Hopefully Not Stupid

News: Republicans campaigning to put Kerry on ballots

2004-07-25T18:39:00.000-04:00

Original Article

After the last presidential election, which was so narrowly decided in favor of Bush that the Supreme Court basically decided the election, yet if it weren't for the fact that if Nader hadn't split the liberal vote due to one of those typical futile third-party efforts the presidency would certainly have gone to Gore without contest, we're seeing a rather cynical ploy on behalf of some Republican groups: conservatives campaigning to put Nader on the ballet in some states.

Yeah, it sounds a bit iffish just out of the blue like that, "C'mon now, would they really be so cynical to play such numbers games?" Well maybe I'd agree with you, except if you go to page two of the above-linked article, the CEO of one such organization outright admits to doing it, almost seeming pleased with his own cleverness?

Why does this happen? Simply, it's because some people are more concerned with getting "my guy" in, than trying to discover the true will of the American people. There's no law against campaigning for someone with diametrically-opposed views, true, and I'd rather not see one passed. But it does illustrate what an atmosphere of gamesmanship has arisen in our political process.

And due to the particular mathematics of our electoral system that greatly favors a two-party system, combined with the incredible inertia against any changes whatsoever to the mechanics of our political process (because whoever wins would naturally be reluctant to change the procedure that granted them power, in case another chocolate bar falls out of the machine), I figure this kind of thing will only get worse.

In other news, blog posts are still extremely infrequent at the moment due to continuing job search. I'm getting really frustrated with it all.

Windows Vista: which version is right for you, and which other version will you end up with?

2006-03-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

I am a member of that "Exploring Windows" list Microsoft maintains in order to advertise at clueless computer users. (This can readily be deduced by looking at the content of the list.) I'm a member because I haven't gotten around to unsubscribe.

But then, why would I unsubscribe, when periodically I get a message like this?

The message says....

Which version of Windows Vista is right for you?

Hoo boy.

It only became known that there were going to be multiple versions less than a month ago, and already they're pushing out marketing messages to the clueless legions. I'm by no means a Microsoft fan, but this business over Vista strikes me as startlingly awful. But for those reasons, continue reading.

People use computers for an unimaginable variety of work and leisure activities. To fit this wide range of uses, Windows Vista will be broadly available in five versions (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4628420):

Of course they use computers for lots of things, that's why they're called general-purpose computing machines. To offer customized versions of Windows for each use isn't empowering, at best it's stingy since they don't want to give away all features for one purchase price, and means they'll end up selling extra copies, as users buy weaker versions, find out there's features in the more costly versions they need/really want, and have to schlepp back out to the software store to shell out again. "What's that?" the clerk will say, "You want to return an old software purchase? MWA-ha-ha! Guards, seize him!"

I cannot rightfully imagine why Microsoft would do something like this if they were not expecting at least a sizable number of computer users to do something like that.

For Home:
Windows Vista Home Premium (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4628421): Goes beyond basic tasks and helps you get more done around the house while more fully enjoying your digital entertainment.

The middle-ground. People with prior Microsoft experience (like those screwed by the Home/Professional difference) will probably default to this. According to their site (at the very URL listed above), this will be the cheapest version that actually includes their new Aero interface. It also has the options for making your own DVDs (DRM permitting) and it "provides new ways for you to enjoy your music, photos, and DVD movies", assuming the RIAA, MPAA and I assume professional photographers of America allow it.

Windows Vista Ultimate : Includes the full set of business, mobility, and home entertainment features for those who use their PCs at work, at home, and on the road.

Will probably contain some gaming acceleration tweaks that games will quickly come to rely upon. Will have the fewest crippled features.

Windows Vista Home Basic : Increases reliability, security, and ease of use for entry-level computers and basic tasks such as writing e-mail and surfing the Web.

The version that will be bundled with low-end computers. That's the rub, the true implications of this plan. That copy of Windows you get with one of those $500 machines at Wal-Mart, you may not realize, actually accounts for a sizable percentage of the cost of that machine. It'll lower the cost of the initial package, but to do the things you really want with the machine, you'll end up having to shell out for the big thing anyway. That's called a hidden cost folks, and by paying it, you'll ultimately be shelling out for Windows twice, once for the basic version and one for the super deluxe XTREEM version. Those who won't will be reduced to second-class citizens.

Anyone want to place any bets as to whether the next version of Windows will go back to offering one Home and one Business version, and in the ad copy for it brag about how simple it is Microsoft is making it for customers?

Video Games: Amazing Ouendan skills

2006-03-05T22:10:00.000-05:00

My last post, which was meant to be a criticism of cell phone calling plans and ended up looking like an advertisement for them, has made me a little wary of Google's Blog Comments plugin for Blogger, but I'm giving it another try.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! is an insanely catchy music game for the DS from Japan that we just *might* someday get a US release of. In it, the players must tap numbered circles on the touch screen in order in the rhythm of a song. Word is the game is incredibly demanding, as the linked-to video should indicate.It's also one of the cooler pieces of game music I've heard. Why don't we get things this cool in the US? Sure there's Katamari, but beyond that it seems like an unending stream of sports games and (ugh) Tom Clancy.

See more at Silicon Era....

Families talk free and get up to 5 free Samsung x495 phones

2006-02-16T00:51:00.000-05:00

Ah, long time no see guys....

Here , T-Mobile hawks their "unlimited messaging for families plan," illustrating once more the reason why I have no cell phone or text messenger or service like that: they're all priced at extortionate rates, with the only exceptions being plans that all seem to carry some hidden "gotcha" designed to screw you over if you fail to invoke the proper incantations.

And whose idea was it anyway, to charge for sending per text message, anyway? How much money does it really cost them to ship a few bites of ASCII wirelesly? Would they charge 12.5% more to send an eighth bit?

Artwork: Movie Club flyer

2005-08-31T17:55:00.000-04:00

Something I've done to promote a film club we're starting here at GSU. Used Corel Painter's charcoal tools to both create the black background and the white foreground elements. The eraser tool created the solid-edged fingers in front of the projector. I used CorelDraw to produce guidelines to help me keep the perspective straight.

The expression on the guy's face I think works really well, though it reminds me uncomfortably of the kid from Paranoia Agent, or maybe an over-mischevious Ernie.

Artwork from Super Mario Strikers

2005-08-18T23:04:00.000-04:00

Funky, graffitiesque artwork of the Mario characters for an upcoming Mario soccer game. Including the coolest official corporate illustrations of both Mario and Wario in a long while, as well as the hottest drawing of Peach ever.

Planet GameCube Game Art: Super Mario Strikers

My response to a Johnny Isakson form letter about the flag-burning amendment

2005-06-24T01:36:00.000-04:00

Johnny Isakson, one of my state's two senators, has a form on hisa website that, if filled out, eventually results in a response to someone at "senator@isakson.senate.gov", although that address doesn't work for replies. It's probably written by staffers, and may even be a form letter (although I've gotten two responses now with moderately different content), but that doesn't stop me from wanting to respond to the message.

I really hate getting automated, or employee-sourced, message in response to my concerns, especially when the person I'm writing to is a co-sponsor of something so wrong-headed as the flag burning amendment.

Since my response to his message bounced, because I spent so long writing it and don't want it to vanish into the ether, and to serve as a record of the reasoning being used in favor of that damnable amendment, I'm going to post my response here. I doubt he'll ever see it, but maybe it won't go to waste this way.

> The American flag is a national treasure, and is one of our
> greatest symbols of nationhood and national unity.

I have no idea if a straight response this way will actually get read
by anyone, but it seems a lot less annoying (for myself and whoever
reads these things) to try to do a straight reply instead of
continuing to direct my responses through the web form and breaking up
the conversation, while also losing track of my own messages.

It is my considered opinion that ultimately, while flags have
important symbolic value, they are, in the end, symbols, and that
those who are popularly described as "dying for the flag" are more
accurately dying for the nation for which it stands. But the nation
is not the flag; the logical error committed there, frequently
committed these days, is taking the representation of a thing as the
thing itself.

> I believe desecrating
> the flag dishonors the sacrifices of those who served this Nation and
> continue to defend us all.

The word "descrating" is a loaded term, and has meant different things
throughout history. Did you know that there's already laws on the
books meant to protect the flag? They forbid using it as, for
example, part of an article of clothing. It dates back to a time when
people were concerned about commercial exploitaton of the flag -- a
cause I could get behind, considering how much false patriotism
centers around prominent flag display.

But I consider passing spurious amendments to "protect" a symbol to
be, at best, misguided. You cannot harm a symbol by doing anything to
one representation of it -- there will always be more flags. You can
harm that symbol, however, by harming the thing it represents -- and
one of the most powerful things we have in the U.S. is freedom of
speech. While I would never burn a flag myself, as the cliche goes, I
would do everything in my power to protect someone else's right to do
so.

The whole flag burning amendment issue strikes me as nothing more as a
political fad, seriously harmful to freedom of speech, brought to the
service of empty patroitism.

> While the Supreme Court says protestors have the
> right to burn the flag, the Constitution says we have the right to amend it,
> and we must now do so to protect the flag.

The Consitution says you have, not the right (as congressmen you don't
have the right to do any damn thing, your post is in service to your
constituency and grants you *no* rights), but the duty to amend it
when the need arises. But there is hardly such a need at this moment
-- the figure being bandied about is that a grand total of ONE flag
burning incident occured in the United States last year. To sponsor a
Constitutional amendment to fix a problem that doesn't exist in order
to bring the power of the U.S. Government to bear against a
questionable issue -- honestly, the situation seems, how should I put
this... Schaivo-esque?

I do appreciate the personalized responses, even if they are, at best,
written by staffers. (But then again, you do have a job to do.) I get
the feeling that neither of us is going to convince the other here, so
I'll merely thank you for your time, and get down to the business of
spreading the word about your co-sponsorship of this lamentable
amendment.

Random Ideas, 6/16

2005-06-16T20:38:00.000-04:00

1. Take the music to the song "Hotel California." Put it into a blank video file. Then splice into that file appropriate scenes from the movie Manos: The Hands of Fate, so as to make a music video for the song. Post it somewhere on the web. Watch the fun.

2. Also a video idea. Intercut between highlights (more likely, lowlights) from the
current session of Congress and President Bush press conferences (Schrivo, estate tax repeal, the Flag Burning amendment current winding its way through Congress), and scenes from a really over-the-top hillbilly gathering, complete with cousins kissing, pickup trucks tearing up dirt roads, unlovely people in deteriorating overalls with vehicles devoted to dead people & peeing Calvin decals, et cetera. Overlay the whole thing with "Arkansas Traveller" and "Turkey in the Straw."

3. Go to www.yakov.com and see aging, one-joke funnyman Yakov Smirnov try to ply his two-decade-old wares in Branson, Missouri, making his apparently prodigious living these days confirming the misbegotten beliefs of superiority held by the more rural, more regrettable portions of our nation. Try to make fun of it but quit halfway through when overcome by feeling of profound ennui, mixed with longstanding, now confirmed suspecion that one is merely raging against the ever-deepening tide of stupidity infesting the United States, then collapse weeping, spending night curled up inside bottle of cheap liquor. Later, try to get a description of the whole process published on McSweeney's.

If I had the money to run a television ad campaign...

2005-05-11T16:08:00.000-04:00

I previously posted as a Slashdot comment. It was too much work for Slashdot alone. The story linked to this very insightful Grimwell Online article, concerned the excitement that game companies are feeling over the prospect of selling extra game content.

That's right. You've bought their $50 (likely, soon to be $60) game, you're playing along, and you're sort of bitterly enjoying it in that uniquely modern-video-game-experience way, but then you read that the kind of extra feature that you use to need to press Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right for, now you have to pay additional bucks to get.

Yeah, that's a winning business model.

Think about it: Back in the old days, strategy guides were completely optional things. Now, there are games where the guide is almost necessary to play (often because of lackluster manuals). How long before games are designed around the need to buy extra content just to play them well? Keep in mind that there are games out now that are almost impossible even without the ability to buy powerups to make it playable.

Is gaming full of empty promises? Are game companies acting like rampaging lucre-beasts? Will people buy access to fairly gimmicky and short-lived bit-content, like "tricked out vehicles" to make friends drool while they watch them play some racing game? (That's paraphrasing, fairly maliciously, the quote from the Grimwell article from some X-Box exec, excited about his new, precious revenue source.)

I don't think it'll last, and I'd accelerate the process if I could. If I had the money, I'd love to produce this commercial and see if I could get it inserted into network news broadcasts. I kind of doubt I could, for the same reason Adbusters has problems getting their own spots aired.

Gen Y Slacker Type #1: "Dude! Take a look at this new game! If I press this button, the guy does a backflip and slices through that monster like a buzzsaw!"

Gen Y Slacker Type #2: "That's nice, but-"

#1: "Oh, and when I win the game, it opens up an entirely new character who can play the game in, uh, a slightly different way!"

#2: "Interesting, except-"

#1: "Oh, and look at that other character, check out the polygons on her, huh? On that... fake girl, heh heh... heh..."

#2: "But why not-"

#1: "And I've collected everything I can collect, and I've found the secret double-plus-good ending, and I've max'd out everyone's stats, and I can play as the bad guy, and everything's unlocked... and I've... but... uh."

#2: "And you're now feeling kind of empty from the whole experience, right?"

#1: "Hm, now that you mention it, yeah."

#2: "Yeah. Here, take a look at this pamphlet. It should help to put the situation into better perspective."
(Hands over a pamphlet entitled: "Why You're Feeling Empty: A short essay on the meaninglessness of arbitrary accomplishment.")

- LATER -

#1: "Wow, that handout you gave me was right on the money! I've thrown away my game systems and got started doing something useful!"

#2: "Just like I did a month ago. What are you doing?"

#1: "Writing Sonic the Hedgehog super hot triple-X hentai fanfiction!"

#2: "Just like I started doing a month ago. Hmm...."

This is why I think that the success of video games is short-lived. As companies are producing strings of games that are successively less unique and fun, playing through them feels more and more like work, work with a very insubstantial reward at the end.

Once a majority of players have made that connection, everything falls apart. Again.

("And it's about time," sez Cranky Kong.)

Found on Slashdot: The Submarine

2005-04-21T16:59:00.000-04:00

Link: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

This strikes me as incredibly on target. It talks about the ascendancy of PR departments and how reporters allow them to practically write the news for them.

That by itself is foreboding enough. Now replace the word "PR departments" with "White House press releases."

Is the lack of mainstream media criticism of the Bush presidency's incredibly revisionist approach to the executive branch beginning to make sense now? The problem with the mainstream media isn't liberalism, it's laziness.

Web Funny. Funny, huh huh huh.

2005-03-21T10:42:00.000-05:00

I don't laugh at an awful lot on the web, anymore, 'cept maybe Fafblog, but then today I find not one but two hie-larious sites.

Okay, I found one of them linked to from Fafblog, but I still claim credit for it! It's Topic Drift, and as I said in a Fafblog comment, it's like someone overdosed on the literary works of Woody Allen and turned into one, Flaming Carrot-style. And that's a good thing, fokes.

The other thing is called somehow The Squooshy Pineapple, an' it was found on Memepool, and it's even more much funnier than rind of bacon. (Grammar flaws in previous sentence intentional, do not write me.) It's a picture of wire service photographs with joke captions - except unlike the many contest sites that work along that tired premise, these are actually good. Of special note today is the picture of Pseudomilly Brock and her dog, "Hungula." Warning: do not view while enjoying a beverage or else risk turning your drink into Nostril Cola.

Loonatics?! Also, WB's update track record

2005-02-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Q: How stupid are Warner Bros. executives?

A: This stupid:

(Picture scavanged off of Michael Barrier's blog.)

The picture shows the redesign of Bugs Bunny into yet another of those ill-advised spin-offs WB tends to make every few years, seeking to reimagine and modernize the classic Warner Bros. characters.

I don't have a scanner handy, but right in front of me is a picture in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which provides pictures of the updates of Wile E. Coyote, the Tazmanian Devil, Daffy Duck and the Road Runner (and also Space Jam-introduced wannabe Lola Bunny), and except for the TD it's almost impossible to tell them apart. Don't they see this is going to tank SO BAD. Does the process of getting an MBA just drain all appreciation for wit and humor from your brain? There have got to be people in the pipeline making this show who can see this, why aren't they speaking up?

Even more indicative of a fundamental disconnect with reality by these people -- the thinking that informes the update to the classic characters is based on the fact that the Duck Dodgers series on Cartoon Network fizzled quickly, and the Looney Tunes: Back In Action movie lost $79 million dollars. Of course, the possibility that both of these implementations were lacking entirely the charm and cleverness of the original shorts, which were made on the cheap and yet are even now regarded as among the best cartoons ever made, that never occurs to the clueless folks now regrettably in charge of what is potentially animation's greatest property.

This strikes me as a good opportunity to go over the various recent attempts to update the classic Warner Bros. characters, and how they have, each, failed to recapture the spirit of the original.

(These are rated on a scale of one to ten anvils.)

TAZ-MANIA
Rating: Three anvils.

Some of the episodes of this show were actually good, but for every Bull and Axel cartoon (the best thing about the series) there was a so-so showing. The Taz character just didn't work that well as a teenager in a sorta-suburban setting. Also, the show was very... talky. Imagine what a cartoon with the Tazmanian Devil in it that could be regarded as talky would be like. That image is largely accurate. However, it must be said the animation was rather good.

TINY TOON ADVENTURES
Rating: Two anvils.

The first of the Stephen Spielberg-branded cartoons, even though he really didn't have a lot to do with them. Once in a while there was a good episode (the They Might Be Giants music videos are classics), but overall this show was way too pleased with itself. There are still people today who will swear up and down that it was brilliant, but they're still laboring the spell of childhood nostalgia. (The only reason people went to see Episode II, in my opinion.)

ANIMANIACS
Rating: Five anvils.

Once in a while this was brilliant, like with the oft-rerun Nations of the World song, or the "I'm Mad" theatrical short they put at the beginning of WB's otherwise-forgotten Thumbelina cartoon. Of the various cartoon shorts showcased in this show, the Warner Bros. were often very good, all these: Mindy and Buttons and Rita and Runt, were awful, but Slappy Squirrel was often surprisingly clever. Anything they showed that had the slighest hint of historical content tended to be crappy. This show, of course, was where Pinky and the Brain got its start, seguing smoothly into...

PINKY AND THE BRAIN
Rating: Six anvils.

Pinky and the Brain was often great (perhaps the greatest premise ever shown on Saturday morning), but also (somehow) suffered from Animaniacs' historical cartoon malaise. The better ones tended to be those that showed up earlier in the run, but there were excellent cartoons throughout its run. (Especially "Mouse of La Mancha", brilliant writing on that one.) This remains the high point of WB Animation's latter-day, non-Batman output.

TWEETY AND SYLVESTER MYSTERIES
Rating: One anvil.

Whoever came up with the idea for this should have been derided, but whoever decided to make it should have been shot.

BABY LOONEY TUNES
Rating: One anvil.

Jim Henson's Bugs Bunny Babies!

FREAKAZOID!
Rating: Six anvils.

Stands alongside PatB as the highlights of the age. Some of these cartoons push the "classic updates" premise of this post, but Freakzoid, despite being an obsensible superhero cartoon, was actually a clever parody of them. I don't include Road Rovers here because it was too far over the line into action cartoons (and sucked anyway). Freakazoid wasn't as good as the Tick, but then, what is? Also note that the Earthworm Jim cartoon was just as good, and also aired on Kids WB at about this time, but is largely forgotten today except as a videogame character.

DUCK DODGERS
Rating: Three anvils.

In this one they went back to trying up update classic characters and what do you know? They failed miserably. Their including things like a Green Lantern crossover cartoon prove that the creators of this show have absolutely no idea what made the classic characters great.

Fafblog: Homeland Joe!

2005-02-17T16:59:00.000-05:00

What do you do when a bill is introduced to Congress offering the Department of Homeland Security unlimited power, that is a status of being able to ignore every federal law and of being immune to judicial oversight, and it passes the House of Representives after surviving, intact, a proposed admendment to remove that provision?

Well if you're Fafnir at the always-brilliant Fafblog, why you write this! Head 'em on, move 'em out, round 'em up, rawhide!

(Accidently posted this first over at the Other Blog, goes to show how focused I am these days....)

Oh wow: A hate letter!

2005-01-01T01:08:00.000-05:00

Apparently someone decided that the best place to express disagreement to a recent Slashdot comment I made would be here (check the comment on the preceding post here, "Headlines over IP," to see what I'm talking about). For the record, my comment was about Microsoft abandoning Passport, and it was, essentially, "See? Microsoft does fail sometimes!" I can't believe someone was able to find venom (or whatever diluted substitute for it he uses) in his heart enough to curse me out over that.

Just goes to show you, eat your veggies, and start up a sparsely-posted blog, and you too can become the target of spastic insults from people you've never met in reaction to just about anything you say! I'm almost in tears... it's like I've finally arrived!

Headlines Over IP (HOIP)

2004-12-17T16:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, four months since the last installment. Not a lot of good stuff here either, though #3 is quite odd.

1. TechWeb : Microsoft Moves On Spyware To Stymie Firefox
http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/55800866

See class? Competition is good!

This is just funny. How many months has Microsoft blithely ignored spyware, and Internet Explorer, to do something about it only when a percieved rival has made threatening gains upon their position?

And note that instead of coding up something in-house, they actually bought out someone else! Microsoft makes the operating system that most spyware is hard-coded to take advantage of (like the Run and RunOnce registry keys), but instead of simply cooking up a weekend-project applet to check these keys for new entries, they just bought someone out and had done with it.

Okay, enough tech stuff. What else is there in this magic flash box...

2. ABC News : Politics : More Uncounted Ballots Found in Wash.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=339998

We've entered the age of the fractional percentage point. I so wish I was living in one of those areas instead of throwing my vote against the bulk of laughably dumb, horrifyingly red, Fox News-in-public-places Georgia, a land to prove to anyone interested in knowing that the minds of human beings can be twisted around to accept any damnable idea as gospel. What we have here is proof of the inevitability of humanity's extinction. Ain't it swell.

3. CBC News : Texas city orders strippers to wear permits

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/12/17/texas-041217.html

A city in Texas has passed a law requiring strippers to wear permits on stage...

Um, can you say �missing the point?� If you have to wear a permit on-stage to be nude, then you aren't really nude now are you? Though I'm sure some of the more creative women in question could make much of, shall we say, stragically-placed documentation.

Congratulations San Antonio, for enacting the 21st century's first bona-fide blue law. Really, what does this do to aid law enforcement? What problem can be fixed by forcing nekkid ladies to wear permits notifying folk of their legally-allowed public unclothedness that couldn't be solved by merely keeping them (the documents or the women, take your pick) off-stage? And what is it that caused San Antonio's entire city council to vote in favor of it?

I can't shake the feeling that this was passed inreaction to a specific, highly-secret, probably hilarious, incident. Coming soon to an adult mag near, yet not close enough to arouse suspecion, you.

Link: Quitting the Paint Factory

2004-12-14T15:26:00.000-05:00

Found on BoingBoing, a very cool article about the necessity of not working. I'm unemployed currently, in a town and at a time in which unemployment is rather more common that I'd like, but a lot of this strikes a chord with me. I simply cannot function if every waking moment has some purpose attached to it. Insight and reflection require unoccupied moments, and this is not an indication of mental sluggishness or stupidity, but of wisdom.

Quitting the Paint Factory

I'm Back!

2004-12-01T05:57:00.000-05:00

I just got finished with a wild month, participating in Nanowrimo, the yearly 50,000-word-in-a-month thing. My project is a humorous story about alien worlds, Cthulhu-esque preschool teachers, the end of time, and plenty of other things. So many other things that it's not anywhere near finished at 50k words, and even when it is finished, then comes the editing, oy the editing. But one thing at a time.

Anyway, found on Metafilter was this really cool thing: Einstein's Theories of General and Special Relativity, explained entirely in words of four letters or less! Now the length of the words used is no excuse to not understand these things! Enjoy.

The first Michael Moore movie controversy: Roger & Me

2004-10-17T22:44:00.000-04:00

Long before Bowling for Columbine threw up its hands in the direction of violent crime in the U.S. and Fahrenheit 9/11 threatened to sway a presidential election, there was Roger & Me, Moore's scathing attack on General Motors for pulling out of Flint, Michigan (to which he's returned in each of his documentaries since).

All of you people who think Fahrenheit 9/11 is full of "deceits" (bah to you), have a look at this Roger Ebert essay from 1990, written about a similar controversy with that film. Before you point and say "You see? See?!! He's always been doing it!", have a look at what Ebert had to say about it back then. The names, places and details are different, but the points apply to the film even today -- that the movies are more about putting forth an opinion in an entertaining, poetic manner than being a rote recitation of facts. His films are not straight facts but an interpretation of them. That means they're opinion, but so what? Non-conservatives are still allowed to have opinions, aren't they?

Even if they were, they certainly wouldn't be as bad as those outright false attacks on Kerry's war record, you don't get much more evil than that folks.

Go Team Venture!

2004-10-17T02:59:00.000-04:00

I just watched a cartoon in which a musclebound secret agent beat up four old men, one of them a sumo wrestler and another a fish-man, disguised as women -- or more accurately, woman robots. And it was funny, oh how it was funny.

Venture Bros. rocks.

News in spam: http://www.yesbushcan.com/

2004-10-17T01:36:00.000-04:00

How did these guys get my address? I mean, it's not *typical* spam, it wasn't sent to tens of thousands of random people, it's obviously meant to be read by a blogger, and since my email address is right there on this page, well, that answers that. But why did they think I'm a conservative blogger? I've been mostly liberal here on Hopefully Not Stupid (when I'm actually posting that is), and most of the stuff over on Three Second Decree is politics-agnostic.

But it's still spam, in that it's unsolicited, automated and sent in bulk, and those are indeed the key ingredients.

This is the full text of the message:


RatherGate proved that bloggers are the best fact checkers.  That is

       why we are writing to a few bloggers asking for help.



       Yes Bush Can has collected several documents that are clearly suspect.

       But we need your help to prove they are fake:

       http://www.yesbushcan.com/falsedocs.shtml



       Let's spring to action before these documents needlessly tarnish the

       reputation of our Commander and Chief.  You know the drill: analyze the

       handwriting, search for factual errors, and post your discoveries.



        And keep us posted by sending email to FakeDocs@yesbushcan.com.



       Thanks in advance for your help.



       YesBushCan

1. I don't know about what everyone thinks about the "Rathergate" documents now (and that name seems mightily like wishful thinking on behalf of conservabloggers), but I seem to remember seeing Daily Kos state that the documents could, indeed, have been real. And even if they weren't -- Bush is known to have been a lax National Guard attendent. Even if Kerry's war record was faked (and if it is, I'd say that shrapnel in his leg shows astounding attention to detail when it comes to fakery), the fact remains: Kerry went to Vietnam, and Bush got out of it. But this isn't even important from an electorial standpoint.

2. The contents of the falsedocs.shtml page lists these documents that they'd also like to have falsified by bored bloggers:


Dick Cheney's DUI

George W. Bush's DUI

George W. Bush's Second DUI

Bush and Cheney have excellent judgement and would never get behind the wheel while drunk.



Memo to Ken Lay

Second Memo to Ken Lay

Ken Lay has been indicted on felony fraud charges -- there is NO WAY he was this close with President Bush.



Bush Daughters' Possession of Alcohol

It must be fake: This is clearly a liberal media snow job on these poor girls.



Osama Warning Document Part 1

Osama Warning Document Part 2

This so called "official document" suggests that Bush was asleep at wheel before 9-11. Get real.



Are there any other fake documents we are missing? Please send them to us so we can post them on this site for conservative bloggers to debunk.

Seeking to disprove these things starts me to thinking -- what if this isn't really a conservative website? What if it's a liberal website that seeks to subtlely undermine Bush's supporters through sly, real-seeming ridicule, the way Landover Baptist does with fundamentalist Christians? C'mon, urging people to debunk Bush's DUIs? If that's true, then the creators of the site are obviously geniuses -- and just as obviously nuts.

This will be remembered as the year the political campaigns, long on the road there, finally broke down and became entirely postmodern. The satire is more realistic than the real stuff, everything everyone says is called a lie by someone else, and "proof" is decided, although nobody will admit to this, more based on what they already believe rather than the evidence presented to them, for after all unless you're a forensics expert actually looking at the evidence involved, how can you really trust it? The right actually laughs at the left's claiming there's a conspiracy against them, despite the fact there exists Fox News, and the best news show on TV is a comedy program, bringing us back to satire!

Thank god a Van Helsing commercial just came on TV, so I can get to hating something it's a lot more healthy to hate than my own country, I mean, ugh!

Seven Warning Signs of Pseudoscience

2004-10-12T20:44:00.000-04:00

I've often thought about ways to break people out of their fraudlent beliefs, and this is a good list of things to look out for whenever someone presents, say, "startling new research supporting Intelligent Design!" Have a look.

Three Second Decree & Statesboro Blogger

2004-10-08T04:28:00.000-04:00

Three Second Decree is my new ultra-short-form weblog, which I predict will be much easier to keep updated than this one. Everything on it is a sentence long or shorter! Have a look at: http://www.hiddenglade.com/threesecond/

I just got a message from another downtrodden Statesboro resident who has a blog. It's actually a rather cool fiction blog! Go on over to Okay, we'll do that to have a look.

That's it for the moment, hopefully I'll have some more Headlines for you guys soon!

Debates, Schbates

2004-09-29T16:42:00.000-04:00

Breaking my long silence (during which I made a 1420 on the GRE hooray for me!), a story on NPR's website on what the national presidential debates aren't really all that great. For starters, they ain't debates: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4052162

Fafblog hits one out of the park

2004-09-20T18:27:00.000-04:00

This is hilarious... if you're not conservative, that is. Check it out:

Fafblog Special Interview: GOD AND SATAN

Link: Fighting Intrusive Public Transpo Preaching With Show Tunes

2004-09-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

Sorry to have been quiet lately. Here's a little sump'n sump'n found over at Metafilter:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/koaloha/29646.html