Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Setting the Record Straight On Spain I have been posting a bit on Spain lately, because I think it is such an important and interesting situation.  In my post from Monday, I advanced the argument that Spanish voters were reacting in large part as a protest to their country's actions in the Iraq war, because 90% of the Spanish people had opposed their country's support for the U.S.  As it turns out, it was not accurate to say that was the overall basis for the ousting of the government. In the comment thread to that post, Loyal Pipeline Reader Sean S. replied that he felt the Spanish vote was largely motivated by a desire to not be a target of terror any longer; essentially, that they had turned tail and ran.  To quote his comment: "there's pretty good evidence that the elections demonstrate the Spanish electorate decided to cave in to AQ's demands." It turns out this was wrong, as well.  There is now gathering evidence that it was the government's deliberate attempt to mislead the public in the aftermath of the bombings that led to the election outcome.  Some of that can be found here as well.  Now, to be fair both of our original points, there are no doubt many Spanish voters who did vote because they were opposed to the Iraq war, or who voted because they didn't want more terrorism, or both.  Hell, there are a lot of voters in this country who will be basing their vote on Iraq, and you can bet that another terror attack here before the election would cause some number of people to consider their vote carefully in the context of greater terror.  So, it seems logical to me to expect that many people in Spain voted in that way. But more and more, people are saying that it was the attempt by Spain's government to manipulate the evidence that caused them to vote a certain way. The potential parallels between Spain and the U.S. just keep appearing, don't they? For me, the important point to note with regard to the notion that the Spanish are caving in is that they are still very committed to fighting terrorism, perhaps moreso than ever.  I think Professor Juan Cole's post is well worth reading here; he makes the argument that since the Bush adventure in Iraq was absolutely the wrong thing to do to effectively fight terror, that the Spanish action was probably the best thing possible to get the War On Terror back on track, with the imprimatur of the UN as an added bonus. 2:27:14 PM    Say what?[]

Linked I have received requests from two different people recently to link to their sites.  One is a no-brainer for me, because he's an old friend.  Seth Halvorson was a debater while I coached at Macalester College.  He was a unique presence, and I was pleased to hear from him.  He has started a blog just in the last week or so, and I suspect that as he finds his voice he'll have plenty of things worth reading.  That's not to say he's not worth reading now, just that my own experience was that it took me some time to figure out where I was going.  But, every stop on the way had its own charms, of course.  Check him out. The other request came from a gentleman named Kelly Moore.  I don't know Kelly Moore from Adam, but he sent me a note and mentioned that he liked my site, and wondered if I might be interested in a little linky-link.  My policy on this is that I don't really have a policy.  I like to keep my link bar small, but if something strikes my fancy, as Preacher or the oddball Duh! did, I'll link them up.  I checked out Kelly Moore's site, and I liked what I saw.  He is an artist, and I liked that he put up so much of his art on the site.  The art itself is raw and colorful, and seems mostly to be different kinds of portraits.  Anyway, check it out.  He has an outstanding collection of art links, as well. 12:45:00 PM    Say what?[]

Wiped Has anybody used this product?  These are toilet wipes, very much like wet ones or baby wipes, but for use by adults, in place of toilet paper. When I first saw this, I thought, "What a great idea!"  I won't go into the details, but they're just...better.  Frankly, if I were in the toilet paper business, I'd be very worried; these things could revolutionize the way Americans use the restroom.  Though, to be fair to the TP industry, "toilet wiping" someone's yard just doesn't have the same appeal. But are Americans ready for this kind of product?  I wonder.  These seem to me to be a sort of combination of the American notion of toilet paper and the European-style bidet.  Americans, for whatever reason, have rejected bidets.  You can't convince me it has to do with cleanliness reasons; a bidet just seems like it would be so much better in that regard than toilet paper.  I suspect it has more to do with some kind of American hang-up about shooting water up your ass.  You know Rick Santorum is a TP guy.  Personally, I've never used a bidet, but I'm willing to try anything once assuming it's legal in that given state. I did some research on bidets.  Did you know you can get a hand-held bidet?  Why this isn't just a SuperSoaker water gun, I'm not sure, but I suppose this would be easier to get through airport security.  Anyway, in the course of doing this research, I think I may have stumbled across the problem: Bidets are expensive.  This model sells for about $800.  That's a lot of toilet paper, my friends.  And so, Americans have invented the toilet wipe in the hopes that they will be cleaner, but not have to resort to the French or Japanese-style water ass jet.  There is, unfortunately, one problem with the toilet wipes that I have discovered so far.  My son Linus likes to use, oh, seven or eight at a time.  He does this regardless of need; he just keeps reaching in and pulling them out and putting them in the toilet.  And that's bad, because toilet wipes will clog a toilet much more efficiently than toilet paper ever can. 12:33:52 PM    Say what?[]

My Crotch Is Soaking Wet I have just returned from picking up my lunch at a Culver's ButterBurger drive-through window.  If you're not down with Culver's, well, too bad for you.  They make the best damned hamburger you're gonna find, at least as far as a chain restaurant goes. They also feature a very good home-brand root beer.  I ordered one.  It sat in my lap on the drive home.  This is always a mistake anyway, but one that I am prone to repeating.  Normally, you can get away with it without any spillage, if you are careful to suck away any pop on the top of the plastic cup lid, and perhaps even take a drink or two to lower the level of the fluid.  So, I was careful, and I did follow that procedure.  But the problem is that the Culver's root beer is very foamy.  It's so foamy that, despite the fact that I took a drink and lowered the level, it just foamed up through the straw hole (not the straw itself, but the hole in the lid the straw goes through), and all over my crotch as I drove back to work.  This happened so slowly, so gradually, that I never really noticed it was happening until it was too late.  Had a bunch of cold root beer splashed onto my crotch all at once, I would have noticed.  But this insidious foam just acclimated to body temperature or something, and allowed a much greater amount of root beer to spill into my pants.  And I do mean "into".  Only when I arrived at work and began to move out of my car did I realize what had happened.  Fortunately, I had my coat with me, so at least I had something to carry with which to shield my crotch from prying eyes as I walked to my office.  But that wasn't much better; everybody could see that I was carrying a pop in one hand and a bag of food and a coat in the other, while very obviously shielding my crotch with it.  I mean, people just don't walk in that fashion unless they are trying to cover their crotch up. And then I had the horrible thought that maybe people would think I was trying to hide an erection.  I mean, if I see somebody covering their crotch, two things come to mind: A fluid mishap of either natural or unnatural causes, or an erection.  Or, in extremely unfortunate cases, both. For a brief moment I considered whether it was better for people to see me covering my crotch and wonder what my motivation was, or whether it was just better to walk proudly through the halls with no cover whatsoever, making sure to display my cup prominently whenever anyone saw me, and exclaim, "I spilled this root beer on my crotch, so it's impossible for me to have an erection!" I opted for the coat, hoping that I might make it to my desk without having to pass anyone with my soaking wet crotch.  The odds on this were long, since I essentially have to go all the way through the building, but I know some back ways. But, wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got in the door there were a bunch of jackasses dressed up in green vests with green plastic hats on, who tippped them as I walked in and said, "Top O' the mornin' to ya!"  I'm pretty sure these guys were already drunk.  I said, "Yeah", and kept walking.  Fortunately for you, the reader, I happen to have my digital camera with me, so I can make this a truly multi-dimensional experience for you.  I made sure to include my badge in the picture to verify that this is, in fact, me, and that I didn't just go out to www.rootbeercrotchy.com to get this photo. 11:54:49 AM    Say what?[]

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