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October 2008 Entries

[via BoingBoing]

I really hope there is an alternate universe where this actually happened:


[via eponymous]

Yay! As it turns out Ayn Rand was a fruitcake, screwball, nut job, ego maniac.  [from MotherJones]:
Washington Dispatch: In a historic moment, former Fed chair Alan Greenspan acknowledged he had been wrong for years to assume that government regulation was bad for markets. Whoops—there goes decades of Ayn Rand down the drain.

"From the very beginning I have said I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done and I will be voting for Barack Obama..."
-- Former Bush Press Secretary, Scott McClellen

 In other news, McCain received a big endorsement of his own:

A ton of words flood to my mind when thinking about McCain's campaign, and it's tactic of robocalls, negative mailings, and general FUD.  Oddly enough, they all start with the letter "D".
  1. Despicable
  2. Deceitful
  3. Dishonest
  4. Dubious
  5. Desperate
  6. Disingenuous
And lastly, number seven:

Dickheadishness.

Larry David talking about how the election has affected him personally [from the Huffington Post]:
Five times a day I'll still say to someone, "I don't know what I'm going to do if McCain wins." Of course, the reality is I'm probably not going to do anything. What can I do? I'm not going to kill myself. If I didn't kill myself when I became impotent for two months in 1979, I'm certainly not going to do it if McCain and Palin are elected, even if it's by nefarious means. If Obama loses, it would be easier to live with it if it's due to racism rather than if it's stolen. If it's racism, I can say, "Okay, we lost, but at least it's a democracy. Sure, it's a democracy inhabited by a majority of disgusting, reprehensible turds, but at least it's a democracy." If he loses because it's stolen, that will be much worse. Call me crazy, but I'd rather live in a democratic racist country than a non-democratic non-racist one.

Ripple 
Ann Marie Calhoun plays Ripple:

Grateful Dead Ripple lyrics:

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung,
Would you hear my voice come thru the music,
Would you hold it near as it were your own?

Its a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken,
Perhaps theyre better left unsung.
I dont know, dont really care
Let there be songs to fill the air.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,
If your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.

There is a road, no simple highway,
Between the dawn and the dark of night,
And if you go no one may follow,
That path is for your steps alone.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

But if you fall you fall alone,
If you should stand then whos to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home.

La dee da da da, la da da da da, da da da, da da, da da da da da
La da da da, la da da, da da, la da da da, la da, da da.

Stash Lyrics:

I'm pulling the pavement from under my nails
I brush past a garden, dependent on whales
The sloping companion I cast down the ash
Yanked on my tunic and dangled my stash

Zipping through the forest with the curdling fleas
To grow with them spindles, the mutant I seize
I capture the dread beast who falls to his knees
And cries to his cohorts, asleep in the trees

Smegma, dogmatagram, fishmarket stew
Police in a corner, gunnin' for you
Appletoast, bedheated, furblanket rat
Laugh when they shoot you, say
Please don't do that

Control for smilers cant be bought
The solar garlic starts to rot
Was it for this my life I sought?
Maybe so and maybe not (maybe so and maybe not) [4x]
Was it for this my life I sought? (maybe so and maybe not)
Control for smilers cant be bought (maybe so and maybe not)
The solar garlic starts to rot (maybe so and maybe not)
Was it for this my life I sought? (maybe so and maybe not) [4x]

Ann Marie Calhoun playing Stash by Phish:

Two quick points about all this "Obama is a socialist/communist" baloney that is coming out of the McCain camp. 
  1. McCain proposed buying up bad mortgages, which seems like more of a redistribution of wealth than, I dunno, giving a tax break to the middle class.
  2. Republicans have already damn near nationalized the banking system in this country.
And Obama is the socialist. McCain is a phony.

Also, please to note, that Obama has the support of Warren Buffet, the nations greatest capitalist and Colin Powell, a great (Republican) war hero. 

The republican rhetoric of the supposed Ayers terrorist link has even pushed uneducated citizens to the point of crying out "Kill him!" at rallies.  In my own state of NC, someone slashed thirty tires at an Obama rally in Fayetteville, and in a much more bizarre story a dead bear cub draped with Obama posters was put at the entrance of Western Carolina University.  This trend towards violence makes me uneasy.

(Thanks to my dad for starting this conversation.)

Piss Poor AppleI've officially taken my first sip of the Kool-Aid.  This is my first post written on my new MacBook.  I actually took a sip before when I bought a second-hand iMac several years ago, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth.  It was the old kind with the CRT monitor, that had a handle on the top and looked like a giant piece of fruit.  It had been used in a plastic surgeon's office and had the image of a login prompt permanently burned into the screen.  I ended up selling it at a pawn shop so I could raise enough money for a U-Haul.  Since then I have been contently using my PC and never really missed it.  But the time came to buy a laptop and I already have a Windows desktop so I figured why have two Windows machines and I bought this Mac.  Either that or Apple's advertising dollars got the best of me.


Mac Book with Glossy ScreenLet's get to the nitty-gritty.  I bought the base model of the newly released MacBook's that are machined out of a solid piece of aluminum.  It is a pretty machine.  It is Apple's most environmentally friendly laptop to date (Maybe the greenest laptop ever?).  My model has 2 Gigs of RAM and a 160 Gig hard drive, which should be plenty for my moderate use.  Hard-core Mac fans have complained about the lack of Firewire support but, as I understand it, Firewire is becoming obsolete, and is really only useful in transferring large amounts of data, like video, and I won't be messing around with that too much.  There have also been complaints about the glossy screen, which makes it hard to see in sunlight.  I've heard that all laptop manufacturers are phasing out the matte screen so I guess we will just have to deal.

 

Mac Book KeyboardAnother complaint has been the new flat keyboard as opposed to the beveled keys of MacBooks past.  I don't know what I am missing, but my wife and I agree that this keyboard is actually fun to type on.  It has flat keys that are spaced out which is a good look I think, but also functional. 

In any event, I don't see this Mac as a replacement for my PC.  More of a supplement really.  I will use the Mac for music, and movies, but intend to keep my PC for heavy lifting.

Class is in session

Class is in session!

Chuck and Lil
Chuck and Lil Chillin' at PetsMart

Me and Del

A picture of me, my autographed CD, and the legendary bluegrass guitarist, Del McCoury. Does this count as provenance? It was a phenomenal set. One of the things that struck me the most was the stage presence of the band. They occupied a tight circle in the middle of the stage and took turns playing the lead. It created a very intimate effect. Del's Website

Off to Shakori ...

The debut of Kath & Kim, a co-opted Australian television show made suitable for U.S. audiences, was on NBC last night and I have to say it was not not half bad (interpret that any way you like). 

The shows leading characters, Kath and Kim, are a mother daughter duo who's relationship seems to have never developed beyond that of a manipulative seven year old and her pushover mother.  The dialogue was good and seemed to have an ADD quality to it.  Several times characters stopped in the middle of an argument to discuss trivial things such as a new zebra rug and where it was purchased; which made the them seem incredibly immature.  However, there were several scenes that featured the internal monologue of Kath or Kim that revealed more complex characters who understood each other in a way that they seem unable or unwilling to vocalize. 

The main drawback of the show, in my eyes, was the camera work.  It was shot in a style similar to the office with a close up point of view, but didn't convey the documentary feeling of the office and instead seemed like a quasi home video maybe shot by Kim's long forgotten, invisible, imaginary friend.  

Overall, I look forward to see where it goes. 

Wordle generates images based on text from your website.

My Wordle

Sarah Palin went through some Ludovicoian training1 in  order to get ready for that last debate.


1
Ludovico Technique

More Phish Lyrics:

Way down in the GhettoThey call me the sloth
Way down in the ghetto
Italian Spaghetti
Singing falsetto
Sleeping all day
Rip Van Winklin'
Spend my nights in bars
Glasses tinklin'


I'm so bad
He's so nasty
Ain't got no friends
Real outcasty
Stay out of my way
Or you'll end up a cripple
I'll take this piece of paper
And slice your nipple


They call me the sloth
Way down in the ghetto
Italian Spaghetti
Singing falsetto
Sleeping all day
Rip Van Winklin'
Spend my nights in bars
Glasses tinklin'

McCain derided Obama for voting for a bill that included a 3 million dollar "overhead" projector for a planetarium in Chicago. 

On flickr, you can see the difference between a planetarium projector and the overhead projector that you remember from high scool. [via BoingBoing]

I think a telling moment in tonight's debate was when Obama called out McCain on his Bomb Iran joke after McCain said he believed in walking and talking quietly but carrying a big stick. 

It illustrates that for as much as McCain talks about his experience, and his "steady hand on the tiller," he has said things that are in poor judgment.  Take that in consideration with his admittedly poor judgment during the Keating scandal and a picture emerges not of McCain, the even handed, cool headed guy with the experince for the job, but rather a man  prone to acting and speaking without thinking about the reprecussions. 


Bonus points if anyone can tell me how many times McCain said, "I know..."  You would think that he knows everything.  There is wisdom in an old Hebrew saying, "Learn to say I don't know."

At GovGap, there is a group of doodles that Sarah Palin made while contemplating her run for Mayor of Wasilla.  I've posted the pic below, but be sure to click the link above to see details.   I'd be really interested in what a hand-writing analyst would derive about Sarah Palin from these doodles.
Sarah Palin Doodles

Also you can see great pictures of Wasilla at mudflats.wordpress.com including this doozy:

Wasilla City Hall

The New Yorker has explicitly endorsed Barack Obama citing any of the issues where John McCain has allied himself with Bush from failed economic policies to permission of torture. But most importantly The New Yorker cites the landscape of the Supreme Court that weighs in the balance:
... [but] scrapping Roe—which, after all, would leave states as free to permit abortion as to criminalize it—would be just the beginning. Given the ideological agenda that the existing conservative bloc has pursued, it’s safe to predict that affirmative action of all kinds would likely be outlawed by a McCain Court. Efforts to expand executive power, which, in recent years, certain Justices have nobly tried to resist, would likely increase. Barriers between church and state would fall; executions would soar; legal checks on corporate power would wither—all with just one new conservative nominee on the Court. And the next President is likely to make three appointments.
[via kottke.org]

Dr. Ralph Stanley has thrown his support to Barack Obama, a move which delights me as a huge fan of blue grass and Dr. Stanley.  I was even lucky enough to see him perform with his grandson a few years back at the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam.  They don't grow blue grass vocals like that anymore. 

You can hear it here and watch it here. [via BoingBoing]

For extra fun click open both links in new tabs and listen to the round version. 

Here is a  good point about Sarah Palin's inability to name a Supreme Court ruling.  Baker v. Exxon is a case that has strong implications for her home state of Alaska. [Via Mudflats]
...[A] Supreme Court ruling came down in a case known as Baker v. Exxon. Most of you will recall the devastating oil spill that occurred in Alaska in 1989 when the supertanker Exxon Valdez slammed into Bligh Reef, pouring 11 million gallons (some say over 30 million gallons) of crude oil into the pristine waters of Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Many of those in Alaska at the time probably either know someone affected, or were themselves affected personally by the spill. Many of you who were out of state, cut up your Exxon credit cards, watched footage of oil-soaked otters and sea birds, and deeply mourned the loss of a place you’d never even seen.

The Alaska Natives in the area, and those who fished the Sound lost their livelihoods, and their ‘holy place’. The loss on many levels cannot be overestimated. Today, in 2008, if you dig down about 8 inches into the sandy beaches of many islands in the Sound you will find thick black crude oil.

...

... Exxon has reminded us that this $507.5 million figure is actually the upper limit of what they owe. And they are also balking at paying interest on that money. They are stalling, because they are literally waiting for plaintiffs to die.

So, I ask you, Sarah Palin, as the Governor of Alaska, a state whose land, water, wildlife and people have been ground under the wheels by corporate oil interests, backed up by a conservative Supreme Court put there by your party, is THIS one of those Supreme Court cases that you also disagree with? Or did you just forget about it?

From McSweeney's:

Ladies and gentlemen, seeing such a sea of smiling faces in front of me this evening, I can't help but think of the young fisherman from Massachusetts who faced a much more threatening sea one night, but who, despite being buffeted on every side by storms, still helped his crewmates steer their lobster ship safely to shore.

Just thinking of that young man's determination and resolve reminds me of the elderly woman from Nebraska who couldn't afford arthritis medication but who persevered, who didn't let stiff knuckles stop her from sewing the last stitch on the quilt she gave to her grandson on the day he shipped out for Iraq to defend his country against those who would seek to destroy the very thing that quilt represented—oh, did I mention the old suffragette had sewn a blanket of stars and stripes to keep her grandson warm on those cold Middle Eastern nights?

When politicians speak I often think about how generic they make the middle class sound.  The common thread that Americans share is most likely a tie-dye.