The Supreme Court of the US found today that the city of Charlotte does not have standing to join a lawsuit brought by the state of South Carolina against the State of North Carolina over the use of the water form Catawba river.
The underlying issue of water rights was not decided just the issue of standing. Duke Power and the Catawba River Water Supply Project were both allowed to join the suit to represent their private interests in the case.
The city of Charlotte wanted to join presumably because it did not expect Raleigh to represent its interests. With the inclusion of Duke there is still some chance that Raleigh won't cut a deal to screw Charlotte. But history is not on Charlotte's side.
Taking a look at modern fractional US coinage, I believe it's time to move on and update most of our coin designs. The facts then recommendations:
Lincoln Cent The Lincoln cent design (obverse) has been in circulation since 1909 which makes 2010 it's 102nd issue. The Lincoln cent has been in circulation for 46% of the life of the nation making it the oldest design still in use. There have been 8 cent designs in the history of the nation, each minted an average of 28 years.
Jefferson Nickel The nickel is the newest coin in circulation, having been introduced in 1866. The Jefferson design has been in circulation since 1938 which makes 2010 it's 73d issue. The Jefferson Nickel has been in circulation for 33% of the life of the nation and is the longest circulating nickel design. There have been 4 nickel designs in the history of the nation, each minted an average of 37 years.
Roosevelt Dime The Roosevelt Dime design has been in circulation since 1946 which makes 2010 it's 65th issue. The Roosevelt Dime has been in circulation for 29% of the life of the nation and is the longest circulating dime design. There have been 6 dime designs in the history of the nation, each minted an average of 36 years.
Washington Quarter The Washington Quarter design has been in circulation since 1932 which makes 2010 it's 78th issue. The Washington Quarter has been in circulation for 35% of the life of the nation and is the longest circulating quarter design. There have been 6 quarter designs in the history of the nation, each minted an average of 35 years.
Kennedy Half The Kennedy Half dollar design has been in circulation since 1964 which makes 2010 it's 47th issue. The Kennedy Half has been in circulation for 21% of the life of the nation and is the second longest circulating half dollar design. There have been 8 half designs in the history of the nation, each minted an average of 27 years.
Recommendations
Lincoln Cent Pros: celebrates the first Republican president. Celebrates an assassinated president. Celebrates a president considered a founder (despite being president almost a 100 years after the founding). Celebrates a president who is celebrated for his actions: the Civil War, freeing slaves in the southern states. Viewed as non-partisan by contemporary Americans.
Cons: oldest coin still in circulation, possibly time for a change Recommendation: keep but consider alternatives
Jefferson Nickel Pros: celebrates a founding president who is also considered a founder of the Democratic party. Celebrates a president who is significant for his actions: Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, peace treaty with Great Britain, Declaration of independence, etc. Viewed as non-partisan by contemporary Americans.
Cons: longest circulating nickel design Recommendation: keep but consider alternatives
Roosevelt Dime Pros: celebrates a President famous for fighting WWII
Cons: design has been in circulation almost twice as long as the average dime design. Considered a partisan president who is loved and hated for his controversial methods in the Great Depression Recommendation: time to move on. Move away from using Presidents on all coinage, a return to classical imagery?
Washington Quarter Pros: celebrates a founder. Celebrates a president famous for his actions: General of the Continental army, first US president, first major world leader to step down from power. Viewed as non-partisan by contemporary Americans.
Cons: been in circulation more then twice the average quarter design Recommendation: keep
Kennedy Half Pros: celebrates an assassinated President. Celebrates a president famous for his actions: Cuban missile crisis, moon race
Cons: served less than 3 years as president. Controversial for bay of pigs and Vietnam. Coin in circulation almost twice as long as the average half dollar. Viewed as partisan.
Recommendation: use half dollar as a way to celebrate famous American non-presidents
Last Friday went on a date night to see Avatar, the new movie by James Cameron that everyone's heard of if not seen by now. The theatre experience sucked big time. $26 for tickets, $6 for a drink and candy. Then there were the stupid teenagers that chatted through the whole film. The crying baby. The bright phones being used to text message. Lesson learned, never go see a popular movie at the theatre! For 30 bucks I could have sat on my couch and watched the blu-ray.
I had hoped we'd get another Aliens or T2. Or even the Abyss. But I somehow knew Avatar would never be that good. I found it boring to be honest. Beautiful, amazing, cliche hell. Although it was better then Titanic in the first 5 minutes. That's a given.
For the most part Avatar fell into the typical traps of SF/fantasy films: lack of dramatic tension, poor characterization, anti-climatic ending. Why be upset, given the genre? Because Cameron used to be the best! What happened, man? But despite all, Avatar never sunk to the level of a Phantom Menace; the plot actually makes sense, there is a protagonist, there is an attempt at characterization.
Without getting into the plot, I did have some problems with the messages the film bashes over your head as you watch. Mostly the Gaia/humans are a virus meme. The irony being that Avatar spent half a billion dollars and used the most cutting edge special affects to denounce the world and culture that built the technology they were using to make their film. Its the type of self-unawareness one expects from Al Gore taking a private plane to a global warming summit.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I thought it was somewhat rude to make a pro-insurgency film at this point in American history. It's almost like we're so tolerant we need to make propaganda for our enemies since they don't have movie studios. Call it Hollywood Affirmative Action.
And then there's just me being petty: why does the tough Marine have to be an Aussie? Is it because our tough guys are all out actually fighting and not acting these days?
So in the end, yes, Avatar is Dances with Wolves meets Braveheart with Aliens. In 3-D. In my scale of Cameron films it ranks low:
1-T2 2-Aliens 3-Abyss 4-True Lies 5-Terminator 6-Avatar 7-Titanic 8-Piranha 2 (never seen but it is possibly better than Titanic)
The morning started off just great.Martin pushed me from behind as I was lining up, spilling my books across the blacktop.He ran off laughing while I tried to quickly gather my things.I was going to be late.
In the morning we were supposed to line up by grade.The teachers would then call out for each class to enter the school.Mr. Crowley had just called for the third graders and there I was on my knees gathering papers.My face flushed and there was nothing I could do to stop it.It wasn’t fair!
My pants stuck to my skinned knee as I stood up but I had no time for pain.One more frantic look but it was useless.I couldn’t find my favorite Snoopy pencil, the one with erasers at both ends.Tears formed at the edge of my eyes.At least Martin wasn’t around to see.I gave up on the pencil and ran to catch up with my class.
St. Joseph’s was a small school.Half the students weren’t even Catholic.Mom sent me there because it was the only private school on Tybee Island.I didn’t mind.It was way better than being bused an hour to Savannah to go the public school on the mainland.
St. Joseph’s was four classrooms, two grades crammed into each.That’s why I had to sit next to Martin even though he was in the fourth grade.He was the class bully and me his favorite toy.All I did was follow the rules.But the teachers never protected me.It wasn’t fair.
I walked through the big double door entrance at the front of the school acting as casual as I could.Mr. Crowley was standing there with his clip board checking off names. “Late again,” he said, his eyes hidden beneath large white eyebrows.
“Not my fault,” I replied.
“Excuses, Kevin.Don’t lag.”
I nodded and ran to catch up to my class as they entered our classroom at the very end of the main hallway.I sat down at my desk in the middle of the classroom, the aisle that separated the third and forth grade.
Mary Ellen, her hair tied into a ponytail, leaned forward from the desk behind me, “Why do you let him push you around like that?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Martin pushed you down, I saw it.”
“He’s older then me. What am I supposed to do?”
“Stand up for yourself!”
“Easy for you to say, he doesn’t pick on girls.”
The fourth graders started to come into class.Martin was laughing with his friends, Chad and Jeremy.They were always smirking, laughing at some joke I never got.
“Be quiet, here he comes.” I placed my pencil in the indentation on the front of my desk and pretended to be busy looking at what was written on the board.Martin sat beside me in his desk the row over.
“Late again,” Martin smirked.I felt his breath on my face as he leaned over the aisle.
“No I wasn’t.”
“Then what did old Al say to you?”
“He just said good morning,” I replied.I turned to look at him but my sight never reached above his mouth.
“Right.”
Before I could reply Mr. Crowley entered then walked across the front of class to stand beside his old oak desk.“Good morning class.”
“Good morning,” we replied in a single voice, just sly of belligerent.We turned in our homework, which included letters to the Pope.After class announcements we stood and said aloud the Nicene Creed followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.God then country.
Mr. Crowley worked with the fourth graders on long division problems and had us third graders read out of our U.S. History books.We were studying George Washington and his surprise attack across the Delaware. After a supervised bathroom break Mr. Crowley quizzed us about our reading.
“So who can tell me,” Mr. Crowley asked as he paced in front of the third grade rows, “why it was important for George Washington to cross the Delaware?”Several hands flew up, including mine. “Marry Ellen.”
“Because that’s what he’s famous for.”
Mr. Crowley smiled and shook his head.“Kevin.”
“Because he had to protect Philadelphia from being attacked,” I replied, with confidence.
“Okay and why did he have to protect, Philly?”
“Because that’s where the Continental Congress was.”
“Alright,” Mr. Crowley said.“But does anyone know why Washington had to cross the Delaware to protect Philadelphia from the British?”No one raised their hands.“Because he needed to surprise the British, attack them when they weren’t expecting it.”I raised my hand. “Yes, Kevin?”
“Why didn’t Washington just defeat the British in one big battle?”
“He couldn’t.”Mr. Crowley looked over his class and stroked his mustache.“I know it might come as a surprise to many of you but the colonies were losing the Revolutionary War. Put your hands down and listen to me.Washington had been beaten all year by the British.Now the very Continental Congress was being threatened.Washington had to act.So he gambled everything in one surprise attack.He didn’t win the war that day but he changed the rules of the game.Gave the people hope.”
The third graders were silent, unsure of what to make of what Mr. Crowley had just told us.How could Washington have lost a battle?He was our first President.He won the war!I wrote the name Washington on my notebook and slowly circled the word until it was an ink blot staring back at me from the page.
After lunch we returned to class and took our seats.Martin was making fart noises with his hands, pointing at me and laughing. Mr. Crowley came into the classroom wearing an old fishing cap.We all knew what that meant.The class started to talk all at once.
“Quiet students,” Mr. Crowley said.“That’s right, we’re going to walk the beach today.We’ll only have a couple of more weeks to do this before it gets too cold.So leave your things, and I don’t want to see any chewing gum.”
We left the class in a flood of voices.Mr. Crowley turned us out the back door of the school, which faced towards the ocean.A block down we crossed at the only street light on the island.From there it was a two block walk.
Once on the beach we waded over the dunes, letting our shoes sink into fine white sand.It was a pretty fall day, the wind light, the Atlantic a dark glossy green.
After a short walk we reached the compacted sand that marked the high tide line.There Mr. Crowley stopped us and told us to sit down.
“I told Sister Martha that I was taking you out here to study the tides but we all know that you just ate lunch and none of you are going to pay any attention to me. So for the next twenty minutes why don’t you just sit here and talk to each other and then we’ll go back inside.”
We were excited.Free time was not a normal part of our day.Sure we got recess but even that was usually organized into team play.Here we had twenty minutes to just sit on the beach.I sought out Mary Ellen and the two of us sat down further up the beach where we could play in the dry sand and keep our clothes clean.
I realized before the others that something was different.Mr. Crowley had brought us up to the beach by himself without any of the Sisters to help.It was one teacher and forty students with a big beach to play on.
We got louder and louder and nothing happened.Mr. Crowley didn’t tell anyone to quiet down.I could sense a weird electricity.Possibility.That’s when Chad and Jeremy started to wrestle, throwing each other two and fro on the sand.A circle of students gathered to watch.The girls started to segregate and Marry Ellen left to go talk to some of her friends.I was left alone, looking on.
I heard him shuffle through the sand right before it happened.Martin had snuck up from behind and pushed me down.I fell into the sand more startled than hurt.I sat up and brushed the sand from my hair.I looked over at Mr. Crowley but his head was turned the other way and he hadn’t seen anything.
“He isn’t going to help you,” Martin said from above me.I said nothing, unsure what I should do.
“Why don’t you ever do anything?” Martin asked.He kicked more sand on me.“Are you such a wuss you won’t fight back?” I just looked at him.“What if I picked on your girlfriend, Mary Ellen?What would you do then?”My face turned hot, adrenaline twisting my stomach.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” I mumbled.
“What did you say?”
I didn’t answer.Martin kicked sand on me once more and walked off toward his friends.I watched him talking to Chad and Jeremy, pointing at Mary Ellen and laughing.Against my will I balled my fists, unsure what I could or should do.Mr. Crowley had his back turned, talking to a student.
I got back to my feet, shaking with something I couldn’t quite express.I hated Martin at that moment.I hated him more than I had ever hated myself.But I was still scared of him.He was bigger than me and he had friends.
I walked towards Martin’s gang unsure of what I was going to do.But I wanted to do something.I wanted him to feel as horrible as he’d made me feel.Only I didn’t know how to do it.Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mary Ellen looking at me, shaking her head. I ignored her and walked right up to Martin and kicked sand on his sneakers.
“What are you doing?” Martin asked.
“I’m kicking sand on you,” I replied.
“Don’t let him do that to you,” Chad said.He was pointing at me even though I was only two feet away from him.
Martin held my eye.“What’s your game, Kevin?You want me to hit you? ”
I just smiled and kept kicking sand.This wasn’t the soft white sand from up the beach.This was the dark wet sand and it stuck to his pants in little clumps.Several of our classmates had stopped to watch, curious to see what I was up to. Mary Ellen was walking our way, hands on her hips.
“I’ll hit you if you don’t stop,” Martin warned.
“Yeah, hit him,” Jeremy said from behind Chad.
I kicked more sand on his jeans.
“Fine.”Martin drew his arm back and hit me in my right eye with his fist.Even though I was expecting it the pain made me lose my balance.I fell onto the sand unable to stop myself from crying.
“What’s going on here?” Mr. Crowley yelled.He ran up to the group of students who’d gathered around us.“Martin, what did you do?”
“He made me do it!” Martin yelled.“He made me do it!”
“Everyone back up to school, now!”
I got to my feet and Mr. Crowley walked me back to school.He led me to see the principal who asked me all sorts of stupid questions.My black eye looked pretty cool in the Sister’s hand mirror.But she made me hold ice on it anyway.When I got back to class an hour before the bell, Martin was gone.He was suspended for a week.It wasn’t fair.
Marry Ellen passed me a note: “Why?”Girls.First she wanted me to stand up for myself then she was mad I did.
“Because it was the only way,” I wrote back.That’s when I realized Martin didn’t scare me so much anymore.
The following morning I wasn’t late for lineup.And as I entered the school Mr. Crowley nodded and said “Good morning, Kevin.”I’d crossed the Delaware.
John Lassiter gets the coveted SOL endorsement for Charlotte mayor. Its not that I'm overwhelmed by Lassiter so much as I'm distrustful of unified government and dislike Anthony Foxx. The democrats currently control the school board, the County Commission and the City Council. Do we really want a one party system? How well has that been working out for us lately?
If the democrats were doing such a fine job running the city/county then maybe they'd have a stronger case. But no one questions that the school system is a disaster. The City Council is trying to spend millions to "study" the use of a trolley while the county suffers under 11% unemployment. The County Commission raised our property taxes without any noticeable improvement to services. My complaints with a one party system extend to all of NC state government, which passed a regressive sales tax hike in the middle of a recession!
Back to mayor, I have concerns that Anthony Foxx is unqualified, anti-investment, and too attached to the democratic machine. At 38, Foxx lists his experience for being mayor of Charlotte to include time he spent as Student Government Association president of Davidson College. I'm not kidding.
After Foxx graduated law school he joined the "Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department and was counsel for the House Judiciary Committee." [see Charlotte Observer]. Both of these positions are can be viewed as partisan and highly politicized. Upon returning to Charlotte, Foxx joined a law firm and for the past four years he's been on the Charlotte City Council.
Further, in the sole mayoral debate, Foxx came down hard on real estate developer's influence and investment in the center city and how this led to social injustice. Foxx appears to be against investments which would lead to tax income and jobs if that money is invested in ways he dislikes.
Foxx has driven his whole life towards being an elected politician. He's spent his life severing democratic party interests and building his political resume. Does he have the experience to represent all of Charlotte? I don't think so. Is Lassiter the ideal candidate? No. But Foxx is so bad it almost doesn't matter. Foxx is not the person we need to lead Charlotte out of the recession.
The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993 – 4.5 stars Stop-motion written by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a masterpiece. The blu-ray version is simply amazing. Just long enough to be a movie but short enough not to drag. The songs, puppetry and plot sync perfectly. One of the best children’s movies ever made.
Bolt, 2008 - 4 stars A great story told in an old-school Disney fashion, were sentiment is still in style. Amazingly short on stupid gags or cheap laughs, it holds up well under repeated viewings. John Travolta provides the voice of Bolt, a dog who mistakenly believes he has super powers. A role Travolta was born for. Bolt is visually stunning with mind blowing CG. But at times the CG is too realistic: the wrinkles in clothing for instance. Live action movies usually cover up blemishes. CG now tries to show flaws as proof that the CG is realistic. Hollywood has yet to figure out a balance.
Watchmen, 2009 - 3 stars Very interesting anti-superhero movie. While visually stunning, the plot drags and the characterization is muddled. Post-modern in a world that’s grown tired of breaking stories in order to understand them. The story, based on the comic, is filled with the bitterness and sarcasm found in the 80’s about Vietnam and the cold war. 20 years later that message falls flat.
The Dark Knight, 2008 - 5 stars Incredible acting, plot, visuals. Despite being about a man who runs around dressed as a bat, this story delivers. Contains some interesting embedded messages about terrorism and the place of America in the world. I could quibble with some things, but not enough to keep from giving this movie the 5 stars it deserves.
Coraline, 2009 - 4.5 stars Another Henry Selick directed stop-motion movie. Based on a book I loved from Neil Gaimen. Coraline delivers. Simply amazing visuals, characterization. The tension is kept throughout. Highly recommended. Selick’s best solo effort to date.
Corpse Bride, 2005 - 3.5 stars Tim Burton takes up where he left off with The Nightmare Before Christmas. Stop motion, good story, beautiful. But lacking that final ingredient. I found Corpse Bride to be much like other Tim Burton movies, Sleepy Hollow and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; full of promise but oddly lacking. A good movie, worth it for the visuals alone.
MirrorMask, 2005 – 2.5 stars Live action/stop motion movie written by Neil Gaimen. The piece is slowly paced and drags. There was some greatness here the story just never fully developed. Some good use of visuals but overall the movie suffered from poor direction.
Wall-E, 2008 – 4 stars Another Pixar masterpiece. While not as good as Pixar’s best films, Wall-E is an amazing story when compared to most of the drivel out there today. The CG is good without being too perfect. The story is fun and action packed. Well worth the ride.
HD on HBO
Stardust, 2007 – 3.5 stars Another movie based on a beloved Neil Gaimen novel. Stardust is a faithful re-telling of the book. Fun, escapist, full of action. An enjoyable movie for all. The ending drags for my taste.
DVD (yes I still watch actual DVD’s from time to time)
The Emperor's New Groove, 2000 – 3 stars Fun, slap stick, silly. The movie employs a subtle moral message which is a refreshing change from the usual Disney fare. But the story is weak and too dependent upon gags. The 2-D art is good but not spectacular. There’s no wow factor here.
Home On The Range, 2004 - 3.5 stars 2-D art that starts simplistic then gets more complicated as the film progresses. Based around farm life and the west, this film has a timeless feel to it. Fast paced, high on action, light on laughs. Better for younger audiences.
Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas, 1999 – 2 stars 3 short stories pulled together into a 70 min film. The first piece follows Donald with his Nephews and is by far the best. The second short piece follows Goofy and his son and is vaguely annoying. The finally story about Mickey and Mini retells the Gift of the Magi and is uninspired while not actually bad. Good for kids, lacking for adults.
Andrew Breitbart, the reporter behind breitbart.com, bighollywood, and biggovernment seems to have a plan. In the past couple of weeks he's gone after the jugular of ACORN; tax payer funding. Tomorrow he'll publish new information on if the Obama administration was using the NEA to fund artists to support the president's political agenda. An under the radar story that could contain multiple felonies.
So if Andrew does have a plan, what's his ultimate goal? At first it appeared he was simply after ACORN. Now the story just got a bit larger. Is Andrew spooling out these stories in an attempt to build public pressure on the administration to either drastically alter their agenda or for the president to resign? What else does Mr. Breitbart know and who is his next target?
Its takes an amazing lack of self-awareness for the congressional representative of San Francisco to claim that Americans protesting their government are un-American.
March Against Government Health Care in Washington
My modest proposal. It's time to force the hands of big media into covering the outrage of Americans over the proposed government take over of our health care. That's right, time for a march on Washington. Republicans, democrats, independents, the old, the young, blue collar, green collar, no collar. It's time.
Let's welcome congress back from their recess in style with a million person march on the mall in Washington on September 12, 2009. The goal of the march would be to let our elected officials know exactly why the American public doesn't want the government in charge of one sixth of the American economy. And to force the media into covering a true grass roots effort.
Congress and the White House can call us Nazis and add us to a list of enemies but they can not silence us with name calling or threats. Please join us at the mall to let congress and the president know that "freedom" includes the freedom to be free of government intervention in our lives.
The comparisons between Obama and Carter can certainly be taken too far. But there are some odd similarities: Obama asking us all to lower the thermostat in the winter, asking diners at the White House to pay for lunch, attempting to raise taxes in an economic downtown.
And now there is a new Iranian hostage crisis! I sure hope hyper inflation and disco aren't coming back.
Health Care and ROI Decisions by Tax Income Potential
Few pundits have discussed in detail one consequence of government run health care: return on investment per future taxable income. Any insurance system requires many more payees then recipients at a given time. Government run health care will be no different. So the question becomes, who is favored and who is not?
The first losers in the ROI equation will be the elderly. Once medicare is expanded to cover all the uninsured, the retired will become less important. Which is the smarter way to spend dollars from the government perspective - on a seventy year old woman who needs hip replacement or a ten year old boy with cancer?
Here is where ROI in a government run system exposes a weakness not present in the ROI undertaken by insurance companies today: future tax income of the recipient. A ten year old with cancer has many possible decades of taxable wages ahead of him. A retiree on medicare has none or very little. And in a system constantly running out of money, does anyone doubt who the government will spend the money on?
The second group to lose out would be the unborn. In order to maximize ROI, genetic testing of pregnant women would be mandated for those on government insurance. With the result being that those with down syndrome or other major genetic defects would have to be aborted or the birth would not be covered. Not only would the birth be expensive but the wage potential of those with genetic mutations would not be worth the investment by the government.
The third group to lose out would be couples, who would now have to seek genetic screening before they could have children. This would actually lead to couples having testing before they even entered into a long term relationship. The equations for marriage desirability would change forever. "What's your DNA?"
The end result of government health care and their ROI decisions would follow Americans from cradle to grave: who would be born, who would get married and which of the elderly would be allowed to receive treatment. Don't believe it? Take a closer look at Canadian or British health care today.
I attended today's Tea Party in downtown Charlotte, NC. I was there to protest the out of control spending that is being undertaken by our government. What I found was a Republican pep rally attended by three to five hundred people. And even though we were in downtown the audience didn't appear very cosmopolitan. I was reminded of the yearly Speed Street that descends upon the city center; big hair, NASCAR and t-shirts with religious slogans. Nothing wrong with that - just not my cup of tea.
Adding to my distrust, the Republican party was out in force: "vote for so-and-so, sign-up for this cause, that cause, down with the democrats!" But from where I'm standing, Republicans are about half the problem. We have a one party country club that functions to serve the needs of its member politicians. Democrat or Republican.
At the end of the day, I'm not at all interested in helping out the Republican party. But the Tea Party folks are the only ones in town protesting out of control spending. So I'm stuck. Do nothing or support a movement that is identified with people and ideas I have little in common with? Such is politics.
For people like me who like to collect all the songs by their favorite bands, Calexico is frustrating. Wikipedia only begins to tell the story. The band has been nice enough to sell their tour only CD's as mp3's on their website. But even that misses a lot of tracks.
So I went through Amazon and iTunes and here's what I found that is not easily available on their website or iTunes band page: (song/album)
Covers and Singles from Various Albums Drivin' on 9 - Guess Who This Is Casey's Last Ride - Nothing Left to Lose Wave - A Salute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo Love Will Tear Us Apart - Sweetheart 2005: Love Songs I send my Love to You - I Am A Cold Rock, I am Dull Grass Dance of Death - Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey Carleess - You Can't Always Listen to Hausmusik Sundown, Sundown - Total Lee Fruit of the Vine - The Believer Magazine Music CD 2006 Alone Again Or (live) - Austin City Limits Festival
Singles and EPs Alone Again Or (Love cover sung by Joey Burns & Nicolai Dunger) - Alone Again Or EP (Australian) Kabong Rides Again - Convict Pool EP (UK) Lacquer and Drape - Stray single (UK) Black Heart (Live at the Barbican) - Black Heart EP (UK)
Import Album Bonus Tracks Recalling Regatta - Feast of Wire Import (UK) Fallin Rain - Feast of Wire (different) Import (EU) Landing Field and Cast You Coat - Garden Ruin Import (EU)
Live in Studio Tracks Not Even Stevie Nicks from WDET LIVE! Vol. 4 The Ride, Part 2 from VPRO's De Avonden: Crossing Border 1998 Quattro (World Drifts In from KFOG: Live From The Archives 14 Ballad of Lupe Montoya - Kxci Live Fdrom Studio 2a Vol.1
Remixes Black Heart remix EP (UK) Woven Bird 2 remixes - Alone Again Or single Minas De Cobre (Extend-O-Mix) and Minas De Cobre (Spatial Mix) - Black Light import (UK) Untitled 3 (Swordsmen mix) - Peppered With Spastic Magic Crystal Frontier (Buscemi remix) - Buscemi: Late Night Reworks Vol. 1
No other way to say it. Red(wire) Is the worse user interface I've ever seen. What the? U2 goes off to make a site to download unique content to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa and you have to download a web 1.0 interface? An interface that won't even give scroll bars for someone using 800/600 resolution (around 48% of all users)!
And then you're stuck having to use the player. You can't burn the content or move it to other players. What a ripoff. Don't reward these people. Keep your money. And that's beside the point that the mag is a celeb ego site where we get to hear about how great these people are and how much they care and are "giving back."
Ugh. Happy new year.. enjoy.
UPDATE: RW sent me an email with info on where to find their data files. For some reason they dump their files into "documents" on Vista. Why there and not data files or downloads? Or Music?
Then their statement on 800/600 made about as much sense: "We're sorry for the trouble. We are in the unfortunate position of having to balance modern resolutions and content with flexibility for every user. Unfortunately, we don't have a way to resolve this issue for you."
Actually they do have a way to resolve my issue; use a scalable GUI such as, I dunno, a standard web browser?
My online life has become a drag on my existence. I have a life. I have a job. But after everyone has gone to sleep, I logon to Facebook and respond to getting poked. I post to my blog. Then I run over to myspace to deny a "friend" request. Then its off to eBay to give "feedback" or to Amazon to check the status of shipments. Then the real work, uploading photos to Flickr, videos to Youtube. But all the editing first!
And who's it all for? Who cares? And why do I spend so of much time worry about? Is it for posterity? For my kids? My ego? Or just boredom? When I'm dead is this what will be left for me to be remembered by? Yikes.
Some thoughts on various media I've been into lately.
John Adams - HBO miniseries Replicates the greatness and flaws of the book. Critics made more noise then was warranted over the skimpy coverage of the Alien and Sedition Act. The greatness of the story lies in the timespan and characters that we are exposed to: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, etc. John Adams in the lens, America the focus. But the last hour of the series was really pointless. Yeah, everybody gets old and dies. Go figure.
No Country For Old Men- The Coen Brothers Much darker tone for the Coen's - even compared to Fargo or Raising Arizona. This is a serious move with fantastic acting and direction. The soundtrack, or the lack of one, helps pace this movie perfectly. Western, noir, action, drama; it's all of those and more. A post-modern masterpiece.
The Golden Compass I understand a lot of fans of the book were disappointed in the film. Since I haven't read the book I was able to relax and enjoy the show. Nothing ground breaking here. Its a mix of the Narnia films with Harry Potter. But the violence was enjoyable and unexpected. I wouldn't recommend this for children under 13. The movie has some serious themes beyond the magic and is worth the viewing. Anti-climatic - but par for the genre.
NIN - The Slip Been listening to the new NIN album which was released freely by the band. Its decent if a little short - 30 mins plus three instrumentals. Overall a little more than a collection of songs. Regardless, I've paid money for albums not near as good. The sound is a nice mix of hard rock and "industrial" whatever that is these days - a sound mid way between their last two albums. Recommended for fans of Year Zero.
Making Money - Terry Pratchett In many ways the latest novel from the master of dark comedy is "Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle for dummies." Pratchett manages a very hard tasks for a writer: getting better with age. The amount of wit and humor Pratchett is able to cram into a book about the basic tenets of a modern economy would leave most economists dumbfounded.
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs Still digging my way though this disc. DCFC is a band that warrants and rewards playback. So far Narrow Stairs starts strong and rockin' then quickly fades. Bit of a curve ball here from Ben and company. On first listen the songs are mixed much louder then previous albums. I'm not calling this a sellout but I could see were some angry fans would give into the temptation. So far I think its weaker then their previous two.
So in June, or July, or August, Hillary loses the democratic nomination. Why do we all seem to think she'll just drop out? She could always pull a Lieberman and go independent. John McCain winning in '08 is her best chance for final victory in 2012.
Youtube of Obama on "fairness." Do we really want the government deciding who the winners and losers are? Haven't they done enough damage in the past?
Murray N. Rothbard in 1967: [redacted and paragraphed] The cruelest myth fostered is that the Great Society functions as a great boon and benefit to the poor. The poor are the ones to lose their homes to the bulldozer of urban renewal, that bulldozer that operates for the benefit of real estate and construction interests to pulverize available low-cost housing.
The poor are the welfare clientele whose homes are unconstitutionally but regularly invaded by government agents to ferret out sin in the middle of the night. The poor are the ones disemployed by rising minimum wage floors, put in for the benefit of employers and unions in higher-wage areas to prevent industry from moving to the low-wage areas. The poor are cruelly victimized by an income tax that left and right alike misconstrue as an egalitarian program to soak the rich.
The poor are victimized too by a welfare state of which the cardinal macro-economic tenet is perpetual if controlled inflation. Farm programs that supposedly aid poor farmers actually serve the large wealthy farmers at the expense of sharecropper and consumer alike; and commissions that regulate industry serve to cartellize it. 40 years later its hard to argue with this critique.
I recently had a conversation with an in-law who believes the economy should be re-tooled to correct for man-made global warming. I pulled up quote upon quote of scientific evidence that 1) global warming doesn't exist or 2) isn't man-made.
His response was to shrug - "then why is everyone talking about it? Why does everyone think it's happening?" My answer was because global warming was never the point. Greenhouse gas emissions are just the latest in a decades old war over who will control the commanding heights of the economy.
He countered: "even Newt and President Bush now accept global warming." My turn to shrug. Politicians are not a good source for science. And its obvious the Republicans are pandering. Regardless, I'd presented case after case of scientists questioning global warming. His response was to look at me like I was crazy, because they (everyone else he knows) believes in it.
There is no argument that can combat they. They can not be questioned. Global Warming is turning into a lost cause. Reason and science have no input into the debate. Its a faith.
In recent weeks I've had more reasons than I ever wanted to interact with Amazon customer service; half the electronics I'd bought in 2008 decided to die on me in one horrible week.
First off my new 37' JVC flat screen TV. After just over 2 months it just decided one day not to work. The JVC icon would launch when the TV was turned on but then a flash of purple and nothing. So I called Amazon. Turns out I bought the JVC via Amazon but from another vender, Vanns - so Amazon wouldn't help me directly. I contacted Vanns and they explained that since I'd owned the TV more then 60 days (around 65) they wouldn't help. So I had to go to JVC.
JVC directed me to the number of a service dealer who happened to be in the same zip code. That week I called the service dealer, who came out to house the next day! He explained that he'd seen this recently on another JVC flatscreen. There was an apparent grounding problem with some of the boards, no parts were needed. In ten minutes he was done. And all he wanted was a copy of my Amazon receipt. Not impressed with Amazon or Vanns but JVC had a system setup to take care of me.
Then my Amazon Kindle died. After about 3 months of use. The navigation bar stopped working. Amazon troubleshooted with me then agreed that there was no work around. Within two weeks I had a brand new one. Although I do wonder if my frequent buying with Amazon had anything to do with their quick response. If true that will make we want to shop at Amazon even more. A box store will have no idea how loyal a customer I am. But Amazon does by design.
I predict that the Texas polygamy cult case will not end very well - for anyone.
Several fathers and some mothers will go to jail for various abuse charges. Potentially hundreds of children will be permanently removed from their parents - even if no abuse was proved.
Then the state of Texas is going to be sued for violation of the 1st and 4th Amendment rights of the cult members. They will additionally be sued for intentional infliction of emotional damage and malicious prosecution. If the state is lucky, these cases will be lumped together into a class action.
A lot of losers here. Let the mass ambulance chase begin.
This defense of the poor performance of the new Iraq war movie "Stop Loss" struck me as particularly clueless:
No. 7 Stop-Loss eked out a $4.6M weekend. "It's not looking good. No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."
Well actually, the only movies they've "put out there" are all anti-war. According to the studio, the reason Stop-Loss failed was actually the fault of their audience. No wonder video games are kicking their ass.
Interesting results from an ABC/BBC poll of Iraqis: 49% now say the US was justified in attacking and just 38% want them to immediately withdraw. Someone memo Obama.
A look at recent scientific and other developments on the theory of global warming.
From NOAA: The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.
"We missed what was right in front of our eyes," says Prof. Russell [of the University of Arizona]. It's not ice melt but rather wind circulation that drives ocean currents northward from the tropics. Climate models until now have not properly accounted for the wind's effects on ocean circulation, so researchers have compensated by over-emphasizing the role of manmade warming on polar ice melt.
Kenneth Tapping [of the Canadian] National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon. The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850.
[Note: all comments and quotes from here below are credited to the author linked. My editing reserved to clarifications and syntax]
“New research from Stephen Schwartz of Brookhaven National Lab [US Department of Energy] concludes that the Earth’s climate is only about one-third as sensitive to carbon dioxide as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) assumes.”
The study’s “result is 63% lower than the IPCC’s estimate of 3 degrees C for a doubling of CO2 (2.0–4.5 degrees C, 2SD range). Right now we’re about 41% above the estimated pre-industrial CO2 level of 270 ppm. At the current rate of increase of about 0.55% per year, CO2 will double around 2070. Based on Schwartz’s results, we should expect about a 0.6 degrees C additional increase in temperature between now and 2070 due to this additional CO2.
Paleoclimate scientist Bob Carter, who has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works noted in a June 18, 2007 essay that global warming has stopped. “The accepted global average temperature statistics used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998. Oddly, this eight-year-long temperature stasis has occurred despite an increase over the same period of 15 parts per million (or 4 per cent) in atmospheric CO2.
Second, lower atmosphere satellite-based temperature measurements, if corrected for non-greenhouse influences such as El Nino events and large volcanic eruptions, show little if any global warming since 1979, a period over which atmospheric CO2 has increased by 55 ppm (17 %).”
In August 2007, the UK Met Office was finally forced to concede the obvious: global warming has stopped. They now claim climate computer models predict “global warming will begin in earnest in 2009.
UN scientist Dr. Madhav L. Khandekar, a retired Environment Canada scientist and an expert IPCC reviewer in 2007, explained on August 6, 2007 that the Southern Hemisphere is cooling. “In the Southern Hemisphere, the land-area mean temperature has slowly but surely declined in the last few years."
Dr. Jim Renwick, a top UN IPCC scientist, admitted that climate models do not account for half the variability in nature and thus are not reliable. "Half of the variability in the climate system is not predictable, so we don’t expect to do terrifically well." Another high-profile UN IPCC lead author, Dr. Kevin Trenberth, recently echoed Renwick’s sentiments about climate models by referring to them as “story lines. . . In fact there are no predictions by IPCC at all. And there never have been. The IPCC instead proffers ‘what if’ projections of future climate that correspond to certain emissions scenarios.”
By studying the last 100 years of these cycles' [the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, the El Nino/Southern Oscillation, and the North Pacific Oscillation] patterns, they [see list below] find that the systems synchronized several times. Further, in cases where the synchronous state was followed by an increase in the coupling strength among the cycles, the synchronous state was destroyed. Then a new climate state emerged, associated with global temperature changes and El Nino/Southern Oscillation variability. The authors show that this mechanism explains all global temperature tendency changes and El Nino variability in the 20th century. Authors: Anastasios A. Tsonis, Kyle Swanson, and Sergey Kravtsov: Atmospheric Sciences Group, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Carbon dioxide did not cause the end of the last ice age, a new study in Science suggests, contrary to past inferences from ice core records. “There has been this continual reference to the correspondence between CO2 and climate change as reflected in ice core records as justification for the role of CO2 in climate change,” said USC geologist Lowell Stott, lead author of the study, slated for advance online publication Sept. 27 in Science Express. “You can no longer argue that CO2 alone caused the end of the ice ages.” Deep-sea temperatures warmed about 1,300 years before the tropical surface ocean and well before the rise in atmospheric CO2."
According to the findings reviewed in this paper [Geophysical Research Letters], the variable output of the sun, the sun’s gravitational relationship between the earth (and the moon) and earth’s variable orbital relationship with the sun, regulate the earth’s climate. The processes by which the sun affects the earth show periodicities on many time scales; each process is stochastic and immensely complex
The study found that times of high solar activity are on average 0.2 degrees C warmer than times of low solar activity, and that there is a polar amplification of the warming. This result is the first to document a statistically significant globally coherent temperature response to the solar cycle. Authors: Charles D. Camp and Ka Kit Tung: Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
"Of 539 total papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of the consensus [of scientists‘ belief in global warming]. If one considers 'implicit' endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement), the figure rises to 45%. However, while only 32 papers (6%) reject the consensus outright, the largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. This is no 'consensus."
During the last 10,000 years climate has been seesawing between the North and South Atlantic Oceans. As revealed by findings presented by Quaternary scientists at Lund University, Sweden, cold periods in the north have corresponded to warmth in the south and vice verse. These results imply that Europe may face a slightly cooler future than predicted by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
An August 2007 NASA temperature data error discovery has lead to 1934 -- not the previously hyped 1998 -- being declared the hottest in U.S. history since records began. Revised data now reveals four of the top ten hottest years in the U.S. were in the 1930's while only three of the hottest years occurred in the last decade.
Team of Scientists Question Validity Of A 'Global Temperature' – The study was published in Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics. Excerpt from a March 18, 2007 article in Science Daily: “Discussions on global warming often refer to 'global temperature.' Yet the concept is thermodynamically as well as mathematically an impossibility. "It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth", Bjarne Andresen says, an expert of thermodynamics. "A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate.” He explains that while it is possible to treat temperature statistically locally, it is meaningless to talk about a global temperature for Earth. The Globe consists of a huge number of components which one cannot just add up and average. That would correspond to calculating the average phone number in the phone book. That is meaningless."
UN IPCC reviewer and climate researcher Dr. Vincent Gray of New Zealand, an expert reviewer on every single draft of the IPCC reports since its inception going back to 1990, had a clear message to UN participants. "There is no evidence that carbon dioxide increases are having any effect whatsoever on the climate," Gray, who shares in the Nobel Prize awarded to the UN IPCC, explained. "All the science of the IPCC is unsound. I have come to this conclusion after a very long time. If you examine every single proposition of the IPCC thoroughly, you find that the science somewhere fails. It fails not only from the data, but it fails in the statistics, and the mathematics," he added.
Its hard not to take glee in the trials of Elliot Spitzer. But from a legal point of view I don't think what he did should be illegal. It's his 80k.
Whether or not that should disqualify him from office is a totally separate issue. Its amazing to me that someone with so many enemies could get elected to begin with. And at the rate the reports are coming, before this is all over, we'll find out that Spitzer shot Kennedy.
Of course maybe this was his all part of his master plan of getting out of responsibility (and his marriage).
I celebrated President's day by setting up my flat screen TV. The TV had to fit in my existing cabinet so I went with a 37 inch. But I didn't skimp on resolution: 1080p. Time Warner won't be able to bring me an HD box until Friday so I had to rough it with less then half the resolution the TV could handle. The shame. I spent all day watching. I couldn't pull myself away. Even commercials kept me in amazement. TV reinvented. So thank you American Presidents!
One of the first things I did after setup was to order a movie, September Dawn. I was hoping for a action movie. What I got was a sad parable of religious extremism. Mormon in this case:
The Mountain Meadows massacre involved a mass slaughter of the Fancher-Baker emigrant wagon train at Mountain Meadows in the Utah Territory by the local Mormon militia in September 1857. It began as an attack, quickly turned into a siege, and eventually culminated on September 11, 1857, in the execution of the unarmed emigrants after their surrender. . . After escorting the emigrants out of their fortification, the militiamen and their tribesmen auxiliaries executed approximately 120 men, women and children.
From an artistic standpoint the movie's pretty bad. None of the actors stand out, it has the voice of an after-school special about why not to kill people; with the added bonus of a cliche doomed love story and sappy soundtrack to boot. But I did find the history depicted to be engaging and mostly accurate.
September Dawn didn't make me think about Islamists so much as simply reinforce my own prejudice against any religion that applies dogma - okay, any religion. To the Mormon's credit they didn't call for a boycott of the studio or deny involvement.
Afterwards I got sucked into Inside the Vietnam War on Nat Geo. This three hour special, much to my relief, focused on the military history of the war. I also found it refreshing to see the war chronologically. And for once, instead of Berkley sit-ins, we got a documentary on the actual war.
Its frustrating to see how close our armed forces came to winning. Only to be betrayed by the politicos. It is errie how similar the first three years of the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq were - the insurgency, the military victories, the lack of good press coverage. Maybe Vietnam and the rise of alternative media helped inoculate our boys in Iraq from defeat this time around.
Where this documentary failed was to explore in detail how the Vietnam war was actually lost - at home. No mention was made of the post Watergate elected congress that failed to fund the South Vietnamese army - thus betraying the deaths of almost 60,000 US soldiers. Neither was there mention of the one of the largest consequences of cutting and running - the Killing Fields in Cambodia. But I quibble.
So that was my President's Day. Which gets me to thinking about who were the most important Presidents? I read somewhere that most presidencies are failures and that sounds about right. Even important ones historically, say, Wilson or Jackson, were failed administrations.
Obviously, George Washington is in the list of most important. I think he's obvious but he does feel overlooked as of late. Washington held the United States (not just a union of various peoples) together with the strength of his character. And he defied ten thousand years of human history by stepping down from power.
Jefferson makes the list, although his two terms in office were not very remarkable. It was Jefferson's vision that probably kept North American from being carved into a dozen Europeanish states - his demand that the Western states be added on an equal footing as the original 13 colonies. And the Louisiana Purchase didn't hurt.
Lincoln for keeping the Union together.
Teddy Roosevelt for reinventing the power of the Executive. Without Teddy the presidency would not have been prepared, as an office, to deal with the 20th century.
FDR for winning WWII. That's all I give him credit for, but it's enough to get him on the list.
Ronald Regan for reminding all of us about the vision and meaning of being Americans. And winning the cold war. Bush 41 doesn't get that credit in my book.
And since I want to drag this post on even further, the worst of the 20th Century:
Wilson - for that damned League of Nations thing, and helping to set the stage for WWII by letting the French destroy the Germany economy via reparations
Hoover - for failing to take any meaningful steps to address the market crash of 1929
LBJ - for being a coward and refusing to run for re-election when he had troops dying in the field to fight his war
Nixon - for making the tapes
Ford - for not bombing the North Vietnamese when they violated the Pairs peace treaty
Carter - for being Carter
Bush 40 - for "No new taxes"
Clinton - for Rwanda, Hillarycare, the internet bubble, and, well, you know
JFK gets an honorable mention for getting his ass shot before we could know if we was a failure or not.
Bush 42 - it's just too early to tell yet. Wait a generation.
Thats all for now. Blog again next month. Probably.
"When I am President, I will work to protect children from inappropriate video game content," - Hillary Clinton.
[Insert rant about the first amendment and the slippery slope of fascism here]
Not that Mike Huckabee is much better, he wants congress to outlaw the free market assignment of wages.
I just wish someone would run for president without their platform being based upon how America should be changed, voices restricted or the economy re-shaped into their view of fairness. And please stop using "children" as a code word for censorship or to otherwise take away my rights.
