poor grades, childhood diseases, or poor eyes would physically prevent some youths from enjoying this privilege right that their more able brethren could enjoy. So a select few would be more equal than the others of the age group.

Also, once we start apportioning rights or diminished sanctions to soldiers, where do we stop? Drinking underage is a victimless crime, but so is soliciting prostitutes. So is using drugs. Keep in mind, gentle reader, I am not saying that our troops are all prostitute-soliciting, drug-abusing drunkards, but those who violate these laws, what's the principle that would stop lowering the sanction for them? There's none.

As a libertarianish, I think the 21-year-old drinking age is senseless, and I think that Federal withholding of funds for states who don't impose state laws according to federal government dicta is unconscionable, but a new wrong won't make it right.

- posted by Brian J. @ 11:20 AM 0 comments

Sounds Like A Job Opening

St. Peter's authorities seek bank robber

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:46 AM 1 comments

Hollywood Sacrifices Domestic Movie Sales for Foreign Sales

I've made that assertion before, but Junkyard Blog lists some coming attractions. Friends and countrymen, I ask: are you the target audience for these?

I think not.

Perhaps it's time for an alternate movie industry to emerge in the midwest, built on new video technology, new Internet distribution, and actors who'd work for points and not millions of dollars up front.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:32 AM 0 comments

The Unfree State Project

Overthrow of the Flyovers:

Next up on NPR was a discussion about how all the congressional districts have been gerrymandered so they are either Democrat or Republican. Thus neither party ever makes any real headway. These districts need to be redrawn so they are even. Yeah, like THAT's ever gonna happen. But, I do have a way that the Democrats can outsmart the Repubs on this one. Ready? Here it is....

Move. Yup, that's right. Determine how many folks you need to keep on the coasts & in Illinois to maintain a majority. Hold a lottery or something, and the winners get to invade the Heartland and swing the balance of power. Now some states would be easy to overthrow, due to their small population, Wyoming & Montana come to mind. Others, that voted more heavily for Bush, Utah & Oklahoma, would require a larger concentration of the coastal experts to move in, register, vote & move out.

After all, it's worked for the Libertarians.

(Link seen on Dustbury.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:11 AM 2 comments

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Outrage In New York City as Alternate Lifestyles Attacked

Health officials urge New York City restaurant ban on fat trans

It's unconscionable that New York City government would, in the interest of "public good," would ban transvestites and transsexuals from restaurants. That for the benefit of a greater number, the city would prohibit obese individuals who expressing their individual rights to expression by wearing opposite gender clothes or roles from attending restaurants and would further strip private property rights from restaurant owners to tell them which alternative lifestyles, of which weights, the restaurant owners can serve.

THIS OUTRAGE MUST NOT STAND! THOSE WITH ALTERNATE LIFESTYLES MUST BE DEFENDED!

Oh, wait a minute, I have transposed the headline:

Health officials urge New York City restaurant ban on trans fats

Well, the government banning alternate frystyles and usurping individual responsibility of eaters and private property rights of restauranteurs to ensure that The Children are as trim and svelte as our benevolent government leaders wish they were? Carry on.

- posted by Brian J. @ 12:47 PM 2 comments

That's a Big Twinkie

Police: Teacher, student had sex:

She met her 16-year-old student for sex in cars and at his summer job during a four-week affair that ended when a family pastor turned her in, police and prosecutors say.

Kristen A. Margrif, a 27-year-old English teacher at Kingston High School, faces 15 years in prison on eight counts of sexual contact with the eighth-grader, Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene said.

...The victim was planning to continue attending school in Kingston. It was not clear whether he was entering eighth or ninth grade this fall, Reene said.

Couldn't she have waited until he reached the age of consent sometime as a freshman in high school?

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:28 AM 0 comments

Going Against Type

What's the difference between an Apple salesman and the typical Apple user?

See if you can spot it.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:34 AM 1 comments

Concealed Carry Leads to Streets Running Red with Camry Blood

Although they've often annoyed me, I've never considered this method of turning off someone else's car alarm when it goes off after reasonable hours:

A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm and bringing out police who hauled him away in handcuffs, authorities said.

David Owen Rye, 48, was arrested and booked for investigation of reckless discharge of a firearm and felony vandalism, Sgt. John Adamczyk said. Rye allegedly told officers he grabbed his handgun and went out to put a stop to the car alarm.

However, this mechanism is not recommended, particularly as on of the Nogghicles has a flaky security system that sometimes starts yowling for odd reasons, including some odd sequence/combination of door openings and key placement. I don't want to die with my car. Thank you.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:26 AM 1 comments

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Book Report: Star Trek 9 by James Blish (1978)

As those of you who have revelled in these book reports know, I bought five of these old Star Trek books last autumn at Hooked on Books in Springfield, Missouri, at three for one dollar. As such, I only paid 33 cents for this paperback, and it was well worth it.

Like the others in the series, it collects and short storiates a couple of episodes from the original television series because, back in the day, they didn't have the Internet to provide a resounding board for scifi fans to resonate. As a matter of fact, the introduction to this book describes the unexpected success of the first Star Trek convention. This book was originally published a number of years after Star Trek went off of the air and a decade and change before Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted. For crying out loud, it preceded Star Trek: The Motion Picture by a number of years. So pardon me while I repeat my awe at these books. They were old school fandom, werd.

This book collects the following episodes:

Return to Tomorrow
The Ultimate Computer
That Which Survives
Obsession
The Return of the Archons
The Immunity Syndrome

I only remembered "Return to Tomorrow" certainly, although I suspect I might have seen "The Ultimate Computer" and "The Return of the Archons" before. As such, they really urge me to spend the THREE HUNDRED SCHNUCKING DOLLARS that a set of the original shows would cost on DVD, but then I remember that it's THREE HUNDRED SCHNUCKING DOLLARS, which doesn't really add up since I could buy THIRTY OTHER DVDS or TEN YEARS OF THE SIMPSONS for the price, or if Hooked on Books could find them, NINE HUNDRED COPIES of these books.

But still, I grew up when these were the only things science fiction things in syndication, with Buck Rogers and (the original) Battlestar Galactica and Space 1999 only coming onto television, so the stories and the original crew--especially now that two of them have passed on. So I'll enjoy the books at three pages per penny, but not the actual shows AT A COUPLE BUCKS PER, you hear me PARAMOUNT?!

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:40 PM 0 comments

Comparative Studies

Cases of West Nile disease in Missouri this year:	3
Cases of Campylobacteriosis in St. Louis City in June:	2
Cases of Giardiasis in St. Louis City in June:	7
Cases of Salmonellosis in St. Louis City in June:	8
Cases of Hepatitus B in St. Louis City in June:	3
Cases of Hepatitus C in St. Louis City in June:	52
Cases of Tuberculosis Infection in St. Louis City in June:	30

Man, I don't know what some of those things are, but how come they don't get the column inches?

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:13 PM 0 comments

Jay Nixon: Friend of Liberty?

Nixon questions use of traffic photographs:

Some Missouri cities soon might use traffic cameras to ticket unlawful drivers. But the state attorney general doesn't think the photographs will hold up in court.

The city of Arnold recently decided to install traffic cameras that will photograph license plates of vehicles running red lights. Creve Coeur is considering a similar program.

But Attorney General Jay Nixon says the photographs won't provide enough proof to ticket motorists.

"I think it's pretty clear these pictures can't be the sole or only evidence to cite drivers for violating state traffic laws," Nixon said in a telephone interview. "I have deep concern whether taking someone's picture rolling through a stop light is adequate evidence in and of itself to uphold a state traffic law."

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:35 AM 0 comments

Mouse Roars

Chavez: U.S. will 'bite the dust' if it invades:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told thousands of visiting students that if U.S. forces were to invade the South American country, they would be soundly defeated.

That cinches it. We must invade Valenzuela just to prove that our country is more manly than Hugo Chavez.

I also want to laud CNN for putting this story in perspective:

The U.S. government has strongly denied Chavez's claims that it is considering military action against Cuba's closest ally in the Americas.

That's right, it's not absurd on it's face. No, it has been strongly denied by the warmongering American government.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:31 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 08, 2005

False Dichotomy of Thinkers vs. Linkers

Jay Tea at Wizbang! reminds us about Stephen Den Beste's categorization of bloggers as:

Thinkers, who write essays and whatnot.
Linkers, who post links and say, "Heh." or "Indeed."

However, this simple dichotomy overlooks the third type of blogger: the lister.

The lister type of blogger:

Embraces the numbered or bulleted list as a means of communication.
Often dashes off lists of related items important to the blogger.
Relates favorites in movie or music, often specializing in:
- One
- The other
- Both
Participates in and spread "memes" which contain lists of questions or simple lists for other bloggers to fill out.

The beauties of the list blog include:

Not needing to assemble complete paragraphs; all you need is a topic sentence or a topic fragment.
Lists easily translatable into PowerPoint presentations, with neat transition effects.
Take up lots of vertical space on the blog, ensuring that the content column is longer than the blogroll.
Could make blogger as famous, wealthy, and respected as Chris White.

These blogs show signs of listery from time to time:

So the thinkers and linkers polar axis needs to accommodate a new dimension: those of us who don't necessarily think nor necessarily link but do, in fact, blog incessantly.

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:39 PM 1 comments

Brent Johnson Goes Into the Memory Five Hole

The St. Louis Blues are eager to see Patrick Lalime, their new goalie, actually play a hockey game in the Blues uniform. How good is he?

In 2001-02, Lalime tied an NHL record with three consecutive playoff shutouts, against Philadelphia.

Odd, someone else tied that record that year.... What was his name? What team did he play for?

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:16 AM 0 comments

Sunday, August 07, 2005

The Pangloss Is Half Full

All is for the best in the best of possible worlds.

Which might be this one. Probably not.

(Inspired by this post by Pejman.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:15 PM 0 comments

Book Report: Murder in the Wind by John D. MacDonald (1956)

I bought this paperback book from Downtown Books in Milwaukee for $1.95, but that comes as no surprise to you, gentle reader, if you've paid attention to the book reports I've proffered. I love John D. MacDonald and had I not sworn allegiance to Robert B. Parker at an early age, you know I would be a paladin in the service of John D. MacDonald. But that explains why I have this book, but not what I thought of it.

The book, like most paperbacks of the era, runs about 190 pages, unlike the unwieldy behemoths published today (to justify their $30 price tags). Working within these constraints, MacDonald provides an interesting riff. He spends the first half of the book detailing a number of separate travellers' lives, from the failed businessman moving back to New York to the agent at the end of his vengeance quest to the prison escapees. travelling north on Florida's west coast as a hurricane strikes. They're thrown into an abandoned house to weather the storm, with the results one might expect from the collision of Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Himself conflicts colliding. Brother, it's bad enough to collide, but when collisions collide, watch out.

Still, within the compact framework, MacDonald spends the first 100+ pages on individual character studies discussing whose lives will come into conflict at the last half of the novel. That's okay if you're going to read the novel in a sitting or two, but if you're going to spread the novel over a week or so, you might find yourself at a critical moment wondering who is Stark? Who is Mallard? Are they even characters in this book? Heck's pecs, I don't know. But when the separate lives come together circa page 110, the book becomes unputdownable.

Unfortunately, those first 100 pages do make the book seem as though a series of short stories lacked resolution which was grafted on, or as though a novella had been padded into a novel. Still, if you're a fan of MacDonald or if you're wondering what a cynic would have thought of Florida development throughout the fifties, you'd find the book enjoyable. I'd read one of MacDonald's shopping lists if he were to characterize each item on it.

But this book probably only acted, for MacDonald, as a rough draft for Condominium. Thirty years earlier. Brother, if I am recycling my underread 2005 material, successfully, in 2035, I will consider myself a successful writer worthy of paladinage decades into the future.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:11 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Spurious Translation

Chateau:

A large home. From the French words

(cat) and

(water), as it's the place where one waters one's cats.

- posted by Brian J. @ 5:36 PM 2 comments

Friday, August 05, 2005

Who You Gonna Call?

Baldilocks captures a thought I had as well. When the Russians are in trouble with another one of their submarine-anchor conversion projects, who do they call?

In light of the planned war games between Russia and China, it is interesting that President Putin asked the US and the UK to assist in the rescue effort rather than the Chinese.

Well, yeah.

Hopefully, they called us in time for us to help out this time.

- posted by Brian J. @ 3:33 PM 0 comments

Unintentional Synonym of the Day

Extinct means the same as living in Italy? (Source.)

Bears have been extinct in Switzerland for more than 100 years until one was spotted last week that is believed to have migrated into the country from neighbouring Italy.

- posted by Brian J. @ 2:52 PM 0 comments

Blood Screening Allies Itself With Disease

Headline:

Reports: Blood screening helps West Nile fight

Perhaps it's only helping West Nile by providing financial or logistical support, but we need to stomp out blood screening now if we're ever to conquer its friend West Nile.

- posted by Brian J. @ 2:43 PM 0 comments

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Warning Parents Like It's 1999

Instant messaging: A threat to you and your kids?

It's hard to imagine anything online as "old-fashioned" just yet. Nevertheless, that’s how young teens today apparently view the concept of e-mail.

Recent research shows most teenagers between ages 12 and 17 prefer "instant messaging," or IM, to e-mail in getting their message across. They cite IM's immediacy and its constant connection, especially to friends, as the reasons they prefer it to e-mail.

Unfortunately, the same things that make IM appealing to teens also draw another crowd: malicious programmers, spam merchants and online predators. These sinister characters don’t use IM to keep in touch with each other; they use it to keep in touch with your kids.

Scarier still, most parents don’t know it.

Which "parents" are those? Oh, yeah, the ones who get their "news" from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (which could also be known as the Pre-Contemporary,-Ubiquitous-Technological-Advance).

- posted by Brian J. @ 2:35 PM 0 comments

Hey, I Can See the Shuttle Damage From Here!

Environmental damage seen from shuttle

No word on whether the eagle-eyed spotters can see:

The peaceful intentions of the Iranian nuclear program.
The leaker of Valerie Plame's identity.
The last member of an individual species or two getting extinctated.
Karl Rove performing an eldritch, unholy ceremony in Innsmouth to increase his power.
The dark shadow of American hegemony creeping across the middle east.
Grand Theft Auto actually altering the brain waves of another youth, inciting him to violence.
Another shark preparing to attack a tourist in Florida.
The National Hockey League discussing when to fire Gary Bettman.
Paula Abdul sitting on her sofa with two empty quart containers of Häagen-Dazs Cherry Vanilla ice cream and a picture of Corey Clark, weeping, and occasionally shrieking, "Why did you do this to me, CC?"
Robert Novak, stomping around and saying, "Bullshit!"
A shark in Louisiana preparing to attack pit bull exiled from Denver.
A saddened-but-following-orders animal control officer in Denver gassing a family pet who couldn't escape to Louisiana.
Thousands of world health officials scheming for more budget to combat their predicted avian flu pandemic while some unforeseen mutation of something else entirely is preparing to strike.
Thousands of people who don't deserve credit cards filling out the forms proffered them by the credit card agencies who then complain about default rates and raise interest on people who actually pay their debts.

Because those astronauts' eyes are especially sharp, you know.

(Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:52 PM 0 comments

Plan Your Travel Accordingly

If you're going to the sold-out scrimmage at Lambeau Field tonight, be advised that WISN is reporting that:

Hotel rooms are booked as far away as Oshkosh.
Green Bay has begun closing some roads for safety's sake.
As of 11:00 am, the tailgating has begun in the parking lots.

If you cannot make the game, rest assured it will be on television this evening.

For a scrimmage.

Well, not just a srimmage. A Packers scrimmage.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:54 AM 0 comments

Suggested Slogan

At Q and O, inadvertently suggests a slogan for the Democrats when he says:

I woudn't trust the Democratic Party with national security, for instance, any farther than I could comfortably spit a rat.

The Democrats: You can trust as with national security as you can uncomfortably spit a rat.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:02 AM 1 comments

Thursday, August 04, 2005

I Hadn't Realized They Mined It

One Dead, One Missing in Ky. Mine Accident

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:12 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

One Businessman Responds

I missed this last autumn when it appeared in the Washington Post as an advertisement funded by one man, but here is:

You’re a Republican???

In today's America, ask a growing number of high school and college students; their teachers and professors; the self-anointed media elite and/or hard working men and women of all ethnicities, the question, "What is a Republican?", and you’ll be told "... a rich, greedy, egotistical individual, motivated only by money and the desire to accumulate more and more of it, at the expense of the environment … the working poor ... .and all whom they exploit..."

I am a Republican ... I am none of those things... and I don’t know any Republicans who are.

Read the litany of what Republicans are. It's our equivalent of Gordon Sinclair.

(This story has been confirmed by Snopes.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 5:20 PM 0 comments

Matt Blunt: The Man to Save The Libertarian Republicans

Matt Blunt Endorses School Choice

New at Draft Matt Blunt 2008!

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:31 PM 0 comments

The Proof Of The Pudding Is In The Re-Entry

As a member of the quality community in good standing (or ill repute, if you're a developer), I wouldn't get too excited about this headline: Unprecedented Shuttle Repair a Success:

A spacewalking astronaut gently pulled two potentially dangerous strips of protruding filler from Discovery's tile belly with his gloved hand Wednesday, successfully completing an unprecedented emergency repair.

Well, the procedure was completed. As to its success or failure, I reserve judgment until that bird's on the ground in the minimum number pieces are required for the astronauts' survival.

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:26 AM 0 comments

Now the Starting Line-Up

For your St. Louis Who?s:

Starting at center, Trent Whitfield!
Starting at left wing, Jeff Hoggan!
Starting at right wing, Aaron Downey!
Starting on defense, Eric Brewer!
Starting on defense, Jeff Woywitka!
And starting in goal, Patrick Lalime!
Coach Mike Kitchen and the rest of the Blues remind you.....

Jeez, who are these guys?

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:35 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Run Your SUVs Overnight for The Children!

Are Earth ice ages created by stars?:

It might sound preposterous, like astrology, to suggest that galactic events help determine when North America is or isn't buried under immense sheets of ice taller than skyscrapers.

But new research suggests that the coming and going of major ice ages might result partly from our solar system's passage through immense, snakelike clouds of exploding stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Resembling the curved contrails of a whirling Fourth of July pinwheel, the Milky Way's spiral arms are clouds of stars rich in supernovas, or exploding stars. Supernovas emit showers of charged particles called cosmic rays.

Theorists have proposed that when our solar system passes through a spiral arm, the cosmic rays fall to Earth and knock electrons off atoms in the atmosphere, making them electrically charged, or ionized. Since opposite electrical charges attract each other, the positively charged ionized particles attract the negatively charged portion of water vapor, thus forming large droplets in the form of low-lying clouds.

In turn, the clouds cool the climate and trigger an ice age -- or so theorists suggest.

Burning fossil fuels might be our only hope! We should run our cars overnight. We should also exterminate and bury entire species to ensure our future generations have fossil fuel to burn.

Or we could admit that our understanding of the universe and its component parts have great glaring omissions, and realize that humanity acts in its best interest given its best knowledge at the time it acts....

Nah. BIG OIL! BIG PHARMA! (Anything but BIG LAWYERS! BIG IDIOTS-DEMANDING-PUBLIC-POLICY AND BIG GOVERNMENT!)

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:29 PM 0 comments

Book Report: The Precipice by Ben Bova (2001)

I bought this book last autumn at a clearance book store for $5.00 because 1.) I have a fond memory of an old Scholastic copy of Ben Bova's Escape and 2.) I have a fond college-era memory of Cyberbooks. So I opened this book as a break from the suspense I'd been reading lately, and....

I was underwhelmed.

Sure, I see that this is Book 1 of the Asteroid Wars, which unfortunately means that there's some greater arc that the book will set up and that some plot lines will be unresolved at the end of the book, unfortunately. When my brother was in the Marines, he gave me all of his basic training reading material before he shipped off to Hawaii. This reading material comprised numerous books one or one and two of a trilogy, but never a book three....unless it was to a separate trilogy with no preceding books to set the plot up. So I have some experience with this sort of thing. Besides, every trilogy or whatnot begins with Book 1. So I got in on a ground floor opportunity here.

The premise: As the world runs over the "greenhouse cliff" (the Precipice), a space industrialist bucks cutthroat competition and overregulation to use a fusion drive to go to the Asteroid Belt to claim resources that can help the Earth alleviate its disaster.

Sounds kinda stock, with a topical interest whose political ramifications made me put down the book after a couple of pages once before. But I soldiered on this time, friends, For you.

Unfortunately, to accommodate its arc (and its past, which I will hint at now and later), the book spends the first half (200+ pages) on the political and corporate wrangling leading to the funding and the initial reaction to the prospect of the mission. Major yawn, and it was only through discipline that I really made it through. After the midpoint of the book, when the industrialist and his plucky pilots and capable geologist steal his ship to go to the Asteroid Belt without the approval of the government, the pacing picks up, and we're in a rollicking science fiction book instead of some sort of corporate drama set tomorrow. Lester Del Rey, who was clawing his way out of his grave to beat Ben Bova, settled back to rest.

Unfortunately, after 180 pages of a good science fiction story buttressed by 250 pages of corporate wrangling. I found the end unsatisfying because of the extensive lengths Bova went to make the villain available for future novels in the series.

And while researching the book for this report (read: Clicking around on Amazon on related links), I discovered that the industrialist, Dan Randolph, is the subject of a long-running series of novels by Ben Bova. So perhaps I'm not privy to the nature of that series, nor of the significance of this book in that particular pantheon. Perhaps if I had bought the last ten years' worth of Bova work, I'd be satisfied with the book and would recognize its position in the constellation, and admire its beauty as part of the whole.

But I'm too steeped in the world of suspense series, where the books are discrete units that build upon one another, and although later books might refer to earlier works in the series, one doesn't have to read earlier books to understand the significance, and the current book does not have cliffhangers and hooks into the next or the next several for resolution.

So this novel got better as it went on to the new reader, but I don't expect to buy the remainder of the series nor of the preceding series unless I can get them for a buck or less each sometime after I've diminished my stack of to-read books.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:27 PM 1 comments

The Hundred Dollar Opt-Out

Of course, we know about this, but I see fit to remind everyone that the United States Census Bureau, designed to enumerate people in the various states and districts, has expanded its mission to collect a wealth of information, including:

Which best describes this building?
About when was this building first built?
When did Person 1 (listed in the List of Residents on page 2) move into this house, apartment, or mobile home?
How many acres is this house or mobile home on?
In the past 12 months, what were the actual sales of all agricultural products from this property?
Is there a business (such as a store or barber shop) or a medical office on this property?
How many rooms are in this house, apartment, or mobile home?
How many bedrooms are in this house, apartment, or mobile home; that is, how many bedrooms would you list if this house, apartment, or mobile home were on the market for sale or rent?
Does this house, apartment, or mobile home have complete plumbing facilities; that is (1) hot and cold piped water, (2) a flush toilet, and (3) a bathtub or shower?
Does this house, apartment, or mobile home have complete kitchen facilities; that is, (1) a sink with piped water, (2) a stove or range, and (3) a refrigerator?
Is there telephone service available in this house, apartment, or mobile home from which you can both make and receive calls.
How many automobiles, vans, and trucks of one-ton capacity or less are kept at home for use by members of this household?
Which fuel is used most for heating this house, apartment, or mobile home?
Last month, what was the cost of electricity for this house, apartment, or mobile home?
At any time during the past 12 months, did anyone in this household receive Food Stamps?
In this house, apartment, or mobile home part of a condominium?
Is this house, apartment, or mobile home–Owned by you or someone in this household with a mortgage or loan? Owned by you or someone in this household free and clear (without a mortgage or loan)? Rented for cash rent? Occupied without payment of cash rent?
What is the monthly rent for this house, apartment, or mobile home?
What is the value of this property; that is, how much do you think this house and lot, apartment, or mobile home and lot, would sell for if it were for sale?
What are the annual real estate taxes on this property?
What is the annual payment for fire, hazard, and flood insurance on this property?
Do you or any member of this household have a mortgage, deed of trust, contract to purchase, or similar debt on this property?
Do you or any member of this household have a second mortgage or a home equity loan on this property?
What are the total annual costs for personal property taxes, site rent, registration fees, and license fees on this mobile home and its site?
Do you or any member of this household live or stay at this address year round?
What is the person's sex?
What is this person's age and what is this person's date of birth?
How is this person related to Person 1?
What is this person's marital status?
Is this person Spanish/Hispanic/Latino?
What is this person's race?
Where was this person born?
Is this person a citizen of the United States?
When did this person come to live in the United States?
At any time in the last 3 months, has this person attended regular school or college?
What is the highest degree or level of school this person has completed?
What is this person's ancestry or ethnic origin?
Does this person speak a language other than English at home?
Did this person live in this house or apartment 1 year ago?
Does this person have any of the following long-lasting conditions?
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting 6 months or more, does this person have any difficulty in doing any of the following activities?
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting 6 months or more, does this person have any difficulty in doing any of the following activities?
Has this person given birth to any children in the past 12 months?
Does this person have any of his/her own grandchildren under the age of 18 living in this house or apartment?
Has this person ever served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, military Reserves, or National Guard?
When did this person serve on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces?
In total, how many years of active-duty military service has this person had?
Last week, did this person do any work for either pay or profit?
Last week, was this person on layoff from a job?
Has this person been looking for work during the last 4 weeks?
Last week, could this person have started a job if offered one, or returned to work if recalled?
When did the person last work, even for a few days?
At what location did this person work last week?
How did this person usually get to work last week?
How many people, including this person usually rode to work in the car, truck, or van last week?
What time did this person usually leave home to go to work last week?
How many minutes did it usually take this person to get from home to work last week?
During the past 12 months, how many weeks did this person work?
During the past 12 months, in the weeks worked, how many hours did this person usually work each week?
Was this person–Mark (X) in one box.
For whom did this person work?
What kind of business or industry was this?
Is this mainly–Mark (X) in one box.
What kind of work was this person doing?
What were this person's most important activities or duties?
Income in the past 12 months.
What was this person's total income during the past 12 months?

You see, this has not so much to do with counting citizens to determine how to reapportion congressional representation; no, it's intrusive nature is designed to provide data on whom the government could serve with more wealth-redistribution programs. And don't worry, the Census Bureau assures you that it won't use your information for anything other than the aggregation of population trends. Until such time as it changes its rules, of course.

One cannot find irony in a wasteful, intrusive federal program designed to provide statistics to support and encourage further wasteful, intrusive federal programs; it's the profligate consistency that is the hobgoblin of bureacratic minds.

If you're concerned about your privacy, don't worry. You don't have to fill it out if you get one. Title 13 Section 221 explains the opt-out procedure:

(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.

There you have it. Describe your plumbing, in detail, on demand or face the criminal sanction, ~~comrade~~ citizen.

(Added to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:25 PM 2 comments

Two Things One Should Not Read Back to Back

Spectator's Hockey Trade Rumours

Plame Flame Thread

Because your first thought, too, might be Valerie Plame to Calgary?

- posted by Brian J. @ 12:52 PM 0 comments

Government Official Thinks More Government The Obvious Solution

The Milwaukee Public Museum's savior knows the solution to problems with the cultural institutions in southeastern Wisconsin: Not enough government:

As he prepares to take over the Milwaukee Public Museum, outgoing Waukesha County Executive Dan Finley called Monday for the creation of a regional cultural district that would oversee the museum, Boerner Botanical Gardens and other financially troubled attractions.

"Every one of them is struggling," Finley said. "We've got to come up with a way to support them because we can't afford to lose any one of them."

Because what smaller bureaucracies cannot handle, larger ones can.

Finley did not specify how such a district would be financed, but said: "This is not about suggesting a new tax."

Because adding administrative apparatus, office costs, and salaries--not to mention public relations, advertising, and perks--is going to, what, come out of the pooled resources of the nearly bankrupt individual entities?

Give me a break. It is all about new taxes spread throughout a wider area to fund perks for Finley and his ilk and to increase their visibility within the power circles of the community. When you see how he's turned around the museum--with extra taxes and extra costs--think what he can do as governor. He probably is.

UPDATE: Owen of Boots and Sabers agrees with my sentiment.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:58 AM 0 comments

Childhood: Not Yet Illegal, But Soon

In California, a child has hit another with a rock. As it is in California, common sense does not figure into what happens next:

Until the afternoon of April 29, 11-year-old Maribel Cuevas' only connection with law enforcement was involvement in a mentoring program sponsored by the Police Activities League.

But that day a rock she says slipped from her hand struck Elijah Vang, 8, in the forehead. A 911 call led to Maribel being arrested by Fresno police officers, handcuffed and taken to Juvenile Hall, where she stayed for five days before a judge released her on the condition she wear an electronic ankle bracelet.

On Wednesday, Maribel is scheduled to go on trial in Juvenile Court on felony assault charges. Authorities say the rock-throwing incident was too serious to be treated lightly.

Fortunately, Californians don't hang children for being children. Yet.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:37 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 01, 2005

Beads and Furs Just Didn't Cut It

Headline of the day:

Money will fund riverfront development plan

How much more can the St. Louis Post-Dispatch insult its reader?

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:13 PM 1 comments

Also Good For Handling Illegal Pit Bulls

Local terror fighters think big: A homeland security grant wish list including an armored carrier reflects a worst-case scenario.:

Denver-area coordinators charged with fighting terrorism want to buy a military armored vehicle - a Vietnam-era troop carrier to move police through gunfire and heavy contamination at the scene of a mass- casualty chemical, biological or nuclear attack.

They're also good for pit bull search-and-destroy missions.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:58 AM 1 comments

To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."

Endorsements
"I will."
          Heather L. Igert,
          angelweave.mu.nu

"Genuis."
          Neil Steinberg,
          Chicago Sun-Times

"Some wanker."
           Kim du Toit,
          on the Noggle Library.

"Brian J. Noggle apparently forgot that the proper design for a tin foil beanie calls for the shiny side out."
          Robb Allen,
           Sharp as a Marble.

"I'm weeping openly right now. Thanks for hurting my feelings, pinhead."
          Bob Rybarcyzk,
          St. Louis Post-Dispatch