After much haranguing on the part of myself and others, frequent commenter here (and good friend) Boulder Dude has his own blog — which I am pleased to be hosting and doing the MT admin for. Go over and give BD some eyeball love.

I just hope this won’t reduce his commentary here.

Filed under :: Blogging
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Bad News: The first collection is not the full first season, but a partial “best of” compiliation! The horror!

Good News: Well, it’s not really a “best of” pick-and-choose compilation.

Bad News: It’s not the full season either, but 12 of the 13 episodes thereof (the 13th, whichever one that is, being tied up in some sort of legal dispute — even money whether it’s a contract issue with a voice artist or some sort of “satire” that raised some legal hackles).

Still, 92.3% of a season of The Tick is better than nothing. Again, I say, Spoon!

Filed under :: Media - Cartoons
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Work would be keeping me hopping even if I weren’t trying to clear my plate for our upcoming trip. And blogging would thus be light even if I weren’t trying to also pre-post some things to show up on a regular basis whilst I’m gone (for your daily DDtBing satisfaction).

Found a distinct disadvantage to having my little office off the shared meeting space — when I beg off a meeting due to workload, but because I also want to be sure I can get out to lunch on time, it’s difficult to slip past the folks who are meeting outside my door without being, well, obvious about it.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Job Jollies :: Travel - WDW 06
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This is only a test. If this were an actual post, I’d be making some sort of lame joke about now.

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No matter how some folks have critiqued how Walt Disney World has been maintained and operated in the recent Money Not Imagination period … nothing there can possibly measure up to the World Landscape Park or Fantazy Land (a/k/a, “United Rides of Fantazy”).

Best quote:

This area was themed on a derelict shack theme.

At least the World Landscape Park has the excuse of being closed and derelict.

These will make any vacation you have planned look really, really good.

(via BoingBoing)

Filed under :: Travel
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Recently read books.

• 
  Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman: An everyman putz’s good deed elides him from the mundane London Above to the mythic, murky, miserable London Below, where only magic, bravery, and craftiness can foil a heinous plot of cosmic import. An urban fairy tale in a world of angels, assassins, homeless, Beasts, vampires, rats, and the ever-present Underground (and its various metaphorical stations). And it’s a hell of a lot better a tale than that sounds. Based on, and marvelously fleshed out from, the abortive TV series. (Re-read)

  
  

• 
  Stardust, by Neil Gaiman: A promise to retrieve a fallen star for his lady love leads a young man of mysterious heritage into a quest across Faerie. Easy enough, if the same star were not also sought by an evil witch-queen, vying scions for a throne of power, and, well, a number of other charming and chilling characters — and if the star didn’t have intentions of her own. Typically marvelous Gaiman fairy tale magic — and if I had the opportunity to make a cautionary horrible deal with some magical creature to write such things as well as he does, I’d doubtless take it … and Gaiman would write as brilliantly of the result.

  
  

• 
  Gods and Androids, by Andre Norton: Repackaging of two books. In Android at Arms, the princely protagonist awakens in prison with other worthies from a dozen worlds and over decades. Have they all been replaced at home by androids — or are they the actual simulacra? And, ultimately, what does that really mean? In Wraiths of Time, a modern scholar is grabbed across dimensions to where the ancient Nubian matriarchy never fell, but now faces a threat from dark science — a threat only the displaced archaeologist can combat by pretending to be the crown princess and mastering the position’s psychic powers.

  (Both of the books in this collection are noteworthy for having an African background to their societies. Andas’ world and culture was clearly founded by African emigres from Earth, and Tallahassee Mitford’s parallel world is one where the legendary Upper Nile realm of Meroe never fell. It’s a refreshing change from generic European or even Asian backgrounds — and it’s highly ironic that the wretched cover art makes out Andas to be Caucasian, not to mention having the worst picture I could imagine of a Salariki …)

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Real Live Preacher weighs in, wisely, on the whole kerfuffle.

First, when will religious groups finally figure out that publicly denouncing a book or a movie is the surest way to guarantee its success? Religious people never seem to understand that the world is filled with people who do the exact opposite of whatever they suggest. Hell, I’m one of those people myself. If I hear that church people hate a movie, I’m in line for tickets on opening day. Has the Church forgotten Salman Rushdie? Would any of us know that name if he hadn’t been condemned by the Muslims? Has the Church forgotten Martin Scorcese’s movie, “The Last Temptation of Christ?” In that case, the Church in America single-handedly turned a mediocre movie into a blockbuster hit.

Nice move Church. Perhaps you should have added some basic chess lessons to your seminary curriculum.

But whatever. If the Church wants to make a lot of money for Dan Brown and Ron Howard, what do I care? Both the book and the movie will be off the radar in a few months. Nothing will have changed.

To which I’ll add, if someone’s faith is so weak that reading a popular paperback or seeing a movie is going to crush it and send someone careening away from the church, it’s probably not something that could have been saved (so to speak) anyway.

Christianity is a major, world-wide religion. It is 2000 years old and is the largest common expression of spirituality in the history of humanity. Does the Christian Church really need to worry about a book and a movie? These things are here today and gone tomorrow, almost literally. The Christian Church has withstood the Roman Empire, medieval Christianity, and the Age of Enlightenment. Somehow the Church even manages to survive its most dangerous challenge - scandal, decadence, and corruption within its ranks. Will Dan Brown now topple us?

[…] The best and only appropriate response for the Church is to be about the business of the Church. Don’t we have, I don’t know, CHURCH things to be doing? Or even better, human things to be doing? If our love of humanity was as radical as Jesus called it to be, then we would never have to say a word.

In my mind, every time the Church responds to something like this with angry words, it is a bold indictment of our lack of active love, and therefore lack of relevance in this world.

Amen, Reverend.

A lot of church leaders have condemned the movie (and the book), insisting that it expresses disrespect for the church, for God, and for believers. They miss the point that respect is earned, not secured in court. It will exist only if you actually are respectable. What these folks want is not respect, but obedience, obeisance, and homage — which are very different things altogether.

Filed under :: Media - Movies :: Religion :: ZT & PC
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Who needs to send our troops body armor? Just package them in that insanely hard and uncuttable packaging that so much stuff is armored in these days, and they’d be safe from anything the insurgents could throw at them.

The bottom line is the bottom line. Retailers demand the hard-to-open packaging to avoid “shrinkage,” or shoplifting, a problem that cost U.S. stores more than $10 billion a year or $25 million a day, according to statistics from the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention. They also want the item to be visible to customers and capable of withstanding the rigors of long-distance shipping from manufacturing plants in Asia.

“In a nutshell, it is pretty much all about retail theft,” says Mary Ann Falkman, editor-in-chief of Packaging Digest, a trade publication. “Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and the like who sell these small electronic toys and gadgets demand that they be put in packaging that’s next to impossible to steal from. But they could make it easier to open it when you get it home.”

And for those who think it’s all kind of funny:

But it’s not just a matter of customer frustration. These packages pose real danger. Data on the topic is irregularly collected and vague; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s most recent accounting, in 2001, listed “unintentional cut/pierce” as the fifth most common cause of nonfatal unintentional injury, but that also includes the much more common assortments of knife accidents owing to normal kitchen work.

Anecdotally, though, emergency room doctors say they’re slammed the week after Christmas with such injuries and see them regularly all year. Dr. Christian Arbelaez, a Boston-area ER physician, sees about a case a week, some as serious as tendon and nerve damage that require orthopedic surgeons to repair.

“I would definitely like to tell (manufacturers) that serious hand injuries are occurring because of this packaging,” said Arbelaez, a member of the Trauma Care and Injury Control National Committee of American College of Emergency Physicians. “Especially for people who have jobs that require the use of their hands a lot, this can be detrimental to their careers. There needs to be some kind of change.”

Filed under :: Hi-Tech
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An interesting article on how, increasingly, women are getting contraceptive (or contraceptive-like) treatments to basically stop their menstrual cycles — and doing it for non-clinical reasons.

Using birth-control pills or other contraceptives to block periods is gaining popularity, particularly among young women, doctors say.

“I have a ton of young girls in college who are doing this,” said Dr. Mindy Wiser-Estin, a gynecologist in Little Silver. “There’s no reason you need a period.”

[…] Already, the Seasonale birth-control pill limits periods to four a year. The first continuous-use birth-control pill, Lybrel, likely will soon be on the U.S. market, and drug companies are lining up other ways to limit or eliminate the period.

Sardinha says elimination of her periods has been great for her marriage, preventing monthly crankiness and improving her sex life.

“I would never go back,” said Sardinha, who got the idea from her aunt, a nurse practitioner.

Certainly seeing the discomfort (to sometimes put it mildly), inconvenience, and mood swings associated with periods, I have to applaud something that would free women from that. My main concern would be over long-term effects — doing something so profound to body chemistry over a long haul, without a compelling medical or therapeutic reason, seems like it would be asking for trouble. But, most likely, maybe, possibly, it’s not a problem.

Most doctors say they don’t think suppressing menstruation is riskier than regular long-term birth-control use, and one survey found a majority have prescribed contraception to prevent periods. Women have been using the pill for nearly half a century without significant problems, but some doctors want more research on long-term use.

[…] “If you’re choosing contraception, then there’s not a lot of point to having periods,” said Dr. Leslie Miller, a University of Washington-Seattle researcher and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology whose Web site, www.noperiod.com, explains the option. She points out that women on hormonal contraception don’t have real periods anyway, just withdrawal bleeding during the break from the hormone progestin.

On the other hand …

[Prof. Linda Gordon] says caution is needed because there’s not enough data on long-term consequences of using hormones continuously. Gordon notes that menopausal women for years were told that hormone drugs would keep them young—until research uncovered unexpected risks. “People should proceed very cautiously,” she said.

All that said, for those who think something like this “‘tain’t natural,” an intersting statistic:

[M]odern women endure up to nine times more periods than their great-grandmothers, who began menstruating later, married young and naturally suppressed periods for years while they were pregnant or breast-feeding. Today’s women may have about 450 periods.

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Iranian MPs admit that there was a dress code bill being discussed, but that, unlike as has been reported, it doesn’t single out religious minorities.

Iran’s new dress code bill is aimed at encouraging designers to work on imaginative Islamic clothing, lawmakers said on Sunday, dismissing a report that the bill sought special outfits for religious minorities.

[…] A copy of the bill obtained by Reuters contained no such references. Reuters correspondents who followed the dress code session in parliament as it was broadcast on state radio heard no discussion of proscriptions for religious minorities.

Senior parliamentarian Mohsen Yahyavi described the Canadian report as “completely false”.

“The bill aims to support those designers that produce clothes that are more compatible with Islam, but there will be no ban on the wearing of other designs,” he told Reuters.

[…] The parliamentary bill follows a call from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said two years ago Iranians should design a national costume and not take their lead from Western fashion magazines.

The bill has only been approved as an outline. The details must be agreed then sent to the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog, for approval.

The discredited accusations that the bill would require identifying dress for religious minorities has obscured at least some of the debate about how stringent the new law would be about imposing dress standards on all Iranians.

A draft law aimed at encouraging Islamic dress raised fears Saturday that Iran’s hard-line government plans to re-impose veils and head-to-toe overcoats on women who have shirked the restrictions for years, letting hair show and wearing jeans and shapely outfits.

The looser social rules and dress codes are one of the few legacies left from Iran’s once-strong reform movement.

[…] The bill does not call for police or other bodies to enforce stricter styles of dress for women. Instead, it rallies state agencies to promote Islamic dress and “encourage the public to abstain from choosing clothes that aren’t appropriate to the culture of Iran,” according to the copy received from the parliament’s press office.

It also would give economic incentives, including bank loans, to producers making Islamic-style clothing and impose tariffs on clothes imports. It leaves it to the Culture Ministry and others to define what Islamic dress means.

Canada’s National Post, which ran the story, has retracted it (kinda-sorta). The NP story appears to have been put together by an Iranian emigre opponent of the current regime:

The Post story was drawn from a column in the paper by Amir Taheri, editor of the state-owned Kayhan newspaper under the Shah of Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Mr Taheri claimed the law was “drafted two years ago” and had been revived “under pressure” from President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad.

“The new codes would enable Muslims to easily recognise non-Muslims so that they can avoid shaking hands with them by mistake, and thus becoming najis (unclean),” Mr Taheri wrote.

A contributor to various newspapers including the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a leading Arabic-language newspaper, Mr Taheri is an opponent of talks between the US and Iran.

He wrote in the New York Post last month the US should “go for regime change in Tehran” as the only way to stop Iran’s drive to “dominate the region and use it as the nucleus of an Islamic superpower which would then seek global domination”.

Not that Iranian government attitudes haven’t lent a certain plausibility to the tale. The government there has decided it wasn’t an anti-Tehran Iranian, but, well, the usual suspects:

In Tehran, Hamid-Reza Asefi, the foreign ministry spokesmen, said “a Zionist operation” was “active in different countries, including Canada, to foment psychological war and spread lies” about Iran.

Filed under :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Religion :: ZT & PC
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Because it is frelling hard.

Spent six, maybe seven hours today working out in the yard:

1. Shifting two sprinkler heads in the back yard about 6 feet each so that they water the far back better and the deck not at all.

2. Dig up the old turf that is now under the deck, so that plants can be planted there.

3. Planting of many plants under and out from the deck.

4. Setting up the the drip lines and micro-sprinklers under the deck to get the plants there, but not the uprights.

And, seven hours (and four Advil) later …

1. Success! Sprinklers work and hit (and don’t hit) what they are supposed to.

2. Mostly success. Couldn’t turn over all the turf because of the overhanging deck, but got most of it.

3. Plants planted, aye!

4. Set up all the drip lines, carefully calibrated, fitted, aimed, attached … and …

   Well, hell. That zone’s not working, either.

   So I hand-watered the plants.

A good, solid day’s worth of work. At the very least, I worked off the White Fence Farms fried chicken dinner of last night.

Filed under :: Home Improvement
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UPDATE: Excellent. It did, mostly. (Picture taken at White Fence Farms.)

Yes, the “Lay or Bust!” motto of this particular chicken feed is illustrated (in the latter case) by a chicken exploding with eggs. Literally exploding. Into little bits of chicken, and eggs.

They just don’t make ad illustrations like that any more, folks.

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Had Katherine’s birthday party today at the local Color Me Mine. Notes …

1. We ended up with six kids besides Katherine — 3 boys and 3 girls, 2 from church and 4 from school. Everyone seemed to have a good time. For the record (and just to see where we have repeats next year), we had Evan, Anna, Colin, and Aden from school, Jena and Sarah from church.

2. The parents all were polite about the drop-off (nearly everyone was on time, and those who weren’t had some very good traffic problems as a justification) and were pretty good about the pick-up.

3. We’d scheduled two hours (which is the studio’s recommendation). Note: for the circumstances and plans and age, 1½ hours would have been much better. We were really struggling to keep the kids occupied for the last 45 minutes or so.

4. The kids got to choose from a little (3 inches long or so) butterfly, bee, or inchworm/caterpiller. The girls all chose the first, the boys the last.

5. The kids got briefed on selecting paints, and on painting the bisque. This was where we ran into the most time trouble, because the kids weren’t really into the whole “do it carefully” and “multiple coats” kind of thing. We ended up getting a second item for them to do, a 4x4 tile, with the thought that they could draw something of their own, etc. That worked out in even a shorter time, since they wanted to draw things that were too small for them to easily paint.

6. By the time the kids were done with their art, we’d only used up 1 hour of the 2 hour time slot. This worried me.

7. We did cake and punch at that point. Margie’d picked up a yummy strawberry ice cream cake from Coldstone with various Barbie decorations, and we split it up between the attendees (including a slice to the very nice lady who was running the shop). Okay, that took 10 minutes.

8. Hmmm. Gift opening. We’ll drag this out. One gift from the gift table at a time, presented by the giver. Oohs and aahs abound. Lots of arts and crafts gifts, interestingly, plus a game or two, a book, a fun purse. Good stuff. Another 10-15 minutes, max.

9. We were down to the last activity on the slate, with some 40 minutes to go. And the activity itself was trivial — goody bags. This is de rigeur for parties these days. And even though the kids would be getting their fun ceremics, that would be “eventually” (it’s possible but not likely that they will be fired and ready by the end of school next week. We collected phone numbers.)

   So goody bags it was. I’d voted for stickers. Kitten voted for candy. We compromised and got mostly sticker and a few packages of jelly bellies.

   My original thought had been to simply divvy up the stickers — or maybe, at most, let people draw them from a bag and then trade them if they wanted. It was at this point that I got my one brilliant idea of the day: a white elephant style of drawing. A kid draws a sheet of stickers from the bag. He can keep the sheet, or force a trade with a sheet that someone else has already drawn.

   Overall, this worked well, and chewed up another good 15-20 minutes.

10. So, there we were with another 20-25 minutes to kill. Which, somehow, we managed to, with “Simon Says” and this and that. And the parents came, on time, and took their kids, and all was right with the world.

    Went to dinner with Jackie and Kaylee at White Fence Farms, which was fun, too.

Two observations:

A. 90 minutes, rather than 2 hours, would have been enough.

B. The kids were about a year or two too young for this, as a group. I’d recommend age 7, at least, for this sort of activity.

And one more:

C. As irksome, annoying, worrisome, intrusive, aggravating, etc. as my job sometimes gets, I so made the right career move when I changed back from teaching to IT …

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Goodies from Turner Classic Movies:

1. 
   Double Indemnity (1944): Billy Wilder directs (and Raymond Chandler co-writes), as a creepy Fred MacMurray falls for a nasty Barbara Stanwyck and agrees to help her kill her husband, with their greatest threat coming from MacMurray’s insurance investigation colleague, a clever Edward G. Robinson. One of the defining films of film noir, and, yes, a movie I’d recommend anyone to watch. Except maybe Katherine. (Thanks, Scott!)

2. 
   The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939): Betty Davis is a marvelously lonely, twitchy, lovestruck Elizabeth I, and Errol Flynn is a too-handsome, flightily ambitious Earl of Essex, and the two of them are caught up in an oddly unengaging soap opera of politics, love, anger and ambition. Not one of Davis’s better films, but one of her best performances. Flynn plays Flynn — Davis wanted Olivier, but later came to appreciate his work.

3. 
   Twelve Angry Men (1957): Henry Fonda as the proverbial odd man out in a jury in a capital case quick to rush to decision. It’s a fascinating combination of (now) famous talent a cross-section of everyman society, locked in an overheated room, betrayed by emotions, prejudices, and disinterest in serving up inconvenient justice. Should be required viewing in every civics classroom, even today, fifty years later.

Filed under :: Media - Movies
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From this week’s pull box. A nice collection of entertainment.

1. Robin #150: Well, we find out who’s framing Robin and killing various folks around him. Bleah. Emblematic of what’s wrong with the “1 Year Later” series. (Beechen/Williams)

2. 52, Week 2: Character studies, nice dialog, minor characters (Ralph Dibny, Booster Gold, Renee Montoya), and plenty of post-Crisis mysteries during the time before “1 Year Later.” Solid stuff, not surprising given the talen. (Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid/Giffen, Bennett)

3. Captain America #18: A continued odd but satisfying combo of gloomy realism and comic book sensibilities. (Brubaker/Epting)

4. All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #4: Batman’s a sadistic nut, a newly-found Robin is his victim. Great writing, gorgeous art, and the whole thing just feels wrong. (Miller/Lee)

5. Shadowpact #1: Second-rate mystic villains band together as heroes. Except … damn, Bill Willingham writes and draws. Triffic stuff. (Willingham)

6. Green Arrow #62: GA vs. Deathstroke. It’s a two minute read, but it’s an eminently satisfying one. (Winick/McDaniel)

7. Ms. Marvel #3: Carol continues to demonstrate heroism and feet of clay, facing threats both cosmic and mundane. Big cosmic battles by a hero with feet of clay. Decently amusing and exciting. (Reed/De La Torre)

8. Conan #28: A rough-told, cliched but satisfying tale, a tribute to Robert Howard’s centennial. The last of Busiek’s regular writing duties. (Busiek/Powell)

9. Fallen Angel #5: The best, and most horrible, explanation for the Problem of Evil, I’ve ever heard tell. Oh, and characters come and go, providing a finale, if the sales don’t warrent continuing. I hope for more. (David/Woodward)

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In the recent discussion of Godwin’s Law, the suggestion was made that it’s valid to compare someone to Nazis when you’re actually comparing them to things the Nazis actually did. Sort of like …

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical “standard Islamic garments.”

The law, which must still be approved by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.

Iran’s roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.

Actually, the “wearing standard Islamic garments” sounds a lot like the old Mao days in China. But, yeah, religious badges … I’m sure there are some EU nations that might have some of those in storage somewhere, willing to sell cheap …

(via J-Walk)

Filed under :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Religion :: ZT & PC
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That whacky electorate. They only think they dislike the job that Dubya is doing in the White House. In reality, if only they knew it, they’re just unsettled, disturbed and all a-flutter in wartime. At least that’s what the Presdient said in a Today one-on-one this morning.

GREGORY: Let me ask you about your leadership. In the most recent survey, your disapproval rating is now one point lower than Richard Nixon’s before he resigned the presidency. You are laughing.

BUSH: I’m not laughing –

GREGORY: Why? Why do you think that is?

BUSH: Because we are at war, and war unsettles people. Listen, we got a great economy. We’ve added 5.2 million jobs in the last two and a half years. People are unsettled.

GREGORY: But they’re not just unsettled sir. They disapprove of the job you’re doing.

BUSH: That’s unsettled.

Most leaders, even if convinced of the quality of the job they were doing, or of its necessity, would be asking themselves how better to communicate those issues and reasons and so gather up the support of their constituency that way. That Bush seems willing to simply dismiss it all as people being all rattled by war and a-twitter with fear … is pretty … remarkable.

I’m certainly not arguing for governance through polling — that can be just as disastrous. That’s getting in line behind the people. You want the people to get in line behind you, I’d think. Bush, at his point, doesn’t seem to care where the people are (at least until November).

Filed under :: Politics & Law
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Cut the thermostat over from Heat to Cool. While we had frosty weather last week, we’re beginning to get warm in the day, and stuffy at night.

On a similar note, last weekend we ordered new blinds for the front master bedroom windows — wooden blinds (Eddie Bauer Home, Oak, Honey) from 3 Day Blinds (at the Great Indoors). They should arrive late next week, most likely. Once in, we’ll be able to relatively easily open up the front windows in the evening and still block out most of the light.

The original mini-blinds kind of fell apart a year or so ago, so we interim replaced them with some very cheap vinyl blinds which are, essentially, unopenable and translucent. Grr. Thus the upgrade. ‘Twill be nice.

(Interestingly, just found that Eddie Bauer has actually closed its Home stores, but 3 Day Blinds is one of their licensors.)

Filed under :: Home Improvement :: Weather
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Investigate and display other important news stories here.

(via Les)

Filed under :: Blogging :: Fourth Estate :: Jokes
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10 Things I Hate About Commandments. Oh my freaking Lord, that’s funny. And I say that as someone who loves the “original.”

(via BoingBoing)

Filed under :: Media - Movies
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Cool photo of a San Francisco neighborhood slowly “healing” over an old rail line that used to cut through at a diagonal. In some cases the right of way is nearly untouched. In other cases, it’s built along. In still others, it’s built over. One can easily imagine in another ten or twenty years, someone wondering why they have such an odd lot line in their back yard …

(via kottke)

Filed under :: Potpourri
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The advantage of having the Senate back on track viz immigration reform is that something might actually get done about it. The disadvantage is that it’s an opportunity for everyone and their brother to toss in their own jingoistic amendments, whether out of personal conviction or the chance to earn votes.

So the Senate managed to pass this James Inolfe amendment ot the immigration bill yesterday:

The Government of the United States shall preserve and enhance the role of English as the national language of the United States of America. Unless specifically stated in applicable law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English. If exceptions are made, that does not create a legal entitlement to additional services in that language or any language other than English. If any forms are issued by the Federal Government in a language other than English (or such forms are completed in a language other than English), the English language version of the form is the sole authority for all legal purposes.

I am of mixed feelings here. On the one hand, I do believe that a common language for the land is a worthy goal, and that whatever we can do to encourage that is of value. I’ve been frustrated, at times, at seeing ballot measures being printed in fifty different languages, and at the attitude from some that it’s not just a service being provided, but a right to which a non-English speaker is entitled.

On the other hand, if this were just about being reasonable, I wouldn’t worry that much. Assuming it stays in its current form (I’m sure the House will jump all over this in conference committee and try to hammer out something even stronger), some folks will use this as a round-about way to deny services — sorry, lady, that form’s only in English, figure it out yourself — and to further separate, not unify, communities, to further establish non-English speakers as second-class residents, effectively if not statutorily cut off from government communication and services.

Now, the amendment, as it stands, does allow for translated services and communications (“unless specifically stated in applicable law”), and it doesn’t say that such translation cannot be done, only that someone doesn’t have legal grounding to demand it be done (which may face some court challenges of its own). But it still feels a hell of a lot like a Why don’t those damned furriners speak English? kind of bill.

I also worry a scosh about “preserve and enhance the role of English as the national language of the United States of America. ” That smacks a bit of “the Academy,” and conjures images of some well-meaning bureucrat trying to dictate how the language should be formed. Which never goes well.

Note that, after the Inolfe amendment was voted on, it was further amended (as proposed by Colorado’s Salazar) to change “national language” (which had read “official language” in Inolfe’s original proposal) to “common and unifying language.” Which is a subtle but distinct difference (and would be more welcome if the rest of the amendment weren’t so annoying).

Again, I think folks who come to this country should be encouraged to learn English. And most of them, in fact, strive to do so. This amendment will do little to change that, but it will give folks who don’t like immigrants in the first place a great way to say, “Non-Yankees, Go Home.”

Filed under :: Politics & Law :: Writing and Language :: ZT & PC
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The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America’s coastline this year.

The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of “The 700 Club” that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January. “If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms,” Robertson said May 8.

He added specifics in Wednesday’s show. “There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

There “may well?” “As bad as?” Oh, come on, Pat — surely God gave you dates, magnitudes, and casualty counts, didn’t He? I mean, it’s not like “storms lashing the coasts” takes any great brilliance to predict. God wouldn’t leave you hanging with a shoddy prediction like that, would He? Would He?

Of course, given that we’ve just finished going through the late winter and spring months — why’d you wait since January to tell us about this little revelation, Pat?

Filed under :: Religion
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Interestingly, though, based on this picture (reduced right), there’s no link between the JLU LoSH and the series LoSH. Instead, the line-up has changed some and we have much more Teen Titans-like art.

Which isn’t necessarily bad or good, just sort of curious. Though I’ll miss Supergirl, vs. Superboy.

One can argue over which version of costumes (or team line-up) is more canonically true to the comic until one’s blue in the face — but the comic has gone through so many reboots post-Crisis that you could make them all monkeys dressed up in clown suits and you could probably find a reboot that worked with that.

According to the associated article:

Series producer James Tucker, who was a producer on Justice League Unlimited, explained the look of the show for The Continuum.

“Artistically, the style of the show falls somewhere between Superman: The animated series and Clone Wars,” Tucker told The Continuum. “It’s definitely not anime-based at all.”

Asked about villains on the series, Tucker said, “It’s safe to say that the Fatal Five will be showing up several times, as well as a few other well known Legion foes.”

Looking forward to it.

Filed under :: Comics :: Media - Cartoons
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The Colfax Marathon is running this weekend, practically right past my office’s doorstep.

Not that I had planned on going into the office on Sunday, anyway …

Filed under :: Job Jollies
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The Battlestar Galactica crew, drawn Simpsons-style. Fun.

Filed under :: Media - Cartoons :: Media - TV
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Or, rather, summary of two publisher’s Big Events at Progressive Ruin:

I’ll give Marvel’s Civil War series this: it’s a lot easier to explain to the uninitiated than Infinite Crisis.

“What’s Civil War about?”

“There’s a superhero-related disaster that kills a lot of people, which causes the government to step in and attempt to regulate the heroes, which then divides said heroes into two camps…for regulation and against.”

“What’s Infinite Crisis about?”

“Well, when DC’s multiverse was collapsed down to a single universe as a result of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Superman of Earth-2 and his wife, Lois Lane, the Superboy from Earth-Prime, the son of Lex Luthor from Earth-3 survived, but return to the modern DC universe to….”

“Whoa, hold on, I think my nose is bleeding.”

Too early into Civil War to have much of an opinion (aside from, “great idea, but way too many places for them to cop out”). But I enjoyed Infinite Crisis (in a CoIE sort of way), and have a moderate interest in the collection of that series when it comes out, just for the record.

The “One Year Later” reboot of most of DC’s series, though, has been a mixed bag — too major a disruption, too much of a chance for bad storytelling to unrealistically tweak characters around into new situations that would have been more obviously rigged if it had been done over the course of a real year. I am enjoying 52, though, a weekly “what went on during the year” book focusing (so far) on lesser lights like Ralph Dibny and Booster Gold.

Filed under :: Comics
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… well, evidently, I am. At least, according to the “racism” guidelines of the Seattle public schools.

Cultural Racism: Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other”, different, less than, or render them invisible. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.

I remember having a Crayola crayon that was “flesh” colored. Yes, it was kind of Anglo pink. I can see where some folks might ahve felt left out.

I’m not sure what “having a future time orientation” means. I’m a sci-fi fan — does that count?

I’m a believer in individualism, vs. a “collective ideology.” Apparently that makes me a cultural racist.

And I’m a believer in orthography and standard pronounciation of English. I guess that makes me a cultural racist, too.

I don’t pay a lot of attention to the race of writers and composers. I know what I like, though. I suspect that makes me racist, too.

Institutional Racism: The network of institutional structures, policies, and practices that create advantages and benefits for Whites, and discrimination, oppression, and disadvantages for people from targeted racial groups. The advantages created for Whites are often invisible to them, or are considered “rights” available to everyone as opposed to “privileges” awarded to only some individuals and groups.

Apparently it’s possible to be racist without being aware of it. I suspect the opposite is also believed to be true, i.e., that if you are not aware of being racist, you probably are.

Race A pseudobiological category that distinguishes people based on physical characteristics (e.g., skin color, body shape/size, facial features, hair texture). People of one race can vary in terms of ethnicity and culture.

Ethnicity
A group whose members share a common history and origin, as well as commonalities in terms of factors such as nationality, religion, and cultural activities.

Culture
The way of life of a group of people including the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, family roles, social relationships, verbal and nonverbal communication styles, orientation to authority, as well as preferences and expressions (art, music, food). “What everybody knows that everybody else knows.”

I gather that racism is a pseudo-scientifically bogus belief system. Ethnicism and culturalism, though, sound like they are good, positive things.

Acculturation A dynamic process that occurs when members of one culture (culture of origin) come into contact with another culture (host/dominant culture) over a long period of time. The process involves exposure to, reaction to, and possible adoptions of aspects of the other groups culture. Adapting to the characteristics of the larger or dominant culture, while retaining some of one’s unique cultural traits.

Assimilation
The process of giving up connections to and aspects of one’s culture of origin and blending in with the host/dominant culture. Also, the wholesale adoption of the dominant culture at the expense of the original culture.

Acculturation = Good.
Assimilation = Bad.
Got it.

Equality “In any given circumstances, people who are the same in those respects relevant to how they are treated in those circumstances should receive the same treatment” (p. 45). Equality defined in this way, looks at the individual and the circumstances surrounding him or her. It does not focus on group differences based on categories such as race, sex, social class, and ethnicity. This view is one of assimilation because it assumes that individuals, once socialized into society, have the right “to do anything they want, to choose their own lives and not be hampered by traditional expectations and stereotypes” (Young, 1990, p. 157).

Equity
“…. deals with difference and takes into consideration the fact that this society has many groups in it who have not always been given equal treatment and/or have not had a level field on which to play. These groups have been frequently made to feel inferior to those in the mainstream and some have been oppressed. To achieve equity, according to Young (1990), “Social policy should sometimes accord special treatment to groups” (p. 158). Thus, the concept of equity provides a case for unequal treatment for those who have been disadvantaged over time. It can provide compensatory kinds of treatment, offering it in the form of special programs and benefits for those who have been discriminated against and are in need of opportunity.”

Equality = Assimilation and Individualism = Bad
Equity = Inequality = Good.
Got it.

Prejudice An attitude or opinion that is held in the absence of (or despite) full information. Typically it is negative in nature and based on faulty, distorted or unsubstantiated information that is over generalized and relatively in-flexible. Prejudices can be conscious or relatively unconscious.

Whew! Prejudice = Bad. That one, I think I got. Holding opinions based in over-generalized and inflexible and unsubstantiated information is prejudice. Yikes. Sounds nasty.

Anyway, my apologies to everyone I’ve offended with my future-thinking, individualistic, crypto-racism. Clearly I should have gone to school in Seattle, and I’d be well and truly goodthinkful.

Oops. Damn. Just referenced another white, male author. My bad.

(via the Agitator)

Filed under :: School Daze :: Writing and Language :: ZT & PC
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DOF has a pair of posts on (if I may paraphrase) how overrated civility and polite discourse sometimes are, and how sometimes Godwin’s Law is counterproductive to useful discussion.

I managed a long, rambling comment in the second of those posts (as compared to a short, rambling comment in the first of them), which means I should probably post it here:

I will grant that meta-arguments about “you’re invoking Nazis!” are rarely worthwhile. Indeed, I believe Godwin’s law simply indicates that the argument is over at that point, and it’s the civility crowd that has inserted “and the nice guys won.” [Actually, Godwin’s Law merely states that, as a discussion thread grows longer, the probability that Nazis will be dragged into the discussion approaches 1.]

Arguing for civility in discourse is like arguing for niceness in the tides or politeness from tornadoes. If you get to that point, you might as well pack up and leave, because things have gone as far as they are going to.

The problem with outrage and Nazi comparisons and flecks of spittle about the lips is that, in and of themselves, they make it clear that further discussion isn’t going to change anything. If you assert your belief that George W. Bush is out to create A Handmaiden’s Tale, or that Hillary Clinton is out to establish the One World State of the Anti-Christ, those are positions that approach axioms — you can’t argue with an article of faith, so why continue the discussion. The dialectic has broken down — best to go your separate ways, roll your eyes to your friends, and cut down on the bandwidth.

Moreso, the advantage of civility is that it at least presents the facade of respect. I don’t particularly care to associate with those who don’t offer me courtesy and respect; I’m much more willing to do so with people who treat me as human, even if I bitterly disagree with them. Someone who screams that my position on X reveals me to be an evil, corrupt dupe of [fill in the blank] isn’t someone that seems interested in hanging with me, nor I with him.

That doesn’t mean, to me, that we approach each issue with Olympian detatchment. Outrage is proper when outrage is felt. But all too often, outrage turns into any range of logical fallacies, demonization, and incoherent babbling. I think it is possible to feel passionately about an issue and still leave the door open to dialog—if dialog is what you’re really interested in.

Which, sometimes, it’s not. I have no desire to debate sexual ethics with NAMBLA, or racial differences with Klansmen. I have my hot buttons, and I’m willing to admit it. I tend to be intolerant of intolerance (cue Tom Lehrer and “National Brotherhood Week,” an ironically now-sexist title).

But, in general, I think most issues become clearer with discussion, and I retain enough ego to think that sometimes I might be able to sway someone who is simply a Wrong-thinker (and enough humility to admit that sometimes I might change my mind, too). But for that to happen, I need to be civil to others, and expect civility in return. Passion, yes, but a modicum of politeness in that passion.

Because True Believers are rarely pleasant to be around, even when I agree with them.

I will add, since it’s my blog, that there are four levels of comments I run into here:

1. A comment that doesn’t require a response.

2. A comment that I feel like responding to, either because I agree with it or because I want to continue the dialog.

3. A comment that I feel responding to would only result in Battling Axioms, and, thus, I remain silent.

4. A comment that I feel is so outrageous that, despite Battling Axioms, I cannot leave it be.

5. A comment that I feel no further response to is needed because I’ve said all I can say, and to say more would simply be to spew my own bile.

Thus, if I drop a thread, it’s either because I feel I don’t need to respond, I don’t feel it wouild be productive to respond, or I don’t trust myself to respond. Some folks (who insist upon the last word) take a different course; that’s why there’s a blogosphere.

I am, by nature, someone who avoids confrontation when I can. Sometimes I can’t, in which case I confront. Though, I’ll note, at least 7 of 10 times I truly let loose, I usually regret it.

I’m not sure what thjis all means, other than an expression of my own taste, foibles, and/or psychoses. But there it is.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Personal
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I have no idea why Ecto occasionally turns off the “accept comments” flag on a few posts, but thanks to Fred for (again) pointing it out.

Any time I intend to turn off comments on a post, I will let you know. If you want to comment on something and there’s no comments link, please drop me a line.

Filed under :: Blogging
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Don’t get me wrong — I think this “Heterosexuality Survey” is remarkably clever, even brilliant. I think, as a subject for discussion, it could both amuse and enlighten.

Actually, and officially, handing it out as a teacher-sanctioned survey, though, to hundreds of high school students, was goofy. Both because trying to compel teens to talk about sex is intrusive, and because someone had to know it would offend a bunch of people (students and parents), probaly doing more harm than good to its worthwhile cause.

Filed under :: ZT & PC
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A new, more extensive study of DNA variations between humans and chimps seems to indicate that the speciation between the two (or their respective ancestors) was an on-again, off-again matter.

One of the most detailed comparisons yet of human and chimp DNA shows that the split between the two species was a long, messy affair that may even have featured an unusual evolutionary version of breakup sex.

Previous genetic research has shown that chimpanzees and humans are sister species, having split off from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. The new study goes farther by looking at approximately 800 times more DNA than earlier efforts. That additional data make it possible to determine not just when, but how the split happened.

[…] The researchers, from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, propose that humans and chimpanzees first split up about 10 million years ago. Then, after evolving in different directions for about 4 million years, they got back together for a brief fling that produced a third, hybrid population with characteristics of both lines. That genetic collaboration then gave rise to two separate branches - one leading to humans and the other to chimps.

The analysis is based on varying degrees of genetic differentiation in separate gene sequences. Some genes indicate a break of around 10 million years ago; others point to a split closer to 6 million years. Thus the hypothesis, which has a few paleontologists raising their academic eyebrows.

The work has inspired both admiration and skepticism. Many paleontologists have a hard time believing that some of the fossil humans that are known to have lived during that era could have been pairing up with apes.

“It’s a totally cool and extremely clever analysis,” said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard who wasn’t involved in the study. “My problem is imagining what it would be like to have a bipedal hominid and a chimpanzee viewing each other as appropriate mates - not to put it too crudely.”

It does seem improbable enough (cross-species mating is pretty darned unusual, and viable mating in that fashion even moreso) that I suspect there’s another interpretation of the data that’s waiting discovery, perhaps a rescaling of how the gene differences track over time.

But it’s an interesting news item all the same. Ook-ook!

Filed under :: Science
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XM radio announced it would create a version of its players that would let people record up to 50 hours of music that plays on their XM radios. Sounds great, right? Fun way to build a library of music you enjoy for long trips or commutes, and, after all, you’re already paying a subscription fee for the music — just as XM is paying a broadcast fee to the recording industry — so everyone’s happy, right?

Until the RIAA sues the snot of out XM for copyright infringement. Never mind that the technology falls well within fair use law, or even the 1992 AHRA law, which specifically legalized digital audio recording at home. And never mind that there’s essentially nothing different between what XM is going to allow and what you can do with TV shows and a VCR.

Which tells you where Big Media wants to go with laws regarding VCRs.

Inducement isn’t just for pirates anymore: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in MGM v. Grokster, EFF warned that the newly minted “inducement” weapon would not be reserved for “bad actors,” but would also be leveled against legitimate innovators building the next generation of fair use technologies.

Sure enough, the complaint accuses XM of inducement based on the following statements in promotional materials: “Hear It, Click It, Save It!,” “[XM] delivers new music to you everyday and lets you choose tracks to create your own custom playlists,” “record with the touch of a button,” and “store up to 50 hours of XM.” Not exactly a pirates “ahoy,” is it?

The bottom line is that Big Media feel that any time you play someting that “belongs to them,” they should get money for it. Any use of it that they don’t get money for is theft. A personal recording, a time-shifting, something with a VCR or your TiVo, something you keep to share with family and friends or to enjoy in the future? That’s piracy. And anyone who creates technology to do it will get sued for, literally, billions of dollars.

O, brave new world …

Filed under :: Hi-Tech :: Media Moguls
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If it weren’t that so many schools and libraries are required to use Internet content filters, as opposed to dumb, set-and-forget home users, this sort of thing would be funny.

“Internet Filters” updates and expands upon an earlier survey published by the Brennan Center’s Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP) in 2001. The new report describes the effects of CIPA and the deceptiveness of manufacturers’ claims to have improved the accuracy of filters with sophisticated “artificial intelligence” techniques. It then describes nearly 100 tests and studies up through 2006, with hundreds of examples of both deliberate and accidental overblocking.

For instance, one filtering program, SurfWatch, blocked the University of Kansas’s Archie R. Dykes Medical Library website upon detecting the word “dykes.” Cyber Patrol blocked a Knights of Columbus site and a site for aspiring dentists when set to block only “sexually explicit” materials. SmartFilter blocked the Declaration of Independence, Shakespeare’s complete plays, Moby Dick, and Marijuana: Facts for Teens, a brochure published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

It’s a tough one. How do you keep kids from cruising for free porn (or inadvertently stumbling across it) on library and school computers. Answer: you probably can’t, any mroe than you can keep them from cruising for sex in the fiction and non-fiction sections of the library (or inadvertently stumbling across it, as well).

What you can do is try to reach a compromise between privacy (people may be doing “legitimate” private stuff on a library computer, like checking their e-mail) and publicity (computer areas should be well lit and visible), so that you keep such locations from being the equivalent of darkened peep shows. That’s a compromise likely to please nobody, but it’s the best one possible without engaging in ths sort of futile filtering (and overblocking) described above.

(via BoingBoing)

Filed under :: Hi-Tech :: ZT & PC
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Not only does AT&T not want to have to defend itself against civil suits regarding information it may have provided the NSA, it doesn’t want anyone to know about the case against it.

Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s class-action lawsuit against the company, which alleges that AT&T illegally cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic-surveillance program.

In this recently surfaced statement, Klein details his discovery of an alleged surveillance operation in an AT&T office in San Francisco, and offers his interpretation of company documents that he believes support his case.

For its part, AT&T is asking a federal judge to keep those documents out of court, and to order the EFF to return them to the company. Here Wired News presents Klein’s statement in its entirety, along with select pages from the AT&T documents.

This is the suit that the DoJ has asked the courts to throw out for national security reasons. The DoJ request is only available in redacted form.

A judge has rejected AT&T’s request, but has also told the EFF not to release the documents, either.

On Wednesday, the judge rejected the EFF’s request that the documents provided to the organization by former AT&T technician Mark Klein be unsealed in court records, and ordered EFF not to share the papers with anyone.

“It appears that there is a possibility that the documents contain significant trade secrets or proprietary information belonging to AT&T,” said Walker.

But he rejected AT&T’s motion asking the court to order EFF to return the documents to the company, noting, “Plaintiffs say they got the documents innocently, therefore, their possession is in no way improper and in no way illegal.”

The judge also denied AT&T’s request to close the courtroom during the hearing on the above.

AT&T says it is being unfairly put between a rock and a hard place, being sued but unable to defend itself because of national security considerations.

In court, AT&T attorney Bradford Berenson cast his client as a hapless victim, unable to defend itself while maintaining its national security obligations.

“The problem here is not just that the plaintiffs can’t make their case, but that the defendants can’t defend themselves,” said Berenson, noting that some perfectly legal instruments of surveillance, like Patriot Act national security letters, come with binding secrecy requirements.

“AT&T is an innocent bystander, and the fight should be between private parties and the government that started these (surveillance) programs and ran them,” Berenson told the court.

(via BoingBoing)

Filed under :: Homeland Security
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Nearly all of us - nearly all of us who live in the United States, at least - have spent all our lives looking at the same style of paper currency: those things that say “Federal Reserve Note” and have a dead President in the center of the bill in an oval frame. Now that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has begun distributing a new design of U.S. currency, we’ve started seeing some variations in the theme; certainly we get to see the details of the portrait engravers’ work much more clearly. Still, though, we rarely stop to appreciate the skill and artistry of the engravers… after all, it’s just money. We just take it out and spend it.

But what if the Bureau of Engraving and Printing decided, as they did in the 1890s, to use our paper money as a showcase for art?

The 1896 results were — and could be — beautiful. Such as one of the first examples, this dollar bill.

Will H. Low’s design for the $1 note, entitled History Instructing Youth, shows a female History with a young student standing beside her, gesturing to an open book of history before her. An olive branch rests against the book, holding it open to show the Constitution of the United States upon the page. Both the Washington Memorial and the Capitol Dome can be seen in the background landscape. The outside border of the note shows 23 wreaths, each bearing the name of a noteworthy American - not surprisingly starting with Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, but also including such names as poet Henry Longfellow, inventor Robert Fulton, and author Nathaniel Hawthorne, among many others. The seal of the Treasury appears in the lower right.

Though you can’t tell it from the picture, the Constitution has a clearly readable Preamble and initial article text.

Many other even more gorgeous “money as art” examples are shown on the page.

While money design can be controversial today, it wasn’t much easier in 1896. Take for example the controversy over Walter Shirlaw’s design for the $5 bill.

Though most people were impressed with what the Times called the bill’s “beautiful and imposing” design, however, Anthony Comstock was not. Comstock, a religious fundamentalist and founder of the Watch and Ward Society, found the use of feminine nudity on the nation’s currency to be appalling and loathesome. The Society therefore actively campaigned for the recalling of all the bills. To appease this radical group, the BEP made plans to install more clothing on the figures for the 1897 issue of the note.

It’s of interest, perhaps, to note that the U.S. Mint has also faced difficulties with the Watch and Ward Society. The “Standing Liberty” quarter of 1916, pictured at left, raised the Society’s objections to Liberty’s partially-uncovered breast, and because of their opinionated influence the coin was redesigned soon later.

The money-as-art movement was doomed, alas. Banks objected that the denominations were not clear enough. And the Treasury Secretary who led the cause, J. G. Carlisle, resigned for political reasons; his 1897 successor had more of an eye for designs that were “simple, clear and straightforward” and scrapped the whole line of bills.

It’s a shame that the goal of today’s money is to be counterfeit-proof, rather than pleasant to the eye. One (small) reason, perhaps, folks prefer to use plastic.

(via BoingBoing)

Filed under :: Media :: Politics & Law
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What noise does a bee make in Japanese? (boon boon)

What noise does bird make in Greek? (tsiou tsiou)

Various animal noises, across langauges, plus animal commands, all listed here.

(via kottke)

Filed under :: Writing and Language
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UPDATE: The bulk of the evening was actually taken up with a stirring rendition of “The Three Piggy Opera” (not, however, by Berthold Porkt), a musical telling of the three pigs put on by the Kindergarten classes of the school. Very fun, and Katherine did, naturally great.

Afterwards, it was “Author’s Night,” where we got to see (a) a book that Katherine wrote and illustrated (on animals), (b) an alphabet book illustrated by Katherine, and (c) a class yearbook (shown). Great stuff.

this post enabled by airblogging.com.

Filed under :: School Daze
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While I’m sure it will not satisfy the various 9-11 conspiracy theorists out there, the Defense Dept. has released a video of Flight 77 striking the Pentagon. The government had previously refused to release the video, and it was obtained under a Freedom of Information Act petition by Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch filed the freedom of information request in 2004, but the Pentagon refused to release the video because it was part of the investigation involving al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, the group said.

This February the group sued the government over its refusal, saying there was “no legal basis” for it.

Washington agreed to release the video after a court sentenced Moussaoui to life in jail for his role in 9/11 earlier this month, a Judicial Watch spokeswoman told the BBC.

It’s actually not a very good video (“Fake! Clumsy fake!” I can already hear the cries), since it’s from a slow security camera near the site.

Filed under :: 9-11
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From the anything-but-Left-Wing Cato Blog:

Remember when conservatives wrote books with titles like Absolute Power: the Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department? Those were the days. But here’s a new selection from the Conservative Book Club: Can She Be Stopped? Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless… What? I don’t know, but that’s the title of a new book from John Podhoretz of NRO and the New York Post.

What I do know is that if Hillary is the next president, she’ll be able to lay claim to a number of vast, extraconstitutional powers championed by right-wingers like, uh, John Podhoretz. Among those powers is the ”inherent executive authority” to wiretap at will and, perhaps, to seize American citizens on American soil and hold them without charges for the duration of the war on terror — in other words, forever.

The ’90s weren’t that long ago. And I remember a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over misused FBI Files and suspicious IRS audits. Over the last four and a half years, many of the same wailers and gnashers have cheer-led the concentration of unreviewable power in the executive branch, as if George W. Bush would be the last president ever to wield that power. And now, lo and behold, there’s the mistress of Travelgate warming up in the on-deck circle. Join me in a bitter chuckle.

Payback is a bitch. And payback based on the precedent you set is even worse.

I’m not certain Hillary is such a shoo-in — but whoever gets in is going to reap both the benefits and the costs of this prsent administration. Hopefully the nation will get the Executive we need, not the one we deserve.

(via Les)

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Politics & Law
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President Bush assures the nation that the government isn’t doing things we don’t want them to do, though if they were, they wouldn’t have to tell us.

President Bush insisted Tuesday that the United States does not listen in on domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans.

And, of course, we can now officially believe that. Until someone discovers differently.

“We do not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval,” Bush said in an East Room news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Unless, of course, we deem it necessary to national security. Or say we do.

“What I’ve told the American people is we’ll protect them against an al-Qaida attack. And we’ll do that within the law,” Bush said.

And you therefore need to be compiling phone call records because …?

Bush said, “This government will continue to guard the privacy of the American people. But if al-Qaida is calling into the United States, we want to know, and we want to know why.”

And we’ll find out, by hook or by crook.

However, he did not respond directly when asked whether it was a violation of privacy for the National Security Agency to seek phone records from telephone companies. […] Bush did appear to acknowledge the NSA sweep of phone records indirectly, saying that the program referred to by a reporter in a question “is one that has been fully briefed to members of the United States Congress in both political parties.”

“They’re very aware of what is taking place. The American people expect their government to protect them within the laws of this country and I’m going to continue to do just that,” he said.

“Laws” being defined as that legislation which we declare, privately, does not endanger national security or adminisration policy.

Except, of course, he wasn’t really talking about the most recent NSA revelations, just the ones prior to that.

However, [Press Secretary Tony] Snow, in his first on-camera briefing as press secretary, later denied that Bush was confirming a story about collecting domestic phone records that was first reported last week in USA Today.

“He was talking about foreign-to-domestic calls,” Snow said. “The allegations in the USA Today piece were of a different nature.”

Except that they were secret, they involved the NSA and telephones, and Congress is torqued off about it.

“There seems to be a notion that because the president has talked a little bit about one surveillance program, and one matter of intelligence gathering, that somehow we have to tell the entire world - we have to make intelligence-gathering transparent,” Snow said. “Let me remind you, it’s a war on terror. … Al Qaida does not believe in transparency. What al Qaida believes in is mayhem.”

We think it’s legal, and we don’t dare ask anyone else if it’s legal, so we’ll just assert it’s legal and assure you we’re only doing legal stuff. Trust us — we’re from the Federal Government.

Nobody is proposing, of course, complete “transparency” in intelligence gathering. What most folks want, though, is accountability — something more than general assurances that, yes, this is all legal and on the up and up and like that, nothing to see here, move along.

That’s what the administration refuses to provide, and why, frankly, nobody is willing to trust them.

Filed under :: Homeland Security
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Kissing may actually have some positive health benefits, in terms of curing hayfever.

A 30-minute kissing session may suppress the body’s allergic reaction to pollen, providing welcome relief from hay fever, a new study suggests.

Scientists based at the Satou hospital in Japan found that kissing worked by relaxing the body and reducing the production of histamine – a chemical that the body produces in response to pollen, causing the sneezing, runny noses and streaming eyes that characterise hay fever attacks.

Of course, when your head and nose are full of snot, that’s probably one of the times you’re least interesteed in a half-hour snogging session. And, alas, simply cuddling, doesn’t seem to alter histamine levels.

(via BoingBoing)

Filed under :: Health
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Some people go to incredible extremes in putting together costumes and masks for fan conventions. Such as this guy. “Get a life!” as Shatner said.

(via David)

Filed under :: Media
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When you keep carnivores or omnivores in an enclosure with, well, things made of meat, sooner or later you’re going to run into this kind of trouble.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Bears killed and ate a monkey in a Dutch zoo in front of horrified visitors, witnesses and the zoo said Monday. In the incident Sunday at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, several Sloth bears chased the Barbary macaque into an electric fence, where it was stunned. It recovered and fled onto a wooden structure, where one bear pursued and mauled it to death.

[…] Witness Marco Berelds posted a detailed report on the incident, including photos, on a Dutch Web site. He said one Sloth bear tried unsuccessfully to shake the monkey loose after it took refuge on the structure, built of crossing horizontal and vertical poles.

Ignoring attempts by keepers to distract it, the bear climbed onto a horizontal pole, and, standing stretched on two legs, “used its sharp canines to pull the macaque, which was shrieking and resisting, from its perch.” The bear then brought the animal to a concrete den, where three bears ate it.

Zoo officials, who described the incident as a “temporary disturbance” in the “harmony” of the enclosure, where the macaques and bears have coexisted for some time without incident, are moving the monkeys elsewhere.

Katherine went to the Denver Zoo yesterday, on a field trip. Didn’t run into something like this, though, so far as we know.

Filed under :: Science
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