Blogs
Threat Deterred!
Mark Roessler’s solution to the (no doubt many) threats on Obama’s life on this inauguration day: “Maybe the president should have a gun?” The photo opps alone boggle the mind.Milk's leap to immortality
I’ve always said we need to crack down on the illicit cheese trade. (And Clifton Fadiman is the source of the headline.)A Reptilian Bid for the Skies?
If some kid(s) made this turtle take flight, well, that’s clearly cruel. (It did land safely, thankfully.) But the authors of the article are overlooking another possibility: reptilian ambition. What if this turtle in fact had some friends attach all those...Goldbergian Triumphs of Europe
I used to work in Switzerland. And, outside of one particularly fetching news anchor, I found Swiss TV a weird, weird place. Exhibit A was a 30-minute or so segment that kept re-airing, in which a vast room held an equally vast Goldbergian machine system. Everything...A Really Good Gun Argument
In the back-and-forth I’ve seen here, in other comment sections, and on Facebook, I’ve seen very few comments from the pro-gun side of the equation as well-stated and well-grounded as the one I’m pasting below. For all the decrying of emotion as a...The “Disposition Matrix”
The worst part of the presidential campaign is its stifling, two-party narrowness on certain issues. The foreign policy debate of recent days showed just how similarly the two would approach foreign policy (well, apparently, if they are to be believed). There are...Democracy gets a gerrymander, gun info and Swiss madness
Can’t win fairly now? Change the rules! Republicans hope to gerrymander the Electoral College to prevent Democratic presidential victories. The idea is to switch to proportional allocation of electoral votes at a state level, but only in states that tend to vote...Dear Pleasant Street Theater:
Was it the popcorn scoop I lost in 1999? That really was an accident. And I was only holding Brion Dulac’s cigarette for him, Mr. Pini. I don’t even smoke. You cannot do this to us, this going away. Give us your airplane-like “little theater,”...When science trumps fiction
The coolest thing I’ve been sent today: scientists have created a visual approximation of what it would look like to hang out in Kurt Goedel’s model of the universe, or, as Smithsonian Mag explains it, “they show what it would look like if you could...Time to Unveil the Socialist Agenda!
So what happens now? Will Obama rip off his mask to reveal Lenin? Will we all be forced to become Muslims and get gay married? Will we give all our cash to illegal immigrants? Will we all be forced against our will to have healthcare? Or will we, at last, see Obama...Ungaming the System?
Recent Republican vote-gaming efforts have focused on making the Electoral College vote proportional, but only in states where it helps the Republican presidential candidate. Profoundly one-sided in their favor, of course. Now that those efforts seem to be fizzling...More Pore-tree
So last week, I wrote about poetry. A few days later, as fortune would have it, I got some good news about my own poetry. Then I read this swelled-head antidote.When is it tyranny?
Should it not concern all of us, left, right and other, that our government is claiming the right to kill Americans via legal justification that defies logic? “Imminent” is a word with a fairly clear meaning: “ready to take place; especially hanging...Some irony-free offerings
My Cyber Monday specials include this spectacularly well-written piece, which is very cool and/or uncool, o ye hipsters. And in other news: a beautiful collision of art and science has computers revealing the hidden keys to the emotion unleashed by abstract art,...I say “Potato,” you say “Pry it from my cold dead hands”
Australia passed gun control measures in the wake of mass shootings there. The laws appear to have been quite effective in the years since: there have been zero mass shootings, and other indicators show that gun-related violence has decreased overall. The case for a...Transits
After learning a lot about the 1769 transit of Venus via Mark Anderson’s fine book The Day the World Discovered the Sun, I enjoyed immensely the sudden sky-clearing that enabled me to run into the front yard and hastily set up binoculars and a pad of paper to...Boy Genius?
I’m not much for inspirational anything, but this kid deserves heap-loads of praise.All Greek to him
Sen. Lindsey Graham, possessor of the most irritating Southern accent since Gomer Pyle, today intoned this gem in his mock-serious way as part of his demand that Obama cut funds to so-called “entitlement” programs: “I will never vote to raise the...Someone who's actually fighting tyranny: Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges, like Chris Hitchens, can be a bit of a self-aggrandizing mule. Still and all, he’s doing a fine thing for the lot of us, clueless and clued-in alike, by suing President Obama over Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)....Why It's Smarter Not to Be a Poet
Being a poet is basically absurd. (I first typed “absurb,” which is probably also true.) People are apparently reading the stuff, good, bad and middling. But trying to get your book published? A very good poet of my acquaintance shopped his manuscript for...The Second Amendment and Slavery
Never heard this argument before. Thom Hartmann: The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “State” instead of “Country” (the Framers knew the difference – see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol...Quote of the Day
“We know the human heart is a substandard product.” -Josh Marshall of TPM, talking about his frustration with the “conversation” (about mass shootings) that ends up going nowhere What, indeed, is it about the U.S. that makes us home to a...Brain Food of the Highest Order
While the crema builds up on that last post, here’s something completely different. This morning, I sat eating my Weetabix, and suddenly the speakers nearby launched into the air a gorgeous melody. It’s really quite unlike any other melody I can think of....Obama, Bush and Romney
Glenn Greenwald and Ibrahim Mothana illustrate why this fall is, in some ways, unimportant: Mothana, in the New York Times: Unfortunately, liberal voices in the United States are largely ignoring, if not condoning, civilian deaths and extrajudicial killings in Yemen...From “Freedom Fries” to Frying Cheney
I never would have dreamed I’d be writing in praise of Rep. Walter Jones (R, N.C.), formerly of “freedom fries” fame. But, well, here you go: “Congress will not hold anyone to blame [for the Iraq War]. Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in...That really was the end of the world right there
So I was wrong. The world did end, as predicted, at 6:11 a.m. this morning. Yet I awoke to find everything the same, and was pretty okay with that. But then. Ah, then I stumbled upon the ugly(?) truth. The world did end, and was replaced with an exact replica....Friday Food Madness: An Advance in Pastry Science?
Too bad this machine strips the cookie of its essential nature. This is just the kind of thing Mary Shelley warned us about. The video is beautifully done, on the other hand. Very wry. (And creamless.)Blue Means Go
Ever wonder where, say, purple ends and pink begins? Here’s an extraordinary post exploring the linguistic, cognitive, and neurological basis of how many colors we perceive. Part two explores yet further, and offers a very cool BBC video about language/color...Low non-Earth Orbit
A crazy planet? Well, yes, but no. Here’s something for everyone who’s imagined what it would be like to walk on the ceiling (outside of Lionel Richie), or imagined a textured ceiling as the surface of a planet: An artist who shoots photos of the tops of...Can the gun control conversation grow up?
This is the best article I’ve yet read about the conflicting cultures of gun owners versus gun control advocates. Makes me realize that, though it’s talked up as uncrossable, I straddle this cultural divide. I bet there are plenty of others who do as well....Big Brother Wears Glasses
Sometimes profound social change happens so fast no one is prepared for the new reality (yep, Future Shock, still relevant). I assumed Google Glass would fizzle out because its wearers look absurd. But then again, so do those bizarre pointy shoes some women still...Not in the World with Supermarkets
An oddly poignant quote from 108-year-old Alice Herz-Sommer: “In my opinion musicians are privileged people. It brings you from the first tone to another world, not in the world with supermarkets, and not with money, in a world with peace and beauty.”...Uncomfortable Questions
Do the political realities behind the destruction of an overwhelming symbol of empire point to some uncomfortable conclusions?Crazy for guns!
Can the conversation grow up? Alex Jones says no. Very, very loudly. (As does our comment section.) And if you can make it a couple of minutes into this video without turning the volume to mute, he gets even louder. Me, I want to see how he’s going to use his...Carrying a Gun: A Very Big Deal
Here’s an interesting case to examine: former Marine with handgun stops a crime. It’s a fine example of the sort that gets trotted out by our NRA friends to say, “See, it works! And all you crazy liberals want to take away our protection!” And...A Noseful
In case you were wondering, yes, there are people who have far too much free time. Here, several of them compete to see who has the roomiest head.Still a big deal to own a gun…
In contrast to the last post, here’s the story of a teenager sneaking into the neighbor’s house by accident instead of his own and getting shot as an intruder. How this story gets interpreted is something, I’ll maintain, that’s likely to vary...Bats and Guns
More stories like this one would be in the newspaper if guns were harder to get. I expect the usual arguments imagining a victim shooting an attacker. But any, or even all, of these people might be dead if attacker or the adult victim had a gun; no guarantees...Prince Rupert must have dropped a lot of molten glass in his day
I love the name “Prince Rupert’s Drop.” And the object itself? Spectacular. Go, science! The world is weirder than you suspect sometimes.The Moustache of Understanding Strikes Back
Of the many blowhards masquerading as media figures, few are so frustrating in their pompousness, air of reason, and sheer insanity as Thomas Friedman. Glenn Greenwald today uses the occasion of a singularly spectacular Friedman statement to go after said insanity,...Chicken Little, certified member of the Tennessee GOP
I hate it when my fellow Southerners make the stereotypes stick: Building managers and legislative staffers have sought to reassure some concerned Tennessee lawmakers that recent renovations at the state Capitol did not install special facilities for Muslims to wash...There are Good Guys and There are Bad Guys, and There are Folks like You and Me
TPM’s Josh Marshall, in a long post about being a “non-gun person,” offers a particularly distilled summation of the problem with the pro-NRA argument about “good guys with guns” being the answer to pretty much everything:...Devolution
Jan. 17: 1) “The president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Thursday said that the organization was ‘generally supportive’ of strong background checks on firearm purchasers.” 2) “A CBS News poll released Thursday shows 92...Storm Clouds?
The eight years of political misery that began with the Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore decision might be but a harbinger of a rough November. From the New York Times: Twelve years after a too-close-to-call presidential contest imploded in a hail of Florida punch...Lending Dancing Larry a Hand
If you’ve ever met the man known as Dancing Larry, you know he’s as generous and friendly a soul as you’re likely to meet. He’s been a longtime fixture in the Valley, dancing with joy at local music shows for years. Play a show with him at the...Thatcher Oof
When I heard that the Iron Lady had left us, I wondered, “What do the Oak Ridge Boys think about this?” They quickly obliged: From: Webster PR To: jheflin@valleyadvocate.com Subject: The Oak Ridge Boys comment on the passing of UK Prime Minister Margaret...Is authorship about to pay even less?
Last November, I wrote about a thorny Supreme Court case, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. In short, it revolves around the right to import copyrighted works intended for overseas use and resell them. Kirtsaeng, a Thai student who made a load of cash reselling...Bad all over
Quite the bodycount of innocents killed in the past few days around the world, including in our own horrible events. Here’s the beginning of the list: SYRIA Syrian warplanes swooped over the quiet town of Saraqeb in the country’s north Saturday, dropping...A Tough Week Gets Worse
Meanwhile, in Congress, expanded background checks for gun ownership, supported by an overwhelming majority of even NRA members, are voted down. Gabby Giffords says this: They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each...A Matter of Important Semantics
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday regarding the Boston Marathon bombings: 1) “…we need to know everything we can about why this happened, what the motivation was, how it happened, and all of those issues are under investigation.”...Austen will Destroy You
When I first was required to read Jane Austen, I thought, “Uh-oh. Chick lit.” I was surprised and pleased to find that my preconceptions were not only ill-founded, but absurdly off-base. I have nothing but admiration for her deadly wit and humor, and now...Triumph of the Swill: Why Amanda Palmer's poem about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev needs a replacement
I often try to temper talk about musicians or artists I don’t personally care for with a healthy dose of understanding that making good art is quite hard to do. I often look back at my own earlier works of poetry and wonder how I thought they were worthy....Where the Christmas decorations went
Some weird stuff: 1) Google Earth offers some unwitting insight into William Gibson. Namely, the idea of experiencing/manipulating computer code as if it were an object. It never makes a whole lot of sense to read, in science fiction, of people manipulating code...Life imitates Science Fiction again
Something to think about next time you weed the garden: Plants use underground fungal networks to warn their neighbours of aphid attack, UK scientists have discovered. The study, published this week in Ecology Letters, is the first to reveal plants’ ability to...NRA: Violent Movies Bad, Except When They're Cool
Goldurn violent movies keep turning people crazy. Only now, says the NRA, those violent movies are pretty cool. From their Top 10 list of “Coolest Gun Movies,” there’s this about The Godfather: “While not rip-roaring with action, this film...Gun Control: We Agree, Yet…
This ought to be easy, according to these new Pew numbers: Gun control supporters can point to broad and consistent public support for expanded background checks. Fully 81% favor making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks, little...Gun Control: If We Build It…
Between 3-D printers and the “gun build” phenomenon, it’s safe to say that gun legislation battles are a sideshow. Despite the tendency of gun arguments to quickly concretize into opposing cartoons, the grand-scale issue of gun violence isn’t...Banksy has a Coke
If you can’t read it above, check it out here. I wouldn’t call this his most successful effort by a long shot, but his take on what advertisers do is particularly intriguing. I would certainly rather look at a work of Banksy art than an ad.Frankenstein's Arrested Development
For months, I anticipated the return of Arrested Development. Best comedy, well, ever, in my estimation. At least, outside of the U.K. Office. I’ve watched three of the new episodes. Total laugh count: approximately one per episode. It’s like watching an...E-Edition
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