It's three o'clock.
Did you observe a moment of silence?
Did you think about the millions of men and women who've given their time, their blood, their body parts, and their lives so that we can sit safely at home and rant on the internet?
If so, good on you.
If not, shame on you.
If you think it doesn't matter, let's put together a little alphabetical list:
Antietam, Belleau Wood, Chosin Reservoir, Decatur, Eniwetok, Fort Donaldson, Guadalcanal, Hue, Iwo Jima, Kasserine Pass, Lexington, Midway, Normandy, Okinawa, Pearl Harbor, Quebec, Resaca, Shiloh, Tarawa, Ushant, Vicksburg, Winchester, Yorktown
If they hadn't been there, you wouldn't be here.
Now be silent for a moment and ponder their sacrifice.
29 May 2006
Quote for the day
“It is good that war is so terrible— we should grow too fond of it.”
Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg, 1862
Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg, 1862
20 May 2006
Marketing at its finest
Check out the time-lapse video of the first 24 hours of the new Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in the Big Apple. This frame shows they still had traffic (because they were giving away a new MacBook every hour, that's why) at three o'clock in the morning:
24 April 2006
Cool, but then all maps are cool
Check out this guy's products, including his latest world map:
http://www.visibone.com
I highly recommend his graphics products; I use them frequently.
http://www.visibone.com
I highly recommend his graphics products; I use them frequently.
Quote for the day
On the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising, an appropriate occasion for the last part of one of my favorite rabble-rousing speeches (one which also contributed to the Rising):
“Our foes are strong and wise and wary; but, strong and wise and wary as they are, they cannot undo the miracles of God who ripens in the hearts of young men the seeds sown by the young men of a former generation. And the seeds sown by the young men of ’65 and ’67 are coming to their miraculous ripening today. Rulers and Defenders of Realms had need to be wary if they would guard against such processes. Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
From the oration by Pádraig Pearse at the grave of O'Donovan Rossa on 1 August 1915.
It never fails to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
And, as if Vietnam wasn't enough, it's a good object lesson for the Rulers and Defenders of Iraq...
“Our foes are strong and wise and wary; but, strong and wise and wary as they are, they cannot undo the miracles of God who ripens in the hearts of young men the seeds sown by the young men of a former generation. And the seeds sown by the young men of ’65 and ’67 are coming to their miraculous ripening today. Rulers and Defenders of Realms had need to be wary if they would guard against such processes. Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
From the oration by Pádraig Pearse at the grave of O'Donovan Rossa on 1 August 1915.
It never fails to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
And, as if Vietnam wasn't enough, it's a good object lesson for the Rulers and Defenders of Iraq...
23 April 2006
Quote for the day
"Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
17 April 2006
There was a difference
Seems a Japanese veteran of World War Two is going home to see his relatives, those still alive, in Japan.
Not a totally unusual story, until you discover that he's been living in Russia for the last 61 years.
He was captured on Sakhalin when the war ended in 1945 (the Soviet Union having declared war on Japan about a week before we dropped The Bomb), and was reported there as late as 1958. After moving to the Ukraine in 1965, he married and had three children. It's unclear when his status changed from being a prisoner to being merely a captive.
The Russians didn't let go of their prisoners of war, especially the Germans; most they worked to death in camps in Siberia. Estimates range as high as 90% of captured Germans dying behind barbed wire, some as late as the 1970s, with total numbers of the dead running into the millions.
While no one begrudges the Russians a peeve or two about the Germans after the way the Germans acted during the invasion in 1941, the Russians didn't really play by the rules when the war ended. The Americans, on the other hand, were only too happy to get rid of our POWs; the last German and Japanese soldiers were sent home by 1946 or so.
Remember that when you hear people whine about the couple of hundred 'enemy combatants' being held at Guantanamo...
Not a totally unusual story, until you discover that he's been living in Russia for the last 61 years.
He was captured on Sakhalin when the war ended in 1945 (the Soviet Union having declared war on Japan about a week before we dropped The Bomb), and was reported there as late as 1958. After moving to the Ukraine in 1965, he married and had three children. It's unclear when his status changed from being a prisoner to being merely a captive.
The Russians didn't let go of their prisoners of war, especially the Germans; most they worked to death in camps in Siberia. Estimates range as high as 90% of captured Germans dying behind barbed wire, some as late as the 1970s, with total numbers of the dead running into the millions.
While no one begrudges the Russians a peeve or two about the Germans after the way the Germans acted during the invasion in 1941, the Russians didn't really play by the rules when the war ended. The Americans, on the other hand, were only too happy to get rid of our POWs; the last German and Japanese soldiers were sent home by 1946 or so.
Remember that when you hear people whine about the couple of hundred 'enemy combatants' being held at Guantanamo...
A case of mistaken identity
Having seen the recent calls for "A Day Without Immigrants", scheduled to take place on May Day, I was heartened that things were in place to finally deal with the whole illegal immigration issue.
Of course, I got it backwards:
"Mexican unions, political and community groups, newspaper columnists, and even some Mexican government offices have joined the call for a parallel boycott of U.S. businesses in Mexico" at the same time that migrants already in the US are being urged to "skip work and avoid spending money".
“Nothing gringo" is the rallying cry, apparently.
Fine. But let's play fair.
"Nothing Mexican" on May 5th (or Cinco de Mayo, as they say south of the border).
No eating Mexican food. No drinking Mexican beer. No paying Mexicans (legal or otherwise) to do anything.
This may mean you don't eat at McDonald's, unfortunately, or get your grass mowed, or your car washed, or any number of other mundane tasks that we currently 'outsource' in this country, but sacrifices must be made.
Oh, and no one comes across the border that day.
Not by foot, car, truck, boat, or airplane. Not across the desert, the Rio Grande, or any legal border crossing.
No Western Union money orders sent south of Laredo, either, and all ATMs must disable their Spanish access capability, plus Telemundo can't broadcast any show not shot in the United States.
Let's see whose "importance to the economy" wins...
Of course, I got it backwards:
"Mexican unions, political and community groups, newspaper columnists, and even some Mexican government offices have joined the call for a parallel boycott of U.S. businesses in Mexico" at the same time that migrants already in the US are being urged to "skip work and avoid spending money".
“Nothing gringo" is the rallying cry, apparently.
Fine. But let's play fair.
"Nothing Mexican" on May 5th (or Cinco de Mayo, as they say south of the border).
No eating Mexican food. No drinking Mexican beer. No paying Mexicans (legal or otherwise) to do anything.
This may mean you don't eat at McDonald's, unfortunately, or get your grass mowed, or your car washed, or any number of other mundane tasks that we currently 'outsource' in this country, but sacrifices must be made.
Oh, and no one comes across the border that day.
Not by foot, car, truck, boat, or airplane. Not across the desert, the Rio Grande, or any legal border crossing.
No Western Union money orders sent south of Laredo, either, and all ATMs must disable their Spanish access capability, plus Telemundo can't broadcast any show not shot in the United States.
Let's see whose "importance to the economy" wins...
12 April 2006
Quote for the day
"The fight is not going to be with the world, but with yourself."
Stephen Crane, 1896
On this, my birthday, I know the bastard is right.
Stephen Crane, 1896
On this, my birthday, I know the bastard is right.
10 April 2006
Hershey as history
From Sgt. Pete's blog, a nice mention of the Hershey bars that my friend Rich (a Marine, blinded in Vietnam, lo these thirty-odd years) and I boxed up and sent over to his unit in Iraq.
The kids seem to be enjoying them, which was the idea; I just hope they remember, when they go to strap on that belt of plastic explosives or plant the IED alongside the road, who gave the damn candy to them...
The kids seem to be enjoying them, which was the idea; I just hope they remember, when they go to strap on that belt of plastic explosives or plant the IED alongside the road, who gave the damn candy to them...
09 April 2006
Quote for the day
"I went to school during the dreaded Teva/Birkenstock explosion of the early '90s. People wore Tevas, played hacky-sack, and listened to Phish. This had to be the darkest period in our nation’s history."
from a post on Office Pirates
I worked in Silicon Valley, the heartland of geeks and dorks, in the same era. I never played hacky-sack...
from a post on Office Pirates
I worked in Silicon Valley, the heartland of geeks and dorks, in the same era. I never played hacky-sack...
08 April 2006
07 April 2006
Quote for the day
"Researchers will be able to demonstrate that prayers for the death of a person are 100% successful. Such prayers do sometimes take six or seven decades to bring about the intended result, however."
from The Buddhist Review
from The Buddhist Review
06 April 2006
Quote for the day
“Every thoroughly islamized Muslim child that is born in Europe is a time bomb for Western children in the future.”
Father Samuel, a Belgian priest, who has been charged with “incitement to racist hatred” by the Belgian government’s inquisition agency, the so-called Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR)
From an Irish blog well worth reading...
Father Samuel, a Belgian priest, who has been charged with “incitement to racist hatred” by the Belgian government’s inquisition agency, the so-called Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR)
From an Irish blog well worth reading...
05 April 2006
Quote for the day
"To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet."
Charles Caleb Colton, 1780 - 1832
Charles Caleb Colton, 1780 - 1832
04 April 2006
Quote for the day
"Let us have a little less of 'hands across the sea', and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations."
Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914ish
Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914ish
03 April 2006
Not quite his 'Ford commercial' movie, but fun
Claude Lelouch made one of the most bittersweet films of my adolescence, A Man and a Woman. Because the hero, played by Jean Louis Trintignant, always drove Ford products in the film (including the once-and-now-again-sexy GT40), it was disparaged (mostly by the French) as just a 'Ford commercial'. But anyone who's heard the theme song knows that it was a lesson in life and love never forgotten, especially once they saw Anouk Aimee...
But his 'Ferrari in the streets of Paris' video (for which he was arrested when it was first shown) will do in a pinch...
But his 'Ferrari in the streets of Paris' video (for which he was arrested when it was first shown) will do in a pinch...
Crocodile tears
I feel so bad for the Japanese (having been treated in an incredibly racist manner when I visited them), who are now having to deal with an invasion of illegal immigrants: Nigerians.
The classic comment was this one, from one of the offending illegals : "There's no reason why we shouldn't prey upon Japanese, who lack the slightest sense of caution."
Next thing you know, they'll be offering them ten million dollars stolen from an international aid project/the national treasury/vendor overpayments via the Internet...
The classic comment was this one, from one of the offending illegals : "There's no reason why we shouldn't prey upon Japanese, who lack the slightest sense of caution."
Next thing you know, they'll be offering them ten million dollars stolen from an international aid project/the national treasury/vendor overpayments via the Internet...
A very Japanese invention
From the Mainichi Daily News, the next craze to come out of Japan (and a hell of a lot more fun than GameBoy): compensated dating.
That's the newest euphemism for prostitution, now being practised by thirty-something 'desperate' Japanese housewives looking to pick up a little extra cash to help with the bills...
That's the newest euphemism for prostitution, now being practised by thirty-something 'desperate' Japanese housewives looking to pick up a little extra cash to help with the bills...
Smoke-free zones
I continue to be amused by smokers (Dennis Leary being the most famous) who insist on telling me how great and cool and fun smoking is, but refuse to live with their own effluvium.
As in the person in the car in front of me this morning, who held her cigarette outside the window when she wasn't actually puffing on it, flicked her ashes into the breeze, exhaled smoke out the car window, and ended up throwing the butt onto the road.
I'm sorry, I don't expect you to quit your disgusting little habits just because I think it's a good idea (just like I won't quit mine just because you think they're disgusting), but I do wish you'd learn to keep them to yourself.
I'm sure that if smokers were compelled (by beatings, if necessary) to retain all byproducts of smoking (the smoke itself, of course, along with any packaging and lighting instruments, along with all ashes and butts) entirely within their vehicle or residence, they might forego the pleasure.
(Heads on stakes at the city limits may be excessive for smoking, but don't ask me about my theory of punishment for pedophiles...)
As in the person in the car in front of me this morning, who held her cigarette outside the window when she wasn't actually puffing on it, flicked her ashes into the breeze, exhaled smoke out the car window, and ended up throwing the butt onto the road.
I'm sorry, I don't expect you to quit your disgusting little habits just because I think it's a good idea (just like I won't quit mine just because you think they're disgusting), but I do wish you'd learn to keep them to yourself.
I'm sure that if smokers were compelled (by beatings, if necessary) to retain all byproducts of smoking (the smoke itself, of course, along with any packaging and lighting instruments, along with all ashes and butts) entirely within their vehicle or residence, they might forego the pleasure.
(Heads on stakes at the city limits may be excessive for smoking, but don't ask me about my theory of punishment for pedophiles...)
Quote for the day
"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
Erasmus, 1469-1536
"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. The two-eyed man, however, is a revolutionary."
Rico
Erasmus, 1469-1536
"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. The two-eyed man, however, is a revolutionary."
Rico
02 April 2006
Quote for the day
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
V, in V is for Vendetta
A slogan we should all remember, come election day...
V, in V is for Vendetta
A slogan we should all remember, come election day...
01 April 2006
Virtually victorious, visually very vigorous
V for Vendetta is visually magnificent, and a great translation of the 'graphic novel' to the screen.
But its premise, that "governments should be afraid of their people", rings a trifle hollow in the English context. We forget, in this country, that the Dead White Men put the Second Amendment (which many at the time argued should be First) in the Constitution to provide The People not only with the right, but the ability, to overthrow their own government. (Remember the part of the Declaration of Independence about "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government"? Given our public schools, I thought not.)
But I predict a run on Guy Fawkes masks at Halloween, even though no one remembers the Fifth of November any more...
But its premise, that "governments should be afraid of their people", rings a trifle hollow in the English context. We forget, in this country, that the Dead White Men put the Second Amendment (which many at the time argued should be First) in the Constitution to provide The People not only with the right, but the ability, to overthrow their own government. (Remember the part of the Declaration of Independence about "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government"? Given our public schools, I thought not.)
But I predict a run on Guy Fawkes masks at Halloween, even though no one remembers the Fifth of November any more...
Quote for the day
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Thomas Jefferson
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy"
James Madison
A pair of Dead White Men who knew, first hand, about oppression.
But we don't teach their words much in schools anymore...
Thomas Jefferson
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy"
James Madison
A pair of Dead White Men who knew, first hand, about oppression.
But we don't teach their words much in schools anymore...
27 March 2006
Bridezilla lives
Since my ladyfriend is just now going through it with a daughter (and I'm currently working for a purveyor of wedding outfits), I finally understand that women actually believe that, on their wedding day, they truly become some sort of medieval-style princess, with all the rights and privileges thereof. Imagine Princess Buttercup mixed with an equal amount of Elizabeth Taylor (just divorced from Richard Burton) and you begin to get the picture. (As shown by the photo at left.)They believe can order around lesser beings (family, mostly, but wedding planners fall nicely into the serf category), stamp their feet and demand three impossible things before breakfast, command the slaying of dragons and the summoning of unicorns, and other mythical (or fairy tale, depending on the wedding planner) behaviors.
All to the tune of twenty or thirty thousand bucks, at a minimum.
The groom, of course, is merely supposed to show up (typically hungover) and conform to all fairy tale expectations.
This is where the fairy tale begins to turn into something out of the Brothers Grimm...
Quote for the day
"We have the fossils. We win."
A noted scientist, weighing in on Intelligent Design.
Couldn't have stated it better myself...
A noted scientist, weighing in on Intelligent Design.
Couldn't have stated it better myself...
26 March 2006
Yes, I can carry a grudge, thank you...
In the random way of Google searches, I ran across a reminiscence by Dick Peabody, a supporting character (Littlejohn) in Combat, one of the favorite television shows of my youth. In it he discussed the funeral of Vic Morrow, the star of Combat (as Sergeant Saunders, a childhood hero of mine), who was tragically killed (along with two child actors) during the filming of a Twilight Zone segment directed by John Landis. (Landis was, unfortunately, declared not guilty when he was tried for involuntary manslaughter in the three deaths.)
But the behavior of Landis at both the movie set (he was observed shouting "Lower! Lower!" to the pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed Morrow and the children) and at Morrow's funeral has kept me from watching any of Landis' old movies (including Blues Brothers), as well as any he may (lamentably) be allowed to make in the future.
I still hold a grudge (note to Landis: do not cross my path), more than twenty years later, because sometimes you must draw a line in the sand...
But the behavior of Landis at both the movie set (he was observed shouting "Lower! Lower!" to the pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed Morrow and the children) and at Morrow's funeral has kept me from watching any of Landis' old movies (including Blues Brothers), as well as any he may (lamentably) be allowed to make in the future.
I still hold a grudge (note to Landis: do not cross my path), more than twenty years later, because sometimes you must draw a line in the sand...
Quote for the day
"It is impossible to get enough revenge."
A young girl of Beslan
This is from another of those "little wars" we don't hear much about, between the Russians and the Chechens.
The girl, a Russian, draws the Chechen terrorists (male and female) who blew up her school, along with her classmates and their parents, then tears up the drawings and burns them.
Out of their nightmares, of course, the Chechen children draw Russian soldiers...
A young girl of Beslan
This is from another of those "little wars" we don't hear much about, between the Russians and the Chechens.
The girl, a Russian, draws the Chechen terrorists (male and female) who blew up her school, along with her classmates and their parents, then tears up the drawings and burns them.
Out of their nightmares, of course, the Chechen children draw Russian soldiers...
25 March 2006
Quote for the day
"Get used to disappointment."
The Dread Pirate Roberts to Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride
The Dread Pirate Roberts to Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride
24 March 2006
Quote for the day
"There's not a lot of money in revenge."
Inigo Montoya to the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride
Inigo Montoya to the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride
23 March 2006
Quote for the day
"The sorcerers' revolution," Don Juan continued, "is that they refuse to honor agreements in which they did not participate."
from The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Casteneda
Imagine if we all did that. (Hell, imagine if I did that...)
from The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Casteneda
Imagine if we all did that. (Hell, imagine if I did that...)
22 March 2006
Just a glimpse of Old Glory
One of the big tear-jerking moments in my life was the first time I ever saw the American flag flying outside the United States. (Over the embassy in Stockholm, to be precise.)
An experience that crystalized a sense of being American like no other.
This image, from Ulli Mueller's blog, feels much like that:
And if you don't get that cold rush up your neck at the sound of "the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave", reread Sgt. Pete's post below and consider how lucky you are to have the luxury of indifference...
An experience that crystalized a sense of being American like no other.
This image, from Ulli Mueller's blog, feels much like that:
And if you don't get that cold rush up your neck at the sound of "the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave", reread Sgt. Pete's post below and consider how lucky you are to have the luxury of indifference...
Another candidate for Dhimmi-of-the-Year
According to an article by the Associated Press, an Italian clothing designer has come out with a line of Al Quds jeans, designed especially for Muslims.
"They're high around the waist, wide around the leg and have lots of pockets for holding watches, bracelets, glasses and other knickknacks," according to Luca Corradi, who designed Al Quds jeans. "The bagginess is to ensure the wearer avoids stiffness while bending down repeatedly during prayers. The pockets are for holding all the accessories Muslims have to take off while they worship. And the jeans have green seams - because green is the sacred color of Islam."
I can just see the Brooke Shields-lookalike spokesmodel now: "Nothing comes between me and my Al Quds but four kilos of Semtex..."
"They're high around the waist, wide around the leg and have lots of pockets for holding watches, bracelets, glasses and other knickknacks," according to Luca Corradi, who designed Al Quds jeans. "The bagginess is to ensure the wearer avoids stiffness while bending down repeatedly during prayers. The pockets are for holding all the accessories Muslims have to take off while they worship. And the jeans have green seams - because green is the sacred color of Islam."
I can just see the Brooke Shields-lookalike spokesmodel now: "Nothing comes between me and my Al Quds but four kilos of Semtex..."
So how's your job?
Ran across an earlier posting in one of my linked blogs, Sergeant Pete Puebla's journal of his time in Iraq, and thought his story bore repeating here:
"I am now a combat veteran. We got hit by an IED, and I’m not just talking about the platoon either. I’m talking about our Humvee. It got hit. Me, I, we. We were within 10 feet of the thing. How we survived without a scratch, I don’t know. The Humvee wasn’t damaged and no one got hurt. No broken windshield, damaged body, no cuts or concussions. Thank God. We all made it in one peace. We pulled up right on the darn thing. We were just sitting there then all of a sudden there it was, pow! I immediately got down. I knew we had got hit but I didn’t expect it to be so close. It had our name on it. We were engulfed in a cloud of smoke and debris.
Some of the guys in other trucks that saw it happen thought we were gone for sure. Some said that they couldn’t even see our Humvee at the time of the explosion. Some thought that our Humvee had got blown to pieces and thought that the turret was the hood of the vehicle. I couldn’t seen anything myself for a few seconds. It was freaking loud too. It was so loud I felt the vibrations in my chest. What can I say about it? It was like something exploded. Obviously.
I don’t see why T-Rex didn’t see it. I told him after it exploded too, “Didn’t you see it! It was right in front of you!” I was alright after a little while though. I regained my composure immediately since this wasn’t the first experience in the field. I still can’t believe that he drove right up on it. Unbelievable. And to have us all walk away like nothing happened, miracle. I don’t know why. That thing had our name on it. Heck we were right next to it and T-Rex and the Lieutenant had front row seats. They were facing the thing when it went off.
Divine intervention is all I thought about. That’s all I thought about all day. Hadji must be wondering what happened. I don’t know how and I can’t explain it myself. We were in a cloud of smoke. How could we just drive away, like nothing happened? Hadji probably thought we were laughing at him. Instead, I think we were all thanking God for giving us another day. How unbelievable. A miracle.
It’s changed my perspective on life. To be thankful for every day we have. To cherish what we as Americans take for granted. Thanks be to God."
So, anything exciting happen at work today?
Remember what Orwell said: "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us."
Tthough he'd never admit it, Sgt. Pete is one of those 'rough men'...
"I am now a combat veteran. We got hit by an IED, and I’m not just talking about the platoon either. I’m talking about our Humvee. It got hit. Me, I, we. We were within 10 feet of the thing. How we survived without a scratch, I don’t know. The Humvee wasn’t damaged and no one got hurt. No broken windshield, damaged body, no cuts or concussions. Thank God. We all made it in one peace. We pulled up right on the darn thing. We were just sitting there then all of a sudden there it was, pow! I immediately got down. I knew we had got hit but I didn’t expect it to be so close. It had our name on it. We were engulfed in a cloud of smoke and debris.
Some of the guys in other trucks that saw it happen thought we were gone for sure. Some said that they couldn’t even see our Humvee at the time of the explosion. Some thought that our Humvee had got blown to pieces and thought that the turret was the hood of the vehicle. I couldn’t seen anything myself for a few seconds. It was freaking loud too. It was so loud I felt the vibrations in my chest. What can I say about it? It was like something exploded. Obviously.
I don’t see why T-Rex didn’t see it. I told him after it exploded too, “Didn’t you see it! It was right in front of you!” I was alright after a little while though. I regained my composure immediately since this wasn’t the first experience in the field. I still can’t believe that he drove right up on it. Unbelievable. And to have us all walk away like nothing happened, miracle. I don’t know why. That thing had our name on it. Heck we were right next to it and T-Rex and the Lieutenant had front row seats. They were facing the thing when it went off.
Divine intervention is all I thought about. That’s all I thought about all day. Hadji must be wondering what happened. I don’t know how and I can’t explain it myself. We were in a cloud of smoke. How could we just drive away, like nothing happened? Hadji probably thought we were laughing at him. Instead, I think we were all thanking God for giving us another day. How unbelievable. A miracle.
It’s changed my perspective on life. To be thankful for every day we have. To cherish what we as Americans take for granted. Thanks be to God."
So, anything exciting happen at work today?
Remember what Orwell said: "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us."
Tthough he'd never admit it, Sgt. Pete is one of those 'rough men'...
Quote for the day
"I cruise the wine aisle at Draeger's Market, hoping to meet my second husband."
Maire Kushner
Another contributor to Women's History Month...
Maire Kushner
Another contributor to Women's History Month...
21 March 2006
Quote for the day
"We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call, no way out; just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it."
Tennessee Willams, quoted in Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
"In a certain sense, the playwright was correct. But, oh! What a view from that upstairs window!"
"What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiosity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and, yes, the language with which to support and enrich the things we see; then it doesn't matter that the house is burning down around us. It doesn't matter. Let the motherfucker blaze!"
from Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
Could not have said it better, either thought, myself...
Tennessee Willams, quoted in Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
"In a certain sense, the playwright was correct. But, oh! What a view from that upstairs window!"
"What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiosity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and, yes, the language with which to support and enrich the things we see; then it doesn't matter that the house is burning down around us. It doesn't matter. Let the motherfucker blaze!"
from Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
Could not have said it better, either thought, myself...
20 March 2006
Quote for the day
"The protection of the weak and unarmed is the very essence and reason for a soldier's being."
General Douglas MacArthur
And, I would submit, the reason for any man's being...
General Douglas MacArthur
And, I would submit, the reason for any man's being...
19 March 2006
Quote for the day
"Before humans,
dogs flew everywhere.
Their wings of silky fur
wrapped hollow bones.
Their tails wagged
like rudders through wind,
their stomachs bare
to the sullen earth.
Out of sorrow
for the first humans—
stumbling, crawling,
helpless and cold—
dogs folded their
great wings into paws
soft enough to walk
beside us forever.
They still weep for us,
pity our small noses,
our unfortunate eyes,
our dull teeth.
They lick our faces clean,
keep us warm at night.
Sometimes they remember flying
and bite our ugly hands."
Why dogs stopped flying by Kenneth W. Brewer
Ken Brewer, Utah's Poet Laureate, Professor of literature, writing and poetry at Utah State University for 32 years, and a delightful human being, died recently of pancreatic cancer. (from Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding)
dogs flew everywhere.
Their wings of silky fur
wrapped hollow bones.
Their tails wagged
like rudders through wind,
their stomachs bare
to the sullen earth.
Out of sorrow
for the first humans—
stumbling, crawling,
helpless and cold—
dogs folded their
great wings into paws
soft enough to walk
beside us forever.
They still weep for us,
pity our small noses,
our unfortunate eyes,
our dull teeth.
They lick our faces clean,
keep us warm at night.
Sometimes they remember flying
and bite our ugly hands."
Why dogs stopped flying by Kenneth W. Brewer
Ken Brewer, Utah's Poet Laureate, Professor of literature, writing and poetry at Utah State University for 32 years, and a delightful human being, died recently of pancreatic cancer. (from Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding)
18 March 2006
Gremlins in the wires
I am continually amazed by how much we take for granted, how much stuff in this society just works.
As an example, we changed out our wireless router the other day. It worked fine for a few days, then the connection just died. No reason, just couldn't connect. Much hairpulling and badwordsaying. Then, this morning, I plugged everything back in, turned it on, and voila, back in business. (Thus this blog entry, and others that've been piling up.)
But let us remember how few years ago (say, 1983, and thus pre-Macintosh) none of this was possible.
Not for love nor money.
No internet, no cell phones, no movies-on-demand, no text messaging.
Amazing we were able to survive at all, in those Dark Ages...
Yet how many other systems in this society (traffic lights, food delivery, gas distribution, sewerage), that we totally depend upon, are just as invisible and mysterious?
That's why the bird flu is so scary.
If everyone takes the government's advice and stays home to eat the tuna under the bed (almost as good advice as the plastic and duct tape for the anthrax scare), who's going to keep the power plants (let alone the sewerage plants) running, the gas trucks rolling, the milk and cereal deliveries made?
We could be in serious trouble...
(Of course, after fifty percent of the population dies off, think of the better house and car you'll be able to afford...)
As an example, we changed out our wireless router the other day. It worked fine for a few days, then the connection just died. No reason, just couldn't connect. Much hairpulling and badwordsaying. Then, this morning, I plugged everything back in, turned it on, and voila, back in business. (Thus this blog entry, and others that've been piling up.)
But let us remember how few years ago (say, 1983, and thus pre-Macintosh) none of this was possible.
Not for love nor money.
No internet, no cell phones, no movies-on-demand, no text messaging.
Amazing we were able to survive at all, in those Dark Ages...
Yet how many other systems in this society (traffic lights, food delivery, gas distribution, sewerage), that we totally depend upon, are just as invisible and mysterious?
That's why the bird flu is so scary.
If everyone takes the government's advice and stays home to eat the tuna under the bed (almost as good advice as the plastic and duct tape for the anthrax scare), who's going to keep the power plants (let alone the sewerage plants) running, the gas trucks rolling, the milk and cereal deliveries made?
We could be in serious trouble...
(Of course, after fifty percent of the population dies off, think of the better house and car you'll be able to afford...)
Quote for the day
"I've run to men, money, and even a nice pair of shoes for a sense of relief..."
from the Sex and the Seven blog
A point of view you're unlikely to hear from a man (a straight one, anyway), but appropriate for Women's History Month...
from the Sex and the Seven blog
A point of view you're unlikely to hear from a man (a straight one, anyway), but appropriate for Women's History Month...
17 March 2006
Quote for St. Patrick's day
"If the Dutch had lived in Ireland, they'd've conquered the world. If the Irish had lived in Holland, they'd've drowned."
told to me in The Old Stand, a lovely traditional pub in Dublin
told to me in The Old Stand, a lovely traditional pub in Dublin
16 March 2006
Quote for the day
"If it’s ever going to be truly worthwhile, it’s going to hurt, it’s going to be expensive, and it’s going to take sacrifice."
David Brown
Maybe someone should send this to the New York Times; it's a concept that they, like many people, seem to fail to understand...
David Brown
Maybe someone should send this to the New York Times; it's a concept that they, like many people, seem to fail to understand...
15 March 2006
Groucho knew more than Karl
Marx was wrong.
Religion is no longer the opiate of the masses.
As evidenced by the theofascists of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, religion is now the steroid of the masses.
On it, people commit acts they wouldn't if they were in their right mind.
Unfortunately, these days, that includes rape, pillage, and murder. And, when they get really cranked on the stuff, genocide. (Hell, in the right circumstances, even Buddhists can succumb to it.)
So if you're wondering why we're not winning the War Against Terrorism it's because, just like with the War On Drugs, the users don't want to stop...
Religion is no longer the opiate of the masses.
As evidenced by the theofascists of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, religion is now the steroid of the masses.
On it, people commit acts they wouldn't if they were in their right mind.
Unfortunately, these days, that includes rape, pillage, and murder. And, when they get really cranked on the stuff, genocide. (Hell, in the right circumstances, even Buddhists can succumb to it.)
So if you're wondering why we're not winning the War Against Terrorism it's because, just like with the War On Drugs, the users don't want to stop...
Quote for the day
“Human beings are beings that are going to die. Sorcerers firmly maintain that the only way to have a grip on our world, and on what we do in it, is by fully accepting that we are beings on the way to dying. Without this basic acceptance, our lives, our doings, and the world in which we live are unmanageable affairs."
Don Juan in The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda
A hard thing to accept, in one's own case. You dying I can grasp (some of you more easily than others), but me?
Don Juan in The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda
A hard thing to accept, in one's own case. You dying I can grasp (some of you more easily than others), but me?
14 March 2006
Quote for the day
"That which is overdesigned, too highly specific, anticipates outcome; the anticipation of outcome guarantees, if not failure, the absence of grace."
from All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson
I try not to anticipate, but I do anyway.
(Though, if my flinching whilst cowboy shooting is any indication, I am getting better...)
from All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson
I try not to anticipate, but I do anyway.
(Though, if my flinching whilst cowboy shooting is any indication, I am getting better...)
13 March 2006
Quote for the day
“One of the high arts of sorcerers is to know when to stop.”
Don Juan in The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda
Proving, yet again, that I have not achieved the status of sorcerer, by a long shot...
Don Juan in The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda
Proving, yet again, that I have not achieved the status of sorcerer, by a long shot...
12 March 2006
Quote for the day
"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
Mahatma Gandhi
Because, one day, you'll be right.
Mahatma Gandhi
Because, one day, you'll be right.
11 March 2006
Quote for the day
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."
Carl Sagan
So much for religion.
And don't give me that Word of God As It is Written in the Book crap, either. A few smotings, complete with fire and brimstone and a loud voice from the sky (which will probably have to sound like Charleton Heston, just to be taken seriously; who'd believe in God if He sounded like Woody Allen or, just to be politically correct, if She sounded like Goldy Hawn?) declaiming His and/or Her wrath, that'd be a good start, but we haven't seen that sort of action out of the Supreme Being in awhile, have we?
(But I guess I'll sure be surprised when that 'Rapture' thing happens...)
Carl Sagan
So much for religion.
And don't give me that Word of God As It is Written in the Book crap, either. A few smotings, complete with fire and brimstone and a loud voice from the sky (which will probably have to sound like Charleton Heston, just to be taken seriously; who'd believe in God if He sounded like Woody Allen or, just to be politically correct, if She sounded like Goldy Hawn?) declaiming His and/or Her wrath, that'd be a good start, but we haven't seen that sort of action out of the Supreme Being in awhile, have we?
(But I guess I'll sure be surprised when that 'Rapture' thing happens...)
10 March 2006
Quote for the day
"Courage, among women, is often mistaken for madness."
A psychiatrist, after examing Alice Paul, one of the suffragists staging a hunger strike in 1917 in support of the vote for women.
After all, it is Women's History Month...
A psychiatrist, after examing Alice Paul, one of the suffragists staging a hunger strike in 1917 in support of the vote for women.
After all, it is Women's History Month...
09 March 2006
A fine madness
Flipping back and forth between Christopher Walken's performances in Robert Redford's Milagro Beanfield War and Michael Cimino's unsung Western saga Heaven's Gate, and having watched his over-the-top performance in Last Man Standing (a poor remake of Akira Kurosawa's famous masterpiece Yojimbo) the night before, I am reminded that there is a fine line between genius and madness, and I'm never sure which side Walken is on...
(And doesn't Deadwood owe one hell of a a debt to Heaven's Gate?)
(And doesn't Deadwood owe one hell of a a debt to Heaven's Gate?)
Quote for the day
"If the rich could hire others to do their dying for 'em, the poor people could make a wonderful living, I tell you."
Richard Masur as Cully the train conductor, to Christopher Walken, in Heaven's Gate
Richard Masur as Cully the train conductor, to Christopher Walken, in Heaven's Gate
08 March 2006
Sometimes the magic works...
We are now officially back on-line, after several weeks of progressively more dismal (and irritatingly uncertain) wireless connectivity.
Replacing our wireless router with a new one from NetGear has instantly changed our house network from an intermittent weak signal to a solid 'all-bars' connection.
Adding injury to insult, a USB wireless card made by the same company gave my Macintosh a major set of gremlins last year until I junked it for an AirPort card.
I'm not saying their equipment is crap, but then again I'm not saying it isn't, either...
Replacing our wireless router with a new one from NetGear has instantly changed our house network from an intermittent weak signal to a solid 'all-bars' connection.
Adding injury to insult, a USB wireless card made by the same company gave my Macintosh a major set of gremlins last year until I junked it for an AirPort card.
I'm not saying their equipment is crap, but then again I'm not saying it isn't, either...
Another loss
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks died yesterday, at a spry 93.
A true American genius (and the best-looking whitehaired old man since Samuel Clemens and Lee Marvin), his artistry with a camera will remain legendary.
A true American genius (and the best-looking whitehaired old man since Samuel Clemens and Lee Marvin), his artistry with a camera will remain legendary.
Quote for the day
"Whatever man is not on our side and will not spend himself in the interests of justice, we take him to be a man against us. Therefore, wherever you do good for yourself do us ill to the best of your ability, and we will do you ill to the best of ours, with God's will."
Hugh O'Neill, an Irish clan leader, in a letter to one of his enemies, 1595
A good attitude to take into the next century or two of the War Against Terrorism.
And here you thought it was going to be "bring the boys home by Christmas"...
Hugh O'Neill, an Irish clan leader, in a letter to one of his enemies, 1595
A good attitude to take into the next century or two of the War Against Terrorism.
And here you thought it was going to be "bring the boys home by Christmas"...
07 March 2006
A loss
I was just informed that Christopher Reeve's wife, Dana, died today, not even two years after his death. (An environmental group I helped form had him on its board of directors, and he was always very supportive.)
A beautiful woman who showed great compassion and courage during his disabled years, her death from lung cancer sadly leaves their young child orphaned.
In the "you never know" category, yet another lesson in why you need to live your life while you're in it, as today's Quote for the Day points out...
A beautiful woman who showed great compassion and courage during his disabled years, her death from lung cancer sadly leaves their young child orphaned.
In the "you never know" category, yet another lesson in why you need to live your life while you're in it, as today's Quote for the Day points out...
Quote for the day
"Get busy living or get busy dying."
from Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption (both the book and the excellent movie)
from Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption (both the book and the excellent movie)
06 March 2006
The Lone Ranger had the same issue
The French (who would have guessed?) have handed down a ruling by their Council of State that Sikhs must remove their turbans when having their photograph taken for a driving license.
(It's been awhile since I've been in a cab in the Big Apple, but I wonder if the Taxi Commission in New York City will ever take the same stand.)
In Pennsylvania, they're having trouble forcing Black Muslim women to take off their veils for a driver's license photo, and the women are still insisting on being allowed to go into a bank and cash a check with their faces veiled. (Try wearing a mask into your local branch some quiet afternoon; write and let me know how it turns out.)
West of here, some of the Amish are rebelling against having to put reflectors (let alone a strobe light) on the back of their carriages, yet still insist on driving on public roadways at night.
I don't think all this was what the Founding Fathers meant by freedom of religious expression...
(It's been awhile since I've been in a cab in the Big Apple, but I wonder if the Taxi Commission in New York City will ever take the same stand.)
In Pennsylvania, they're having trouble forcing Black Muslim women to take off their veils for a driver's license photo, and the women are still insisting on being allowed to go into a bank and cash a check with their faces veiled. (Try wearing a mask into your local branch some quiet afternoon; write and let me know how it turns out.)
West of here, some of the Amish are rebelling against having to put reflectors (let alone a strobe light) on the back of their carriages, yet still insist on driving on public roadways at night.
I don't think all this was what the Founding Fathers meant by freedom of religious expression...
Now it comes home to roost
Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, born in Iran but having spent most of his life in the United States, has been arraigned on nine counts of attempted murder and nine counts of vehicular assault in an apparent hit and run attack on fellow students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
He said he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah", and intentionally ran people down to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world".
Study his mug shot; this is the new face of theoterrorism:
He said he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah", and intentionally ran people down to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world".
Study his mug shot; this is the new face of theoterrorism:
Quote for the day
"Major Ian Hay, back in the War to End War, described the structure of military organizations: regardless of their Table of Organization, all military bureaucracies consist of a Surprise Party Department, a Practical Joke Department, and a Fairy Godmother department. The first two process most matters, as the third is very small; the Fairy Godmother Department is one elderly female GS-5 clerk usually out on sick leave."
Glory Road by Robert Heinlein
Seems my file got sent over to the Fairy Godmother department; I start my new job (after a long time on the beach) today...
Glory Road by Robert Heinlein
Seems my file got sent over to the Fairy Godmother department; I start my new job (after a long time on the beach) today...
05 March 2006
Quote for the day
"Must be Texans. The lowest form of white man there is."
Robert Duvall as Al Sieber, Chief Scout, in Geronimo: An American Legend
My friends in and from Texas (being a Texan is like being a Marine; there are no ex-Texans) will be outraged...
Robert Duvall as Al Sieber, Chief Scout, in Geronimo: An American Legend
My friends in and from Texas (being a Texan is like being a Marine; there are no ex-Texans) will be outraged...
04 March 2006
Quote for the day
In this world
we stroll along the roof of hell
gawking at flowers
A haiku by Kobayashi Issa, one of Japan’s three greatest haiku masters
Ah, but such flowers...
we stroll along the roof of hell
gawking at flowers
A haiku by Kobayashi Issa, one of Japan’s three greatest haiku masters
Ah, but such flowers...
03 March 2006
Made in America
Sometimes you see something so well made, so well designed, that you want one whether you need it or not:
Actually, this will do nicely for making those naked swimmer videos in the Bahamas, once I win the lottery...
Actually, this will do nicely for making those naked swimmer videos in the Bahamas, once I win the lottery...
Quote for the day
"Having engaged in bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, misconduct of mind, or whatever else is flawed,
not having done what is skillful, having done much that is not,
at the break-up of the body, the undiscerning one reappears in hell."
Buddha, in the Itivuttaka
It's that becoming 'discerning' I need to work on...
not having done what is skillful, having done much that is not,
at the break-up of the body, the undiscerning one reappears in hell."
Buddha, in the Itivuttaka
It's that becoming 'discerning' I need to work on...
02 March 2006
Too special
I am tired of 'special' people. Mostly drivers now, since I stopped taking the train into town last year and thus avoid 'special' pedestrians.
'Special' people are those who consider themselves too 'special' to obey the traffic laws that most of the rest of us work with on a daily basis.
Nah, I'm not talking speeders (though those kids with their little rice-rocket cars zooming through traffic certainly qualify), as nearly everybody speeds at one time or another.
I'm talking about people who:
'Special' people are those who consider themselves too 'special' to obey the traffic laws that most of the rest of us work with on a daily basis.
Nah, I'm not talking speeders (though those kids with their little rice-rocket cars zooming through traffic certainly qualify), as nearly everybody speeds at one time or another.
I'm talking about people who:
- make a right hand turn from the left-turn-only lane across two or three lanes
- take their half of the road out of the middle
- change lanes without a turn signal or without looking
- turn suddenly into a street or driveway without a turnsignal
- mosey onto the freeway at half the speed of traffic, then suddenly accelerate to more than the speed limit
- stop in the middle of the street to have an unnecessary conversation, whether with their passenger, an oncoming car, or a pedestrian
There are other styles out there that make the list, but this will do for a start.
Unfortunately, there appears to be no clear consensus on reinstituting the old system of "heads on stakes at the city limit"...
Quote for the day
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.
(Quote suggested by Brimstone, at the right in the photo)
"In my time I have had desires to be a pirate myself."
from Mark Twain's Autobiography
Me, too... (At the left in the photo)
from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.
(Quote suggested by Brimstone, at the right in the photo)
"In my time I have had desires to be a pirate myself."
from Mark Twain's Autobiography
Me, too... (At the left in the photo)
01 March 2006
Black dot, red dot
I always forget, from year to year, and thus am annually surprised to see all those people downtown walking around with dirty faces. Then I remember it's Ash Wednesday, and those dots and crosses are deliberate, rather than merely bad washing habits.
Technically, the spots are the ashes of the palms that were paraded around the church the previous Sunday, sort of the Catholic equivalent of the tilak the Hindus wear (that 'red dot on the forehead' thing), only once a year rather than daily.
(Few Catholics these days, of course, know that Palm Sunday was originally the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, and the palm leaves were used to build huts outside the temple, representing those the Jews lived in during their forty years wandering in the desert.)
This city has a much larger concentration of Catholics (Irish, Italians, and Poles) than I was used to on the West Coast; the prevalence of the Black Dot is much higher.
These overt displays of religiosity give me the shudders; I keep waiting for the drums to start beating. It's only a notch or two from there to the self-flagellation we see in the Shi'ite communities in Iraq, and even Catholics have a history of that.
These days, given the anti-Christian outlook of our Moslem brethren, it could also be the Catholic equivalent of 'shoot here, please'...
Technically, the spots are the ashes of the palms that were paraded around the church the previous Sunday, sort of the Catholic equivalent of the tilak the Hindus wear (that 'red dot on the forehead' thing), only once a year rather than daily.
(Few Catholics these days, of course, know that Palm Sunday was originally the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, and the palm leaves were used to build huts outside the temple, representing those the Jews lived in during their forty years wandering in the desert.)
This city has a much larger concentration of Catholics (Irish, Italians, and Poles) than I was used to on the West Coast; the prevalence of the Black Dot is much higher.
These overt displays of religiosity give me the shudders; I keep waiting for the drums to start beating. It's only a notch or two from there to the self-flagellation we see in the Shi'ite communities in Iraq, and even Catholics have a history of that.
These days, given the anti-Christian outlook of our Moslem brethren, it could also be the Catholic equivalent of 'shoot here, please'...
Quote for the day
"We eat, shit, fuck, kill, and die."
Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade in Quills
A succinct, if limited, view of the human condition...
Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade in Quills
A succinct, if limited, view of the human condition...
28 February 2006
Forty acres and a mule, more or less
Black History Month should not disappear into history this year without a discussion of reparations. While this has become a popular theme with some African-Americans (and a distinctly unpopular idea with many European-Americans), it remains a divisive issue.
The question is, do white Americans owe money (as distinct from affirmative action and other reverse-racism behaviors designed to set right the wrongs of slavery and its aftermath) to black Americans?
There is no question that blacks, newly freed at the end of the Civil War, believed that Abraham Lincoln (or the Republican Party, oh, yes, that Republican Party, or the abolitionists, or someone) had promised them the now-proverbial Forty Acres and a Mule. (Based, erroneously, on Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued in 1865.)
The phrase lives on still, in reruns of Gone With The Wind and the name of Spike Lee’s production company, and has become the basis of the perplexing problem, okay, if we owe reparations, how much reparations do we owe?
Reparations have been, in the past, typically owed by the losers to the victors. (The entire Roman empire was based on this premise, as was the aftermath of both the First and Second World Wars. Just ask the Germans; they’re still paying reparations to the Israelis, which is why all the taxis in Jerusalem are Mercedes...)
More recently, however, reparations have become owed by the oppressor to the oppressed. (A good example is the well-deserved case of Japanese-Americans, though even they had to wait more than fifty years for the money.)
No one (except maybe Holocaust-deniers) would argue that blacks were not oppressed in this country, beginning with the importation of the first slave in 1655. Slavery, the pleasant fiction of Gone With The Wind notwithstanding, was not a good thing for those enslaved. (No one, except those rare individuals who get some sexual satisfaction from it, has ever volunteered for the job.) Even the end of the First Civil Rights War in 1865 barely diminished their oppression, and some argue that it continues unabated to this day. The Second Civil Rights War, which began in earnest in 1965, made much more rapid progress than the century of Reconstruction and Jim Crow that proceeded it, yet it is still being fought fifty years later, and there remains a deep, cold pool of racism (on both sides of the ‘color line’) in this land that affects us all.
So, reparations. Forty acres and a mule.
Much serious academic study has gone into determining the indeterminable amount that blacks contributed, without pay, to the economy of this country (both antebellum and after), and how much profit whites made from their labor. (This has even included estimating the profits that Boston insurance companies made on cargoes of humans making the Middle Passage from Africa.)
Being a cut-to-the-chase kind of guy, I wondered just what Forty Acres and a Mule gets you, these days. If that’s what we owed in June of 1865 (on “Juneteenth”, when the slaves in Texas heard of their liberation), that’s what we owe now, 150 years later. The value of that land and animal in 1865 is meaningless today, of course, but surely we can let the market revalue the same property in 21st Century dollars.
Before we jump to the bottom line, however, let’s look at who is owed and who is owing.
In the census of 1870, there were 4.88 million blacks and 33.59 million whites; the percentage of blacks was 14.5%. In the 2000 census, there were 38 million blacks and 236 million whites, giving a black population of 16%. Close enough. (We will, for ease of calculation, leave out the Native Americans and Hispanics, some of whom even owned slaves prior to the Civil War, present in both 1870 and 2000.)
But who should be included in the ‘black’ column and who might be excluded from the ‘white’ column?
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in his recent PBS series African American Lives, discovered, to his obvious discomforture, that his heritage was fifty percent white. (He even asked “Do I only get half a reparation check?”, little realizing that his white half would also have to contribute to it...) Many African-Americans have the same mixed ancestry, in differing percentages. But do all persons who ‘self-identify’ (the term used by the Census Bureau, since they do no DNA testing to determine the proper category for a resident) as black qualify for reparations? Do black people whose ancestors (or they themselves) came to this country after 1865 qualify? How ‘black’ do you have to be to qualify, and is it, like Henry Louis Gates, proportional?
Are white people whose ancestors (or they themselves) came to this country after 1865 exempt from having to pay reparations, and is that exemption proportional? (Over ten percent of Americans claim Irish ancestry, nearly all of whom came here after the Potato Famine of 1845, and thus had little chance to profit from slavery.) What about white people (myself included) whose ancestors fought, were wounded, and died in the Union Army? Are they exempt, or do they get a deduction for their ancestral efforts? What about white people (myself included) whose ancestors fought, were wounded, and died in the Confederate Army, whether or not they ever owned slaves? (Remember, even those who fought in the Lost Cause for those mythical “States Rights” did so for the right to some day, if they were lucky, own slaves...) Do they get double-billed for the intransigence of their ancestors?
All this is why actually paying reparations may prove difficult.
But I’m willing to settle up (once that Union vs Confederate ancestor thing gets worked out) and pay my part of the debt. But the question remains, how much?
According to a recent Google search, 40 acres of wooded timberland in Choctaw County, Mississippi (remember, the original offer was always rumored to be for “forty acres of Mississippi bottomland”) is for sale for $100,000. The same search produced a mule auction at which the average price for a first-class mule was $5,000.
Forty acres and a mule? $105,000 in 2006 dollars.
Figure two decent mules (easier to plow with), and next year’s taxes (remember Gone With The Wind?), and we’ll round it off at $110,000.
Now for the hard math: Let’s assume that every black person (men, women, and children) in the 2000 census gets that amount. The total is $4,180,000,000,000. That’s 4.2 trillion dollars, which sounds like a lot of money. Divided by all the white people (men, women, and children) in the 2000 census, that’s $17,711 each. Not so bad on a per-head basis (unless you’ve got a wife and six kids, of course.) Assuming they issue bonds to pay it, I’ll sign up for a payroll deduction for my share right now.
Do reverse-racism regulations and quotas (like affirmative action) go away once the bill is paid? Do Confederate flags get outlawed, or just ignored? Do Jerry Farwell and Jesse Jackson have to go open a church together somewhere and preach on alternate Sundays? All questions for a rant on another day...
The question is, do white Americans owe money (as distinct from affirmative action and other reverse-racism behaviors designed to set right the wrongs of slavery and its aftermath) to black Americans?
There is no question that blacks, newly freed at the end of the Civil War, believed that Abraham Lincoln (or the Republican Party, oh, yes, that Republican Party, or the abolitionists, or someone) had promised them the now-proverbial Forty Acres and a Mule. (Based, erroneously, on Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued in 1865.)
The phrase lives on still, in reruns of Gone With The Wind and the name of Spike Lee’s production company, and has become the basis of the perplexing problem, okay, if we owe reparations, how much reparations do we owe?
Reparations have been, in the past, typically owed by the losers to the victors. (The entire Roman empire was based on this premise, as was the aftermath of both the First and Second World Wars. Just ask the Germans; they’re still paying reparations to the Israelis, which is why all the taxis in Jerusalem are Mercedes...)
More recently, however, reparations have become owed by the oppressor to the oppressed. (A good example is the well-deserved case of Japanese-Americans, though even they had to wait more than fifty years for the money.)
No one (except maybe Holocaust-deniers) would argue that blacks were not oppressed in this country, beginning with the importation of the first slave in 1655. Slavery, the pleasant fiction of Gone With The Wind notwithstanding, was not a good thing for those enslaved. (No one, except those rare individuals who get some sexual satisfaction from it, has ever volunteered for the job.) Even the end of the First Civil Rights War in 1865 barely diminished their oppression, and some argue that it continues unabated to this day. The Second Civil Rights War, which began in earnest in 1965, made much more rapid progress than the century of Reconstruction and Jim Crow that proceeded it, yet it is still being fought fifty years later, and there remains a deep, cold pool of racism (on both sides of the ‘color line’) in this land that affects us all.
So, reparations. Forty acres and a mule.
Much serious academic study has gone into determining the indeterminable amount that blacks contributed, without pay, to the economy of this country (both antebellum and after), and how much profit whites made from their labor. (This has even included estimating the profits that Boston insurance companies made on cargoes of humans making the Middle Passage from Africa.)
Being a cut-to-the-chase kind of guy, I wondered just what Forty Acres and a Mule gets you, these days. If that’s what we owed in June of 1865 (on “Juneteenth”, when the slaves in Texas heard of their liberation), that’s what we owe now, 150 years later. The value of that land and animal in 1865 is meaningless today, of course, but surely we can let the market revalue the same property in 21st Century dollars.
Before we jump to the bottom line, however, let’s look at who is owed and who is owing.
In the census of 1870, there were 4.88 million blacks and 33.59 million whites; the percentage of blacks was 14.5%. In the 2000 census, there were 38 million blacks and 236 million whites, giving a black population of 16%. Close enough. (We will, for ease of calculation, leave out the Native Americans and Hispanics, some of whom even owned slaves prior to the Civil War, present in both 1870 and 2000.)
But who should be included in the ‘black’ column and who might be excluded from the ‘white’ column?
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in his recent PBS series African American Lives, discovered, to his obvious discomforture, that his heritage was fifty percent white. (He even asked “Do I only get half a reparation check?”, little realizing that his white half would also have to contribute to it...) Many African-Americans have the same mixed ancestry, in differing percentages. But do all persons who ‘self-identify’ (the term used by the Census Bureau, since they do no DNA testing to determine the proper category for a resident) as black qualify for reparations? Do black people whose ancestors (or they themselves) came to this country after 1865 qualify? How ‘black’ do you have to be to qualify, and is it, like Henry Louis Gates, proportional?
Are white people whose ancestors (or they themselves) came to this country after 1865 exempt from having to pay reparations, and is that exemption proportional? (Over ten percent of Americans claim Irish ancestry, nearly all of whom came here after the Potato Famine of 1845, and thus had little chance to profit from slavery.) What about white people (myself included) whose ancestors fought, were wounded, and died in the Union Army? Are they exempt, or do they get a deduction for their ancestral efforts? What about white people (myself included) whose ancestors fought, were wounded, and died in the Confederate Army, whether or not they ever owned slaves? (Remember, even those who fought in the Lost Cause for those mythical “States Rights” did so for the right to some day, if they were lucky, own slaves...) Do they get double-billed for the intransigence of their ancestors?
All this is why actually paying reparations may prove difficult.
But I’m willing to settle up (once that Union vs Confederate ancestor thing gets worked out) and pay my part of the debt. But the question remains, how much?
According to a recent Google search, 40 acres of wooded timberland in Choctaw County, Mississippi (remember, the original offer was always rumored to be for “forty acres of Mississippi bottomland”) is for sale for $100,000. The same search produced a mule auction at which the average price for a first-class mule was $5,000.
Forty acres and a mule? $105,000 in 2006 dollars.
Figure two decent mules (easier to plow with), and next year’s taxes (remember Gone With The Wind?), and we’ll round it off at $110,000.
Now for the hard math: Let’s assume that every black person (men, women, and children) in the 2000 census gets that amount. The total is $4,180,000,000,000. That’s 4.2 trillion dollars, which sounds like a lot of money. Divided by all the white people (men, women, and children) in the 2000 census, that’s $17,711 each. Not so bad on a per-head basis (unless you’ve got a wife and six kids, of course.) Assuming they issue bonds to pay it, I’ll sign up for a payroll deduction for my share right now.
Do reverse-racism regulations and quotas (like affirmative action) go away once the bill is paid? Do Confederate flags get outlawed, or just ignored? Do Jerry Farwell and Jesse Jackson have to go open a church together somewhere and preach on alternate Sundays? All questions for a rant on another day...
Quote for the day
"Between the negroes and the enemy it is war to the death."
"The colored troops have cheerfully accepted... (that) no quarter is to be shown. Those here have not the least idea of living after they fall into (Confederate) hands."
Thomas Morris Chester, the only black correspondent 'embedded' with the Union Army, reporting from Richmond, Virginia in 1865, in an article by David Lander in American Legacy magazine.
A man who knew something about racial and religious wars...
"The colored troops have cheerfully accepted... (that) no quarter is to be shown. Those here have not the least idea of living after they fall into (Confederate) hands."
Thomas Morris Chester, the only black correspondent 'embedded' with the Union Army, reporting from Richmond, Virginia in 1865, in an article by David Lander in American Legacy magazine.
A man who knew something about racial and religious wars...
27 February 2006
Quote for the day
"I'm just gettin' warmed up!"
Al Pacino as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman
Me, too...
Al Pacino as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman
Me, too...
26 February 2006
Quote for the day
"I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew, but I never took it. You know why ? It was too damned hard."
Al Pacino as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman
Me, too...
Al Pacino as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman
Me, too...
25 February 2006
Quotes for the day
"If you want a country which has Shari'a law, or is a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you."
Peter Costello, Australian Minister of the Treasury
"People who don't want to be Australians, who don't want to live by Australian values, well, then, they can basically clear off."
Brendan Nelson, Australian Minister of Education
Good on yer, mate!
Australia has a lot of great things going for it (sun, beaches, the Outback) but, alas, no Second Amendment...
Peter Costello, Australian Minister of the Treasury
"People who don't want to be Australians, who don't want to live by Australian values, well, then, they can basically clear off."
Brendan Nelson, Australian Minister of Education
Good on yer, mate!
Australia has a lot of great things going for it (sun, beaches, the Outback) but, alas, no Second Amendment...
24 February 2006
Quote for the day
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "Woo hoo what a ride!"
from the blog of Ms Pretty Green Eyes
from the blog of Ms Pretty Green Eyes
23 February 2006
Politeness in steel
My search for a quote from Heinlein led me, in the usual inscrutable way of the Internet, to the blade in the photo, made by these folks.
Now that is a sword. No doubt about it.
If more people carried them, then Heinlein's adage ("An armed society is a polite society") would doubtless be proven true.
And if I had a spare two thousand bucks, I'd be carrying one...
Now that is a sword. No doubt about it.
If more people carried them, then Heinlein's adage ("An armed society is a polite society") would doubtless be proven true.
And if I had a spare two thousand bucks, I'd be carrying one...
Is it any wonder they don't get along?
One reason the military has trouble coordinating joint operations is that the different services don't speak the same language.
For example, if Navy personnel were told to 'secure a building', they would, following a checklist written on a clipboard, unplug the equipment, turn off the lights, lock the doors, and depart.
Given the same instructions, Army personnel would follow a checklist written in a notebook. They would occupy the building, so that no one could enter and nothing could leave.
In execution of the same instructions, and following a plan written on the palms of their hands, Marines would assault the building, capture it by close combat, and defend it with suppressive fire.
The Air Force, on the other hand, following a protocol printed on a portable computer, would 'secure a building' by taking out a three-year lease on it with an option to buy.
from the Military Terms of the Modern Era website
(There may be some sarcasm involved here...)
For example, if Navy personnel were told to 'secure a building', they would, following a checklist written on a clipboard, unplug the equipment, turn off the lights, lock the doors, and depart.
Given the same instructions, Army personnel would follow a checklist written in a notebook. They would occupy the building, so that no one could enter and nothing could leave.
In execution of the same instructions, and following a plan written on the palms of their hands, Marines would assault the building, capture it by close combat, and defend it with suppressive fire.
The Air Force, on the other hand, following a protocol printed on a portable computer, would 'secure a building' by taking out a three-year lease on it with an option to buy.
from the Military Terms of the Modern Era website
(There may be some sarcasm involved here...)
Quote for the day
"The air in Texas has only got air in it. Why, New York air, you can sink your teeth into it."
Tony Randall as Jonathan Forbes in Pillow Talk
Tony Randall as Jonathan Forbes in Pillow Talk
22 February 2006
More unsung heroes
Watching (for the first time, I'm ashamed to admit) The Tuskegee Airmen (an excellent film starring just about every black actor working today except Denzel, including Laurence Fishburne, Allen Payne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Andre Braugher, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Mekhi Phifer) tonight, I'm reminded of what a fucking pitiful waste racism has been in this country.
Both for the obvious loss of the incredible contribution that people of color (a phrase I don't especially like; I, too, am a color, especially when I've been out in the sun) could have made if given the chance, as well as the incredible waste of energy that white people (another phrase I don't especially like; I am not very white, even when I've been out of the sun, but sort of a low-grade pink) have allowed themselves in being racist.
I've been on three continents and more than forty of the United States and, trust me, assholes come in all colors...
As do geniuses, and heroes, and hard-working people. Trying to slice them any other way than by ability and attitude is not only ridiculous, it's useless.
(If you're queer for WW2 aircraft, especially the Mustang, like I am, that's another good reason, besides the story and the great acting, to watch this film.)
Both for the obvious loss of the incredible contribution that people of color (a phrase I don't especially like; I, too, am a color, especially when I've been out in the sun) could have made if given the chance, as well as the incredible waste of energy that white people (another phrase I don't especially like; I am not very white, even when I've been out of the sun, but sort of a low-grade pink) have allowed themselves in being racist.
I've been on three continents and more than forty of the United States and, trust me, assholes come in all colors...
As do geniuses, and heroes, and hard-working people. Trying to slice them any other way than by ability and attitude is not only ridiculous, it's useless.
(If you're queer for WW2 aircraft, especially the Mustang, like I am, that's another good reason, besides the story and the great acting, to watch this film.)
Unsung hero
Staring up, for the thousandth time, at my lobby-size poster for The Professionals (do you think I like this movie?), I finally noticed that, even though there's room, one of the major actors doesn't have his name on it.Woody Strode (that's him at the right of the line of Professionals in the photo) was in 89 films (including his memorable role as the falsely-accused sergeant in the sadly-forgotten John Ford film Sergeant Rutledge) in his career, after he was one of the first four black men to play in the NFL. His quiet role in The Professionals was crucial to the success not only of the plot, but of the movie.
Was his absence from the Professionals poster racism? More likely Hollywood classism ("you ain't a star, you don't get your name on the poster"), but surely the fact that he was black, and that it was 1965 when the movie was made, played a part.
Truly a forgotten hero. But not by me...
21 February 2006
Needs a moniker
This photo looks like a Dick Tracy villain, or a mugshot from the early G-man era. I can see it on a Most Wanted poster pinned to the wall down at the post office...
Yes, that's a college-era John F. Kerry.
Amazing what almost became President, isn't it, versus the other JFK from Massachusetts (at about the same age)...
Yes, that's a college-era John F. Kerry.
Amazing what almost became President, isn't it, versus the other JFK from Massachusetts (at about the same age)...
No remesa, no immigration?
With remittances from Mexican workers (both legal and illegal) from the United States to Mexico topping $20 billion this year, the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, is rightly concerned about any potential drop in what is now Mexico's second largest income sector (exceeded only by oil exports) if future immigration by Mexicans to the United States is impeded by plans to 'wall off' the border between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific.
I wonder what would happen if, in the name of the "War on Immigration", the White House ordered the cutoff of money orders and bank transfers to Mexico? (We'd probably have to train cash-sniffing dogs to check the southbound mails...)
I wonder what would happen if, in the name of the "War on Immigration", the White House ordered the cutoff of money orders and bank transfers to Mexico? (We'd probably have to train cash-sniffing dogs to check the southbound mails...)
Next season on Desperate Housewives?
According to a new book about gladiators, the Roman emperor Domitian once organized nighttime games in which female gladiators fought dwarfs by torchlight.
It would do so well during Sweeps Week...
It would do so well during Sweeps Week...
You say Katrina, I say...
During which event, the clearing of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina or the takeover of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, did the following scene take place?
"...a woman watched soldiers stride onto the porches of the houses and knock on the doors and ask the people who answered if they had any weapons. "We are here now to protect you," the soldiers said, "and no one has a need for a weapon any more." People who said that they kept no weapons were forced to stand aside and allow the soldiers to look for themselves..."
For an explication of this true story, see Dave Kopel's great article on the falsehoods behind attempts to use the United Nations to disarm everyone...
"...a woman watched soldiers stride onto the porches of the houses and knock on the doors and ask the people who answered if they had any weapons. "We are here now to protect you," the soldiers said, "and no one has a need for a weapon any more." People who said that they kept no weapons were forced to stand aside and allow the soldiers to look for themselves..."
For an explication of this true story, see Dave Kopel's great article on the falsehoods behind attempts to use the United Nations to disarm everyone...
High time for an old idea
After the First World War (for those born too recently to know what that was, it was the first time most countries that had armies got to use them), a number of places that had been colonies of the defeated Germans were taken over by the League of Nations (for those born too recently to know what that was, it was the first time most countries that had armies agreed not to use them) and run under what was termed a mandate, a fancy word meaning "we're in charge now".
After the Second World War (for those born too recently to know what that was, it was the last time most countries that had armies got to use them), the same thing was implemented by the United Nations (the guys in the big building in New York City that took over the League of Nations franchise) for places that had been colonies of the defeated Japanese, under what was, amazingly, still called a mandate.
Given the situation in northern Uganda (and the Sudan and Somalia and many similar places around the world), where local government is either totally ineffective or actually operating a little profitable genocide program on the side, maybe it's time to reintroduce the Mandate. (Or just airdrop weapons so that the locals can defend themselves.)
We send in a bunch of NGOs (NonGovernmental Organizations, or 'do-gooders', as they used to be called) and a slew of PMOs (Private Military Organizations, or 'mercenaries', as they used to be called), both sets of hirelings armed with heavy weapons and a shit-pot (a financial term meaning, in Washingtonian terms, "more than the budget for mosquito control but less than the budget for farm subsidies") full of money.
If we can't out-source a government that runs better than the ridiculous charades that pass for governments in these places, we should give up and implement a media ban so the weak-stomach'd among us don't have to hear about the slaughter...
After the Second World War (for those born too recently to know what that was, it was the last time most countries that had armies got to use them), the same thing was implemented by the United Nations (the guys in the big building in New York City that took over the League of Nations franchise) for places that had been colonies of the defeated Japanese, under what was, amazingly, still called a mandate.
Given the situation in northern Uganda (and the Sudan and Somalia and many similar places around the world), where local government is either totally ineffective or actually operating a little profitable genocide program on the side, maybe it's time to reintroduce the Mandate. (Or just airdrop weapons so that the locals can defend themselves.)
We send in a bunch of NGOs (NonGovernmental Organizations, or 'do-gooders', as they used to be called) and a slew of PMOs (Private Military Organizations, or 'mercenaries', as they used to be called), both sets of hirelings armed with heavy weapons and a shit-pot (a financial term meaning, in Washingtonian terms, "more than the budget for mosquito control but less than the budget for farm subsidies") full of money.
If we can't out-source a government that runs better than the ridiculous charades that pass for governments in these places, we should give up and implement a media ban so the weak-stomach'd among us don't have to hear about the slaughter...
20 February 2006
19 February 2006
Horseback Mountain
When I was exploring the 'cowboyness' of Brokeback Mountain, I had only watched the trailers and read some things about it on the Net. (Caveat: my ladyfriend had seen it, and liked it.)
But an interview with the screenwriters showed more of the movie than I'd been willing to pay to see, and I think they proved my point:
The boys of Brokeback Mountain herd sheep.
Okay, so they do it from horseback. That doesn't make them cowboys. Cowboys herd cattle. Sheepherders herd sheep. That's the Rule of the West.
And, in more than one Western, the cowboys hate the sheepherders.
Maybe McMurtry wrote a script about a far more classic theme than I suspected...
But an interview with the screenwriters showed more of the movie than I'd been willing to pay to see, and I think they proved my point:
The boys of Brokeback Mountain herd sheep.
Okay, so they do it from horseback. That doesn't make them cowboys. Cowboys herd cattle. Sheepherders herd sheep. That's the Rule of the West.
And, in more than one Western, the cowboys hate the sheepherders.
Maybe McMurtry wrote a script about a far more classic theme than I suspected...
Quote for the day
"Members of the martyrdom-seeking garrisons across the world have been put on alert so that, if the Islamic Republic of Iran receives the smallest threat, the American and Israeli strategic interests will be burnt down everywhere."
By a senior commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
(Now you can't say you weren't warned.)
By a senior commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
(Now you can't say you weren't warned.)
18 February 2006
EFTs
EFT stands for Electronic Funds Transfer.
It could also stand for Eternal Fucking Trouble, or Easily Fooled Twice, or Endless Foolish Transactions...
It seems that, once you've enabled a company (like my health insurance thieves, ah, I mean provider) to debit your account, it is apparently very hard to pull the plug on their ability to hit you for whatever they want.
My bank was spectacularly unhelpful with my attempt to disable their monthly raids on my account.
But there is hope, now that I have an email (in spite of this pathetic caveat on their website: "We are in the process of reorganizing our Customer Service Department and are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please continue to try your call or email your questions to us. We apologize for any inconvenience you may be experiencing.") saying they will cease and desist...
(For those experiencing similar problems, check out this Federal site; it has some good details on what you can and can't do.)
It could also stand for Eternal Fucking Trouble, or Easily Fooled Twice, or Endless Foolish Transactions...
It seems that, once you've enabled a company (like my health insurance thieves, ah, I mean provider) to debit your account, it is apparently very hard to pull the plug on their ability to hit you for whatever they want.
My bank was spectacularly unhelpful with my attempt to disable their monthly raids on my account.
But there is hope, now that I have an email (in spite of this pathetic caveat on their website: "We are in the process of reorganizing our Customer Service Department and are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please continue to try your call or email your questions to us. We apologize for any inconvenience you may be experiencing.") saying they will cease and desist...
(For those experiencing similar problems, check out this Federal site; it has some good details on what you can and can't do.)
Quote for the day
"There's always that chance that there will be people who are offended, and we want to guard against that."
Karon Skinner-Catrone, chairperson of the 10-person No Place for Hate Committee of Stoughton, Connecticut, about the decision of Stoughton's town manager to fly a Danish flag from the town flagpole.
(She's now entered in the Dhimmi of the Year contest.)
Karon Skinner-Catrone, chairperson of the 10-person No Place for Hate Committee of Stoughton, Connecticut, about the decision of Stoughton's town manager to fly a Danish flag from the town flagpole.
(She's now entered in the Dhimmi of the Year contest.)
17 February 2006
Know thy enemy
Sun Tzu wrote: "Know thy enemy, know thyself, in a thousand battles, a thousand victories."
This map is an indication of where some come from. Not all in the green places, surely, not even most, not (perhaps) many, but enough.
(It shows merely the obvious homelands of the Islamofascists. They're here, too, of course, along with the Christofascists. On a map of the United States, the red ones are a clue. Know your enemies, know yourself...)
This map is an indication of where some come from. Not all in the green places, surely, not even most, not (perhaps) many, but enough.
(It shows merely the obvious homelands of the Islamofascists. They're here, too, of course, along with the Christofascists. On a map of the United States, the red ones are a clue. Know your enemies, know yourself...)
Lawyers take one in the head, yet again
via my friend Ben, who has special feelings about the species:
Attorney hunting guide
1. Any person with a valid Texas hunting license may harvest attorneys.
2. The taking of attorneys with traps or deadfalls is permitted. The use of currency as bait is prohibited.
3. The killing of attorneys with a vehicle is prohibited. If accidentally struck, remove roadkill to roadside, then proceed to nearest car wash.
4. It is unlawful to chase, herd, or harvest attorneys from a helicopter or other aircraft.
5. It shall be unlawful to shout Whiplash!, Ambulance!, or Free Liquor! for the purposes of luring attorneys.
6. It shall be unlawful to use controlled substances (single malt scotch, $100 bills, prostitutes, or vehicle accidents) to attract attorneys.
7. It shall be unlawful to hunt attorneys within 200 yards of cardiac rehab centers, ambulances, hospitals, or bars across from the courthouse.
8. If an attorney has been elected to government office, there will be a $500 bounty on the pelt.
9. Stuffed or mounted attorneys must have a state health department inspection for rabies, vermin, and contagious diseases.
10. It shall be illegal for a hunter to disguise himself as a reporter, drug dealer, pimp, female law clerk, sheep, accident victim, bookie, or tax accountant for the purposes of hunting attorneys.
Bag limits:
Silverbacked Texas Millionaire = one (in possession)
Yellowbellied Sidewinder = 5
Hairless Civil Libertarian = 7
Skinny-assed Ambulance Chaser = 12
Horse or Cattle Rustler Defender = 20
Silver-tongued Murderer Defender = 50
Jack-legged Divorce Litigator = no limit
Intellectual Property or intellectual anything = protected species (rare; report sightings)
Honest Attorney = extinct
Attorney hunting guide
1. Any person with a valid Texas hunting license may harvest attorneys.
2. The taking of attorneys with traps or deadfalls is permitted. The use of currency as bait is prohibited.
3. The killing of attorneys with a vehicle is prohibited. If accidentally struck, remove roadkill to roadside, then proceed to nearest car wash.
4. It is unlawful to chase, herd, or harvest attorneys from a helicopter or other aircraft.
5. It shall be unlawful to shout Whiplash!, Ambulance!, or Free Liquor! for the purposes of luring attorneys.
6. It shall be unlawful to use controlled substances (single malt scotch, $100 bills, prostitutes, or vehicle accidents) to attract attorneys.
7. It shall be unlawful to hunt attorneys within 200 yards of cardiac rehab centers, ambulances, hospitals, or bars across from the courthouse.
8. If an attorney has been elected to government office, there will be a $500 bounty on the pelt.
9. Stuffed or mounted attorneys must have a state health department inspection for rabies, vermin, and contagious diseases.
10. It shall be illegal for a hunter to disguise himself as a reporter, drug dealer, pimp, female law clerk, sheep, accident victim, bookie, or tax accountant for the purposes of hunting attorneys.
Bag limits:
Silverbacked Texas Millionaire = one (in possession)
Yellowbellied Sidewinder = 5
Hairless Civil Libertarian = 7
Skinny-assed Ambulance Chaser = 12
Horse or Cattle Rustler Defender = 20
Silver-tongued Murderer Defender = 50
Jack-legged Divorce Litigator = no limit
Intellectual Property or intellectual anything = protected species (rare; report sightings)
Honest Attorney = extinct
Quote for the day
“Never forget that all the love in the world doesn’t make up for a second of inattention.”
Bill Lee, ex-baseball player (fourteen years in the majors), in the article ¡Viva los Diplomats! in the October 2000 Men’s Journal
Bill Lee, ex-baseball player (fourteen years in the majors), in the article ¡Viva los Diplomats! in the October 2000 Men’s Journal
16 February 2006
The list
Seems there's this list out there... (It puts those 'four question' memes to shame.) Here's mine; the things I've done are in bold.
(I stole it from her, but she apparently stole it from her. And so it goes, in the blogosphere.)
1. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said 'I love you' and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten my own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than I can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when I wasn't ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied my bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as I possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about my life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for my computer
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved my job
51. Taken care of someone who was shit-faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Gone rock climbing
60. Lied to an official of a foreign government in that country
61. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
62. Gone sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then I was actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed my own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized my records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Gone scuba diving
75. Got it on to Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in movie
80. Done something I should regret, but don't regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who wasn't supposed to know about my blog discovered my blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had my heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone I shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch (with help)
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn me on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk I don't remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in the Rocky Horror Picture Show mimick show
125. Read (and understood) my credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed my favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named my own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that my ancestors did
132. Called or written my Congressperson
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. ...more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when I knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion, or my female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that I shouldn't have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone's heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight (takeoff, flight, and landing)
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all seven continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had my picture in the newspaper
172. Had two (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in my lifetime
173. Changed someone's mind about something I care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed my name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author who I missed in school, and read them
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, or cups because my apartment needed them
183. ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because I did it so many times, they figured out it was me
184. Taught myself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all my school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written my own computer language
191. Thought to myself that I'm living my dream
192. Had to put someone I love into hospice care
193. Built my own PC from parts
194. Sold my own artwork to someone who didn't know me
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196. Dyed my hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump me via LiveJournal
199: Written my own role-playing game
200: Been arrested
(I stole it from her, but she apparently stole it from her. And so it goes, in the blogosphere.)
1. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said 'I love you' and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten my own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than I can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when I wasn't ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied my bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as I possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about my life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for my computer
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved my job
51. Taken care of someone who was shit-faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Gone rock climbing
60. Lied to an official of a foreign government in that country
61. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
62. Gone sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then I was actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed my own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized my records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Gone scuba diving
75. Got it on to Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in movie
80. Done something I should regret, but don't regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who wasn't supposed to know about my blog discovered my blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had my heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone I shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch (with help)
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn me on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk I don't remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in the Rocky Horror Picture Show mimick show
125. Read (and understood) my credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed my favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named my own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that my ancestors did
132. Called or written my Congressperson
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. ...more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when I knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion, or my female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that I shouldn't have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone's heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight (takeoff, flight, and landing)
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all seven continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had my picture in the newspaper
172. Had two (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in my lifetime
173. Changed someone's mind about something I care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed my name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author who I missed in school, and read them
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, or cups because my apartment needed them
183. ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because I did it so many times, they figured out it was me
184. Taught myself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all my school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written my own computer language
191. Thought to myself that I'm living my dream
192. Had to put someone I love into hospice care
193. Built my own PC from parts
194. Sold my own artwork to someone who didn't know me
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196. Dyed my hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump me via LiveJournal
199: Written my own role-playing game
200: Been arrested
Three-dot journalism
The reigning monarch of Three Dot Journalism, Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle is, alas, dead.
While I neither desire nor deserve his title, I have happily purloined his use of the ellipsis (those three closely-spaced dots at the end of a line).
I've long used them (starting back when I was still reading his daily column), but didn't realize until recently why they're so appropriate for my writing.
For those who never got their Telegraphy merit badge in the Boy Scouts, the Morse code symbol dot-dot-dot represents the letter 's'.
Coincidentally, that's one of my initials.
Just a little-known fact that makes life more interesting...
(Actually, this blog doesn't use ellipses, but three periods in a row, which actually look different. The Macintosh OS, with which I write, displays the symbol readily, but many Gates-OS machines don't parse it unless you type it as a clumsy Unicode string, which I have, heretofore, refused to learn.)
While I neither desire nor deserve his title, I have happily purloined his use of the ellipsis (those three closely-spaced dots at the end of a line).
I've long used them (starting back when I was still reading his daily column), but didn't realize until recently why they're so appropriate for my writing.
For those who never got their Telegraphy merit badge in the Boy Scouts, the Morse code symbol dot-dot-dot represents the letter 's'.
Coincidentally, that's one of my initials.
Just a little-known fact that makes life more interesting...
(Actually, this blog doesn't use ellipses, but three periods in a row, which actually look different. The Macintosh OS, with which I write, displays the symbol readily, but many Gates-OS machines don't parse it unless you type it as a clumsy Unicode string, which I have, heretofore, refused to learn.)
Quote for the day
"The fight is not going to be with the world, but with yourself."
Stephen Crane, 1896
Stephen Crane, 1896
15 February 2006
No such thing as an AD
Of course, Cheney having finally owned up to his, we should discuss the concept of 'accidental discharge'.
(No, that's not something on the sheets...)
I was taught that there's no such thing as an 'accidental' discharge of a firearm.
There may be an 'inadvertant' discharge, or an 'oops, I didn't mean to do that' discharge, but shy of a meteorite landing on your trigger finger and making the gun go off, there are no 'accidental' discharges. If the gun is in your hands and it goes off, you're responsible.
So Cheney screwed up.
Loss of hunting license? Sounds reasonable to me.
Required hunter training class? Surely.
Charged with negligent attempted homicide? Seems excessive.
Don't hunt with Cheney? Not a problem; I don't think I was invited anyway.
The last time a vice president shot someone was in Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11, 1804. (The famed Burr/Hamilton duel.)
Once every 200 years isn't so bad...
(No, that's not something on the sheets...)
I was taught that there's no such thing as an 'accidental' discharge of a firearm.
There may be an 'inadvertant' discharge, or an 'oops, I didn't mean to do that' discharge, but shy of a meteorite landing on your trigger finger and making the gun go off, there are no 'accidental' discharges. If the gun is in your hands and it goes off, you're responsible.
So Cheney screwed up.
Loss of hunting license? Sounds reasonable to me.
Required hunter training class? Surely.
Charged with negligent attempted homicide? Seems excessive.
Don't hunt with Cheney? Not a problem; I don't think I was invited anyway.
The last time a vice president shot someone was in Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11, 1804. (The famed Burr/Hamilton duel.)
Once every 200 years isn't so bad...
Hunting in Texas
The media (mainstream and blogosphere) is all a-twitter over Cheney's hunting accident.
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC (who I usually like) even had to correct himself last night, after he'd conflated 30 yards into 90 feet into 90 yards and was trying to get some trauma surgeon to do live forensic analysis, hoping that the shooting had been hushed up because "the wounds are inconsistent with the use of a 28-gauge shotgun at 90 yards"...
The shooting wasn't 'hushed up'.
In Texas, when you're the guest of someone who owns a spread the size of the Armstrong Ranch, they do the talking, to the press or anyone else, and they do damn little of that.
Why?
Because, in Texas, when you shoot someone accidentally while hunting, you don't make a big deal out of it.
The Armstrongs sent the guy to the hospital, they called the sheriff, they called the local paper.
In Texas, at that point, you're done...
Damn, people, the Secret Service was on the scene!
Next thing you know, they'll be implicating some 'grassy knoll' shooter...
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC (who I usually like) even had to correct himself last night, after he'd conflated 30 yards into 90 feet into 90 yards and was trying to get some trauma surgeon to do live forensic analysis, hoping that the shooting had been hushed up because "the wounds are inconsistent with the use of a 28-gauge shotgun at 90 yards"...
The shooting wasn't 'hushed up'.
In Texas, when you're the guest of someone who owns a spread the size of the Armstrong Ranch, they do the talking, to the press or anyone else, and they do damn little of that.
Why?
Because, in Texas, when you shoot someone accidentally while hunting, you don't make a big deal out of it.
The Armstrongs sent the guy to the hospital, they called the sheriff, they called the local paper.
In Texas, at that point, you're done...
Damn, people, the Secret Service was on the scene!
Next thing you know, they'll be implicating some 'grassy knoll' shooter...
Frantic gestures
I passed through a dead-traffic-light intersection yesterday. Four lanes each way on my street, two each way on the cross street. They had four cops out directing traffic. (Slow crime day, I guess.)
The odd part was, not a one of them had a whistle.
When I was a kid, any cop directing traffic always had a shiny chrome whistle stuck in his (in those days it was invariably his) mouth. There was even a cop in Pittsburgh (while I was in college there) whose traffic direction (aided by his whistle) frequently made those video shows; he was a treat to watch.
Police whistles, of course, are descendants of those used by the British Metropolitan Police; in the last century, before radios, that's the best method the 'bobbies' had for communicating.
Even in these days of loud car stereos and iPods, a good shrill cop whistle can cut through the urban noise like nothing else.
I'll miss 'em. Damn sure, the cops at that intersection could have used 'em...
The odd part was, not a one of them had a whistle.
When I was a kid, any cop directing traffic always had a shiny chrome whistle stuck in his (in those days it was invariably his) mouth. There was even a cop in Pittsburgh (while I was in college there) whose traffic direction (aided by his whistle) frequently made those video shows; he was a treat to watch.
Police whistles, of course, are descendants of those used by the British Metropolitan Police; in the last century, before radios, that's the best method the 'bobbies' had for communicating.
Even in these days of loud car stereos and iPods, a good shrill cop whistle can cut through the urban noise like nothing else.
I'll miss 'em. Damn sure, the cops at that intersection could have used 'em...
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