This guy plays for no cover two nights a week here in town. Of the styles he plays, his blues playing is probably my least favorite -- the genre of electric blues encourages too much pointless noodling -- but even so the virtuosity on display in this clip astounding.
1/15/09
O M F Gaza
This afternoon, NPR's All Things Considered considered the following things:
* Egypt is working with Israel to keep Gaza's borders tightly shut.
* If a Gaza resident's neighborhood has been destroyed or is currently targeted, that person has no where to go. They won't go to UN shelters because they feel that these are likely to be targeted.
* The war is broadly popular within Israel.
* The war is likely to be brought to a close before January 20th so that Israel doesn't start out on the wrong foot with the new U.S. administration. And that's nice, I guess, but it doesn't sound like the resolution of the conflict will be any kind of resolution.
And I wonder how many 10 year old Palestenians are being turned into lifetime Hamas members by this series of events?
Image from Amir Farshad Ebrahimi's photostream.
Promoted -- ed.
1/14/09
To serve Rick Warren...
...a definition is needed for the term "saddlebacking." My vote:
5) "Saddlebacking" should be the term for the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities. "After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage." |Dan Savage|
(via)
1/13/09
Predictions
This is a little late, but I have three predictions for the new year.
1) Too unpopular and inarticulate to make it on the public speaking scene, George W. Bush finds himself relegated to the Reno / Atlantic City / Dubai appearance circuit. The money is good, but so are the parties. Bush quickly and publicly hits bottom.
2) Bill Clinton announces his retirement from public life and returns to Harlem to write his memoir. He makes very little news for some time, but in July the New York Times reports on page one that Clinton has been conducting an affair with an intern from the National Enquirer.
3) "The Ex-Presidents", a mid-season replacement reality show following Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as they undergo treatment for, respectively, sex addiction and alcoholism, provides America with a much needed distraction. A movement is quickly begun to repeal the 22nd Amendment. As the measure is broadly popular, its failure to pass by December 2009 leads some to suggest that the Constitution ought to be further modified to allow for the ratification of amendments through the mechanism of cell phone text message voting.
1) Too unpopular and inarticulate to make it on the public speaking scene, George W. Bush finds himself relegated to the Reno / Atlantic City / Dubai appearance circuit. The money is good, but so are the parties. Bush quickly and publicly hits bottom.
2) Bill Clinton announces his retirement from public life and returns to Harlem to write his memoir. He makes very little news for some time, but in July the New York Times reports on page one that Clinton has been conducting an affair with an intern from the National Enquirer.
3) "The Ex-Presidents", a mid-season replacement reality show following Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as they undergo treatment for, respectively, sex addiction and alcoholism, provides America with a much needed distraction. A movement is quickly begun to repeal the 22nd Amendment. As the measure is broadly popular, its failure to pass by December 2009 leads some to suggest that the Constitution ought to be further modified to allow for the ratification of amendments through the mechanism of cell phone text message voting.
1/10/09
Red Earth, Green Earth, Blue Earth
You know what might forestall climate change? We could add iron to the ocean, spurring massive phytoplankton blooms that would sequester CO2 to the icy depths. Or might not. An Indo-German led team has set out to spread 20 tons of iron sulphate across a 115 square mile area of the Scotia Sea near Antarctica to test this idea.
As a bonus, it may promote more zooplankton, which would help the Antarctic ecosystem, particularly penguins, seals, and whales.
Of course, it is experimental. The image above is from ETC Group, who are not down with it.
1/9/09
I think we should give him a few days of actually being President before we start freaking out
Step 1: Obama wins the presidency by promising to end partisan bickering and unite the country to resolve the various crises we now face.
Step 2: In his first challenge, Obama floats a proposal designed to be an acceptable compromise between those on the right and those on the left.
Step 3: Everybody freaks out.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Crisis resolved!
Step 2: In his first challenge, Obama floats a proposal designed to be an acceptable compromise between those on the right and those on the left.
Step 3: Everybody freaks out.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Crisis resolved!
1/7/09
1/4/09
Talking about EFCA
Just saw Chris Wallace and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Fox News Sunday arguing about whether it's okay to call the EFCA process card check. It was surreal. I call it card check. Everybody I know in the labor movement calls it card check. It turns out, however, that 'card check' is now a right wing frame. Update your speech accordingly, I guess.
Or don't.
In EFCA news, Hoyer expressed support for the bill, said he expected it to pass the Senate in more or less the form that it had passed the House, but didn't say it would be an immediate priority and hinted that passage might not come during the first 100 days.
Another interesting thing about the segment was that Chris Wallace delivered the secret ballot spin in a way I hadn't seen before, asking whether there was room for a compromise that would preserve the secret ballot, possibly by modifying the NLRB process so that elections would be guaranteed to occur sooner. Hoyer pointed out that nothing in EFCA precludes the holding of an election, and that's pretty much where they left it. It occurs to me, though, that calling it 'free choice' rather than 'card check' leaves room for an EFCA that doesn't establish card check recognition.
Or don't.
In EFCA news, Hoyer expressed support for the bill, said he expected it to pass the Senate in more or less the form that it had passed the House, but didn't say it would be an immediate priority and hinted that passage might not come during the first 100 days.
Another interesting thing about the segment was that Chris Wallace delivered the secret ballot spin in a way I hadn't seen before, asking whether there was room for a compromise that would preserve the secret ballot, possibly by modifying the NLRB process so that elections would be guaranteed to occur sooner. Hoyer pointed out that nothing in EFCA precludes the holding of an election, and that's pretty much where they left it. It occurs to me, though, that calling it 'free choice' rather than 'card check' leaves room for an EFCA that doesn't establish card check recognition.
Gaza
Israel went and did it.
Yglesias has me pretty thoroughly convinced that the political rationale for the invasion is to bolster the electoral prospects of the Labor / Kadima coalition. On those grounds the invasion has to be counted a success, I guess.
The nominal justification is that it became necessary because of the those rocket attacks. Could be, but what Israel really seems interested in doing is degrading Hamas' capabilities across the board. In other words, they seem to have launched a preventative war -- which is to say, a Bush Doctrine war -- while claiming that it is a straightforward defensive war.
But even so much as acknowledging Israel's nominal justifications seems to me to risk misunderstanding the situation. Israel has found an accommodation it can live with, and that accommodation is the status quo. To pay attention to the justification for this or that incursion is to treat the incursion as if it were a departure from the normal way of things. It isn't. Keeping the Palestenians down means knocking them down from time to time.
Yglesias has me pretty thoroughly convinced that the political rationale for the invasion is to bolster the electoral prospects of the Labor / Kadima coalition. On those grounds the invasion has to be counted a success, I guess.
The nominal justification is that it became necessary because of the those rocket attacks. Could be, but what Israel really seems interested in doing is degrading Hamas' capabilities across the board. In other words, they seem to have launched a preventative war -- which is to say, a Bush Doctrine war -- while claiming that it is a straightforward defensive war.
But even so much as acknowledging Israel's nominal justifications seems to me to risk misunderstanding the situation. Israel has found an accommodation it can live with, and that accommodation is the status quo. To pay attention to the justification for this or that incursion is to treat the incursion as if it were a departure from the normal way of things. It isn't. Keeping the Palestenians down means knocking them down from time to time.
Datsyuk!
A Canadian told me a few weeks ago that I have boring taste in hockey players, but how can you not love this?
1/3/09
Lazy Saturday?
You could be watching them count absentee ballots in the Minnesota Senate race.
...or, I guess I could embed it:
...or, I guess I could embed it:
1/2/09
In other news
The dispute occurred about 1 p.m. Thursday as AirTran flight 175 was preparing for takeoff from Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C., on a flight destined for Orlando, Florida.
Atif Irfan, his brother, their wives, a sister and three children were headed to Orlando to meet with family and attend a religious conference.
"The conversation, as we were walking through the plane trying to find our seats, was just about where the safest place in an airplane is," Sahin said. "We were (discussing whether it was safest to sit near) the wing, or the engine or the back or the front, but that's it. We didn't say anything else that would raise any suspicion." Video Watch Muslims recount how they were kicked off plane »
The conversation did not contain the words "bomb," "explosion," "terror" or other words that might have aroused suspicion, Irfan said.
"When we were talking, when we turned around, I noticed a couple of girls kind of snapped their heads," said Sobia Ijaz, Irfan's wife. "I kind of thought to myself, 'Oh, you know, maybe they're going to say something.' It didn't occur to me that they were going to make it such a big issue."
Some time later, while the plane was still at the gate, an FBI agent boarded the plane and asked Irfan and his wife to leave the plane. The rest of the family was removed 15 or 20 minutes later, along with a family friend, Abdul Aziz, a Library of Congress attorney and family friend who was coincidentally taking the same flight and had been seen talking to the family. |CNN|
rump
The emerging consensus over at Donkeylicious seems to be that the pull of metaphorical usages like 'Rump Parliament' or 'Republican rump' stems from the fact that the rump is the least desirable meat of an animal.
Probably so. Which means that yet another fact learned from Heinlein has turned out not to be true.
Probably so. Which means that yet another fact learned from Heinlein has turned out not to be true.
I got up. Rufo was dressed in our Merry Men clothes and wearing sword, so I dressed the same way and buckled on mine. My valettes were not in sight, nor my borrowed finery. I stumbled after Rufo into the great dining hall. There was Star, dressed to travel, and looking grim. The fancy furnishings of the night before were gone; it was as bleak as an abandoned barn. A bare table was all, an on it a joint of meat, cold in congealed grease and a knife beside it.
I looked at it without relish. "What's that?"
"Your breakfast, if you want it. But I shall not stay under this roof and eat cold shoulder." It was a tone, a manner, I had never heard from her.
Rufo touched my sleeve. "Boss. Let's get out of here. Now."
Source: Glory Road, Robert A. Heinlein, p. 111
1/1/09
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