Brave New Coffee Pot...

Section IV of the US Constitution

2006-11-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

"The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Koreyel's Thought Experiment Quiz.

2006-07-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

You have cancer.
It is spreading.
You are faced with a choice.
Yes--absolutely and postively faced with a choice.
You can't have both... it is one or the other:

(1) You can pray to God for a return of your health.
And you can even have everyone on earth pray to God for your health.
However you must give up using ALL the discoveries and cures of medical science.
Henceforth you must put all your faith in God.
After all, God knows what's best for you...

(2) You can put all your faith in medical science.
In which case you can never again pray to God for the return of your health.
Your health is totally in the hands of the practitioners of modern science.

A false dichotomy?
Sure.

But this is a thought experiment.
It is contrived version of reality purposely bent to prove a point.

The point to be proved?

I think a VAST majority of the world's population will choose Science instead of God.

If that's the case --
if most humans will act like blowhards about the importance of God,
but in the ultimate moment of truth in their lives they will choose Science,
then I've exposed a very powerful flaw buried deep in humanity's psyche.

You see....
I believe not many people truly believe in God's power to act directly in their lives.

Oh sure they will say they do.
They will bray and bark and boast about God's goodwill.

But falling to one's knees and mouthing antique prayers on Sunday,
or on Saturday,
or five times every day,
is really just play pretend nonsense...
It really is just hedging your bets.

What really counts is what you do in crunch time.
What you do when you HAVE cancer and MUST make a choice.

Science or Prayer?
Prayer or Science?

It is one or the other.
Which is it going to be?

In crunch time...
when it really trully matters...
everybody knows:
Science works best.

So here is my suggestion:

SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR GOD...
HE or SHE or IT is powerless to heal you.
In crunch time even YOU know that.

And until you start putting your faith and your money
in what you really know WORKS,
until you become honest to yourself about the real value of SCIENCE...
You really are just another religious fraud,
On a planet full of religious frauds.

Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
Or are you just too stupid to be intellectually honest and feel such shame?

I command thee...

2006-02-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Cheney: F is for Failure

2006-02-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Cheney's hunting accident has roiled up a storm of bad poetry, and even worse, a flurry of Elmer Fudd photoshops. The satire misses a deeper point. Namely: How would a real leader have acted in this situation?

It really is rather simple:
A real leader would have made lemonade.

In other words:

A real leader would have expressed remorse as soon as possible.

A real leader would have said, "Given my long joy of hunting, and given that I have now participated in a grievous hunting error, I am going to dedicate time, money, and my office to help develop tools for greater hunter safety."

Cheney did none of these.

He gets an F for failure.
And America... an F for letting this fuck-up off the hook.

Cocking that rifle...

2006-02-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

The website onegoodmove.org has a post built around the opening clip of the old television series The Rifleman.

Someone has photoshopped the clip so that Cheney's face appears instead of Chuck Connors.

That's good for a modest chuckle, but the most astounding thing about the clip is its value as a classic illustration of the use of a phallic symbol.

Go watch the clip:

and then return and take a look at this picture.

My point?

Gun control is a deeper issue than the Democratic party ever realized.

Furthermore:

The Democrats don't have a chance of reclaiming the presidency until they grok the sound of a cocking rifle.

In other words:

This country is populated by morons who equate their guns with their dicks.

To win the presidency, you've got to let them keep their hands firmly around their hard shafts.

There really is no other way...

Dodging Muhammad's bullet... Or pulling Muhammad's beard?

2006-02-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Go have a read of left-blogosphere in regards to:
Islamofascists versus Cartoonists.

There is no there there.

The luke-warm liberals
All caught up in the bifurcations
Of their musing and amusing minds...
Don't know where to build their fire.

For example,
Go have a quick read of that rational liberal Kevin Drum,
Who doesn't know quite where...
To bury his head in the sand.

Let me give ya'all liberals a hint...

The First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I mean really...

I have to link to a right-wing guy
Who doesn't even believe in global warming
To find the proper muscularity:

Muhammad with a bomb in his turban:

*-O(:~{>

Wake up liberals!
Your refusal to permit the slander of Muhammad...
Is no different than your former views of Stalin and the USSR in the Fifties and Sixties..

You either believe in the free play of Mind's speech...
Or you don't.

Wakey up.

Is Marshall good or what?

2006-02-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Nobody...
but nobody,
Out writes Joshua Micah Marshall on the web.

He is the master...
Who can capture in a sentence or two,
The entire spirit of an age:

"Remember Duke Cunningham?
He was crooked before crooked was cool. Way back into last summer."

And...

"Let's put this headline in amber and pack it into the time capsule. Let folks know what it was like."

Truly that's as rich as it gets.

The high art of deadpaning honed to its sharpest edge...
You are a masterful throat-slitter Josh...
Brilliant stuff...

Dick Cheney morbid news freak...

2006-02-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

Okay…
I admit it…
I'm a Dick Cheney morbid news freak…

And what I want to know now is:

More about those early DUIs of his...
Give me all the sordid little details…

How about a well-chosen interview or two?

Was he wobbling and shouting:
"Fuck you"
"And Fuck you"
"And Fuck you too..."
At his arresting officers?

And speaking of officers...
Tell me exactly what he said five times
To those officers
Who tried to recruit him for the Vietnam war.
That ought to be worth
An evil belly laugh or two.

But really,
And truly,
And mostly...

What I want to know more than anything else
About our dirty little public Dick,
Concerns...
The ending of that Jay Leno clip...

Now that's some super-hyper-provocative shower grime...

So please,
Tell me more,
About that little germ-infested corner of Cheney,
I never even knew existed…

Sure...

I knew that as
CEO of Halliburton...
He offshored to Bermuda various divisions...
To avoid paying corporate tax to the very government...
That now pays to have an ambulance follow him around 24/7/365...

Sure...
I knew that.
But that's just paltry elephant peanut shit...

When compared to...
The ending of that Leno piece...

So c'mon...
For godsakes...
And chrissakes…
Shine some sunlight on that festering hole of sin...
Will ya please?

Hurry...
'Cause,
I need my dirty Cheney morbid news fix.

Yes,
I admit,
I'm an evil junkie...
And yes,
I admit,
I am bored
Of the various...
Vampires, Hitlers, and Osama bin Blairs.

I NEED my evil Cheney fix NOW!

Goddammit...
I've gone without,
For almost,
One whole solid unsoiled day...

Cheney Shot a Man (Yesterday)

2006-02-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

UNBELIEVABLE!
THE VICE PRESIDENT
SHOT A MAN...
AND IT WENT UNREPORTED FOR 24 HOURS!
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL:
"EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE!!!"

A fundamental question...

2006-02-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

[Aside: ]

Waiter, there is a American in my soup!

2006-02-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

Imagine...

You could go into an American restaurant
And have a meal
Brought to you by
An adroid that...
Does not sniffle, cough
Or have a runny nose.

And one for which,
A few lines of computer code
Had taught it forever
Not to place its thumbs
On the inside surface of your supper plate!

Imagine...

[NOTE: From the hypothetical book of poems:
1001 Tales of Modern American Stupidity. Or: Why We Need to Insource to Robots Now!]

Voltaire on the Palestinian problem...

2006-01-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

In the Story of Philosophy
Will Durant quotes Voltaire:

If you wish to speak with me, define your terms.

For the sake of an argument, let's imagine Voltaire was suddenly reincarnated, and we asked him to opine on the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

Here are some beginning definitions that I imagine Voltaire might insist upon:

(1) Where did the Palestinians mostly live before there was an official state of Israel?

(2) For how many years did they live there?

(3) Were they asked to move? Or were they made to move?

(4) What sort of compensation was given?

Any dialog on the conflict must at bare root minimum begin with answers to these questions.

Thought experiment

2006-01-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

Thought experiment:

Imagine two indentical humanoid planets created by God as an experiment. Both planets are given a dose of free will.

In the first planet, God creates a gene that causes the humanoids to believe in god.

In the second planet God omits the gene.

Question:

Which planet will fall to its knees in war prayers?
Which planet will ban pain medicine?
Which planet will have great conflicts involving cartoons?
Which planet will prove that God is irrelevant?

Which planet would you rather live on?

"It's a miracle," fiancee exults...

2006-01-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

The paper on my kitchen table continues to report:

Terry Goff, a friend of one of the miners, said he learned that the miners were alive when the bell at the Baptist church began ringing just before midnight.
"When they found the body and said the carbon monoxide levels were high, I doubted my faith," he said, "but now we've got 12 men walking off that hill."

You doubted your religious faith?
Congratulations.
That's a start to becoming fully human.

But now answer me this:

Did you vote in November of 2004 for the party that believes in federal regulation and oversight for mine safety?

Or are you a republican chucklehead that likes to piss on OSHA, sissy liberals, and their nanny state?

Just wondering...

~~~~~~~~~UPDATE:~~~~~~~~~~~

On The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer last night (1/04/06) the wife of a miner exploded in tears and anger at the camera: "I tell you right now, who ever is responsible for this [the erroneous news about the rescue] is going to be sued."

An odd thought popped into my mind right then.

I saw Bill O Reilly's angry face shouting at her:
"Shut Up! Shut Up! Shut Up!
Tort reform!
Tort reform!
Tort reform!"

You don't suppose she is a Bill O Reilly fan do you?

Just wondering...

100 year stock streak gets bushwacked

2006-01-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

It was back in 1995 or 1996 that Dan Dorfman, at the time writing for USA Today, introduced his readers to a phenomenal bit of stock market magic:

For all years ending in "5" the stock market had NEVER known a loss.

No one knew why this was so.
No one even had a credible theory.
It just was.

But what was PROFOUNDLY impressive was the 35% average gain for those years.

That is simply off the charts.
It was one of those things you just looked at and gulped:
Huh? How? WHAAAT?? Good grief!

For a decade I kept Dorfman's news percolating in my brain, waiting for the arrival of 2005. As 2004 drew to a close, I angled my funds, readying to sink chips into a Dow-linked index fund.

But I hesitated,
and hesitated,
and hesitated.

And ended up NEVER pulling the purchase trigger.

Why?
Why would I wait a decade to play a interesting wager... and then not make it?

Because Bush was president.

You see, I've got this theory that this ne'er-do-well can (and will) fuck up anything and everything. He's got the anti-Midas touch: He turns things to shit.

And guess what?

He did:

Methinks...

2006-01-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

The hand that fed the byte...

2005-12-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today, a sound byte from Saddam's trial got piped everywhere by America's chain of mass media outlets. Even that DJ over at The NewsHour, Jim Lehrer, was spinning it in his mix.

Here's a transcription of the rap from some Chi town playas who call themselves The Tribune:

The voice-altering device, however, couldn't distort her grief as she spoke Tuesday in raw terms about the sexual humiliation and torture she faced in the four years she was moved from prison to prison after being arrested by Hussein's secret police in a mass round-up in the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982.

"I was forced to take my clothes off," she said of her detention in an intelligence services building. "They lifted my legs up, they tied my hands, they beat me with cables and gave me electric shocks. They were more than five persons. They treated me as if I were a banquet."

Of course, I understand the glorious groove corporate media wants me to feel when I rock to this big bad byte of evil Saddam.

I'm supposed to get a warm, fuzzy patriotic glow on my face.
I'm supposed to applaud the GOP and the USA for taking out Saddam.
I'm supposed to feel the war was really worth it.

But wait a second...

1982?

Hold on there Mr. Mass Media.
Who do you think you are?

How about we cut a deal?

I promise to get a warm, fuzzy patriotic glow on my face.
I promise to applaud the GOP and the USA for taking out Saddam.
And I promise to feel the war was really worth it...

If, and only if, you promise to tell me real soon why Donald Rumsfeld was shaking this mad monster's hand in 1983?

Ya Dig?

Frasca's simulation and Koreyel's Law

2005-12-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Gonzalo Frasca is a very clever chap.

Clever,
As in smart.
And smart,
As in razor-sharp.

Amongst the symphony of ideas,
The orchestras,
That compose his happening web site,
There exists...
A savage simulation called September 12
That shows Koreyel's Law bursting into bombastic being.

How do you win this game?

You don't.
You can't.
You won't.

How do you win in Iraq?

You don't.
You can't.
You won't.

You aren't.

[Note: Gonzalo's simulation predates Koreyel's Law.
Nevertheless I think I'll send this power-up to him:
Koreyel's Prescription: Feed a tribe. Starve a terrorist.
Maybe that might make the game passably and plausibly winnable.
Maybe,
As in maybe...]

Tucson's elections...

2005-11-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

True Arizona is a red state, but Pima County is one of the largest blue counties in the country. I am talking sheer acreage here. Take a look at the red-blue map from the 2004 Presidential election:

So yeah we've got a lot of blue acres down here.

In fact, Pima County helped send Raul M. Grijalva -- as ardent a progressive as there is -- to the House of Representatives. Pima County is also why Arizona has a blue governor. Janet Napolitano owes her 2002 election to the high voter turnout of Pima County Democrats.

And yet consider this:
Despite our royal blueness, Tucson has a City Council dominated by Republicans.

Up until last night that is...

What glorious news.
And what a thumping:

Dem-Trasoff 65%
Rep-Ronstadt 35%

Dem-Uhlich 62%
Rep-Dunbar 38%

You can read about the smack down here.
(Note: The Arizona Daily Star pulls down their stuff after several days.)

Side note:

The victory of Karen Uhlich over Kathleen Dunbar was especially tasty.
That's because the Republican Dunbar went on a suing spree five days before the election. Here is a quote from a recent Daily Star Article:

Republican Councilwoman Kathleen Dunbar made good on her threat to sue her Democratic opponent and three retired teachers over a campaign mailer.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Pima County Superior Court, Dunbar claims the mailer contains defamatory statements that have caused her "severe mental and physical anguish." The suit comes just five days before Tucson voters decide whether Dunbar deserves a second term representing Ward 3 on the City Council.
In addition to council candidate Karin Uhlich and the teachers, the suit also names the Pima County Democratic Party, the teachers' husbands, and a lawyer for the Amphitheater Public Schools district and his wife as defendants.

Typical ugly Republican dirty tricks.
Anything to win.
But yesterday we weren't having any of it.
We went hard to the polls and we slapped them viciously.

And yeah-- it sure feels good.

Flipping the urchin

2005-11-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

Fact: Cheney appointed David S. Addington to be his chief of staff.
Fact: Cheney appointed John P. Hannah to be the Assistant to the Vice President.
Fact: Their fingerprints are all over the botched-up burglary of Plame's name.

Conclusion: Josh Marshall called Cheney's move: "circling the wagons."

A better conclusion: They're circling the wagons and poking rifles out of every crack.

This administration now has the look and feel of a sea urchin.
To get at the guts of an urchin, you have to flip it over.

So that is what is now wanting:

A Deep Throat.
A Daniel Ellsberg.
A John Dean.

Someone to flip this cancerous administration on its back.

Because let's face it:

Addington is to Hannah
As Libby is to Rove,
As Cheney is to Libby,
As Bush is to Cheney.

Pervasive cancer requires invasive surgery.
And in the case at hand: Lots and lots of bloodletting.

Will it happen?
Or will we wait in vain for Godot to flip onto the scene?

My hunch is that someone important is going to flip.
The temperature of our country has clearly changed.
Beneath the surface a deep shift is remaking the American psyche.

Put mystically:
The Body Politic has had it with these scoundrels.
She is going to crack this administration open.
She will anoint someone to flip.

Out of the death of this administration will come a new birth.
That's inevitable.

But first-- right now,
It's killing time.
Time for Shiva to dance,
And time for us,
To beat time to the waltz.

TREASON!

2005-10-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Listen:
Post by post,
Point by point,
Understatment by understatement,
The noose is starting to close.

A blogger named Josh Micah Marshall
Is bringing down the Vice Presidency of the USA.
Post by post,
Point by point,
See Here
         And here
            And here.

To put Cheney's current situation in blunt terms
Is to state unequivocally
Via the unfolding of Marshall's posts:

The Vice President of the USA is a TRAITOR.

I need to say that again,
Louder and in different tone,
Because I need you to feel its import
In proper non-partisan form.

So listen up:

You are not a liberal.
Not a conservative.
Not a blogger.
Not a boor.
You are neither...
Bovine or Ovine.

Rather...
You are just a
    Simple,
      Decent,
        Old School,
          American.

Now read it again:

The Vice President of the USA is a TRAITOR!

Chew on that statement a bit.
How does it make you feel?

Sick in your guts?
Devastated?

How about:
Wanting to cry for the what's happened to your good country?
How about:
Wanting to sob for what's been done in your good name?

All of those
And more
I hope.

Because...
America the Beauty
Is arguably now suffering her worst cancer;
This is way past devastating,
Way past demoralizing,
Way beyond disgusting.

Cheney has done to America what
Bin Laden himself,
Could not do:

Cheney has taken a crooked rusty blade
To the smooth face of Our Lady of Liberty.

He has ruined her
With a grin and a growl...

And then...

Cheney,
That sick evil bastard
With a tumor for a heart.
Shit in Our Lady of Liberty's sliced-up face.

Cheney is guilty of deliberate
    Malicious,
        Malignant,
            Malversation.

All done,
Behind our backs;
And all done,
In our good names.

None should dare now hesitate
To call it what it is:
TREASON!

A Bush-league liar

2005-10-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Is the world asleep?

Kevin Drum says It's all about the Nukes...
And Josh Marshall agrees with him?

If today's grafs in the NY Daily News are true:

If...
"An angry President Bush rebuked chief
political guru Karl Rove two years ago for
his role in the Valerie Plame affair."

If...
"Published reports implying Rove had deceived
Bush about his involvement in the Wilson
counterattack were incorrect and were leaked
by White House aides trying to protect the
President."

If...
"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and
others as believing that they handled it in a
ham-handed and bush-league way."

Then...

Bush repeatedly lied to the American people
About what he knew
And when he knew it.
Not only that...
He abetted the crime by participating in it's coverup.

The evidence literally,
Litters the internet:

10/7/03:

"I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. I don't have any idea."

2/11/04:

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of. I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job. I want to know the truth. Leaks of classified information are bad things."
He added that he did not know of "anybody in my administration who leaked classified information."

2/03/04:

"I've told our administration that we'll fully cooperate with their investigation. I want to know the truth, and I'm willing to cooperate myself."

So,
If the story is true...
The clock to Bush's impeachment starts ticking right now:
Drip, drip, drip...
Tick, tick, tick...

Mark your watches everyone,
And get ready to bang your gongs.

Wilma Rang Blog

2005-10-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Wilma! Wilma! Wilma!

Has anyone else noticed that
Global Warming
rearanged is:
Wilma Rang Blog?

Probably not.

Which I suppose is my way of saying
That all this
penny-ante
   psuedo-learned
      political bullshit

Is just...
   Sound and Fury
      Signifying nothing.

I mean really...
Shouldn't we get on with it?

Shouldn't we be talking about global warming
And the energy crisis
Almost 24/7/52?

Or are the most popular blogs
Simply going to ignore it?

(Except for a post now and then
About how the government ALSO does nothing?)

I mean really...
Isn't every other subject
About as trivial as a USC football game?

¹ The three links are to consecutive Kevin Drum posts.
Which are best described as
penny-ante
psuedo-learned
political bullshit

Random Quotes Friday.4

2005-10-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Are there any ideas you deem
Worth dying for?

Probably...
Hopefully...

Hopefully,
And perhaps probably,
You've already thought this question out
On you own,
Both clearly and deeply.

After all,
You ought not to die for just any old idea...
Or for that matter
Die for another person's concept
Of which ideas are worth dying for.

Clearly,
If there is any question which requires
Your own deep thinking...
This is the one.

I, of course, have thought this question out.

And there are only two ideas
I deem worthy of dying for:
The Integrity of Democracy
And...
The Integrity of Science.

Today's quotes are about Science.

And they get at some of the reasons why...
I believe it to be a cause,
Worth dying for.

All the following
Are from Pasteur and Modern Science by Rene Dubos:

Take interest, I beseech you, in those sacred institutions which we designate under the expressive name of laboratories. Demand that they be multiplied and adorned; they are the temples of wealth and the future. There it is that humanity grows, becomes stronger and better. There it learns to read in the works of nature, symbols of progress and of universal harmony, whereas the works of mankind are too often those of fanaticism and destruction."

"Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence."

"Young men, have faith in these powerful and safe methods of which we do not know all the secrets. And, whatever your career may be, do not let yourself be discouraged by the sadness of certain hours which pass over nations. Live in the serene peace of laboratories and libraries..."

Amen...
Brother Pasteur,
Amen.

You've done more to help humanity
With your Science-enhanced mind...
Than any Sword,
Spear,
Or Swastika
Any time...
Any where...
Any when.

Revisting: My first post (I told you so...)

2005-10-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

Almost exactly one year ago I began this blog with a post about podcasting and the inevitablity of ipod videocasting.

I even taunted:

"Shouldn't Steve Jobs rethink his ideas about a video enabled ipod?"

Well he should, and he did.

Let me now make another prediction:

The future of education has just been radically altered.

Not only will "Distance Learning" never be the same, but learning itself will never be the same.

You heard it here first.

(And you can expect me to revisit this post about one year from now...)