Friday, September 27, 2002

Larry Bird is inducting Magic Johnson into the Basketball Hall of Fame right now - and he got a bigger round of applause than anyone else has come CLOSE to getting. 'course, the ceremony's in Massachusetts - we love our Larry. And Larry just showed us why: "I practiced every day for hours, for just one reason...to beat those damned Lakers." Love ya, Larry - you will always be the greatest player ever. Magic's great, but not as good as you. =)

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Mass arrests at anti-IMF demo [BBC World] A Democrat pollster friend of mine lives a couple blocks from the World Bank/IMF buildings...I bet he's getting a kick out of all this. Me, I'm sorry I keep missing the show - these guys are jokers, but a big protest is really just street theater, no matter the cause it's nominally supporting or opposing.
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posted by Argyle at September 27 3:56 PM. Making the case for United Nations intervention against the United States - Ted Rall takes a look at the world situation from a slightly different perspective. The scary thing is that this could run unedited in the newspapers of many countries around the world and their readers would agree with it. Is America out of touch with the rest of the world? [MetaFilter] *whistles innocently*

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Boost for life on Jupiter moon [BBC Science & Nature] Woohoo! Aliens, BABY! From what this says, it seems to me that if Europa's been exposed to the needed organic compounds, there's actually quite a good chance there's life in its oceans...yay!
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What's in the great British banger?. Changes in meat labelling have been proposed by the Food Standards Agency. BBC News Online asks what is in the great British banger? [BBC News | UK] Well, I'm wanting sausages now. Ok, I'm not. Things like this make me almost want to go vegan. While I've always assumed truly disgusting stuff goes into hot dogs and sausages, it takes an article like this to make me actually realize it. There goes breakfast...

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Blondes 'to die out in 200 years' [BBC Science & Nature] Yes! Blondes are going extinct! I'm fine with that - I prefer brunettes. =)
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Archer 'had lunch with policewoman'. Lincolnshire police investigate an off-duty police officer who allegedly met Lord Archer while he was on day release from prison. [BBC News | UK] Ok - let me try to get this straight. Lord Jefferey Archer, who has been a member of Parliament and the House of Lords and who has written a whole lot of trashy Clancy-esque novels, was sentenced to prison last year for lying during a libel trial in 1987. Since then: Inside story July 2001 - Sent to high security Belmarsh prison August - Moved to Wayland prison in Norfolk October - Moved to North Sea Camp open prison July 2002 - Appeal refused August - Signs new book deal and starts work at Lincoln theatre on day release September - Moved to Lincoln jail That's taken from the BBC story I'm linking to here. The "open prison" let him, well, wander off, I guess. He got busted for going to a friend's party while he should have been...somewhere else? This story is just plain bizarre. What's more, it's obviously huge in the UK - every day or two has another article about this weirdness at the Beeb. THIS is why America needs nobility. I'm tired of celebrity scandal - I want nobility scandal!

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Aborigines recover vast territory. Australia returns a piece of land four times the size of Belgium to an Aboriginal tribe - the largest piece of land to be given back so far. [BBC News | WORLD] Four times the size of Belgium? No offense to any Belgians who read this, but wouldn't that be about the size of Los Angeles? =)
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Congress Nearing Draft Resolution on Force in Iraq [New York Times: International News] OK, Al Gore might be just playing to the liberal base in the Democratic party, positioning himself for the 2004 primaries, but I don't care - he's saying all the right things. Yesterday, he said: "What's going on nationally, with the attack on civil liberties, with American citizens in some cases just disappearing without right to counsel, without access to a lawyer, I think that is disgraceful," which is something I haven't heard said enough. Padilla and Hamdi are American-born American citizens and their Constitutional rights to counsel, a speedy trial, etc... are being straight up ignored. The Bush Junta must be called on this repeatedly, by anyone who can speak. Also, Ted Kennedy will be giving a speech today on the Iraq situation, which will mean that both of my senators will have spoken out. This *might* start to get them my support again, after both of them voted for the abominable USA-Patriot act last fall. Oh yeah, and Bush said "There's no doubt he can't stand us. After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time." about Hussein. Hello? Does anybody else realize that he just explained exactly why we can't trust him to be rational and even-handed when it comes to Iraq? Sure, Hussein's attempt to kill Bush The Elder was horrible, another crime on his ridiculously long list. But if some guy had put out a hit on my dad, I sure as hell wouldn't be able to be unbiased about him. How come no one's brought this up?

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Ours Not To Reason Why by Michael Kinsley [Washington Post: Editorial] Gore's Glass House by Charles Krauthammer [Washington Post: Editorial] The first editorial is worth reading for the good points it makes - its tagline reads "Shouldn't Americans have some kind of role in deciding whether we go to war against Iraq?" which seems pretty obvious to me. Kinsley doesn't really raise any topics that I haven't already heard, but he's saying them in the Washington Post, which means something. Krauthammer, on the other hand, is spewing shit. At the time of Clinton's missile attacks following the embassy explosions, the right screamed "wag the dog!" and bashed Clinton...now Krauthammer is bashing Clinton (and Gore through Clinton) for not overthrowing the Taliban then. Oh, and he brings up the late '98 bombing of Iraq, which came, he says, "[R]ight in the midst of the House debate on impeachment. The timing was so wag-the-dog precise that it actually caused a postponement of the vote, with some Democrats suggesting that with the country now in crisis the impeachment proceedings should be canceled altogether and the whole mess left to the next Congress." Did any Dems actually say that? I know I just wanted it to end - Clinton wasn't getting thrown out of office, and everyone knew that. And if Krauthammer can still claim that Clinton was wagging the dog back then, why can't we point out that Bush's team has all but admitted they're wagging the friggin' dog with Iraq this time? Karl Rove's disk, anyone? Krauthammer ends his column after mentioning that the Times reports that Gore, while writing the speech, consulted "a fairly far-flung group of advisers that included Rob Reiner," which Krauthammer jumped on. After making a wise-ass comment on Bush's foreign policy team having all these big names while Gore is talking with Meathead, he closes with the following: "Had it not been for a few little old ladies baffled by the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach, Fla., American foreign policy today would be made by Gore-Reiner instead of the Bush brain trust. Who says God doesn't smile upon the United States of America?" No, no, Chuck. It wasn't a "few little old ladies" that threw the election to the Bush Junta. It was depriving innocents of their votes because a report from Texas said they were felons. It was depriving innocents of their votes because their name was similar to that of a felon. It was having much more lenient ballot guidelines for Republican-leaning overseas absentee ballots than for Democrat-leaning urban ballots. It was Bush's cousin in the Fox News control room declaring Bush the winner of Florida extremely early on, while Gore was actually still in the lead. It was the Bush Junta getting vote-counting stopped in the courts whenever momentum seemed about to send the Gore total over Bush's. It was the Supreme Court appointing Bush in the end. And you know what? Even disregarding the probablity that Gore consulted Reiner on writing the speech, what with Reiner's writing and acting experience, I'd rather have Reiner advising my president on foreign policy than Rumsfeld, Cheney, or Wolfowitz.

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I can't tell you how much I missed the Daypop Top-40. Smooch! [Scripting News] Hmm...Daypop's been down since I started blogging, so this is a new discovery for me. Seems pretty cool - links to the most popular topics in the blogosphere. If nothing else, this should supply Charly Z, the Raven, and myself with more Googlebait. =) Which reminds me - an update on the Googlebaiting, aided by using Extreme Tracking's free referrer/IP/hit tracker, which makes it a lot easier to see queries from over night, and see long-term query totals. I've gotten three hits looking for information on the on-field attack at Comiskey Park earlier this week - one searching for kansas city royals coach fight gamboa pic, another searching for white sox royal father son picture, and finally shirtless arrested Chicago. Since Tuesday afternoon, I've had five searches that weren't either Googlebait or just "dreaming of china": the baseball fight, jocko weyland -  the author of the skateboarding book I've mentioned reading, "prince harry" shirtless - which seems to just be weird luck, FUCK CHINA FOCUS - huh?, "mormon death penalty" - I don't think I've ever said that specific string, but hey, and lastly Rally Monkey videos Anaheim - which doesn't surprise me so much, since the Angels are getting so much face time on ESPN these days. Oh yes, and the deliberate Googlebaiting: a couple hits for Veronique de Cock, two Bush "fool me once" queries (one of them looking for that and TiVo), and the two people who really want to see the videotaped child beater in the buff: naked pictures of Madelyne gorman toogood and toogood topless pictures. Rrrright...

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How do you dislocate a rib? I'm watching SportsCenter, as I do most mornings, and they start talking about the QB for Washington State, Jason Gesser...who's recovering from dislocating his rib. How the hell do you do that? I always thought that you dislocated a bone by popping it out of its joint...Ribs don't HAVE joints. The article I linked to doesn't go into detail on how the injury happened, so I guess I'll never know...

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Baghdad Is Planning For Urban Warfare [Washington Post: Front Page] According to the Bush Junta, this won't be a problem - the Iraqi civilians will tell us where the Iraqi soldiers are, 'cos they hate Saddam so much. Yeah, right. This is going to be ugly.
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