packing list

• digital camera
  
• mp3 player and charger
  
• phone charger
  
• Americana
  
• Motherless Brooklyn
  
• four pair pants
  
• three pair boxer shorts
  
• one tie
  
• five pair socks
  
• three t-shirts
  
• three long sleeve shirts
  
• one short sleeve shirt
  
• one toothbrush
  
• one razor

great lead

The Economist has a nice story about the space launch. And it starts with one of the best leads I've read in a while:

They are calling it the "space Woodstock" — but unlike the legendary 1960s pop festival, only one man got high.

Clever.

i choose not to

I've become a regular reader of the White House press briefings. They aren't quite as much fun as they were with Ari Fleischer, they still have good tidbits almost every day. Yesterday, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales' briefing on the administration's torture policy was no exception:

JUDGE GONZALES: I'm not going to get into a discussion about the internal deliberations of the White House. I can say that during this period of time there was a great deal of debate, over a period of days, maybe a period of a couple weeks, when the presidential determination was made, all the agencies had actually weighed-in very strongly.

Q With the President, personally?

JUDGE GONZALES: I believe so. But the equities of all the agencies were presented to the President, and they were before the President as he made his decision.

Q: And who did that, you?

JUDGE GONZALES: Again, I'm not going to talk about --

Q: Well, wait, I'm not sure I understand, why is that a difficult thing to discuss?

JUDGE GONZALES: It's not a difficult thing to discuss, it's just one that I don't choose to discuss.

Q: Why?

JUDGE GONZALES: I just don't.

Q: Why wouldn't that be helpful?

JUDGE GONZALES: We normally don't talk about the internal deliberations within the White House. I don't think that's appropriate.

This administration is so helpful.

you had the right to remain silent

In addition to the landmark space flight yesterday, The Supreme Court issued its ruling in Hiibel v. Nevada. In this case, a man — Hiibel — was standing beside a truck, and was asked to identify himself by police investigating a domestic dispute. Hiibel (who appeared intoxicated) refused, and following repeated requests by the officer for his identity, was arrested for failing to identify himself.
Stevens in his dissent is right on:

Surely police questioning during a Terry stop qualifies as an interrogation, and it follows that responses to such questions are testimonial in nature...

Given a proper understanding of the category of "incriminating" communications that fall within the Fifth Amendment privilege, it is clear that the disclosure of petitioner's identity is protected. The Court reasons that we should not assume that the disclosure of petitioner's name would be used to incriminate him or that it would furnish a link in a chain of evidence needed to prosecute him. But why else would an officer ask for it? And why else would the Nevada Legislature require its disclosure only when circumstances "reasonably indicate that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime?" If the court is correct, then petitioner's refusal to cooperate did not impede the police investigation. Indeed, if we accept the predicate for the Court's holding, the statute requires nothing more than a useless invasion of privacy. I think that, on the contrary, the Nevada Legislature intended to provide its police officers with a useful law enforcement tool, and that the very existence of the statute demonstrates the value of the information it demands. [emphasis added]

Fundamentally, the right against self-incrimination should prevent the state from compelling identification. There is also an additional principle at play. The Nevada statute requires a reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in a crime. However, this judgment is left to the state, and compelling individuals to identify themselves in public clearly represents a shift in individual privacy rights. A troubling shift indeed...

wow

Privately funded plane enters space.

is it the pope?

First Ronald Reagan, now Ray Charles, dead at 73.

If these things come in three, who's next?

fun at work

The city is going a little crazy because of the Reagan funeral. Adding to the fun, today at work, we got evacuated.

Sweet.

olympics for the sky

I missed The Venusian transit of the sun. Celestial events like this, or Halley's Comet, which comes around every 76 years, are one of the few truly global events. All over the world, in countries of differing governments, ethnicities, and worldviews, people were watching Venus meander across the sun. It's like the olympics for the sky.

Except it only happens twice every 121.5 years, the last in 1882 (or so I'm told). Fortunately, I haven't necessarily missed my only shot, and will be watching the skies in 2012 to see a black dot on the sun. Or I'll forget about it while I'm getting dressed for work.

i'm so ashamed.

I got to operate the gun turret on a Hummer in Baghdad today and you didn't.

Well, I got to do this on a training simulator they brought to our offices.
Participating as the gunner on this daytime cruise through the Iraqi capital (complete with virtual "terrorists" firing RPGs), I first was afflicted with a moral conflict:

Is it more morally corrupt to:

• Operate the gun on the
  Hummer
• Drive a Hummer

By operating the gun, I had the opportunity to actually destroy other vehicles, thereby reducing the burden on global resources being caused by the driving of the vehicle. Of course, all of this took place on a very elaborate headset and was nothing more than a glorified video game.

I wonder about the efficacy of training on these ridiculously expensive simulators. While I believe it probably helps prepare our troops to patrol otherwise alien environments, is there an desensitization that takes place when war turns into a video game? If the guy in the Hummer behind me who kept shooting everything that moved — including me — is any indication, there just might be.

assorted assortment

A few notes from today:

• Jon Stewart delivered the commencement address at William and Mary College. I'll still take
  our graduation speaker but Stewart's speech is
  pretty quality.
  
• Thankfully, the California porn industry is shooting again. That's a terrible pun.
  
• Finally, The Wall Street Journal and Zogby have conducted the first battleground states poll. It shows Kerry leading the President in 12 of 16 battleground states, including five states Bush won (or "won") in 2000. If the poll results are accurate, and the election were held today, Kerry would trounce the President. It should be noted that this poll was conducted on the internet (but in a controlled setting), and that many of these leads are within the margin of error, particularly Florida (Kerry by 1.3%). Still, good news.

worst baseball game ever

The Yankees suck. Unfortunately, the Orioles suck more. A lot more. A super lot. 18-5. Ouch. But since the game was long, it was worth the 150 minute drive to the park. And Camden Yards remains a spectacular place to spend an evening.

Also, Eric Harris...er the Texas Rattlesnake (whatever) rules. Or something.

let's get "married"

Yesterday the Washington Post and the Washington Times had almost identical headlines. The Post headline:

Gay Couples Marry in Massachusetts

and the Washington Times:

Gay Couples 'Marry' in Massachusetts

It is clear in this Washington Times Editorial that in the Washington Times, "marry" is style if it involves same-sex couples. To me this is midly ironic given that the Washington Times' owner, Rev. Sun Myung Moon has conducted numerous mass weddings at which the couples had never seen one another before their "marriage."

It's also bad journalism.

yummy

Anne, describing my cooking to someone, said I made cream and butter soup. This got me to thinking about how to concoct such a soup.

It seems like it'll be really tasty. I may have to spend some time in the kitchen next week when I get back from California. But should the base be cream, or butter? And how can I get bacon involved?

lobsters stuffed with tacos

After a weekend of cavorting on the beach and throwing up in the ocean, I'm back in town. The beach is fucking fun, though. Except for the vomiting in the ocean.

And yes, the rumors are true, approximately one year after graduating, I am with job.

they don't make them like this anymore

From the Senate floor today, from Sen. Earnest "Fritz" Hollings (D-SC):

The point is that this decision [Brown v. Board of Education] itself more or less removed the lid off the punch bowl of segregation and allowed all Americans, regardless of race, creed, or color, to become for the first time full Americans, full citizens.

It's too bad he's retiring.

lousy comments

Restoring my haloscan comments is, for the moment, more trouble than it's worth. It can be done, but I really like the way the blogger comments look. I could have both, it looks really clunky. I'm a bit dismayed that blogger requires a registration to leave comments. That's really lame. Of course, this whole thing is free, so I suppose I can't complain too much given all the free improvements they've provided.

pretty pretty

New template. Hooray. Blogger upgraded their site, and offered a bunch of new templates with the upgrade. This one I feel is a vast improvement over its predecessor. Overall I'm beaming about the upgrades, I think I like this better than moveable type which ate my blog a while ago.

I'm quite enamored with the way this template displays blockquotes. Very slick. CSS rules.

I may bring over the old haloscan comments, but we'll try using blogger's new comments feature for now.

It also appears that as I finalize this effort, my site has gone down. This is irritating.

this is gross

A number of readers have requested details of my unfortunate brush with boiling water. Click on the picture on the left for greater detail. It's a little gross, though.

 

bastion of journalism

Thank goodness we have Dateline NBC to provide us with unbiased news about the Friends finale. A two hour special devoted to a program running on the same network the next night. What journalistic integrity. Especially in the face of a void of other newsworthy issues. I suppose I might be offended if a "news" program devoted two hours to a television show if we were at war or something.

I've been watching a lot of t.v. as I (slowly) recuperate from burning the hell out of myself this weekend. Mental note: Don't pour boiling water down my legs. Especially not three gallons. There is seriously nothing on television ever. Ever.

Oh, for everyone who has been wondering, Kassie's blog is back up. Now with .net flavor!

best analogy ever

At a press conference this morning, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) compared lack of enforcement of trade agreements by the U.S. to "coming to a wife swapping party and being the only one who brought your wife."

On an unrelated note, Lifesaver Pastels Jellybeans are the most vile thing ever. Ever.

red and blue

The Washington Post is running a three part series on Red and Blue America. The first article lays out the basic argument that America is becoming increasingly politically segregated. The second is a slice of life in Red America in Sugar Land, Texas, Tom Delay's home district. It's about a man who drinks Bud Light at Hooters, grills cheeseburgers on his gas grill, and goes to church every Sunday. He be a nice guy, but my immediate reaction is that he's a moron who is out of touch with the realities of this country.

The increasing vitriol is evident in this article and my reaction to it, as well as the protest yesterday. Explanations for this growing scism vary, and will be the basis for a lot of political science classes in the next 50 years (provided that the republicans don't destroy higher ed).

One of the fundamental arguments is that we choose to live among the like minded, which has further entrenched our own beliefs, whatever they may be. The anger directed both generally at the President, and specifically at the anti-choice protestors (and at us by them), demonstrates a declining willingness to compromise and find those issues on which there is agreement.
Tomorrow's piece will be about Nancy Pelosi's home district in San Francisco. I’m sure I’ll be full of warm fuzzies and want to move there.

march for exhaustion

What a long weekend. Oy. The party rocked, the March was pimp-ass, and to top it off, i just got back from Reston, VA after seeing MJPR. I'll have pictures from the March at some point, and a longer comment too, but since I have to go to work tomorrow, I'm going to bed.

But before I do, I thought I'd quote the White House statement on the March:

The President believes we should work to build a culture of life in America and regardless of where one stands on the issue of abortion, we can all work together to reduce the number of abortions through promotion of abstinence-education programs, support for parental-notification laws and continued support for banning partial-birth abortion.

Fucker.

it's the heat AND the humidity

I had been planning to make chocolate for my super-awesome Party for Choice. But the heat and the humidity of recent days have made that plan untenable. She's a fickle mistress, chocolate. Oh well, the quesadillas and pizzas and gyoza should do the job. That and the beer.

If you are in Washington on Saturday night, you should come to this party. It's going to rock. And not just because of the aforementioned food and beer. The food and beer will be largely responsible for the rockingness, though.

Directions from the Metro are here.

too slow

Yesterday I was reviewing the newest Washington Post-ABC News Poll. There is lots of bad news for Kerry, though it remains far too soon to consider this data valuable. I wandered around the office noting my favorite piece of data from the poll, the response to this question:

"Overall do you think George W. Bush has done more to unite the country, or has done more to divide the country?"

50% say unite, 48% say divide. Good stuff. Unfortunately, Andrew Sullivan has beaten me to the blog. Bastard.

look! a blue car!

Listening to Morning Edition before work today, I heard a story on the growing popularity of prenatal ultrasound portraits. The FDA has issued a warning that the use of ultrasounds for non-medical use is both inappropriate and potentially harmful to fetal development.

Parents (and the one they had on the show sounded like the kind of idiots who would pay for this crap) are taking these "portraits" of their unborn children, I suppose for the scrapbook. One proprietor of such an establishment, when asked about the potential health risks to the fetus responded, "it's still safer than an abortion."

To translate, "I waste medical technology, and my behavior is indefensible, so I have to blather some right-wing crap on an unrelated topic."

Kind of like when the President brings up gay marriage when we're interested in the location of those WMD.

shake everywhere

So Jim Cantalupo, the CEO of McDonald's, died of a heart attack today. I don't mean to make light of this man's death, but this is kind of like rain on your wedding day, don’t you think?

In a related story, Mayor McCheese lowered all McDonald land flags to half-mast, and the Hamburglar agreed to take a hiatus from his thieving ways. When asked what Cantalupo meant to him, the Hamburglar, between sobs, replied simply "robble."

best fight ever

Last night, I was flipping around while watching the Timberwolves game, and came across an awesome show: Animal Face-Off. They make biomechanical versions of animals and have them fight. Last night was Walrus vs. Polar Bear.

I initially thought the walrus would have no shot. Sure, it has badass tusks, but they are a goofy looking animal. But the walrus is about twice as heavy as the polar bear. I missed the conclusion (because I was held rapt by a far more momentous battle: Nugget vs. Timberwolf), but will have to catch it in rerun.

Brilliant show concept. The season finale is a must-see: Collosal Squid (how cool does that sound?) vs. Sperm Whale. Make your own inappropriate jokes.

that sucked

Arriving home, I sought to partake in the great American tradition of a cold beer after work. I might have even tried to catch a baseball game. As I reached into the fridge and grabbed hold of some Belgian concoction, the bottle exploded in my hands.

Beer everywhere.

Making matters worse (than just not having any beer), the beer was was a 25.7 oz bottle, distributing its beer-y goodness all over the fridge. And it cut my hand to boot. Dammit.

leadership of smirks

I was reading a Salon(which has declined recently) article on John Kerry: The Video Game, when I came across a turn of phrase that brilliantly captures what I hope will be Bush's downfall in this election:

As Iraq teeters once more on the brink, his [Kerry's] opposite offers little more than the leadership of smirks.

I would have thought Maureen Dowd or perhaps E.J. Dionne would have come up with something this good, but I guess not.

Second, (as cited in Howard Kurtz's Media Notes), Michael Tomasky (The American Prospect's Executive Editor) writes in his weekly online column:

We saw the usual mental confusion and frighteningly long pauses as his mind scoured its grim landscape for an appropriate word.

In reading both of these pieces, specific images of the President stumbling for words, or smirking smugly immediately spring to mind. That's good writing.

Oh, and finally Sen. Kerry provides his vision for leadership in Iraq in a decent piece in today's Post.

Off to go watch Ashcroft testify. I hope it isn't too hot.

i'm baaaack

My server has been down most of last week, which prevented some postings. It's working (though who knows for how long) now, so I'll probably be backblogging later this week.

Oh, and kudos to the Gophers' Women's Basketball team. Their impressive run in the tournament (and Lindsay Whalen's career) came to an end, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Though I probably wouldn't have refered to the run as either a "karmic joyride" or "jubilant jaunt" as the Strib did in the first two paragraphs. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it greatly. And this from someone who has in the past referred to women's basketball as insipid.

cut cut cut

I spent much of this weekend in the kitchen. Because I'm on jury duty, I'll have more opportunties ot cook next week too, which is good since it's passover. On Saturday I spent about 5 hours making a vegetable stock from scratch. It takes quite a while, and I'm not convinced that the finished product is worth the effort, but there is something soothing about the processs. It is a bit challenging, in part because of the temporal investment. After spending three hours, I really didn't want to fuck it up.

I used the finished product to make a sauce for stuffed turkey cutlets. Served with mashed potatoes and green beans...tasty. Next week: lots of kosher meals. Matzo ball soup...yum.

jury duty rules

I've been thinking in the list form recently. The two lists I've come up with are:

Random observations from jury duty

• There have been several movies about juries, most recently, I think, Runaway Jury. After my first day of jury duty, however, I think any movie about jury duty (and, not starring Pauly Shore) would be the most boring film ever.
  
• I suppose it's a good thing that our legal system operates slowly. Haste would make for poor justice (I'm sure someone has said something similar and more eloquently), but it sure is boring for the participants.
  
• Old government buildings are ugly.
  
• There are some seriously crazy people living in Washington, and eligible to serve on a jury. I think I'll request a bench trial if ever indicted.

Reasons jury duty is better than work

• I can sleep later.
  
• I get paid.
  
• I get off earlier.
  
• No paper jams.
  
• When there's nothing to do, I can act like it.
  
• Did I mention I get paid?

three people will get this

While washing my face this morning, with Noxema's slogan, "your face belongs to Noxema" running through my head, I came up with what should be Noxema's new slogan:

All your face are belong to Noxema.

I am so funny.

(thanks to Josh for the correction)

damn you SUV drivers!

from "You Shall Know Our Velocity":

The silent though decisive discussions were a hobby of my mind, debating people I knew or passed on the road while driving:
—You, driving the Lexus.
—Me?
—Yes, you. You paid too much.
—What?
—You paid too much and your soul is soiled.
—You are right. I have failed but will repent.

Every time I see an SUV a similar conversation takes place, but with more swearing.

Kassie rules

A deal is a deal. Having sent Kassie a copy of The Grey Album, I received a plastic container (very cleverly wrapped, I might add) full of leftover wop. She was even nice enough to include a lighter which might have been mine in a previous life. Now what to do with it?

I'm considering saving it for the April 24 party at my house before the March for Choice. If I dumped it into a much larger wop, (sans lighter) nobody would notice. And anybody who died would probably not do so until after they left my house.

On a completely unrelated note, last night Anne (not my sister) and I went to Sushi Taro. Though there wasn’t any bluefin toro, I did have some uni. The egg (or roe) of sea urchins left me lacking words. And I’ve just stumbled across a website that ships the stuff. 80g for $14. ($78/lb.) Perhaps ordering it for $9.00 at a restaurant is easier (for now).

happy birthday

My blog turns one today. The day after the war turns one.

For those counting:

American deaths from war in Iraq: 576 (437 since end of major combat operations)
American deaths from my blog: 0

Cost of war in Iraq (to American taxpayers: $107 B (as of 3.20.04)
Cost of my blog (to American taxpayers): $0

Clearly my blog is better.

stupid democracy

After about a week of columnists and politicians excoriating the Spaniards for exercising their democratic rights in the aftermath of a national tragedy, Maureen Dowd gets it right.

Oh, and Kassie, it snowed here today. Definitely suck.

Sign this!

Fire Sec. Rod Paige. Off to work with me.

Work work work...

30 bucks?

I was really excited to do my taxes because I thought I'd be receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit. The EITC is a refundable credit, which supplements the income of low income families and individuals. Unfortunately, as I discovered, you have to be 25 to claim the EITC if you don't have kids. As I am not, my refund is a lousy $30. Dammit.

Happy March

It's not fatal, but the hospitalization of Attorney General John Ashcroft means he'll have to take a break from taking a dump on the Bill of Rights.