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Musings from Brian J. Noggle
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Monday, October 31, 2005
Why Stop There? So I understand that Judge Alito, should he become a Supreme Court justice, immediately use the superpowers granted by the robe to spin the earth backwards and turn back the clock, some estimates up to 70 years. Why stop there? I'm unclear why the opponents think that the justices would undo only part of the Constitutional recreation that has occurred...why wouldn't they turn the clock back 216 years and undo the Constitution? Why not 230 years and undo the Declaration of Independence? Yea, why not 790 years and turn back the clock on the Magna Carta? Because the events of history are only important as guest stars in the drama that is the narrative of American History, where the eventual and sometimes lucky triumph of the common decent folk can only be corrected by the super-legislature courts with their supreme insight into what should be done, not what the Constitution's authors meant in their drive to restrain government power. Instead of judges who base their abjudication on the Constitution, some people want judges who turn forward the clock by any means necessary, whether granted by the Constitution or whether checked by other, elected government officials. Has It Been That Long Since OJ? From presiding over the most-watched trial in history to the Supreme Court. We at MfBJN congratulate Judge Ito! Eh? Alito you say? I thought they said Al Ito. (Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.) Sunday, October 30, 2005
Ahead of the Curve I oppose the Lewis Libby nomination to the Supreme Court.Just in case NZ Bear ever wants to know.Out of the Quagmire April 1, 1945: United States Tenth Army invades Okinawa, Japan. October 29, 2005: United States announces Half of U.S. Marines to leave Okinawa. After sixty years of resistance, the Okinawan insurgents have thrown some of the American invaders out. I fear we won't have enough boots on the ground to weed out the remaining insurgency and to help spread democracy and capitalism to the Far East. Can the ramshackle Japanese government, originally appointed by the US and later selected in a number of sham elections and creation of a faux constitution, handle its own affairs without falling into a bloody religious civil war? Will the native warlords and the militant people live together peacably to build a nation together? I also fear that it sends the wrong message to other insurgents around the world that if they resist and carp enough, they, too, can cause US political will to crack and to force 7,000 American soldiers to cut and run to Guam. (Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Sunday Drive.) This Urban Legend Brought to You By The American Dairy Association and Your Local Grocer You know why they have expiration dates on yogurt? Because that's how long it takes the fruit in fruit yogurt to ferment. Dude, I know a guy --he's a friend of a friend to you--who bought a couple twelve packs of Dannon marked down because they were going to expire, and he put them in his fridge. A week later he's hungry, and its three days after their expiration date, but he ate a couple of them and got a buzz, so he ate them all. He got so wasted on yogurt that he blacked out and woke up in his backyard wearing nothing but his Playboy robe. I guess the yogurt manufacturers put those dates on them so the grocery stores won't sell them to underage people. But if you want some cheap liquor without an ID card, you should look through the grocery stores' dairy cases for the old yogurt. Sometimes, you can even find stuff that's already expired. Go ye forth, and pass it on. You know it's true, because it happened to a friend of this guy you know, and you read it on the Internet. That's double-checked accurate. By The Duties Invested In Me By The Hockey Whoopass Jamboree The Los Angeles Dammit There's Demitras beat the St. Louis Blues last night, ergo here's the logo: ![]() Kudos to Brandon for selecting someone other than the worst team in the NHL, which I did out of duty and obligation. Long Winter Update: Yes, friends, that does mean that my three winter teams (Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Admirals, St. Louis Blues) are a combined 5-17, but the Milwaukee Admirals are on a 2 game winning streak, and the Green Bay Packers are about to begin their winning streak which will lead them to Super Bowl XL, so perhaps it won't be a long winter after all! Saturday, October 29, 2005
True Breeding Will Out Proof positive that although you can take the son of a carpenter out of the city housing projects and can place him in an affluent suburb, you cannot teach him true civility, in two words or fewer: Columnist Retires from Post-Dispatch, Two Readers Split on Reaction Betty Cuniberti takes an oldster buyout at the Post-Dispatch, but manages to take a swipe at blogs on her way out:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Again Vintage Base Ball Association.
Most vintage base ball clubs in the VBBA play the game of base ball as it was played in the late 1850s, 1860s and 1880s. Many clubs in the Midwest have adopted the rules recorded in the first Beadle's Dime Base Ball Player, published in 1860, which recounted the third meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players. Friday, October 28, 2005
The Noggle 50/50 Rule of Music Appreciation When attending a performance of an attractive young jazz singer performing scorching love songs, be sure to spend at least fifty percent of the performance gazing admiringly at your beautiful wife. Thursday, October 27, 2005
Thank You, Amazon, For Timely Delivery I'm reading reviews like this, a political essay using Civilization IV as a jumping off point, instead of playing my special PreOrder Collector's Edition. The Excuse I'll Use Scantily Clad Model Upsets Neighborhood:
Sic Semper Public Privatus Another public/private investment on the brink of failure:
The owners of the Renaissance Grand and Renaissance Suites owe bondholders $3.5 million of interest on Dec. 15, a payment that may exhaust the hotels' debt-service reserve. With that exhausted, prospects for making the next payment in June would be bleak. Enter Steven Stogel, a St. Louis developer who helped to structure the original financing. Stogel has agreed to serve as an unpaid go-between in negotiations among the hotel owners, bondholders and other interested parties, including the city of St. Louis.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Who Is Coming To Edwardsville? Who? Who? Congratulations to SIUE for landing the author of the immortal lines:
How proud SIUE must be. Wal-Mart CEO Wants Government To Mandate More Spending Power for Customers Wal-Mart calls for minimum wage hike:
Scott told Wal-Mart directors and executives in a speech Monday that he believes "it is time for Congress to take a look at the minimum wage and other legislation that can help working families." St. Louis Cardinals Eat More Seed Corn Cards' A Student program will be scaled back in '06:
The program will be limited to high schoolers. And each student will be eligible for two free tickets to a game instead of four. So let's recap the Cardinals' recent moves to reach out to fans:
Monday, October 24, 2005
What If Saddam Hussein Goes O.J.? An Iraqi court has adjourned the trial of Saddam Hussein until late November, and the recent death of one of his defense attorneys might delay the trial even further, perhaps into next year. Perhaps, as some commentators (Austin Bay, for example) have argued, Saddam’s trial has already taken too long. The West might well make an example of the Hussein trial to show Western justice to a people unused to the rule of law, and thinkers have begun making their historical comparisons. Anne Applebaum and Wretchard liken the Saddam trials to the Nuremberg trials after World War II. The allies, for four years after the war, brought members of the Nazi regime to trial and recounted their malevolent deeds. But Nuremberg was sixty years ago. If we need historical trial analogies to banter about, we can find portents in more contemporary proceedings. Ira Einhorn, a celebrity of the sixties lefthippie type, killed his girlfriend in Philadelphia in the 1970s. After Einhorn skipped bail and hid overseas for decades, a dogged investigator found Einhorn in France. A lengthy court battle ensued over extradition and the illegitimacy of an inabsentia trial. Einhorn returned to the United States in 2002, some 23 years after his crime. He's in jail now after a repeated prosecution, but he remains a touchstone for reminiscing radicals. Like Einhorn, Saddam faces trial for a crime committed 23 years ago. Although Hussein's crime exceeds Einhorn's by several factors of ten, time has rounded the moral outrages many people espouse to mere cluck-clucking or rationalization that at least Hussein made the trains run over dissidents on time. Saddam Hussein's trial more closely resembles the trial of Slobodan Miloševic, originally indicted for war crimes in 1997. The former Yugoslavian leader stands accused of crimes committed in the mid 1990s. As his genocides fade from popular memory, the drive for justice fades as new threats and opponents emerge. Saddam Hussein, too, has been out of power for years now, and a trial could take years more. As the years and decades pass, will the outrage and moral anger flag? Will the pursuit of justice mellow, as all but the direct victims of the crimes forget? We can draw simple parallels between the latest trial of the century and those trials of the century which preceded it (I mean, of course, the aforementioned Einhorn and Miloševic trials, not those of Leopold and Loeb, Sacco and Vanzetti, or Bruno Hauptmann, already lost to the eldritch antiquity of the early 1900s). However, Einhorn produced an eventual guilty verdict and retribution. The Milosevic trial might yet provide a guilty verdict and justice. I fear an outcome like the biggest trial of the century of the last portion of the last century. What if Saddam Hussein comes to trial and is found Not Guilty? What if, instead of the Nuremberg Trials, we get the Nordberg Trial? I've not seen any speculation to that end, and some might claim the possibility is inconceivable. I can but proffer two letters: O.J. Evidence pointed overwhelmingly to the guilt of O.J. Simpson, but a combination of sing-song defense attorneys and an aggrieved jury pool willing to believe rather incredible stories of conspiracy and the possibilities of isolated carelessness and incompetence led to a Not Guilty verdict. The verdict cheered segments of the population who felt oppressed by the legal system and disheartened segments of the population who thought that the legal system serves justice. Some people, including your humble blogger-narrator, recognize that the legal system serves its own rules and comes out with just results in most cases, but not all. In this case, it did not, and O.J. Simpson is free to play golf, get into amusing legal scrapes, dodge payment of his civil judgment, and find the real killers. Is it so hard to imagine the same could happen for Saddam Hussein, or is it simply too frightening to contemplate? Saddam's defense is preparing its own conspiracy theories or their equivalents, where Saddam is a victim illegitimately deposed by a power-mad hegemon who wanted his oil and so on and so forth and ad nauseum. Perhaps rhyming sing-song won't be enough to persuade the jury or the judges, but perhaps Saddam won't need it. Given the ease with which Saddam loyalists have infiltrated the new Iraqi military, could they not infiltrate the judiciary? Could not someone be bought with militants' money to declare a mistrial or to ensure a Not Guilty verdict for a crime committed in the prehistoric era that was the early 1980s? Other commentators bill the trial of Saddam Hussein as a shining court upon a hill, wherein denizens of the Middle East can see how justice is meted in the West, where the oppressed can see how the citizens and the rule of law work, where arbitrary decisions of an elite do not deprive individuals of life nor property without due process. If Saddam Hussein somehow gets a Not Guilty verdict upon the charges which prosecutors have levied against him, that will put Iraq and the United States in quite a bind. At that point, Iraqi prosecutors can levy additional charges against Saddam Hussein, demonstrating that the rule of law as practiced in the West means that prosecutors can continue prosecuting and persecuting the accused with a plethora of laws and violations until such time as the target is found guilty or until the target is a broken and bankrupted person. Unlike a despot, to be sure, where actual threat to life and limb are quick and capricious, but no less a tyranny, the rule of law practiced by determined prosecutors can prove relentless to even those found Not Guilty. Or perhaps Saddam Hussein will go free after a Not Guilty verdict, free to enjoy exile in a sympathetic European or Middle Eastern state or, worse, in Iraq to lead an opposition of sorts to the new government. Perhaps Saddam would age and die without returning to power, but his figure would remain sympathetic and iconic for his followers to illustrate that the Western rule of law is weak if it allowed such an evil man to remain unpunished. Regardless of whatever dark potential outcomes one can postulate about a Not Guilty verdict for Saddam Hussein, one cannot ignore that this trial does present a sterling example for the Middle East of the rule of law and the court system we use in the Anglosphere. However, this trial has every opportunity to expose and highlight the flaws of our system. Although these flaws exist within the system, their exposure during the Saddam trial will elevate and reverberate and ultimately discredit our efforts to transform the Middle East. Because if Saddam is Not Guilty, in some light, we must be. Not The Press Release We Were Looking For You know it's too late to sell when the company issues the press release entitled Savvis says CEO didn't expense lap dances:
That tab is at the center of a lawsuit filed last week by American Express. The credit card company on Thursday filed suit against Savvis and its CEO Robert McCormick, saying they were two years late in paying charges McCormick rang up on his corporate credit card at Scores, a well-known New York strip club. Well, not really. I still have all those shares I exercised when I left the startup company I worked for. Oh, wait.... Where Will We Get Scotch Tape? Wilma Kills 6 in Fla.; 6M Without Power What do you mean, thats 3 Ms too many? Oh.... Pardon My Blue Color But I am holding my breath awaiting a Spanish court's war crimes indictment of journalist-targeting Iraqi terrorists. I anticipate losing consciousness long before we get any such officialesque sanction, much less disapproval. Sunday, October 23, 2005
New on Draft Matt Blunt 2008 Matt Blunt Ex-Communicated, Not Allowed In Right To Life Club House Libertarianish voters might think that's not a bug, it's a feature Guiliani-Blunt 2008. I'd punch it.
A fifty-fifty shot at survival in the rare event that an airline crashes? That brightens my flying mood considerably. Because an aircraft crash that is not an automatic death sentence is much better than an aircraft crash that is. No matter how rare they remain. Update: Ah, man. Headline amended to 117 killed in Nigeria plane crash Opposed I oppose the Miers nomination. And you gentle readers might have wondered if I even care about national or international politics given the recent topic matter on this blog. With the neophyte nature of this nominee, her closeness to the Bush administration, and the better choices available, I can't help but think she got the job for reasons other than she's the best choice. See also:
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Post-Garage Sale Refrain Those $30 Space Invaders and Asteroid cabinets must not have worked. Those $30 Space Invaders and Asteroid cabinets must not have worked. Those $30 Space Invaders and Asteroid cabinets must not have worked. Because if they had, I would have had to buy them out of principle. So I didn't even ask, because of course the owners must have known the real value of working games. So I didn't heed the spontaneous stories in my mind that would have explained it....such as their belonging to the woman's ex-husband....and drove away. Thursday, October 20, 2005
Not the Music I Would Have Chosen But Nissan has placed The Cardigans' "LoveFool" under its new Altima commercials, with the chorus repeating:
say that you love me fool me fool me go on and fool me Chavez Hearing Voices Again, Pronounces Them Intelligence US planning invasion, says Chavez:
In a BBC interview, Mr Chavez said the US was after his nation's oil, much as it had been after Iraq's. But he stressed that any invasion would never be allowed to happen. $17,000,000 Doesn't Get Much These Days What can local and state governments expect for $17,000,000 in giveaways to large corporations to keep their plants open? Not a whole hell of a lot:
Now, the Hazelwood plant may be forced to run a similar gantlet after Ford rolls out a restructuring plan late this year. Excess production capacity continues to weigh heavily on the automaker. The plant in Hazelwood, where about 1,450 people work, is among the company's most vulnerable facilities.
"What is 'obvious' is not necessarily true," Carr said. "There are a lot of decisions that are up in the air for Ford right now." The region needs to focus on building a business plan that will encourage Ford to bring a new vehicle to replace the Explorer at the Hazelwood plant, he said. Not that it's the government's job to develop business plans, but I'll help, no consulting fees attached: you know what kind of business plan calls for spending more and more money on a failing proposition? A bad business plan. Let's return to Carr for the most appropriate, although inappropriately so, metaphor:
Unfortunately, Albert Pujols' ninth inning home run in game five of the National League Championship Series only saved one game, forestalling the Cardinals eventual loss to the Houston Astros by a single game and a couple of games. Much like your business plan and next set of tax incentives will delay Ford's decision to close the plant for another short interval; but if it's in Ford's best business interest to close the plant, it will close the plant. Perhaps it's time to let the air out of the Keynesian tires and abandon the plant on the side of the road. Obviousnessity What could make telephone conversations better? Commercials:
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
You Don't See That Every Day And you probably wouldn't believe it if you did:
In her struggle to free herself, her pants came off, police said. Tuesday, October 18, 2005
You Call That An English Degree? My score: 13.333 out of 100. (Link seen on National Review's The Corner.) Caption That Whiteboard Dramatic recreation of detritus only mostly erased from a whiteboard in the conference room: ![]() Ladies and gentlemen, start your captioning. Here's my first, to get you in the mood:
Monday, October 17, 2005
Abashed Pragmatism Man, bird flu needs Tamiflu. For four years, I've been stocking the Cipro for nothing.... Sunday, October 16, 2005
The Secret The Tabloids Won't Share Katie Holmes is pregnant with Nick Lachey's baby, which explains the breakup with Jessica Simpson.I mean, for crying out loud, it's obvious. But the tabloids won't tell you because they're in bed with the celebrities they cover, regardless of whatever they tell you. And the stars' publicists won't let the tabloids reveal the real secrets.Why Do We Hate Them? The street is, in fact, rising up and attacking popular propoganda's convenient targets: neo-Nazis:
When Mayor Jack Ford and a local minister tried to calm the rioting, they were cursed for allowing the march, and Ford said a masked gang member threatened to shoot him. At least 65 people were arrested and several police officers were injured before calm was restored about four hours later. Ford blamed the rioting on gangs taking advantage of a volatile situation. He declared a state of emergency, set an 8 p.m. curfew through the weekend, and asked the Highway Patrol for help. Well, I guess Hollywood might be right about its impact on popular sensitivities, and it can rest assured that the themes it espouses don't deal with contemporary evils, but instead continue to dish propoganda which demonizes a movement which has caused sporadic violence but which was last a credible global threat sixty years ago. Wednesday, October 12, 2005
She's Got A Point And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "We never even watched that film. And you don't recall, I said I hate Katherine Hepburn." And I said, "Well, it was someone else then." Legality Obstacle to Overcome for Law Enforcement Another municipality says "Lights, Camera, Revenue!" Or it would, if it can only overcome a couple of obstacles:
America Works Best When We Say Union Yes, Unless You're Union Worker Lohr dispute heats up as strikers lose jobs:
The move complicates any settlement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents the drivers. They've been on strike for nearly five months. Tuesday, October 11, 2005
American Airlines Extorts, Wheedles It was bad enough I had to suffer through the American Airlines CEO's column in the September in-flight house organ, but now the company has commissioned a study to indicate that if it loses its government-enforced monopoly in Dallas, everyone will pay:
The study labeled Lambert as at "moderate risk" to lose a small number of American flights. However, Gerard Slay, deputy director at Lambert, said he doesn't expect any impact, describing the study's discussion of St. Louis as a "what-if scenario." American commissioned the study by Eclat Consulting Inc., an aviation-consulting firm in Reston, Va., in what has become a bruising battle over a federal law that limits direct flights by Southwest from Love Field to most of the country.
Such a development, the study said, would hurt towns such as Kirksville, Mo., and Quincy, Ill. These towns rely on federally subsidized service provided by American affiliates that fly under the banner of AmericanConnection, the Eclat study said. "Hub degradation would take place, making marginal routes unprofitable," said Eclat's president, William S. Swelbar. "Inevitably, those routes would be eliminated." Of the 11 daily flights between Lambert Field and Dallas/Fort Worth, five could be lost, Swelbar said. While three of those five flights could be shifted to Love Field, travelers would see a reduction in the number of connection flights, he said. UPDATE As Mr. Hill notes in the comments, the threat or promise has been heard elsewhere. Google News helps prove the "reduced flights" extortion has been targeted to:
St. Louis Blues Answers Its Questions With the departure over the last seasons (and particularly this last year) of its offensive players, many sports fans wondered where the Blues would get goals this year. Tonight they answered the question. In games against Chicago. Well, that's not much of an answer since it only restates the obvious. Urban Planning Yields Its Fruit When "team of architects, urban designers and engineers charged with making the city's downtown shoreline more than just the space underneath the Gateway Arch" get together to spend the public's money, you know the result is going to be absurd:
Her design certainly provides that - any more contact with the river would require a snorkel. The vision is to have the riverfront extend into the river itself onto two groups of floating islands that reach into the water like a pair of giant butterfly wings. The islands, which would be connected by floating bridges, would feature walking paths, bike trails and even a swimming pool that would be converted to an ice skating rink in the winter. Purple, green, red and yellow lights could illuminate the islands, with both island groups shaped in a curve mimicking the Arch. Eero Saarinen's monument would then be literally and figuratively reflected in the river. The hope, Balmori says, is to bring people back to the river that played a defining role in shaping what St. Louis is today. Balmoni said that whenever people find themselves surrounded by water, it's "magical." But urban planners who concoct revitalization plans around entertainment venues, sports teams, and shimmering parks on the hill might not know why these things continue to fail to revitalize urban centers. Perhaps they instinctively create money-wastrels that will fail, as their continued struggle against urban decay does keep the money flowing into the teams, the commissions, and the districts from which they draw their own paychecks. You want to revitalize downtown St. Louis? Remove onerous restrictions on business, reduce taxation, and rebuild the infrastructure. You know, smooth streets, better fire and police and fire protection, and the other things only government can provide. But the governors, too, know that they don't get as many contributions from individual citizens as they do from the unelected Elect, nor do they receive luxury boxes and buffets for schools that maintain accreditation without a revolving door of administrators. Monday, October 10, 2005
The Man Is A Punchline Jesse Jackson:
"Karl Rove is a political reconstructionist" who wants to "change the character" of Louisiana politics from the mayor's office to its congressional representation. When High School Spanish Fails You Sure, I offended the leader of the client's parent company. But I thought surely the feminine version of CEO was CEA. Who wouldn't? UPDATE: Also, note that neither are actually pronounced like see-oh or see-ah. You have been warned. Sunday, October 09, 2005
Remiss He Who Is Not To Be Named Because He Got A Job And Doesn't Want To Get Googled is blogging again. Maybe he never stopped and I am just late to the party. Too Much Information Alert But if you must know, gentle reader: ![]() You're Marilyn Monroe! What Classic Pin-Up Are You? brought to you by Quizilla (Link seen on Suburban Blight.) What I Want For Christmas: A Lead Carrying Case For My Cellular Phone Missouri: State Spies on Drivers Through Cell Phones:
Delcan NET, a Canadian company, developed the system which triangulates the location of each driver by monitoring the signal sent from the cell phone as it is handed off from one cell tower to the next. Each phone is uniquely identified and the information is compared with a highway map to record on what road each motorist is traveling at any given time. The system also records the speed of each vehicle, opening up another potential ticketing technology. Makes the picture below more appropriate, no? My First Trip to New York, Short Version, Chapter 4 Here's a photo you never see anywhere else, a MfBJN exclusive: ![]() I understand that the view was much better before former Attorney General John Ashcroft forced the park services to put the robe on. Saturday, October 08, 2005
A Long Winter Indeed The St. Louis Make Dos continue their tear through the NHL, going up by two goals twice on the San Jose Sharks before succumbing to a 6-7 loss in regulation. By the rules of the Hockey Whoopass Jamboree, I am required to post the logo of the victor here, as Rocket Ted himself believes in the inevitable domination of his beloved: ![]() Trash talking is encouraged, huh? Best I can say is that our goalie was better than their goalie; if Nabakov had seen as many shots as that guy currently occupying Freddie Braithwaite's number for the St. Louis Blues, statistically speaking the Blues would have won by a score of 12-7. Taxation Litigation More fun with government units suing each other to prevent funding cuts, with a twist: this time it's the courts themselves threatening to sue:
But I'm not a power-grabbing judge. My First Trip to New York, Short Version, Chapter 3 ![]() Old joke: Young man: Can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall? Older man: Well, if you're coming from downtown, you should take Madison Avenue up to 57th and hang a left. Oh, you could take Fifth, but it bogs down in the thirties and forties. If you're coming from the Upper West Side, you can take Broadway down to 57th if you're comfortable with Columbus Circle, or you can take Ninth Avenue down if you want a stoplight.... You know, even now that I've been to New York City, I still don't get the joke. The Great Magic Marker Felony Magic Marker used in commission of felony:
Kirkwood Police Chief Jack Plummer said officers picked up the teenagers, one of whom is a juvenile, on Thursday and Friday on suspicion of vandalism and a hate crime, a felony. Plummer said officers sought one more suspect. The slurs were discovered Aug. 29 near the south entrance of Kirkwood High and at St. Paul's Lutheran School in Des Peres. Officers said the scrawlings, made in permanent marker, were a curse word, a racial slur and a swastika at Kirkwood, and a swastika at St. Paul's. The scrawlings included the phrase "the kings," a reference to a band the suspects like. The magic hate crime designation multiplies every crime, no matter how trivial, into a felony. Say nigger, and it's free speech. Say kike while throwing a gum wrapper on the ground as you pass a synagogue, and you're penitentiary-eligible. Judicial Activism in Family Courts Owen at Boots and Sabers has the story of an Appleton judge who assigns custody of a minor to an inappropriate institution. Book Report: What's It All About, Charlie Brown? by Jeffrey H. Loria (1968) I bought this book at a garage sale some aeons ago, and it languished in my eleven boxes of eBayable books that I'd held in reserve in case I accidentally opened a book store. As I prepared to divest myself of these investments, I picked over the collection one final time for books I might want to read, and I settled upon this book and probably several dozen others. Because at my pace, I am scheduled to run out of reading material on my shelves sometime in 2009, and we can't have that. Whenever I go on vacation, I fill up the bag with quick read paperbacks. When we went to NYC last weekend, I packed this one, and it didn't disappoint. Short chapters filled with Peanuts cartoons make for a quick but interesting read. The book contrasts the Peanuts gang with the kids today--from 1968, remember--and finds the kids today lacking. The Peanuts kids respect their elders, go to church, recognize the value of education, and love their families; kids today just want to get high and paint their bodies in San Francisco parks. So I thought I was looking into a book describing the epistemology of Peanuts, and I end up with a pre-Hannity conservative tome. Not that I am complaining; it's an interesting historical document for starters, and also an accessible book that relates art to philosophy in a non-scholarly way. Perhaps the book proved more accessible to me than it would to someone of today's generation; I had a Snoopy electric toothbrush and remember wwatching seasonal animated television specials featuring Charlie Brown. Have newspaper comics faded in the contemporary age? Dilbert remains popular, The Boondocks remains controversial (but popular? Hmm...), and Day by Day gets blog attention, but who even reads the comics in the newspapers today? Pardon me while I project. Also, the book sharpened some dulling trivia about the Peanuts gang. I mean, I'd forgotten Violet, but she was an important foil to Charlie Brown. And I know the ages of the kids--five years old or thereabouts. Any book that provides useful trivia is a good book, especially when it costs a quarter or less and takes a little more than a three hour flight to read. Declaration of Manhood No necesito huevos de tortuga!(enabled by Ace of Spades, the Robert Bly of our age.)Friday, October 07, 2005
Conan the Barbarian Special Governor's Cut Mongol General: "What is best in life?" Conan: "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, to hear the lamentations of their women, and to protect their children from video games that depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." Thursday, October 06, 2005
Sure, Tell Me I Am The Only One Look me in the eye when you say that you have never taken a hazardous chemical cleaning or lubricating agent that you cannot pour down the drain and have to pay for disposal to an acquaintance's house and tucked it under their sink or set it on a shelf in his garage when he wasn't looking. I guess El Guapo knows where he got that orange juice bottle full of olive-colored automotive coolant now. Book Report: All These Condemned by John D. MacDonald (1954) All These Condemned is very similar to A Man of Affairs; both deal with business affairs and backstabbing that go on in luxurious locations and someone ends up dead. In this case, it's a wealthy cosmetic company diva who enjoys toying with and manipulating her friends and employees. MacDonald did something a little different with this book, wherein each chapter comprises the action leading up to or following the murder as seen through the eyes of one of the people at the lake resort of Wilma Ferris. With no single voice and the recursive nature of the storytelling--as each person retells a portion of it--the book becomes a cipher, hard to get into and almost plodding in its slow build-up to the climax. Still, it's interesting to see MacDonald riffing with characters, timeline, and whatnot. But I don't recommend the book highly. ESPN Columnist Does Not See Shadow, Predicts Early Spring At least for me:
OK, the division might be the worst in the history of the league, but I envision the Packers going 8-4 or 9-3 the rest of the season. The Packers are not as bad as their winless record. Had the Packers huddled and taken their time before their final fourth-down play against the Carolina Panthers, Brett Favre and the Packers would've finished off their rally and upset the Panthers on Monday night. The Packers will win their next three -- vs. Saints, at Vikings, at Bengals -- and finish the season on a five-game winning streak -- at Bears, vs. Lions, at Ravens, vs. Bears and vs. Seahawks. In between those strings of victories, they'll grab a win on "MNF" against the Vikings. Will the Packers still fire Mike Sherman after he leads them to a division crown? Probably. Long Winter Redux According to the bylaws of the Hockey Whoopass Jamboree, I have to put up the logo of the Detroit Red Wings because Quality Weenie has that team in the Jamboree, and the St. Louis Who?s lost this evening, 3-4, at The Arena Whose Corporate Sponsor Bailed, So It Has No Name Like Its Hockey Team Has No Ownership And Little Talent. ![]() Wednesday, October 05, 2005
World Trade Center Graffiti ![]() Good to see the people behind the International Freedom Center had alternate plans. You can find this particular gem of wisdom on a dark Post No Bills temporary construction wall just north of the former site of the World Trade Center. In case the author of this simplistic moralism--a member of the
It's Going To Be A Long Winter According to the bylaws of the Hockey Whoopass Jamboree, I have to put up the logo of the Detroit Red Wings because Quality Weenie has that team in the Jamboree, and the St. Louis Who?s lost this evening, 1-5, at Joe Louis Arena. ![]() Development Will Occur Whether Unelected Officials Want It Or Not Manchester mayor expects retail center will happen:
The six members of the commission appointed by city officials favored the Pace Properties Inc. project. The six members appointed by other jurisdictions, mainly St. Louis County and the Parkway School District, opposed the proposal. Aldermen are expected to consider the commission's action at a meeting Nov. 7. Mayor Larry Miles said he expected the project to move forward anyway.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Stopping Bob Greene Cheap Shots the Hard Way Columnist charged with domestic battery:
Steinberg was charged with domestic battery and interfering with the reporting of domestic battery, both misdemeanors, Northbrook Police Sgt. Tony Matheny said. There's a lesson to be learned from this, gentle reader. Unfortunately, it kinda eludes me, and I expect I, too, will continue to be snarky until my own wife beating comes to light. Please, gentle reader, send me flowers when my beautiful wife puts me in the hospital. Democrat Two Step
Up Hill Both Ways Back when I was a young man, we didn't have CDs or the Internet. If we wanted to play video games, we spent all night typing the programs in from magazines. Book Report: The Night Spider by John Lutz (2003) I inherited this book from my aunt; she paid fifty cents for it at a yard sale, probably to resell on eBay. She would have gotten a pretty good deal on a common thriller had she been inclined to read it. Hey, I liked it well enough. As some of you know, John Lutz is a St. Louis writer who sets his Thomas Horn novels in New York City. I thought it would be a fitting read for a St. Louis writer visiting New York City. Thomas Horn has to come back to the force to investigate a serial killer who kills young, attractive, single women in high rise apartments by coming in through their windows. That's the plot, and it's a serviceable book. But I not only read this book for the enjoyment, but also the do nots I can apply to my own writing, and I picked up a big set from this book:
Monday, October 03, 2005
Sunday, October 02, 2005
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To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."
"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 Instapundit Protein Wisdom Ace of Spades HQ Wizbang! Outside the Beltway Robert B. Parker Dustbury Damn Interesting Michelle Malkin Radley Balko's The Agitator Exultate Justi The McGehee Zone Signifying Nothing The Jawa Report Master of None Dr. Helen The Anchoress Electric Venom Kim Du Toit Belmont Club Little Green Footballs Overtaken by Events Rocket Jones Boots and Sabers Triticale Ann Althouse The American Mind Ravenwood's Universe Asymmetrical Information Boondoggled VodkaPundit Professor Bainbridge Virginia Postrel Ken Jennings Joanne Jacobs Faster Than The World Dilbert Blog Junkyard Blog In DC Journal IMAO Baldilocks Powerline Q and O Hugh Hewitt Buzz Machine Daniel Drezner Roger Simon American Digest Blackfive The Volokh Conspiracy Cold Fury Captain's Quarters Tim Blair Chequer-Board Emperor Misha Just One Minute Blame Bush Inaniloquent Trey Givens OverLawyered Suburban Blight Another Rovian Conspiracy Angelweave Bad Example Rachel Lucas View from the Porch StL Recruiting a big victory Spector's Hockey Fark /. TechDirt F*****d Company CNet News Joel on Software James Lileks Mark Steyn Bob Rybarczyk Richard Roeper Neil Steinberg John Kass Steven Chapman Drudge Report Ananova Slate Reason's Hit and Run Best of the Web Today National Review's The Corner Tech Central Station Fox News CNN Washington Post Washington Times Chicago Tribune Chicago Sun-Times Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel St. Louis Post-Dispatch San Francisco Chronicle New York Post Shepherd Express Riverfront Times New York Observer ScrappleFace Bob from Accounting The Onion Top Five List David Letterman's Top Ten BBSpot U.S. Constitution Declaration of Independence Snopes.Com (Urban Legends) Dictionary.com Internet Movie Database Complete Works of Shakespeare Marvel Directory Blooberry HTML Reference
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