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Steve Pollock
1443 Wisteria Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4643

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734 / 846-6498

AirBeagle is best viewed in Mozilla’s Firefox or Apple’s Safari or even Omniweb. It works in Opera and Netscape, just not as well. You’re on your own there.

And for you Internet Explorer users: Break the shackles of Microsoft and get a REAL browser! AirBeagle works in I.E., but not that well … because I.E. is a bloated piece of crap, the engineers of which should be flogged repeatedly with copies of Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing With Web Standards.

1. I was born in Roswell, NM, almost 20 years to the day after John Denver. Yes, THAT Roswell. No alien jokes necessary – I’ve heard ‘em all.

2. I am a Sagitarrius, but think it’s all mostly a buncha harmless hooey.

3. I was baptized in the Church of the Nazarene.

4. I spent several years in a church loosely affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

5. Which explains why I am now very much against organized religion.

6. My number one pet peeve is hypocrisy.

7. The cities I have lived in are Roswell; Clovis, NM; Duncan, OK; Plano, TX; Dallas, TX; Pleasant Hill, CA; Highlands Ranch, CO; San Francisco, CA; and Ann Arbor, MI

8. I moved 14 times between 1994-98, mostly to different apartments around the north Dallas area.

9. My favorite cities in the world are Berlin, Germany, and Venice, Italy.

10. My least favorite city in the world is London, England.

11. I have much trouble understanding my native language as it is spoken in its native land.

12. I love the countryside between Cracow and Oswiecim, Poland.

13. I love to travel, especially by plane or on long road trips.

14. I have visited 31 of the 50 United States.

15. I have flown over 8 of the remaining 19.

16. I can’t wait to visit Vermont and hope to live there someday.

17. I have been to six foreign countries: England, France, Germany, Poland, Austria and Italy.

18. I was once yelled at by a London cabbie.

19. I threw an angry ugly American fit at Charles deGaulle airport outside Paris when I didn’t get the seat assignment I was promised.

20. I am deeply ashamed of number 19.

21. I was also deeply ashamed of patronizing Planet Hollywoods, Hard Rock Cafes and Virgin Records stores in Paris, London and Berlin.

22. I wish I could live in Salzburg, Austria.

23. My ancestors on my mother’s side came from Siegen, near Cologne, Germany. Other relatives came from County Coleraine, Ireland, and from England.

24. I am related to both Belle Starr and Black Jack Ketchum. Although my great-great-grandfather was named John W. Booth, I am not apparently actually related to John Wilkes Booth.

25. I used to cry every single day when I was forced to go to school.

26. I became very near-sighted in second grade; my eyes got steadily worse until the deterioration suddenly stopped in 12th grade; I have had the same contact prescription for over 20 years.

27. I rode a helicopter when I was eight and screamed from the time we left the ground ‘til the time we landed.

28. I am afraid of heights, but only in buildings or roller coasters. I love being on top of very high mountains or cliffs.

29. I locked myself out of the house one night wearing nothing at all when I was nine years old.

30. I pretended to be Evel Knievel when I was in elementary school in the early ‘70s and built lots of ramps to jump my bike over.

31. I played the cornet in junior high and high school band. I played it badly.

32. I graduated high school with honors, but college with only a 2.79 gpa. College bored me.

33. My favorite subjects are history and English.

34. My least favorite subjects are math and science.

35. I have a major book fetish, especially European history.

36. My kindergarten class had the privilege to tour the first Boeing 747s ever built before they entered airline service with Pan Am; Boeing engineers gave me a Lifesavers during the tour.

37. I was never in a fight in school and have never hit anyone in anger.

38. I collect commercial airline memorabilia from the golden age, 1930s-1960s.

39. I miss the days of Braniff International’s Easter egg colored airplanes and ‘air-stripping hostesses.’

40. I collect Playmates interactive Simpsons toys.

41. I love ‘South Park,’ but suspect it is full of fascist Republican propaganda.

42. My favorite TV show of all time is ‘Northern Exposure.’

43. I detest reality TV, but am currently completely hooked on BBC’s ‘Changing Rooms.’

44. My favorite guilty pleasure, movie-wise, is ‘Steel Magnolias.’

45. My favorite movie of all time is ‘The Best Years Of Their Lives.’ A close second is ‘An American In Paris.’

46. I am a major Hitchcock fan.

47. I love pretty much any movie made before about 1965.

48. My favorite actresses are Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell.

49. My favorite actors are Cary Grant, James Stewart, Gene Kelly and Farley Granger.

50. No other actor or actress (especially those working today) are fit to lick the shoes of Joan, Katherine, Rosalind, Cary, Gene, James or Farley.

51. I once saw Redd Foxx at the Oklahoma City airport. He got angry when we pretended not to know who he was.

52. I once saw Doug McClure at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. My aunt got his autograph.

53. I saw the cast and crew of ‘Party of Five’ film an episode at my office building in San Francisco.

54. I stood in line at different times to get the autographs of Patricia Nell Warren, author of ‘The Front Runner,’ Armistead Maupin, author of ‘Tales of the City,’ and Jan Karon, author of the ‘Mitford’ series.

55. I am a major fan of Doris Day’s movies and albums; ‘Mr. Tap Toes’ is one of my earliest musical memories.

56. I don’t think Rock Hudson or Montgomery Clift were particularly good looking.

57. But I would have jumped into bed in a heartbeat with Farley Granger or Guy Madison (or both!)

58. I’m attracted to Ben Affleck, but think he’s a bad actor.

59. I would be attracted to Matt Damon, but he reminds me too much of a 12-year-old and that makes me nervous.

60. I enjoy being totally alone much of the time.

61. I have over 425 movies on DVD.

62. I can be a movie Nazi.

63. I know very little about music – just what I like.

64. Britney Spears is my worst nightmare – on so many levels.

65. I cry when reading sentimental books like R.F. Delderfield’s ‘A Horseman Riding By,’ ‘The Green Gauntlet,’ and ‘To Serve Them All My Days.’ This causes great conflict inside me, because I’m an English major and these books aren’t particularly good literature.

66. One of my favorite books is Elleston Trevor’s ‘Bury Him Among Kings.’

67. The worst job I ever had was mopping the floor of the diner in a Woolworth store.

68. The best job I ever had was small town newspaper reporter.

69. I scream at TV news reporters and anchors when the evening news is on.

70. I believe we live in a corporate Fascist police state.

71. I believe the official explanations about 9/11 are … incomplete.

72. I have a potty mouth sometimes, which is ironic because, when I was a kid, cussing made me very angry.

73. I cut my own hair. Sometimes the results leave a little to be desired.

74. My beagle has me wrapped around his paw and is lord and master of the manse.

75. Happiness is a warm beagle.

76. I hate seafood.

77. I barely tolerate oriental food.

78. I love Tex-Mex and Italian.

79. I eat toast every morning for breakfast.

80. Chocolate-coated breakfast cereals are gross, yet I drink chocolate milk every morning.

81. Minor earthquakes are fun.

82. Chasing tornadoes is even more fun.

83. I miss thunderstorms. There aren’t any in San Francisco.

84. The best thing about living in San Francisco is the fog.

85. The worst thing about living in San Francisco is … it’s crowded. We’re wedged in here like rabbits in cages, for god’s sake!

86. I take home the soaps/shampoos from every hotel I visit.

87. Sunshine and deep blue skies depress me.

88. Rainy days make me very, very happy.

89. I hate it when my teeth aren’t brushed.

90. The toilet seat must be down.

91. The toilet paper goes over the roll, not under.

92. I take a shower every morning and a bath every night.

93. 250-threadcount sheets, changed at least three times a week, are the only way to go.

94. I am a night owl and prefer to stay up until at least 3 a.m.

95. However, I also love being up and seeing the dawn.

96. My oldest and dearest friends have been around for over 26 years and are as close as family.

97. Upon my death, I want to be cremated.

98. I doubt the existence of a hereafter.

99. I have never stolen anything from anyone in my life.

100. I can be an accomplished liar, when need arises.

News from California: « An experiment with RFID badges for attendance purposes fails for a community school »:

‘It started with a girl who went home from junior high saying she felt like an orange. Lauren Tatro, 13, told her parents the plain facts. Every student at Brittan Elementary School had to wear a badge the size of an index card with their name, grade, photo — and a tiny radio identification tag. The purpose was to test a new high-tech attendance system. To the eighth-grader, it seemed students had been turned into grocery items on the shelf, slabs of sirloin at the meat counter, fruit in the produce section. So began a difficult stretch for this town of 2,885. Outraged parents claimed the school was trampling their children’s privacy and civil liberties, maybe even threatening their health. School board meetings overflowed. Folks talked of George Orwell, Big Brother and the Bible. The American Civil Liberties Union joined the fray. Parents picketed. TV news crews from as far away as Germany descended on the 600-student school.’

— LA Times

After much ado and hoo-haw and won’t somebody please think of the children, the company that started the whole thing cancelled the whole experiment, took their toys and went home.

But don’t cry too hard for them; as always, controversy is the best publicity you can get. You can’t buy the publicity that occurs when adults start yelling at each other over kids (or other things for that matter).

Savvy people know this. Madonna, for instance, wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for controversy; that Sex book was a complete joke, more stupid than sexy and her singing has never been particularly noteworthy. She owes her career and her millions to her ability to market herself through controversy. The more she was denounced from pulpits and had parental warning stickers stuck on her albums, the more money she made, ensuring that she made more albums and more controversy. That’s been her cycle for over twenty years, and it’s worked like a charm.

Just like it’s worked charmingly for InCom:

‘Ever since InCom’s name began appearing on TV and in newspaper stories around the country, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Many are callers from school districts wanting to adopt the technology. Ahlers said he won’t be surprised if some states eventually require the technology in schools. “This has been a very, very good experience,” he said. “They spelled our name right and spread it across the country.”’

Bingo. The bottom line. They lost the battle in Sutter, but may have just won the entire war for the rest of the country. Growth and profits will ensue and, just like the man said, some state legislators (southern and Republican, I predict) will embrace the whole thing and start requiring school children to be branded like cattle. The rest of society won’t be far behind; teachers will be tagged like students; Wal-Mart, the leviathan who may have done more than any other entity to bring RFID to maturity and popularity, will start tagging employees, and so on. And it will all be done in the name of efficiency, technology and, above all, safety.

Which always makes me remember the much-used-lately Benjamin Franklin quote:

‘They who would give up liberty to gain a little security deserve neither.’

We’ve pissed away our liberty because we’re such wimps. And put on the throne the Chief of All Wimps, a scared, swaggering bully of an Emperor.

Ain’t the Twenty-First Century gonna be grand?

Of course, it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. If he hadn’t built that damn Bridge to the Twenty-First Century in the first place, we might not be in this mess.

John Wooden of Chickenhead Productions scores big parody/satire points with two new websites, Sex is For Fags and Iron Hymen — abstinence-only sites for, respectively, boys and girls.

Well, that’s quite a pic of « a guy I’ve had a crush on since It’s Your Move », eh?

I don’t know much about rugby, but I know « these boys are wearing nothing but socks » and said socks are not on their feet!

« V-Day » came and went this year; next year, I hope we all pay more attention to it.

‘Because of your efforts V-Day, and the spirit, energy and movement to end violence against women and girls, has spread wildly around the world. Last year there were 2300 events, celebrations, in over 1100 cities, villages and towns. From Delhi to Detroit women took back their bodies and their lives. I was lucky to be in Mumbai where I witnessed the extraordinary humor of a brilliant Indian cast performing The Vagina Monologues for hundreds and raising money for a local shelter. I was there in Tulsa, Oklahoma performing for 2500 Native Americans so that women there would be safe and free. I was there when 7000 people from all over the world marched on Juarez, Mexico and insisted that there be justice for the hundreds of disappeared women and safety for the living.’

Excellent.

An excellent new blog, « Secret Simon », joins the fray; this one is about a ‘happily’ married man who decides he can’t suppress the truth about himself anymore and shares that truth with his wife. And then blogs about it:

‘We will be separating. No two ways around it. Reality has set in. Her two conflicting minds have started to reconcile. This was the reaction I was bracing for in my initial confrontation. The flash of shock has worn off and logic has started it’s course. She told me she felt like Dorothy and the Wicked Witch in the same body. One side wants to just go home and have us all live happily ever after and the other wants to hate me for what I’ve done. I had to take off work yesterday to settle things down. She talked to her parents in the evening. On her way to talk to them, I could tell by her goodbye that a resolution was drawing near but wasn’t sure exactly to what degree. After a lingering hour of paralysis later, she came home. And to her senses as well. While I can’t agree with the fundamental belief she was raised with, the one that nailed down the lid for so long on my identity, I am glad that she has something to stand by. Now that the curtains have been drawn, guess that makes me the Wizard.’

A Wizard of Oz reference. And he’s been questioning that he’s gay? Anyway, welcome to the technicolor side of life, Simon. Glad you finally decided to join us.

So which of you recruited him? Who gets the toaster?

Boy, Ohio (or, to be more accurate, its loony legislature) just « doesn’t know when to stop », does it?

I’m taking a blogging/web break. It was forced on me, but I’m actually not quicking much about it. A bad software update on my Mac from Apple (Motto: ‘Love the Computer, Hate the Company’) has royally fouled things up on my beloved Ti-Book. It’s been dead for two days and my backup software restore disk is apparently bad, so unless I pay some money for new system software, I’m screwed for awhile. I’m forced to check e-mail and make blog posts on Frank’s Windoze machine. Torture.

But I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have a web break for awhile. There’s a bunch of books I want to read and some exercise I need to get.

I’m also waiting for the release of Textpattern 1.0, which was promised over a month ago. I think when that happens, I’ll be simplifying things a great deal. All of the sections in the menu on the right will become merely categories here at the main page; all the subdomains will disappear. AB.com will forward to AB.biz, which will still be for consulting purposes and my teaching/education blog. AB.org, AB.US and the AntiFascist will probably be merged into this main page also. Hence, one TXP CMS for .net and one for .biz and we’re good to go.

We’ll see what happens. It’s always good to get a break from things you’re too tightly wrapped up in, right? I’ll be back shortly. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!

Sad news today: Another passing from the 20th Century American intellectual landscape. « Playwright Arthur Miller, 89, is dead »:

‘Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman,” came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died. He was 89. Miller, who had been hailed as America’s greatest living playwright, died Thursday night at his home in Roxbury of heart failure, his assistant, Julia Bolus, said Friday. His family was at his bedside, she said. His plays, with their strong emphasis on family, morality and personal responsibility, spoke to the growing fragmentation of American society. “A lot of my work goes to the center of where we belong — if there is any root to life — because nowadays the family is broken up, and people don’t live in the same place for very long,” Miller said in a 1988 interview. “Dislocation, maybe, is part of our uneasiness. It implants the feeling that nothing is really permanent.”

A very apropos quote.

Since I’m a total A-type (a for anal, that is), I created a spreadsheet with statistics on what the Jeep has cost us in gas.

Just over the two-month mark and we’ve gone 1,061 miles, used 99.418 gallons of gas at a cost of $143.50 and paid an average of $1.81 per gallon. That’s an average 212.3 miles per tank and a whoppingly disappointing average of 13.359 miles per gallon. Ouch.

We’ve also spent $117 for car tags, $206 for insurance and some change for car washes. We won’t talk about the car payments.

Other than the gas mileage, we’re mighty happy with Jeepy so far.

Caution: If you don’t like vitriolic, angry political rants, skip this entry. Consider yourself forewarned. Thank you.

The Ann Arbor News (Motto: ‘We Have the World’s Worst Website’) is reporting today that the « Thomas More ‘Law’ Center (For the Promotion of the Fascist FunDumbMentalist Authoritarian Vision for the Empire) launched a direct, personal and vicious attack on Michigan’s gay and lesbian families »:

‘As opponents of Proposal 2 predicted, the constitutional amendment approved by Michigan voters last November to define marriage is being used to challenge same-sex benefits provided to partners of gay public employees. An existing lawsuit against Ann Arbor Public Schools is apparently going to be the test case. The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center and 17 taxpayers are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to stop the local school district from providing medical benefits to gay couples. In court papers, they cite the November constitutional amendment known as Proposal 2, which says the union between a man and a woman “shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.”’

As a gay employee of the Ann Arbor Public Schools (who admittedly does not receive ANY benefits because AAPS considers ‘subs’ the lowest of the low and therefore unworthy of decency and respect, let alone benefits—but that’s another rant), I take this one very personally and it’s one more nail in the coffin of any nascent desire I might have to wish to remain in this state and educate its future leaders. And I’m sure that the 12 or so gay/lesbian couples who actually receive these benefits take it even more personally than I do. God bless them and keep them.

Face it, Michiganders, Prop 2 was a vicious, ignorant, barbaric and discriminatory assault on a Michigan minority group. It deserves a spot in the infamous pantheon of western civilization’s Hate Laws Perpetrated by the Majority, such as Jim Crow and the 1935 Nuremberg Laws.

But now, just to make sure we got the message, this Fascist front group ups the gay bashing for good measure.

Well, as Dan Akroyd said to Jane Curtin back when Saturday Night Live was still funny, ‘Jane, you ignorant slut.’

Yup, Michigan, you ignorant slut, here’s what we’re gonna do, so listen up, you ignorant 2.6 million Michiganders who voted for this claptrap … because you want to deny health benefits for domestic partners, I will continue to access free, taxpayer-funded, public health care via the UMHS system, including the ultra-expensive emergency room … and you, the ignorant 2.6 million Prop 2-loving Michiganders are going to be soaked for the bills. Yup, I will access every taxpayer-funded service I can in order to make up for the absence of my Prop 2-denied equal protection benefits and every single one of you Fascists can pay the bills.

And we’re not talking about a few hundred bucks, either. You will pay for my emergency room bill last Thanksgiving. For all of my doctor visits over the three years we’ll be in this Bible-thumping state. My MRI last October. Every blood test. Every prescription. Every specialist. Every x-ray. At full, undiscounted, totally ugly, top-dollar rates.

And I’m going to go ahead and make an appointment with the dental service which provides free, taxpayer-funded dental care to those without insurance, and you can damn well pay for that too. Fair warning: I need quite a bit of dental work. Fillings replaced, three crowns, deep cleanings, might throw in some teeth-whitening.

And that’s not all. Oh no.

I’m going to go ahead and get my master’s degree in education from Michigan’s premier public, taxpayer-funded institution of higher learning, and I’m going to do it with low interest loans funded by you 2.6-million ignorant Michiganders. [With a wicked gleam in his eye, he wonders if said loans can ever be repaid on a public school teacher’s salary?]

And then I’m taking that Master’s degree which you paid for out of state … perhaps even out of country, and you don’t get the benefits of that educational investment in the public schools of the state of Michigan. How about we just let Michigan’s children be educated by ignorant Prop 2-loving teachers? After all, as you so smarmily have been reminding us for three months, the majority has spoken.

And in Michigan, that majority spoke in favor of hate, torture, fear, ignorance, intolerance, superstition and barbarism by voting for Prop 2 and its spiritual father in the White House.

Fine. Majority rules. But that decision will prove might costly, dollar-wise. Since the almighty dollar is they only thing that gets a Fascist’s attention, then that’s where we’ll hit him.

I’m going to personally make sure of it. Hmmmmm. What other free taxpayer services can I access and soak it to the so-called ‘Moral Michigan Majority?’ After all, on the pittance that AAPS pays me, I can qualify for just about anything.

Now, dear friends who voted NO on Prop 2, none of this applies to you. You know I love you more than my luggage. Thanks for putting up with my rant and thanks for your support.

We now return to sweetness and light.

25 Short Stories
  Stephen Vincent Benet
    The Sun Dial Press, Garden City, NY, ©1943
    University of Michigan Libraries
    Dewey 828 B465
    572pp.

I’m reading 25 Short Stories, a collection of seminal American works by « Stephen Vincent Benet », one of my favorite authors.

Two of the works are Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates and By the Waters of Babylon. Both are works of fantasy. In the former, a country doctor passes away and receives his due, entry into Heaven. But he finds it boring there, so he takes the back roads and sets up shop in Hell, treating all kinds of the damned for all their afflictions and generally relieving torment. This, of course, won’t do at all, so he’s kicked back up to Paradise. It’s one of my all-time favorite short stories.

The post-apocalyptic vision of By the Waters of Babylon is eerie in many ways in that it shows a post-nuclear-war, irradiated America … but it was written in the 1930s, some years before the first atomic bomb exploded over Trinity Site, New Mexico. It’s the granddaddy of the post-apocalyptic science fiction/fantasy stories that were extremely popular throughout the Cold War, none of which can top it.

Also in the volume is The Sobbin’ Women, a short story which inspired the musical and motion picture « Seven Brides for Seven Brothers » (and is superior to both). The story is based on « the rape of the Sabine women », a founding legend of the Roman Republic. The title is a sly commentary on American frontier ignorance; the lead character tells the seven backwoodsy brothers about the Romans and the ‘Sobbin’ women’ and puts the central events of the story in motion.

And then there’s _The Devil and Daniel Webster, which contains this opening passage:

‘It’s a story they tell in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire.

‘Yes, Dan’l Webster is dead—or, at least, they buried him. But every time there’s a thunderstorm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky. And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster—Dan’l Webster!” the ground’ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake. And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Neighbor, how stands the Union?” Then you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper-sheathed, one and indivisible, or he’s liable to rear right out of the ground. At least, that’s what I was told when I was a youngster.’

I’d certainly be afraid to go to his grave and have him ask me that question now. We’re more divided than ever, albeit from within, not along regional lines, and the Republic is dead, the Empire transcendent.

But maybe he’d drag me into the grave with him … or else come out fighting, whooping the dickens out of the current crop of Christo-Fascists plaguing the country. That would be something!

Stephen Vincent Benet. Great stuff.

Adbusters.org has the true American Imperial Corporate flag. The government might as well go ahead and adopt it; it’s more true than anything else flying.

Let’s let Adbusters say it:

‘Corporate America is revelling in a Golden Age. A shrinking number of the planet’s biggest businesses—AOL Time Warner, Shell, Nike, Microsoft, McDonald’s—are the money behind presidents, the power that drives global trade rules, the voice of authority on how we live and the way we think. Corporations have all the rights of we, the people, but thousands of times more money to make the system work for them. We call this system “democracy.” But today it looks a lot like corporate rule. … The flags snapping in the wind are raising sparks. You just don’t mess with America’s Old Glory. But many would say it’s been a corporate doormat for years. And today, the question is global. What counts as “independence”? And when will we win it back?’

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Updated 8-Feb-05_:

‘We are waking up to political reality. Even diehard Republicans now admit that corporations govern their lives. A small group of neocons has hijacked the good name of America and swapped it for dreams of empire. Opinion round the world is ranged against us. Americans of all political stripes are asking, “Is this my America anymore?”’

Good question.

Tired of living in loser countries that want to round you up in concentration camps and stone you to death based on fictional 5,000-year-old Jewish scrolls?

Well then! « The Gay Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands » just might be for you!

‘Alone, unaided, neither seeking nor requiring help the Gay & Lesbian Kingdom rose in self defence, so long as gay & lesbian people cherish freedom & equality, so long as small states strive for the dignity of existence, the exploits of the gay & lesbian activists who first settled these islands in 2004 will be told from one gay generation to another with the deepest pride. The Australian Parliament introduced anti gay marriage & adoption legislation and we have sort to have it condemned and the gay government resent it, and the religious right who are behind these moves with all our might. By declaring our nation independent, never have freedom, equality, justice, gay national interest and international morality been so rightly protected. It may seem the Gay & Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands stands alone against numerous homophobic nations and religious organisations, but we have faith in our declaration of independence, and in the underlying forces in gay history which have so often given the finally victory to spirit over matter, to inner truth over mere quantity. We believe in the vigilance of history, which has guarded our steps, the guardian of the gay & lesbian kingdom neither slumbers nor sleeps.’

Sounds like a gay James Bond film.

But hurry! « You too can become a citizen with a passport and everything »

‘The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands offers a policy of automatic citizenship to gays and lesbians, similar to Israel’s right of return, subject to application and verification. The Chief Justice of the High Court of the Gay Kingdom is authorized by the Goverment of the Gay Kingdom to immediately establish legal methods for members of the gay tribe, wherever dispersed in the world, to secure such documents, passports and other things by which the crown may identify it’s subjects with security and confidence.’

How very … something or other.

Fascinating stories about ‘33-’45 still crop up even today. This time, it’s from a « former Nuremberg trial guard who says he helped Goering escape hangman »

‘A former guard at the Nuremberg trials has come forward to say he believes he provided the poison that Nazi Hermann Goering used to commit suicide hours before his scheduled execution for war crimes, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. Herbert Lee Stivers, now 78, was a 19-year-old Army private when he took notes and a capsule hidden inside a fountain pen to Goering at the request of two men who said the notorious Nazi general was “a very sick man” who needed medicine, the newspaper said. Stivers said he is now convinced the “medicine” was the cyanide that killed Goering on Oct. 15, 1946, the night before he was to be executed. The commander of the German air force had been convicted at the Nuremberg trials the previous month. “I felt very bad after his suicide. I had a funny feeling; I didn’t think there was any way he could have hidden it on his body,” Stivers said.’

Interesting story.

‘Stivers had agreed to pass on the items after being introduced to the men, who called themselves Erich and Mathias. ”(Erich) said it was medication, and that if it worked and Goering felt better, they’d send him some more,” Stivers said. “I wasn’t thinking of suicide when I took it to Goering. He was never in a bad frame of mind.”’
It’s certainly true that Hermann was never in a bad frame of mind. He dominated the trial with his insolence and his personality and his sheer bulk. That he cheated the Allies’ hangman was his last laugh.

The book, Hitler’s Lieutenants, has a thoroughly fascinating portrait of Goering, as well as the others of the inner circle. It’s an absorbing read and valuable addition to the library.

Cafe Ambrosia was Cafe Hungry Like the Wolf this afternoon. The guys behind the counter were apparently (from what I could gather) striking back at the pretense of a « rockist » critic from earlier in the day by playing what sounded like « Decade » (nothing after 1988 was on the disc, which was just as well) from beginning to end — much to the grim, seething, teeth-gritting silence of many of the customers in the joint (although a couple of customers did come up and chucklingly congratulate them on their unusual selection). The fellas behind the counter laughed and grooved along with “Rio” and “Save a Prayer” and “Union of the Snake” and “Wild Boys,” but it seems they hit their limit after “Notorious.” They cut the CD in the middle of the next song and quickly threw on a Morphine CD, much more in keeping with the usual Ambrosia (and usual hipster cafe) ethic. You could feel the rockist tension ease into a saxophone-induced reverie.

The audacity, ignorance and outrageousness of « men like this » never cease to amaze me:

‘Marcavage never uses slurs to describe homosexuals; rather, he turns the word homosexual itself into a slur, using it as a sort of branding. He is a deliberate speaker, careful as any politician. But if he is diplomatic with his words, he uses them to advance a militant agenda. “According to the Scriptures, it’s the government’s job to enforce God’s law and to uphold his law, and the Bible talks about how, I don’t want to really get into this — it’ll make me sound like I’m crazy — but it does talk about how [homosexuals] are to be put to death. The wages of sin is death. But I want to make [it] clear that I’m not advocating the [independent] killing of homosexuals. … I’m saying that the government’s duty is to uphold God’s law. … I know that’s harsh, but we have all broken the law, God’s law, and we need to be held accountable.”

By ‘held accountable,’ he means ‘kill ‘em! Kill ‘em all!!!’

Grand.

On the AP wire this afternoon we see a charming story about a « Four-year-old Michigan boy who drove to the video store » (and back) in the middle of the night:

‘A boy drove his mother’s car to a video store in the middle of the night, police said — and he’s all of 4 years old. Even though he was unable to reach the accelerator, the boy managed to put the car in gear and the idling engine provided enough power to take him slowly to the store, a quarter-mile from his home, about 1:30 a.m. Friday, Police Chief Doug Heugel said. Finding the store closed, the youngster began a slow trip home. Weaving and with its headlights off, the car got the attention of police Sgt. Jay Osga, who initially thought he was following a driverless car that had taken off after being left running at a gas pump. The car turned into the boy’s apartment complex and struck two parked cars, then backed up and struck Osga’s police car.’

And, yes, you know I’m going to say it … the kid did better on his trip than most Michigan drivers I see on the streets every single day. Ppppptttttttt.

Early detection of testicular cancer is vital and being ‘body aware’ is an important part of that. Thanks to early detection, testicular cancer has a 95% cure rate, if caught early enough.

So some UK athletic lads got together and took a lovely little picture in order to boost the « Tackle Testicular Cancer Campaign* ». Very hot for a very worthy cause.

I’ve seen a few of those colored bracelets promoting causes around; I’ve even confiscated one from a fourth grader who was using it to highly annoy the girl in front of him. But there’s so many of them that it can get confusing as to who is promoting what cause.

Thank god I stumbled across « Buggery.org’s Guide to Colored Bracelets vs. Traditional Hankies » this morning; now things are much more clear!

Now if someone will just explain why twits in minivans want to put those ugly magnetic ribbons on their rear ends …

The Grand Iraqi Election Which Proves the Emperor is Always Right has passed in a putrid fog of press adulation and fawning-ness, plus some ‘Ohmigod, what if he was right?!’ spineless sniveling among some liberals we won’t link to here.

But, as is usual with anything the Boy Emperor does, reality is about to rudely intrude on his carefully constructed pyramid scheme, because « the initial voter turnout numbers appear to be way off », and « the election results aren’t going the Empire’s way »:

‘Partial results from Sunday’s election suggest that U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s coalition is being roundly defeated by a list with the backing of Iraq’s senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, diminishing Allawi’s chances of retaining his post in the next government. Sharif Ali bin Hussein, head of the Constitutional Monarchy Party, likened the vote outcome to a “Sistani tsunami” that would shake the nation. “Americans are in for a shock,” he said, adding that one day they would realize, “We’ve got 150,000 troops here protecting a country that’s extremely friendly to Iran, and training their troops.”’

— SF Chronicle

RUH–ROH! How’d that happen?! I thought the spreading of democracy in the Middle East was the goal, not the spreading of Iranian Islamic Fundamentalism!

Sad, so very sad, that « the Emperor’s cheerleaders in the Imperial press can’t handle the truth »:

‘Like many of his U.S. press colleagues, New York Times foreign policy columnist Thomas L. Friedman has pronounced himself “unreservedly happy” about the Iraqi election of Jan. 30, adding: “you should be, too.” But there is a dark potential to those pleasing images of Iraqis voting in the face of violence. Rather than pointing toward an exit for the United States from Iraq, the election may be just another mirage leading U.S. troops deeper into Iraq’s long and bloody history of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites. Indeed, if the Sunni-based insurgency doesn’t give up in the months ahead, American soldiers could find themselves enmeshed in a long and brutal civil war helping the Shiite majority crush the resistance of the Sunni minority.

The Sunnis, who have long dominated Iraq, find themselves in a tight corner and may see little choice but to fight on. … As Iraqis raised fingers stained with voting ink, American journalists scrambled over each other to climb on board George W. Bush’s bandwagon. Just as the U.S. press corps feared challenging Bush during the WMD hysteria in fall 2002 or after the toppled Saddam Hussein statue in spring 2003, the press corps treated the Iraqi election as an unquestioned success story, much as Friedman did in his New York Times column, which was entitled “A Day to Remember.” [NYT, Feb. 3, 2005]

‘But, like those earlier examples of press acquiescence, the lack of skepticism about the real meaning of the Jan. 30 election carries more potential dangers for Americans, especially if the triumphal Bush administration now starts dusting off its most ambitious plans for the Middle East. If that happens, the military disaster in Iraq — already with the deaths of more than 1,400 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis — could be just a prelude to more catastrophes to come.’

— Consortium News

But he’s just a Saddam-loving malcontent, right?

Well, one should cut him some slack, perhaps; after all, « the track record of the press isn’t great »:

‘U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote: Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror

by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3—United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam’s presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.’

[As seen at « Daily Kos »]

Our world. Such higgledy-piggledy-ness. Now where’d I put that blasted quote? Something about those who forget history are condemned to repeat it or something … should be around here somewhere …

Fancy that. An article on Page 3 of yesterday’s New York Times arts section on, of all things, little old Ann Arbor.

Nothing laudatory or complimentary, of course; just the usual snide satisfaction the Times gets from giving the upturned-nose treatment to anything west of the Delaware River. The hed: “Sure, You Can Watch the Oscars, but Can You See All the Nominated Movies?” Oh, those poor benighted souls in Michigan: they can’t even watch all of the Oscar-nominated movies without waiting for six months for them to come out on DVD! One woman standing in line at the Michigan Theater waiting for tickets to “Hotel Rwanda” is described as though she were waiting for an organ donor. But that’s just the beginning. When the Times reporter finds out that two movies are just now coming to AA, she writes, incredulously:

“Vera Drake,” first released more than three months ago, will not play Ann Arbor until Friday, said a spokeswoman for Fine Line Features, which is distributing the film. And “The Sea Inside,” also from Fine Line, is not currently scheduled to play here, though it has been in a small number of theaters elsewhere across the country since December.

Snort! Those deprived fools won’t even see the latest Amenábar film! What pathetic creatures!

After a detour to explain why major film distributors think that cow towns are inappropriate places to grace with the cream of the cinematic crop, the Times reporter smirkingly notes that “Sideways” is the singular exception to the rule because it’s a film that became a cult hit (like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” in 2002 or “Amélie” in 2001). “Sideways” is playing at three theaters in Ann Arbor right now, which apparently means, according to the reporter’s take on things, that it’s stale and obsolete. You might as well have “LOTR III” or “Chicago” still playing.

At that point, the reporter interviews a Michigan Theater ticket-taker from New Jersey who can barely lower her nose long enough to whine, “It’s kind of silly to even read any of the reviews that come out because it doesn’t pertain to your life in this small part of the world.” Ending on a positive note, the reporter quotes a UM prof who says he doesn’t mind waiting for the Important Movies to come to Ann Arbor, adding, “There are probably a lot of Midwestern cities that don’t get these movies at all. What if I lived in the Upper Peninsula or something?”

I have to say that the phrase that takes the cake for me is the reporter’s own description of the UP, which she colorfully calls “the state’s northernmost wilds,” as though it were just a few miles from the Arctic Circle.

Some woman from the committee for Super Bowl XL (here in Detroit in February 2006) was just on the news saying she knew Detroit “has some image problems.” I guess she meant the cold weather, because she went on to insist that everyone from out of town will be fine in Michigan February weather “if you wear a hat and scarf.”

So, yes, it was 16 degrees when I left at 11 a.m., but I rode my bike to work today anyway. It’s only a mile-and-a-half, one-way, and I’m a big fat cow who needs to get in shape. I made it just fine, there and back, thank-you-very-much.

But just had to note: Despite Ann Arbor’s $1,000 fine for not clearing your sidewalks after a snowfall, not everyone complies.

The one section of sidewalk between our townhouse here at Stadium/Woodbury and the middle school, at Stadium/Brockman that hasn’t been cleared in the last two weeks: the one in front of a house which displayed a truly huge Bush/Cheney ‘04 sign during the late, lamented election last year.

Just sayin’.

Okay, so this layout is the last one I’ll do. I’m really happier with it. Like it?

[By the way, just a pissy note from a crotchety ol’ toot: I’m fed up with Internet Explorer and it’s ignorant inability to properly handle web standards, particularly the way it fails to add up the numbers properly to display boxes. I mean, how hard is it to add up the four sides of a box? Apparently, if you’re a Microsquash engineer, it’s impossible. So, if you’re trying to read this using IE for Windoze and you see weird pinstripes between the header image/nav and the body, you’re a victim of Microsquash’s ignorance of proper interpretation of the Box Model (Google it, if you don’t know what I’m talking about). And some free advice: Get a Mac, first of all. Second, at the very least, download Firefox and see what you’re missing, web standards-wise. Down with monopoly! End of crotchety ol’ toot’s rant.]

Yes, I changed the template again. And the header photo. Love it? Hate it? Hit the ‘Sound Off’ link below and let me know what you think.

And yes, things might look weird or something in IE for Windoze. But then … well, you use IE for Windoze and you pretty much deserve what happens to you. Switch to Firefox! Immediately! End the Evil Redmond Monopoly!

And thanks for dropping by. We’ll write more later. We haven’t gone anywhere.

I missed my opportunity (thanks to my annual January bronchitis) to comment on the fool prince’s costume party thing. Even though it’s sorta blown over, I’ll contribute with this: my version of Prince Harry’s Official Coat of Arms:

Actually, « the real one is here ». I just couldn’t resist.

Oh, lighten up! It’s a parody folks!

« Gore Vidal » is back in the Empire and telling it like it is, thank god:

‘He said that he can foresee the war going so badly that [the Emperor George II] will be forced to resign or be driven from office. “I can’t believe the speed with which the entire republic fell apart. The U.S. Bill of Rights fell apart with [inJustice Minister] John Ashcroft and the [USAPATRIOT Act],” he said of post-9/11 America. “Preventive war became our national policy, which has not been any nation’s policy since Hitler. A preventive war is about as un-American as you get. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t done it before,” he said. “The worst (previous) example was the Mexican War. That brave moralist, Ulysses S. Grant, who had been a second lieutenant just out of West Point, hated that war and said … that nations like individuals suffer for their transgressions. “I believe the Civil War was the judgment of God on us for what we did to Mexico. God knows what we are going to get for Iraq.”’

— Reuters

Amen, Brother Gore, amen!

There’s also this entertaining tidbit in the article, which unfortunately is given a more prominent place in the article.

‘As far as Vidal was concerned, “Alexander” was a breakthrough work because it treated Alexander’s bisexuality in a matter-of-fact manner rather “than a terrible sin to be punished by Our Lord.” “They are on the right track with this picture because it says bisexuality exists which is something the public already knows because they practice it,” he said. Then he described how as one of the key script doctors on “Ben Hur” he secretly wove in a homosexual subplot into what bills itself “as the world’s most honored movie.” Vidal, who along with playwrights Christopher Fry and Maxwell Anderson were uncredited writers on the film, figured that a homosexual subplot would explain the tension between first century Jewish prince Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd), the old Roman pal who turns on him and sends him into slavery.’

(Don’t know who Cassandra was? « Look it up ». For those to lazy to follow the link, Cassandra (also called Alexandra) was the Trojan seeress who uttered true prophecies, but lacking the power of persuasion, was never believed. Sound familiar?

Here’s the REAL Pledge of Allegiance, as written by Non-Sequitor:

‘I pledge allegiance to the flag of the corporate states of America.
‘And to the Republicans for which it stands,
‘One nation, under debt, easily divisible,
‘With liberty and justice for oil.’

— Non-Sequitor

Amen.

« Our Life in Michigan – 2005 North American International Auto Show »

Here are some pics taken by Frank and by me that I’ve been meaning to post:

« Our Life in Michigan – 11- and 22-Jan-05 Miscellaneous Wintry Pics »

« Our Life in Michigan – 11&22-Jan-05 Miscellaneous Wintry Pics »

I was in Kroger last night picking up some groceries. The place was packed, and one of the checkout lines extended past the newspaper rack. I reached over one woman’s basket to grab a copy of the Ann Arbor News. First she gave me a sour look, then she chuckled and said, “Read it and weep.” Usually I’m at a loss for snappy small talk, but in this case I was able to come back with, “Yeah, that’s what I do every time I pick a newspaper up. You know what I mean?” She chuckled again and said she knew what I meant. I wished her a good weekend, she cheerily said “You too,” and that was that.

But it was a good moment. It made me feel (in a strange way) like I finally “live” here in Michigan, in a way that no other moment has. I use the word “live” because I doubt I’ll ever “belong” here; there are many things I like about Michigan 17 months after moving here, and my ability to have this exchange means (kind of) that I’m finally starting to understand the Michigan sensibility (that kind of mordant wisecrack would not be made in California), but I don’t have the feeling that I’m ever going to feel like a Michigander.

Having said that, it was good to have a moment like that to store and to remember on those far more numerous occasions when I fail to understand the personality of the typical Michigander and feel like I’m stumbling around with two left feet. (Not that there is such a person, but I’m as convinced that there’s a Michigan personality as I am that there’s a California or a New York personality.)

I added « Reality-Based Nation » to the blogroll because of wonderful, kick-the-fascists-in-the-face entries like this:

‘Earlier this week, we noted a pending appeals court case in Indiana (article) in which the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was being challenged. Yesterday, while Mr. Bush preached to the world about freedom and liberty for all people, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the ban. The court opinion is shocking and sad:

“An Indiana Court of Appeals decision upholding the state law banning same-sex marriage came down to the issue of natural reproduction — not morality, religious tradition or gay rights. The court ruled Thursday that the ability of heterosexual couples to procreate naturally is distinction enough to justify the law.”

‘I’m still trying to figure out how the hell gay marriage will disrupt straight marriages. If gay couples marry, will there be a decline in straight marriages? Is there, like fossil fuels which Republicans love, only a finite number of marriages available in the world? Questions, questions, questions. And the only answer is contained in the biblical book of Leviticus. Good source. Meanwhile, Stay-Puft Richard Land was on NPR’s “All Things Considered” last night and insisted that the debate over the separation of church and state is over — won by the religious right. Okay. Fine. Can we tax and regulate Land’s Southern Baptist Convention now? Tax the shit out of them? Help pay down the deficit, perhaps? These shmendricks have no clue. Don’t they realize that when you merge church and state it gives the state free reign to interfere in the church? Stupid, stupid.’

— Reality-Based Nation

Reality-Based Nation … awesome stuff!

As we slog around in the weeks of snow that have been dumped on southeast Michigan, it’s mordantly amusing to see what happens in parts of the country that aren’t as used (inured?) to snow as Michigan is:

A mere inch of snow was all it took to cripple North Carolina’s capital—and prompt plenty of finger-pointing Thursday as the city thawed from the surprise storm that caused gridlock and left 3,000 students stranded in classrooms overnight.

While a TV weatherman hung his head in shame—telling viewers his forecast of a mere dusting was “embarrassing”—the mayor vented at meteorologists for leaving Raleigh unprepared for Wednesday’s storm.

“A forecast that had given a better indication of the likely problem would have been very helpful,” Mayor Charles Meeker said.

Residents—particularly those who have lived in other parts of the country—could not believe the city was brought to its knees by just an inch of snow.

« Airbus A-380 photos at Airliners.net »

Looks like, at long last, &laquo the official rollout of the Airbus A-380 », the world’’s largest commercial aircraft, is finally at hand:

‘Airbus, which has delivered more airplanes than Boeing for the second year in a row, is about to unveil another No. 1: the world’’s largest passenger jet. The A380, a four-aisle, four-engine, double-decker “superjumbo,” will roll onto the tarmac Tuesday at Airbus headquarters in southern France, in a lavish ceremony attended by EU leaders and thousands of guests. Sales have beat expectations so far, and most of the technical problems that have dogged the program have been resolved, at a price. But the real sighs of relief won’‘t be heard in Toulouse until later — sometime before March 31, Airbus says — when the A380 hauls its 280-metric ton (308-ton) frame aloft. That’’s when the plane’’s engineers will begin to find out whether their gargantuan offspring lives up to the performance promises, as the first test-flight data streams in.’

— AP

If it all goes as scheduled and without a hitch, it will be an incredibly impressive technical achievement and will add punctuation to Boeing’’s sad state of affairs.

« Very first pics of the first A380 are up at Airliners.net ».

That is one big-ass airplane. Awesome!

Although it’’s not likely that the Emperor’’s anti-union and anti-worker administration is likely to heed it, «  ” title=”Union Calls for Urgent Meeting on Airlines”>the IAMAW union is calling on the Transportation Department to convene a major meeting regarding the sorry state of the airline industry »

‘The request came in a letter to the transportation secretary, Norman Y. Mineta, from Robert Roach Jr., vice president for transportation at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents more than 100,000 mechanics, baggage handlers and ramp workers at the major airlines. Mr. Roach noted that the department had brought officials together after the terrorist attacks in September 2001 to discuss challenges facing the industry. He called that session helpful but said that the industry had been caught in an unending slump and needed to find solutions. So far this decade, the major airlines have collectively lost $30 billion, five companies have filed for bankruptcy protection, more than 110,000 jobs have been eliminated, and workers pay and benefits have been cut or eliminated. “If we are to have a safe, efficient transportation industry,” Mr. Roach said in the letter, “it is more important than ever that everyone in management, labor and government work toward the common goal of rebuilding the transportation industry for our mutual benefit.” In an interview, Mr. Roach said he was not asking for specific moves by the government, but he said the industry’’s crisis could not continue. “We believe very strongly,” Mr. Roach said, “that the only way to get this problem resolved is to put everyone in the industry together and think about what comes next.” A spokesman for the union, Joseph Tiberi, said it had not received an answer from Mr. Mineta.’

— NY Times

And good luck on getting an answer from anyone in the great American fascist imperial administration, dude. But hey. We’‘re pulling for ya.

It seems more details have emerged about « Delta’s new pricing strategy » this weekend.

‘Under Delta’s new structure, prices for last-minute walk-up fares have been cut by as much as 50 percent, the long-unpopular Saturday night stayover requirement for lower-priced fares has been eliminated, the fee for changing nonrefundable tickets has been dropped from $100 to $50, and the airline’s menu of fares has been simplified: Now there are eight prices for each flight; before, there were dozens. These latest price cuts — for flights within the 48 contiguous states — will be more of a boon to business travelers than to vacationers. Most carriers already are offering deep discounts to their leisure customers.
So how does a “legacy carrier” with a history of fiscal mismanagement and clueless resistance to change plan to make more money by cutting it’s revenue?’

— Washington Post

Good question. Apparently, by turning airliners in flying Costco warehouses. Instead of toilet paper by the caseload, they’re going to give the flying public … well, I’m not sure what, but it’’s probably the finger or something.

‘It was only last month that Delta’’s Grinstein stood before a group of airline professionals in New York and predicted imminent change in the financially troubled industry. The reason the major airlines have been losing market share to low-cost competitors such as Southwest, he told his audience at the elite, private-membership Wings Club, is because travelers no longer think they’re getting a good deal from the big carriers. “I recently came across the mission statement for Costco, the membership warehouse company,” Grinstein said, according to a transcript of his prepared remarks. “Their goal is to ‘’continually provide our members quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.” The failure of major airlines to meet that standard “caused us to lose the trust of our customers,” Grinstein continued. “Passengers no longer believed they were receiving the highest quality at the lowest possible price. And they were right. “As a result, customers shifted their trust and affiliation to carriers like Southwest and JetBlue. Southwest succeeded so well that today customers flock to the airline’s Web site, even when Southwest’s prices are higher than other carriers. They simply trust Southwest to be the best value around.”

There are some grains of truth here and I’ll give good ol’ Grinstein credit for pointing them out. First, the product of the legacy carriers is complete shite, to borrow a word. We’‘ve gone from the days of Braniff’s Flying Colors and the glamour of the World’s Most Experienced Airline to crappy, dirty, jam-packed ‘planes full of dirty, rude, ignorant hillbillies. Yet, we’ve left the pricing structure intact.

Second, that second-to-last sentence is telling: Customers trust Southwest (and Wal-Mart) to be the cheapest and best around so much that, even when WN and W-M are not, those customers still spend their time and money with them because of the perception that they’re the best value around.

Kind of like the same people keep voting against their own economic and social self-interest because the Fascist Party is now perceived as being the moral values champions who are on the little peoples’ side.

Delta and the other legacies have a long, long, long way to go to overcome that perception. Delta may pull it off. USAirways, if their Christmas debacles are any indication, probably cannot. Too large and mired in bureaucratic inertia, most legacies will not survive. The Empire’’s current trajectory appears to be giving us a culture where one shops at Wal-Mart, flies Southwest, votes Fascist, etc.

If this is where that Bridge to the 21st Century has delivered us, I’‘m headed back to the (ironically) saner 20th.

Another 3-4 inches of snow fell overnight; it was soft and fluffy, with no ice. So this afternoon, we took a ride downtown.

The Grand continues to perform admirably; you have to do something really stupid to make it fishtail and it simply refuses to skid if you apply heavy brake. I’m loving the heating system and heated seats these days.

It’s getting a bit scruffy on the inside; these people are nuts with the salt around here, and there’s very little you can do to keep it out of your car. The mats are due for a scrubbing, and the seats in the rear need to be wiped down.

I remain very pleased with Jeepy 4 after a month of driving it. The only thing that keeps it from being perfect is its 13/17 gas mileage. That’s very ‘ouch’-inducing.

It should be lots of fun driving to Oklahoma in April. But I dread the gas mileage I’ll get driving a trailer-load of books and other things the 1,000 miles back home.

The weather has been abyssmal. Haven’t been able to get outside on the book since New Year’s, since the sidewalks and streets are just treacherous.

Since I want to average 5 miles per day all year, I’m already in the hole and have lots of catching up to do. Blast it all.

I love how taken aback the “old school” newsgathering operations are that blogs scooped them, and in many cases surpassed them, in covering the South Asian earthquake and tsunami catastrophe. The best quote I’ve heard in this regard was today on NPR: a “technology contributor” named Xeni Jardin said, breathlessly, that bloggers aren’t just “fat blowhards sitting on couches in the suburbs writing about what they saw on the news” anymore.

Note [1.7.05] …… In the comments, bentley points out that Xeni Jardin is actually a contributor to boingboing, which is a fantastic blog (this being a perfect example why). I have to eat some crow and revise my reflexive sarcasm above in the light of this fact, which I didn’t know beforehand. It must be that Ms. Jardin was engaging in some sarcasm herself on NPR, although it was kind of hard to discern that over the airwaves. Anyway, my belated apologies.

Details are still slightly hazy, but « United’s pilots are fighting the weird backroom maneuvering » which resulted in us taxpayers getting soaked with the responsibility of the pilots’ pension fund, thanks to United’s epic and clueless executive mismanagement:

‘Pilots at United Airlines will fight plans for an involuntary bail-out of their pension scheme, threatening to unravel agreements needed to bring the US company out of bankruptcy. Their angry reaction follows a surprise intervention last week by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which runs a national insurance scheme for all US companies. The group fears being held responsible for $6.4bn of unfunded pension liabilities across United’s four pension schemes and decided to minimise losses by taking pre-emptive control of the pilots’ plan. But union leaders representing this highly-paid group accuse the PBGC of singling them out for “vindictive” punishment, as the early move means they will receive $140m less than hoped.

’… The union also questioned whether the quasi-government agency was deliberately seeking to wreck union agreements with the company. “We are equally concerned about the timing of the PBGC action in the midst of a pilot membership vote over the tentative pilot agreement. “We question whether the PBGC’s action may be designed to confuse the pilot group, undermine the membership ratification process and deprive the pilots of the benefits and protections of the tentative agreement.”

’… Separately, United announced on Monday it had reached “tentative” cost-saving agreements with two other unions, although it remains unclear if these include terminating their pension schemes as well.’

Well, since the Fascists have installed their minions in almost every corner of government, purging anyone who dissents, and since, subsequently, agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board have become very anti-worker, you can bet the move was a sop to United and Fascist Party benefactors in some way.

Too bad the pilots get left holding the (now-worthless) bag and taxpayers get stuck with any bills.

Ah. Life in the reign of Emperor George II. Ain’t all the higgledy-piggledy-ness grand?

I was going to get a good start on my riding program by biking every day, but alas, it was not to be.

I biked five miles on Saturday the first, but as I was returning, I noticed the rear tire was low. So I went to the gas station at Packard/Stadium to air it up. I guess the gauge was inaccurate and I apparently over-inflated the front tire. I biked home fine, but a couple of hours later as I was making dinner, there was a very loud bang in the front of the house and I thought we were being attacked.

Turns out the innertube and tire on the front of the Bobcat pretty much exploded. It ruined the tire and put a two-inch-long shred in the innertube.

So today I went back to « Ann Arbor Cyclery » and had to buy a new front tire and tube. I also got a new, accurate gauge.

The shop wasn’t open Sunday, so between that and all the rain today, I’ve lost two days of riding already.

Oh, well, I’ll just have to make up for it somehow.

While waiting on the installation, I picked up a new catalog for « Marin Bikes ». This year’s Bobcat Trail is little changed from the 2004 model I bought, with one exception: the 2005 model is matte black and totally slick looking. Almost makes me wish I’d waited, but I’m still happy with my red one.