Conservative Corner
(my brother, Dan)
Unashamed
(my brother, Scott)
Crazy Aunt Purl
(my friend Laurie)
There's Pie In the Lunchroom
(my friend Chuck)
Too Fat For Ponies
(my friend Sam)
Post Secret
(a place to share secrets)
Hicks, Chicks and Pogo Sticks
(My friend, Tracey)
Recent posts:
2006
Oct. 30-Nov. 10, 2006
Oct. 23-27, 2006
Oct. 2-20, 2006
Sept. 19-28, 2006
Sept. 1-14, 2006
August 23-31, 2006
August 14-18,2006
August 1-10, 2006
July 13-31, 2006
June 26-July 5, 2006
June 13-20, 2006
May 30-June 8, 2006
May 22-26, 2006
May 9-16, 2006
May 2-5, 2006
April 17-28, 2006
April 10-14, 2006
March 27-April 7, 2006
March 6-10, 2006
Feb. 27 - March 3, 2006
Feb. 20-24, 2006
Feb. 13-17, 2006
Feb. 6-9, 2006
Jan 30-Feb 2, 2006
Jan 23-27, 2006
Jan 16-20, 2006
Jan 3-11, 2006
2005
Dec 27-30, 2005
Dec 19-22, 2005
Dec 8-16, 2005
Dec 1-7, 2005
Dec. 8, 2006
One thing I really like about the Mary Cheney pregnancy is that it's bringing out the hypocrits. If you'll recall, back during the presidential debates, John Kerry mentioned a fact that was well-known -- Mary Cheney is a lesbian. She was out and proud, but the right-wing went ape-poopy, saying Kerry invaded her privacy.
They beat him over the head for days for daring to talk about Mary's sexual orientation, when it was obviously a private matter. Now, these very same pundits (I'm looking at you O'Reilly) feel free to prattle on about this pregnancy with no concern for her privacy at all. Why, it's almost as if they have situational ethics or what Rush Limbaugh calls a "lack of core values."
What a shock.
As long as we're casting our minds back, let's recall that when the GWOT first heated up, Bush said that countries that support terrorists will be treated the same as the terrorists. The U.S. will not tolerate another country giving money, aid or safe harbor to those that attacked us.
That seems fair to me, so long as the policy is applied evenly and fairly.
More recently, Bush has claimed that the majority of the insurgents in Iraq are terrorists or are being riled up by al Queda to attack U.S. troops. Iraq, he says, is the front line in the GWOT.
The AP is reporting that Saudi private citzens are funding the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. The Saudis are our allies (or at least friends of the Bush family). So what is Bush going to do about this? My guess is nothing.
| In one recent case, an Iraqi official said $25 million in Saudi money went to a top Iraqi Sunni cleric and was used to buy weapons, including Strela, a Russian shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile. The missiles were purchased from someone in Romania, apparently through the black market, he said. Overall, the Iraqi officials said, money has been pouring into Iraq from oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a Sunni bastion, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled the Sunni-controlled regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003. |
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The Saudi government claims that not only does the government not participate, but it doesn't tolerate this activity from it's citizens. But someone has got to be turning a blind eye to this. On a personal note, I have a relative who once justified to me the invasion of Iraq based solely on Hussein's alleged funding of suicide bombers.
Where is the outrage over the Saudis?
You may have noticed that I haven't been updating my weight loss lately. Thanksgiving is not the time to be thinking and talking about losing weight. Plus, talking about weight problems can be boring.
That being said, I'm still doing well. I'm down 20 pounds from my original weight and have about 15 to go. I've made some significant changes in my eating habits and it shows. I look better, I feel better and I'm getting lots of good feedback from family members and friends.
The main problem still seems to be eating out. That and pizza. When there is pizza in the house, I just keep eating it and eating it until there is no more pizza in the house. Full? Yes. More pizza? Why, thank you. If I manage to push myself away from the table with more pizza still in the box, I'll keep coming back to it in my head. "There's still some pizza in the fridge. You sure you don't want just one more piece? Of course I do."
It's weird. I don't feel that way about cake, pie, steak, shrimp, hamburgers, ice cream or really anything else, but give me a cheesy, meat-laden pizza and I'll obsess.
So, it has been a struggle, but it has paid off. I still get to eat pizza and I'm still losing weight. Way to go, me.
The House Ethics Committee has released its report on the Mark Foley scandal. They found that Hastert and crew were . . . well read it yourself.
| The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules, and recommended no sanctions. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct on the part of many individuals "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's conduct. Speculating on the reason for their reluctance to act, the committee said: "Some may have been concerned that raising the issue too aggressively might have risked exposing Rep. Foley's homosexuality.... There is some evidence that political considerations played a role in decisions that were made by persons in both parties." |
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There you have it. Hastert and crew went around with their fingers in their ears and their eyes closed so as not to lose Foley's seat. But, somehow, that didn't break any House rules.
But the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) says that the House Ethics Committee proved with this lukewarm report that they are incapable of investigation any accusations of wrongdoing.
| In fact, Rule XXIII of the House Ethics Manual requires all members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.” This ethics standard is considered to be “the most comprehensive provision of the code.” When this section was first adopted, the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the 90th Congress noted that it was included within the Code to deal with “flagrant” violations of the law that reflect on “Congress as a whole,” and that might otherwise go unpunished. This rule has been relied on by the Ethics Committee in numerous prior cases in which the Committee found unethical conduct including: engaging in sexual relationships with congressional pages as well as the failure to report campaign contributions, making false statements to the Committee, criminal convictions for bribery, or accepting illegal gratuities, and accepting gifts from persons with interest in legislation in violation of the then gift rule. | |||
Dec. 7, 2006
Years ago, I worked the front desk of a motel chain that no longer exists. It was nice enough and new enough to command decent prices. One morning, a young man came in to check out.
"Was everthing okay with the room?" I asked.
"It was great," he replied. "That was the nicest room we've ever stayed in in out lives."
Wow, I thought, what a compliment. This person really enjoyed his stay. He followed it up with:
"This is the best coffee I've ever had in my life." That's when it hit me. This was just a thing this guy says. Everything he likes is the best ever in his whole life.
You meet people like that sometimes -- those who have no sense of hyperbole. Sometimes they're sitting across the breakfast table.
Rozzy came to me the other morning during her breakfast.
"I love you, poppy," for some reason, when she's pretending to be all cute and sweet, she morphs "papa" into "poppy."
"Thank you, sweetie, I love you too."
"You're the best poppy in the whole world."
"Awww. That's true. Thank you." She then proceeded to say that she loved her oatmeal, which was the best oatmeal in the world. She loved her apple juice, which was the best apple juice in the whole world. She loved the cats which (oddly enough) were the best cats in the whole world.
Does her declaration that everything around her is the best in the world diminish her compliment of me? Yes and no. While it does bring into question her judgment, she's only 4. She probably meant it every time she said it. I can make these broad, generally assumptions, because I'm the best poppy in the whole world.
Christmas came early for me. My new TV arrived yesterday. It's now mounted on my wall and looks great. I'm still waiting for DirecTV to hook up my HDTV dish and DVR, but the monitor upconverts the standard resolution signals, so there is a huge improvement in the look of regular television.
Plus, DVDs look amazing.
As as added bonus, it has given me the opportunity to take my entire AV system apart and rewire everything. Heh.
Dollie likes it because it means we can get rid of the giant entertainment center and open up the space in the living room. She's also appreciative of the fact that, at 37", it's not as obnoxiously huge as she'd feared it might be.
"That comes later," I said.
Last night, we sat in the living room and watched Warner Bros. cartoons from NetFlix. That Daffy Duck and Porkie Pig crack me up.
So the Iraq Study Group report has come out and it seems to personify everything Bush doesn't like -- disloyalty to his fealty, admission that the situation on the ground is untennable, a call for a political and diplomatic solution and, in short, a change in course.
Bush has already taken steps to diminish the report's impact. He's established other study groups at the State Department, the National Security Council and the Pentagon in an effort to dillute the message of the ISG as one-of-many. He's said publically that the notion of a graceful exit is fantasy.
There is a long history of anecdotal evidence that Bush simply doesn't listen to reports that go against his pre-determined world view. Not only that, but this report, coming as it does from James Baker -- one of Poppy Bush's old guard -- is certain to get Bush's hackles up.
No, we're not likely to see much come out of the ISG report except a lot of Sunday talk show fodder. To whit:
George W. Bush, speaking today on the Iraq Study Group report: "The truth is a lot of reports in Washington aren't read by anybody. To show you how important this report is, I read it."
And there you have it, Bush wants credit for actually reading a report written specifically for him. Sheesh.
When I was little, my grandmother used to put up the same artificial Christmas tree every year. It was a silver foil tree. I still recall watching her pull the straight wire branches out of the paper sleeves she stored them in each year and poking them into the holes in the dowel "trunk" of the "tree."
She hung her decorations and, as a final touch, pointed a spotlight with a rotation color filter at the tree, so that it changed color from red to green to blue to yellow. It was one of the tackiest things ever and I loved it. You can buy them on eBay these days, but it's just not the same.
The big thing this year seems to be artificial trees with lights pre-installed. Oh, and they're wacky. In Europe, it's the artificial black Christmas tree with white lights. In America, it's the upside down Christmas tree -- which some claim dates back to 12-century Europe where they hung their trees upside down from the ceiling.
Whatever.
For years I was a devotee of the real Christmas tree. I wanted a real tree because that was Christmas, dagnabit. You went into the woods and you cut down a tree and you drug it home. That gave way to my laziness when it comes to watering said tree and dragging it back out to the curb to be mulched.
An artificial tree still says Christmas and putting up our snow-white plastic "tree" has become a nice family tradition. This year we added the LED lights I bought on clearance at an after-Christmas sale at Target last year. They don't use as much power, don't get hot and have a nice pastel glow, coming off the white branches.
It's cheap, easy and doesn't require me to break any poaching laws. That makes for a merry Christmas.
This Christmas we have a new cat that has yet to "get" the fact that the Christmas tree is not a huge cat toy. The shiny, sparkly, glittery bits are too much for Speedy. He lies beneath the tree, gazine up at the colors and goes a little nuts.
Speaking of little nuts, he's called down a bit since we had his removed. Merry Christmas, Speedy.
I could go on and on about how the Christmas tree is a druidic ritual that was folded into the Christmas tradition so that the more people would welcome Christianity, but that's really beside the point. Christmas is what you make of it and Christmas trees herald the coming of the winter months as much as the falling leaves -- maybe even more so, since they're starting to come out in the stores before the leaves even turn.
Part of the reason why people are cynical about Washington D.C. and politics is because there never seems to be any consequences for bad actors. One of the "geniuses" behind the Bob Corker ad that featured the bimbo asking Ford to call her has been hired by Sen. John McCain to be his campaign manager.
That ad was denounced by the candidate, the RNC chair and countless pundits, but the guy responsible isn't rebuked, he's hired by the GOP frontrunner.
Figures.
Albemarle County, Va. serves as a perfect example of why public schools and religion do not mix. Recently, a local church wanted to distribute fliers for it's vacation bible school using "backpack mail." Each student at the school has a folder that is sent home on Friday in their backpacks. The school puts notices of events and whatnot. It's a way to keep communication lines open. Max has a similar program at his school.
So, the school denied the request, citing a policy that disallows any notices that are religious, sectarian, political or partisan. This is, I believe, a reasonable policy.
However, the parent who wanted to get the word about about his church's VBS, didn't think so and got Jerry FalWells' Liberty Counsel involved. The Liberty Counsel twisted some arms and the policy was revised to allow religious notices to be sent home with students.
So, all was well. Until a group of local pagans decided to use the same backpack mail system to announce their upcoming Yule celebration and pagan education program. They put together a flier that read, in part:
“Have you ever wondered what ‘Holidays’ refers to?” reads the flier. “Everyone knows about Christmas – but what else are people celebrating in December? Why do we celebrate the way we do?”
When the pagan flier made it home, suddenly the Chrisitans weren't so happy about this new-found method of getting the word out.
| [...] Jeff Riddle, pastor of Jefferson Park Baptist Church in Charlottesville, wrote on his personal blog, “If the school allows the Baptist or Methodist church to send home a note to its students about Vacation Bible School, it also has to allow the Unitarian Church to send home a note about its ‘Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule’….This kind of note adds weight to the argument that it is high time for Christians to leave public schools for reasonable alternatives (homeschooling and private Christian schools).” Another conservative Christian blogger in the county complained about finding the flier in her child’s folder. Apparently unaware of Falwell’s role in bringing it about, the blogger who goes by the name Cathy, noted disclaimer language at the bottom of the flier noting that the event is not connected to the school and wrote, “They [the school officials] aren’t endorsing or sponsoring this? Then it shouldn’t have been included in the Friday folders. The Friday folders have never been used for any thing other than school work and school board and/or County sanctioned/sponsored programs.” She then fumed that a “pagan ritual” is “an educational experience my children don’t need.” |
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What I don't get is that, in the quote above, Jeff Riddle sees this as an argument to take Christian children out of public schools instead of keeping religion out of them. That seems like backwards thinking to me.
Go, man, go. First I hear that Steny Hoyer is going to keep Congress in session 5 days a week instead of the GOP 3. Now, I read where the Dems are getting ready to turn their big-government regulatory tendencies on the credit card industry. Sweet.
It snowed a little this morning.
Mary Cheney, lesbian daughter of the vice president, and her partner, Heather Poe, are pregnant. Conservatives throughout the country couldn't be happier for the happy couple. No, wait. That's not right.
This sort of thing didn't happen when Hillary was in the White House.
Dec. 1, 2006
We put up the Christmas decorations a little earlier than usual this year. Dollie wasn't feeling the spirit and it was dampening her enthusiasm for Christmas shopping, so we figured it couldn't hurt. Even so, it seems like we're getting a bit of a late start this year.
The kids are supposed to join their grandmother for the evening and have breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning before watching a Christmas parade. They'll be full of cheer when they get home.
Max and Rozzy have taken to circling things in catalogs that they want for Christmas. I did the same as a youth, but generally left it to a single item (or at most, two) so that I could maintain a little quality control. However, Max circles everything he might even be remotely interested in and Rozzy circles everything that's pink. Then they fight over the catalogs and who circled what first.
Yeah, they're not all that hip to the whole "being good for Santa" thing.
Let's talk a little bit about religious freedom. The First Ammendment guarantees that the U.S. will not establish an official religion. In terms of governance, no one faith is held above another. This freedom to worship includes (by the way) the freedom not to worship at all. But that's not what prompted this little screed.
This year, Minnesottans elected the first ever Muslim to congress. Keith Ellison caused a bit of a stir in the right-wing world because he insisted on taking his oath of office by placing his hand on the Quran instead of the Bible. Dennis Prager, a columnist with TownHall.com wrote recently that Ellison should have been forced to use the Bible or resign from Congress.
In his column, titled "America, not Keith Ellison, decides on what book he takes his oath on," Prager demonstrates not only religious bigotry, but an ignorance of the Constitution and American history.
| First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism -- my culture trumps America's culture. What Ellison and his Muslim and leftist supporters are saying is that it is of no consequence what America holds as its holiest book; all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book. | |||
That's correct. America isn't taking the oath of office, Ellison is. If he's expected to take the oath seriously, then he should take it on the book his religion holds most sacred.
| Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the Nazis' bible, for his oath? And if not, why not? On what grounds will those defending Ellison's right to choose his favorite book deny that same right to a racist who is elected to public office? | |||
Well, Mein Kampf is not "the Nazi's bible and Nazism is not a religion. Ellison didn't choose "his favorite book" as this dipwad asserts. He chose the book most sacred to his religion. Do we have religious freedom in our country or don't we? He goes on to say that by allowing Ellison to take his oath on the Quran, he is undermining American civilization. That's being a bit dramatic isn't it? But that's the job of the right-wind blowhard -- pump out the invective and get the loonies worked up.
| But for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament, and the many secular elected officials have not believed in the Old Testament either. Yet those secular officials did not demand to take their oaths of office on, say, the collected works of Voltaire or on a volume of New York Times editorials, writings far more significant to some liberal members of Congress than the Bible. Nor has one Mormon official demanded to put his hand on the Book of Mormon. And it is hard to imagine a scientologist being allowed to take his oath of office on a copy of "Dianetics" by L. Ron Hubbard. | |||
Here again, Prager demonstrates his ignorance. Two years ago Debbie Wasserman Schultz took her oath of office on the Old Testament. In 1997 George Smith took his oath of office on the Book of Mormon. Should a Scientologist ever get elected, I would not baulk at letting them take his or her oath on whichever book is central to their religion (I don't know if that's Dianetics or not).
The better question, to my mind, is why more congressmen do not insist on taking their oath on the holy book of their religion? Plus, Pragers assertion that secular lawmakers would take an oath on Voltair or the New York Times is just stupid -- an infantile attempt to be humerous for the the slobbering wingnuts who lap this crap up like gravy. It's a cheap shot that plays to the baser nature of the bigots in the crowd. Booo.
Bottom line, Ellison is a Muslim and as such owes no fealty to the Bible. Making him take his oath on a book in which he does not believe dimishes the oath and weakens the Constitution. America has lost enough of it's freedoms thanks to the conservatives.
Nov. 29, 2006
Spent Thanksgiving with the in-laws. Made some brownie points with Fran by setting up her new Mac, troubleshooting the DSL modem, setting up her printer and installing her software packages. Then we played Rook until after 11 p.m.
The next morning, Black Friday, found us at Super Target (man, Murfreesboro needs one of these). I also stepped my first foot inside a Wal-Mart in months (though I didn't buy anything, so I figure I cost them money, heh).
After a trip to a bookstore recommended to me by Serenity (Bookleggers in Huntsville) we came home to prepare to head back to Franklin County on Saturday for Dollie's 20th high school reunion.
Dollie attended my 15th (I skipped the 20th) so I felt obliged to be her arm candy for this one. It was held at the Franklin County Country Club. They had about 100 alumni show up. Those who have gone to these things as a spouse understand what it's like: you get introduced to a lot of people -- many of whom have spent several minutes squinting at you to try and figure out if they knew you from high school.
I got harangued for a solid 20 minutes by a guy who is getting ready to retire from the military. He went on and on about how the gangs are causing trouble and the military was being taken over by officers and the world is a dangerous place and he's getting ready to cash in and yadda yadda yadda. I nodded and mumbled the occasional "mmm-hmm." It was a low-point.
But there were many high points. Dollie seemed to have fun. The food wasn't bad, though the band was terrible. They played 80s music, but it was only metal stuff -- which is fine, but kind of hard to slow-dance to. The closest we got to a romantic song was some Pink Floyd angst-ridden twaddle from "The Wall."
Plus, the band brought their own cheering section of girlfriends and hangers on who sat in the dark and sneered at the old folks trying to dance.
There was a slideshow of families. Someone read aloud a letter from a classmate serving in Iraq. He was decidedly pro-war and it drew some applause. I met a guy who serves in the Air Force. He was back from his most recent tour in "the sandbox." Dollie asked him what he did for the Air Force.
"I'm an electrical engineer," he said. "They've got me convoy security." He then proceeded to order a scotch on the rocks.
"Any particular kind?" the bartender asked.
"Do you have George Dickel?" he replied.
"Yes, but that's not scotch," she said.
"Well, it's bourbon," he said. "Close enough."
They offered certificates in various categories. The couple married the longest: 20 years. Most kids: 7. Most grandkids: 2. Traveled from furthest away: Pennsylvania.
It was a nice enough event. Dollie enjoyed herself and that's what mattered. I enjoyed making fun of people, as is my habit and I met a couple of nice folks that I probably won't see for another 20 years.
The other day Rozzie yelled from the kitchen.
"Papa! Max called me a tattletale!"
The most important job of the congress is to pass the 11 spending bills that keep the government working. This do-less-than-nothing congress is planning on staying in session for four more days and then call it quits for the year. They have passed two spending bills.
Think about that. If you or I screwed up our jobs that badly, we'd be out in the cold -- and while it could be argued that the majority is out in the cold, there are plenty of incumbents returning to Congress next session to face nine spending bills left over from the last session. That's a disgrace.
The Republican Congress (and that's where the blame lies because the majority sets the agenda) is a disgrace.
Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D-Va.) isn't making any friends at the White House. The decorated Marine vet and former Secretary of the Navy was attending a reception at the White House for newly elected officials when Bush approached him and asked "How's your boy?"
Webb won his election, in part, by beating on George Allen and Bush about the Iraq war. Webb's son is currently serving in Iraq as a Marine lance corporal and Webb famously wore his son's combat boots on the campaign trail. So, when Bush asked about his son, Webb replied that he hoped that his son and all sons and daughters would be coming home soon.
"I didn't ask you that," Bush reportedly replied. "I asked 'How's your boy?'"
This angered Webb who later admitted that he felt like slugging the president, but wisely didn't. Instead, he said "That's between me and my son" and walked away.
Well, that'll teach those pesky North Koreans not to mess with the U.S. We're going to ban the sale of iPods in North Korea.
Frist is out. He'll have to make do with his fake White House in Nashville. All that pandering and loss of credibility for nothing. At least now he can get his stuff out of that "blind" trust.
My middle name is Bryce. I don't use it much, but I'm particularly ashamed of it. My mother always told me she got it from a contestant on an episode of "The Price is Right." It was much later that I found out that was impossible because TPIR didn't air in 1968. The original series with Bill Cullen aired from 1956 to 1965. The Bob Barker run began in 1972.
Regardless of where it came from, Bryce is a nice middle name with an albeit odd vowel construction. That being said, even if my middle name were odd or unusual, it wouldn't reflect on me in any real way. I had nothing to do with it.
Barak Obama, who is mulling over a presidential run in 2008, is a senator from Illinois. He has an unfortunate last name in that it looks a little bit like Osama. Over the weekend, some right-wing pundits discovered that he has an unfortunate middle name as well and began using it while referring to him.
His middle name is Hussein. Barak Hussein Obama.
Oy.
Now, like I said, his middle name isn't a reflection on him. But it is a political reality that it will be used effectively against him. People are just that stupid.
Bush's meeting with the Iraqi prime minister was canceled. There is some speculation as to why. Officially, it was canceled because Nouri al-Maliki had already met with the king of Jordan and so an opening session with Bush was seen as unnecessary. al-Maliki says he canceled the meeting because he'd heard that the talks were going to be widened to include Israel.
Some wags are speculating the meeting was canceled due to a leaked memo in which al-Maliki was criticized by a top White House official.
Regardless, it doesn't look good.
Newt Gingrich is mulling over a run for president. He was the keynote speaker at a First Ammendment gathering recently and announced that American needs to rething that whole freedom of speech thing since, you know, 9/11 and all that.
You don't see too many people running on the "I'll take away the Bill of Rights" platform. Bold move.
Gov. Tom Vilsak is in. Uh . . . who?
Greg Page, otherwise known as the Wiggle in the yellow shirt, may be leaving the "band" due to illness.
Nov. 22, 2006
Traveling to Alabama and parts south for Thanksgiving. We'll be spending the holiday with Dollie's family, seeing the cousins and in-laws. Unlike the stereotypical Thanksgiving, our visits with relatives are pretty free of the angst and tension one would find in a holiday film or Tennessee Williams play. We all get along, more or less. We avoid talking politics, religion and sports. Mostly we talk about the kids, the dogs and what stupid thing I've done over the course of the year.
We have no plans to take part in "Black Friday." While I enjoy the hype and really don't mind the crowds, we're not going to be near home-base and so buying a bunch of stuff could be problematic.
Dollie wants to get rid of the monstrous entertainment center in our living room and made a suggestion that caused my heart to flutter.
"Don't go crazy," she warned. "But I think we should get a flat screen TV."
Now why would she think that would make me go crazy? Maybe it's the way I stare hypnotised at the giant flat screens at Sam's Club, Target, Sears, RadioShack, K-Mart, Fred's, Electronics Express, Best Buy, Circuit City, HH Greggs and even Home Depot. So, I've spent the last several weeks learning all I could. I've become an amateur expert on HDTV and the various incarnations. Go ahead, ask me anything:
LCD or Plasma? Plasmas handle blacks better, LCDs render better details.
1080i or 1080p? Depends on what you're going to be watching. 1080p (progressive scanning) is the coming standard, but most of your HDTV sources are going to be 1080i (interlaced). DVD HD players will output a 1080p signal, but if you can spot the difference between interlaced and progressive, then you don't need to be asking me questions about televisions. But for the record, interlaced means that the processor renders every other line of the image so each image has to be scanned twice. In progressive, each line is rendered in a single scan. This eliminates some ghosting problems in scene with a lot of movement (such as high-end gaming).
The number refers to the number of vertical lines in the image. Standard resolution TVs are 480p. HDTVs start at 760p (and most can handle 1080i).
Man, am I going to bore my friends and family to death with this stuff.
You can expect a significant jump in price when you move to 1080p screens. But the overall price for HDTVs are coming way down -- some 32" and 37" sets are actually coming in below the magic $1,000 mark.
In fact, Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy are all advertising 42" plasma sets for less than $1,000 for the first few hours of Black Friday.
Again, I've been reading so much about this stuff that it's leaking out of my ears. By all indications, this will be a flatscreen TV Christmas in a lot of households this year. But the more I learn, the less I know.
The trouble with trying to make an informed choice is that the technology is still pretty new, so it can be tough to figure out which brand will be reliable. Normally, you'd go with a well-established electronics name, Pioneer, Sony, RCA or what have you. But that can also mean paying out the butt for a nameplate that isn't significantly different than some of the lesser-known brands.
For example, if you buy a Viore from Wal-Mart, what you're getting is an Akai TV with Phillips guts. I'm seeing commercials and print ads for Olevia, which I've never heard of, but the TVs are cheap and they all get their LCD screens from the same three factories in China anyway, right? Is there a significant difference between EyeFi and Sceptre? No clue.
Older brands are cropping up with new offerings. Westinghouse has a line of flatscreens. Excuse me, Westinghouse? I love Westinghouse. They have a great logo.
That's the trouble with being in the profession I'm in. I distrust advertising because I've seen how it's made. But my head will be turned by a well-designed nameplate. I'm a walking bundle of contradictions wrapped in a shielded HDMI cable (High Definition Multimedia Interface -- an expensive cable that will give you the best picture, but isn't included with any TVs or set-top boxes, so you'll have to shell out $40 or so for it).
I'm a relative late-comer to the HDTV revolution in part because I read Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital in grad school. He predicted that HDTVs wouldn't catch on because what the public really wanted was smart TVs, not more vertical lines in "Seinfeld." He was . . . well . . . wrong. People, it seems, really do like more vertical lines in "Seinfeld" and instead of smart TVs, we got DVRs.
New brands, cheaper prices and more programing have formed a perfect storm this Christmas, driving more and more people to buy a television to hang on the wall (VESA-compatible wall mounts start at around $100 for a 37" or larger screen) (oh, . . . uh . . . VESA: Video Electronics Standards Association -- most wall-mountable TVs will have holes in the back to fit VESA-compliant mounts.).
Then once you've got the big TV on your wall, you've got to get an HD signal for it. Over-the-air antennas actually work pretty well for local channels that broadcast in HDTV, but for cable and satellite customers, you'll have to upgrade your set-top box. DirecTV, my provider of choice, has a waiting list for their HD DVR. So, I'm on it.
And waiting.
What's interesting is that according to USA Today, only 43% of people who buy HDTVs are actually looking forward to watching HDTV. Most of them are doing it for uptick in DVD performance.
| About 30% of HDTV owners haven't even signed up with their cable or satellite companies to get HD channels. Many of them were turned off by an extra fee they'd pay for HD — or thought they'd have to pay. There's a lot of confusion, because some operators charge for HDTV. Others throw it in for anyone paying the extra monthly fee for the digital tier. And some don't charge extra for the channels but charge more per month for an HD-capable cable box. Then there are folks who wanted a sleek flat screen on the wall but didn't think about wires and gear needed to use it for HD shows. “It's tough for some people to go the extra mile to get all the hardware to mount a set on the wall and then say, ‘Where am I going to mount a set-top box?' ” Baldwin says. The study found widespread HD confusion. Many consumers think all digital TV signals give them an HD picture. They don't. It also found that many consumers believe that only cable or satellite delivers HD signals. In fact, local stations offer network, and sometimes local, HD shows over the air. |
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Meanwhile, Fox cancels O.J.'s book and TV show. Good. It was a ridiculous idea to start with -- a book by Simpson in which he tells a "hypothetical" story about how he would have killed his ex and her boyfriend? Sure, it would have sold, but the slime coming off of it would have damaged the shelves at the bookstore.
The English language version of Al Jezeera went online this week. I haven't seen it and don't expect DirecTV will be offering it any time soon. We couldn't hold on to Trio, so what hope do we have?
Dollie watches "Regis and Kelly" so I will occasionaly see it in passing. While I'm not a fan of the show, I can see why it is appealing to some. You get a good dose of wacky news stories and celebrities with something worth plugging all make an appearance. But I cannot take it when one of the two hosts is absent because they seemingly pick "celebrities" to guest host at random. Well, either that or let a spouse do it.
But the other day Clay Aiken was guest hosting and Dollie did not like it. He didn't think Aiken was being very professional. As it turns out, neither did Kelly. The big example was, when Aiken felt he wasn't getting to ask a question, he put his hand over Kelly's mouth. She didn't like that, responding that "we don't do that. I don't know where that hand has been." The next day, she complained to Regis and normally, that would be the end of it, Kelly would move on and Aiken just wouldn't be invited back.
But on "The View" Rosie chimed in, opining that Kelly was being a homophobe. Two points to make about that: 1) While the entire world is free to speculate about Aiken's sexuality, he maintains that he is straight, so Rosie needs to respect that while serving as host of a national television show; and 2) it really wasn't any of her business.
Kelly actually heard the segment and called into the show to chastise Rosie.
This has been your stupid celebrity snit update.
So I read where some sleazy porn mogul had offered KFed (soon to be Fed-Ex) a bazillion dollars for the alleged sex tape -- the one KFed is holding as leverage to get Brittany to give him custody of the kids and spousal support.
Then word got out that Brittany was going to give away the sex tape for free in an effort to cut KFed off at the . . . uh . . . knees. Now, lo and behold, we're told that there is no sex tape.
This has been your stupid celebrity divorce update.
I have not stepped foot in my local Wal-Mart in months. We've cut Wal-Mart off because of their policies regarding organized labor and the way they treat their employees. We've discovered we can get anything we need from elsewhere. Wal-Mart has long been a lefty whipping boy and for good reason.
Oh, but now things are getting worse. The Christian right is calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart on Black Friday because of the store's alleged pushing of "the radical homosexual agenda."
| The corporate actions that triggered the protests were little different from those taken by scores of major companies in recent years — Wal-Mart paid $25,000 this summer to become a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and donated $60,000 to Out and Equal, which promotes gay-rights advances in the workplace. | |||
Wal-Mart can't win . . . you know . . . except for that whole being the largest retailer in the world thing.
Late Update: The boycott has been called off with Wal-Mart giving no concessions. Wow, they folded faster than Superman on laundry day.
Sen. George Allen is on his way out the door, but before he leaves, he offers up one last piece of legislation. He wants to allow people to bring their guns into national parks.
I'll try not to pick on the Republicans so much now that they're on their way to minority status, but this does need commenting on because it should be on the front page of every freaking paper in the country. The GOP congress has decided to adjourn without fulfilling their constitutional duty to vote on a budget. They're leaving behind all these spending bills that the Dems will have to pass before getting to their own agenda.
Now you know they cashed their paychecks, so why the heck can't they do the job they were elected to do? I understand sour grapes, but they're supposed to be professionals, right?
| The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years. The decision to drop so much unfinished work in Democrats' laps demonstrates both division within Republicans ranks and the difficulty in resolving so many knotty questions in so short a time. GOP leaders promised their House and Senate members the December lame duck session would last no more than two weeks, or until Dec. 16 at the latest. Now, with the agenda shrinking, a session that will be the last for 45 retiring or defeated House members and senators should be wrapped up by Dec. 8. |
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They're cutting and running from their jobs on Dec. 8. This is the lousiest, most corrupt congress I've ever witnessed. They accomplished nothing and spent so little time in session that you should probably refer to them as the 108-and-a-half Congress. They sure as heck don't deserve to be the 109th. Turn in your paycheck's congress or do your freaking jobs.
Happy Thanksgiving. See you on the other side.
Nov. 20, 2006
Okay, not only is Bill O'Reilly an idiot, he's a cranky old fart who just doesn't "get it." In a recent screed on his radio show, after bemoaning the state of America once more because some morons got shot waiting in line for a PS3, he made the following stupid and vapid generalization:
| I don’t own an iPod. I would never wear an iPod… If this is your primary focus in life - the machines… it’s going to have a staggeringly negative effect, all of this, for America… did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them? …I really fear for the United States because, believe me, the jihadists? They’re not playing the video games. They’re killing real people over there. | |||
I can't say it enough, Bill O'Reilly's an idiot. For one thing, while he's badmouthing people who own iPods, his website promotes "premium" membership to his site, which includes podcasting of his radio screeds. Maybe the real idiots are the people paying $5 to download Bill O'Reilly's anti iPod crap into their iPods.
Does he attack Sony for not producing enough PS3s to keep up with demand? No. Does he even pretend to understand a culture other than his own (rich, protestant white guy)? No. He just opens his mouth and the poop tumbles out:
| Basically what you have is a large portion of the population, mostly younger people under the age of 45, who don’t deal with reality - ever. So they don’t know what day it is; they don’t know temperature it is; they don’t know what their neighbor looks like. They don’t know anything… because they are constantly diverted by a machine. Now what this does is it takes a person away from reality because they’ve created their own reality… | |||
Does Bill O'Reilly really believe that the world he lives in has anything to do with reality? I'm 38, I play videogames, watch cartoons and spend many, many hours each week on the internet. I also happen to hold down a decent job, take care of my family, know my neighbors and have a grip on what day of the week it happens to be. O'Reilly is a tool. Those who listen to him have more of a chance of losing the concept of reality than I do.
I'm not defending the violence against people who lined up for the PS3. But if you want to line up to be one of the first to buy one, who am I to call you detached from reality? I get so ticked off when the punditry blames the music or the videogames for the bad acts of a few nutjobs. It's been going on forever.
Buddy Holly played "jungle music." The Big Band Era was going to lead to the damnation of thousands of young people. Now O'Reilly has become an luddite. Well, good. Time to get off that radio and TV, then Bill because you owe your fortune to the very machines you say are bringing about the downfall of American society. Go find yourself a unabomber-style shack in the woods and just be superior by yourself, m'kay?
But O'Reilly's stupidity isn't limited to things he doesn't understand or care about. He's equally stupid about the American culture he claims to be a warrior of. Take the recent elections, for example. O'Reilly believes that Vermont should be kicked out of the United States because they elected Bernie Sanders to the Senate. Sanders is an independent and a self-described socialist. So, in O'Reilly's eyes, Vermont is ovah. Done. Out of the pool. We're fortunate to live in a country where people get to make their choice in who represents them in the government, but I'd say we're doubly fortunate that we live in a country where Bill O'Reilly doesn't get to make those choices for us.
We colored Max's mohawk blue for the tournament on Saturday. He posed quite the striking figure. I listened while lots of people told him how cool it was. Then we get home and Dollie asked him if anyone said anything about his hair.
"Nobody noticed," he said.
Cognitive dissonance is the term we give to the phenomenon where you only hear what you want to hear and ignore the rest. Max has lifted this concept to a high art. He cannot hear me say "put your shoes on" if I'm yelling it in his ear, but if I whisper the word "bacon" from the next room he's on me like stink on a monkey, sounding like that dog from the Beggin' Strips commercial:
"Bacon! baconbaconbaconbaconbaconbacon."
I do prefer the not hearing me to what we experienced the other night. We were out doing some Christmas shopping at a local department store. Max and Rozzy were behaving in their usual way -- pulling stuff off the shelves, running between the aisles and yelling at the top of their lungs. After calling them down several times, Rozzy began to behave, but Max just geared up a notch.
"Max, you're taking the fun out of this for everyone," Dollie said.
"I'm having fun!" he yelled and ran around a display. That's when I pulled out the most powerful weapon in my arsenal.
"That's it, Max. I've had it. When we get home tonight. There will be no bedtime story."
I know, it seems like a light punishment, but our children react to losing their bedtime story the same way a vampire reacts to cross dipped in garlic-infused holy water. Shock and awe, baby. Max's jaw dropped and he was instantly quiet -- you know, except for the whining about not getting a bedtime story.
It is the most effective punishment I've found and it will only last until Max gets tired of me reading to him every night.
I've been reading to him each night for years. It started off as a means to get him to sleep in his own bed. I'd drone on in a monotone, reading from my graduate school communication theory textbooks until he passed out from acute boredom. When the texts didn't work, I'd switch to Pynchon. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Artwork for the new Marvel stamps is out:
They look pretty cool. Dollie just put a bunch of my DC stamps on bills and mailed them out. I'm no philatelist, so I never buy these things to keep, but I do like to buy them. It looks like they'll feature:
Spider-Man
Hulk
Sub-Mariner
Thing
Captain America
Silver Surfer
Spider-Woman
Iron Man
Elektra
Wolverine
Speaking of Elektra, I recently purchased my first Barbie doll. It was in a remainder pile at Ross: Dress for Less for $4.95 and I couldn't resist.
Barbie has had a lot of jobs over the years: doctor, olympic athlete, fairy princess, vet, babysitter, teacher, ballerina and any number of acting roles.
She's been comic book characters before including Batgirl, Catwoman and Wonder Woman. But to my knowledge, this was the first time Barbie has ever been portrayed as an international assassin trained in the terrorist camps of the Hand.
I feel certain that Mattel wasn't clear on the character when they okay'd this incarnation. But didn't the weapons give them a clue?
I first saw the Elektra Barbie in a shop down on 2nd Ave. I commented at the time how odd it was. Mattel has pulled Barbies before for not portraying the wholesome image Barbie is supposed to personify. Why Elektra? Look at her. She's carrying seis.
It may have coincided withe film, which was a spinoff of "Daredevil," be even so, that film portrayed the character as freaking assasin.
As we checked out, I commented that Elektra Barbie will go on the shelf next to the Star Trek Barbie and Ken I received as a Christmas present last year.
"Congratulations," Dollie said. "You now own more Barbies than your daughter."
"But not as many as my son," I replied, which was unkind. In truth, Max hasn't had a Barbie for years.
Nov. 13, 2006
Anyone else as disturbed by President Bush's radio address this week? Unless I'm reading this wrongly, he's suggesting that it crossed his mind to cancel the elections because of the war in Iraq.
| One freedom that defines our way of life is the freedom to choose our leaders at the ballot box. We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their votes for a new Congress. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war. Our democratic institutions are a source of strength, and our trust in these institutions has made America the most powerful, prosperous, and stable nation in the world. | |||
That's just a little creepy, no? We should be proud that Bush didn't cancel the elections? Brrrrr.
This morning, I drove my friend Serenity to work. She mentioned an article she'd read recently in NYT Magazine about comedy. She said they'd interviewed several comedians and comedy writers to find out which five comedies they would take with them on a desert island. Naturally, that got me to thinking about my answers to that question.
As is always the case with lists like this, they are subjective, and I'm always forgetting something really great. But here goes, in no particular order:
1. Caddyshack
2. The Blues Brothers
3. Rustler's Rapsody (a fairly obscure film, but hillarious)
4. One of the Cohen Bros. films, either "Raising Arizona," "The Big Lebowski," or "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"
5. One of the Christopher Guest films, either "A Mighty Wind," "Waiting for Guffman," or "Best in Show."
While reading some of reactions to Bush's radio address, I happened upon a blogger named Delilah Boyd. She ends each entry with "The Best Bar Bet in the World: Delilah didn't do it." She's, of course, referring to the Biblical Delilah, as in "Sampson and."
Those of us raised in Sunday School know the story of how Delilah tricked Sampson into revealing his weakness and then cut off his hair so he'd lose his strength. However, Delilah Boyd points out what is indeed a very good bar bet. Delilah didn't do it.
Judges 16:19-- And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.
She hired a man to do it.
One of the changes I look most forward to in the House once the Dems take over is Rep. Henry Waxman as chair of the House Governmental Reform Committee. He's champing at the bit to exercise his newly minted subpoena power.
| The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in "I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose." |
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Democrats in both houses of Congress are gearing up for hearings, investigations and probes -- all of which are designed not so much to embarrass the president, but to force policy changes. Oh, and all those Republican lobbyists who were so buddy buddy with the leadership that they were writing legislation for congress? That's ovah.
There's an interesting article in The Jewish Week about Pastor Ted. According to Rev. Louis Sheldon, founder and chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, he and many other leaders on the Christian right knew that Ted Haggard was gay and did nothing about it.
| Sheldon disclosed that he and “a lot” of others knew about Haggard’s homosexuality “for awhile ... but we weren’t sure just how to deal with it.”
Months before a male prostitute publicly revealed Haggard’s secret relationship with him, and the reverend’s drug use as well, “Ted and I had a discussion,” explained Sheldon, who said Haggard gave him a telltale signal then: “He said homosexuality is genetic. I said, no it isn’t. But I just knew he was covering up. They need to say that.” |
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To be clear, I do not believe there is anything wrong with being gay. I believe gay couples should be able to marry, adopt children and found evangelical churches in Colorado. This isn't about Haggard being gay. It's about the leaders of the Christian right who, even though they routinely equate homosexuality with pedophilia and beastiality, did nothing with the knowlege that Haggard was gay.
Hmm, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will replace Ken Mehlman as RNC chair. I guess Michael Steele needs to get his resume in order.
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about the recent elections. She works for my congressman and has her finger on the pulse of the local Dems, so we were catching each other up. Eventually, the topic turned to Lieberman.
"He's not going to have any power," she said.
"I think you're wrong," I replied. "In a senate as closely divided as this one, he's going to get courted by both sides. He said he'd caucus with the Dems provided they give him his senority, but the Republicans spent a lot of money on his race."
So I read where Harry Reid assures Lieberman that he can retain his seniority and Lieberman says "consider me a Democra" and I feel better. Now I see where Lieberman goes on "Meet the Press" and refuses to rule out switching to the Republican party.
Way to go, Connecticut.
For some reason, the government of Australia is working on a shirt that interprets air guitar strumming as music.
Borat got punched in the schnoz when he picked on the wrong passerby. Fortunately, Hugh Laurie was there to save him.
In case you've ever wondered if Kevin Federline didn't deserve his reputation as being a lazy, redneck jerk, this should ease your troubled mind. If Britney doesn't meet his demands, he will sell their honeymoon sex tape. Classy.
