February 27, 2004
About that asteroid near-miss
Phil Plaitt's Bad Astronomy Pages has a good article on what really happened (no, they didn't almost call the President). Phil's site is a good place to see how the movies and television has represented astronomical topics; he also debunks the loonies like Nancy, Zetans, and the Planet X nonsense.
February 25, 2004
Spongmonkey business
These guys have been made famous, or infamous, but the Quiznos ad. Now you can read more about them at Slate or at their creator's website at rathergood.com). That's a slow-loading site, however, so be warned aforehand. But I can see further adventures for these little guys. Appearances on Letterman. Spongmonkeys hosting SNL. "Spongmonkeys Sing Barry Manilow" CDs. Truly, art at this level should not be allowed to wither away.
February 23, 2004
Nader
Dave says Nader is a "self-aggrandizing ass who's obsessed with running for President". (OK, Dave says he's probably an ass, he allows that it's possible Nader just lives in a fantasy world). I think he's only partly right - Nader is a pompous fool dressed as a self-aggrandizing ass, living in a fantasy world. I'm convinced Nader threw the 2000 election to Bush. Think of it this way: Nader got 97,000 votes in Florida. If instead, 70% of those voters had just stayed home, and 51% of the remaining 30% voted for Gore, Al Gore would have won Florida and the election, or at least forced the Jebbites to get more creative. And it was obvious in the weeks before the election that it was going to be close enough that a continued Nader candidacy could result in something like that. Reports the next day quoted Nader voters in some places saying "what have I done?" This election shapes up as another very close one; and with the results of four years of GWB evident - ignoring the Iraq thing, and just focusing on the environmental policy changes, the health care changes, the continuing weak job market - Ralph Nader decides that what we need is a replay.
Dave also says what the Democrats need as a counter is a Kerry-Dean ticket, to keep the Deaniacs in the party. That might keep them in - but how much national appeal will there be in a ticket featuring a Massachusetts senator and a Vermont governor? Yes, you'll keep those who are going to vote Democrat regardless. But that won't pull in many independents. And it certainly isn't going to garner much enthusiasm in the South, Midwest and West. That's a high price to pay for a candidate who's finished third or worse in the primaries since New Hampshire, where he was a distant second. The Democrats owe Howard Dean, but not that much. And they owe Ralph Nader nothing. He's lost his credibility, what he had left, with his announcement yesterday.
February 20, 2004
Death of a television
A brief moment's freedom
Unplugged and unbound
A short inner passage
On your way to the ground
Does a picture tube panic?
Do transistors know fear?
Does the zen of the moment
Ease your end-time here?
I missed your death-flight
So I did not observe
Your final appointment
With the cold concrete curb
But to see as I did
The debris field of parts
Makes me think it was worthy
Of praise from the arts
So I offer these lines
As a requiem now told
To a dead television
In the grass by the road
February 18, 2004
Potted Meat Food Research
I said I didn't really want to know about this stuff. Just the name is enough to make a vegan out of you. But I couldn't help myself. First, there was Jeff Lee's Potted Meat Food Product Tribute Page. But Jeff wasn't content to just make a tribute page to PMFP. No, he also wrote a song. And then, there's the Potted Meat Food Museum. Venturing further into the digital hinterlands, there's this blog entry from The Sneeze, which contains an actual picture of an opened can of PMFP. And this site gives a history of Armour PMFP ingredients. PMFP seems like really nasty stuff. I cannot imagine how much worse imitation PMFP, or IPMFP, would be.
February 17, 2004
Old House
Cracked gray stairs,
weathered porch -
broken boards leave holes to nowhere.
Battered door,
last latched many years ago;
I enter, and the world falls away.
Peeling-paper-covered walls,
fallen shelves, dusty mantle,
awaiting resurrection or death
and neither comes.
Life is gone; oblivion hangs
like a curtain that cannot close.
A PMFP Update!!
This isn't about the imitation, it's about the Real Thing!! Dave Barry has written about PMFP!!! See the story here!!
February 16, 2004
RBIPMFP
Many years ago, in my junior year of high school. I worked in a grocery store (ironically, it was in the same building that my current employer occupies). One night while I was sweeping the aisles, I happened to glance at the shelf, and saw:
Red Bird Imitation Potted Meat Food Product
This was right next to the potted meat, the Spam(tm), the vienna sausages. Real quality protein, indeed. But this wasn't vienna sausages, or Spam(tm), or even potted meat. It was imitation potted meat food product. I didn't know, and I still don't know, what potted meat is. I could guess, but I think it's better that I don't go there. But whatever potted meat is, I would suspect that potted meat food product is worse. And whatever potted meat food product is, I strongly suspect that imitation potted meat food product is worse than that. What possible reason could there be to have such a product? Was there a shortage of spare parts left over after the steaks and roasts and ground beef and other identifiable portions had been carved and packaged, so that they had to perhaps go find other things from other entities and package those? I don't know if this - stuff - is still sold; I haven't looked in many, many years. I don't think I want to know. I know I don't ever want to actually eat any of this - stuff.
February 3, 2004
Primary thoughts
Obviously, John Kerry had a very good day. Not a great day, in the sense that he hasn't delivered a knockout punch. But he definitely keeps his momentum strong. John Edwards had a big win in South Carolina, bigger than expected, in a state where he had to win. Word is that Kerry's people pulled back in SC so Edwards could win big. But I think he was going to win big there regardless. Wes Clark is stil winning, barely, in Oklahoma, but with Edwards pushing him so hard in a state where he (Clark) put so much effort, I'm not sure Clark will gain much from it.
Joe Lieberman is officially out of the race. Howard Dean hasn't said it, but he's finished. The only thing more amazing than Dean's rise to the top, is his sudden and total collapse. And I think this was the key: while Dean at one time was the first choice of many, he was the second choice of practically none.
So, the Democrats will carry on, and as Dave Fried said in a comment the other day, that's a good thing. It not only keeps the race in the news, it continues developing Kerry as a candidate, and Edwards as a VP nominee, realistically. Kerry/Edwards sounds better and better to me.
Crashing The Parties
Jammerblog is talking about needing a fifth political party in the US. I agree, except that we need a viable third party first. The Libertarians have some interesting ideas, but I don't see their overall platform as being workable in the USA of today. Perhaps that's stated a bit strong, but doing away with all public schools, ending all drug laws, eliminating all foreign aid, and reducing the defense budget by 70% aren't realistic. The Green Party, with which I share many ideals, did itself immense harm by choosing to make a big play in the 2000 election. In doing so, it confined itself to a minor fringe of the most liberal segment of out political landscape.
What is needed is a revival of the old liberal wing of the Republican party, combined with Democrats who have long been uncomfortable with what some see as pandering to left-wing constituencies. A party of people who hold progressive-to-liberal views on issues such as the environment, baseline social services, and economic development, who tend to favor a strong military, but perhaps aren't willing to buy into "typical" liberal positions on "morality issues". Neither party is likely, in the near future, to embrace these groups within their existing party structures.
But more than just giving a home to a group that now feels somewhat disenfranchised, the presence of a major third party would force a fundamental shift in the governmental status quo. What we've seen over the past 20-25 years tends to be an almost unthinking blind reaction to what the other side has done. Compromise has been increasingly rare. Action/reaction has become the political order of the day. But what if there were suddenly a third player? Action/reaction doesn't function so well when there is an escape from potential deadlock. Those less committed on a particular issue have an alternative to stubborn resistance or caving. Certainly, it wouldn't always work smoothly. Three-way logjams are always possible. But after 200+ years of mostly two-party governance, maybe it's time to amend our thinking.