Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
 
Book Report: Planning & Remodeling Family Rooms, Dens & Studios Sunset Books 1979
I bought this book for a dollar from Hooked on Books this weekend and sat down to mostly glance at its pictures. Of course, I've recently been considering family rooms, dens, and studios, not to mention some rathskellar basement bars, so I hoped to get some ideas from the book.

The book puts me in an odd place; although I remember rooms designed like this, I think it screams for James Lileks treatment on the rooms and color patterns and whatnot. The strangest bit, though, is the people. I can convince myself that some of these environments were warm and inviting and even "neat," but not the haircuts and dress. Also, the remodeled rooms all feature neat places to hide your 19" television and some of the more modern studies feature electric typewriters.

Wow.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:01 PM   0 comments
 
In Flagrante Delicto
Ajax and Aurora, caught canoodling:

Caught Canoodling


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:00 PM   0 comments
Monday, February 27, 2006
 
Movie Preview: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
The Day After Tomorrow for Kids.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:25 PM   0 comments
 
The Pox That Keeps On Scarring
The fence along the Mexican border shows how many bugaboos the left can fit into a single action: Not only is it bad for the poor people of color and other nationalities who would only come to this country for noble purposes, such as they can, but also, we should note, the fence along the Mexican border is actually strangling baby seals and clubbing baby spotted owls. Or something:
    But in the name of national security, the Department of Homeland Security wants to build 3.5 miles of fencing just south of this federally protected land -- a project environmentalists say could spell disaster for the sensitive ecology of the region.
Coming soon, studies will no doubt show that steps taken in the name of border security also:
  • Dramatically reduce Social Security benefits for seniors.

  • Have been proven to cause cancer in laboratories. Not in laboritory animals, mind you, because opponents of the fence also oppose animal testing; however, somewhere, someone in a lab right now is getting news that he or she has cancer, and what, you're going to attribute that to smoking two packs of unfiltered cigarettes for twenty years?

  • Are linked to childhood obesity, as children will no longer be able to run back and forth across the Mexican frontier unimpeded.

  • Will result in the loss of health coverage for 60,000 working Americans.
How evil are conservatives? So evil that everything they do makes the world worse in innumerable ways!


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:06 PM   0 comments
Sunday, February 26, 2006
 
Perhaps They Should Try eHarmony
Police still seek partners


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:20 PM   0 comments
 
All About the Branding
I find it somewhat macabre that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has a service mark on the 65 Roses® description of the disease.

Because it doesn't want the other Cystic Fibrosis fundraising machines to use it, I suppose. But still, one would hope that charitable organizations would not need to worry about it nor would not spend money and time on proper branding for the disease they're supposed to be fighting, but I've always recognized the difference between charitable organizations and fundraising machines.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:11 PM   0 comments
Thursday, February 23, 2006
 
Book Report: The Wealthy Writer by Michael Meanwell (2004)
I got this book as part of the "You Get This Many Books and the Writers Market for $20 (plus shipping and handling" deal from Writer's Digest Books, and since I've lost the receipt, I cannot amortize for you the exact cost of this book, but it probably wasn't worth it to me.

The cover and blurb say it's The Wealthy Writer: How to Earn a Six-Figure Income As a Freelance Writer (No Kidding!), but it's really more How to Run a Successful Business Whose Product Happens to Be Writing Services. Its chapters cover the business aspects of becoming a successful business writer, providing marketing copy for corporations. While that is indeed a mechanism for making a living as a writer (and a comfortable living), it's not really writing in the artistic sense.

Because, face it, I made a living as a technical writer at one time, and it wasn't ultimately satisfying in the creation sense of the word. I'd hoped for some silver bullet of a book that would make me a disciplined writer who could sell stories and essays to magazines and books to publishers. Instead, it's the same hustle to make a buck, build a clientele, and whatnot that I've read dozens of times over in any small business owner book, but it's recursive in nature because you're doing the normal promotional pitching and marketing not only for yourself, but as someone who will do the same for clients.

So perhaps it's a good primer if you've not read this sort of thing before, but I have. Truth be told, I read a book in high school with a title like How to Make $17,000 a Year as a Freelance Writer ultimately geared to my particular jones which inspired me and encouraged me more than this book. I should note, however, that neither have overcome my inertia and addiction to Sid Meier video games and simply reading to turn me into a writer who earns anything a year.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:20 PM   0 comments
 
Made with Real Babies
Man, who knew they could puree so smoothly?

Made with Real Babies?


Man, yogurt for babies. Baby vomit that requires no interaction on the part of babies' actual digestive systems. And unlike other yogurts which are made from industrial foundry by-products, this stuff is all organic.

One expects the companion product is Yo Mama.

(See also Made with Real Koalas.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:06 PM   0 comments
 
Perfect for "My-Time"
Camo Sleepwear for Women.

I would love ya if I could find ya, baby.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:41 PM   1 comments
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
 
Man Watches Olympic Women's Short Program Figure Skating, Reluctantly and Somewhat Wistfully
You know, if Victoria's Secret started stocking some of those figure skaters' costumes, I'm sure they'd sell some.

Because surely I'm not the only person in America who might be interested in a little game of The Beautiful but Fading Aging Figure Skater at Her Last Olympics and the Corruptible French Judge.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:19 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
 
Book Report: Under the Grammar Hammer by Douglas Cazort (1997)
I bought this book for $5.98 at the Barnes and Noble in Ladue around the turn of the year. You know how it goes; you've got a $25 gift card, so you try to stretch it on the bargain books and end up with $53 in a dozen books on the to-read shelves.

I picked this book because its title implies a certain ruthlessness which, as a reputed grammarian, I should appreciate. However, it just enumerates 25 common, obvious, and high-risk grammar errors and how to avoid them. I read the lists, read the supplemental material, scanned the cartoons, and mostly ignored the grammar examples. The rules I break I do so on my own account, not because I don't know what I'm doing.

It's a thin little book, a read for one sitting much like Strunk and White, but it doesn't have the depth of the masterwork. Also, it ends with an afterword that speaks of removing some of the rules of grammar, which sort of subverts the point of the book. I won't disagree with the afterword, as I have my reasons as a writer for sometimes not putting in commas where they're needed or sometimes leaving them outside of the quotation marks around the titles of short fiction and whatnot (see also my predilection for the European style here, as my beautiful grammarian wife has already noted).

Still, it's a worthwhile read if you're a mere mortal writer (like most of you) and even worthwhile as a reminder of your superiority (like some of us). Worth $6? Depends upon what sort of down payment you need upon your grammatical dominance.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:38 PM   0 comments
 
No Marches For Her
Because she wasn't killed by police: Elderly woman struck and killed by car:
    An 85-year-old woman was fatally injured Monday evening when she was struck by a car while walking across the street in the 4500 block of Arsenal Street, near Lackland Avenue, St. Louis police said. Louise Dodenhof, who lived in the 3100 block of Portis Avenue, died at 9:52 p.m. at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

- posted by Brian J. @ 11:09 PM   0 comments
 
All The Cool Cats Are Doing It
Podcatting:

Ajax Podcatting


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:23 PM   2 comments
 
Calico Monkey Update
The Web Phenomenon continues.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:28 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Collected Stories by Franz Kafka (1993)
My beautiful wife gave me this book for Christmas in 2004 because I'd admitted to not having read "The Metamorphosis". Well, thanks to her intervention, I cannot claim that. I've also read 400+ pages of Kafka's non-"Metamorphosis" work, and that's no small price to pay for having missed a pivotal short story in the Czech canon.

As some of you might recall, I have some reservations about reading translations because I assume that I don't get everything out of the language that the author put into it. For example, in the Kafka story "The Burrow", I must doubt that the term for the smaller animals as "small fry" comes directly from the Czech.

Also, I'll point out I'm not a fan of Eastern European literature or maybe any European literature from east of the English Channel. In addition to the language barrier, I don't really groove on the bleak, bureaucracy-rules-all worldview that the books tend to embrace. Although, as a liberative, I think our society is trending in that direction, I don't want to read about those things. I want to read a little about how life can be. Perhaps that's too much the influence of Ayn Rand's romanticism.

Some of the stories in the collection are engaging; "The Metamorphosis", "In the Penal Colony", "A Hunger Artist", and maybe, to be charitable, "The Burrow". However, with any roll-up volume, you get padding material, and most of the stuff in this volume seem like that. Many stories are five paragraphs or fewer, with no discernable character development or plotline. Slice of life material at best, but not really worth reading. Of course, some of the stories really hammer home eurobleakism, so maybe they're worthwhile to some people.

As I read this volume, I wondered if the twentieth century marked the point where high art became more and more inaccessible. I'll be frank, some of the stories I had to muscle through ("Investigations of a Dog") I had to muscle through, and I couldn't even force myself through ("Josephine the Singer, or The Mouse Folk"). Aside from the stories I read above, I didn't really get into any of the stories and didn't really get much out of them. I suspect I couldn't enjoy the beauty of the stories in their original language, if that's what makes these stories worthwhile, but the plots nor characters don't draw the reader in, so the greatness of Kafka lies in....something. But academics have told us he's great, and they've spent their time and energy explaining how great he is. Perhaps his greatness, to their eyes, lies in the fact that normal people cannot recognize his greatness and his academic acolytes must interpret his greatness for the common man. Or perhaps I'm just keen on dinging the people who took the easy way out with their English degrees.

So the book made me better in that I can claim now to have read the complete works, or at least the collected "stories" of Franz Kafka, but it took a long time and some effort to reach those bragging rights. All reading is good and consumption of all ideas is good (note consumption of is not adherence to or acceptance of), but you might better serve yourself to reading only the heavily-anthologized stories of Kafka.

But thanks, honey. It's a handsome edition.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:12 PM   0 comments
 
Eureka, Missouri, Eminent Domains Neighboring Town
Contrary to claims of Kelo backlash, Missouri municipalities continue their plans for land seizure and redistribution unabashed. In the latest news, the city of Eureka has annexed Allenton and will raze it for commercial development:
    But most of that will be gone soon - not just Janet's Barber Shop, but most of Main Street, as the core of this one-time farm and railroad community is bulldozed to make way for a 1,000 acre project that includes 1,200 houses and a shopping center. The $539 million Eureka South I-44 Redevelopment also would include parks and land for at least one school and a new Eureka recreation center. The city annexed the Allenton area, directly south of Interstate 44 from Six Flags, several years ago.

    The Eureka Board of Aldermen is expected to vote tonight to approve a redevelopment agreement that will allow the project to proceed. The agreement allows the use of eminent domain, if needed. Two weeks ago, complaints prompted the board to postpone a vote to give the residents more time to negotiate with the developers. At the time, Eureka officials estimated that only ten of the dozens of property owners had not signed sales contracts.
Ten of dozens. Which means possibly as many as 10 of 24 (42%) or maybe 10 of 36 (28%). But who cares about the right to private property, as long as the city of Eureka gets more tax revenue to feed its ever-growing gluttonous appetite.

(Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:21 AM   0 comments
Monday, February 20, 2006
 
A Talent for Pork
One more reason I am not voting for Jim Talent next election: he brings home the bacon.
    Just north of St. Louis, the nation's two largest rivers merge at a spot that few people visit.

    That may be about to change.

    On Monday, Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., announced plans to introduce a bill that would provide a special federal designation for the 200-square-mile area around the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers that would be known as the Confluence National Heritage Corridor.

    "This is an extraordinary natural landmark and this designation is long overdue," said Talent, of suburban St. Louis.

    The designation seeks federal funding for several conservation, heritage and recreational attractions that are part of an organization called Confluence Greenway.
Talent's legacy:
  • Turned the Arch pink.
  • That Sudafed Protection bill he co-sponsored with DiFi.
  • The Confluence National Heritage Boondoggle.
And I thought it made a difference when I helped unseat Jean Carnahan.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:54 PM   0 comments
Friday, February 17, 2006
 
Not To Be Outdone, The Hospital Shot Him From a Cannon
Headline of the day:

Hospital discharges man shot by Cheney


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:37 PM   0 comments
Thursday, February 16, 2006
 
Check Your Local Listings
The Top Ten Sci-Fi Films That Never Existed.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:23 PM   0 comments
 
Municipalities Unworried About Groundswell of Citizen Pushback Against Eminient Domain
Another day, another future land seizure slipped into conversation all casual like. The story's headline? Can Northwest Plaza rebound? The epic tale about whether a dying shopping mall can continue to provide needed revenue for a small St. Louis County municipality.

Even though it's losing revenue from a failing commercial enterprise, the plucky local government will carry on by seizing homes from its citizens to roll into another commercial enterprise, even though its previous plan to seize the land drew no interest from the commercial community:
    The city plans to seek bids to redevelop 227 acres near Cypress Road and Interstate 70 into retail, hotel and office buildings. The project could force the buyout of more than 200 homes.

    The proposed development differs from a previously planned business park in the same area, which failed due to a lack of bids during the economic recession following the terrorist attacks of 2001.
I find the "If at first you don't succeed, seize, seize again" attitude of the duly-elected land robber barons quite inspiring.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:12 PM   0 comments
 
Unintended Lawsuits
Another high-speed criminal chase ends in an innocent death, and again certain segments of the population of St. Louis uproariously protest police who would try to capture dangerous people who might want to hurt innocent people and who then do actually hurt innocent people.

Fortunately, capitalism provides a liability-free solution: Tag-and track might slow car chases:
    Is there a solution to high-speed police chases?

    A company in Virginia is proposing one: a sticky dart with a homing device that police can fire at a fleeing car and track electronically at a distance.

    Instead of pursuing the getaway car at high speed, police can lay back and set a trap for the fleeing car up the road.

    The company believes its product, called StarChase, will save lives and reduce police liability by slowing some hot pursuits and stopping others altogether.
Yeah, liability-free, and the protestors will go home.

Until the police miss the bad guys' car with the sticky dart and the sticky dart kills/injures/spoils the shirt of some bystander.

At which point the aggrievement machine will once again creak and grind into its public indignation over the dangers of sticky darts, etc.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:06 PM   1 comments
 
Lovewrong
Lance Armstrong vs. Sheryl Crow: George W. Bush to Blame?:
    Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow have said all the right things so far as the speculation for their break shifts gears. One tabloid even examines that it may be President George W. Bush's fault as Lance is a Bush fan while Sheryl is a Bush basher.

    The Star details that a friend of the singer said they knew the bust up was coming.

    "Sheryl said Lance didn't just support Bush, - he'd go off and fight if the president asked him too.
Well, guys, we all know that those hot hippyesque chicks from the English department are kinda exciting, and they tend encouragingly toward the promiscuous, but ultimately, you're going to want to settle down with a wife and mother....and if you're cagey about it, you might end up with a hot bicyclist, too.

(Story seen on Ace of Spades HQ.)

Memo to Lance Armstrong: Find your own, mister.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:54 PM   0 comments
 
This Blog Violates the ADA
Once again, the Americans with Disabilities Act continues to prove itself not only to be the Law of Diminishing Returns, wherein American companies must continue to spend infinitely increasing amounts of money to placate an infinite number of aggrieved parties. The latest group to attempt to stretch the law to new frontiers: Blind patrons sue Target for site inaccessibility:
    Bruce Sexton says he's one of many blind individuals who can live more independently because of the Internet.

    When it comes to shopping, for example, the 24-year-old college student doesn't have to get to and navigate brick-and-mortar stores or ask employees for help. Rather, with the help of a keyboard and screen-reading software, he can navigate a Web site and make his purchase.

    Or can he?

    Sexton, along with a blind advocacy group, filed a class action lawsuit this week against Target, alleging that the retail giant's Web site is inaccessible to the blind and thus violates a California law that incorporates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

    The suit, filed in Northern California's Alameda County Superior Court by Sexton and the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind (NFB), claims that Target.com, "contains thousands of access barriers that make it difficult, if not impossible, for blind customers to use."
Listen, I know what Section 508 means and I believe that making your products and services available to the widest possible audience is a good thing, but the ADA (like lots of doing-something legislation) adds burdens to businesses which drive businesses from profitablility to "why bother?"

Additionally, if the legalistic fiction of "public spaces" continues to expand, where will it end? Conversations and talks that don't offer closed captioning or live signing limit accessibility. So do books, magazines, and papers that do not come with audio versions. How about yard sales or home-based businesses without wheelchair ramps?

The world and its litigants are completely destroying the logical fallacy of ad absurdum, turning hyperbole into a game plan and absurdity into inevitability.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:13 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
 
Venomous Kate: A Dog
The assertion is proven here.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:03 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
 
A Man Watches Olympic Men's Short Program Figure Skating, Reluctantly and Somewhat Wistfully
You know, Scott Hamilton on color commentary sounds a little like Darren Pang.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:29 PM   0 comments
Monday, February 13, 2006
 
Made with Real Koalas
Koala Crisps


I don't know what sort of Birkenstock-wearing Seattlite would shush the commercial-driven sugar-craving mewlings of its larvae with EnviroKidz Organic Koala CrispTM breakfast cereal (Gluten Free! Organic Cocoa!), but apparently somewhere, someone is making money providing the product.

Personally speaking, though, if Kwicky Koalaganda poured into me in my impressionable years hasn't turned me off to succulent marsupial meat garnished with minty fresh eucalyptus garnish, this cereal won't banish my hankering. Come to think of it, it sends me a reassuring message. Kids, it's normal to flash fry koalas and eat them!

In an unrelated note, with 1% of the proceeds donated directly to wildlife, what are the little rascals going to do with the Australian dollars? Do the aborigines have casinos in the Outback at which the koalas can play slot machines?


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:18 PM   0 comments
 
For the Love of Pete, Someone Hit Me
99,999


Today, MfBJN has tripped over into the six digits. If my sitemeter were done in Atari 2600 Asteroids, I'd be at about 20 hitz. But it's not, and after only three years here in the blogging backwaters, I'm finally amongst the at least eliter cabal of people who have more hitz than debt.

On the other hand, it will take me until 2033 at this pace to equal the annual traffic of relative newcomers like Ann Althouse, but then again, I'm not a PILF (Professor Instapundit Links Frequently).

But I'll keep plugging away, gentle reader, because otherwise I'd just play Civilization IV until my eyes bled.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:56 PM   2 comments
Sunday, February 12, 2006
 
Happy Valentine's Day from Your Relationship Therapist
Cover story, Psychology Today, February 2006:

STAYING IN LUST

How to Feel Infatuated Forever

Psychology Today February 2006 Cover

Inside, we have the story:

Lust for the Long Haul

The road to long-term passion starts with a surprise....

Psychology Today February 2006 Article

Can you spot the secret?

The man is with a different woman on the cover than he is with in the article!


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:01 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Pet Sematary by Stephen King (1983)
I inherited the Book Club Edition of Pet Sematary from my aunt. Or I bought it for a buck or change at a forgotten garage sale, but that would be meaningless, so I think of my aunt when I read my Stephen King novels now, regardless of the actual origin.

As one of the first of King's prolific bursts, this book fits into that time period. That is, he build suspense and dread, but ultimately the end rushes through the climax and leaves one with the obvious lingering evil still out there. In what I've seen from this era (see also Christine), the victory over evil is very tenuous and it's apparent that it will eventually catch up with the survivors of the story.

So let me continue with the beginning.... or at least the plot. Dr. Louis Creed moves his family from the Midwest to small town Maine where he's going to run a university infirmary. In the front of the house, there's a two lane highway used often by oil tankers. In the back woods, a burial place for pets. The family has a cat. You can see where this is going. I, owner of an aging cat whom I know won't lie upon my lap while I read Stephen King books forever, dreaded reading this book, and I was going to put it off indefinitely until I decided to denancy my self and just push through the death of the cat and the horrors beyond. I did. At least the death of the cat and so on where handled off page fairly well.

Come to think of it, King leaves most of the gory wetwork off the page in this particular volume. We don't get a lot of flesh peeling from the muscle, tendon, and bones kind of thing going on, but we do get the idea that it's going to happen, and we put the book down thinking we've gotten a pretty gory dose of it, but textually, there's not much there there. That's what makes King so powerful; he builds the dread and he makes you think you're getting gore, but it's your own imagination splattering blood on the wallpaper.

Another thing that makes King powerful, and what draws his readers into the books, is that he doesn't play favorites with his characters. Most writers rely on series for their long-term fiscal viability, and with every series one or more characters run through the plot in little danger. Sure, they get shot and sometimes almost die, and sometimes a major or minor character dies in a Very Special Episode. But the reader can proceed page-to-page with the comfort that the main characters will be tested and will prove true. King can spend pages making us like one or more characters in a book right before they die suddenly. The reader has to pay attention because although four main characters walk into a scene, four main characters are not guaranteed to walk out of the scene. In every moment, King's characters risk life and limb from dark forces outside of their control. King takes this aspect of life and amps it up to make clear the tenuous hold we each have on our lives. Overall, the effect works.

Ergo, even though I didn't care for the ending, I appreciated that the book achieved its goals in manipulating my emotions. Did I like it? Well, it was effective, and I enjoyed the writing. I'll read more King, of course. Because I enjoy the works and, quite frankly, because my aunt (and the garage sales of past days) have left me with quite a few remaining on my bookshelves.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:53 PM   0 comments
 
That Woman Who Sued Lowe's When She Got Hit By a Bird
Case dismissed:
    A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a woman who claims she was attacked by a bird at a Lowe's store in Fairview Heights.

    Rhonda Nichols of Centreville claimed that Lowe's Cos., the nation's second-largest home improvement retailer, should have warned her of the birds.

    But U.S. District Judge William Stiehl ruled Tuesday that a "reasonable plaintiff" either would have noticed the birds or understood that contact with them was possible in any outdoor area with plants.
(Original post. Thanks to Overlawyered.com for the update.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:44 PM   0 comments
 
Brian's Ticket to Unemployment
I would never work on a job that required, and I would certainly reconsider a position at a company that asked for, implanted RFID chips.

But you probably guessed that about me.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:31 PM   0 comments
Saturday, February 11, 2006
 
Back at the Beginning, Waiting for Vizzini
Inigo Montoya? No. Steve Guttenberg.

(Link courtesy, or direct all blame to, Exultate Justi.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:27 PM   0 comments
 
Elves Need 1 or 2 on d6 at My House
HiddenPassageway.com.

Because secret doors in your home are cool.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:14 PM   0 comments
Friday, February 10, 2006
 
Marketing Misfire
In an era where privacy and human rights advocates trash Yahoo! and Google for revealing information to various governments' sundry agencies, why on earth would the new AT&T (SBC) run radio spots identifying people by name and revealing their interests and how DSL will deliver what you're looking for quickly.

For example, Doug from (insert your market here) who likes ice dancing but is kind of embarrassed by it. AT&T has built a campaign around announcing they know what you want and they're not afraid to share it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:21 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
 
Hard-Boiled Animals
Kitten Goes Undercover in Vet Scam Probe

Noisy Dachshund Saves Woman From Fire


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:02 PM   0 comments
 
Eric Mink Takes A Stand
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, former television critic Eric Mink takes a stand on the violence erupting over editorial cartoons elsewhere in the world and, not surprisingly, finds a nuanced view where everyone is wrong but him:
    Having made the obvious points, I can’t decide who’s dumber: those who believe that beating people and torching buildings honor Mohammed and his teachings or those who believe there’s something honorable about insulting someone else’s religion simply to prove that they can.
Atta boy, Eric.

Perhaps editorial page apologists, by saying that editorial cartoons and their commonplace commentary are equivalent to violence, burning, mayhem, and bloodshed aren't so much trying to diminish the immorality of the latter but rather to inflate the importance and potence of their own meager scratchings on the stage of world events. Because deep down, it's probably very gratifying to see one's drivel have a visceral reaction and change the world. For better or for worse.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:48 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Sea Change by Robert B. Parker (2006)
I paid this book at Borders on the day it came out, but that will come as no surprise to those of you who know me or who have read this blog for the last couple of years. I have been a strident Parker partisan for about twenty years now (see also "Meeting Robert B. Parker").

This is the fifth Jesse Stone novel, and I don't mind telling you, I like this series least. Jesse Stone comes across as less hard-boiled and more simpering....although he's hard enough with the bad guys and bantery enough with his police force, his issues with his ex-wife and whatnot really take too much of the book. Any of the book is too much. Unfortunately, as the snippets of him with his therapist unfold in a linear arc beginning with the first book and only advance the character when taken over the course of the series and advance the character independently of the action within the book, which means they're ultimately superfluous.

Jesse Stone, within this book, has to deal with sleazy sex and murder among the yachting class. He and his force plod along, encountering old standards Captain Healy and Rita Fiore and making a new acquaintance with a no-nonsense cop in Florida who's now eligible for repeat encounters in any or all of Parker's series or perhaps a series of her own (since the whole Helen Hunt/Sunny Randall thing seems to have gone by the wayside).

Still, I enjoyed the book and read it almost in a single sitting. Parker's dialog-laden prose is not very dense, and he hits a lot of familiar tropes, so long time readers can almost skim.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:46 PM   0 comments
 
Evil Genius Tony Blair Sets Ultimatum
World has 7 years for key climate decisions: Blair:
    The world has seven years to take vital decisions and implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions or it could be too late, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday.

    Blair said the battle against global warming would only be won if the United States, India and China were part of a framework that included targets and that succeeded the 1992 Kyoto Protocol climate pact.

    "If we don't get the right agreement internationally for the period after which the Kyoto protocol will expire -- that's in 2012 -- if we don't do that then I think we are in serious trouble," he told a parliamentary committee.
Arbitrary deadlines and more government spending: Is there any problem that bureaucrats and politicos don't think they can solve?


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:05 PM   1 comments
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
 
Local Boy Makes Good
Milwaukee blogger Owen of Boots and Sabers has another regular column gig.

Man, he's making it look easy. Perhaps if I weren't so lazy, I could emulate his success.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:12 PM   0 comments
 
Police Want Public Uninformed, Uneducated
Experts Blame Cop Show For Educating Criminals:
    When Tammy Klein began investigating crime scenes eight years ago, it was virtually unheard of for a killer to use bleach to clean up a bloody mess.

    Today, the use of bleach, which destroys DNA, is not unusual in a planned homicide, said the senior criminalist from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

    Klein and other experts attribute such sophistication to television crime dramas like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which give criminals helpful tips on how to cover up evidence.
In addition to knocking these shows off of the air, perhaps law enforcement would also prefer that we cut education spending or perhaps actually insert misinformation into the science curricula to ensure that our population cannot adequately think to prepare for crimes or to do anything, really, without the helping or hindering hand of the government.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:11 PM   1 comments
 
Good Environmental News
Scientists hail discovery of hundreds of new species in remote New Guinea:
    An astonishing mist-shrouded "lost world" of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international team of scientists.

    Among the new species of birds, frogs, butterflies and palms discovered in the expedition through this pristine environment, untouched by man, was the spectacular Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise. The scientists are the first outsiders to see it. They could only reach the remote mountainous area by helicopter, which they described it as akin to finding a "Garden of Eden".
This is excellent news, since it means we can continue our hobby of exterminating species for a few more years than previously thought.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:08 PM   0 comments
 
Camera Keeps Deputy Safer....When Ogling
TCoast deputy fired for using police camera to tape girls on beach:
    Martin County deputy used his dashboard-mounted video camera to zoom in on and record bikini-clad girls, including one showering at a public beach, a sheriff's office investigation reveals.

    Martin County sheriff Robert Crowder fired deputy Jack Munsey after the investigation, released Monday, concluded Munsey broke policy by using the video for unofficial purposes, spending on-duty time on off-duty activities and for improper conduct.
But, in the deputy's defense, the scantily-clad women were not victims while he was watching, proving once again that using cameras to focus on women prevents crime.


- posted by Brian J. @ 5:09 PM   0 comments
Monday, February 06, 2006
 
Because I Made Heather Miss It
The MacGyver Mastercard commercial


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:58 PM   0 comments
 
Movie Preview: Click
Because The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything had seventies hair.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:43 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: The American Private Eye: The Image in Fiction by David Geherin (1985)
I bought this book about a year and a half ago at Downtown Books in Milwaukee for $3.95. I don't know why I was looking for an almost scholarly survey of private eye fiction, but I bought it.

As I mentioned, this book surveys the evolution of the private eye character within American fiction from its origin in the pulps through the middle 1980s (when the book was published). It identifies certain eras (early pulps, post WWII detectives, sixties touchy-feely detectives, and modern detectives) and then identifies certain seminal authors and their most famous or influential creations. The book includes Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Ross MacDonald, Brett Halliday, Mickey Spillane, and Richard S. Prather among the obvious. I've read books from each of these and probably work from among the others in the list. Oddly enough, these sorts of summary books not only inspire me to read more of these authors, but also to write more so I can hopefully get included in some of these volumes in the future. If I'm lucky.

(As for inside baseball, Roger L. Simon is only mentioned in this book when the author notes that a character is not as Jewish as Moses Wine. Simon and Wine do, however, make up a large portion of Sons of Sam Spade: The Private-Eye Novel in the 70s, which I read in college when I should have been attending Biology 001.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:37 PM   0 comments
 
Thanks for the Accolades
Brian J. Noggle: #3 Yahoo! hit for steamy guy pic

For those of you who cannot get enough, here it is again:

steamy guy pic


On the other hand, no thanks to Mamma, who lists me as the number one hit for Brian humping Louis. Contrary to the evidence, my relationship with the Tri Lambda was purely plutonic, and although we did take a long hike together, we did not stop to "smell the flowers."


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:24 PM   0 comments
Saturday, February 04, 2006
 
Kavik Sniffs for Hanging Chads
The top 100 pop culture dogs.

Kavik's attorneys are descending upon retroCRUSH headquarters to demand recounts until he is on the list. Buck's legal team, including several specialists from London, are watching Kavik's story to see if it has a case as well.

(Link seen on Althouse.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:42 AM   0 comments
 
Budding Web Phenomenon?
Calico Monkey

The first Web Flash cartoon I've watched in a non-professional capacity. Because I know Will.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:23 AM   0 comments
 
Sanity Reigns in St. Louis, Or At Least Insanity Held Temporarily At Bay
Plan to silence noisy car stereos is pulled:
    The city's get-tough plan to silence booming car stereos was pulled Friday after the mayor and comptroller turned up the political pressure.

    Alderman Craig Schmid's proposal to allow police to impound cars with enhanced stereo equipment was criticized as overly broad and intrusive. The bill would have allowed the city to fine motorists with some sound systems straight from the factory, technically enabling police to take their cars regardless of whether music was pumping or not.
Headlines that focus on the minor bad thing that this legislation would address--annoying loud car sound systems--overlooks the far greater evil in its punishment--government seizure of private property for a small infraction.

Because I'm not so far from my youth to have forgotten how I would occasionally turn up my radio to probably inappropriate levels when a good song came on the radio. A ticket, I could have handled. Taking my car would have driven me to unemployment, as most of the places I lived in my twenties didn't offer quick or convenient mass transit that could convey me twenty miles to my various places of underpaid employment.

Legislating to eliminate pet peeves by putting down their owners should never pass nor be considered seriously, but with 200 years of legislation and a thousand years of English common law behind them, our legislators have to make busy to citizens' detriment.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:02 AM   0 comments
 
We're Number Two?
Time to stop coddling the damn world if this is all the love we get in return:
    Iran is the country most widely viewed as having a negative influence in the world, with the US in second place, a new poll for the BBC suggests.

    The survey for the BBC World Service asked how 39,435 people in 33 nations across the globe saw various countries.
Freedom: The rest of the world views it negatively, who are we to think otherwise??


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:48 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
 
Book Report: 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America by Bernard Goldberg (2005)
I got this book as a Christmas gift, and as I was looking for a quick read in my recent spate of nonfiction, so I picked it out of my hundreds of volumes that I have yet to read. It was a quick read.

I won't go into too much depth with the book, as it doesn't go much into depth itself. Of course, it's preaching to the seminary here with its indictment of entire classifications of people whose individual goals counter the cohesion of our country for no real purpose except to aggrandize the individuals. It's not a creative indemnification of the collective, but rather the buzzards shrieking that distracts a weakened nation.

Although he became a conservative pin-up author for Bias and Arrogance, Goldberg doesn't just identify liberals, nor does he fall into pinning the tail on liberals because they're liberals. He identifies destructive ideas and people who champion them, and I agreed with many of his selections.

So it's a good book for a couple bucks, and it's a great book for nothing. Just keep in mind you're getting a list book and not a deep analysis of ideas, politics, or society.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:24 PM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."