Can't Sleep at Night?

Slightly Belated...

2006-12-20T00:09:11Z

Happy Birthday (Sunday) to badloki!

(word to the family, too.)

"House Intelligence": That's Like "Jumbo Shrimp," Right?

2006-12-12T00:50:56Z

To review: The Democrats, now about to be in control of Congress, need to find someone to chair the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The senior Democrat on the committee was Jane Harmon. Only she and Nancy Pelosi (who gets to pick the chair) don't get along these days. Plus, Pelosi wanted to give the position to a person of color, in response to criticism from the Congressional Black Caucus that they don't have enough people in powerful positions. I'm not a big fan of Harmon, and I was appalled at an interview she gave on NPR, in which she said that it was the president's fault that Congress had spent five full years not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to make rules governing wartime detainee procedures, because Bush never came to them and asked them to make those rules. (The Constitution doesn't say, "Congress shall make rules...if the president asks nicely enough.")

So: The next ranking Democrat on the committee was Alcee Hastings. As an African American, he seemed to be just the person Pelosi was looking for. Except that when he was a federal judge, he was impeached and convicted by Congress and removed from the bench for corruption. He says the actual judicial system exonerated him, and it was all a big misunderstanding, but after the John Murtha fiasco, putting him in charge of the committee seemed like a bad choice.

So: Pelosi finally chose Silvestre Reyes, a Hispanic congressman from Texas who came up through the ranks of the Border Patrol. Great! We've got ourselves a committee chair at long last. Except...he must've been sleeping through the committee's previous meetings, because based on an interview with Congressional Quarterly, he doesn't seem to know shit about the major terrorist organizations. Al Qaeda? Um...they're Shi'ite, right? Hezbollah? Hezbollah? I know I've heard that name before somewhere...

The sheer number of jokes clogging my brain about Democrats and intelligence right now is enough to choke a yak.

Best. Title. Ever.

2006-11-29T00:36:41Z

Two posts in one day!

I just stumbled across this essay (while looking for one an Ecuadoran pottery...)

"You're 16, You're Dutiful, You're Online: 'Fangirls' and the Negotiation of Age and/or Gender Subjectivities in TV Newsgroups," by Christine Scodari.

I can only say: Bwahahahahaha.

Still Alive

2006-11-28T23:26:42Z

I haven't been around much lately (though I did recently catch up on reading two weeks' worth of friends-list posts). Life is lifey--for many of y'all as much as for me, it seems. Possibly more on that later. For now, two things:

1. We are indeed coming to Hogmanay. I'm looking forward to seeing whoever will be there to be seen, Crum-walking, gaming, hanging out, and, of course, dancing until my legs can't take no more.

2. ObPolitics: I was listening to a fairly neutral pundit on the radio last night talking about James Baker's Iraq Study Group. As a result of his comments, I looked up the membership of the commission--Baker, Lee Hamilton, Vernon Jordan, Ed Meese, Sandra Day O'Connor, Leon Panetta, William Perry, Chuck Robb, and Alan Simpson--and I have to say I agree with him. This is a very heavy-duty panel in many ways, and they have a ton of experience in Washington politics, public policy, and foreign policy from an American perspective. But they lack two things: There's NO ONE on the committee with serious operational, strategic, or even tactical military experience (yes, there's a former Defense Secretary, but his highest military rank was 2nd lieutenant in the Army Reserves; no one on the panel has been in direct command of an army or even a unit during a war). And there's absolutely NO ONE who makes any claim to be an expert on Iraqi politics, Iraqi culture, or any other aspect of Iraq for that matter.

I have no problem with putting any of these people on this panel, but c'mon, folks, who the hell decided that they should be the only people on the panel? They couldn't find one professor of Middle Eastern studies, or a U.S. diplomat with serious time spent living in the region? They couldn't persuade Wesley Clark or Norman Schwartzkopf to join them? Once again, we see that expertise is simply not valued in Washington, to the detriment of every decision that gets made.

Scary, Scary Halloween Picture...

2006-10-31T21:20:45Z

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/061031/photos_ts/2006_10_31t153611_354x450_us_iraq_forces_rumsfeld

Hogmanay?

2006-10-19T19:08:26Z

I just looked at the Delaware Valley Branch's web site, and discovered that the music for Hogmanay this year is Thistle House plus Natalie Haas! An almost-dream line-up (the dream line-up would be multiple fiddlers, preferably including Hanneke).

There's really no way L. or I can afford to purchase plane tickets to go. HOWEVER, I just happen to have 80,000 miles burning a hole in my frequent flyer account. By a stunning coincidence, that's exactly enough miles to buy me two round-trip tickets to Philly plus two one-class upgrades on tickets to Europe this summer. It's bashert, as my mother would say. I only want to dip into my miles, though, if we'll get to see lots of cool people, in addition to dancing to great music until our feet fall off. I've been missing the old community lately, especially since relatively few Delaware Valley folks came to Pinewoods Scottish II this year.

Which brings me to the point of this post: Who-all's going to Hogmanay this year? Can I expect all the usual suspects to be in attendance? Or are people foolishly thinking that there might be a better way to spend New Years? Inquiring mind wants to know!

Another Reason to Like Farmers' Markets

2006-10-17T00:49:27Z

I don't usually like to just post links in lieu of real entries, but, hey, links are shorter, so maybe y'all link them more...

Anyway: If you care about local food, health, capitalism, and/or government regulation, check out this New York Times Magazine essay about the "Vegetable-Industrial Complex."

Work in Progress

2006-10-04T10:08:14Z

So, I created a website a little while back. I've been keeping an eye on craigslist, and there are a goodly number of writing gigs that I might want that I'd be in a much better position to apply for if I had a website. Step one: make a website.

Step two: actually fill it with content. This is complicated when you have as little free time and as many pulls on it as I do. But there are now two pieces in the "Law and Politics" section. Hopefully, sometime this week, I'll add a review of Doubt to the currently empty "Reviews" section. Quick capsule version: See Doubt.

Step three: tell people your site exists, so someone might possibly look at it or something. If you feel so inclined: www.tochangeit.com. Go nuts.

In related news, Sandvox turns out to be okay, but not really the cat's pajamas.

Studio 60 on Your Compter Screen

2006-09-26T21:23:49Z

Looks like NBC is making episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip available for free online, in case you missed one. You can either watch the whole show or watch a two-minute summary of the episode if you just want to catch up on the plot points. Presumably they're doing this with other shows too; pretty smart move on their part. It's certainly a much better idea than when they threatened West Wing bittorrent downloaders with lawsuits (though it also explains why they did). You do have to deal with a few commercials this way, and I think they're only keeping each episode up for a week at a time, but still: NBC, the Tivo-less of the world salute you.

There Is NOTHING Left To Satirize

2006-09-22T21:02:59Z

In the category of events that, in the not so distant past, would have been "condemned as improbable fictions"--or at least seemed like over-the-top, exaggerated satire, check this out:

Apparently, Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, has given 60 Minutes an interview in which he says that he was bullied into cooperating in the "war on terror" by Richard Armitage (the then-deputy secretary of state), who told him that if he didn't lend the U.S. a helping hand, we would "bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age."

That, of course, is not the startling part. Here's the startling part: Reporters asked him about this interview today at a joint Bush/Musharraf press conference. According to the AP, "Musharraf declined to comment and cited a contract agreement with a publisher on an upcoming book."

Ummm...ex-fucking-scuse me? "Mr. President, you have accused the U.S. of coercing your government into participating in intelligence and military operations with threats of force. Could you elaborate?" "Sorry, no, I'm under an NDA until my tell-all book comes out. Please direct all further questions to my publicist."

I am pretty much utterly speechless.

(Although you do have to wonder just how many CIA agents have now been tasked with finding the manuscript of that book...)

A Glimpse into the Near Future

2006-09-12T01:19:26Z

It occurs to me that I told jere7my that I would report back after watching the pilots of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Kidnapped (currently available together on DVD from Netflix). So:

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is GREAT (so far). For those non-TV fans out there: the show is Aaron Sorkin's (West Wing, Sports Night) new show. It's about a fictionalized version of Saturday Night Live, a live comedy sketch show that is broadcast on Friday nights from the title studio on a fictional network (but one that resembles NBC more than it resembles the others...presumably so NBC won't get sued).

For those like mortgaged who describe West Wing as "political porn," the first scene of the Studio 60 pilot is some of the best porn (by that meaning) I've ever seen. The show is as well-written as you would expect, with Sorkin's signature snappy dialog and early set-ups that pay off later in the episode. The surprise (and the best sign in terms of its potential longevity) is that the dialog and writing are not the best things about the show. The best part is the wonderful chemistry between Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, who play a Hollywood writing/directing team. The depth of the friendship, affection, committment, and trust between the two characters is palpable, and it makes them instantly likable, even beyond the likability that they earn merely by uttering Sorkin's words. And if, sometime down the road, one of them betrays the other, fans will be suitably devastated (which I'm guessing is part of the point). Amanda Peet's pretty great too, although it's much harder to believe that there's actually such an animal as a likable network exec.

Kidnapped is a different story. It's certainly not bad, per se, buy why they thought the best way to build word-of-mouth for this show was to distribute it on DVD with a much better show is unclear to me. Kidnapped is going to be one of those season-long story arc shows, like 24, Murder One, or last season's Heist. (I mention the latter to make the point that it's hard to build an audience for shows like this if you get into the habit of canceling one half-way through its season, so we never find out how the story ends. Once burned, twice shy.)

Thing is, so far, Kidnapped is about a kidnapping. And unless they pull a major 24-esque series of twists, such that in episode 10 (or 3 or 4, really) the simple kidnapping is revealed to be part of a James-Bond-level threat to world security, I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how this one case can sustain an entire season. They can pretty easily spend entire episodes exploring the lives of the characters without advancing the central story arc, and if they do that carefully it may work. But in terms of the kidnapping alone, the first episode feels like 1/2, or at best 1/3, of the entire plot of the show.

Via Melrosa

2006-08-30T02:39:57Z

Exciting things are afoot on Melrose Avenue, if you are an Italian foodie:

La Buca, which is an amazing, authentic, and (gasp!) affordable trattoria (their pasta is handmade every morning by the owner's mom) seems to be expanding. Which is good, because the sole drawback of the place was that it comfortably fit a single party of two. The first time we went there, rampantmouse and I were seated essentially blocking the doorway. There's construction going on next door, though, and it looks like the place will soon more than double in size. Hooray!

I've also noticed that the old site of Chianti/Cucina, which kept the words "Ristorante" and "Cucina" above its doors, even when it was Cafe Maurice (!), is in the process of changing ownership, but those words above the doors still remain. Maybe the building is returning to its roots...

The biggest news is that things see to be moving along at Melrose and Highland, the future location of Mozza, the coming flagship restaurant of Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton. Batali, in addition to being a Food Network staple, owns Babbo in New York, which was recently awarded a star by the Guide Michelin. (He's pissed that he only got one star, but that's because he's a TV primadonna. A star is nothing to sneeze at!). Silverton is, hands down, the best baker in America. Since selling the La Brea Bakery and her share of Campanille (due to her divorce from her co-owner), she's been sort of an Italian-focused "visiting master chef" at a few hip L.A. places: She's been doing Mozzarella Mondays at Jar, and Antipasto Tuesdays at La Terza (the latter designed specifically to duplicate the amazing food you can buy at the gas stations along the side of the highways in Italy).

Batali and Silverton wanted a space for their restaurant with a wood-burning oven, but it's apparently very difficult to get permits to construct a new one in L.A. So, they located a restaurant that already had one (called Alessi), bought the land out from under the place, and kicked them out. (Yeah, I know, I'm not happy about that part of the story either.) The building then just sat for months, but recently actual remodelling has been happening, so its re-opening may not be too far off. Of course, peons like me won't be able to get in for six months after it opens, but what the hell.

Ooooh, a Quote Meme...

2006-08-16T05:26:54Z

From jaipur:
Instructions: Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe. Repost in your journal and tag 5 friends. (Make sure to twiddle the controls on the bottom of the quote page!)

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.
-- Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972)

They are slaves who fear to speak,
For the fallen and the weak.
-- James Russell Lowell (1819 - 1891)

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
-- Laurens Van der Post, The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958)

I think that we're all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better--and maybe not all that much better, after all.
-- Stephen King (1947 - ), from Why We Crave Horror Movies

All your life you live so close to truth it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye. And when something nudges it into outline, it's like being ambushed by a grotesque.
-- Tom Stoppard (1937 - ), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Not tagging anyone, but if you so desire, meme away...

Jumping on the Congratulations Bandwagon

2006-08-14T05:50:18Z

Congratulations, tapas and creed_of_hubris on your marriage!

(Another couple successfully lured into the Quaker Matchbox...)

It Wasn't Me! The Dialer Made Me Do It.

2006-08-08T19:10:37Z

"Hello?"
"Hello. Can I speak to Mr. or Mrs. Andele?"
"This is he."
"This is Time Warner Cable...blah blah bl--"
"You know, I'm on the national do not call list."
"Oh! Um...I'm sorry..."
"Sorry is great, but you're a gigantic, established corporation. Surely you know how to follow the law?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but I didn't call you. They called you. The dialer chose your number."

"They" called me, huh? I can almost sort-of sympathize, but unless you're going to connect me to the vice president in charge of marketing of Timer-Warner's cable division, you must realize that you are the official spokesperson for the company as far as the people you call (or are connected to by "Them") are concerned.

Raise...Lower...Same Thing...

2006-08-03T02:03:04Z

So, here's a thing. You know the federal minimum wage "increase" Congress has been mulling over for a few weeks? If it passes, the minimum wage for waitpeople and other tipped employees in California will go from $6.75/hour to $2.13/hour. I know I'm not a math major, but that doesn't seem like an increase to me.

The Republican incumbents in California had better hope that waitpeople don't vote. 'Cause we've got kind of a lot of them in this state.

Flick Friends?

2006-06-30T08:01:18Z

So, Netflix now has a "friends" feature, where you can friend fellow members and you then get to see your friends' ratings, queues, comments, etc. Anybody wanna be Netflix buddies? I haven't done any of the one-sentence commentaries they let you attach to movies for your friends to see, but I have rated more than 950 films/tv seasons (because I am a tiny bit nuts). Let me know.

(I should point out that the 5 star system is an incredibly blunt instrument. In particular, 3 stars is a gigantic chasm of a rating. It encompasses movies I quite liked that just didn't have anything exceptional about them, movies that were just okay, and movies that were pretty bad but that had some saving grace. Plus movies I saw long ago and only vaguely remember not disliking--that might actually merit 4 stars or 2 stars if I saw them again. It reminds me of assigning students final grades of B at schools where there were no pluses or minuses. B+ students and B- students all got lumped together...)

While I'm on the topic of Netflix, I've started compiling a mental list of my favorite movies tragically not (yet) available on DVD. To begin with: Distant Voices, Still Lives and Trust. That latter is especially puzzling: All Hal Hartley's other films are on DVD; why not Trust? Also, La Chinoise, but that's not available at all, so not being on DVD is hardly surprising.

Human Rights? We Don't Need No Stinking Human Rights...

2006-06-29T19:59:28Z

The forty-seven members of the United Nations Human Rights Council have unanimously approved a convention prohibiting disappearances (and defining them in international law for the first time). The next step is for the whole U.N. to vote, and then for all the member states to ratify or not ratify the convention.

The United States (which is not a member of the council, just an observer) is not expected to ratify the convention. The U.S., it seems, wanted there to be a clause saying that "I was only following orders" is a legitimate defense for helping to disappear someone.

The Votes...

2006-06-29T19:49:00Z

As you no doubt know, Tuesday the Senate was one vote short of passing the anti-flag-burning amendment and sending it to the states for ratification. One vote! Naturually, I was curious about who voted how, and some of the votes are nothing short of flabbergasting. Here's the list of people who crossed party lines:

Democrats voting for the amendment: Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN) (!!!), Dayton (D-MN), Feinstein (D-CA) (!!!), Johnson (D-SD), Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), Menendez (D-NJ) (!), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Reid (D-NV) (!!!), Rockefeller (D-WV) (!!!), Salazar (D-CO), Stabenow (D-MI).

Republicans voting against the amendment: Bennett (R-UT) (!!!), Chafee (R-RI), McConnell (R-KY) (!!!).

(Note the names missing from those lists, too: Leiberman voted nay; Collins, Snowe, and Specter voted yea. So did McCain, but he wants to be president someday.)

I can't believe Bayh, Feinstein, and Rockefeller supported the amendment. But what I really can't fucking believe is that we owe its defeat to Bob Bennett and Mitch McConnell! It is a strange and frightening world in which we live.

Go, Marketplace!

2006-06-22T18:10:37Z

A few of you will recall that I was mentioning last week the e-mail I got from AT&T (my ISP) updating their privacy policy. The e-mail presented the change as a simple broadening of the platforms to which the policy applied (from just the Internet to other types of living-room oriented services). This was meant to prepare for future stuff they're working on, such as IPTV ("U-Verse") and on-demand video services ("Homezone").

However, NPR's excellent business show, Marketplace, has noticed that there's another, subtle change in the new privacy policy. It adds the stipulation that cusomers' information can be shared "to protect others," which they are guessing is code for "we can give your info to Homeland Security if it will help catch terrorists." Of course, if it's illegal to give the government that information without a warrant, changing the privacy policy in and of itself does nothing to protect the company from lawsuits. The segment I heard had one of the best, clearest sound bites I've ever heard from a lawyer, explaining the issue at the heart of the lawsuits currently being filed against the phone companies: "If it's the government that is prohibited from having this information, it's not a defense to say that the government asked you for it."

Marketplace also broke a story a week or two ago--in response to the hullabaloo about lobbyists paying for congressional travel--in which they revealed that it's not just elected officials: Lobbyists have spent tens of millions of dollars for congressional staff members to go on "fact-finding" trips as well.

I've always enjoyed Marketplace, but I've never thought of them as investigating/finding news, so much as interpreting it. Either I just didn't notice before, or they're shifting their focus a bit. Either way, Go them!

A Turning Primer

2006-06-15T18:25:35Z

How to turn left from a left turn lane:

1. When the light turns green, immediately pull forward into the intersection, as far as you are going to. Keep your wheels pointed straight ahead (so if you are rear-ended, you won't be pushed in front of an oncoming car).

2. When there is no opposing traffic, turn your wheels to the left and make the turn. (You're already as far forward as you need to be to make the turn, remember?)

How NOT to turn left from a left turn lane:

1. When the light turns green, pull into the crosswalk.

2. Wait for 10-15 seconds, then inch forward a bit.

3. Continue to crawl forward, a foot at a time, every few seconds while watching oncoming traffic.

4. When there is no opposing traffic, pull the rest of the way forward and then turn your wheels.

How REALLY NOT to turn left from a left turn lane:

1. When the light turns green, do nothing.

2. When the light turns orange, start to creep into the crosswalk.

3. When the light turns red, enter the intersection and make the turn.

Does no one in Los Angeles remember their written test for more than a day after they take it?

snort

2006-06-08T06:31:48Z

From Craigslist's L.A. writing gigs section

"We need women in our AD&D group, but please be experienced at Dungeons & Dragons (note that "Advanced" is in the title here). There are too many guys in our group and not enough women. Actually, there are no women. We need women the way Mars needs women (if you get the reference, you definitely qualify...if you're also cute).

We're not looking for sex, but we would prefer it if the women were at least cute and liked wearing skimpy clothes. A fondness for geeks is nice. Alas, we won't get rich...we're not Bill Gates-type geeks, we're D&D players after all.

Also, please have your own polyhedron dice."

If it's a joke, it's hilarious. If it's not...it's still pretty funny...

Thing #2, Or: The Constitution--The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

2006-05-29T23:11:10Z

The other day, I was fuming to myself, as I am wont to do, about the latest political iniquity. In this case, it was Nancy Pelosi and Dennis Hastert putting aside their partisan differences to make a united statement to the effect that criminals who happen to be members of Congress are above the law. More specifically, they are up in arms about the FBI executing a search warrant to search a congressman's office (after they searched his house and found $90,000 in bribe money hidden in his freezer). The speaker and the minority leader are of the opinion that the search was a violation of the separation of powers. Of course, if they had paid attention in eighth grade, they would know that "separation of powers" refers not to a physical separation (duh), but to each branch of government fulfiling a different function. For example, the legislature makes the laws, and the executive enforces them. There's no separation of powers issue here at all.

On the other hand, I am a good self-doubting leftist, and part of me was thinking, "C'mon, Andy, the two most powerful legislators in the country surely know something about the Constitution. Maybe there's something in Article I that backs up what they're saying, and you've just forgotten it." So, I took a few minutes to reread the Constitution. I discovered two things. Thing #1 is that Pelosi and Hastert are full of shit. They either don't understand the Constitution or they're lying. But all of this is beside the point, really. It was thing #2 that really stunned me.

What is thing #2, you ask? It is this clause, taken from the list of properly congressional powers in Article I:

"To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;"

I knew, of course, that only Congress--and not the president--can declare war, but like the rest of the country, I had completely forgotten (if I ever knew) that they also have the sole power to do things like create a category of "enemy combatants" and otherwise determine which detainees are and are not to be treated as "prisoners of war" under international law. Everything the executive branch has done that falls in the category of "making rules concerning [wartime] captures" is constitutionally invalid. The president believes that such rule-making is part of his power as commander in chief, but he's completely wrong. The congressional leadership seems not to be worried about this breach of the separation of powers. Probably because it will neither cost them money nor land them in a federal prison.

The moral of the story? Everyone in this country should be forced to read the entire Constitution through from beginning to end, at least once a year. It ain't that long, and there's always something new and exciting to find there. And it would prevent all the pundits and demogogues from saying things that are patently untrue in the national media. Okay, maybe not, but at least fewer people would believe them...

Corporations and More Corporations

2006-05-23T22:22:27Z

Apple and Nike have gotten together to make shoes that talk to you through your iPod, telling you how well you're running.

AT&T e-mailed me yesterday to tell me to watch Oprah tomorrow. Maybe she threatened to buy them if they wouldn't promote her. (You should see the look on her face in the e-mailed photo, standing next to Elie Wiesel for her Very Special Holocaust Episode. I wonder how many shots it took to get the griefstricken horror just right?)

Is it any wonder that fucking BMW is now touting itself in its latest ads as an "independent" company that has the flexibility to embrace good ideas, as opposed to all those big corporations that put the kibosh on originality and innovation? BMW has become the twenty-first-century equivalent of the mom and pop store.

Meme Answers

2006-05-09T06:31:09Z

The two unguessed songs:

4. This one humbly requests your pardon. Excuse me (Peter Gabriel)

and

7. If you are light-skinned, and you are soft and yielding, and you are a virgin, and y'know, female, please travel to my location. Come All You Fair and Tender Maidens (David Bromberg)

I guess I may have been too clever by half on #7, but I was kind of proud of it...