Shaking Spears has Bipolar Nation:
After four years of historic events, from dot-com bust to corporate scandals, 9/11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the nation remains essentially divided in its world view - a condition that Brooks describes as “a deep, tectonic fissure that shapes the electorate, a fissure so fundamental that it is unaffected by the enormous shocks we've felt over the past four years.”
What's the Rumpus says This is where the party ends:
I am not Jewish, but since September 11, I have been obsessed with the idea that the vicious attack on America uncovered previously hidden currents of surprisingly virulent anti-Semitism in the world. I was going to say the attacks "triggered" the anti-Semitism, but I think it's clear by now that the ancient prejudice which has increasingly reared its ugly head in the post-9/11 world is not a new creature, but a very old one which has recently, if sporadically, emerged from its dark hiding place. Occasionally, in conversations with my husband, I became so overwrought about this idea ("Somebody needs to DO something!") that he assured me I was overreacting, that no mainstreaming of anti-Semitism was taking place, that all was right with the world. But this was the same charmingly naive guy who -- when we were grad students together -- hadn't understood why I'd gotten so suddenly tight-lipped in a conversation with a Jordanian student who had begun by decrying popular representations of Arabs in the media and ended by reminding us, "Well, it's no surprise, of course. You know who controls the media." (My husband thought he meant corporations.) So despite my husband's good intentions, I wasn't comforted.
No Credentials looks at A Darwinian approach to literature: Clearing the ground:
Of course the adherents of poststructuralism and its tentacular offshoots aren't really idiots (although people like me and Daniel Flynn may peevishly call them that sometimes). Quite the contrary.Indeed, my fellow graduate students posed such a monumental puzzle to me exactly because so many of them were so brilliant; how was it possible that they believed this crap? It gradually became clear that they subscribed to pomo dogma the way I had subscribed to a belief in neo-pagan deities: a highly provisional, socially enforced, I'm-acting-this-way-now-because-it-suits-my-purposes kind of way, one that didn't so much require truly believing as it did being able to participate in the group discourse, and, to some extent, being willing to defend the group against outside critics.
Dan K. O'Leary has National Love Your Pussy Day!:
According to Dr. John S. Coleman, over 30% of US homes have at least one cat. But with your busy schedule, I’d bet that your pussy isn’t getting enough love. Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to announce the National Love Your Pussy day.
Coffee with CrankyBeach has As Good A Reason As Any:
...I asked him why I should vote for him.After ascertaining that I am (a) a registered votor and (b) live within the city limits, he said, "You should vote for me because... you know me, and because I'm in the band!"
At least he didn't tell me he has a plan, and to go to his website to look for it....
Resistance is futile says Shhhh! Be vewy vewy qwiet...:
Yes, conservatives, vote for me, because I shot and killed a small defenseless animal!
VerbHammer has Making Sense of the Federal Deficit and Debt:
Do you understand the National Debt? Do you know the relationship between the debt and the budget deficit? It's understandable that many people don't understand these things, since so many people live in fear of their own finances. But in an election year, it is a breakdown in Democracy that so many people don't understand these terms, and don't know the history of them. The Republican and Democratic parties both have candidates with strong feelings about public debt, and public spending. If we don't understand the finances of the government, we will be forced to "take their word for it." This is so un-American that it behooves us to educate ourselves.
YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!! has Password Protection, my ass:
What the hell is going on in the arcane world of password protection?Use to be I could remember my password and no one could ever guess it.
Then came the " new password " regime that insists I change my password every month or two. Can't reuse old passwords either...
One Happy Dog Speaks has the 30 second rule:
In my household you cannot turn your back for more than 30 seconds. Longer than that and no telling what my children will end up doing...
28J has OBL for Kerry advertisment:
I checked into PoliticsNJ.com to see the latest article. I still could not tell you what the lead article is for my eyes were immediately drawn the image you see here. The caption to the image on the site states:PAID FOR BY THE CAPE MAY COUNTY REGULAR REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION, DAVID VON SAVAGE, CHAIRMAN
Surely this was a joke/hoax. Upon looking into it, however, much like the Craig Fitzhugh campaign-distributed Special Olympics flyer (image), this appears to be legitimate.
Joe's Diner has Reminders of Saddam:
This makes me heartsick beyond explanation to read, but it's important. Just another mass grave, nothing unusual. The election-year fog seems to obscure this kind of stuff and it's just this kind of stuff that makes the history books, not political rhetoric. The head of the excavation, Greg Kehoe:
I've been doing grave sites for a long time, but I've never seen anything like this, women and children executed for no apparent reason.
Rightwingsparkle has Afghanistan. Victory and Valor.:
Bush made a courageous and unpopular decision, as most courageous decisions are. The only way we can thank him is by casting our vote for him on Nov. 2nd.Our warriors have made us proud. They have sacrificed, but not in vain. Freedom is something we in the U.S. take for granted. But little girls in Afghanistan hold it tightly now like a warm blanket. It feels good. It feels safe.
Desertlight Journal has What I've learned so far:
All of the worst distortions of the issue of domestic violence are still out there. Even the hoary old chestnuts like the Super Bowl hoax and the “rule of thumb” sham are still quoted as gospel by those who’ve never heard any different explanation. The 95% myth and the pure hokum of “a woman is battered every nine seconds” are also alive and well, sometimes even quoted by people like public officials who should know better...
Petite Anglaise asks Voulez-vous coucher:
…avec moi ce soir?That wasn’t an invitation. Sorry to disappoint.
It is however the French phrase which everyone seems to know. And I’ll come back to it in a minute.
The fact that there are two words for ‘you’ in French is another of the things which makes it difficult for English speakers to master the language.
In a nutshell, tu is the familiar you. It demonstrates a certain closeness and informality. So you would address a friend, peer, colleague, relative, child or pet as tu. If you talk to yourself, I imagine you would use it too.
Vous is the formal and plural you. It is used to show respect or maintain a certain distance or formality. To complicate matters, it is also the plural form of both tu and vous. Typically you would use this when talking to someone you don’t know well, an older person, an authority figure, or to two or more people or animals.
So coming back to my opening phrase, if you say ‘Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir’ then I would assume that you are a slapper/prostitute (a complete stranger?), you are in the market for a sugar daddy, a policeman, a ‘partouse’ (orgy) or a spot of bestiality.
Mish Mash has Ways to Have Fun with Jury Duty:
# Take a dry erase board with you and set it up in the jury stand.
Use tally marks to keep track of points for the prosecution and the defense.
# Bring your own gavel. Use it frequently.
# Wear a Pat Buchanan lapel pin (guaranteed to freak out both the defense and the prosecution).
# Wear dark sunglasses and take along a walking stick and a "seeing-eye-gerbil".
# Right when the trial starts, lunge up out of your seat, point at the defense,and shout "GUILTY!" at the top of your lungs.
# Bring a bucket of bouncy balls. ;)
# Come dressed as a clown. Apologize profusely to the judge and say you got off work late.
Linux-linux has Linux File System:
The ext2 filesystem is the default filesystem for Linux.
* supports partitions of up to 4 Terabytes in size (1 Terabyte is 1024 Gigabytes).
* while a single file can be up to 2 Gigabytes.
* Filenames can be up to 255 characters long...
Dear Editor fisks a letter in Fingernail polish ban...:
Today in the Columbia Daily Tribune there is this letter from someone who is scared shitless of big guns.The ban on assault weapons expired not too long ago. Surprisingly, despite petitions from law-enforcement officials nationwide, our government has taken no steps toward re-enacting the ban. I think this is madness.No. Madness is when your wife and her mother combined have nearly 100 different types of fingernail polish. When they are together having a mother-daughter bonding moment, the fumes that are unleashed are quite dangerous. "I think this is madness." I was dizzy the last time they were together painting their toenails. I think my cat stopped pooping in the litter box from inhaling too many fumes from this extremely dangerous product.There can be no pretending the gun can be called a "defensive" weapon. It can fire 600 rounds per minute, which is the equivalent of 10 rounds per second. A single armed man could shred an opponent or cut down an entire crowd of people.Wanna bet? Try walking into someone's house in the middle of the night. Hear the sound of the magazine locking into place...and see if you don't shit your pants. I guarantee you that "600 rounds a minute" would scare the pants off a would-be intruder. But that is besides the point.
Xtreme Soft Stuff talks about MAYA (Graphics Package):
Maya is a high-end 3D computer graphics software package used in the film and TV industry, as well as for computer and video games...
Commonwealth Conservative has Darth Vader wins!:
In addition to my day job as a prosecutor, I'm also an adjunct professor at a local college. Tonight, after class, one of my students (a typical student liberal, but bright and reasonable -- and I don't intend to suggest that those qualities are mutually exclusive) asked me what I thought about the Vice-Presidential debate.I pulled a John Edwards...
Opinion Times on Why I Reject A redefinition of Marriage Through Civil Unions or Gay Marriage:
I consider myself a Christian libertarian. I believe that ultimately marriage is an institution ordained and sanctified by God Himself, and not by government institutions. But my governmental ideology on the subject is such that I believe that governments are instituted among men to provide arbitration against what I call "excessive liberty" defined as the collision of two individuals rights in willful disobedience to the Golden Rule and the Law of Nature. When individual rights meet in a violent manner, government must play a role in adjudicating the dispute. This was the dilemma of Moses for which his father-in-law Jethro helped him make a structured system of judges to resolve.
Everything Under the Sun has A Freedom kiss to our "allies":
The top 10 reasons to hate la French10. When speaking fast they sound gay when speaking slow they sound gayer.
9. They can still experience the joy of winning the World Cup for the first time...
Muledriver has My Interview With Hitler:
Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Adolph Hitler for a lengthy Q & A session. Mr. Hitler is the former Reichsfurer of the German Nazi Party and currently resides in an undisclosed location where he divides his time between watching Must See TV and stuffing puppies into a blender [ Note: He wouldn’t admit it, but I think Mr. Hitler may have gotten the puppies in a blender idea here ].This is a small excerpt from the interview, the rest of which can be found in the upcoming issue of Apricot Growers Quarterly.
Infidel World looks at Restricting American Horizons:
Leadership is the criterion for electability. Judging by the responses I read to the debate I heard, America is being led into a supermarket full of false choices, between tans and heavy breathing. Meanwhile, reality, that elusive metaphysical, dumb blonde, is slipping away from American voters ever faster. Chief executives might only be figureheads, but for principles, too, not just brands. Both candidates are selling an image. For Kerry, it's consensus-building alliances based on cold hard fact; Bush is an improvisational puppet-master driven by core values. I see too many false choices here, and the one clear difference, permanent alliance, repels me. I want both brands of ketchup, both jars of pickles, and all the peanut butter. Bush has the future on his side, but no monopoly on the crystal ball. I want a useful compromise, not a sham contest from marionettes too selfish to see over the horizon.
Haggis ain't Cake! says Stealing hubcaps is not rocket science... or is it?:
know Juanito has dominated most of my posts... It is only because he was the biggest part of my life (my street life). Well to be fair he was my big brother (only a few years older than me). If I had to compare him to a Television personality I would say he has the qualities of the followingJoey - Friends
Kelso - That 70's show
Potsey - Happy Days
Gilligan - Gilligan's Island
Taz - Looney Tunes
Anyone named MOOSEMix that into the entire 1985 Chicago Bears football team and you have the makings of a Juanito.
Powerpundit is Living on a different planet than Andrew Sullivan:
Mr. Sullivan, I watched the debate in its entirety and paid great attention. You are being disenginious, to say the least. Mr. Cheney's "where do I start" comment was made to ask where he should start rebutting - among ALL of the misstatements Mr. Edwards was uttering - and you know it, or you weren't listening closely. To try and spin that comment to create the impression that the Vice President was unable to articulate administration goals is grossly misrepresentating what he was saying - and you know that, as well.
The World According To Me has a Theory of Arguments:
There is always someone trying to convince us of something. Buy this, watch this, vote this way, stop at red lights, and on and on. Other than the 1% of the time, where there is some meat on the intellectual bone, I find a need to entertain myself while the blowhard winds rush by. To fill this need in part, I developed my Theory of Arguments. Just listen for the following phrases as a helpful guide to who is winning an argument.