29 August 2008
27 August 2008
Political Reporting
I heartily endorse Rick's New Rule. The problem, I think, stems for a lack of substantive reporting on politics. There's this grand Analysis of Nothing. I don't know where the reporters went, but mostly we just get commentary and "insight". There's almost no good comparative detailing of tax plans, health care plans, or other planks in the popular press. Instead we get letter grades of speeches and breathless treatments of ad tactics.
I've long wished that US newspapers would do political reporting even half as well as they do sports reporting. Sports fans in the US get the highest quality reporting of any subject anywhere in the world. It's not just analysis and commentary, but thorough and well-researched establishment of facts, plus excellent summaries of current and past state through statistics, tables, illustrations, and photos. Apply that thoroughness, passion, craftsmanship, and work ethic to political reporting, and the results would be shocking in contrast to the crap we're offered now.
I've long wished that US newspapers would do political reporting even half as well as they do sports reporting. Sports fans in the US get the highest quality reporting of any subject anywhere in the world. It's not just analysis and commentary, but thorough and well-researched establishment of facts, plus excellent summaries of current and past state through statistics, tables, illustrations, and photos. Apply that thoroughness, passion, craftsmanship, and work ethic to political reporting, and the results would be shocking in contrast to the crap we're offered now.
FUD & FOTUGI
It must be really easy to be a right-wing political operative. There's an uncritical laziness of thought that must be a relief after you allow yourself to wallow in it. You get to talk big and sit at the tough-guy table. You have pre-defined templates for attack and defense: FUD your primary offense, and for the fallback defense is FOTUGI (Feign Outrage, Take Umbrage, Get Indignant).
Why this works, rather than being laughably incoherent, is an enduring and depressing mystery. That the same guys who castigate those facing economic hardship as "whiners" can get away with developing delicate sensibilities when they are called on their presumptive leader asking his staff how many houses he has is farcical, but not enough people are laughing.
Why this works, rather than being laughably incoherent, is an enduring and depressing mystery. That the same guys who castigate those facing economic hardship as "whiners" can get away with developing delicate sensibilities when they are called on their presumptive leader asking his staff how many houses he has is farcical, but not enough people are laughing.
22 August 2008
Obesity Madness
I can't describe how unsettling it is to check back in on the US to find such drastic measures as diet pills that make you shit your pants and gastric band surgery treated as completely normal. Not only is gastric band surgery advertised on billboards now, no one seems especially surprised by this. I'd say public health officials have totally screwed up, for decades now.
16 August 2008
Sunshine
Very nearly a sci-fi classic. What a pretty film. Stabs itself in the foot at the end when it turns into Event Horizon. Completely unnecessary. Still worth viewing, though.
14 August 2008
My Olympic Dream
I'm gearing up for the 2012 all-drug olympics. 1500m is too short of a swim for me to fully display my awesome tolerance for performance-enhancing drugs. We'll have to get at least a 10k freestyle event added. I'm going to inject so much EPO my blood will be the consistency of a slurpee!
After Mark Spitz recovers from exhaustion due to pretending to be a decent human being for two weeks in a row, he'll be moving to London to train with my team. We've got unlimited testosterone patches, epo, steroids, asthma medicine, cialis, metamucil, ursine growth hormone, caulk, retin-A, and froot loops on tap, all for less than Darra Torres's annual budget for 2 coaches, 2 "stretchers", 2 masseuses, and 1 chiropractor. We'll be self-coached but are looking for a full-time dermatologist to deal with the acne, rashes, and needle marks.
After Mark Spitz recovers from exhaustion due to pretending to be a decent human being for two weeks in a row, he'll be moving to London to train with my team. We've got unlimited testosterone patches, epo, steroids, asthma medicine, cialis, metamucil, ursine growth hormone, caulk, retin-A, and froot loops on tap, all for less than Darra Torres's annual budget for 2 coaches, 2 "stretchers", 2 masseuses, and 1 chiropractor. We'll be self-coached but are looking for a full-time dermatologist to deal with the acne, rashes, and needle marks.
13 August 2008
Must Be Good To Be The Mayor
While senators, governors, and the like usually try to maintain some level of diplomacy, I've noticed that mayors get away with saying what's on their minds much more readily. Case in point: Bojo recently discovered that baggage-handling at major london airports sucks, calling the Gatwick handlers "chimpanzee-like" [Gatwick motto: We're not as bad as heathrow!] and continuing with,
To call this service 'Third World' is an insult to the many gleaming and efficient airports of developing nations.
Perils of Oil Dependence
Self-reliance and independence are supposedly all-American virtues. So why are we still so dependent on foreign oil? And why are we doing so little to become energy-independent?
The Carter Doctrine boils down to the idea that a threat to US oil supply is a threat to US national security. But for decades now we've spent billions heaped upon billions trying to protect ourselves against this threat -- killing our own and others, and tying our hands in terms of resources and diplomacy all over the world -- instead of eliminating the threat itself by getting to a state in which an oil supply is no longer necessary to be secure. When are we going to get serious?
The Carter Doctrine boils down to the idea that a threat to US oil supply is a threat to US national security. But for decades now we've spent billions heaped upon billions trying to protect ourselves against this threat -- killing our own and others, and tying our hands in terms of resources and diplomacy all over the world -- instead of eliminating the threat itself by getting to a state in which an oil supply is no longer necessary to be secure. When are we going to get serious?
11 August 2008
Olympic Improvements
Really, there's almost no aspect of life on earth that wouldn't be improved simply by asking my advice. For the olympics:
- cycling: make this a stage race, put the time trial as the first stage, and thus offer 4 medals in total: individual time trial, individual overall, team overall, individual sprint (sprint points accrued as with other tours)
- fencing: the twitchy, single-point-at-at-time blur must go, to be replaced by timed rounds (boxing-style), scoring by touches accrued
- biathlon: add a good summer version, either mountain biking or running, with full carry of the rifle as with winter biathlon
- modern quadrathlon: add a more relevant version of the snooty pentathlon, with 4 events: kayak (flatwater), cross-country running, archery, and shotgun (trap)
10 August 2008
08 August 2008
Olympic Movement
The Olympics are fun, but the pompous windbags running the IOC tend to blather on about the "Olympic Movement". I have no idea what this means. To me, an olympic movement is something that happens about 36 hours after fondue night.
07 August 2008
06 August 2008
My Typical Bike Project
I recently started rehabilitating my 15-yr-old city bike. It's going the same way all my home maintenance or any other such projects go. I first bought a new rear derailleur and new cassette & chain. Of course, new cables also required. I discovered I couldn't get the cassette off because I only had a campy removal tool (for my other bike) and not a shimano one. So I had to order that. At some point, later than it should, it occurred to me I was replacing an integrated shift & brake lever with just a new shifter. So I ordered a brake lever. Which arrived in time for me to realize I also needed brake cables. I cheerfully bought the wrong kind of cables. Why the world needs more than one kind of brake cable, I still don't know.
By now the cassette removal tool arrived, which allowed me to discover I was attempting to put a new 9-spd cassette onto a 15-yr-old hub that's too short as it was designed for 7-spd cassettes. Fine, this is the perfect opportunity for me to learn the craft of wheel-building. Fortunately, I thought better of this approach, and just ordered a new wheel. Later, I thought to order a new tube and tire. Later still, I thought to get rim tape. Getting the new wheel completed was disproportionately satisfying.
I put the derailleur on, put the brake lever and shift lever on, put the wheel and chain on, and started routing the shift cable. Turns out I have no tool in the house capable of cutting shifting cable housing. By now I am a platinum customer on wiggle.co.uk (not making that up). They were happy to sell me cable & housing cutters. I also got new brake pads. There was quite a bit of wear on the original pads, to understate a bit. They are yellow. I'm going to put yellow handlebar tape on as well. I will be a trendsetter -- no one else wraps mountainbike handles with cork tape. There's probably a very good reason for this that I no doubt will discover disastrously.
Anyway, it's all getting very close to complete now. But the front wheel is looking a bit shabby... as is the frame. Hm.
By now the cassette removal tool arrived, which allowed me to discover I was attempting to put a new 9-spd cassette onto a 15-yr-old hub that's too short as it was designed for 7-spd cassettes. Fine, this is the perfect opportunity for me to learn the craft of wheel-building. Fortunately, I thought better of this approach, and just ordered a new wheel. Later, I thought to order a new tube and tire. Later still, I thought to get rim tape. Getting the new wheel completed was disproportionately satisfying.
I put the derailleur on, put the brake lever and shift lever on, put the wheel and chain on, and started routing the shift cable. Turns out I have no tool in the house capable of cutting shifting cable housing. By now I am a platinum customer on wiggle.co.uk (not making that up). They were happy to sell me cable & housing cutters. I also got new brake pads. There was quite a bit of wear on the original pads, to understate a bit. They are yellow. I'm going to put yellow handlebar tape on as well. I will be a trendsetter -- no one else wraps mountainbike handles with cork tape. There's probably a very good reason for this that I no doubt will discover disastrously.
Anyway, it's all getting very close to complete now. But the front wheel is looking a bit shabby... as is the frame. Hm.
FUDmasters
The Republican machine is really good at generating FUD. Somehow Kerry's military service was used as evidence of his lack of patriotism. Now the doubt machine (along with typical democrat hand-wringing) is in full swing for Obama, at moment the meme being "he's not far enough ahead!"