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May 30, 2003
RENO'S DANCING ON GRAVES PARTY
The Palm Beach Post
href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editio
ns/thursday/south_county_e35d18a2e203b07e00aa.html">reports on a
speech Janet Reno delivered to a local Democratic Club, during which
she tries to get the crowd motivated by likening the current Republican
administration's agenda to the Holocaust in Germany. Yep, nothing
those south Florida Jewish senior citizens enjoy better than an
outrageous and spurious trivialization of the deaths of million of
their religious kindred.
Speaking of Nazi atrocities, I'm trying to remember who oversaw
the prosecution of innocent men and women in Florida on clearly trumped
up charges of child abuse, just for political gain? Who visited the
"accused" in jail in the middle of the night and cooed that the cold
water hose showers and inhumane treatment would all be over if they
would just confess? Who was in charge when FBI agents went to Idaho to
shoot a pre-teen boy in the back and then murder his mother with a
sniper shot to the head while she was holding an infant? Who was in
charge when the FBI covered that up and falsified evidence? Who sent
paramilitary squads to attack a minority religious group, and then when
met with resistance had the place burned to the ground, incinerating
hundreds of men, women, and children? If I can think of any government
official that used the power of the state to kill and persecute under
the guise of the good of the volk and kinder, the first
name that comes to mind is Janet Reno. Fucking bitch.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:46 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BLAIR WHICH?
Ha! Ha! The New York Times' credibility has fallen to
such low depths in my eyes that when I read
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/30/international/worldspecial/30CN
D-BLAIR.html">this headline in today's paper: Angry Blair Denies
Iraqi Weapon Reports Were Inflated that I immediately thought to
myself "yeah right, you plagiarizing loser." Of course, the article is
about Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, and not Jayson Blair,
one of the Times' disgraced reporters.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:51 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 29, 2003
WAITING FOR HUFFMAN
I really don't enjoy Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, but I
did enjoy one of his previous and unfortunately more short-lived
efforts called Sports Night. It had that same fast-talking-
dames pace to it, but with humor instead of The West Wing's
nauseating earnestness. Also, it seemed like the female characters in
Sports Night were the ones that had their shit together, while
the men were a little out of it. This seems to be the opposite
character template of The West Wing.
I bring this up because one of the former stars of SN,
Felicity Huffman, is appearing in a new cable drama called Out of
Order, debuting this Sunday on Showtime and it occurred to me that
the alumni of SN are doing quite well for themselves. Peter
Krause, who played a sports anchor, now appears as the character Nate
in HBO's Six Feet Under. Sabrina Lloyd, who played Huffman's
character's assistant, now plays the main character's love interest on
NBC's series Ed. Joshua Malina, well, he pretty much played the
same worried writer character that he currently plays on The West
Wing. It seems only former co-anchor Josh Charles and stroke
victim Robert Guillaume are out of the loop.
I'm going to be watching the new Showtime series Out of
Order because I think Felicity Huffman is great. Also, it's going
to be starring Kim Dickens, who played the paramedic in the thoroughly
underappreciated Zero
Effect with Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman. Kim Dickens has big
things ahead of her.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:05 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IF YOU'RE GONNA DO THE TIME . . .
Then you better be prepared to do the crime. Afterwards. Mike
Tyson is innocent of raping that beauty contestant back in 1991, of
course. I think the ensuing history has shown that Iron Mike just
doesn't have that propensity for savagery in him. And as a juror at a
SideShow Bob trial once famously remarked on The Simpsons,
"Anyone who speaks German couldn't possibly be evil."
No, Tyson might be a chemically unbalanced maniac with a
propensity for cannibalism, real and metaphorical, i.e. ear biting and
"I'm gonna eat your children!", but I'm sure there's no way he'd
physically take advantage of a lady. Unless, of course, he's already
served
time for it.
The former boxing champion once again denied he raped
Desiree Washington in 1991 in an Indianapolis hotel room, but told Fox
News' Greta Van Susteren that he'd like to now.
"I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don't know,"
Tyson said in an interview for The Pulse, scheduled to air Thursday
night. "I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape
her."
Makes one harken back to the halcyon days of when he was simply beating
the crap out of Robin Givens, no? Link courtesy of Jonah Goldberg at
National Review Online.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:28 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 28, 2003
CALLED IT
In the item immediately below [see NO GOOD, 5/27/03], I
wrote that I didn't understand why the death of Alberta Spruill in the
course of a no-knock raid mistakenly directed to her apartment was
being handled as a civil matter by Johnny Cochran and not a criminal
case. The first steps were taken in that direction yesterday. The
New York Sun [subscription required] reports this morning that the
medical examiner's office has ruled Spruill's death a homicide.
Alberta Spruill, 47, a longtime city employee, died of "hypertensive heart disease," according to a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Ellen Borakove. Police entered her apartment May 15 in a misguided hunt for guns and drugs.This does not mean that criminal charges will be filed against those involved in Alberta Spruill's death. The classification of it as a homicide simply means that Spruill died at the hands of others. I think it's a good first step, however, and an important one in making sure that those responsible are held accountable. I also think it's a good distinction that Spruill's death was not the result of an "Oops! Our bad." mistake, but as direct consequence of excessive no-knock raid tactics.
"It's clear now that Ms. Spruill die not die of natural causes, that her death was precipitated by the excessive force, meaning the use of the greande, the use of handcuffs," said Derek Sells, an attorney representing Spruill's family in civil litigation against the city. "The raid itself, as well as the handcuffing of Ms Spruill, were direct causes of her death," he said.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:20 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2003
NO GOOD
I'm not the biggest fan of Johnnie Cochran--flim flam artist
extraordinaire--but I hope his current endeavor to sue the pants off
NYC for the unintentional death of Alberta Spruill is an unmitigated
success. Spruill suffered a fatal heart attack last week when cops
busted into her apartment and literally scared her to death with a
flash bang grenade. This is not the first time I've written about no-
knock raids. This is from January when I wrote PROSECUTORIAL
SANITY, 1/14/03, unavailable in archive form yet.
I've been a long-time critic of police no-knock
raids, in which police officers barge into a suspect's house with
little or no announcement and storm in to subdue the people inside.
This tactic has become a staple of police dramas and I've seen them
occur on more than one occasion on the t.v. show C.O.P.S. The
rationale behind not waiting for someone to answer the door is that it
prevents suspects from disposing of any drugs they have on the premises
or preparing themselves to take offensive action against the police.
The problem with this tactic is that it often occurs in the middle of
the night, in bad neighborhoods, where there is a reasonable
expectation that someone smashing down your front door is there to rob
or kill you. On numerous occasions, victims of no-knock raids have
reached for firearms to defend themselves against these home intruders
only to be gunned down by police. Many times it turns out that the
cops even have the wrong address or were working off a bogus informant
tip and wound up killing an innocent person. No-knock raids are an
abomination and the most visible sign that the war on drugs is
engendering the tactics of a police state among our law enforcement
personnel.
Now there's this
href="http://nypost.com/commentary/76593.htm">story from The New
York Post. When police burst into a home and shoot anyone who
offers resistance, then I believe it's plain and simple murder. The
Rogers and Thompson families were lucky. Alberta Spruill was not. I
actually don't know why this is a civil matter being handled by Cochran
& Co. Someone should be filing criminal charges for whoever is
responsible for her death.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:36 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 23, 2003
WRONG ANSWER
I don't watch American Idol, but I did catch this
href="http://www.drudgereport.com/idol1.htm">story on The Drudge
Report alleging that there were improprieties in the voting to select
the final winner of the Ed McMahon-less Star Search.
Unsurprisingly, an executive from a rival network tried to paint the
situation in the worst possible light:
"No one here believes for one second the votes landed
just 1,300 apart. It's a disgrace... in fact, I think we are looking at
a modern day version of the $64,000 question!"
If the $64K question is "Are television execs morons?" then I
think we have a winner. I believe he's referring to the game show
scandal featuring Charles Van Doren in the 1950s, which dimmed the
genre's popularity when it was revealed the show he was winning was
rigged. While the $64K Question did turn out to be rigged, it
was the show Twenty One that was first revealed as a fraud and
prompted investigations into other such scams. Furthermore, does
anyone give two shits if American Idol was rigged top to bottom like a
clipper ship at Fleet Week? I doubt it. From what I've seen, it seems
like the winner, Ruben, is a nice enough guy, but if we see as much of
him in the future as we do of Kelly Clarkson, the previous winner, he
may as well have signed a recording contract with the Witness
Protection Program.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:02 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 21, 2003
AVANT GUERRE FILM
Last night I had the pleasure of seeing
href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0032811">The Mortal Storm on
TCM. Starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, it's a prescient
look at the madness enveloping Germany as the Nazis came to power. The
movie is set in 1933, but wasn't made until 1940, still a year and a
half before the U.S.' entry into WWII.
The movie begins profiling the happy life of Prof. Viktor Roth, a
beloved teacher at the local university in the German Alps. It's his
birthday and his daughter has just gotten engaged when news comes that
Adolf Hitler has been selected as chancellor. Roth's stepsons and
soon-to-be son in law are ecstatic. Less enthusiastic is Stewart's
character, Martin, who refuses to rush off to a Nazi meeting with the
other young men, explaining he's not so crazy about the Nazi with-us-
or-against-us mentality.
I won't spoil the movie by telling it all here, but it's a great
story about how civil society in Germany--and the Roth family--started
to disintegrate under the madness of National Socialism. Prof. Roth is
only identified as non-Aryan, but the foreshadowing of what would soon
become of German Jews is amazing in its foresight. The idea that we
could have only realized the true viciousness of brownshirted bullying
German thugs in the course of and after WWII is completely belied by
The Mortal Storm. Their clear and present danger to the rest of
the world was evident. In fact, while the movie was released in June,
1940, the book it was based on was written in 1937, before Germany even
declared Anschluss with Austria. It was fascinating to watch Stewart
resist the Nazis in the course of the movie and think that in just a
few years, he himself would be piloting bombing runs in WWII over
Germany.
The Mortal Storm's equivalent would probably never be made in
this day and age. It would be written off as war-mongering propaganda
and a demonization of the German people. Coincidentally, the film's
release date of June 14, 1940 was the day that the German army entered
Paris. I imagine that opening night viewers must have left the theater
with ominous worries of things to come.
UPDATE:Indeed, The New York Times
href="http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/review.html?title1=&title2=
THE%20MORTAL%20STORM%20%28MOVIE%29&reviewer=Bosley%20Crowther&v_id=1028
89">review of The Mortal Storm, contemporary to the movie's
release, identifies it as "blistering anti-Nazi propaganda." This is
meant in an approving way, however.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:26 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
EXPANDING
The headline for
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=3&u=/ap/cen
sus_metro_growth">this news story reads Census: Los Angeles Area
Fastest Growing. Truer headline: Census: Los Angeles Area
Fastest Growing Breasts.
According to the latest census data, the pervasive shallowness of the Los Angeles metropolitan area population and the above-average concentration of women desiring to become actresses have led to the fastest-growing collective bust line in the country. Breast augmentation surgery is being performed at record numbers in area clinics and hospitals as well as non-surgical alternatives such as cinching, underwiring, and padding, according to a spokesperson for Victoria's Secret. "They might like big butts up in the Pacific Northwest" said LA mayor James Hahn "but from the Valley to Malibu, Los Angelenos really prefer our women's breasts to be huge. I'm talking gigantic here." A preponderance of strip clubs was also cited as a cause for the high rate of cleavage growth in the city and surrounding area.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:04 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IRONY
Three Moroccans were arrested for plotting to hijack an airliner
and fly it into a Saudi Arabian building, according to
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=2&
u=/nm/20030521/ts_nm/saudi_attack_dc">this account. 15 of the 19
9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Sow and you shall reap, I suppose.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:42 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 20, 2003
ROCKFORD FILES
The Drudge Report has an
item today linking to a
href="http://www.rrstar.com/localnews/your_community/rockford/20030520-
4814.shtml">story in the Rockford Register and Star. It
describes the commencement address at Rockford College in Illinois
where New York Times reporter Chris Hedges was booed off the
stage when he delivered what was described as an antiwar speech.
This was certainly an unfortunate event and not one that one
likes to see at an institution of learning, but I can't believe school
administrators wouldn't see it coming. Perhaps Rockford College
officials were thrilled that they could get a Pulitzer Prize winner to
come to their school, but it showed a real lack of judgement on their
part.
According to the news account, Hedges started his speech by
likening the war in Iraq to "pirrhanas and tyranny over the weak." I
suppose that's true if you consider the former regime that ruled Iraq
to be a bunch of helpless victims. A lot of evidence doesn't seem to
indicate that they were though. Within three minutes, Hedges'
microphone was unplugged and he was getting some negative feedback from
the crowd. Hedges also said he sympathized for U.S. soldiers and
characterized them as coming from backwater communities and only
enlisting due to a lack of job opportunities elsewhere. That hasn't
seemed to be the impression I've received watching troops interviewed
on t.v. They seem to be competent professionals proud of the job
they're accomplishing.
Hedges wrote a book called
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/1586480499/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/102-7877245-
3988100?v=glance&s=books&vi=customer-reviews">War is a Force That Gives
Us Meaning that seems to paint war as a uniformly terrible
thing that nonetheless fills us with purpose and makes us feel good. I
was watching a documentary this morning called We Stand Alone
Together and its subject is the 101st Airborne 567th "Easy"
Company, or the men portrayed in Stephen Ambrose's book Band of
Brothers and the HBO miniseries of the same name. These men don't
seem like they were helpless rubes, sucked into a cynical plot to
distract from domestic problems. They seemed like courageous men,
proud not of themselves, but what they and their fallen friends
accomplished for their country and the world. It's clear that war is a
terrible thing, but from reading some of the descriptions of his book,
his alternative in the face of evil seems to be to offer "love." This
is so facile that it really doesn't merit further comment.
Hedges has a right to do his schtick wherever he feels like it.
The people at the Rockford College commencement had a right not to like
it. I place the blame for this ugly incident on whoever decided to
invite Hedges to what should have been an uplifting occasion for all
involved. It's like they invited the president of NAMBLA to give the
address and then were surprised when people reacted negatively when he
started advocating gay male pedophilia. Not that I'm likening being
antiwar to being pro-pedophilia, but that there are appropriate
speakers for different types of occasions. There was a clear mismatch
at Rockford College.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:30 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2003
THROWDOWN
Holy crap! Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto's done away with the
professional courtesy and is basically
href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86795,00.html">calling
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman a bitch. Pistols at
high noon anyone?
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:53 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
ONCE AGAIN, WITH FEELING
The Washington Post carries a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51740-
2003May13.html">story today about Congress' refusal to renew a ban
on "assault weapons." I'm using the scare quotes because I'm still
completely unclear on what those are.
Here's a quote from the story that reinforces the lack of
definition that mark these stories:
President Bush, whose support of the assault weapons ban dates to
his 2000 campaign, has drawn rebukes from NRA members and some GOP
lawmakers. But several Republicans close to the White House said Bush
has no plans to lobby lawmakers aggressively to extend the ban. That
would allow him to officially oppose the NRA without completely turning
against the powerful gun lobby by fighting to maintain a ban on
semiautomatic weapons.
This quote reveals the ignorance of the average reporter writing
a story discussing firearms. ". . .without completely turning against
the powerful gun lobby by fighting to maintain a ban on semiautomatic
weapons." Guess what? Almost every firearm you've ever seen is a
semiautomatic weapon. Using this as a synonym for "assault weapons" is
as nonsensical as saying that every home appliance is
"electric."
I've explained this multiple times in this space [unfortunately
in the as yet unavailable archives], but the term semiautomatic is
essentially benign. When discussing the firing rate of weapons, there
are three current fundamental distinctions. The most basic is the non-
automatic weapon and would include flintlocks and other black powder
guns, single action revolvers, many types of rifles [think bolt action]
et al. A non-automatic weapon is one where the user must manually load
the chamber or cock the hammer before firing each individual shot. An
automatic weapon is what is usually referred to as a machine gun.
Here, the user can pull the trigger and fire multiple rounds repeatedly
and in a high rate of succession. These are illegal in the U.S.
without a Class 3 license, which are very difficult to obtain.
Semiautomatics are weapons that can be fired repeatedly, one shot at a
time, by pulling the trigger, without cocking the hammer or manually
loading the chamber. This includes probably every gun anyone's ever
seen on tv or in a movie. They're not essentially any more dangerous
than any other gun on the market, just easier to use.
So why do reporters insist on referring to semiautomatic weapons?
The classic Browning .45 pistol that was used in WWI by officers was a
semiautomatic. The M1 Garand rifle used by GIs in WWII was a
semiautomatic. Your average traffic cop is issued a semiautomatic
pistol as part of his standard equipment. The only people that use
non-automatic weapons are people that practice western-style
recreational shooting and Civil War reenactors. One could make the
argument that semiautomatics are more dangerous because they're easier
to use, but I've seen shooters fire a single action revolver faster
than a semiauto .45 with a little deft off-hand hammer cocking.
So what is the purpose of this soon-to-be-repealed gun ban?
None. They are repealing a law against certain firearms that do
exactly what almost every gun on the market does, i.e. fire one single
shot every time one pulls the trigger. A legal AK-47 does the same
thing a pistol does: pull the trigger, fire one shot. If one wants to
ban guns, go ahead and make an honest argument. But if you want to
confuse the issue by using misleading lingo and scaring people into
making misinformed decisions, save it.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:03 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 13, 2003
THE PLAY IS THE THING
Last night a friend invited me to an event to support the
American Studio Theater. The AST is all about the shoestring budget
and judging from the turnout--which I suspect was mainly populated by
group members--will remain so in the near future. Nonetheless, I
thought the evening was a complete success.
The entertainment included a DJ, some cabaret-style singing, short
films, and the first ten minutes of a Russ Meyer-style movie that was
accidentally left in the projection system [the event was held at the
former Cinema Classics on East 11th, now Rififi]. Standout moments
included the screening of AST-member Carrie Treadwell's indie short,
Motivated Seller, which was absolutely hilarious at points and
entertaining throughout, and some other members' acoustic-guitar
renderings of equally funny original songs.
The AST is raising funds to put on August Strindberg's Dream
Play, scheduled to run from June 12-28. Also scheduled is
Shakespeare's Tempest on Labor Day and Richard III this
Fall. The group has a website here,
but it's still being constructed so I'd check back some time in the
future. Further news about AST performances will definitely be
mentioned on this site.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:20 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 9, 2003
MILLING ABOUT
In the introduction to the 1998 IMAX film
href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120661">Everest, a
dedication is given to the owners and workers of Malden Mills
Industries, Inc., makers of Polartec outdoor wear. Malden Mills is the
wet dream example of people that are proponents of "socially
responsible business" (SRB) and "stakeholders' analysis." That's
because in 1995, the Malden Mills red brick mill burned down in the
middle of winter. It was a disaster for its hometown because Malden
was the anchor employer for the community and the closing of the mill
via disaster was going to cause severe hardship.
But owner Aaron Feuerstein did something uncharacteristic. He
continued to issue paychecks to all his idle workers while the mill was
rebuilt, paying out the proceeds of the insurance and out of his
company's pocket. This is what gets SRBers all misty, an owner that
makes economically illogical decisions for the benefit of the
community. He never moved textile production to the South, where it
would be cheaper, or overseas, where it would be even cheaper.
He didn't even temporarily lay people off, allow them to collect
unemployment, and then rehire them when the mill was reopened. He was
a man of the people. What a guy. Well it's easy to be free-spending
and magnanimous when you're using someone else's money. Today's
Wall Street Journal has a column 1A story describing how
Feuerstein's creditors have forced the company into Chapter 11
bankruptcy and it's possible he'll lose his family's legacy. I admire
Aaron Feuerstein. He made a noble and "socially responsible" decision
to pay people for nothing in order to keep a community afloat. He's
received a lot of acclaim for that, including a glowing profile on
60 Minutes. It is going to cost him his company, however, and
the new owners will likely close up shop, retain the Polartec brand,
and move operations overseas. It's a reminder that such beneficent acts
have real costs that can sap a community much more in the long run.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:36 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AND MY MAN MIKE D
Those of you that linked through and read the on-the-spot war
blog of Salam Pax [that I referenced earlier in the week, see
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1
06">FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT, 5/7/03] would have noticed an
interesting part of cultural crossover. Apparently, Baghdad residents
unhappy with the looting going on in their city and eager for coalition
troops to intervene would frequently run in front of coalition patrols
and, unable to express a looting situation in English, would yell "Ali
Babba!, Ali Babba!" The connection to thieves, 40 or not, was easily
understood. My title reference will probably not be as clear to many.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:10 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 8, 2003
AS SUSPECTED
If you've ever seen someone driving the H2 HUMMER--especially in
the city--and just assumed the driver was a boorish overcompensating
moron, I think we've just confirmed the moron part.
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured an article on the
latest and just-released J.D. Power initial quality survey, with a
focus on what the worst surveyed cars in the U.S. were. The absolute
bottom of the barrel was the H2, and this is a survey based on customer
complaints. What was H2 owners' primary complaint that made it the
lowest-ranked vehicle? Lousy gas mileage. The truck reportedly
averages 11 miles to the gallon. According to this
href="http://www.new-cars.com/2003/hummer/hummer-h2-
specs.html">site, the H2 weighs 6,400 lbs. It is so heavy that GM
doesn't even have to list mileage stats because it's exempt from the
rules governing light trucks.
What kind of boneheaded idiot
buys such a car and then complains that it gets bad gas mileage? I am
not generally one to disparage anyone that wants to own a larger-than-
average vehicle. I have no problems with SUVs whatsoever. But these
H2 owners, who had the stupidity to complain about mileage when
they bought the biggest gas-sucking behemoths on the road possible,
they're goddamned brain dead.
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:46 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GEESE CROSSING
If one goes to the homepage
of The New York Times, there is an item in the far-right column
called PICTURES OF THE TIMES. Clicking on it, one can see images
captured by Times photographers. One of the current pictures
struck me as particularly funny.
It's of Staff Sgt. Rodney Pullen of the 173rd Airborne Brigade after
leaping out of the first of two HUMVEES, filled with troops and armed
with .50 caliber machine guns, on patrol in Iraq. Pullen is
gesticulating wildly in an effort to get a gaggle of geese to move
across the road so his patrol can continue. There's something about
the occurrence of such a mundane thing as geese in the road in contrast
with war time activity that reminded me of Norman Rockwell. It's worth
checking out.
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:17 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 7, 2003
SHOOTING SARS
Science writer Michael Fumento reiterates many of the points I
made last week [see
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9
9">CATCH THE FEVER, 4/30/03] regarding how the media is
exaggerating the SARS epidemic and makes a few new good ones of his own
in an article in National Review Online today.
One could make the argument that you can't be too careful and it
doesn't hurt to overreact, but that's completely untrue. I spent the
summer between my junior and senior undergrad years studying at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong and it was one of the best experiences
of my life. I recently read my alma mater cancelled that program this
summer in reaction to SARS hysteria. Add in the enormous economic cost
of overplaying fear of something that is essentially no more dangerous
than the average flu and I think this is more of a mental danger than a
respiratory one.
Posted by Lexiphane at 5:13 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT
Salam Pax is the online nom de plume for a Baghdad blogger who
went silent during the war. It was feared that the growing popularity
of his running commentary from inside Iraq leading up to the war caused
him to be singled out and arrested by that country's former government.
He just lost Internet access, however, and is back online with a little
help from his friends. The material he wrote leading up to the war was
very interesting. The stuff he wrote offline during the war and that's
now posted is even
more compelling. I suggest checking it out.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:36 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 6, 2003
NEW FEATURE
If you look to the menu on the left side of the screen, you'll
see that I've added a feature called Members List. In the menu section
titled Who's Online, you can always see how many guests and
registered users are currently visiting lexiphane.com. If one is a
registered user, one can now click on the Members List link and see
which other registered users are online when you are. Then if you'd
like to do some private messaging with that person, fire away. Check
it out, it's a cool feature and I hope an inducement for more people to
register. Membership has its privileges.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:22 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 5, 2003
THE BOOKIE OF VIRTUES
Self-appointed moral watchdog William Bennett--author of
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0671683063/qid=1052141779/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-9497067-
1967166?v=glance&s=books">The Book of Virtues--likes to throw
down at the tables like Ben Affleck on a bender when J Lo's on
location. He is what casinos would regularly refer to as a whale, and
they're not talking Jonah. While I find this bit of information
somewhat interesting the same way I'd be interested hearing about
anybody dropping $8 super-large on their recreations, I think this
might be getting a bit too much press.
While Bennett might be a proponent of virtuous behavior, he's
never come out and said gambling is worthy of excoriation, so he's
innocent of charges of hypocrisy. Does gambling such huge sums
indicate he might have an immoderate appetite for risk? Maybe, but who
the hell cares? If one is titillated by the news that Bennett likes to
have fun on his own time, I'm sure I could dig up some story out of his
book regarding stones and glass houses.
Nonetheless, since I am also a self-appointed babbler, I think I
should take this time to inoculate myself against any future charges of
hypocrisy or misrepresentation. Readers should know that the
lexiphane, while he thinks highly of himself, is more accurately
described as a man of the lowest character. His faults include, but do
not total:
Bibulousness
Crapulence
Procrastination
Long-windedness
Fits of Dipsomania
Exaggeration
Fickleness
Boorishness
Prevarication
Licentiousness
Condescension
Unpunctuality
Hypocrisy
Sloth
And He is a Very Inconsiderate Lover
I am certain that there are a few things left out, but I think
that's a reasonable start. Never let it be said that I'm a pretender
of the high-horse variety.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:10 AM | | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 2, 2003
NOT AS BAD AS FEARED II
Two weeks ago I wrote that critics of the war in Iraq were quick
to seize on the looting of the Iraqi National Museum as an example of
what a terrible job coalition forces were doing in freeing the Iraqi
people, but that the reality of the looting was probably wildly
overestimated [see
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&s
id=88&mode=&order=0&thold=0">NOT AS BAD AS FEARED, 4/17/03].
Blogger Ken Layne
href="http://www.kenlayne.com/blogarchives/week_2003_04_27.html#003294"
>notes an
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/international/worldspecial/01MU
SE.html">article in the 5/1/03 New York Times which bears
this assessment out. Here's a quote from the article:
"Col. Matthew F. Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating
the looting and is stationed at the museum, said museum officials had
given him a list of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But
since then, 4 items--ivory objects from the eighth century B.C.--had
been traced."
So it was 25 items and not the 170,000 previously estimated. It turns
out a lot of the supposedly looted items were taken by neighbors of the
museum for safekeeping and are being returned. It also appears that
some of the more valuable items taken were stolen by professional
artifact thieves, hardly something coalition forces could have
anticipated or prevented. Bravo to the Times for not burying
this story. And another shibboleth of the anti-war party crumbles
like pottery.
Posted by Lexiphane at 7:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 1, 2003
CRYING IN ONE'S BEER
Any sympathy I might have had for those that use violence in the
name of Palestinian independence [and I have to say, they've been
making it pretty much impossible the last two years] evaporated this
week when some "martyrs" decided to take out a local tavern in Tel Aviv
named Mike's Place.
Here's a
href="http://www.mikesplacebars.com/img/newgallery/AGF00067.jpg">pictur
e. Go ahead and click through its gallery and I think you'll get a
pretty good sense of what kind of a place it was. It looks like one of
their staff,
href="http://www.mikesplacebars.com/gallery_new.html">Dominique
(Caroline) Hess was killed. I almost can't bear to look at her
picture because I swear I've met dozens of women just like her in NYC
and Hoboken bars, and count a good number as friends. This literally
makes me sick to my stomach. Thanks to
href="www.opinionjournal.com">opinionjournal.com and
href="http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/03_04_27_corner-
archive.asp#008023">National Review Online for pointing out many of
the links.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:09 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
ODD CAMPAIGN
Country Music Television, or CMT, currently has a poster campaign
around NYC that is curious in what it's trying to accomplish. I
recently saw three of the oversized posters hanging in a corridor in
Grand Central Terminal.
The posters serve to differentiate between country music and rock
and hip hop by showing how much they're the same, only country's more
so. The first one read "Michael Jackson: 12 #1 Hits, Alan Jackson: 20
#1 Hits." The fact that these #1 Hits probably come from two different
Billboard charts seems to minimize the importance of this comparison.
The second one says "Eminem: 8 tattoos, The Dixie Chicks: 27 tattoos."
I just saw a magazine cover with the Dixie Chicks appearing naked and
unless all their tattoos were covered by those little black agitprop
slogans, I don't know see how this claim could be true. Although I
suspect liberal airbrushing was employed on that photo. The final
poster read "P-Diddy's Shoe Size: 9 ?, Tim Mcgraw's Shoe Size: 10 ?".
I can only guess that this is supposed to imply that Tim McGraw is more
well endowed than P-Diddy. This is completely irrelevant and, well, a
somewhat bizarre thing to point out.
The underlying message of the campaign seems to be that country
music is more vital, badass, and popular than rock and hip-hop music.
What's curious is that underneath the CMT logo on each sign it says "An
MTV Network." The question is why is MTV running a poster campaign
with a message that CMT is more "MTV" than MTV?
Bonus Activity: Here's a
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030424/161/3vzrf.h
tml">link to the Dixie Chicks cover mentioned above. Can you find
the Chicks' 27 tattoos?
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:58 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BOWERY BOYS
The Bigger Lovers played the Bowery Ballroom Tuesday evening,
opening up for The Minus 5. I thought TBL were better. The Ballroom
is one of the better live-music venues I've ever gone to, providing a
great sound system and a sold-out crowd. It was a great show and
there's pictures of it up at brother Tom's site
href="http://www.tomhogarty.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=TB
L042803">here.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:59 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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