Monday, November 29, 2004

Barneygate Barney plays dead. You are playing, aren't you Barney? Bar-ney! The Washington Post today tells us about the latest White House scandal, and helpfully points us over to ZDNet news. Which is a good thing, since we would never go there on our own. (Nor apparently would anyone else, since it took ten days for this story to get our attention. It seems that the White House has decided this year to restrict access to the BarneyCam holiday video. Mmm... okay, I hear you saying, but as ZDNet is quick to point out, "this is no laughing matter". I dunno, maybe this is a red state thing, but it seems as though these videos are very, very popular, and a lot of on-line publishers, including the Post, are viewing this as lost revenue. Check this [italics mine]: Last year's Barney video drew 24 million viewers to the White House Web site, a White House spokesman said--about the same number of people who visited political sites in the final month of the presidential race. Now plans for a new video promise to renew the tug-of-war over the taxpayer-funded project. Good Lord! Twenty-four million people! People out in the hinterlands must be starved for quality programming, big time. I was theorizing that maybe a million people watched it twenty-four times each, but that proved to be cold comfort. This will be the third film in the Barney series. Barney I sounds like a rather lackluster affair, with Barney wandering around the house and looking up at the decorations. Barney II, officially titled 'Barney Reloaded', was decidedly more ambitious. The White House web site says that it's a "more complicated plot" and is "rich with drama and humor." ZDNet has the details. Barney is charged with decorating the White House for Christmas, and when he decides to play instead, is gently scolded by the grownups. "I know you've been out here a long time, because you've got snow everywhere," the president says in one scene. "You've got snow here on your leg--I mean, you need to be working and all you want to do is play ball, is all you want to do." The third installment promises to be a quantum leap forward. According to sources close to the president, "Barney is bitten by a radioactive spider, and dedicates his life to fighting crime." 1:57:44 PM    comment []

Chief Justice Rehnquist, age 108, says that he still feels competent. Showing once again that they have opinions on darn near everything, sixty percent of Americans say that there should be a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices. Only one of the justices currently serving is under 65 years old, and Chief Justice Rehnquist recently celebrated his 108th birthday. Interestingly, fifty-nine percent of those surveyed had no idea who Rehnquist was. The chief justice sighed heavily upon hearing this. "Hey, it's not easy being me," he said. "Why, I'm so old that when I was in school, they didn't even teach history. Sheesh. As a young law student, my first big break was helping to write the fourth commandment. I'm old I tell ya, some days it just doesn't pay to get up. I got a traffic ticket yesterday for driving too slow; the cop asks me for ID and I show him a rock. Yeah, but most of the time that's not a problem. I'm so old bartenders check my pulse instead of my ID." 10:29:05 AM    comment []