Time-Lapse Sparkler Photography

Check out this incredible Flickr gallery of time-lapse photography featuring sparklers.

Time Capsule

For the next two weeks I'll be guest-blogging over at Pillage Idiot; Attila is on vacation in the Holy Land, and extended the flattering invite. I'll be cross-posting some of what I post over here, and this meme seemed a good way to introduce myself to his audience (and maybe share a little more with you, my favorite readers.

Ten Years Ago
Having just arrived in Israel with my wife in May, 1995, we are slowly getting acclimated to living in Jerusalem. In the ten months to come, the Prime Minister will be assassinated by a crazy right-winger, and terrorists will blow up buses all over the city we live in. We will not, contrary to what the United States consulate tells us to do, return to the States. It is an incredible year, and it is hard to leave for our next stop... Cincinnati, Ohio.

Five Years Ago
Our first daughter is now just over one year old, and we have started to even get a little sleep at nights. She is a colicky baby, and we are still living (temporarily) at my in-laws' house, while we try to find a home in Southern California that we can afford. (OK, actually, while my wife tries to find us a home -- which she does, and which we still live in and love.)

One Year Ago
Three daughters, two dogs, a house, two cars... we are just such a typical American family. Sort of. We have decided that three is most likely enough kids. Our oldest will be starting kindergarten soon -- it's hard to believe that we have a child old enough to attend actual school.

Yesterday
Morning: took middle kid to a birthday party. Noon: met the rest of the family, and in-laws, at Mexican restaurant. Afternoon: took the two older girls out to the front and washed my car; the car didn't really get clean, but we had a great time enjoying our sponge fight. Evening: bath for all three kids, simultaneously. Night: wife and I watch "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" for free -- and afterward, in retrospect, we are glad it was free.

Today
This morning we went to Target, which consists of my wife shopping and my trying to keep the kids from hanging from the cart and visiting the Target bathroom so the girls can "tinkle." After lunch we cleaned up the backyard and moved the swingset. I put the kids down for naps and saw "Batman Begins" at the local IMAX, then we had the in-laws over for barbequed tri-tip, watched an episode of "Dora the Explorer," and here I am typing instead of chatting with the wife (note to self: quit typing!).

Tomorrow
Back to work.

Stop Or You'll Go Blind

No, not that old wives' tale; apparently, Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis -- the three most well-known anti-impotence drugs -- may cause a condition that leads to blindness.

[Source]

The Misanthrope – Sunday's Lighter Side

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), philosopher, political theorist

Movies. John Wayne The big guy with the battered hat... and Dean Martin the ragged woman-wrecked castoff called Dude... and Ricky Nelson The rockin' babyfaced gunfisted kid... And Time Was Running Out Through Bullet Holes At Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" so reads the trailer for John Wayne’s 1959 movie Rio Bravo. I have seen the movie a few times in pieces while I am flipping the channels. I rented the disc and the acting and dialogue appeared almost campy, everything seemed slightly over the top. John Wayne didn’t open one door, he kicked them open and went rolling on the ground and got up shooting. The good guys Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson were able to shoot the reins in half out of the bad guys hands or shot a gun right out of someone’s hand. I enjoyed it nonetheless.

"Clock Work Orange" was another movie I rented. I had never seen this apparent classic before. B2 urged me to watch it and it was interesting. Politicians can be as bad as criminals in the ways they use people. I enjoyed the music the most and at least now I know what a Droog is because I didn’t understand his comparison here.

Harry Potter. It looks like the latest version of the magic prince or whatever he is called is going to be another blockbuster. I was looking at the wall of new releases in the local Borders and this guy who had to be at least 6-2, dressed in motorcycle leathers and holding a hell’s angels style helmet, which looks similar to a German army helmet, went up to the information desk and asked to put on the waiting list for the new Harry Potter book. He was told that the initial order was already sold out and that the second order may be a while. I have yet to read any of the Potter books, but obviously they appeal to all ages otherwise a book doesn’t sell so well. I just found this update: Scholastic is distributing 10.8 million copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling's sixth of seven planned books about the boy wizard. That's a record for a first printing.

Electronic Freeway Signs. Traffic moves slowly as it is, but once the electronic freeway sign has a message whether it is an Amber alert or just a note to drive safely it slows traffic to a crawl. You can watch their lips move as they read the short sentence fragments.

Poor Daughter. She is interested in politics, but her father will be considered her Billy Carter. I fired off notes to the local city council, mayor, police chief and copied the editor of the county’s local crappy newspaper complaining about their lack of enforcement regarding the blasting of fireworks. I am telling you the only thing missing were air raid sirens. I also shot off a note to the managing editor of the LA Times pointing out that they ran other article on Halliburton winning another military contract, but they neglected to point out whether it was a competitive bid or sole source. I wasn’t finished yet, I sent Barbara Boxer California Senator an e-mail note about how ridiculous I thought her efforts were in fighting methamphetamine by taking allergy medicine off the shelves.

The Party’s Over. It’s back to work on Monday. In a weird sort of way I look forward to going to the office. However, if I won the lotto don’t look for me to continue working the day job. It was a very relaxing two weeks and much needed. I did spend the second week nursing a bad back that is almost better, just in time for work.

On The Mark -- Prosecution Persecution Fallout

Judith Miller hasn't even put on her prison stripes yet, and the repercussions are already being felt. This from Doug Clifton, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

"As I write this (editorial), two stories of profound importance languish in our hands. The public would be well-served to know them, but both are based on documents leaked to us by people who would face deep trouble for having them leaked. Publishing the stories would almost certainly lead to a leak investigation and the ultimate choice: talk or go to jail. Because talking is not an option and jail is too high a price to pay, these two stories will go untold for now. How many more are out there?" He characterized these two investigative stories as profoundly important and that they would have been of significant interest to the public.

The reporters have stated they are prepared to go to jail. So the operative phrase is "too high a price to pay." Although the editor was referring to jail time (although I'm sure he was hoping readers would read between the lines when he chose those words), the attorneys for the newspaper, and more important, the newspaper's owner, Newhouse Newspapers, spiked these stories fearing financial penalties (and stated they didn't want the reporters to go to jail, but it's really all about the money).

Fascism anybody?

Hurricane Dennis [ _______ ]

Hurricanes need better, longer names. The hurricane news I'm reading is just not exciting enough, and I have a solution: last names for hurricanes. "Hurricane Dennis" has no context, no flair, no subtext. So, without further preamble...

The Old Way

Hurricane Dennis slammed Cuba's southern coast and sliced across the island to the capital Friday, killing at least nine people and pushing the Caribbean toll to 19. The powerful storm headed toward a U.S. landfall, prompting hundreds of thousands to flee the Gulf Coast. Strong winds and surf buffeted the U.S. detention camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, on the island's eastern end, where a guard tower was washed into the sea. [Source: Yahoo.com]

The New Way, v1: Hurricane Dennis Hopper

Pop quiz, hot shot: There’s a hurricane in Florida. The winds go over one-hundred ten miles per hour, the coast is threatened; it goes over one-hundred fifty, people will die. What do you do?

The New Way, v2: Hurricane Dennis the Menace

Hurricane Dennis the Meance slammed Cuba's southern coast and sliced across the island to the capital Friday, with only one fatality reported: Mr. Wilson.

The New Way, v3: Hurricane Dennis Kucinich

In 1977, 31-year-old Dennis Kucinich became the youngest-ever mayor of a major American city when he was elected mayor of Cleveland. A feisty liberal Democrat from a blue-collar background, Kucinich was elected an Ohio state senator in 1994 and in 1996 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2003 he announced that he would run for the 2004 Democratic nomination for U.S. president. He lost miserably, and is now seeking revenge by ravaging Cuba's southern coast, killing at least nine people and pushing the Caribbean toll to 19.

The New Way, v4: Hurricane Dennis Rodman

Hurricane Dennis Rodman slammed Cuba's southern coast and sliced across the island to the capital Friday. The hurricane then dyed its hair and had sex with Madonna. Meteorologists expect the storm to be "as bad as it wants to be."

Are We Preparing to Repeat the Mistakes of the Past?

There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth.
John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

One of the books I am reading “John Kenneth Galbraith His life, His Politics, His Economics,” and in one of the early chapters, the author describes 1908:

…1908 was in the midst of the Progressive Era, when an alarmed middle class sought to stem the sufferings the new capitalist order imposed on its workers….

Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Rider whose sharp attacks on “malefactors of great wealth” and “trust-busting” assaults on corporate power made him a new kind of Republican, was President. Muckraking journalist like Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Ray Stannard Baker were at the apogee of their influence, detailing how the power of Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, and other titans threatened American’s ideas of freedom and equality of opportunity.

What piqued my interest in Galbraith was the book review in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs. Here are some items from the article I underlined:

• What were the consequences of the transition from a nation of small farms and workshops to one of large factories and superstores?
• In a world of passive shareholders, autonomous managers and engineers, and firm decisions that emerge out of internal bureaucratic contests, just what are the objectives that drive big firms?
• How does competition work when its principal dimensions are quality and marketing rather than price?
• Vietnam was a strategically unimportant quagmire where the United States would do more harm than good.
• The businessman’s capacity for self-delusion is nearly infinite.
  
  

I am sure I will have more to share as I progress through this book.

On The Mark -- Pick and Choose Terrorism Warning System

Imagine for a moment that you're in the middle of WWII (instead of the current WWIII). You live in England. Bombs are falling from the skies on the factories in Birmingham and Liverpool. So the government puts out a hightened warning for people who work or live in factories. Everyone else, be vigilant, but you don't need to worry as much as those in and near factories. Sounds preposterous, right? I mean bombs could start falling anywhere (and they did).

This scenario is no different than what actually happened yesterday with this idiotic terrorism warning light system in the U.S. Transit was hit in London, so U.S. Homeland Security raises the threat level to orange, but for mass transit only. So just because bombs went off on a bus and in subways in London, that's the only place terrorists are thinking about right now? Come on.

Sure, security should be heightened...everywhere. The press conference to announce the changing of colors from yellow to orange for mass transit was for PR only. I noticed several mayors announcing this morning that they've taken it upon themselves to increase security in more areas than mass transit. Duh.

It seems that if you're in a war with an unknown and unpredictable enemy that it's easy to assume their targets will be random and unknown. Now we have pick and choose warning systems.

Guerilla Gorilla:Evil Goes Unpunished

[It's Friday, and that means it's time for Guerilla Gorilla. I have excised certain profanities from his post to keep Toner Mishap relatively clean.]

Saturday in Idaho authorities arrested Joseph Edward Duncan III on suspicion of having bludgeoned to death a woman, her boyfriend, and two of her children. One more evil f***er arrested, right? Sort of.

Duncan, now 42, had been convicted of raping and torturing a 14-year-old Tacoma boy in 1980 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his crimes, which also included threatening the boy with a stolen gun, beating him, and burning him with a cigarette. After his arrest, Duncan told officials he had raped as many as 13 other young boys, and that he was haunted by violent sexual fantasies.

At the end of those 20 years, despite findings that Duncan was a "sexual psychopath" with sadistic tendencies, a state psychologist determined that he was not a violent predator. So he was released.

And that brings us up-to-date on the f***ed-up state of our legal system, in which a crazy psycho f*** can rape, torture, and kill -- as long as he takes some time out between torturing and killing to lift some weights in prison.

Do you really need a gorilla to tell you that this is totally f***ed-up? That monsters like Duncan should never see the light of day again? If you ever have the chance to decide whether to be too tough on criminals or too easy, don't think twice about it; err on the side of protecting innocent people, and keep these guys chained up like the animals they are. Execute him, don't execute him; I don't care -- but at least lock up the evil son-of-a-bitch and throw away the key.

Source

On Terrorists

One of the differences between animals and people: animals act on instinct and impulse, with little thought to consequences. The occasional act of altruism or nurturing on the part of animals is always newsworthy because it's so exceptional.

Humans, on the other hand, are capable of more. We can overcome our genes and our emotions and our impulses and act with reason and sense and compassion. We can consider our actions' consequences; we can consider how our actions will affect others.

These terrorists are not, by my definition, humans. They kill innocent people. They kill men, women and children to make a political statement. Or to bring attention to their cause. Or just to cause pain. That's not what people should do.

There can be no negotiation with such inhuman monsters, for to do so only rewards their actions. They must be hunted down and put away for their crimes, prevented from ever hurting another person again.

Taking Advantage of London Attacks

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), essayist

I have no doubt that the Bush gang will use the London attacks to their advantage with judicial appointments and for possibly something that will further push Iran or North Korea away from any kind of agreement now or in the future.

It’s a shame that the Bush gang is shameless how they use others misfortune for their gain. Ask the families of many killed soldiers in Iraq, especially the Tillman family who lost their famous and courageous son fighting for the country, only to have him used for re-election purposes, before telling the family what really happened.

Just you watch.

The London Bombings

This morning I received this email from The Cat's Dream. The author, Gabriele Zamparini, lives in London.

London, the city where I live, has been attacked. Ordinary people are paying the prize, once again. Killing innocent people is an infamous act, never legitimate. Never justified. Never. But if we want to understand what's going on without hysteria, we must look at the full picture. Again, not to apologize. But to understand. And hopefully to do something to build a better world.

I was living in New York when the September 11th attacks happened. I saw the people of New York meeting spontaneously in the streets and the squares of Downtown Manhattan. Staying together. Talking and singing for peace. Not revenge. I witnessed how the power used those events for its own agenda. I remember the manipulation of the events by the media, that corporate media that was beating the drums for war. And I feared the rise of a totalitarian regime.

There are still many questions on what exactly happened that day. But since, Afghanistan has been bombed and innocent people there, people like you and me, are still dying because of our Governments' actions. Iraq has been invaded and occupied. No connections whatsoever linked Iraq to the September 11th attacks. And none of the alleged reasons given by our ruthless leaders were true. More than 100,000 Iraqi innocent civilians have been murdered, most of them women and children. Many young boys and girls from the United States, the United Kingdom, from Italy and many other countries lost their lives. Young boys and girls who didn't even start their lives were sent to kill other people, people who did nothing to them or to their own country. They were sent far away from home, through a brain washing process that involves complicity and unity by all sides of the establishment.

And then the massive human rights violation at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib...

All this and much more, we were told, was necessary to fight the "War on Terror". But war IS terror.

All this and much more, we were told, was necessary to keep our cities safe. Then Madrid and now London.

All this and much more, we were told, was necessary to build democracy in Iraq. Yet, no Iraqi wants foreign occupation.

In this day of sorrow, our solidarity and our thoughts must go to the innocent victims of these cruel and infamous acts in London. But our love for these brothers and sisters must not be an empty and hypocritical gesture of circumstance or convenience.

This is a time for reason, honesty and open discussion. Those who target innocent civilians are infamous terrorists who deserve our contempt and must be held accountable. Always. Doesn't matter if they terrorize innocent civilians with a bomb placed on a bus or with much more expensive and sophisticated weaponry paid for by our tax money. Let's not them win.

Agai, the author of this posting is Gabriele Zamparini, from The Cat's Dream.

Our Sympathies are with London

The greatest danger of bombs is in the explosion of stupidity that they provoke.
Octave Mirbeau (1850–1917), French journalist



The London bombings are tragic and terrorists of any stripe or faction have no grounds for killing innocent people.

Our hopes and prayers with the victims and the families of those in London.

We cannot allow the terrorists victory by limiting the rights of law-abiding citizens.

Jailing A Reporter Is Wrong In Order to Reveal Sources!

The freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.
George Mason (1725 - 1792), U.S. statesman


B2 made mention of the jailing of a reporter below, but this is truly a crime on our rights to have a free country, I have to add my two cents. This is a very important and frightening story. It is a shame and a travesty that Judith Miller, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, who did not write a story should be sentenced to jail for not revealing her source. She has committed no crime -- NONE. (please read the NYTimes' editorial on the matter)

Miller told the judge, "If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press."

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart explained in a 1974 speech, the primary purpose of the First Amendment was to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches (the executive branch, the legislature and the judiciary).

For an innocent reporter to face jail time is as highly un-American as torturing prisoners and holding no one in power responsible for such a crime. It’s time to wake up and realize that our freedoms are not disappearing slowly, but rapidly.

An extremely dangerous precedent has occurred. Let’s just extrapolate this a bit further: does this now mean that one can be jailed because someone might have told you something and you might know something?

The myth of an unfair press promulgated by the Republicans under then House Speaker Newt Gingrich, only serves to empower conservatives to control the debate. Now the dire warnings of corporate conglomerations such as Time-Warner caving under shareholder pressure to give up a reporter’s notes or Disney not distributing Fahrenheit 9/11 because its CEO did not agree with the politics of the movie are trampling on everyone’s rights Republican, Democrat or independent.

As Hendrik Hertzberg in his book “Politics, Observations & Arguments” writes:

A free and critical press may sometimes be a tactical disadvantage for a society. But surely it is a huge advantage strategically, because it enables a society to apprehend and correct its own defects.

Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation’s heart, the excision of its memory.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist

This guy hates horses.

The language is pretty strong, and the satire is pretty thick... but if you want a good laugh at the expense of fine, magnificent creatures. check out I Hate Horses.

Craptacular Crappiness

Ugh.

So some of you may know that I'm busily reading every graphic novel and/or comic I can get my hands on for free -- taking full advantage of the L.A. Public Library's vast resources, putting everything on hold on-line and waiting for them to call me to let me know there are a stack of comics to pick up (it beats having to look for them myself).

The upside: totally free. The downside: lots of crappy comics.

Case in point: Superman: Critical Condition. Suffice it to say, this sucked big time. No -- on second thought, that doesn't suffice at all. The storyline is weak (Superman has been killed, but is now alive again, but now he's again). The art is inconsistent (can we please choose either real perspective or isometric? My eyes hurt). The lettering is so fake, so not-hand-done, so poor an approximation of real lettering, and by a number of different letters, so I know it's the fault off the art director. The plot mixes science, magic, auras, deus ex machina by the buttload (that's a phrase you don't read very often, I'll wager), references to other comics that you haven't read and so leave you quite in the dark... it's relentlessly poor throughout.

On the other hand, Kurt Busiek's Astro City is almost all great. In "Tales From the Big City," for example, the first story is called "In Dreams," and it presents an in-the-head profile of the Samaritan, Busiek's homage to Superman. It is so far superior to "Critical Condition" that it seems unfair to present the two side-by-side. The characters are well thought-out and evoke sympathy and empathy. The story is clear and the motivation believable. The art is consistent and smart, and the old-time style evoked by the lettering is just so pleasant as to be transparent in its effect.

So I'm glad that I can waste time and energy reading comics without spending a dime, and I'll gladly take the good with the bad -- as long as I get a lot of good. But seriously, DC -- stick to Frank Miller and Alan Moore and fire everyone else.

Judge Jails Reporter Over Source

You couldn't possibly have not heard... but just in case: New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed Wednesday for refusing to divulge a confidential source to a grand jury investigating the Bush administration's leak of an undercover CIA operative's name.

[Source]

Congratulations London!

Here out of the window it was a most pleasant sight to see the City from one end to the other with a glory about it, so high was the light of the bonfires, and so thick round the City, and the bells rang everywhere.
Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703), English diarist and civil servant. Describing the celebrations in London at the end of the Commonwealth.

The 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London. The last time the Olympics were held in London was 1948 and prior to that in 1908. The seven years remaining will at least give the English a chance to improve their cooking.

I have to believe somewhere there was a message to France somewhere in the selection.

The final vote was 54-50 in favor of London, and although Paris had been widely believed to be the favorite, the French capital did not win a single round in the four stages of voting. The other finalists for the 2012 Games, Moscow, Madrid and New York, had been knocked out in earlier rounds of voting by I.O.C. members today.

An Altruistic Call for a Senseless Tragedy

There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.
Milan Kundera, author

Steve Jobs showed much empathy for the tragic murder of 15-year-old Christopher Rose. Rose was killed when another group of kids decided to take his iPod and then stab him in the chest twice.

Upon hearing the story, according to the New York Times, Steve Jobs made a call the child’s father and offered to help in any way possible.

To me that call demonstrated a tremendous amount of class and true altruism.

When my wife goes to sleep early...

...this is what I waste my time doing.

[Thanks for the raw images, Decatur Vader!]

Scratching Those Hard-To-Reach Places

Item one: the Supreme Court says Grokster can be sued, because it is intentionally wooing users who will use the system to steal. A service that has valid legal uses but is able to be perverted is OK (video tapes, for example) -- but one that is seeking out illegal actions is not protected. That's some background.

Item two: in his latest novel, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, Cory Doctorow presents an impressive case for a new system of intellectual property that uses the Napster/Grokster model as an example of how good things can come only from such grass-roots file sharing, and not from the big music companies.

Here's the situation Doctorow's character Kurt describes as the current state of the music industry:

"It's like the deleted music that you can't buy today, except at the bottom of bins at Goodwill or at yard sales. Tons of it has accumulated in landfills. No one could afford to pay enough people to go around and rescue it all and figure out the copyrights for it and turn it into digital files and upload it to the net -- but if you give people an incentive..."

Kurt goes on to discuss P2P:

"No label could have afforded to [digitize all of their out-of-print recordings], but the people just did it for free... So it's not cost effective for some big corporation to figure out how to use or sell these -- so what? It's not cost-effective for some big dumb record label to figure out how to keep music by any of my favorite bands in print, either. We'll figure it out."

The point here is that companies need to envision a profit before they go out on a limb, and won't do anything that doesn't have a big upside to their wallets. Us little people, however, can effect even more progress by acting indiviidually toward a common goal.

In this theoretical case, I upload the soundtrack to the 1975 rock opera "Everyhead" and put it, theoretically, on my mp3 blog. Fred sees it, and theoretically downloads it. Meanwhile, Sarah has theoretically downloaded a BitTorrent of some 78s featuring original Amos and Andy episodes from Fred's theoretic page. No one is going to keep pressing vinyl or burning discs at the corporate level for these folks to get what they want, but they will willingly trade with each other to get it. And that's how this thing is going to keep going -- people want this stuff, and this stuff wants to be heard (it's a wacky extension of meme theory, but I think it's valid). Trying to slow this down or stop it is just so paleolithic.

Summer Music

Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
Frank Zappa (1940–93), rock musician

What I listened to on my summer vacation. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Louie Armstrong all have summer carefree songs in their oeuvre, and to me they denote tranquil lazy hammock-resting days, if only I had a hammock, but the couch works or just sitting on the patio.

My summer CD includes:
Summer Wind (Frank Sinatra)
Nice ‘N’ Easy (Frank Sinatra)
The Good Life (Frank Sinatra)
The Way You Look Tonight (Frank Sinatra)
That’s Amore (Dean Martin)
Ain’t that a Kick in the Head (Dean Martin)
On The Sunny Side of the Street (Dean Martin)
What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong)
That Sunday, That Summer (Nat King Cole)
I Can’t Stop Loving You (Frank Sinatra)
Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra & Count Basie)
Almost Like Being in Love (Nat King Cole)
Gone Fishin’ (Louis Armstrong & Bing Crosby)
When You’re Smiling (Louis Armstrong)
A Kiss to Build a Dream On (Louis Armstrong)
Girl From Ipanema (Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim)
Once I Loved (o Amor en Paz) (Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim)
Corcovado (Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim)
Falling in Love with Love (Frank Sinatra)
Have You Met Miss Jones (Frank Sinatra)
Me and My Shadow (Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jr.)
The Best is Yet to Come (Frank Sinatra & Count Basie)
You’d Be So Easy to Love (Frank Sinatra)
Love Walked In (Frank Sinatra)
Zing! Went the Strings of my Heart (Frank Sinatra)

Lord of the Bings

Some up-and-coming supermarket marketer has "borrowed" the recent Jackson trilogy imagery to push bing cherries, and I say "more power to her!" This is good for a laugh, until "they" try to bring it down because it is taking profits away from the studios. It really weakens their intellectual property, and may confuse the two products in the minds of potential customers.

Forty-Nine Hot Dogs

I'm thirsty just watching this thing.

In another fascinating display of what makes America great, ESPN broadcast this year's famous hot dog eating contest, sponsored by Nathan's Hot Dogs of New York. Truth is, this spectacle is incredible for two reasons:

Reason #1: people forcing themselves to eat too much meat is even more American than apple pie.

Reason #2: sitting on one's couch watching people force themselves to eat too much meat trumps reason #2.

Maru Kobayashi won again, this time eating 49 hot dogs in 12 minutes. That's more than four dogs a minute. He may not be America-born, but he is of the same stiff stock that was found in George Washington, Lewis and Clark, and Andre the Giant.

Common Sense Up in Smoke

When a nation’s young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87), U.S. clergyman

I was reading the Wall Street Journal’s July 1 issue and in the Personal section, there is an article on Showtime’s new series “Weeds,” which is about a recently widowed mother who makes ends meet by selling marijuana.

As I continued to read the article (I would link to it but being the capitalist tool that the WSJ is, one has to subscribe to its online version in addition to its newspaper), I found it very troubling that the series creator Jenji Kohan had to justify that she does not smoke pot and that she has strong family values.

…Ms. Kohan says she’s anything but a cultural radical. Raised as a conservative Jew, she sends her two kids to a religious school and gathers with her extended family each Friday for a traditional Shabbat dinner.

Thank goodness. I thought she was a godless, commie and selling drugs to the neighborhood kids.

I can only hope that the hard right swing that this country has taken will mean that we will take a hard left to balance out the nonsense.

Patriotism or cruelty to animals?

You decide.

Defending Our Flag (Redux)

Happy Fourth of July! In honor of this holiday, I am reposting some patriotic-themed comics covers and images I had originally posted in January -- enjoy! Just click on any (and all) of the thumbnails below to see the larger, uncropped images.

Whether you want to see Uncle Sam taking names and getting down to business, Captain America kicking Hitler's butt, the busty Miss Victory, or those great old-time All-Star Comics, you should be able to find something you'll enjoy.







One last one...



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Knowingly or not, the following sites were helpful in my search for patriotic comic materials; visit them, won't you?

The Unofficial Blackhawk Comics Website
Quality Comics Cover Gallery
Davos' All-Star Comics Page
Red, White and Blue: Patriotic Superheroes by State
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Femforce Femfams
Miss Victory Pin-up Page
War Nurse!
Wrap-Around Wonders

Happy July 4th

Let's not forget why we have succeeded.

The Misanthrope – Sunday’s Lighter Side

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), British author

Sports. Unlike Andy Roddick who had the integrity and class to honestly correct a bad call made by the line judges in a tennis tournament in May, Venus Williams in Wimbledon’s Ladies Championship against Lindsay Davenport did not. There was an embarrassingly bad call made by the line judge and upheld by the umpire in the chair that the serve by Williams was good when it was blatantly wide, not just a hair or two but by at least several inches. Williams stood mute.

This is what On The Mark said about Roddick:

Instead, he corrected the umpire, told him his opponent's serve was actually good, and his opponent got the point. Roddick then went on to lose the match, and tens of thousands of dollars (if not more).

In today's world of rampant dishonesty and deceit -- a world where money is king -- I find it so incredibly refreshing to see this display of honesty. If his integrity hits home with even a few kids (and especially some adults), then it's already a grand slam.

In my book, Lindsey Davenport should be the champion.

Fireworks. I never minded fireworks so much in the past, but the last couple of years the numbers of people getting their kicks from lighting explosives seems to have multiplied significantly. I can only hope that many among the ranks in this group someone will be seriously injured. I hate to wish such pain on someone, but the police seem to look the other way, the explosives sound much louder and more powerful today and are more effective in scaring the crap out of all the animals and babies around the area.

Relaxation. I have not reached that state of complete vacation relaxation yet. I am not sure what the problem is. Maybe it’s insincere friends, who should really just be kept as acquaintances, rudeness, crowds, I am just not sure, but I need to find a state of mental peace before I have to get back to the stress of the day job and traffic.

Tuning Out. I am going to turn off the computer Sunday night and not turn it on again until Thursday. I am not going to read any newspapers or news magazines for three full days. I am turning off my cell phone and I am going to do what the lyrics in the Van Morrison song said, “Well I guess I’m going AWOL/Disconnect my telephone/Just like Greta Garbo/I want to be alone.”

I will write a couple of posts in advance that B2 will launch for me. This will be a first for me. I don’t think that I have left the computer off or purposely skipped the newspapers in years. Here it goes…

Willy Wonka and His Droogs

Has anyone else noticed this resemblance? Toner Mishap reader "Sparkles" and I both wonder if this is intentional...

O'Connor Retires From Supreme Court

And so it begins/ends.

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a swing vote on abortion as well as other contentious issues, has announced her retirement. "It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms," the 75-year-old justice wrote Bush in a one-paragraph resignation letter. "I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure."

What does this mean? Bush says his model for Supreme Court justices is Scalia and Thomas -- so it looks like things are going to keep tipping to the right. And unless Rehnquist somehow beats his cancer, we're in for more trouble.

[Source]

The Face of Cowardice

When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
Eric Hoffer (1902–83), philosopher

I canceled my subscription to Time magazine with the following note: I am absolutely shocked that Time Magazine did not uphold the rights of journalists to protect sources. Without the ability to protect sources, journalists have lost their ability to serve as the watchdog of government. You are cowards and I have no interest in supporting your decision.

Matthew Cooper, a Time reporter, and Judith Miller of the New York Times face up to four months in jail for refusing to give up their sources to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald. A federal judge is scheduled to impose their sentences next week.

According to articles in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, with one of its reporters facing an imminent jail sentence, Time magazine said yesterday that it would provide documents concerning the reporter's confidential sources to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. operative, Valerie Plame.

"For 30 years, we've assumed that strong journalistic institutions would stick together and protect their employees," said David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author. "Now, a new wind is blowing. That united front is gone."

A key reason for the change, he said, was that Time magazine had been "swallowed up" by a conglomerate that must answer to a board of directors and millions of shareholders.

Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.'s editor in chief, said that he and his corporate bosses had backed Cooper's refusal to hand over information to prosecutors, defending the right of reporters to enter into relationships with anonymous sources. He assailed the court rulings and what he predicted would be a "chilling effect on our work."

In an interview, Pearlstine said he had made the decision after much reflection. "I found myself really coming to the conclusion," Pearlstine said, "that once the Supreme Court has spoken in a case involving national security and a grand jury, we are not above the law and we have to behave the way ordinary citizens do."

(note: please see "There's that nasty F-word again" at Bitchph.D)

Guerilla Gorilla:Screw habeas corpus!

[He's back. Much to my chagrin, Guerilla Gorilla insists that I am not taking a firm enough stand on matters of great import, and has therefore asked for another shot at the Toner Mishap audience. Apologies in advance.]

There's no body, so there's no case, right? Screw that -- Guerilla Gorilla knows that some people are just guilty, and we don't need any fancy legal Latin putting these scum back on the street.

Aruba judge-in-training (whatever the hell that means) Paul van der Sloot told his 17-year-old son and two other suspects in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway that "when there is no body you don't have a case," Aruba's attorney general said Wednesday. This, the day after Holloway disappeared. Attorney General Caren Janssen also said that she could prosecute a case in the disappearance even if the Alabama teenager's body is not found.

Covering my simian ass, here's an unrelated statement: when a guy tells his son to hide the dead body so he doesn't end up in jail, we shouldn't just put the son in jail -- throw him in with his old man and close the case.

[B2 again -- check out GG's sources here and here.]

The Misanthrope – On Napping

It is a good thing, perhaps, to write for the amusement of the public, but is a far higher and nobler thing to write for their instruction, their profit, their actual and tangible benefit.
Mark Twain (1835-1910), humorist, writer

I am on vacation so I have taken the liberty of rerunning a piece I wrote for the Seattle Times in 1995.

If done properly, napping is the Holy Grail of slumberous situations. However, it is not for the timid, as a nap connoisseur I have found a stigma associated with forty winks stolen during the mid-day, time permitting. It's not blatant, but tell someone you have taken a nap or you plan to and a brief conversational pause results. I am certain they are thinking only a sloth would waste such productive time. You can tell by the unctuous comments such as, "Oh I'd love to be able to take a nap, but I'm too busy!" or the patronizing, "It must be nice!" that confirm an anti-napper stance. All criticism aside, taking a real nap requires mental discipline and provides for an energetic and rejuvenated outlook for the remainder of the day.

A nap provides an escape from the worries and stresses of the day. A lapse into a peaceful state of dozing unconsciousness is a natural part of the body's daily rhythms. Siestas are a daily routine in many countries around the world. They are in the U.S. too, but imposed primarily on children who view the noon hour quiescence as punishment. For me, an hour in the land of nod on the weekend or on vacation is pure extrication and pleasure.

The disrepute of this unappreciated art and the confusion with habitual idleness arises because many amateur nappers lack the proper indoctrination and consequently fall into the arms of Morpheus, the god of dreams. A nap does not mean slipping into REM sleep. Nor is it a sudden or abrupt change from wakefulness. It is a gradual passage into a daydream state where thoughts wait freely between sleep and wakefulness. You are still cognizant of background sounds, but the option to ignore or incorporate reality into this afternoon apparition of images serves to enhance this state of being.

Before partaking in this beguiled pastime, a few gentle guidelines are suggested: nap no more than 90 minutes lest it become slumber. The results of a lengthy afternoon snooze, unless you're ill, will lead to immediate crankiness upon awaking and though not initially noticeable will cause wide-eyed awakening at 2 or 3 in the morning, preventing sleep until about 20 minutes before your designated wake-up time.

And of course, avoid inappropriate napping so as to limit unsavory remarks concerning your dignity and those of nappers everywhere. Rude and thoughtless practices by lethargic louts contribute greatly to the lack of appreciation for this mental, mid-day dexterity. Don't doze when visiting, or listening to a friend or coworker's angst, avoid movies and theater if tired, and above all, don't snore. Public snoring is a mortifying betrayal of your caste as a skilled napper. Head bobbing is another amateurish indiscretion. A head that droops and is whiplashed back into place signals inexperience and a lack of self-control.

Develop an internal alarm, which will require practice to perfect. Frequency is a key toward mastering this respite. Weekends and holidays make excellent training days. Practice prudence to avoid falling asleep - appoint someone to gently awaken you. Holidays are excellent catnap days because of their Americana feel: the aroma of cooking turkey or roast. When all the preparations are in place and the food is warming on simmer, take a nap and when the guests arrive, you'll be rested and ready to entertain.

Napping locales are not particularly crucial, yet nuances do exist. Indoors on beds or couches requires two pillows, one for propping your head and one to keep the knees apart. Avoid heavy blankets as the weighted feel provides a too-heavy, lasting comfort - a small quilt or two fits the bill.

Backyard napping requires only a comfortable chaise lounge or a hammock and a quiet, shady, cool spot. Extremes in the weather are very conducive to dozing. To paraphrase former Chicago Cub Ernie Banks, who on nice days suggested the Cubs play two - take two naps. However, this should only be attempted by more advanced nappers with a reliable internal alarm system to avoid early morning side effects. Moderate days have their pleasures as well: It is impossible not to feel drowsy while resting in a shady hammock or in a pleasantly air-conditioned house. The psychological lift is the napper's equivalent, I imagine, to a runner's "high."

As for those who still conclude that any respite is indolent behavior, I say take heed of Robert Louis Stevenson's essay An "Apology for Idlers:" "Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation."

I have now done my good deed and as Mark Twain wrote, my soul will be permeated with the sacred delight a Christian feels when he has done a good, unselfish deed.