Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Ivanhoe Pale Ale. Brewed by Ridgeway Brewing in South Stoke, Oxfordshire U.K.

Ok, the picture is a little fuzzy. Whatever. This is beer blogging damnit! A distinct lack of clarity is in order, even if nothing else is. In reality, the fact that you can’t clearly see the label is a bit of a shame because it is one of the better ones. Two very postmodern two dimensional Knights mid joust surrounded by heroic phrases such as “It cannot be that in England there will not be found one to fight for justice.” How can you go wrong?

As it turns out, you can’t. Ivanhoe is a wonderful pale ale which Ridgeway describes as “A very English pale ale.” Absolutely the best English beer I’ve tasted since the last time I had a Bluebird Bitter. No matter what sorry condition you find yourself in this fine morning, run out and grab yourself a bottle or two.

That, or do what you were doing. I don’t really care. I just pretend I do, because I assume that will endear me to you bastards.

Since Susie linked and people are looking, I just want to expand a little on my nearly non-existent commentary on the previous post. First of all, I wish the woman who received the world’s first face transplant all the best. I never meant the post to be cruel. I hope nobody took it that way.

Facial disfiguration is one of the most psychologically debilitating injuries a human being can ever experience. So long as the eyes are spared great harm, facial disfiguration is not an injury that keeps a person from climbing stairs without aid, buying beer at the corner store or walking down the street. It is, however, an injury that makes leaving the house a traumatic experience - an easily understandable agoraphobia.

Human beings, by their very nature, rely on facial expressions as a primary means of communication. It’s a little late and I’m a hair past drunk so I may be a bit off here, but I think that communication via facial expression is one of the defining characteristic of most of the large primates. Whatever. The reaction that most of us have to a person bearing a severelydisfigured face is, even with our huge brains and our well thought out moral codes, not particularly attractive. Whatever - I’m not sure where I’m going with this, so I’ll stop while I’m not too far behind.

I’m not interested in having a giggle at the expense of a woman who has suffered traumatic injury and undergone very experimental surgery which may, in the long run, benefit many. I was really just having a giggle at my own, nearly 20 year, addiction to cigarettes. I’ve amazed myself on many an occasion by smoking heavily regardless of whether I was quite healthy or quite ill.

I’ve known some to stop smoking with the flu or even a sore throat. Hell, I’ve known some to give up for a day or two because they are just too lazy to walk to the corner store. That’s not me. I always smoked through the flu, no matter how high the fever or how badly my lungs hurt. If anything, I probably smoked just a little more because I’m a bit of a baby about not feeling well and smoking always made my brain feel a just little better. I even smoked straight through an extremely unpleasant case of tuberculosis when I was a teenager. I barely had an inkling that I should stop, no matter how much my lungs felt like they had been intimate with 10,000 tiny band saws. Smoke gets in your eyes. Sometimes it leaks into your brain, in which case it’s damn hard to get out.

That’s all really. I understand why somebody who lost one face and just got another would feel the need to have a drag despite the best medical advise. That’s exactly what I would be doing.

Smoking is bad….blah..blah..blah. Good night!

This sounds like my kind of addict:

The world’s first face transplant recipient is using her new lips to take up smoking again, which doctors fear could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection.

Who wouldn’t start smoking again after a face transpant? Anybody?

[update] I have a short addendum to this post here.

I thought the problems with new site design were resolved. I was very wrong. Everything is a mess. I present you with the old design for another day or month or five. I really just don’t have the time for this shit. Carry on.

I noticed that several of the sites that host MP3 versions of Dr. King’s speeches are running very slowly today so I’ll try to help out with some bandwidth. Here’s an mp3 of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech delivered on August 28, 1963 in Washington. The full text is beneath the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Gore’s speech is live on C-Span right now. Go have a look if you can. Here’s the prepared text:

Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America’s Constitution is in grave danger.

In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

Read the rest of this entry »

So it looks like my site design is broken. Perhaps this has always been so. Try not to scroll down too far for the next day or so because it gets ugly. Just when I think I have a handle on this madness I go and break everything. For whatever reason, it seems to render properly in Internet Explorer which is always a good sign that you’ve really gone and hosed things up. Carry on.

It wasn’t a mention of the poll discussed below, but I was a little shocked to hear Arlen Specter say that impeachment and then criminal prosecution would be the remedy if Bush broke the law by authorizing illegal wire taps. This was in response to a question from George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. Here’s the transcript.

STEPHANOPOULOS: There was a lot of talk about that at the Alito hearings, and listening closely to you I certainly seem to take away that you believe the president does not have the right, does not have the inherent power under the Constitution to circumvent a constitutional law, and as far as you are concerned, the FISA law is constitutional, isn’t it?

SPECTER: Well, I started off by saying that he didn’t have the authority under the resolution authorizing the use of force. The president has to follow the Constitution. Where you have a law which is constitutional, like Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, there still may be collateral different powers in the president under wartime circumstances.

That’s a very knotty question that I’m not prepared to answer on a Sunday soundbite. But I do believe that it ought to be thoroughly examined. And when we were on the Patriot Act and found the disclosure of the surveillance, I immediately said the Judiciary Committee would hold hearings, and I talked to the attorney general, and we’re going to explore it in depth, George. You can count on that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, if the president did break the law or circumvent the law, what’s the remedy?

SPECTER: Well, the remedy could be a variety of things. A president — and I’m not suggesting remotely that there’s any basis, but you’re asking, really, theory, what’s the remedy? Impeachment is a remedy. After impeachment, you could have a criminal prosecution, but the principal remedy, George, under our society is to pay a political price.

From Democrats.com:

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge’s approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from January 9-12.

The poll found that 52% agreed with the statement:

“If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.”

43% disagreed, and 6% said they didn’t know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.

From the same article:

In August and September of 1998, 16 major polls asked about impeaching President Clinton (http://democrats.com/clinton-impeachment-polls). Only 36% supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported actual impeachment and removal. Even so, the impeachment debate dominated the news for months, and the Republican Congress impeached Clinton despite overwhelming public opposition.

So when I wake up at an unreasonably early hour tomorrow morning to watch my Sunday morning political chat shows, what are the chances that I’ll hear even a single word about the fact that a slim majority of the American people favor Bush’s impeachment over the NSA scandal? If you answered “not a chance in hell” I’ll gladly give you a jelly bean in the flavor and brand of my choosing. Just to make things fair, I’ll eat a jelly bean myself if I’m wrong about this. No small punishment, mind you, as I don’t care for sweets and I really hate jelly beans. Ah, Punditry. The last refuge of the naive, the moronic, the evil and the highly paid, though stangely respected whore.

(Via some guy you never heard of)

One of the ideas that has been floating around for a few years now is that if universal health care is ever established in the United States it will be due to pressure from big business rather than the efforts of socialist do-gooders. I’m not an economist so forgive me if I’m completely mistaken here, but my general understanding is that American business faces a competitive disadvantage when going head to head against businesses based in nations with subsidized health care. This is due to the huge cost of insuring employees. Some of that burden has been shifted to the employees over the last few decades, but even with those concessions the cost of insurance makes American workers very expensive. This is exemplified in the current dire financial plight of both General Motors and Ford. Needless to say, the self proclaimed Libertarians of the world will fight any effort to establish universal healthcare tooth and nail. Most will say that this is because they are morons, but I’d also add that they are immoral, spiteful and hateful.

That brings me to a bit of personal history and a strategy for recouping some money I never thought I’d see again. This is a bit embarrassing, so forgive me if I’m not totally forthcoming. You see, I have an entire warehouse of these things rotting away in Shanghai.

That, my friends, is the ProjectGastro Self Surgery Kit. The plan was to sell them for $299 to those with no access to affordable healthcare and to companies looking to cancel their employees’ healthcare coverage. It was the late 90’s and do-it-yourself was all the rage. Why not self surgery? Here’s the original marketing pitch:

The ProjectGastro Self Surgery Kit marks a Major Breakthrough in over the counter consumer health care. Utilizing cutting edge surgical techniques, devices and pharmaceuticals the ProjectGastro Self Surgery Kit allows anyone to perform major surgery on themselves, their loved ones and their neighbors. This remarkable product is designed with the average consumer in mind and is so easy to use that even children and the feeble-minded will be performing major surgery on themselves in days.

Sounds perfect doesn’t it? I bet you’d love to get your hands on one. The thing is, you can’t. Not a chance. The damn things are illegal. My initial mistake was in approaching the Food and Drug Administration for approval during the Clinton administration. Clinton had packed the FDA with goody two shoes pencil necks with degrees from accredited universities and a serious grudge against the kind of innovation I was bringing to the table. Wimps.

Along comes January of 2001; a new administration in office and a fresh chance. These people didn’t care about delusional notions of public safety - surely not where money was involved. At the time I wrote these hopeful words.

Unfortunately, if you live in the United States you can’t get the Self Surgery Kit. This is due to the extreme left wing, anti-capitalist leanings of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Our hope is that the incoming Bush administration will significantly weaken consumer protections and allow the approval of the Self Surgery Kit. At present, the only area of the world where one can legally obtain a ProjectGastro Self Surgery Kit is in Southeast Asia, where consumer protections are very nearly nonexistent. ProjectGastro encourages interested consumers to call their Senators and Congresspersons to protest the communist, anti-corporate leaning of the FDA.

Alas, it was not to be. As it turns out, when you elect people into government who hate government, they aren’t so effective at the whole governance thing. Last I heard, my application to the FDA was being used as a paper hat in an interdepartmental game of cops and robbers. Such is life.

I listened in on a discussion the other evening about establishing a futures market for vaccines. Sort of an Enron of pandemic prevention and it seemed a brilliant strategy, though I must admit to being shade north of too intoxicated to really participate in any meaningful way. Nevertheless, it reminded me of that little warehouse in China and dreams I thought long dead. If we can have an Enron of vaccine, surely we can have self surgery. Perhaps now is the time?

Addendum, clarification and a little madness after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

A cynical person might look at the timing of Bush’s recent “grave threat” rumblings and think to themselves that the posturing might have something to do with poll numbers and congressional elections. One cynical person has even drawn up a time line of just how such a political ploy might play out. Count me among the cynical.

One would hope that the public is just a little wiser this time around; not so willing to jump on board the crazy train. One might even foster a little hope that the news media might be a little more probing and maybe ask a tough question or two. Maybe they will even point out that the military is stretched so thin at the moment that the surreal fantasies of war enthusiasts are out of the question. There is no such hope for the great majority of the punditry. They are as stupid and naive and hackish and dishonest as ever. Through disaster after stinking disaster, the pads have remained securely fastened to their knees.

This is not to dismiss the fact that Iranian president Ahmedi Nejad is either an unhinged loon or an expert at playing one to score political points. There are legitimate concerns which need to be addressed seriously, by serious people and not used for domestic political gain. As long as Bush is in office and Republicans retain control of congress, there is no chance of that happening.

It’s all very sad and frustrating. Oh well, here’s a panda.

This isn’t going to sit well with Catholics now is it? Likely confirmation my ass.

(Via Alas, a Blog)

St Peter’s English Ale brewed by St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk, UK.

I’m a sucker for a funny bottle and the ale is nothing if not tasty. Maybe not as cute as baby pandas or glowing pigs, but well worth the trip. For those of you who are into organic foods, this beer is certified organic. As a side note, the unique oval bottle is a replica of one produced in the Philadelphia area in the seventeen hundreds.

So that last post is a good example of why you shouldn’t drink and blog. Consider it a warning. The same thing could happen to you. To make up for my poor judgement and any harm I may have caused, I offer this panda in a tree.

Wolcott:

The warbloggers profess to be outraged, sickened, and appalled by Mideast violence yet increasingly are giving vent to their own violent fantasies directed at domestic foes, whom they consider traitors, appeasers, etc. They fantasize about their least favorite bloggers being beheaded, or hanging liberal traitors from lamp posts should there be another terrorist attack. Sites like Little Green Footballs, Atlas Shrugs, and their ilk have a lynch-mob mentality that has gotten uglier as the situation in Iraq has worsened. They blame Cindy Sheehan (recently voted “Idiotarian of the Year” at LGF), Michael Moore, and liberal Democrats for how badly the war has gone because they don’t have the courage and honesty to blame the real architects of failure: Rumsfeld, who went to war with too few troops to carry out an occupation; Wolfowitz and the rest of the neocon brain trust, who assured Americans that the invasion would be greeted with flowers and candy, and the war would pay for itself through oil revenues; the U.S. military, which didn’t anticipate a strong insurgency and arrogantly ran roughshod over the Iraqi people early in the occupation, enflaming the insurgency even more; and Bush himself, who in a moment of almost sociopathic hubris, taunted the insurgency with the three words that should be chiseled in disgrace on the wall of his future presidential library: “Bring ‘em on.”he warbloggers profess to be outraged, sickened, and appalled by Mideast violence yet increasingly are giving vent to their own violent fantasies directed at domestic foes, whom they consider traitors, appeasers, etc. They fantasize about their least favorite bloggers being beheaded, or hanging liberal traitors from lamp posts should there be another terrorist attack. Sites like Little Green Footballs, Atlas Shrugs, and their ilk have a lynch-mob mentality that has gotten uglier as the situation in Iraq has worsened. They blame Cindy Sheehan (recently voted “Idiotarian of the Year” at LGF), Michael Moore, and liberal Democrats for how badly the war has gone because they don’t have the courage and honesty to blame the real architects of failure: Rumsfeld, who went to war with too few troops to carry out an occupation; Wolfowitz and the rest of the neocon brain trust, who assured Americans that the invasion would be greeted with flowers and candy, and the war would pay for itself through oil revenues; the U.S. military, which didn’t anticipate a strong insurgency and arrogantly ran roughshod over the Iraqi people early in the occupation, enflaming the insurgency even more; and Bush himself, who in a moment of almost sociopathic hubris, taunted the insurgency with the three words that should be chiseled in disgrace on the wall of his future presidential library: “Bring ‘em on.”

What comes of this adventure? Surely I don’t know. Should the adventure end in some grand miracle by day’s end, some 2212 American soldiers will still be quite dead and some 15955 more will be wounded - often in ways that are too uncomfortable to see let alone live with. Far more will suffer psychological damage that only veterans really know. Due to the failed state of he US Department of Veterans Affairs, we should all expect to see at least a few of them, presenting an irrational front and begging for change at our local subway station in the very near future (tomorrow?). To quote Ricky Watters “For who, for what?”

When we look back on this era and this war as old men and women, my guess is that we’ll be tempted to dismiss it as minor. That is of course, assuming that nothing catastrophic occurs before all is said and done. Numbers, with no analysis, can mask awful truths.

The American military is so far in advance of any other on the face of the earth that mass casualties like those endured in Vietnam, Korea and the First and Second World Wars are almost entirely out of the question. The training and the equipment (even the defective stuff) is amazing. The American military, as it stands now, was designed to capture Moscow - mid nuclear war. No joke. In reality, no fighting force this world has ever known can stand face to face with the American military and expect anything other than complete annihilation.

This, of course leads to guerilla tactics, for which the military seems oddly unprepared. Such tactics are quite effective against a vastly superior force. One could take an hour and read just about any eighth grade history textbook and gain a decent understanding of this. Guerilla tactics are, after all, the reason Pennsylvania and New York are no longer part of the British Empire.

The leadership of our country will, sadly, occupy their seats of power for some years to come. Perhaps we should consider donating them some eighth grade history texts in the hopes they may glean a little understanding of the foe they have chosen. Of course, should that to happen, it would be far, far too late.

For Who? For What? Those are damn fine questions at this stage of the game. Granted, they would have been more effective had they been vigorously pursued by those with the power to ask such questions. To ask truth from power is no sin and, in my mind, it represents the defining quality of a great American.

Democracy. This is a word that speaks to the inner reaches of most socially aware Americans. Our nation is, in reality, a republic, but the concept of democracy is our holy grail. It’s what makes us tear up watching fireworks on the Fourth of July or gazing at the humble building where our great nation was formed by men whose lives and livelihood were at risk of punishment by death for even being in a place where such radicalism was discussed. That radicalism was for us.

Our Republic did not come to us by accident or by coercion. Much force was required to expel those who thought our crazed notions were violations of the law of both King and God. Our forefathers, even with all of their many faults, believed more of humanity than any major governing body ever had in the history of civilized human societies. They were right. All humanity deserves the chance to prove that this is so.

Straying away from ideals for a moment, there are very few instances where a just and serious republican form government has evolved when the guns are aimed by an occupying force. Surely Germany and Japan are exceptions, but the building blocks of democracy were already in place in both those nations. Democracy thrives on the sweeping dream of people who believe in the greatness of humanity. Democracy can only exist in places where a large middle class exists. Representative government breaks out in the presence of a sizable middle class because that middle class has vested interest in both stability and effective government.

Is this the case in Iraq?

In truly harsh places, representative government breaks out rarely and when more than a few people are willing to stand up and take a bullet - their heads filled with the nobility of humanity. Their heads filled with lead.
More later…I’m sleepy

I’m going to run the risk of being dubbed a Holocaust denier, but some recent comments by Iranian president Ahmedi Nejad beg for clarification, especially since Sheriff Bush and Deputy Blair have been using them to justify stern action against this member of the Axis of Evil.  First, let’s examine what he actually said, why he said it, and who he said it to. The controversial remarks went something like this:

“If somebody in their country questions God, nobody says anything, but if somebody denies the myth of the massacre of Jews, the Zionist loudspeakers and the governments in the pay of Zionism will start to scream,” he said. “Our proposal is this: give a piece of your land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska so they (the Jews) can create their own state.”

It doesn’t seem to me that he himself declared the Holocaust a myth.  The first part of the sentence sets his comments in the context of what he perceives as Europe’s accepted culture of atheism/agnosticism, then stating that “screaming” about Holocaust is given precedence.  In his reference to God, he is appealing directly to the hardline clerics and religious-minded Iranians moreso than he is trying to engage in moral muckraking with Western audiences. His logical conclusion is that, if Europeans and Zionists are so keen to scream about the Holocaust, then they should host the Jewish state rather than punish the Arabs.

 Why did he make these remarks? Just like his Western counterparts who condemned him, Ahmedi Nejad is scoring some points.  In his case, he is appeasing the hardliners in the clerical establishment and appealing to the broader Islamic world for support in Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology.  Bush and Blair were quick to respond, citing the “firebrand’s” comments as stark proof that Iran is a sick, extremist country who can only be stopped by military intervention. For only the reason that it will strengthen Bush’s claim to militaty action, Ahmedi Nejad should have known better. But if history does not elude us entirely, he did have a point: Europeans committed the Holocaust, not Arabs, so why should Arabs be forced to suffer as recompense?

As many of you are well aware, I’m just about as lazy a lazy bastard as you’ll ever find. It’s a wonder I manage to bathe myself let alone hold a steady job. So you can imagine the wave of joy that swept over me when I learned that the Army is planning to provide propaganda to bloggers free of charge. You read that right. FREE!

Word comes from RL that the Army has hired PR firm Hass MS&L of Detroit to offer “exclusive editorial content” to blogs willing to run government propaganda.

“The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out,” account executive Charlie Kondek has written to a number of pro-military blogs in a January 6 Email.

“To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content on a few issues you’re likely to be interested in,” Kondek says. The Email has been mentioned in Black Five, One Hand Clapping and Fuzzilicious Thinking.

I’m not sure I know what the think of this. Military families are increasingly relying on soldier blogs and support networks based on blogs to keep in touch, and maybe this is an innocuous way for the Army to push its “public affairs” content to the new medium.

But the “content” under discussion, an Army public affairs officer tells me, is not the nitty gritty of deployments and living conditions overseas. It is planned to be an official counter to the perceived unwillingness of the mainstream media to report the “good news” from Iraq and the war on terror.

I was getting sick of sticking to my principals anyway. It’s just so much work and it bores the shit out of the neighbors. You know what be extra special super duper great? If the army would include a George Bush action figure with Kung Fu grip with every blogger propaganda packet. All the kids at my cubicle farm would be so jealous.

Via The Poor Man

This will be great for those dark nights when the navigational system in your unitard goes haywire and you need to find your way back to the pig mines.

From the BBC:

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that glow in the dark. They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through.

The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo.

They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through.

The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo.

Well not so much Alito himself, but C-Span’s all night replay of the Judiciary Committee hearings has really helped me with my insomnia. I think I fell asleep at about 3:30 last night, which is pretty good for me . Sam, I think you’ll make a lousy Supreme Court Justice, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being as dull as a brick.

I haven’t posted any music in a while. Since I’ve been a bit short on words recently, this seems as good a time as any to try to make you listen to something decent. Tonight’s track is titled Cascade, written and performed by Sam Rivers (tenor saxophone) and Dave Holland (bass). Cascade is the second side of the 1976 album Dave Holland - Sam Rivers. At some point in the future I’ll discuss both of them in some depth, but not tonight. If you know little of modern Jazz, know that if you listen to this track that you that are listening to giants. The track is 21 minutes long and every second is wonderful. Enjoy.

Click here to listen or download.