Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Friday, June 30, 2006
 
A Dig A Day Keeps Ehrenreich Away
Jane Galt digs at Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickeled and Dimed: On Not Getting By In America:
    I read "Nickeled and Dimed", and was impressed by its detailed description of life at the bottom . . . and completely unimpressed by its economic illiteracy, paternalistic snobbery about the people she worked with, disdain for her customers, bizarre fantasies about the motives of middle-class consumers, and her complete and total lack of even a vestigial sense of humour.
I don't even think I was impressed with its detailed description of life at the bottom because, as I recall, it didn't have a palette that extended beyond grey and dark grey.

A couple of years ago, I promised my wife I would write a detailed, scathing review of the book myself, but I've not yet gotten to it. I'll have to reread it before I can do so, but at least Ehrenreich won't get more pennies out of me for rereading a book I already own. But I bought the paperback edition I own new, dammit, so I bought Ehrenreich a couple milligrams of a doobie.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:34 PM   0 comments
Thursday, June 29, 2006
 
Book Report: Sinbad's Guide to Life (Because I Know Everything) by Sinbad with David Ritz (1997)
I've read Chris Rock's Rock This, I've read Bill Cosby's Time Flies and Love and Marriage, Rita Rudner's Naked Beneath My Clothes, Judy Tenuta's The Power of Judyism, and more recently, Jeff Foxworthy's You Might Be A Redneck If.... So I've read my share of the comics' attempts to cash in on their fleeting fame with a book deal. So I picked up Sinbad's Sinbad's Guide to Life (Because I Know Everything) from the St. Charles Book Fair for $2.00. Because I read these things habitually.

Honestly, I probably have seen some of Sinbad's stand-up routines, but I know him mostly from Necessary Roughness. I didn't have expectations of his style of comedy. After reading the book, I still don't. I'm sure he's a pretty good comic, but he's not that good of a writer. Even with help, the substance of this book is hard-pressed to actually fill out the book. Part memoir, part humor, I guess Sinbad wanted to pass on some of the lessons he learned the hard way.

But it's tricky to translate comic success to hardbound books. Cosby did it, but that's because his humor is topical and bound in storytelling, so he's got a head start on people who simply fire off zingers. Rock's biting topical commentary offers some humor and some laughs. Even Rudners musings are amusing at times. And the Foxworthy book was a picture book of one liners. So rating these books, I'd put Sinbad a step above Tenuta; her schtick doesn't translate well to the printed word, and maybe Sinbad's would have, but it really didn't make me laugh, educate me, or teach me anything.

It's not a bad book, it's simply a book hardly worthy of any adjectives. Probably not $2.00 either, but what else could I do? I have a library to fill.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:40 PM   0 comments
 
Bush Charisma Works On Bush Supporters, Hard Core Republicans
St. Louis Post-Dispatch dramatic headline: Bush rallies crowd to back war. However, the story indicates this might be an understatement:
    President George W. Bush used his visit to St. Louis on Wednesday to make his case to local soldiers and supporters that the nation must persevere in Iraq and Afghanistan to safeguard America's security.

    His approach, he declared, is "not based on political polls or focus groups," but on the belief that "we must stay on the offense in order to protect America."

    "The American people expect the government to protect them," Bush told an enthusiastic crowd of 500 at a fundraising dinner for U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton.     [Emphasis mine]
Yeah, this was more Henry V at Harfleur than Mark Antony at The Forum.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:56 PM   0 comments
 
RIAA Already Preparing Subpoena For Swedish Honeypot
Sure, insurance against RIAA lawsuits sounds good, until you realize that the RIAA could just subpoena the insurance company and sue all of its customers on the presumption of guilt. Who would buy this insurance besides those who need it?

(Link also seen on Dustbury.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:51 PM   0 comments
 
Scored Like a True Libertarian
Via Dustbury, we get this little bit of reflection:

Greed:Medium
 
Gluttony:High
 
Wrath:High
 
Sloth:Medium
 
Envy:Low
 
Lust:High
 
Pride:Medium
 

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com


Although, to be honest, I am disappointed with my Pride and Greed scores and will work harder on them.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:43 PM   0 comments
 
Supreme Court Urges Military To Take No Prisoners
Let me, prognosticator of unintended consequences, tell you what this Supreme Court decision means:
    The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

    The ruling, a strong rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and international Geneva conventions.
If the executive branch and the military must apply United States constitutional protections to enemies captured on the battlefields of foreign wars, it will capture fewer enemies.

The Supreme Court has sentenced those who would have been captured to death.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:17 PM   1 comments
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
 
Self-Googling Diligence Award for Today
Congratulations to Ty Burr of the Boston Globe who found this book report even though it was listed on page 19 (191-200) of the Google search results.

Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Burr.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 PM   0 comments
 
Had He Been An Emu in Carbondale, The Subject Would Have Been Dead
From the dramatic story entitled "Suspect steals county patrol car in Berkeley; suspect, officer injured", we have this suspenseful episode:
    The suspect drove the stolen police car for some time while surrounding police agencies attempted to stop him. The police car stopped for a short time at Suburban and Mueller streets in Ferguson. Then the suspect suddenly put the car in reverse and rammed a Cool Valley police car. At that moment officers from more than one police agencies fire shots at the suspect, all missing.[sic]
Fortunately, the suspect was acting aggressively and elusively with anyone he met, but he could not run 35 mile per hour, and both of these criteria must be met for instant execution.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:39 PM   0 comments
 
The Only Good Scientist Is A Doubtful Scientist
New Surgeon General’s Report Focuses on the Effects of Secondhand Smoke:
    "The health effects of secondhand smoke exposure are more pervasive than we previously thought," said Surgeon General Carmona, vice admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service. "The scientific evidence is now indisputable: secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance. It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children and nonsmoking adults." Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemicals, and is itself a known human carcinogen. Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke inhale many of the same toxins as smokers. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and increases risk for heart disease and lung cancer, the report says.
To quote Dean Yeager, "Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable. You are a poor scientist, Dr. Venkman!"

Science is the most pragmatic of human endeavors, in that one only believes something is true because even if overwhelming evidence is in favor of a conclusion, science should only be 99% sure, reserving that 1% in recognition of human fallability. I've not seen all the data nor all the studies--like many, I've only seen the big exclamations from the studies which support the claim about second hand smoke and the vital italicizations of studies that dispute it which were funded by Big Tobacco!

But one thing I'm sure of: I doubt the "scientist" who says he has indisputable proof or an inarguable conclusion because that sort of scientist has mounted a bank and is trying to sell something.

(As some of you know, my beautiful wife vigorously disagrees with me, and I might be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:04 PM   1 comments
Sunday, June 25, 2006
 
For Those Thinking of Voting Democrat
I remind you, gentle reader, if you're dissatisfied with your current Republican leaders in Congress and are considering voting for that conservative Democrat this year, please catch that candidate speaking on to an audience that is not conservative, because that's how your Democrat will sound once he or she is in Washington and is speaking through national media.

For example, I just caught a snippet of an interview on KMJM - Today's Jams and the Best Old School with Claire McCaskill, and I learned that requiring an ID to vote is a plan for them [Republicans] to disenfranchise voters legitimate without IDs who don't tend to vote Republican. Well played to the audience, Claire. I would have stomached you as governor, but I don't look forward to six years of you as my senator.

I'm not voting for Jim Talent, either, as I've made clear. I'll have to cast my ballot for Frank Gilmour, the libertarian. Although I don't agree with the Libertarians on foreign policy, I do think its the one party that would probably hold the line on spending if it accidentally found itself in power.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:34 AM   2 comments
Saturday, June 24, 2006
 
Enthusiasm, Tempered
Charles Krauthammer, "Why I Love Australia":
    God, I love Australia. Where else do you have a shadow health minister with such, er, starch? Of course I'm prejudiced, having married an Australian, but how not to like a country, in this age of sniveling grubs worldwide, whose treasurer suggests to any person who "wants to live under sharia law'' to try Saudi Arabia and Iran, "but not Australia.'' He was elaborating on an earlier suggestion that "people who ... don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off.'' Contrast this with Canada, historically and culturally Australia's commonwealth twin, where last year Ontario actually gave serious consideration to allowing its Muslims to live under sharia law.
Meanwhile, Australia, the beloved, features strict gun control and sword control policies. Let's not forget that while we laud the plucky Australians for their collective spine.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:18 PM   0 comments
 
UPDATE: I'm Not Answering The Door, Either
In this post, I explain why random events outside of the home make me afraid to leave my house. Now, thanks to Ace, I have a new irrational fear:
    Knock, knock.
    Who's there?

    Ali.
    Ali who?
Jeez, folks, dial my number from your cellular phone when you're on my porch, otherwise, I'll think you're coming to give me the death roll in my own front yard.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:32 AM   0 comments
Friday, June 23, 2006
 
One Man's Property Is Another Man's Property, If That Other Man Is The State and The First Man Is Annoying
Over at Boots and Sabers, Owen applauds the lowering of the threshold at which the government can seize property from individuals: if it's annoying. Owen says:
    This could be a good idea.
Wherein "this" is this:
    Frustrated by a weekend cruising ritual that gridlocks intersections and gobbles up officers' time, some Milwaukee leaders are pushing for new tools to fight the problem, boosting fines and letting police seize cars by declaring them a "nuisance."
Geez, maybe I'm just a jack, maybe it's just because I'm young enough to remember engaging in car-seizure yielding nuisance behavior--whether playing my car stereo too loud or getting into a car with friends to ride around on a Friday night-- or maybe I just don't want the government to seize private property based on a subjective call of one of its functionaries, but I think it's a really, really bad idea to keep lowering the bar for reasons why the government can take your property. And a nuisance crime isn't it.

Unfortunately, Owen doesn't elaborate on how high a lawn would have to get before the government could take a house--but it's a nuisance when neighbors let their lawns go to seed. It's a matter of degree, not a matter of kind, that prevents the government from doing so once we've allowed the State to start stripping property based on arbitrary and subjective judgments of "nuisance."

To allow this abuse of government power because it punishes that which annoys you leaves you no sympathy and no quarter when the government wants to take something from you because you've annoyed someone else.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:14 PM   0 comments
Thursday, June 22, 2006
 
Book Report: Blue Screen by Robert B. Parker (2006)
Because of who is he and what he meant to my youth, I bought this book like all other Robert B. Parker novels at full price, in hardcover, when it became available. Because it's a Sunny Randall novel, though, I didn't immediately read it right away. Heather actually read it first, which meant she could duly be impressed when I verbally anticipated plot points when they became obvious.

A serviceable piece of genre work, this book combines elements of the Parker books Looking for Rachel Wallace, Stardust, and Double Play and almost channels Lupica's Full Court Press. And although it channeled the books, it didn't completely retread them, so there you go. Sorry, that's a Robert Crais catch phrase, not "We'd be fools not to," the Robert B. Parker catch phrase.

Serviceable, worth a couple of bucks, but it's not as deep nor satisfying as Parker's other work, but I'm not as young as I once was, either, so perhaps I'm just more demanding or less in need of moral instruction.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:50 PM   0 comments
 
A Normal Day Until
Sure, it's a normal day enough day. You rushed through breakfast, kissed your wife on the cheek quickly, and were thinking more about the day ahead than passing over the interstate when suddenly a backhoe on the back of a flatbed on the interstate below cuts the overpass in half.

Okay, that took place at night and apparently didn't have any fatalties, but that's how suddenly and stupidly your life could end. A plane skids off the runway, a truck topples over and rolls off of the exit ramp, and good night. It's no wonder I don't want to leave my house.

Have a nice day.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:42 PM   1 comments
 
If Only This Story Had Been In The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
If only this headline would have been in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Woman bitten by dog is in coma.

Because verbs are so much more expensive in the south, the St. Louis daily would have simply gone with Woman bitten by dog in coma, and oh, the fun I would have had. But the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel can afford the extra two characters' worth of ink, and my world is less mirthful on account of it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:38 PM   0 comments
 
Scope Creep
Highway Patrol can't probe most deaths of mentally ill:
    Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared last week that the Highway Patrol would be told of every death and assault in a state mental health facility, but the patrol says it doesn't have the manpower to investigate a majority of those cases.

    "We don't have those types of resources," said Capt. Chris Ricks, the Missouri Highway Patrol's spokesman.
One would assume that it's because most of those deaths were not, you know, on highways.

Why is this a story?
    The acknowledgment came a week after a Post-Dispatch investigation found failures in every level of a system that is supposed to ensure the Department of Mental Health and police adequately investigate allegations of mistreatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill residents.
Because the Post-Dispatch wants to keep up a crusade and maybe get a journalism prize or something.

And if it has to further empower state law enforcement, who cares? The story of overreaching government authority, that's a story--and a new outrage for media to discover and cover--for another day.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:34 PM   0 comments
 
Riddle
Why did the dog want 15 tons of asphalt and a steam roller?

He wanted to pave paradise and put up a barking lot!


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:24 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
 
Mail Order Bride Community Up In Arms
Leaders: Broad Immigration Bill Unlikely


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:44 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
 
Carbondale Vandalism Blamed on "Visitors"
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville have reported that over $100,000 vandalism has occurred in the last several years in Carbondale, but are quick to pin the tail on someone other than the students in the area:
    Campus Police Chief Todd Sigler says vandalism and other cases of damage haven't noticeably spiked over the past several years. And he says he believes that not all damage to property is criminal or caused by students, suggesting that visitors may be responsible for some of the problem.
Those "visitors" have, no doubt, been known to be aggressive and elusive -- capable of moving up to 35 mph -- with anyone who gets too close.

No dollar figure was cited related to the damage caused by police firing willy-nilly on flightless "visitors" to the campus.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:11 PM   0 comments
 
Inauthentic Without Homeless People
From this recent column by Sylvester Brown, Jr., for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, we get the following stunning insight:
    His comment reminded me of a call I received from Erin Earley, 46, who had attended the recent Rib America Festival downtown.

    "I've been going for eight years and have really enjoyed it. But this year, it took a real turn," Earley, who described herself as Irish, told me.

    "There were few people of color, no blues or R&B acts, just bad rock 'n' roll bands. They also charged a $3 cover for some unknown reason. I wondered if a white people's 'Da Vinci Code' had been put in place," Earley said, suggesting that event planners had sent subtle messages to keep the homeless and people of color away.
A priori assumptions:
  • Rib America is somehow less authentic without homeless people.

  • The same signals work on homeless people as on people of color.
Well, if that statement, with its set of a priori assumptions, doesn't express what's wrong with race relations today, I don't know what does.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:22 PM   0 comments
Monday, June 19, 2006
 
Lord Stanley's Cup Travels to Southeast For Summer, Again
Egads, for a second time in a row, the National Hockey League Stanley Cup is awarded to a team in the Southeastern United States (Tampa Bay then, North Carolina now) over a Canadian team (Calgary then, Edmonton now). It's an affront to the sport that places that don't care about it triumph over teams in places where kids actually play pick-up games of it.

Rankles me almost to the point that I'd run away and join the hockey, which is the nearest thing Canada has to a military these days. But like other chickenwingers, I'm just going to complain about it and not do anything. Because I cannot skate backwards.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:02 PM   0 comments
 
Emu Update: The Carbondale Police Have Reloaded
A new nugget of fact in this story about the Carbondale Emu:
    Police are searching for the bird's owner.
He or she had better not act aggessive or elusive--running up to 35 mph (in short bursts, as Grygrx pointed out)--otherwise it's skybusting time on the ground.

Fortunately, though, the ultimate pet is the ultimate protector:

Bulletproof Emu


Well, honestly, he wasn't exactly bulletproof. Just really, really hard to bring down.

(More on the Carbondale Emu here and here.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:42 PM   1 comments
Sunday, June 18, 2006
 
Book Report: Vespers by Ed McBain (1990)
As you know, I have glutted myself on cheap book club editions of Ed McBain books at book fairs throughout the St. Louis area this spring. I bought this one for a dollar at the Greater St. Louis Book Fair, much like the others I've read recently Poison and Ice. As the 1990 entry, this book takes place two novels after Poison.

The main plot deals with the murder of a priest in a small, rundown church in a small, rundown neighborhood. Carella and Hawes have their hands full trying to decipher from among the myriad stories and possibilities. Was it a drug dealer who had hidden drugs in the church? Was it the neighborhood toughs? Was it the local Satanist church, or perhaps someone who was carnally involved with the priest?

Main subplot deals with Marilyn Hollis, introduced in Poison, who has to deal with her dark past as two men associated with her Argentinian pimp who've come back for money, for vengeance, for subplot reasons.

This book comes from the time where I started contemporaneously reading McBain; once I started reading his work, I started with some of the older books, of which there were plenty; after this point, I started reading them as they came out. I don't recollect reading this one, but I remember how immediate the characters were and how they aged and evolved in realish time for me after this.

Of course it's a good book, and I'd recommend it for some light suspense/mystery/police procedural reading. But you, gentle reader, know if the blog post title says "by Ed McBain" or "by John D. MacDonald," you're in for some sloppy kissing on my part. Consider this installment done, but for the gratuitous links to Amazon by which if you should click through and buy one of the titles, I can make pennies!

Books mentioned in this review:

   

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:02 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Existentialism and Human Emotions by Jean-Paul Sartre (1957)
I first read this book as an impressionable freshman in college, in one of those "I could be in Biology class, or I could be in the vast college library" moments. So when I saw a paperback copy at a book fair and had already paid for the bag, of course I picked it up again. Because let's face it, like many Existential works, it's thin and it's deep.

I can see now (because I paid a little more attention to the copyright page and I've picked up a little more insight into Existentialism in the intervening 16 years) that this book is not a standalone work nor a mere collection of essays, but a union of a basic defense of Existentialism and freedom from Existentialism and a couple of shorter topical sections from Being and Nothingness.

Frankly, I find it odd that the thing is entitled Existentialism and Human Emotions, as I'm not really sure where the emotions come in. True, the first portion deals with the essential emotional descriptions of Existentialism as anguish, forlorness, and despair, and how these starting points for Existentialism don't necessarily mean that Existentialism leads to a bleak person even if the starting point is bleak.

I can see how this book hooked me into Existentialism as I completed my first passes through the Ayn Rand canon. The definition of freedom and the concept of man continually inventing himself within the context of his available choices appealed to me. I think Sartre gets a little screwy when he starts saying that when you choose your action, you choose for all of mankind, and that the subjective experience really triumphs over objective reality. I agree with Ayn Rand that there's a subjective consciousness perceiving an objective reality, and hence that some things do exceed outside of the subjective, and some of those things can include ethics and whatnot.

I didn't care much for the second part from the book, which comes from Being and Nothingness. I've tried once or twice to read Sartre's master work, but I think it's a bit self-consciously and maybe even purposefully dense. It's hard for me to get into the prose, much less to keep the relationship between the prose and relationships straight. Much of the excerpted that appears in this book deals with psychoanalysis, so I didn't get too much into it, but I could tell that the difference between psychoanalysis and Existentialist psychoanalysis is the Existentialist rejection of the unknowable unconsciousness.

So there you have it; this gateway to Existentialism is half good and half Being and Nothingness, but worth a little time if you're looking for something short 'n' deep to read.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:47 PM   0 comments
 
Finally, A Forum For Me
The Fedora Lounge.

Finally, a reason for the Internet.

(Link seen on the sidebar of The Confidentials, a Milwaukee blog I got two of my first fedoras at Donge's on 3rd Street, werd.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:19 AM   0 comments
Saturday, June 17, 2006
 
A Carbondale Police Department Nightmare
The Emunator

He'll be back!

(I just cannot let this go.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:49 PM   0 comments
 
After Two Year Study, Government Consultants Come to Shocking Conclusion: New Fee
Hey, I could easily save the county government some time and money for any topic that it commissions committees or outside firms to study by cutting right to the answer: higher fees or taxes:
    After studying the issue for more than two years, St. Louis County is finally ready to talk trash.

    St. Louis County Health Department officials met this week with the County Council to begin discussing updates to the existing solid waste ordinance. The Health Department wants to increase recycling by requiring trash companies to include such services in their minimum bill.
By raising the trash rates to encourage recycling, the County hopes to.....what? Educate people? I guess they reason that, since they're compelling residents to pay, unvisibly, monthly, that residents will change their daily behavior.

Let me help the county skip the next two year study, and get right to where they're going to go anyway: criminal penalties and fines for throwing glass into the garbage can.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:07 PM   0 comments
Friday, June 16, 2006
 
Those Who Don't Know Slang Don't Know What They're Saying
Michelle Malkin: HELP THE SWEATER KITTENZ

The only way that could be a better headline would be if it was FREE THE SWEATER KITTENZ


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:14 PM   0 comments
Thursday, June 15, 2006
 
Officers Feared For Their Lives!
Errant emu shot, killed by police in southern Illinois:
    Police in this university town say they hadn't dealt with an emu on the loose before. So when the big bird was found running rampant, officers pulled out the big firepower.

    Cornered in a residential area Wednesday, the flightless cousin of the ostrich took five blasts from an officer's shotgun before being finished off by three more rounds from a police rifle.

    Police say they had no other recourse in dealing with a species known to be aggressive and elusive -- they're capable of moving up to 35 mph -- with anyone who gets too close.
That might sound like a bit much, but when an emu comes to town in body armor, you know he's only looking for trouble. He ain't comin' to drink, he ain't comin' to whore, he's come to break an ostrich out of jail or something equally non-neighborly.

Uparmored Emu

Perhaps he backed up a little too quickly, and the police panicked to the tune of five shotgun shells and three rounds from a rifle, but let's remember that these birds can weigh up to 130 pounds before the body armor and twenty-five pounds of M249 and ammo it likes to carry into college towns.

But today's necessary harvesting of the excess southern Illinois emu population begs a couple of questions, particularly in light of the dedicated expenditure of ordnance used to bring the beast down:
  • Shouldn't Carbondale have a SWAT team to handle emergency emu situations with automatic weapons?

  • The newspaper story says that there was a shotgun and a rifle, but what if there were two rifles? Who was the second sniper?

  • What did the emu know that the government had to kill him to keep him from squawking?

  • Five shotgun blasts and three rounds from a rifle? The police didn't just leave the emu lying there while they turned around and radioed it in, because when they turned back, the undead emu would be gone, leaving room for the sequel.

Sure, you might be amused, but me, I am going to have emu nightmares tonight.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:40 PM   1 comments
 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Foe of Industry
The St. Louis daily paper chortles over the city of St. Louis driving out one company, but it's not yet satisfied:
    If you are breathing a sigh of relief because Praxair is moving from a site adjacent to Lafayette Square to an industrial area of Cahokia, think again.

    At least two companies remain in St. Louis that repackage and distribute the same kinds of flammable gases, such as acetylene and propylene, that Praxair did at its site on Chouteau Avenue, and both are dangerously close to homes, highways and pedestrians.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch WILL NOT REST until everyone in the city of St. Louis is safely employed flipping burgers and dishing out fries....until it discovers the perils of hot grease.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:35 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
 
City of St. Louis Now Safe From Fire
Now that the city of St. Louis has driven Praxair out of the state for its intolerable crime of having accidentally caught fire while in the city limits, the city and its residents can now rest easier that they will not be in danger of the hell of burning.

Or not:
    St. Louis fire and police officials were investigating two suspicious blazes this morning that heavily damaged unfinished construction projects in the Lafayette Square neighborhood, south of downtown.
No doubt the revered leaders of the neighborhoods and of the city will now rise up to drive construction and residences out of town to prevent them, too, from catching fire. And how the city shall then rejoice when its employment base and its tax-draining resident base live elsewhere, and there's no chance of fire.

Or at least of fire that will be shown live on the cable news.


- posted by Brian J. @ 5:27 PM   0 comments
 
Allegedly, He Also Liked Dogs
You know what I find stunning about this article, entitled "Shrine to Hitler unnerves community"? Not that some nutty 87-year-old farmer who claims to have been SS has made a shrine in the first place. No, it's this excessive display of journalistic objectivity:
    It's a beautiful location for a memorial to a man who most believe started World War II, in which 50 million people died, including more than 6 million Jewish people in the Holocaust - that's all part of what Junker disputes as bunk. [Emphasis added]
So the softening of our collective memory continues; most believe that Hitler started World War II, but since it's not unanimous, we have to temper our assertion. After all, it could have been Churchill, or Roosevelt, or Karl Rovinski who tricked the Germans into invading Poland, or the aliens who would later crash at Roswell.

Maybe our current leaders are like Hitler, because he apparently wasn't so bad after all.


- posted by Brian J. @ 5:03 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
 
One Wonders
Am I, as Jean-Paul Sartre suggested, metamorphising my own For-itself into an In-itself-For-itself, or am I merely suffering from a bit of indigestion?


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:07 PM   1 comments
Sunday, June 11, 2006
 
Book Report: You Might Be A Redneck If.... by Jeff Foxworthy (1989, 1995)
I bought this book for like a quarter this weekend at a garage sale. Did I overpay? Probably. Although, I have to say, Jeff Foxworthy is pretty funny performing, although his country countdown radio program isn't so exciting. I've got one of his comedy CDs and everything.

However, this book merely collects Foxworthy's most famous one liners. That's it. Just the one liners without Foxworthy's expert comic timing or delivery. Some are amusing on their own, but in the aggregate, they're not as funny collected in a book as, say, The Late Night With David Letterman's Book of Top Ten Lists. The humor in these stands alone, aside from the performance.

Of course, you have my opinion here versus the opinion of buyers everywhere who kept this book in print for fifteen years. It's a quick read though, worthy of a browse, I suppose, as you're waiting for a hockey game to start, much like I did. Also, it's good for boosting one's annual books read rate.

So it's probably a waste of time, but in the book's defense, it doesn't claim to be anything else and it's not much time anyway.

Books mentioned in this review:

 

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:37 PM   1 comments
 
Book Report: Ice by Ed McBain (1983)
This 87th Precinct novel runs a weighty 317 pages and delves into character depth that many of the novels don't. As a matter of fact, one of the great appeals of this particular series, over its 40 some years, is that the books vary not only in plot, but also stylistically. Some are quick epidodes at 150 pages with lots of reproduced police forms to pad them, and some, like this one, are denser prose.

The story details the murder of an actress in a hit play downtown. The 87th Precinct inherits the case as a small time drug pusher in their precinct died from the same lead poisoning days before. As they try to find a connection between the coke dealer and the actress, they have to deal with their own issues, particularly Kling's failed marriage to model Augusta Blair.

I suppose it helps read these books in order....for example, the book I read previously, Poison, takes place after this books, so the personal relationships are advanced beyond where they are in this book. I already know how the romances and whatnot will turn out, but the books don't hinge on the personal relationships alone. Instead, the plots and the basic familarity with the characters and the rotation of the characters and....blah blah blah.

You know I like 'em, and I'm going to keep reading them and picking them up whenever I can for a buck a crack at book fairs. I got this one, among others, at the Greater St. Louis Book Fair. So be warned, this won't be the last book report of an Ed McBain book you ignore in the coming months.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:47 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: California Roll by Roger L. Simon (1985, 2001)
As some of you know, I bought four of Roger L. Simon's Moses Wine novels The Big Fix, Peking Duck, The Lost Coast, and this book) for $5 a throw at a remaindered book store in November, 2004. Oh, how the world has changed since then. Roger L. Simon is now an Internet mogul. Byron Preiss, the man behind the company that reissued the novels, has died and the iBooks has gone belly up. And I'm in no danger of becoming a Moses Wine fan.

This book deals with Moses Wine, ca. 1985, joining a computer company patterned after Apple as its director of security. Wine is given cryptic instructions by the Wiz (not Woz, get it?) that Wine's not only to handle security, but to look into...something. It's corporate espionage and it requires a trip to Japan (much like Peking Duck requires a trip to China). We get the obligatory action in Japan, wherein the first person narrator who's never been to Japan and doesn't know much about the country provides some excellent expository information. In the end, of course, it's the government agent gone rogue that's killing everyone. Except for the Russians, who are killing people too. Or someone.

Here are some quick bullet points that capture what bothers me about this book and the series:
  • Moses Wine has been on the cover of Rolling Stone. When a private detective becomes a celebrity, I don't really relate to the character much. See also Robert Crais's Elvis Cole.

  • The voice of the first time visitor to Japan laying on the expository information and Japanese terms rankles me. It's the sound of an author who wants to show he's done his research.

  • Although I didn't work at a computer company in the 1980s, I've done my time in the 1990s and the 2000s. I found the characterization of the culture at Tulip facile.

  • The introductions by the author were a bit much. I guess that's what they wanted with the reissues, but I found it self-indulgent.

  • Moses Wine reminds me less of Lew Archer and more of Dirk Gently, with drug use and nonchalant sex.
There you have it. I made it through the four books I read, and don't plan to seek out the remaining in the series.

Books mentioned in this review:

     

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:43 PM   0 comments
 
Initially, I Agree With Him
Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind says:
    A minor pet peeve of mine is being called only by my first name when I'm mentioned with my weblog....
I agree with Sean. Dammit, you people, I have a middle initial. J. It's right there between The Brian and the Noggle in my name. How can I make my pretentiousness known if I don't enforce proper branding, and how will people tell me apart from the other famous Brian Noggles of the world unless the J. is present?

If you cannot link me right, I insist you not link me at all. Which, I believe, is actually much of the blogosphere's current policy.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:39 PM   0 comments
 
Cost Overruns Unexpected, Again
Capital projects might cost more than expected:
    The county's capital improvement projects, including the building of a new juvenile detention center and administration building, may cost more than county officials anticipated.

    Although county commissioners hoped to complete the projects for less than $8 million, that objective looks grim. Executives at the Paric Corporation, the firm hired to manage construction, anticipate the cost of projects may exceed $10 million.
Isn't it funny how the only people who tend to be caught off-guard by these unexpected cost overruns are the government officials in charge of authorizing the initial outlays? I mean, we taxpayers come to expect it and the companies who end up receiving the extra money no doubt count on it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:36 AM   0 comments
 
Week of Odd Beatings Continues
Neighbor Of Slain Qaeda Leader Alleges U.S. Troops Beat Man With Beard

First a chihuhahua and now a beard. We're sending a message to the world that Americans will beat you with anything they have at hand.

(Link seen on Protein Wisdom.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:11 AM   0 comments
Saturday, June 10, 2006
 
Feline Conspiracy Continues Apace
Tristan, the Emperor


Emperor Tristan I reports his plan for feline domination is continuing as scheduled:
  • Despite jingoistic propoganda to the contrary, cat scientists have beaten dogs to the secret of hypoallergenic pets:

      Cats produce a protein, FEL D1, that is an exquisite allergen for some sensitive individuals, meaning contact with a kitty results in streaming eyes, sneezing and general unhappiness on the human side of the relationship.

      In an effort to bring cats to the cat-challenged, Allerca, a San Diego-based biotech planned to harness gene silencing techniques to develop a breed of cat that did not express FEL D1, thus creating a hypoallergenic cat. Allerca announced their plans three years ago,       [sic] and started collecting deposits from allergic cat fans, but have now decided that their plans to use RNA interference were taking a back seat to a more traditional breeding approach, albeit one that uses genetic testing to select individuals that express low levels of FEL D1.


  • Cats are working at the highest levels of the entertainment industry to infiltrate reality television:

      The fur really could fly on TV's latest reality entry: It stars cats. Ten felines, picked from animal shelters nationwide, will live in a New York house to vie - a la "Big Brother" or "Survivor" - for a grand prize, in this instance an executive-level job with Meow Mix cat food.


All hail the wisdom of our feline overlords and get them bowls of Fancy Feast now!


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:09 AM   1 comments
Thursday, June 08, 2006
 
102nd Use For A Dead Chihuahua
Cudgel:
    A woman is accused of repeatedly hitting a dog breeder on the head with a dead Chihuahua puppy because she was upset it had died.
Good news for the victim, though:
    The breeder did not seek medical attention, police said...
Because it's always damn embarrassing to end up in traction from a crazed chihuahua attack...
    but she and two other people in the home got temporary orders of protection against the dog owner.
Because you never know when the nutbar will come back with a dead Saint Bernard and do the job right.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:33 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
 
Sounds Like The Rest Of Us
Gamers with Jobs, a blog by people who play video games and apparently have real jobs.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:00 PM   0 comments
 
A Fiendish Consistency Is Another Hobgoblin of Little Minds
The St. Louis teachers' union hasn't met a compulsion it didn't like, and apparently doesn't know what "fair" means:
    St. Louis teachers have clashed with Superintendent Creg Williams lately over teacher absenteeism, payroll system glitches and the requirement that 1,000 teachers must reapply for their jobs. The teachers even passed a no-confidence vote on Sunday.

    But now, the union representing teachers will sit down with Williams - possibly within a week - to solicit his support for a measure that would require district employees who have declined to join the union to pay union dues.

    If adopted by the St. Louis School Board, the "fair share proposal" introduced at a Tuesday night work session would require teachers, clerical workers, safety officers and teacher assistants who are not members of Local 420 to pay union dues.
The teachers' union plays its role in squandering compulsively-collected taxpayer money. Why shouldn't it feel it has the right to demand the right to squander compelled contributions from non-members, too?


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:36 PM   0 comments
 
Humor, Unintentional
Bear struck and killed by car near Jackson:
    A black bear -- rarely seen in southeast Missouri's Cape Girardeau County -- was apparently roaming around when he crossed in front of a car and was struck and killed, authorities said.
Perhaps if more of them were seen, fewer would be hit by cars.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:01 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
 
Coincidentally, Robin Carnahan Has Not Struck It From The Ballot
In a strange twist of fate: Missouri Democratic Party endorses stem cell measure.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan has broken ranks with her party and has not thrown the measure off of the Missouri ballot.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:46 PM   0 comments
Monday, June 05, 2006
 
Book Report: Escape from Reason by Francis A. Schaeffer (1968)
Executive Summary: Thomas Aquinas is teh suck!!!1!!!

I don't remember where I got this book; it's either a book fair bag filler or something that was in the free bin at Hooked on Books. However, since I was on a short, smart book kick, I picked it up.

This cover calls the book a penetrating analysis of trends in modern thought. The introduction goes further: as it's an evangelical book, its goal is to frame traditional, even fundamental Christian thought with modern philosophical schools of thought. As such, it studies the dual nature of man (nature and grace) and how this fundamental dual nature has been corrupted through various schools of philosophical thought. When Thomas Aquinas intimated that only man's will suffered from The Fall but that the intellect was capable of arriving independently at grace through its observations of nature and so on, he set into motion the eventual slippery slope where the autonomous lower half of man will overrun the higher half.

Ergo, throughout philosophical history, Kant and Rousseau saying that Freedom is the higher order of man and Nature is the lower, but the mechanistic view of human nature eventually logically trumps freedom, or the Christian Existentialist view (courtesy of Kierkegaard) that divides man's duality into reason and faith (where the leap of faith is rationally inexplicable), or the regular Existentialist view where an act of will is the highest order.

I don't remember most of the primary texts that the author refers to, so I can only say that the book poses a relatively sound exploration of the theme. I'm not sure, though, whether I'd characterize the Existentialists as embracing the dual nature of man. The author refers specifically to Sartre's Nausea and how the Existentialists triumphs over the absurd and achieves the higher portion of himself through an act of will, of seeking authenticity. I remember just enough of my Sartre to suspect that this is a convenient reading of true Existentialism, which is monoist in nature.

So although the book does take a couple things a priori, such as the basic framework of its evangelical Christian roots with the cmbination of Jesus and The Scriptures as a framework for all thought, science, and art, it provided a handy (and short) mechanism for me to resharpen my old philosophical edges.

It looks as though this book and others by this author remain fairly popular--hence their higher prices at Amazon. Perhaps I lucked out in getting this first American printing so cheaply. I better bronze it.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:20 PM   0 comments
 
Headline Written By Another Satisfied Customer, No Doubt
St. Louis teachers [sic] union issues vote of no confidence:
    The union representing St. Louis Public Schools teachers on Sunday issued a vote of no confidence in the district administration.

    About 600 union members voted unanimously, said Mary Armstrong, Local 420 president. The vote took place at an emergency meeting called to address several issues that arose at the end of the school year, primarily the notification of more than 1,000 teachers that they will have to reapply for their jobs under a federal- and state-mandated reorganization plan.
Too bad this isn't a parliamentary system, and the school board cannot fall, leaving the teachers to build a broad coalition and vote themselves into luxury at the public expense.

Oh, but no, they've got their futile votes and informational pickets, and I can only actually hope that they're futile and that the overpaid administrators will inadvertently do what's right for the students in the midst of voting themselves into luxury at the public expense.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:20 PM   0 comments
Saturday, June 03, 2006
 
Maybe Newborns Just Shouldn't Be Welding
Odd warning of the day:

Not fire resistant


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:10 PM   0 comments
 
Catching Up On Book Reports and Tabulating
As you'll note in the posts below, I've had a couple of books on my desk for review for a bit. Before you get into skipping those book reports, allow me to taunt you with a bit of "nyah nyah" as I enumerate the books I've read in this NGY (Noggle Goal Year, which runs December 27, 2005, through December 27, 2006):
  • The Empty Trap John D. MacDonald
  • The Executioners John D. MacDonald
  • Mine the Harvest Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • Johnny Mnemonic Terry Bisson
  • The Museum of Hoaxes Alex Boese
  • Suspects William J. Cannitz
  • Wild Pitch Mike Lupica
  • The Olympics' Most Wanted Floyd Conner
  • Peking Duck Roger L. Simon
  • 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America Bernard Goldberg
  • The American Private Eye: The Image in Fiction David Geherin
  • Sea Change Robert B. Parker
  • Pet Sematary Stephen King
  • Collected Stories Franz Kafka
  • Under the Grammar Hammer Douglas Cazort
  • The Wealthy Writer Michael Meanwell
  • Planning and Remodeling Family Rooms, Dens & Studios Sunset Books
  • The Brass Cupcake John D. MacDonald
  • The Substance of Style Virginia Postrel
  • Blood Relatives Ed McBain
  • The Hanged Man's Song John Sandford
  • Servant of the Shard R.A. Salvatore
  • Gerald's Game Stephen King
  • How to Break Software James A. Whittaker
  • Slightly Chipped Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone
  • Warmly Inscribed Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone
  • The Case Against Hillary Clinton Peggy Noonan
  • The Stainless Steel Rat for President Harry Harrison
  • Bosstrology Adele Lang and Andrew Masterson
  • Bump & Run Mike Lupica
  • Blowback Bill Pronzini
  • Everybody's Guide to Book Collecting Charlie Lovett
  • His Affair Jo Fleming
  • Sharky's Machine William Diehl
  • The Baby in the Icebox James M. Cain
  • Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction Tom Raabe
  • Aftermath LeVar Burton
  • Expecting Gordon Churchwell
  • Poison Ed McBain
  • The Life of Charlemagne Einhard
I won't bother you with a set of links, gentle reader, nor a tile of Amazon come ons. However, do note that unless you're keeping pace for 100+ books this year, I am better than you, nyah nyah.

Thank you, that is all.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:21 AM   1 comments
 
Book Report: The Life of Charlemagne by Einhard (1960, 1972)
This is what happens on the last day of a book fair. It's a couple dollars for a bag, so suddenly, you're not justifying the purchase of a book, you're looking for an excuse. So when I'd put down $3 at the Webster Groves Book Fair this year, I had only to acknowledge that I didn't actually have a biography of Charlemagne. Suddenly, I had one on my to-read shelf.

Fortunately, this is a brief book. At seventy some pages, it took me a little under an hour to read. Written by a contemporary of Charlemagne who was in the court of Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious, this book doesn't interpret the Frank leader in some sort of modernistic mechanism. Einhard didn't come to bury Charlemagne, Einhard came to praise him. The author, a member of the ninth century court, praises Charles the Great for his marital exploits, but also for his love of learning and his role in the Carolingian Renaissance. Although he couldn't write, Charles I liked to read and to hear readings and encourage scholarship throughout his expanding realm.

Although I've read my Cantor a decade ago, it's good to touch base with some medieval history--even if it's French. So if I'm asked whom the line of kings Charlemagne replaced (the Merovignian, like that dude from The Matrix) or who succeeded him (his son Louis, the Pious), I'm set. I'd better hie to a Trivia Night hence.

However, before I go, I'd like to note, briefly, some of the things which struck me as I read this book:
  • Man, the "great" leaders from history ruled a long time, ainna? Charlemagne ruled for 45 years in a time where that exceeded the life expectancy by a factor of 2. He was ruling his original subjects' grandchildren. Think of Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower as our president.

  • Charlemagne carried on a war, hot and cold, against the Saxons for 33 years. Obviously, he didn't have a mainstream media complaining the whole way.

  • Man, these old-style books are short. I mean, this weighs in at under 75 pages, The Prince weighs in at under 100.... The unfortunate rising tide of science and the standard of living has propelled modern books into the 300-400 page range and beyond, which slows down a "scholar" like me who reads any old thing I can stuff in a bag at a book fair.

  • Sometimes, footnotes are less than worthless. In the edition I have, I started following the endnotes (which meant I was flipping back and forth, not only looking down), but many of the notes were only the names of other Frank rulers I should know if I were using this as a primary source in a college class or a reference to another freaking end note (see 93). I mean, unless you're going to shed some light outside the translator's/editor's particular section of a college class, why bother?
Hey, all silliness aside, I'd recommend this book if you can grab it cheaply. If you click the link below, you'll find a number of options, including the latest version available as a college textbook. This was the sort of textbook I loved in school: something I could borrow from the library and Xerox cheaply. Still, gentle reader, please take a moment to look for this book or similar material for low prices on eBay, Amazon, or your local book fair or garage sale. They give one such perspective into human history and the modern day.
Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:12 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Poison by Ed McBain (1987)
I got this copy of Poison from the Greater St. Louis Book Fair for $1.00. I know I've read it before because my Aunt Dale owned a copy of it; I remember the hot blonde on the cover. For all I know, I own that copy, too, since Aunt Dale is the aunt who passed away a year and a half ago and bequeathed me many of her books. This one, though, still has the price sticker on it and was on the floor in my stacks instead of in boxes or on my completed reading shelves. Well, there, you have my history with the copy I read most recently.

This book represents a mid-career Ed McBain 87th precinct novel, where the 1960s era is early and the 2000-esque books are late. As I've mentioned, McBain wrote a long series of books which hold up very well. The back cover offers a quote comparing McBain to Georges Simenon. Peh. He's a modern Erle Stanley Gardner, and beyond; the books hold up beyond the time in which the author wrote them.

This installment deals with a murder by nicotine poisoning that Carella and Willis catch. Willis starts falling for the lover of the victim. She's hot, blonde (hence the cover), and emancipated in that 1980s, I sleep with a lot of men way. When her other lovers start dying, the detectives of the 87th Precinct--well, except for Willis--start suspecting she's the killer.

McBain was a master. I lament the knowledge that there won't be any more of the 87th Precinct novels, but I know I can reread the ones I've read previously again as I acquire them or as the mood strikes me.
Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:45 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Expecting by Gordon Churchwell (2000)
For some reason, my mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas. So I read it, disinterestedly, as you might expect. Who am I kidding? I was hoping for a deeper understanding of what I was supposed to be going through than my friends intoning that I was going to lose some sleep circa the end of this very month. This book provided me some of that.

At turns, this book: touched my own anxiety and fear (singular, gentle reader; I have but one of each); made me cringe at the differeces between a pregnancy experienced by a native New Yorker and, well, anyone in the rest of the country; made me snigger at the Roberyt Blyian concept of manhood and its attendant rituals; and made me skim the scientificism of some of the speculated parent-child-father hormonal responses.

Also, the book made me assure Heather, unnecessarily (I hope), that just because I was not puking in the mornings or cooing at other people's babies in the supermarket, I would be a good enough father to not warrant divorce or murdering while I slept but she fed the baby. The book spends a lot of time talking about couvade, which is either ritualistic or physiological symptoms that the husband has which the author indicates is a subconcious, hormonal way of signalling he's going to be a good father to the wife. Meanwhile, I'm working for a living, leaving my beautiful wife to gestate on her own.

The writing style is hip. By "hip," I mean it's readable and contemporary, but uses the word "shit" far too much for non-fiction. Also, the author is intelligent and makes a number of classical allusions that made me feel smart for recognizing them, but unfortunately he also alluded to the classic Roddy Piper film They Live as Them, which really makes me wonder if all of his other allusions are mistaken, and whether I am a fool for thinking those other allusions were right.

An interesting enough read, and worth the price I paid. (Sorry, Ms. Igert, I mean, it's a good book, and thanks!)

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:27 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Aftermath by Levar Burton (1997)
When I saw this book for $.33 in the new secret cheap books back room at Hooked on Books in Springfield, I had to have it. After all, Levar Burton is the former host of Reading Rainbow and star of The Midnight Hour. As I have mentioned before, I think one of my collecting niches is books based on movies, books upon which movies are based, and books by movie and television stars. Hence, I thought this book by a relatively obscure actor would be worth the cold, hard coinage. Plus, I had two other books, no doubt.

This book takes place in the coming decades, after the following has occurred:
  1. The United States spends too much on a space station, foreign aid, and small wars so that it's nearly bankrupt.
  2. A black man is elected president and is subsequently assassinated by those damn white supremecist militias.
  3. The New Madrid fault goes.
  4. Climate change stresses the world. Not just makes uncomfortable, but drives down agricultural yields and so on.
  5. A 3 year race war occurs, representing a second coming of the Civil War. Fought on American soil, it pits whites against everyone else in set piece sorts of battles leading to bombings of corn fields. Oddly enough, though, the rest of the world doesn't intervene, and at the end, no one is bowing to Mecca or speaking Mandarin.
Remember, this book bears a 1997 publication date, so it was probably written ca 1996. Bill Clinton is running for re-election. It's one year since the Oklahoma City bombing and three years after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Perhaps in this era, the books concerns were plausible; however, to me they seem very dated given the way the world has turned. On the other hand, just last week, I had a Jewish friend express rather earnest concern that George W. Bush was going to outlaw Judaism and round up the Jews. Perhaps some people see a racial/creedist civil war still possible in our cards rather than the red state/blue state divide which I think separates us more.

But I digress; this book has a plot. A scientist comes up with an electromagnetic brain stimulator which not only affords healing properties for the human body, but also can sometimes produce, as a side effect, telepathic and precognitive ability. Which comes in handy when some corrupt members of what passes for the post-apocalyptic medical establishment kidnap her for her secret.

The scientist reaches out and touches an Indian medicine man, a now-homeless former meterologist, and a now-homeless young woman to come to her aid. The bulk of the book comprises their individual stories and their eventual coming together for her rescue. And then, suddenly, in the last moments of the book, they resolve the situation with a climactic Hollywoodesque ending. Something out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, almost.

Still, it's a fairly compelling book. The shifting points-of-view among the major characters and interactive, not overly expository histories make the first portion of the book easy to read and drive toward a conclusion. Unfortunately, again (like in Sharky's Machine) I can almost sense when a movie option is signed or an author is ready to be done with the book, so the sudden career into a slam-bang finish occurs.

So it's a good enough genre piece, even if it's somewhat dated. It reminds me of the 1960s-era topical science fiction I read, so it will live on in that vein at least. If Mr. Burton wrote this himself, he's not a bad writer, but then again, I would expect nothing less from the well-read public television evangelist of childhood reading and bona-fide star of television and screen.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:09 AM   0 comments
Friday, June 02, 2006
 
If Only He Had Been A Year Earlier
It's been covered widely, but apparently some muckety-muck real journalist for the Washington Post said, to a graduating journalism class:
    . Good jobs in journalism have become scarce as newspapers shrink and die, broadcast media fragment to smaller niche audiences and the public appears more and more willing to receive its "news" online from nincompoops ranting in their underpants.
Oh, if only he would have quipped thus a year earlier! We would have had Underpants Media!

(Other reactions from actual Pajamas Mediatricians Michelle Malkin and Ace.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:59 PM   0 comments
 
Now That's a Phrightening Phish
In the inbox:
    U.S Consulate General
    387 Wichayanond Road
    Chiang Mai 50300,Thailand

    Dear client,

    Congratulations,you have been selected as one of the lucky winners of the US VISA through our internet email extracting and screening machine,your application was applied and processed by our internet email extracting and screening machine which randomly extracts and scans millions of email adresses across the world.

    This Special visa programme is new and was innovated by the US embassy in Kuala lumpur Malaysia last year november.The US Consulate in Chiang Mai launched the programme this year november,the programme is designed to be held every year ending.The aim and objectives of the programme is to give free visas to citizens of developing countries around the world to enable them travel to the US and start a new life and work.The Chiang Mai consulate released 12 visas in this regards and hopes to increase the visa number to 24 by late next year,you are among the 12 lucky people that won the visa and among the 5 foreigners that won the visa,7 visas were won by Thai nationals.

    Your visa winner's identity is:MM-52047 and your serial net visa passport with us is:JM-102648,your visa type permits you to travel with your family.Your visa duration is 10 years multiple entry to the U.S,it is renewable upon expiration and it permits you to work,study and own properties in the US.

    In this respect you are directed to forward the following requirements for the immediate processing of your visa certificate and acknowledgement card:

    1.Write in full your office and residential adress.

    2.Scanned copies of your recent passport photograph,members of your family passport photograph should be included if you have family members that wants to travel with you.

    3.Scanned copies of your/members of your family international passport and i.d card,your family members above the age of 16 requires seperate international passports for travel.

    4.Clearance and acceptance fee:U.S$355(Three hundred and fifty five dollars)only.This fee should be paid through an account of the designated agent and NOT by western union money transfer.

    Providing the above requirements will assure you your visa certificate/acknowledgement card and visa security pin code which we shall scan to your email adress.With the visa certificate/acknowledgement card and pincode we shall send to you,the U.S embassy in your home country or your country of residence will stamp the 10 years multiple entry visa on your/members of your family international passport within 3 working days immediately you present these documents to them because the Chiang mai Cosulate has confirmed your visa,all they will do is to log in to the U.S Immigration network database and key in your visa pincode there they will find your visa winning details.

    Important notice:

    According to the united states code of conduct in the constitution Vol:189/965:Act 220Sl guiding all immigrations,green cards,visas and permit agencies:if non-response after 31 days you receive this message,your winners status shall reveal no interest and we would in response refer your visa certificate/code and acknowledgement card back to the U.S government/immigrations service center.

    We shall be anticipating your reply soon.

    Thanks

    Ray Murphy
    U.S Consulate Chiang Mai

    N.B:DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL,SEND YOUR REPLY TO THE VISA AGENT,Mr Bent Declerk: visaagent12@netscape.net , visaagent13@netscape.net Phone:+66-90590020
Probably just some generic, send us your money type scam. But any time they want passports, I get a little more nervous than normal.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:22 PM   0 comments
 
Ordinary Headway Apparently Takes 20 Years
Diana crash probe makes 'extraordinary' headway: investigator:
    The probe into the Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana is benefiting from a computer-generated reconstruction and is making "extraordinary" headway, the top investigator said in remarks.

    Sir John Stevens told the Daily Express that revolutionary technology has allowed police to construct a virtual reality film of what happened when Diana left her hotel in Paris in August 1997 until the time the car crashed.
Maybe we have higher standards here, but I should think some headway ought to be made in the first, oh, five to seven years after an automobile accident investigation begins.


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:25 PM   0 comments
 
Proposal to Test and Produce Manuals on Immigrants
Good idea!
    Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16.

    Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...."     [Emphasis added.]
So pardon me if I don't immediately begin my natural libertarian hyperventilation based on this non-story. You've got the evangelist for a company saying that its product is the solution for whatever problem you have. That's what evangelists do, often preposterously.

I, on the other hand, as head of Jeracor, LLC., think what we really need to do, with copious buckets of federal money with little accountability attached, is Rapid Interface Testing and Documentation on immigrants.

Don't know what it means? Well, first we'll need a federal grant to explore that.

Thank you. And don't forget me, Senators Bond and Talent. I'm in your state!


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:16 PM   0 comments
Thursday, June 01, 2006
 
Other Children's Book Recommendations
Since Instapundit sees fit to make children's book recommendations, we here at MfBJN offer the following:

Harry Reid's Babysitting Service  Harry Reid's Journey  Harry Reid, Inc. 
Oldies, but, well, oldies.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:22 PM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."