The New York Times Chances Are Slim

I don't even know where to begin in trying to figure out this story I lifted from The Fat Guy. I'll give it a shot though. These days, nobody really wants to read this rag, so its losing money like a drunken sailor in a Bangkok whore house. It's hemorrhaging cash to the extent that in the last five months it's stock value has lost more than fifty percent of its worth, just within that span of time.

Naturally, to many this would be an opportunity, so up pops a Mexican billionaire by the name of Carlos Slim, who is reportedly the second wealthiest man in the world. Worse, this seems to be a trend, with oligarchs from all over the world buying up cash strapped American companies.

What this means in this particular case, of course, is that the New York Times editorial policy might conceivably reflect the views and opinions of this Mexican foreign national who is as of now majority stockholder. In other words, not a hell of a lot would change. That's the sad part. The Times has lost a large percentage of its readership due to the understandable perception among many that it is biased in its news coverage, to say the least.

So now, what happens? Somebody comes along to make sure the paper gets to stay in business retching up the same daily bilge, as though it will somehow influence people, given an extra lifeline of support. Why else buy this fish-wrapper, but as a propaganda device? He sure as hell can't be thinking he's going to make a decent profit, and so far as I know this would not qualify as charitable donation. Well, I guess it could amount to a tax write-off to some extent, but hell now.

Below are some excerpts from the Yahoo News article-

The $250 million investment by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim could provide some synergies with his telecommunications holdings in Latin America, analysts say.

The Times, which also publishes The Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune, has been trying to conserve cash as advertising revenues continue to slide. Newspaper publishers across the country are hurting amid the economic downturn and as advertisers shift spending online. The Times slashed its quarterly dividend by 74 percent in November and plans to raise $225 million from its new, 52-story Manhattan headquarters, either by selling the building and leasing it back or borrowing against it. It also put its stake in the Boston Red Sox up for sale.

Slim is part of a crop of emerging-market billionaires, from Mexico to Russia, who are on a shopping spree now that the recession has slashed the prices of some of America's best-known companies.

The Times announced late Monday the financing agreement with Slim's companies Banco Inbursa and Inmobiliaria Carso for $125 million each. Times President Janet L. Robinson said the cash infusion will be used to refinance existing debt and will provide the company with increased financial flexibility.

New York Times shares slipped 8 cents to $6.33 in morning trading Tuesday, the first trading day after the company announced the deal.


Slim and members of his family purchased 6.4 percent of the company's publicly traded shares. The Times said the value of Slim's investment has since fallen to $58 million from $128 million.

Note how the Times is losing so much money they are considering making up the shortfall by selling their stake in the Boston Red Sox, probably one of the few enterprises they are involved with that has at least the potential to be profitable. Now that is determination.

Oh well-so many American products are made overseas, I guess its just a logical progression that anything with the by now rare slogan Made In America should be run by CEOs from anywhere but. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can in many cases be a positive trend if it bolsters the economy and saves American jobs, and should not be viewed with undue alarm.

Regardless of that general idea, however, when foreign nationals purchase the so-called "newspaper of record" I would think that should be cause for at least some concern over the prospect of conflict of interest, not only in the editorial pages, but in potential for continued slanted news coverage for which the paper is more renowned than anything else. Just imagine how heads would have turned if it turned out that the New York Times of the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties was really controlled by Soviet nationals with connections to Pravda or the KGB after all.

That has in fact long been a suspicion, one that was well-founded, though unproven. In this case, maybe it won't be that bad. Maybe Slim will turn the paper around and make it profitable again, as unlikely as that seems.

The question is, why bother?

Ceiling Cat Nose You Tohts, K?

I don't like to link the same blog more than one time within a short period of time, and it's especially unusual to link the same post more than once, but this one by Patrick at Born Again Bourgeois is just too good to pass up.

It seems that almost the entire Bible has been translated into LOLCat, and is available on-line. LOLCat, for the uninitiated, is an internet meme of humorous cat photos with captions, and it has led to the development of its own form of internet shorthand.

Here is the main page of the LOLCat Bible and following is an excerpt from the Book of John-

Teh Cat Macro Becamded Flesh

1 In teh beginz is teh meow, and teh meow sez “Oh hai Ceiling Cat” and teh meow iz teh Ceiling Cat.

2 Teh meow an teh Ceiling Cat iz teh bests frenz in teh begins.

3 Him maeks alls teh cookies; no cookies iz maed wifout him.

4 Him haz teh liefs, an becuz ov teh liefs teh doodz sez “Oh hay lite.”

5 Teh lite iz pwns teh darks, but teh darks iz liek “Wtf.”

6 And teh Ceiling Cat haz dis otehr man; his naem iz John.

7 He tellz teh ppl dat teh lites is tehre, so dat teh doodz mite bleev.

8 Him wuz not teh lite; he jsut sez teh lites is tehre.

9 Teh tru lite ov lotz of lite wuz comes, k?

10 He iz liek, “Oh hai, I mades u,” but teh wurld duznt sees him.

11 He iz comes to his stuffs, but his stuffs sez “Do not want!”

12 And sum guyz did want, and sez “Teh Ceiling Cat pwns,” and deez guyz iz liek his kidz—

13 But not liek reel kidz, k? Iz liek teh Ceiling Cats kidz.

Ceiling Cat is of course God, and The Meow (The Word) is Christ. Although he is not mentioned in the preceding passage, the Devil is Basement Cat.

It's a pretty cool little project by people who obviously have way too much time on their hands. Maybe eventually they'll get around to doing a version of The Iliad or some of the other Classics and ancient myths, which would be a real blast. For the record, I strongly recommend they avoid the temptation to translate the Koran.

Globish-A New Language Of Few Words

A new world language is here, and actually has been for some time, and it has the potential of spreading and winning wide acceptance in a way Esperanto could have never hoped to achieve. Perhaps you have noticed how, when non-English speakers learn the language, they are all remarkably similar. Well, someone has noticed it, and as a result is now pushing this potentially ground breaking and unifying new language which he calls Globish.

It contains a very basic vocabulary of just over one thousand words, and about the only people in the world who are at a disadvantage in a conversation involving Globish are speakers of English. Yet, could this possibly evolve into something more complex over time? Might we eventually have journals and novels written in Globish? Could it possibly become the world's second language of choice, and eventually, depending on its evolution over time, into the first?

Many are not thrilled at the prospect, to say the least, but there are those who find the idea appealing. I don't know, though, I think they might help their cause were they to adopt a different spokesperson, however appropriate he might seem as a model for the Globish speaker of the world.



Hat Tip to Patrick at Born Again Bourgeois

Conservapedia-aka You Have Got To Be Joking

You might consider the following exhibit A as to why the Republican Party has lost the last two elections. It is supposedly from a site called Conservapedia. Although it was founded by a son of Phyllis Schafley (based on the proposition that Wikipedia, from which it was modelled, has a liberal bias) as a conservative learning tool for home-schooled conservative children and a reference guide for social conservatives in general, this entry at least seems to read more like Landover Baptist. Click on the picture to enlarge. I have more thoughts on this matter below, as this might not be so cut-and-dried as it seems.



Sometimes it's really better to just keep your sentiments to yourelf, isn't it? Or, is this a legitimate representation of the site's views? Bear in mind, I found out about this from Wonkette.

I have to wonder if this might be a matter of trolling. Conservapedia prides itself on being harder to disrupt than Wikipedia, in that they have more stringent guidelines for posting and editing. Still, how hard could it be to open an account, wait a few weeks or even months, possibly post a few minor entries in order to secure status, and then make a submission designed to embarrass the site and make waves? One possible clue is the title of the above picture, which is "killem", but of course anyone who saves a picture from a site onto their computer can change the name of the image. If it was a legitimate or semi-legitimate (posted by a true conservative who is about three bricks short of a load), the name may have been different. Or maybe not.

To be sure, there are undoubtedly conservatives who genuinely feel this way, just as there are more than a handful of liberals who are as bad or worse. A few random samplings of the more lunatic postings of Democratic Underground, for just one example, would certainly attest to that.

Nevertheless, this is quite remarkable. Bear in mind one or a few conservative posters does not necessarily represent the majority, even on Conservapedia, which for the time being is down for "maintenance". A visit to their site reveals the following temporary posting-

Conservapedians,

We are working on some maintenance now. Conservapedia will be back up shortly.

Thank you for your patience, Conservapedia Staff

When the site is back up, I have an idea the offending posting will have been removed. In the meantime-Wonkette, if you did that, (1) you ought to be ashamed of yourselves and (2) okay, yes, that was hilarious.

And if this really was an intentional posting by Conservapedia-yes, I know many leftists and liberals are every bit as bad, but remember, the conservative movement is the one at a severe disadvantage, for now, and these kinds of antics are not helpful, to put it lightly.

UPDATE-Well, the page is back up-kind of. Yeah, the page is there, with the title Democratic Senators From States With Republican Governors. However, aside from that tile, the page is a blank, empty, save for the usual side-bar links and whatnot, the things that appear on all pages, like for example a link to the home page. Judging by this, I was correct in my assessment that the page being down for maintenance was precisely due to this article, though as far as I know they have not directly addressed the controversy yet. Maybe in time they will. I would like to see some kind of attempt at an explanation, denial, accusation of sabotage, or something, even if its something stupid. Come to think of it, that would be so much the better.

Jerusalem

Now that Hamas has claimed victory in the face of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, maybe people will finally start to catch on that this problem is never going to be solved, at least not within the lifetimes of any of us living now, if ever.

Oh, it could be solved, but there are a very few limited ways in which this could be accomplished, none of which is feasible.

1. The world communities establish a separate nation for the Palestinians away from Israeli borders. My idea would be for donated land-preferably with a coastline to facilitate trade-somewhere in an area of land somewhere near Oman or Yemen, with Saudi Arabia contributing a share of the land as well. They and the international community could help develop it. A further compensation package for Palestinian heads of households of families who are descended from those who lost property at the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 could be added. Though it might seem inordinately expensive, it would pay for itself in a decades time if it produced the desired result-peace, at long last.

The problem-The world community would never go along with this, and in fact I have been accused of promoting ethnic cleansing. So, there's one potential solution more or less out the window. What's next?

2. Hand Jerusalem over to the Palestinians. Not just the eastern part of it, all of it. Although it might seem radical, I am reasonably certain a deal could be arranged to insure the rights of Jews and Christians. The problem would be finding a significant number of them who would be willing to stay aside from Christian Arabs. It might help if Jews were allowed to rebuild the Temple, though of course they would not be able to do so on the original spot, which is now occupied by the Dome Of The Rock.

The problem-Israel is highly unlikely to accede to handing all of Jerusalem over to become the capitol of a proposed Palestinian state. It galls them beyond belief that they might have to hand over East Jerusalem back to Arab control, but most Israeli politicians seem reluctantly amenable to that in theory. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that East Jerusalem on its own will be enough. If it is ceded to the Palestinians, or to the care of the Jordanians as a protectorate much like Lichtenstein or Andorra, or even if it becomes a state in its own right like the Vatican (which would probably be impractical) it would still be a useless gesture if the entire city was not included in the package.

Why is Jerusalem such an important piece of the puzzle? Simply put, Jerusalem is the only reason this controversy continues on, and has for the last sixty years. All other issues are sideshow distractions at the least, but more to the point, they are tactical maneuvers.

Consider-if upon the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, the city of Jerusalem, all of it, were not included, but instead was given over entirely to the proposed Palestinian entity at that time, yet every single square inch of Israel was otherwise the same-this would not be such an issue, if indeed it were an issue at all.

Certainly there would have been objections, possibly even war. It might have dragged on for a decade or two, conceivably even three. But it would not have dragged on for sixty years. It would not be dragging on now, with no conceivable end in sight.

If Israel would simply give up all of Jerusalem and vacate the premises, the problem would be solved. Such non-relevant issues as the so-called "right of return" and even objections to the "apartheid wall" would vanish like the morning dew, only unlike that phenomenon, they would never be heard from again. All of the other cities lost in the formation of Israel, such as Haifa, Joppa, Tel Aviv, etc., would suddenly become distant memories in the minds and hearts of the Palestinians. And really, think about it. What is the real connection of the average Palestinian living today to those places? For the most part, their sole connection to them is through old weathered photos of a great-grandparent and in some cases a few land deeds. The vast majority of Palestinians living today have never set foot in these places, let alone lived there. Their emotional connection is hyperbolic sentimentality manufactured and encouraged by a manipulative power structure in the form of such political and religious entities as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah.

All of these entities receive their funding, what doesn't come from the international community, by way of donations from corrupt secular Arab rulers and from religious Islamic charities who draw heavily on upper middle class and upper class Muslims who adhere to a very conservative view of the Koran and Islam. Let me make it clear, this is not to say that they are all radical extremists, though some are, but for the most part they are just very conservative and orthodox in their religious views, and to them the Palestinians are a just cause. But that cause has next to nothing to do with Haifa. It has everything to do with Jerusalem.

Even Saddam Hussein, though a secular tyrant, donated money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. He did this not because he thought they were a legitimate threat to the Israeli state, nor did he do so as a means of sticking his thumb in the eye of the Zionists and their American allies. He did so because he sought to curry favor with the average Muslim not only in his country, but on an international basis.

So what is the reason that this would be such a popular issue that a blood-thirsty dictator like Saddam would use it to curry favor? The idea that Palestinian youths have been deprived of a home in Haifa taken from their great-grandparents fifty years before they were born just doesn't fly with me. Nor does anti-Jewish sentiment even serve to explain it, as Jews had lived in the area for centuries, in all parts of the Arab world, and for the most part got along seemingly well-every bit as much as they did in the hell hole for Jews that was Europe, for the most part, and when you get right down to it, probably better on the average.

Again, all of these other issues are sideshow issues and tactical maneuvers. Jerusalem is now and always was the key. It is, after all, the third holiest city of the Muslim faith.

Of course there is one third and final option for a lasting and permanent peace, aside from the two I have mentioned, and that is, as I see it, a final war resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and ending in one side or the other going down to a crushing, humiliating, and undeniable defeat. "You should see the other guy" will not be a reasonable retort.

Naturally, the international community does not want this, and will do everything in their power to prevent it, while inadverdantly serving to keep the hostilities smoldering. The real problem with that is, they might not always be in the position to forestall the inevitable. The way it stands now, the international community can barely keep its collective heads above water from an economic standpoint.

How much longer can they possibly keep the lid on this ever-boiling pot of anger, resentment, and hatred? If and when it finally blows, it's going to be a mess, but at least maybe then it will finally all be over with.

UPDATE-

Just as an afterthought, as one indication of how emotionally charged this issue is, you can go to the blog of Renegade Eye, where this has been over the course of the last month an on-going topic of discussion. It would seem that the more the topic is hashed out, the more vitriolic it becomes-

here, here, here, and here.

It would seem as though there is no realistic hopes for any kind of genuinely peaceful solution in sight-even among those of us sitting in relative comfort half a world away. What must it be like among those for whom this is more than a mere ideological concept and ideal, but instead is a day-to-day reality of life, a reality over which for the most part they have little if any control.

Obama Kicks Bush In The Nuts

This article might well be reading too much into Obama's inaugural speech. Then again, maybe not. The article points out many examples of how Obama's speech in very many ways amounted to not just a repudiation of the Presidency of George W. Bush-seeing as how Bush was present during the speech, the speech pretty much amounted to a kick in balls of the former President.

Following is just one excerpt from among many, which gives a portion of the speech text, followed by the author's rather interesting interpretation.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West –– know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.


This was not just a comment to leaders around the world. This was a comment for George, first and everyone else second. George has built nothing, he has only destroyed. His administration was shockingly corrupt, deceitful and he was just told so by an adult. “Unclench your fist.” My God. Brutal. Those three words could not describe Bush more. And it was obvious, throughout this speech, who he was talking to. Today, some historians have said no president has repudiated another so harshly during an inaugural address since Roosevelt handed Hoover his ass on a plate. And you can be sure the message was received this time.


Like I said, the author may have been reading too much into the speech. For one thing, it's hard to see how a leader blaming their problems on the west would apply to Bush-but on the other hand-well, go read the article in its entirety and judge for yourself. If anything, it's at least entertaining.

Well, after all, this is Suicide Girls.

Emmonak Alaska-American Community In Need

Rufus on Grad Student Madness originally posted about this article about the severe hardships faced by the townsfolk of Emmonak Alaska. I just thought I'd pass it on.

Emmonak Alaska, pictured above, might not look like much, but it is just one of a string of small communities in Alaska that has been hard hit by what has been called a "perfect storm" of disasters. First, the salmon catch on which these communities are so dependent has gotten so low it has necessitated the closing of a fishery which was the major employee of Emmonak. As if that weren't enough, the Yukon River experienced an early freeze in late fall. Below is a picture of an earlier freeze which transpired in the nineteen nineties.




As you can tell by the picture below, at times these freezes can come about suddenly and unexpectedly.



Most of the time, though, they are predictable enough so as to insure timely deliveries of heating fuel. This year, unfortunately, the freeze occurred too early for the usual deliveries by river, therefore forcing deliveries by air lift, which caused an exponential increase in the cost of the fuels to the extent that people found themselves paying hundreds of dollars for two weeks worth of heating fuel.

Now, roughly ninety percent of the community of Emmonak is drawing food stamps. Community leaders have urged Governor Palin to declare the entire region a disaster area, but this takes time for some reason which I'm not sure I understand. Evidently there is a bureaucratic demand that a significant amount of the population must be demonstrated to be beyond help from any other source. State officials have visited the area and attended a town hall meeting to gauge the needs of the community, which does seem to be in dire straights. Yet, according to one official in attendance, the Governor simply can't step outside her office and declare an emergency. To the outrage of many of the affected townsfolk, it was explained that these things take time, a commodity of which they are in especially short supply.

In the meantime, here is a page you can go to if you might be interesting in offering assistance in the way of donating needed goods.

When White Will Embrace What Is Right

In the above photo, we see a group of lazy, shiftless union soldiers engaged in a game of dominoes, a wanton leisure activity, instead of doing what they should have been doing, working non-stop 24/7 to destroy the evil confederacy and free their enslaved black brethren.

They should have made the attempt to embrace what was right, in other words, and we white folks of today should do likewise, just like Reverend Lowery said at President Obama's inauguration.

I guess there's just no hope for us white people, and I'm so thankful to Reverned Lowery for having the courage and integrity to point that out to all of us.

Not So Ambiguously Gay Super Heroes

Something tells me the folks at this site are kind of kidding around, but you can expect this kind of thing to become widespread the more the news circulates about the expected Showtime series about a gay superhero.

Comics legend Stan Lee is developing a new drama for Showtime about the life and times of a gay teenage superhero.

The hour long show will be based on the 2007 novel Hero by Chronicles of Narnia producer Perry Moore, who is also writing the pilot for the series. The novel tells the story of Thom Creed, a high school student just awakening to both his superpowers and his sexual identity. Afraid of the reaction of his homophobic home town, Creed struggles to keep both aspects of his life a secret.

Actually, though, it is a mistaken assumption on the part of many that this will be the first gay superhero. It will undoubtedly be the first on television, to be sure, but in reality gay and lesbian, and even transgendered heroes-and villains-have been around for some time now.

The first actual gay hero in the comics is generally considered to be Marvel's Northstar. Yet, while he may be the first, he is far from alone. In fact, their numbers at this point would appear to be legion, as proven by this list.



In fact, long-time comics fans of old might be surprised at some of the names they might out in the way of more recent developments in modern comics storylines. Robin, for example, at one point went through a villainous phase. Reason-his unrequited love for Batman. An old Marvel western hero, the Rawhide Kid, recently outed himself, but this seems to have been a ruse, probably geared toward teaching a lesson in tolerance. A renegade Skrull named Skyppi, who befriends Hercules and the Recorder, becomes their partner, and though he doesn't seem explicitly gay, he does seem to favor taking on the form of beautiful women. In one of the more well-known examples, Batwoman came out of the closet, revealing herself to be a lesbian. Nor are villains immune. The long-time Marvel villain Electro realized he was gay after a particularly long prison stint.

Where will it all lead to? One thing that has been pointed out in this Harper's article is that gay characters tend to suffer horrible fates. It is worth noting that after the much publicized outing of Northstar in Marvel's Alpha Flight series, in which he was a team member of some duration, he was quickly dropped. He was later killed, in three separate incarnations, the later two being in the context of two different examples of the bizarre and by now much overused and abused parallel universe story lines which have turned the reading of comic books into an exercise in sheer banality.

The trend will doubtless reach it's zenith with the introduction of the world's first not only openly and proudly gay super hero, but flamboyantly so. After so long, The Human Torch might want to consider adopting another battle cry.

In the meantime, if you would like to have some fun with this, you can join a forum discussion on superhero names. The moderator of one particular forum, in initiating the topic thread which asks that you suggest names for gay superheroes, put it this way.

Not gay, nothing wrong with being gay, just wondering might use it for when I write a book or something? Remember keep it kosher.

Of course, in very short order, it descended into total chaos, with the same moderator joining the fray.

My favorite name so far suggested-Assassin.

Remember, keep it kosher now.

My Own Private Little Greek Goddess

To hell with Obama and his inauguration. All you little Obama-bots are welcome to him. Here's what I'm going to be digging on today.

Agents Sentences Commuted

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, two former US Border Patrol agents previously convicted on a number of charges stemming from the shooting of an alleged drug smuggler in the course of their jobs, have had their sentences commuted in a last act of clemency by outgoing President George W. Bush. Originally sentenced to eleven and twelve years respectively, both men's sentences are now set to be served in full by March 20th of this year.

They probably never should have been charged to begin with, but the one thing that may have hurt them the most in the minds of federal prosecutors-a tempering with evidence charge-was probably the precursor to the accompanying charges. Ironically, that was the only charged overturned on appeal. The two guards had allegedly removed shell casings from the scene of the incident.

In the meantime, the smuggler in question was found not to have been armed, contrary to the agent's claims, and a van in the area, which apparently contained significant amounts of marijuana, was never proven to have belonged to the immigrant, who was shot by one of the men in the ass while attempting to flee. He was later granted the right to sue the federal government. He was later apprehended smuggling marijuana across the border.

I always wondered why Bush never pardoned the men, which, assuming the accounts I have heard are correct, he should have-and should yet. A commutation is not quite the same. They will probably never be able to regain their former jobs. Of course, that might be just as well with them, but they could also recover damages. By limiting his actions on their behalf to a commutation of their sentences, as opposed to overturning them entirely, Bush has offered a degree of protection to the federal government they probably do not deserve.

But at least after a relatively short time, they will be free men, albeit with a probably undeserved record.

Insert Not Included

That's how these crooked damn companies hook you every time. They make you think you're getting a great deal, and then you have to turn right around and buy something else before they will work. There oughta be a law.

People's Cube

Mormon Family Values And Proposition 8

I guess it won't be long now before the gay marriage issue will figure prominently as a plot device in the HBO series Big Love, a show about a polygamist Mormon family which is produced by Tom Hanks. Hanks has come out swinging in response to the recent Proposition 8 which outlawed gay marriage in California.

“The truth is this [show, "Big Love,"] takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen,” he told Tarts. “There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here’s what happens now. A little bit of light can be shed, and people can see who’s responsible, and that can motivate the next go around of our self correcting Constitution, and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards. So let’s have faith in not only the American, but Californian, constitutional process.”

Which, it seems natural that the show broach the subject matter, and that's fine as long as it does it in a thoughtful, non-condescending way, without becoming preachy about it. It might actually make for some interesting television if, for example, one of the three wives portrayed on the show had a gay brother-or if she herself were gay. If the husband turns out to have been a Proposition 8 supporter, or even donated money to the cause, it could turn out to be even more interesting.

One things for sure, under the circumstances in which the polygamist husband lives his life, he damn sure wouldn't want to end up on this map.

Across The Universe

I guess if this story is true, that our universe is in reality a giant holographic reflection from some unknown extra-dimensional universe, somebody has some 'splainin' to do. For example, to that great big giant pagan sitting somewhere the universe getting ready to smoke his umpteenth cigarette before he finally goes to bed and jacks off-come on, cut it out.

On the other hand, if I really am a nothing but a hologram, what the hell do I know? I'm probably nothing but a reflection of some superior being who has probably decided to not smoke and jack off any longer, and my current angst over my habits is just a reflection of his greater wisdom, sort of like this article of a man giving a presentation in holographic form.



I have a better idea, however, one that at least is more comforting, whether it is right or not. How about as we spread out across the universe, and accelerate due to decreasing levels of gravitational pull exerted from our central point of origin, we take on a more complex form and actually over time add dimensional depth due to the ease of restriction. Thus to those of you who see our universe from your present perspective, you are seeing a continuing process of evolution.

See, under my scenario, the best is yet to come. We are the best of what has come to pass so far, and yet, things can only get better, wouldn't you think? We should grow increasingly more complex and, as a result, more evolved. Of course, we could also all just eventually dissipate. Just in case, whatever I do between now and then, I promise not to tell.

The Rehabilitation Of Adolf Hitler

Little Adolf Hitler Campbell, along with his sisters (one of whom is named Aryan Nations) has been removed from the custody of his parents and remanded into the custody of The New Jersey Division of Youth And Family Services. One example of a good reason for this occurred when, as a portent of a long and troubled future, a New Jersey store in the families hometown of Flemington refused to decorate a birthday cake for the little boy with the objectionable name included.

Look, I don't often agree with state social services and their methods and aims, and I could care less that the parents involved are obviously Nazis or, failing that, maybe just stupid pricks. They need to leave their kids out of this kind of nonsense, and as far as I'm concerned New Jersey made the right call here.

Anybody For A Bonfire?

Know anybody that's planning on attending the Obama inauguration? Are you? If so, you should be ashamed of yourself. According to this article

The carbon footprint of Barack Obama's inauguration could exceed 575 million pounds of CO2. According to the Institute for Liberty, it would take the average U.S. household nearly 60,000 years of naughty ecological behavior to produce a carbon footprint equal to the largest self-congratulatory event in the history of humankind.

Maybe if they had already had the inauguration, my pipes wouldn't have frozen up overnight, necessitating a most appreciated speedy repair job by my local city water department. Thankfully, this was due to exposure of the main pipe outside to the sub-zero temperatures last night. They fixed and insulated them, and as an extra bonus, they repaired the outside cylinder on which the cover fits. It had previously been damaged when a neighbor parked his truck over it. Since this caused the lid not to fit adequately, the cold air pulled a number on the pipes last night. Thankfully, it was an outside, not an indoor pipe, which would have cost a pretty penny to repair.

According to environmentalists and their Congressional supporters like Henry Waxman, problems of this nature, and other things, are all due to "Global Climate Change" (because Global Warming just sounds so damn hilarious these days).

Thus, according to the article, Waxman is determined to rush through legislation as quickly as possible to deal with these issues, apparently before even more people catch on to just how nonsensical it all is, despite those of us who have already figured it out, and while there is a ton of money to be made off what is these days looking more and more to be a scam of-well, of global proportions.

Is it any wonder the chap seems to be in a bit of a hurry?

The day Waxman delivered his statement, the National Weather Service issued a warning for Chicago about wind chill somewhere in the vicinity of 25 to 40 below zero. In Maine, citizens expected something around 40 below zero. And Iowans were warned that temperatures could drop as far as 27 below. In many places across the nation, there was record-setting cold.
So, in other words, Waxman expects these unfortunate glacial souls to pay higher energy prices to shield themselves from Arctic chills in the name of global warming?
That's quite a trick.
Still, politically, the time is right for progressives to pass any legislation they please. But Democrats may also be setting themselves up for failure. This kind of central planning, after all, has a winning record envied only by the Detroit Lions.


Now that is just unfair and mean-spirited. The Lions have a pretty decent record overall, especially their Thanksgiving Day record.

I guess I can come clean now and drop the coyness, and give thanks unto the Mighty Quinn for his speedy response to my earlier invocation at Yule. Just don't scare me like that anymore, buddy.

So, Who Was Number One Again?

A flurry of news from the excellent blog Popehat, so I'll just link to the main page. I'm too lazy right now to mess with Microsoft Word, so, first things first.

No sooner do we hear that the popular British series The Prisoner has been remade and will be shown on the cable channel AMC (starring The Passion Of The Christ star Jim Caviezzel in the title role) than we learn that the old series star and creator Patrick MacGoohan has died at the age of 80.

If the new series is as good as the old reportedly was, it will serve as a fitting tribute to the life of this great actor, who also starred in the cult hit series The Avengers. AMC is showing the old series, but this is kind of a mixed bag. I don't think they could possibly top the ending of the old series, yet if they don't change it, that kind of ruins the element of surprise. Then again, it's easy enough to find that out on the internet. Or is it? Decades later, people are still debating what it means.

MacGoohan never revealed what it was, and now he has taken the secret to his grave.



On top of the news of MacGoohan's demise, it was revealed earlier that Ricardo Montalban has also died. He capped off a decades long career with an appearance in "The Wrath Of Khan", which was arguably the greatest of the Star Trek movies. Montalban, in the title role of the villainous Khan-a role he recreated from the old sixties series-made the movie and quite possibly is single-handedly responsible for re-invigorating the franchise.

That's the thing about great movie villains. You have to love them, and then again, you have to hate them.

24-Yet Another Season Of Mind-Numbing Torture

I had high hopes that this season of 24 would make up for the generally awful last season six. Tony Almeida, long presumed dead, was returning as one of the series main villains. He had plenty of reason to be bitter. When he was supposedly killed about two thirds of the way through season five, he was a victim of then current President Charles Logan, who killed Tony’s wife, and assassinated former President David Palmer, in a convoluted plot to prevent Palmer from revealing the truth about a shady plot Logan was involved in. He intended to set up Jack Bauer to take the blame for the assaults to cover his tracks, Jack having gone into hiding in order to prevent his being handed over to the Chinese for an earlier assault on their embassy, which resulted in the death of a Chinese diplomat in season four. Jack of course came out of hiding to clear his name, and when we finally learned the truth, and Logan was finally brought to justice, he ended up getting a slap on the wrist in order to prevent the nation being traumatized.

Now it turns out that Almeida was revived within ten minutes of his death by a rogue British agent who then took him in as part of his crew of domestic terrorists. (How all this happened so quickly, with Tony’s body in custody of the government agency for whom he worked, has so far not been satisfactorily explained) When Jack is subpoenaed away from a Senate Committee hearing, where he is being grilled for his use of torture in the interrogation of suspects while a member of the now-disbanded CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit), and remanded to the custody of the FBI, he learns that his old friend and partner is now not only alive, but a domestic terrorist. The group to which he belongs has gained control of the nation’s protective firewall, giving them the power to affect the national power grid, air-traffic control, water and sewage treatment plants, and a host of other things. Their goal-to blackmail current President Allison Taylor into calling off an assault on the rogue leader of an African nation bent on genocide. In the meantime, we learn that high-level officials of the American government are on the payroll of the despotic general, whose nation is rich in diamonds. As if that is not enough, Jack quickly learns that the FBI has a mole in its ranks.

So far so good, but then it all falls apart. Tony is in fact working undercover to bring down the terrorist group. As if that’s not enough, it also turns out he is working as part of a secret group of counter-terrorists made up of Jack’s former compatriots in CTU.

In other words, what was once the sharpest, edgiest show on network television has turned into a satire of itself. Something has happened to the writers of this show. They are no longer willing to take chances, the kind of chances that made this show several notches above your average television fare, and now they are pandering to the audience. That’s a sure sign of doom. First, the writers in conjunction with the networks insult their viewers intelligence, and then they throw them a few crumbs to string them along.

There was no reason to bring Tony Almeida back. He should have stayed dead, but the writers couldn’t resist using the popularity of Carlos Bernard as a ratings ploy. It would have worked too, if Almeida truly was a villain, but under the circumstances, his return to the show is meaningless drivel designed to attract viewers and shore up ratings. The use of characters Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynne Rajskaub) and William Buchanan (William Morrison) in the ridiculous plot device of devoted government servants struggling in anonymity to save the nation from the dastardly corrupt villains who have infiltrated the government, is just adding insult to injury.

True, they could salvage this season-and the show-by turning it around, but I doubt now this will happen. I have a feeling the entire series is already in the can, and so it’s probably too late to rework this obvious mess.

In the past, when 24 sprung a shocker, it had impact. You never saw it coming. In almost every season-even the god awful season six-there were usually at least one “WTF” moments that defined the season, for better or worse, even if it made no difference to the overall worth of the season.

Season One stands out still as the best of the lot. It was a non-stop nerve grinding suspense ride, starting from the abduction of Jack’s daughter and her friend by two young thugs on the payroll of a Balkan based terrorist group determined to blackmail Jack into assassinating then Presidential candidate David Palmer. This led to the later abduction of Jack’s wife Terri, who was later raped, and then finally, at the end, murdered, by Nina Meyers, the one CTU agent Jack trusted, and with whom he had previously engaged in an illicit affair, and who turned out to be the CTU mole in an unfortunately too oft-repeated plot device.

Season Two saw the sacrificial death of CTU chief George Mason, who flew an activated nuclear bomb out to a remote area of the Nevada desert, where it exploded in relative safety. Mason had been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation, and so his death was a given, but still gut wrenching in that he was previously seen as something of a heel.

Season Three saw Jack forced to do the unthinkable-he was forced to murder his then CTU boss Ryan Chappelle, in order to secure his cover in an attempt to recover a biological weapon sold to a rogue British agent by a Mexican drug cartel. Jack had previously engaged in heroin use and become an addict as part of his cover, and so this action threatened to send him into a further downward spiral. Chappelle knew it was coming, and tried to weasel out of it, but in the end, he was on his knees as Jack sent the bullet crashing into his brains. At the end, Nina Meyers was finally killed, as was Sherry Palmer, the President’s treacherous wife, and Palmer himself was forced to resign in the face of his wife’s actions-she had murdered a man to prevent him revealing his wife’s affair with the Presidents brother and Chief-of-Staff.

Season Four-Palmer’s presidential replacement was incapacitated by an attack on Air Force One, necessitating his replacement by Vice-President Charles Logan, who seems totally out of his element in the face of this season’s terrorist threat, and so calls for advice from Palmer. In this season, Logan seemingly represents a kind of perverse comic relief. He is corrupt, but seemingly incompetent, and willingly sells Jack down the river in order to keep himself politically viable.

Season Five-As already explained, former President Palmer is assassinated, as is Tony Almeida’s wife Michelle, in an assault that almost kills Almeida as well. He is later seemingly killed by a captured conspirator when he gets a little too careless in his interrogation of the man, who jams a needle with what is supposedly a lethal dose of some drug into Almeida’s stomach. It is only later that we learn that President Logan himself is the Chief ringleader of a group determined to extend America’s influence into the Central Asian region by enabling a terrorist attack by way of smuggled Russian missiles. By the end of the season, both Logan and Jack are in custody-Logan by the government, Jack by Chinese espionage agents still itching for revenge for the earlier assault on their embassy. They would later agree to return him to an almost certain death in the following stinker of a season.

Season Six-Yes, even as horrible as it was, it too had its moments, as in at the very beginning, where we learn that one of the ringleaders of the Logan cabal, a mysterious dorky looking unnamed character, was actually Jack Bauer’s treacherous brother, and that Jack’s own father is involved in a conspiracy to control the government. Both of them are killed, the brother unfortunately early on. The rest of the season devolved into nonsense. Someone decided it would be cool to make President Palmer’s brother, the aforementioned Chief-of-Staff of Season Three-the next President Logan. The only thing that salvaged this season was the re-introduction of the Chinese espionage agent over the course of the last several episodes, and in retrospect, even that now seems forced and hackneyed.

So what will be the defining moment of current Season Seven? I don’t really know, but I think it’s already come and gone. The producers of the show have lost a golden opportunity, taken what could have been a compelling idea and plot device in the resurrection and villainy of Tony Almeida, a man seemingly twisted by the drive for revenge, and turned it into just another television cliché.

Television shows succeed when they grab the viewer’s attention and make them want to tune in for more, and the key factors here are suspense, mystery, and the element of surprise. When television shows start pandering to their audiences, they throw those elements out the window. Then the viewers tune in to How I Met Your Mother.

Of course, I could be wrong, but when a series jettisons its most promising and compelling plot device this early on, it’s not a good sign.

South Korean Blogger Jailed For Criticizing Economic Policies

This is a story you might expect to hear come out of Pyonyang, not Seoul. How much longer will it be before the internet is regulated by some kind of international treaty which will make it illegal, according to international law, to criticize international trade or financial policies? If that ever does happen, which is not beyond the realm of possibility, to what other areas could this lead in the way of regulation? Don't laugh, international regulations of the internet of various types have already been discussed, though typically this involves the use of internet communications involving things such as sex crimes and alleged terrorist communications. Now, in the face of the current and seemingly never-ending global financial crisis, we have the following story from the International Herald Tribune.

Among governments struggling to contain the global financial crisis, South Korea set a rare and controversial example over the weekend by arresting a popular blogger who was accused of undermining the financial markets but worshipped by many Koreans as an online guru.

The man, known throughout South Korea by the pen name of Minerva - after the Roman goddess of wisdom - upset the government with his doomsayer's forecasts for the economy and his satirical attacks on President Lee Myung Bak's policies.

But when some of his predictions on the markets proved right, he gained a huge following among South Koreans fretting over an uncertain economic future.

Park Dae Sung's arrest on Saturday on charges of spreading false online information with a harmful intent - a crime punishable by up to five years in prison - came as the South Korean government was escalating its efforts to fight the fallout of the global financial turmoil. Last week, Lee's administration established an emergency economic task force to be based inside the presidential Blue House's "war room," an underground bunker fitted with security hot lines.

"I wrote articles to help those people alienated from the government - small merchants, individuals and ordinary people who had suffered from the financial crisis," Park told journalists on Saturday before he was jailed. "I plead not guilty."

For months, both the media and the authorities have scrambled to identify Minerva, who has uploaded more than 100 anonymous postings in Daum, the country's second-largest Web portal. He achieved a prophet's status after he predicted the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, the crash of the Korean currency and the effects of the toxic U.S. mortgage crisis eventually engulfing South Korea.

The commentary that got him in trouble was his claim on Dec. 29 that the government issued an "emergency order" to financial firms and major corporations to stop buying U.S. dollars in a dire effort to arrest the fall of the Korean won. The government was forced to issue a denial to calm the market, though officials had previously appealed to large companies to stop hoarding dollars.

Kim Yong Sang, a judge at the Seoul Central District Court, approving Park's arrest, said his blogging "affected foreign exchange markets and the nation's credibility."

According to the article in the International Herald Tribune, this guy got typically one hundred thousand readers per post. You can bet if he had spent the majority of his time promoting the economy and the Korean markets, and defending the Korean government, I wouldn't be blogging about this, because I never would have heard of the guy. Yet, wouldn't that under the circumstances be more of a crime? Criminal activity is all too often defined by law-makers and by law-enforcement in self-serving and manipulative ways, and this is certainly an example of that, albeit an extreme one.

I promise you will never hear of some stock market analyst, professional or otherwise, being prosecuted for promoting certain stocks, bonds, or market funds-save for those rare cases involving conflict of interest-regardless of how ill-advised it might turn out to be to heed their advice. Why then should someone be prosecuted for advising the opposite. It shouldn't be illegal to be a wet blanket. What if someone had sounded the alarm years ago over Bernie Maddoff's suspicious fund, and warned us all that it sounded more like some kind of advanced Ponzi scheme than a legitimate investment opportunity? Yet, of course as we all know now, that turns out to have been the case.

This guy predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers literally days before it happened, something nobody here saw coming, yet he has a mere two year college degree-not an economics degree, but in some kind of tech-related field. He established an on-line persona as some old Korean farmer with an inexplicably advanced knowledge of economic language and trends. He is actually in his early twenties, and probably devised the persona out of a perceived need to protect his anonymity in the face of growing controversy. Yet, his persona was not that far removed from reality.

There are people that just seem to have a natural knack for seeing into certain things for which they have no advanced training or background. There are far too few of them, and they come along far too seldom, but when they do, they can have a huge impact. Had he been trained in this field, he probably would have kept his mouth shut and been just another cog in the wheel.

I would also like to note that the South Korean government in this case, in doing what Minerva accused them of doing while denying they did it and accusing him of a crime for blogging about it, may have broken some kind of international law by attempting to interfere with the international trade in dollars. The only thing Mr. Sung seems to have gotten wrong is his statement that there was some kind of "emergency order" as opposed to what the government described in almost cordial terms as an appeal to stop hoarding US dollars.

Yet, he got his facts slightly wrong, which gave the government the wriggle room they needed to pounce. That is the beginning of an authoritarian state, and may be yet another sign of the imminence of the coming ultimate collapse-to me, a welcome one-of the much-lauded "global economy". It should not let the door hit its ass on the way out.

Sigur Ros-Gobbledygook