THIS UNBELIEVABLE LINK IS A WORKAROUND TO THE SHEDDING PROBLEM. "Chiengora"?

How does one get to a link like this? Thinking about "Cthulhu in 2004--Why Settle for the Lesser Evil" bumper stickers to go with my "Republicans for Voldemort" t-shirt, I hit the wikipedia entry for Cthulhu, which links to the entry for User Friendly, which links to a site devoted to the praises of chiengora. Go figger.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/28/2004 10:37:00 AM

 
I DON'T LIKE CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS. He's the nominal lefty Slate columnist who's been a huge proponent of the Iraq war. Today her serves up an "ain't he misunderstood" apologia for the reviled leader of the INC actually titled "Ahmad and Me - Defending Chalabi". Check this black-is-white money quote:

"As to the accusation that Chalabi has endangered American national security by slipping secrets to Tehran, I can only say that three days ago, I broke my usual rule and had a 'deep background' meeting with a very 'senior administration official.' This person, given every opportunity to signal even slightly that I ought to treat the charges seriously, pointedly declined to do so. I thought I should put this on record."

[italics mine]
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/27/2004 05:36:00 PM

 
AL GORE GAVE A GREAT SPEECH YESTERDAY. Read the whole thing.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/27/2004 12:08:00 PM

 
GET YOUR WAR ON IS REQUIRED READING. David Rees is a trooper--he has enough righteous indiganation to take up the slack of those of us who are tired, so tired, of being righteously indignant.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/27/2004 11:31:00 AM

 
GREAT ARTICLE ON THE PSYCHOLOGY (PATHOLOGY?) OF BLOGGING TODAY IN THE NYT. In fact, expect the article itself to be exhaustively blogged. An excerpt:

"Sometimes, too, the realization that no one is reading sets in. A few blogs have thousands of readers, but never have so many people written so much to be read by so few. By Jupiter Research's estimate, only 4 percent of online users read blogs.

Indeed, if a blog is likened to a conversation between a writer and readers, bloggers like Mr. Wiggins are having conversations largely with themselves."
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/27/2004 11:08:00 AM

 
THE RNC OUTSOURCED REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISING AND PUSH POLLS. To India, no less.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/25/2004 11:24:00 AM

 
CELEBRITY CRIMINAL TRIALS ARE BITTERSWEET FOR LAWYERS. On one hand, when a celebrity goes on trial, resources are devoted to the cause which dwarf the investment made in most cases. In other words, the best lawyers work on these cases, they have the benefit of huge budgets and plenty of time, and the actual work is usually done at a very high level. On the other hand, because the public's understanding of and interest in legal issues is so shallow, the media coverage of such trials is usually along the lines of "Kobe Bryant, nattily attired in a single-breasted navy pinstripe suit with crisp silk pocket square, pled innocent to rape charges in Eagle County Circuit Court this afternoon. His voice rarely raised above a whisper, he answered 'yes' repeatedly as the judge asked him if he understood each charge against him. His wife Vanessa was silent, watching from the front row of a gallery crowded with media and hangers-on. She wore a sedate Versace long-sleeved dress with a shallow scoop neck."

The Martha Stewart case was all that, and more. But Henry Blodget, a smart guy and himself a former (and successfully prosecuted) securities analyst, kept a running diary of the Martha Stewart prosecution at Slate. It was insightful and lucid; Blodget was honest about his biases, and just as honest about his own surprise when the guilty verdicts were announced. Now it turns out not only that the prosecution's star "ink expert," a Secret Service agent who testified about marks made by broke Peter Bacanovic on a summary of Steart's portfolio, lied at trial. And he's been charged by perjury by the same office that obtained convictions of Stewart and Bacanovic. Needless to say, lawyers for Bacanovic and Stewart are screaming about the need for a new trial.

And shouldn't they? This is that fun time--post-verdict--where we should step back from considerations of "did the error affect the outcome" and think about the effect of perception of the error. We have a witness whom the government is prosecuting for lying at trial. Do you think this fact, if made known, would affect a reasonable person's perception of whether Stewart and Bacanovic were fairly tried? Many people enjoyed a moment of schadenfreude when Stewart's conviction was announced, but would any of those people have said "I want a conviction, even if the government must suborn perjury to get one?" For the same reason, I never understand when prosecutors resist granting new trials in cases where new DNA testing on old evidence casts doubt on a conviction. I understand that prosecutors, once they have a conviction in hand, want to give nothing away. But at the same time, and especially when we go to war far away on the ostensible ground of spreading the rule of law, why do we lack the courage to say "a doubtful conviction cannot stand." Put another way, I hope that if I were a successful prosecutor and got a letter from Barry Scheck that said "Newly-performed DNA tests cast substantial doubt on whether Joe X., whom you prosecuted for manslaughter six years ago, actually committed that crime," I hope I would put aside pride in that notch on my belt and say, "Well, the public's faith in our system of justice demands that Mr. X receive a new trial."

But I'm hopelessly idealistic in many ways.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/21/2004 03:37:00 PM

 
YOU ARE BEING LIED TO. Headline: "GAO: Government's mock Medicare news spots violated law."
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/20/2004 11:35:00 AM

 
A COUPLE OF WORDS ABOUT GOOGLE. First, I just noticed that Google has an incredibly powerful plain-language calculator. Neat stuff.

Then, on to gmail. As a long-time Blogger user (Blogger having been bought by Google a while ago) I was invited to beta test gmail, which is Google's email service, custom-designed to exterminate hotmail and yahoomail. As you might assume, it's pretty great. But there is a hue and cry, indeed a clamor, of people who desperately want to be in the beta but whom Google did not invite. Luckily, Google gave many of us invite privileges--I was allowed to invite two people. Some enterprising and public-minded soul set up gmailswap, where those with gmail invites to give can meet those willing to give things for invites. It's a barter economy. Great stuff. And maybe, just maybe, the kid who offered me a glass-top cherry humidor for an invite will actually send it. If not, oh well, but if so, golly!
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/19/2004 09:26:00 AM

 
THE OREGONIAN BITES ASS. Its bias in favor of those people whose current and past offices are in City Hall is well documented. But today's front page headline--"Potter forces runoff"--is surreal. Here is the O's own set of numbers on the mayoral race. Potter 42%, Jim F. 34%. Potter didn't force a runoff, Jim did, and not by much.

And incidentally, if you think that in the runoff any of those votes for Extremo the Clown, the late Jim Spagg, Posey or Busse are going to shift anywhere but to Potter, you are a silly bunny. Put a fork in Jimmy the Schnoz. He's done.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/19/2004 08:51:00 AM

 
NEW EXISTENTIALIST COMIC STRIP: BOY ON A STICK AND SLITHER.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/17/2004 11:55:00 AM

 
ZELL MILLER COMPARES ABU GHRAIB TORTURE TO SHOWERING IN GYM CLASS:

Senator Zell Miller: 'The two times I think I have been most humiliated in my life was standing in a big room, naked as a jaybird with about fifty others and they were checking us out, now that was humiliating. It was humiliating showering with sixty others in a public shower. It didn't kill us did it? No one ever died from humiliation.'

Imus: 'Whenever I was naked I always felt sorry for the other guys.'
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/17/2004 11:34:00 AM

 
I'M FINALLY READING THE ENTIRETY OF SY HERSH'S NEW YORKER PIECE ON IRAQ PRISONER ABUSE. The more I read--and the news these days is so fatalistically absorbing that it's impairing my ability to function in daily life--the more it seems that this tragedy was caused by the breakdown in the separation between military police, on the one hand, and military intelligence and OGA (other governmental agency, i.e., CIA) on the other hand.

Check this long excerpt from Hersh's piece:

Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the task force in charge of the prison at Guantánamo, had brought a team of experts to Iraq to review the Army program. His recommendation was radical: that Army prisons be geared, first and foremost, to interrogations and the gathering of information needed for the war effort. “Detention operations must act as an enabler for interrogation . . . to provide a safe, secure and humane environment that supports the expeditious collection of intelligence,” Miller wrote. The military police on guard duty at the prisons should make support of military intelligence a priority.

General Sanchez agreed, and on November 19th his headquarters issued an order formally giving the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade tactical control over the prison. General Taguba fearlessly took issue with the Sanchez orders, which, he wrote in his report, “effectively made an MI Officer, rather than an MP officer, responsible for the MP units conducting detainee operations at that facility. This is not doctrinally sound due to the different missions and agenda assigned to each of these respective specialties.”

Taguba also criticized Miller’s report, noting that “the intelligence value of detainees held at . . . Guantánamo is different than that of the detainees/internees held at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities in Iraq. . . . There are a large number of Iraqi criminals held at Abu Ghraib. These are not believed to be international terrorists or members of Al Qaeda.” Taguba noted that Miller’s recommendations “appear to be in conflict” with other studies and with Army regulations that call for military-police units to have control of the prison system. By placing military-intelligence operatives in control instead, Miller’s recommendations and Sanchez’s change in policy undoubtedly played a role in the abuses at Abu Ghraib. General Taguba concluded that certain military-intelligence officers and civilian contractors at Abu Ghraib were “either directly or indirectly responsible” for the abuses, and urged that they be subjected to disciplinary action.
***
[T]he pressure on soldiers to accede to requests from military intelligence was felt throughout the system.

Not everybody went along. A company captain in a military-police unit in Baghdad told me last week that he was approached by a junior intelligence officer who requested that his M.P.s keep a group of detainees awake around the clock until they began talking. “I said, ‘No, we will not do that,’” the captain said. “The M.I. commander comes to me and says, ‘What is the problem? We’re stressed, and all we are asking you to do is to keep them awake.’ I ask, ‘How? You’ve received training on that, but my soldiers don’t know how to do it. And when you ask an eighteen-year-old kid to keep someone awake, and he doesn’t know how to do it, he’s going to get creative.’”

There are two lesson here. One is that the Rumsfeld/Cheney scorn for Pentagon formalistic pointyheadedness has several fruits, some bitter. This scorn led to a successful military campapign--fast, light American forces were able to take Iraq quickly and efficiently. This approach didn't work, though, after the conquering was done. Gen. Eric Shiseki famously lost his job for saying the administration was underestimating the number of troops ithat holding Iraw and keeping it safe would take. The same approach sees an efficiency, a synergy, in the detention of citizens of the occupied country. They are also possible intelligence assets. The other is another hallmark of this administration, which is the disregard for any formalism as being simple apparatchik-think. Forgive my analogy, but we see a similar breakdown domestically in the traditional and required separation between law enforcement and intelligence gathering.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/13/2004 10:35:00 PM (0) comments

 
I'D PREFER TO HAVE A BARCODE TATTOOED ON MY FOREHEAD, THANKS. I'm looking into the veracity of this story, which says that a nightclub in Barcelona is implanting RFID chips in clubgoers so as to allow them to pay for their drinks without carrying a wallet.

UPDATE: Yup, it's true. From an interview with the club's owner:

"By simply passing by our reader, the Baja beach Club will know who you are and what your credit balance is. From the moment of their implantation they will also have free entry and access to the VIP area which we will formally open the 25th of March.
***
The objective of this technology is to bring an ID system to a global level that will destroy the need to carry ID documents and credit cards. The veriChip the we implant in the Baja will not only be for the Baja, but is also useful for whatever other enterprise that makes use of this technology."
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/12/2004 11:19:00 AM (0) comments

 
GEORGE WILL GETS IN HIGH DUDGEON when he feels personally betrayed:

"When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate. Leave aside the question of who or what failed before Sept. 11, 2001. But who lost his or her job because the president's 2003 State of the Union address gave currency to a fraud -- the story of Iraq's attempting to buy uranium in Niger? Or because the primary and only sufficient reason for waging preemptive war -- weapons of mass destruction -- was largely spurious? Or because postwar planning, from failure to anticipate the initial looting to today's insufficient force levels, has been botched? Failures are multiplying because of choices for which no one seems accountable.

"The principle is: The response by the nation's government must express horror, shame and contrition proportional to the evil done to others, and the harm done to the nation, by agents of the government.

"Americans are almost certainly going to die in violence made worse in Iraq, and not only there, by the substantial aid some Americans, in their torture of Iraqi prisoners, have given to our enemies in this war. And by the appallingly dilatory response to the certain torture and probable murder committed in that prison."
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/11/2004 08:57:00 AM (0) comments

 
HILARIOUS. The FBI thinks a fictional character is plotting chemical attacks. But play follow the link: "a White House staffer Googled Fulci." Google "Don Emilio Fulci" and you get this. Use the Google French to English translator,a nd you get this.

"Unfortunately, the head of the ACN, Christopher Stern, was made assassinate in his office, and you, you are amnesic. The girl of Stern, Angela, urges you to find the assassin supposed of his/her father, Gift Emilio Fulci."

Sounds like my fraternity days...
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/10/2004 04:32:00 PM (0) comments

 
LONG COLD WINTERS DRIVE CANADIANS CRAZY.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/10/2004 02:18:00 PM (0) comments

 
THE O'S PUBLIC EDITOR APOLOGIZED FOR CALLING GOLDSCHMIDT'S CHILD ABUSE AN "AFFAIR." He also offered up this nugget, which is a nice look into how spin becomes spin:

The timing of Friday's story ended up being controlled by Goldschmidt, whose representative called The Oregonian Thursday morning offering a meeting with reporters and editors. At the meeting, Goldschmidt gave them his written statement and then responded to questions. The interview ended about 3 p.m., launching a dash to prepare a package by 7 p.m., with revisions through the evening.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/10/2004 10:55:00 AM (0) comments

 
NEIL GOLDSCHMIDT'S SEX ABUSE OF A MINOR IS THE NEWS. But as usual, the meta-news is more interesting. Here's the past 24 hours' chronology: First, Goldschimdt resigns as head of the state Board of Higher Ed., his position with the Texas group angling to buy PGE, and his various and sundry other positions. He cited his health as the reason. Then, radio pundits like Lars Larson (not gonna dignify him with a link), upon learning of this, started saying in public what had been bandied about quietly for years--that Goldschmidt was resigning because he was about to be outed on his affair with a fourteen-year-old girl while he was mayor. The Willamette Week posted a teaser on its website that said, in essence, "Goldschmidt resigned today ostensibly for health reasons, but we think it's because of our two-month probe into his past sexual misconduct. We'll blow the lid off it next Wednesday," that is, May 12.

Here's where it gets interesting, rather than merely sordid. Today's front-page headline in the Oregonian spotlights a nearly hour-long interview with Goldschmidt, where he comes clean. The Willy, meanwhile, is left rushing to web with what it thought was going to be a bombshell next week. Richard Meeker and Mark Zusman must be tearing their hair out and damning their choice to work for a weekly rather than a daily right now.

The piece in the O reveals that Goldschmidt is still immensely talented as a politician, and the O is willing to do what's necessary to get the scoop over the Willy. As Josiah points out, the O's account of the interview is almost absurdly deferential and sympathetic, portraying NG as a man whose health has been broken by the weight of guilt he has carried for the past 28 years. Check these excerpts:

"I'm just living with this personal hell," said Goldschmidt, 63, occasionally choking back tears. "The lie has gone on too long."
***
Goldschmidt acknowledged that his past behavior will forever blight his political legacy, as well as put at risk others associated with his work, including his longtime friend, Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Although Goldschmidt had setbacks, he has been a sought-after visionary on some of Portland's biggest projects and is considered one of Oregon's savviest political insiders.
***
His voice quavering, his face flushed, Goldschmidt methodically and bluntly revealed details he knew could ruin him. He had an affair with an underage girl, he lied about it and ultimately was forced to disclose it.

Usually a commanding presence, he appeared dejected and defeated, his head often slumping inches from the meeting room table.

Joining him for the interview were his business partner Tom Imeson and his best friend, Jerry Bidwell, a prominent Portland area financier and a member of the Oregon Investment Council. All sat somberly as Goldschmidt answered questions about the affair. Several times, Diana Goldschmidt reached out and clasped her husband's hand or rubbed his shoulder.
***
"The story was being spread in ways that were even more damaging than I supposed I ever could quite imagine," Goldschmidt said, his voice rarely rising above a hoarse whisper.
***
Goldschmidt, who has suffered from heart ailments since law school, said his health has gradually worsened over the years. Last fall, he said, he suffered a "serious episode" of atrial fibrillation -- or irregular heartbeat. He visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in December for a closer diagnosis and was told to change his life by losing weight, exercising and limiting stress.

Two weeks ago, he experienced another atrial fibrillation episode. That's when he concluded he had to "slow down."

"The real issue is, I'm trying to avoid a stroke," Goldschmidt said.

A large measure of the guilt he feels, he said, is because of how much he thinks this will hurt his family, friends and political associates.

The poor man! He's a victim!

- posted by thegusdad @ 5/07/2004 10:39:00 AM

 
WEIRD STUFF. So, like, I wanted to check some of my favorite sites, which happen to be linked at right, and so I was going to my blog? And I was supposed to type "whitman.blogspot.com"? And instead I typed "whitman" and hit ctrl+enter? And Firefox filled in www.whitman.com? And it said "whitman.com was not found"? And I thought, "golly, maybe whitman.com has expired and I can go register it, and use it, and migrate my blog over to it and use movable type and get a cool site design like Linda's? So I went to whois the domain at internic.com to see if it was really available? And internic said "sorry, that's not available, maybe you'd like one of these alternate domains...."

[weird stuff coming up. the up-talking was not the weird stuff. repeat, the up-talking was not the weird stuff]

"...maybe you'd like one of these alternate domains, mattwhitman.com..." [holy shit, that's me!] "...or walterwhitman.com." [holy shit, that's my dad!]

So I see two possible explanations. One is that the evil whois query somehow triggered an evil privacy-invading search of my cookies to see info associated with my whois request, and integrated evilly-acquired information from my machine into a "suggestion" of domains I might like. The other is that internic processed some sort of net-wide query and came up with the most net-popular Whitman first names not already registered. Which in turn would mean that "matt whitman" is more recognizable net-wide than "robert whitman," "bill whitman," or "john whitman." All of which seems a trifle unlikely. Anybody got some better explanation?
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/05/2004 10:23:00 PM

 
FUNNY BUMPER STICKERS. Gotta find amusement somehow while Skot is on vacation in Vegas.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/05/2004 05:57:00 PM

 
SO I KNOW THIS GUY WHO BLOGS AND I'M SURE HIS BOSS DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT IT...

Or his fire-based performance art...

And he found this. Ay yi yi.

See "How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog."
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/05/2004 01:55:00 PM

 
FROM THE TAGUBA REPORT*:

6. (S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:

a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;

b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;

c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;

d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;

e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;

f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;

g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;

h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;

i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;

j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture;

k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;

l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;

m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.
***
8. (U) In addition, several detainees also described the following acts of abuse, which under the circumstances, I find credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses (ANNEX 26):

a. (U) Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;

b. (U) Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;

c. (U) Pouring cold water on naked detainees;

d. (U) Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;

e. (U) Threatening male detainees with rape;

f. (U) Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;

g. (U) Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.

h. (U) Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.
***
CONCLUSION

1. (U) Several US Army Soldiers have committed egregious acts and grave breaches of international law at Abu Ghraib/BCCF and Camp Bucca, Iraq.


* The Taguba Report is the official report and findings of US Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who was charged to investigate detainee abuses at Al Ghraib prison in Iraq.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/05/2004 09:48:00 AM

 
WONDERING WHERE ALL THOSE FINGERNAIL CLIPPERS CONFISCATED AT THE AIRPORT GO?

- posted by thegusdad @ 5/05/2004 09:28:00 AM

 
GEORGE WILL IS LATE TO THE PARTY.:

"This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts. Thinking is not the reiteration of bromides about how 'all people yearn to live in freedom' (McClellan). And about how it is 'cultural condescension' to doubt that some cultures have the requisite aptitudes for democracy (Bush). And about how it is a 'myth' that 'our attachment to freedom is a product of our culture' because 'ours are not Western values; they are the universal values of the human spirit' (Tony Blair)."
***
"Being steadfast in defense of carefully considered convictions is a virtue. Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice.

"In On Liberty (1859), John Stuart Mill said, 'It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say" that the doctrine of limited, democratic government "is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties.' One hundred forty-five years later it obviously is necessary to say that. "
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/05/2004 09:17:00 AM

 
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER THREATENS TO SUE MAKER OF "BOBBLEHEAD" ARNIE DOLL, IS SHAMED AND REVILED IN RESPONSE. This .pdf contains the demand letter from Arnie's lawyers at Lavely & Singer. Note--the demand letter even purports to be copyrighted, as in "I am threatening you, and you cannot publish this fact without my suing you." This post at corante contains a dialogue between blog commenters, one of whom actually contends that the demand-letter copyright is valid! Holy smoke! Some lawyer is spending too much time on Westlaw and too little in the real world.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/04/2004 03:27:00 PM

 
BOB EDWARDS HAS BEEN ON MY MIND. Last Friday was his last morning hosting Morning Edition on NPR, and I heard the show as I was driving from Pendleton to an arbitration in La Grande. I choked up as Edwards played his last interview on behalf of ME--of Charles Osgood, the author of Defending Baltimore from Enemy Attack, and himself an old-school veteran of radio. "Do you know why we are talking today?" asked Edwards. "You were the first person I interviewed on Morning Edition, 24 1/2 years ago. You are the alpha and the omega." Just a hint of irony in his voice.

Edwards is being moved--against his will--into a "senior correspondent" role, and this has sparked much wailing and gnashing of teeth among NPR listeners. But like the decision or not (and no one on the listener side agrees with it, because Edwards' replacements are the vanilla Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne), the way NPR has handled the flak since the announcement is savvy and commendable:

1. NPR has stuck to its guns. Despite the overwhelming backlash, Edwards is still out. While this is a bitter decision, in a few months people will have adjusted to the voices of whoever permanently replaces him, and Edwards will be a fond memory. NPR proceeds in the confidence that it will lose few listeners permanently, because no one else occupies its niche.

2. NPR has allowed Edwards' beatification rather than resisting it. ME's correspondents, in their last chats with him last week, uniformly thanked him warmly for their time together (Ken Turan and John Feinstein last Friday, for example) and praised him to the skies. It posted a poignant (and probably coerced) letter from him on the website, and a huge separate tribute page.

3. It has kept him around, effectively co-opting him.

4. It has coincided with season pledge drives, at least at my NPR affiliate, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and is using him as a pledge drive incentive: "do it for Bob--it's what he would want."
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/03/2004 06:15:00 PM

 
BRUCE STERLING IS A TECHNO-LIT GOD, along with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. He also delivers a nice rant, as he did at SXSW last March. The transcripts differ wildly, and the differences probably mean something, but each is worth reading:

Here's one from Fast Company.

Here's one from Perpetual Beta.

Here's one from Craphound.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/03/2004 05:32:00 PM

 
SO I NEED SOME LINEN PANTS. Getting married, don'tcha know, outside in Hood River in July, so linen is the way to go. And I noticed that Land's End is in fact Lands' End! Not as in "the end of the land, e.g., the beach," but as in, "the end belonging to John Lands"! For some reason I am scandalized, as I have not noticed this for the past twenty years.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/03/2004 02:57:00 PM

 
WHY DO WE HAVE TO GET THIS NEWS FROM THE TORONTO STAR? The Pentagon wants to dramatically expand Selective Service registration (making it less selective): "The proposal, which the agency's acting director Lewis Brodsky presented to senior Pentagon officials just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, also seeks to extend the age of draft registration to 34, up from 25."

(Emphasis mine.) So much for those complaints that the administration wasn't thinking about the afterwar--they were.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/03/2004 02:48:00 PM

 
SO I ADDED A HIT COUNTER...

and it didn't work worth a damn. I keep getting emailed reports that reflect zero page views, and zero unique visitors. I know this isn't the most popular blog in the world (too depressing, says Dad) but I know at least two people read it regularly. So I'm republishing to try to restart the service.

Addition 5/3/04: Plus Haloscan sometimes fails to load and my comments, or the whole blog, fails to show up. This is not such a problem for me, but it happens to Atrios too, and millions of people read Eschaton.
- posted by thegusdad @ 5/03/2004 02:12:00 PM