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November 30, 2003
GALLERY OPENING
The Lexiphane
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=gallery">Gallery
> is now open for business and accessible through the menu bar on the
left-hand side of your screens. I'm a little new to the field of
digital imaging so there may be some photos with red-eye and other
correctable problems that I have not yet mastered. Give me a little
time. Readers can leave comments below each photo if they'd like .
Feel free to grab pictures for personal use, but I'd appreciate it if
you e-mailed to ask permission first. Unless you're in the photo of
course, then copy away.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:14 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 26, 2003
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I know I'm thankful for all
the people who stop by--regularly or intermittently--here at
lexiphane.com. Especially those of you who feel fit to write stuff in
the Comments sections; it keeps things interesting and me honest. Have
a great holiday!
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:17 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THANKSGIVING WEEKEND MOVIES
If you're lucky, you have Friday as well as tomorrow off from
work and a four-days-weekend worth of time to catch a movie. Some
suggestions:
In
America
An Irish family moves to New York City in the 1980s following the death
of a son and brother. Watch the
href="http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/inamerica/">trailer; it looks
like a beautiful movie. Opens today in select cities.
Pieces of
April
Katie Holmes is out of the Creek and into the Lower East Side as a
young woman stuggling to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for her parents
and siblings.
Elf
For me, Thanksgiving is the official start of the holiday season and
there is official license to wallow in Christmas music and holiday
cheer. Will Farrell is a man who grew up at the North Pole and thinks
he's an elf. When he learns the truth, he travels to NYC to reunite
with his long-lost father, played by James Caan. Bonus: the
indispensable Amy
Sedaris plays Caan's assistant.
The holidays and New York City: happy together.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:44 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SAFETY DANGERS
This never even occurred to me, but many rescue workers are
finding that safety devices meant to protect occupants in a car crash
can deploy explosively when rescuers are on the scene.
"Pre-tensioning" seat belts, which use a charge ofTagged:
gunpowder to yank against an occupant during impact, can explode in the
hands of a firefighter working to cut someone free. A retractable roll
bar that springs up behind the seats in some convertibles can cause
serious injuries to an unsuspecting paramedic. Metal detonators tucked
into rooftops to inflate side-curtain air bags can go off like missiles
if cut into by rescuers, firing into the cabin of the vehicle.
"
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:30 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
TOO REAL WORLD
A 22-year-old woman is claiming that
href="http://www.nbcsandiego.com/entertainment/2665151/detail.html">she
was raped in the San Diego
href="http://www.mtv.com/onair/realworld/">Real World house
where the show is currently taping. The alleged victim claims she
blacked out after being given a drink by a friend of a cast member at a
club. Later, a female cast member found the woman passed out and naked
in one of the house's bathrooms. She dressed the woman and put her on
a couch and then later moved her to a bed in a guest room. When the
woman woke up the next morning she felt pain in her genital area and a
hospital examination showed signs of lacerations around her genital
area. Another cast member earlier heard the alleged assailant saying
"I hit that" as he was leaving the house.
What is most troubling about this incident is that the Real
World house is covered by 30 cameras set up to record all the
events that occur around it. When the 22-year-old woman woke up, she
found she was being taped by a Real World cameraman. Is it
possible that the Real World crew filmed a rape in progress and
its aftermath? The prospect is disturbing. It brings to mind the
French film C'est
arriv? pr?s de chez vous (It Happened Close to Your
Home) [the U.S. title was Man Bites Dog], in which a camera
crew follows a serial killer around for the ultimate in cinema verite.
In one scene the crew films passively while several men gang rape a
woman. I'll be interested to hear how this turns out. If the woman
was raped, I certainly hope Real World footage will be used to
prosecute her attacker. I'd then also hope that she sues Bunim-Murray,
the producers of the show, for taping the event without
intervening.
On second thought, this would seem to be like a Good Samaritan law
incident, the likes of which landed the characters of Seinfeld
in jail for not intervening to stop a crime in progress. Would the
crew of Real World be obligated to come to a woman's aid in the
middle of a possibly ambiguous attack? Perhaps the fact that they were
filming it as part of a commercial endeavor would make them culpable.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:18 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 25, 2003
FUNNIEST 15 MIN. OF NPR EVER
Last week, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and his creator Robert
Smigel were on Fresh Air with Terry Gross to promote Triumph's
new cd/dvd Come Poop With Me. Not
suitable for children or a work environment, the interview is
href="http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=11/20/
2003">available here.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:27 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 24, 2003
BAD CALL
If you were looking to rob a store, what would probably be the last
business in the world you would choose? If you selected Dunkin' Donuts
because of the high probability of running into cops there, you would
be smart. This did not occur to a guy in Newark, NJ.
href="http://www.wnbc.com/news/2660906/detail.html">Gunplay ensued.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:19 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SHUN AWAY
Since the topic seems to be generating so much reader attention,
let's get back to gay marriage (and by all means check out the back-
and-forth going on in the comments sections below). A useful parallel
to show how the government could legalize gay marriage without causing
the collapse of our civilization could be divorce in the Catholic
Church. To the best of my knowledge, the Catholic Church does not
allow divorce. If two observant Catholics wanted to get a divorce,
they could in the eyes of the state, but would need a Church-sanctioned
annulment if they ever wanted to re-marry. This just shows how, in
some respects, the legal institution of marriage has little to do with
the traditional religious nature of marriage. The government could go
ahead and legalize gay marriage and any and all religious denominations
could refuse to recognize them or condemn them outright.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:03 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2003
WORST. TIMING. EVER.
Specialty grocery store F CUBED, or FAT FREE FOODS just became a
visible casualty of the Atkins diet. Located on the corner of 41st and
2nd Ave., the store hoped to capitalize on the predominant diet trend
two years ago that eschewed all foods containing fat. Unfortunately,
it opened just as the Atkins diet craze was catching on and diet-
conscious shoppers would have eaten bacon-covered butter sticks layered
in cheese as long as it was carb free. F CUBED put up a good fight,
lasting until this month, but finally shut down to little notice. Tip
to capitalists looking to cash in on dieting trends: stick to
merchandise, not capital intensive stores. And if you're going to open
a store, make it a general brand concept so you can evolve with
mercurial tastes, trends, and fads.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:58 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AUGMENTING OR DESTROYING AN INSTITUTION?
Further on the gay marriage debate: Another central argument
against allowing gays to marry is a conservative (lower case "c") one
that posits that, traditionally, marriage is an institution exclusive
to men and women and that to modify it now would be to weaken the
institution. I think this is one of the strongest arguments to
disallow gay marriage. Its weakness is that for religious, social, and
cultural reasons homosexuality has something that has traditionally
been frowned upon. While I have no doubt that gays have always lived
among us, the present seems to be one of the most tolerant eras
regarding the subject of sexual orientation in history. If we are to
acknowledge that homosexuals are, indeed, undamaged individuals and
underserving of persecution, is it acceptable to deny them the full
status of humanity by depriving them of the right to enter into
consensual marital bonds? Given that we live in a historically unique
period of tolerance, is it possible that we have the opportunity to
make the institution of marriage stronger by recognizing that those of
different sexual orientations will always exist and embracing them, or
should we continue to legally and socially marginalize them?
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:27 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THE GAY FRAY
I suppose it's time I threw my hat into the ring on the subject
of gay marriage. Following the recent legal ruling in Massachusetts
that stated that its legislature could not rule that gay marriage was
illegal, a lot of people are up in arms that this is the legal, moral,
and cultural issue of the day. I disagree. I don't think that
allowing gays to marry will have any appreciable effect on society and,
if any, it will be positive. To marry in the U.S. requires a license
from the state. This license signifies a legal union of two people
that has far-ranging ramifications. Since the state has entered into
the legal formalization of the cultural institution that is marriage,
it seems prejudicial that it would exclude a certain societal segment
from enjoying the same rights as the majority.
It seems that the primary argument against gay marriage is rooted in
the judgement of what the supposed nature of marriage is. Some have
argued that the sine qua non of marriage is children. Sen. Rick
Santorum recently followed that argument to its reductio ad
absurdum conclusion that marriage was not about love or commitment,
but fecundity, propagation, and the continuance of society. At the
time, I characterized him as a sort of unhinged lunatic and I stand by
that [see
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&s
id=200">DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN, ONLY II, 8/4/03]. This
argument centered on the primacy of children in marriage has a number
of faults. First is that some people may simply choose to enter into
marriage with no intention of having children. This could be a
lifestyle choice, the consequence of a medical condition preventing
pregnancy, or the fact that two people could have passed the age where
conceiving is possible. The second major fault of the primacy argument
is that gay couples can have children. Currently, Florida is
the only state in the union that explicitly prohibits the adoption of a
child by gay parents. While many other states may have informal
procedural rules that discourage adoption by gay couples, the existence
of sponsored open adoptions still exists nationwide. For sex columnist
Dan Savage's experience in adopting a child from a pregnant young
woman, see The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend
and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant: An Adoption Story. Aside
from adoption, there is the prospect of women becoming artificially
inseminated. Unless there is going to be a law barring lesbians from
undertaking such procedures, the existence of children in gay families
is inescapable in every state in the U.S.
Aside from the marriage-is-about-children argument, there are a
number of other considerations for allowing gay marriage. Marriage is
a cultural institution that carries a number of legal conditions and
privileges with it. Some are the privilege of not be forced to testify
against a spouse in a criminal trial, the shared burden of assumed
financial obligations (debt, mortgages, etc.), priority in the
dispensation of assets upon death of a spouse, and the ability to make
end-of-life medical decisions for an incapacitated partner. All of
these have long legal precedence and absolutely nothing to do with
children.
One could argue that separate legal arrangements could be made
to provide for all of these occasions without interfering with the
definition of marriage that exclusively deals with a man and a woman.
This seems like a burdensome (financially and logistically) task,
however, for two people that simply wish to enter into the same legal,
cultural, and emotional union that the majority of people enjoy as
their right. And if such exclusions are going to be made, shouldn't we
bar elderly or infertile couples from marrying on the basis that there
is no possibility of them having children? If marriage is just a
judgement-laden condition that can be easily replaced with contracts
and compacts and agreements, doesn't that drain the institution of its
cultural significance?
The idea that allowing gays to marry will debase the institution
of marriage is absurd. Heterosexuals have already done a pretty good
job of debasing marriage on their own. The idea of two soused people
in Vegas being wed by a man in an Elvis costume is a cultural clich?.
Proposals of marriage are openly (and popularly) the grand prizes of
primetime television game shows. The serial marrier with a string of
ex-spouses has been a subject of spoofing for decades. The divorce
rate in the U.S. is, in my opinion, scandalously high. If anything,
allowing gays to marry could engender a renaissance in the belief of
marriage's cultural significance. Marriage has been derided for years
as a cultural artifact of a patriarchal system bent on repressing
women. What could explode that notion more effectively than legally
recognizing that marriage is a union freely entered into by two people
regardless of their sex?
The institution of marriage is one that has endured for
thousands of years in different variations. In some cultures it is a
relationship of domination and subjugation. In others, multiple wives
are allowed. Western culture seems to me to have evolved the most
progressive and just view of the marital bond. It is one of equal
partnership and mutual obligation. The cultural acceptance of
homosexuality is a relatively recent event. I suppose that there are
people who wish that the immutable existence of homosexuality in every
age and culture would cease to be. These cultural revanchists support
a return to the time when gay people would live in shame of self-
acknowledgement and fear of being shunned by society or worse. In my
opinion, these people are proposing a frightening society of willful
blindness to human nature. Barring some society-jarring cataclysm,
however, I doubt they'll ever get their wish. Given that we now accept
homosexuals in our society, isn't it time that we allow them to
participate in that society to the full and equal extent that we allow
all others?
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2003
TURKEY INFERNO
After extensive testing, the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) has refused
to give its seal of approval to any model of deep fryer for turkeys.
Lowering a turkey into a vat of boiling oil heated over an open flame
has become a popular way of wresting some of the Thanksgiving cooking
away from the females over the past few years. Unfortunately, boiling
oil, open flames, and chefs filled with holiday "cheer" consumed during
afternoon football games often wind up being an incendiary combination.
The UL has a cool
video on its site of turkey deep fryers going wrong.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:57 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
TESTIFY!
The Rev. Al Green returns to the secular musical world with the
release of his new album
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/B0000DJZ9K/qid=1069360156/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-3471651-
0446460?v=glance&s=music&n=507846">I Can't Stop, which was
recorded in his old studio with his old studio musicians but with new
soul. He'll appear on
href="http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/index.shtml">Th
e Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening. Check your local
listings.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:40 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DRINK UP, IT'S GOOD FOR YOU
This year's Beaujolais Nouveaux are released today so go out and
pick up a bottle. BNs aren't for saving though, so don't just shove
them in your wine rack. Go ahead and pop the cork on them tonight or
this weekend and enjoy.
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:20 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AROUND DOWNTOWN
This is interesting. The Alliance for Downtown New York is
introducing a
href="http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1
&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=34888">free shuttle bus today that
will run from Chambers St. on the West Side, all the way down to
Battery Park, and then back up Water St. to Beekman St. on the East
Side, stopping at different tourist places along the way. The buses
will run in both directions from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week
and are called "Downtown Connection." I'll take advantage of this.
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:14 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2003
THAT '70s SHOW
In the 1970s, energy markets were crippled by shortages, flying
anywhere was out of the price range of most people, the majority of
American homes had one telephone line that connected to a handset that
went as far from a well as you could stretch its spiral cord, a
computer was something that the government and research universities
fed punch cards to, and the media consisted of any of the three major
networks one received by fiddling with the rabbit ear antenna on top of
your TV. Those were the halcyon days weren't they? They
weren't? Well that's too bad because Howard Dean's new
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59183-
2003Nov18?language=printer">campaign initiative is to rollback the
deregulation of industries including utilities, airlines,
telecommunications, the media, and any industry that employs stock
options that over the last 20 years resulted in one of the greatest
booms in technological progress and material wealth the world has even
seen. He also wants to reinvigorate unions as a force in the economy!
So if you thought you loved the era of hideous fashions, economic
stagnation, and limited opportunites on
href="http://www.that70sshow.com/">That 70s Show and
href="http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_the_70s/series.jhtml">I Love
the 70s get ready, because soon you may be living that decade
all over again with President Howard Dean. His new campaign slogan?
THE FUTURE IS YESTERDAY!
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:26 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
REINVENTING WASHINGTON
The Washington Post has redesigned its online site
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/">washingtonpost.com with a
less cluttered layout and a cleaner navigation column on the left side
of the homepage. It looks good.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:00 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2003
OLDIE BUT GOODY
No matter how many times this seeming urban legend is passed
between school kids, every once in a while someone will
href="http://thejournalnet.com/print.asp?ArticleID=39939&SectionID=1&Su
bSectionID=113">stick his head out of a moving school bus and get
clipped by a tree or signpost or something.
UPDATE: According to
href="http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/093688-2244-092.html">this
story, the student killed sticking his head out a bus window was a
freshman at his local high school. Interestingly, Raul Martinez was 16
years old at the time he died. Depending on his birthday, that would
have made him 20 years old--and possibly 21--by the time he graduated
from high school. Guess who won't be buying beers for his
classmates?
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:48 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
. . . COUNTRYMEN, LEND ME YOUR EARS!
With President Bush visiting their country, many British were
invited to share their thoughts with him in the pages of
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1087591,00.html">The
Guardian. Many have interesting things to say and most are
critical, but some squander the opportunity by making complete fools of
themselves. Let's see if you can tell the difference between award-
winning playwright Harold Pinter and a 12-year-old named Mickey.
Here's one:
Dear George,
I would just like to say how much I hate you. You have done nothing
positive in your whole time as president. You are the reason for the
poverty in the Middle East. You have no idea what you are doing. You're
killing loads of people, and that is not excluding your own nation too.
There are still lots of very poor people in America, and they are
getting poorer.
You keep making excuses about Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, but
all you were in Iraq for was the oil. Saddam had been there for 30
years, so why is it only now you decided to act? You keep talking about
September 11 when all you do is bomb other countries and give Israel
lots of money. It is a very bad idea that you have come over
here.
And then the other:
Dear President Bush,
I'm sure you'll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war
criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a
glass of blood, with my compliments.
Having trouble figuring out which was which? Not suprising.
The first combines facile arguments written as if by a child. The
second employs simple name calling and then a petulant remark
(regarding sanguinary tippling) that reads as if, well, it was written
by a child. It turns out that the former was written by our 12-year-
old Brit, Mickey. The latter is the message to President Bush from Mr.
Pinter. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:23 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2003
TOUGH TOURIST
In a reversal of the usual story where a Midwestern tourist
comes to NYC and becomes the victim of a brutal attack,
href="http://www.wnbc.com/news/2641967/detail.html">police arrested
South Dakotan John Vega of Sioux Falls for murder Saturday. Vega
allegedly stabbed someone to death and then left the body to burn in a
car fire. They raise 'em pretty hard in Sioux Falls I guess. Note to
other homicidally inclined Midwesterners looking to rumble in the
Bronx: please don't sully our fair city with your bloodthirsty antics.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:33 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2003
MY HEART BREAKS
Upon visiting its web site, I learned the most unthinkable had
happened to The Screening Room; the bar/restaurant/repertory
movie theater is now
closed. I can say without reservation, that TSR was one of my all-
time favorite things about New York. Its screenings of
href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0054698/">Breakfast at
Tiffany's every Sunday afternoon. Its art deco bar and
restaurant. The choice of repertory films it would show. The two-
person bench movie seat in the back row on the left that allowed for
easier whispering during a movie. Everything. As much as I loved it,
I took The Screening Room for granted and now it's gone. It is a black
day for NYC.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:21 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BAD DOG!
According to the site
href="http://www.speechcodes.org/">speechcodes.org [link via
href="http://www.cruel.com">cruel.com], Hampshire College merits
the distinction of SPEECHCODE OF THE MONTH. First of all, isn't
the word speechcode a little creepy? It's Newspeak straight out of
Orwells 1984 and it's not in my
dictionary. Anyway, Hampshire College's speechcode prohibits "name
calling, psychological intimidation, and harassment of any person or
pet [emphasis mine]." What the hell? Something tells me there was
a specific incident that led to the inclusion of the pet clause. I
wish I knew what it was. Hampshire's speechcode lists examples of
harassment that include subtle graffiti, insensitive use of language,
and the use of offensive or insulting [here we go]
characterizations to refer to or to describe a person or group of
persons.
Bonus points to the reader that can come up with the most inclusively
harassing statement according to Hampshire's criteria.
UPDATE: I just noticed that Hampshire's speechcode only
proscribes "subtle grafitti." Does this mean you could scrawl on a
wall stuff like "All Jews to the Ovens!" or "Lynch the Niggers!" and be
outside the scope of Hampshire's code? It doesn't get much less subtle
than that. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:21 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2003
POOR PEOPLE JUST CAN'T CATCH A BREAK
Thanksgiving
href="http://www.wnbc.com/traffic/2634440/detail.html">came early
to the NJ Turnpike today when a truck carrying turkeys, chickens, and
asparagus blew two flats and dumped its contents onto the highway. The
food was destined for a local community foodbank. Police on the scene
said that since it was on the road, the food could not be safely
salvaged. A local homeless man said that he would wait until the food
was properly disposed of in a dumpster before retrieving it.
Seriously though, anyone interested in donating food or money to help
the Community FoodBank of New Jersey's southern branch make up for the
loss is asked to call (609) 383-8843.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:26 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IF A TREE FALLS ON 5TH AVENUE . . .
They
href="http://www.wnbc.com/christmastree/2634233/detail.html">hoisted
the tree at Rockefeller Center today despite gusts of winds that
are supposed to
href="http://www.wnbc.com/weather/2634475/detail.html">reach 60
m.p.h. in the city later this afternoon. Sure, they could've
waited one day, but there are 30,000 lights to string on that majestic
Norway spruce and the Electricians Union can be a little, how would you
say? Inflexible.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
COLLEGE IS DANGEROUS
An 18-year-old woman was
href="http://www.wnbc.com/education/2634352/detail.html">discovered
dead this morning in her dorm room at Columbia University's Furnald
Hall. The police are investigating. See
href="http://www.nbc.com/Law_&_Order/index.html">Law & Order
for a future episode.
Separately, NYU officials are
href="http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1
&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=34708">warning students to be on the
lookout for a man who's sneaking into dorms and getting into young
women's rooms. One such woman noticed the man when she woke up and he
was in bed with her. He also stole her camera.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:08 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
LET'S RALL
Just when you thought Ted Rall could sink no lower--after
baiting 9/11 widows as money grubbers and firefighters as layabout
freeloaders--he issues a
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&ncid=742&e=7&
u=%2Fuclicktext%2F20031112%2Fcm_ucru%2Fwhywefight">call to arms to
Iraqi terrorists to kill coalition troops, aid workers, and Iraqi
citizens who cooperate with them.
In recent months we have opened a second front, against
such non-governmental organizations as the United Nations (news - web
sites ) and Red Crescent. A typical response of the Bush junta to these
actions was issued by National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice: "It is
unfortunate in the extreme that the terrorists decided to go after
innocent aid workers and people who were just trying to help the Iraqi
people." Do not listen to her. True, many aid workers are well
intentioned. However, their presence under American military occupation
tacitly endorses the invasion and subsequent colonization of Iraq.
Their efforts to restore "normalcy" deceives weak-willed Iraqi
civilians and international observers into the mistaken belief that the
Americans are popular here. There can be no normalcy, or peace, until
the invader is driven from our land. From the psychological warfare
standpoint, the NGOs represent an even more insidious threat to fight
for sovereignty than the U.S. army.
In this vein we must also take action against our own Iraqi citizens
who choose to collaborate with the enemy. Bush wants to put an "Iraqi
face" on the occupation. If we allow the Americans to corrupt our
friends and neighbors by turning them into puppet policemen and
sellouts, our independence will be lost forever. If someone you know is
considering taking a job with the Americans, tell him that he is
engaging in treason and encourage him to seek honest work instead. If
he refuses, you must kill him as a warning to other weak-minded
individuals.
I'm sure Rall will say this was an ironic statement, or perhaps
just wallow in the bad publicity he receives, but in reality he is a
modern day Tokyo Rose giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time of
war and openly advocating the killing of U.S. troops as well as
noncombatants. Anti-war people have said it's unfair that their
patriotism is being questioned just because they criticize current
administration policy. Rall has clearly passed that line now. He's a
traitor. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 8:17 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD?
NBC News this morning was doing a story on Republican efforts to
bring attention to Democrats unprecedented blocking of judicial
nominees by engaging in an overnight 30-hour session on the Senate
floor. Republicans are upset that while filibusters have been used in
the past to prevent the approval of a candidate before the full senate,
it's never been done by a minority party to prevent a candidate from
coming up for a vote at all, where they would be approved by a majority
of Senators. This turns the democratic process of the Senate on its
head by allowing the minority party to dictate who can or cannot be
approved by a Senate vote. While the Republicans may have staged this
event to bring publicity to their complaints, major media outlets are
using it as an opportunity to denigrate their efforts. Like
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35182-
2003Nov13.html">The Washington Post, NBC News repeatedly
referred to this session as a "talkathon." They also characterized it
as a "gabfest." Those are an interesting choice of words to frame a
protest against the subversion of our normal Constitutional democratic
form of government.
Posted by Lexiphane at 8:01 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 12, 2003
BBQ BEAT DOWN
The New York Sun hits the NYC BBQ beat today with reviews
[online subscription required] of both Daisy May's on 45th and 11th
Ave. and Pearson's Texas BBQ on 81st between 3rd and Lexington. The
unsigned reviews have unkind things to say about Daisy May's,
describing that its food "lacks even the barest hint of smokiness" and
"so bland that the primary flavor comes from the three pickle slices
tossed on top." Ouch! Pearson's, while faulted for its over-the-top
Texas kitsch atmosphere, gets a better review but still has its flavors
judged a little too tame. Jen Chung of
href="http://www.gothamist.com">Gothamist
href="http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2003/10/24/daisy_mays_bbq_usa.p
hp">visited Daisy May's a few weeks ago and had a much better
experience.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:59 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FIRST RATE
Fans of Christopher Buckley will love his latest satiric novel of love,
lust, and Presidential assassination. Here's
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=16">a review of
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375507345/qid=1068646309/
sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-7127159-1711258">No Way to Treat a First
Lady.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:31 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
KERRY'S TRIUMPH
After noting the indignity that a U.S. Senator and leading
candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination would have to
follow a talking plastic hand puppet on last night's Tonight
Show, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
commented on Sen. John Kerry's relative chances to win next November:
"Gimme a break, that steaming load I left in your
[Jay Leno's] dressing room has got more heat than this
guy!"
I think one of the greatest things about the U.S. is the lack of
respect we show our elected officials. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:07 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2003
GLASS HOUSE
I was a little more than suprised to find The New Republic's web
site littered with ads for the new movie
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0323944/">Shattered Glass.
I know online ads rotate automatically, but check out this page for an
href="http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=fisking&s=sullivan111103">Andrew
Sullivan article as representative. It looks like the entire page
has been sponsored by the movie that chronicles how Stephen Glass
trashed The New Republic's reputation by writing numerous
articles that were later revealed as wholly fabricated. It turns out
TNR fails to practice even rudimentary fact checking of its
articles. Is it me, or does it now appear a little unseemly for the
magazine to be now generating revenue from a movie that exposes a
period characterized by its own reckless lack of journalistic
standards? It's like having real estate ads for The Dakota featuring
former tenant John Lennon, who was famously shot outside the building.
Posted by Lexiphane at 7:38 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
NYT ON DVDS
The New York Times ran an interesting
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/movies/09KAPL.html">article on
DVDs and the difficulty some films have in being transferred to the
digital format. Transfers can suffer from originating from a damaged
print or from sheer carlessness by those producing the DVD. Not
surprisingly, The Criterion
Collection is singled out for the special care it takes in
producing high quality DVDs. For those that figure producing DVDs of
older movies is no different from hitting the burn button on a
computer, they'll be surprised to know that the process is as much art
as it is technical.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:18 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 7, 2003
THE GIRL FROM IBIZA
One of my friends and neighbors recently fled the city to soak up some
sun and have some fun on the Spanish island of Ibiza in the
Mediterranean. An aspiring writer, she wrote up her
vacation when she got back and had it
href="http://www.travelmag.co.uk/article_444.shtml?page=1">published
>.
Our nightly escapades in conjunction with jetlag took a
toll on our bodies the third day. We decided to wind our way through
the crooked streets of Ibiza Town to do some light shopping in the
colorful market places. About an hour into it, our feet pleaded with
us to sit at an outdoor cafe and have un Cervesa (a beer). I took a
picture of a crazy old man on his balcony across the street and he
proceeded to throw down a love letter and paper with candy inside of it
to me.
She gets that a lot around here too. Tagged:
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GOOD NEWS FOR CLOSET CASE SPOUSES
If you're a closeted gay man who likes take leave of the wife
and kids to enjoy blowjobs and other antics in public restrooms, parks,
or other cruising hotspots have we got a state for you! The Supreme
Court of New Hampshire just ruled that gay sex
href="http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/wnne/2619895/detail.html">does
not count as adultery, as adultery requires intercourse. This
seems like news to me, but who am I to argue? Now, when your wife
comes to bail you out of a NH jail after being arrested for public
indecency you can say "I wasn't cheating on you honey; that guy was
just giving me a handjob." Of course, if you come home from work early
some day to find your kid's ballet teacher going down on your wife,
you'll have to be similarly understanding.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BOWN IN GCT
Popular Science magazine has taken over Vanderbilt Hall
in Grand Central
Terminal yesterday and today to showcase the products featured in
its Best of What's New
issue. BOWN was always my favorite part of Popular Science as
it always had lots of cool gadgets in it, and the yearly BOWN issue was
like a geek catalogue of must-have stuff. I went over to GCT this
afternoon and, besides standing behind a woman being interviewed for
CBS news, saw lots of great gadgets.
Some
Highlights:
html">Beolab 5 Speakers from Bang & Olufsen
html">water purifier
html">robotic system for digitizing books from Kirtas
Technologies
html">Upper Class Suite from Virgin Atlantic Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:46 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
REAL PAIN IN THE ASS
Mad River Bar, which is down the street from my apartment, is
hosting an all-day casting call for reality TV wannabes starting this
afternoon at 1 p.m. Then, at 7 p.m., cast members from the Real
World, Real World Las Vegas, and Road Rules will show
up to "party" on camera with those present. If you've ever wanted to
have sex with the "slutty one" from any of these shows, here's your
chance. This is from Mad River's
href="http://www.madrivergrille.com/atmosphere.htm">web site:
Mad River has been named the best bar on the
Upper East Side three years in a row.
What they don't mention is that whoever said this then went on to
scream "And you guys are my best friends in the whole world, seriously,
I just want you to know that I love you guys" before throwing up on 3rd
Ave. Mad River is on 3rd Ave. and 82nd, southwest corner, next to the
Chinese restaurant. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:17 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
WOW
A very impressive
href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031106-
2.html">speech by Bush at an anniversary for the National Endowment
for Democracy:
Some skeptics of democracy assert that the traditions of
Islam are inhospitable to the representative government. This "cultural
condescension," as Ronald Reagan termed it, has a long history. After
the Japanese surrender in 1945, a so-called Japan expert asserted that
democracy in that former empire would "never work." Another observer
declared the prospects for democracy in post-Hitler Germany are, and I
quote, "most uncertain at best" -- he made that claim in 1957. Seventy-
four years ago, The Sunday London Times declared nine-tenths of the
population of India to be "illiterates not caring a fig for politics."
Yet when Indian democracy was imperiled in the 1970s, the Indian people
showed their commitment to liberty in a national referendum that saved
their form of government.
Time after time, observers have questioned whether this country, or
that people, or this group, are "ready" for democracy -- as if freedom
were a prize you win for meeting our own Western standards of progress.
In fact, the daily work of democracy itself is the path of progress. It
teaches cooperation, the free exchange of ideas, and the peaceful
resolution of differences. As men and women are showing, from
Bangladesh to Botswana, to Mongolia, it is the practice of democracy
that makes a nation ready for democracy, and every nation can start on
this path.
He also puts a heavy emphasis not just on democratic rule, but
the case for human liberty.
Let's hope href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031106-
2.ar.pdf">this version [pdf file in Arabic] circulates the world
both on-line and via samizdat. Let's get a Farsi version on-line as
well. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:57 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GUN CONTROL
A woman in Virginia returns to her home from the grocery store
with her sons to find a man approaching her in her driveway with a gun.
Fortunately she had just purchased one of her own and was a
href="http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2003_11_02_archive.html#10681
5866538460766">better shot.
When she got to her driveway that August night, a man
pulled out a gun.
Greene pulled out her own gun.
The man fired at her.
She fired back.
He missed.
She didn't.
Incidentally, .40 caliber is an excellent defensive round,
combining a relatively large bullet mass with a muzzle velocity much
higher than that of a .45. [Link via href="http://www.instapundit.com">Instapundit.] Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:28 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Root causes of terrorism in Iraq:
"It's not difficult to understand why somebody might
pick up an AK-47 against us. Maybe we killed his father in the first
Gulf War, maybe in this Gulf War, maybe he's just a dick."--Sgt.
Reginald Abram, with the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in western
Iraq, quoted in the Asia Times, Oct. 24
Via href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004267">Best of the Web
Today at opinionjournal.com. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:05 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 6, 2003
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE LATE SHOW?
Last night I was watching
href="http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/">The Late Show with David
Letterman and he was doing his CBS Mailbag routine, formerly Viewer
Mail when he was on at 12:30 on NBC. Part of the routine last night
involved a female NYPD officer in uniform holding a number of cue cards
and announcing which letter Dave was about to read. I think this was a
real NYPD officer. She seemed a little nervous and her delivery was
pretty flat, indicating that she probably was not used to speaking in
front of large crowds. Anyway, thoughout the segment, Dave kept asking
her if she was ready to recite a certain line. He wanted her to thrown
down the cue cards, draw her pistol, and yell "Freeze! Grab some sky
punk!" Dave belabored this throughout the Mailbag routine in his
typical fashion before he asked her to do it. And then she did it.
Later, while going to commercial, they replayed the young woman's
performance in slow motion and you could see that her finger, if not
touching the trigger, does travel inside the trigger guard while she is
pointing her pistol at an audience of hundreds of people. I was a
little shocked to see this. It's a violation of so many basic firearm
safety rules I hope this young officer is getting her ass handed to her
today. Even if the gun had been unloaded, to point it into a crowd of
people and then put your finger near the trigger is such an egregious
breach of gun safety the stunt was drained of all humor for me.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:52 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FOR THOSE INTERESTED
From
href="http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/sports/stories/sp110603s
4.shtml">The Poughkeepsie Journal:
The Arlington High School boys soccer team, ranked third nationally and sporting a 21-0-1 record, will face Section Nine's Pine Bush in a New York State Public High School Athletic Association, Class A regional final on Saturday. The two teams will meet at Vassar College's Prentiss Field at 11:30 a.m. with a berth in the Class A Final Four on the line.Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:57 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GOTTA GO TO MO'S
The New York Times
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/nyregion/metrocampaigns/05COUN.
html">election coverage yesterday ended one of its articles on an
interesting note. Re-elected City Council Speaker and mayoral aspirant
Gifford Miller--who was stalking me constantly over the past several
weeks in search of my District 5 vote--had his victory party at a place
on 2nd Avenue:
"I think in the end that, obviously, to see almost every
incumbent win by such large margins is a vote of confidence," said Mr.
Miller, who was celebrating last night at Mo's Caribbean, an Upper East
Side restaurant known more for its rollicking happy hour than for its
politicking.
It's hard to accurately describe Mo's Caribbean. "Restaurant" is
not one of the words I would use. I'm not sure I would describe it as
a seedy bar either. I like seedy bars. It's more like a badly
executed Tiki-themed bar that draws a crowd attracted to its dirt-cheap
drink specials and you're never sure when a fight is about to break out
over some guy looking at another guy's girl wrong. It's like a down-
at-the-heels Down the Hatch without the cute NYU girls. Presumably
Miller's party was presided over by the regular Tuesday night live
reggae band. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:40 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BOOK HIM
You're an 80-year-old man. You live in the Bronx, not that great
a neighborhood. You have to go to a check-cashing place to exchange
your paycheck for cash once a week. Are you allowed to protect
yourself from predators that see you as an easy target? Not in NYC,
which carries an
href="http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_110503_elderlygun.html">ant
i-self defense law on its books.
The mugger had knocked Campbell to the ground and ripped
his pants while grabbing for his wallet. The retired security guard
fired one shot that hit the side of the elevator, and richotted
[sic] up into the ceiling.
The elevator stopped on the third floor where the suspect ran out, and
Campbell cried out for help. The thief made off with $262 in Social
Security money. And now Campbell's eye is bloodshot, and his cheek is
purple from injuries he received in the assault.
Police however arrested Campbell and charged him with misdemeanor
criminal possesion of a weapon.
A neighbor had mixed feelings about the event:
Ernest McKenzie, Building Resident: "The way I feel, if he didn't have the gun probably something would happen to him, serious. And at the same time, he has to be licensed."The only flaw in this line of thinking is that in NYC, unless you're a celebrity, politician, or a personal friend of a politician, it is virtually impossible to receive a license to carry a pistol in the city no matter what your circumstances. And the cost is prohitive to all but the very wealthy. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:24 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 5, 2003
LOST LIGHT
I just finished the latest Michael Connelly novel featuring detective
Harry Bosch. Like most of these books, it's good quick reading.
Here's
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent
&id=15">the review.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:50 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
EVERYBODY FUNG WAH TONIGHT
The folks over at
href="http://www.blacktable.com/gillin031105.htm">The Black Table
get the lowdown on the cheap-ass buses from Chinatown NYC to Chinatown
Boston. The Q&A-formatted description is pretty accurate, although I
didn't find it nearly as complicated to find out where to show my
ticket and catch the bus. Maybe that's because I know the ancient
Chinese secret! Seriously, I took the Fung Wah bus just a few weeks
ago and I thought it was a great deal. Plus, the people that took the
airline shuttle for about ten times the money to meet me in Boston
seemed a little pissed when they heard the bus was the real deal and
not an urban legend. [Link to The Black Table courtesy of
href="http://www.gawker.com">Gawker.] Also, I came up with the
title for this item independently and only realized after the fact that
TBT had the same one.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:02 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
NOT A STAR TREK MOVIE
Last night I managed to watch the south-of-France shoot-em-up action
pic The
Transporter. I can't say I recommend it, but my review is
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=14">now available.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:26 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 3, 2003
GREEN RIVER CASE CLOSED
I spent a few years growing up in Bellevue, WA, the state's
second-largest city after nearby Seattle. While I was somewhat young
at that time, I do remember hearing about a serial killer being on the
loose who was responsible for the deaths of a lot of women. I remember
Ted Bundy was identified as a possible suspect for being what would
become identified as the Green River Killer, but we moved back East
before anything substantive ever came of the police investigation.
More than 20 years later though, King County prosecutors have gotten a
suspect,
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=5&u=/ap/gre
en_river_killings">Gary Ridgway, to confess. It is believed he is
responsible for killing 49 women over the past couple decades. Ridgway
went on killing even after police identified him as a suspect and he
submitted to a polygraph examination.
href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/greenriverkillings/">The
Seattle Times has some good resources on the timeline of his
case and his victims.
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:13 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 2, 2003
DOMERS
A harried soccer mom lost it yesterday, freaked, and
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&ncid=584&e=7&
u=/nm/20031101/pl_nm/bush_security_crash_dc">blasted her kids-filled
car through several security cordons and onto the curb of the
building where President Bush was present. While I'm glad a car full
of children was not reduced to shredded tinfoil, this is not
reassuring. She could have been a suicide bomber, or a Hillary
acolyte. An excellent novel I read last year and a finalist for the
National Book Award is
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0156027798/qid=1067788178/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-9225048-
6094435?v=glance&n=507846">Big If by Mark Costello. It's
tangentially about the layer of protection around the President the
Secret Service provides known as The Dome. It's more about life
and the illusions of control we create to make it bearable. Less a
linear novel than a series of character sketches, Big If is a
great read.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:02 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
OOHS AND AHS
This is just a short item to congratulate Gary Montalto and his charges
on the AHS soccer team for
href="http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/sports/stories/sp110203s
1.shtml">winning the NY State section one championship yesterday.
Still undefeated this year and ranked #4 in the nation, the Admirals
earned a bye for the first round of the State Championship Tournament.
Mr. Mon is still going strong and has been the man since he was my 7th
grade gym teacher at TMS. Good luck.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:48 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack