The official site of Kelly Sedinger: Reader, writer, photographer, and dreamer
[This post contains 100% political snarking.]
Digby‘s got the goods on the Bush re-election strategy. Since a period in which we’ve seen two major wars is going to be marketed as “Peace”, I can’t wait to see how a recession, a busted treasury, and two million jobs lost is offered as “Prosperity”.
Yeesh.
I just read a post by Megan McArdle in which she takes Democrats to task for stonewalling President Bush’s judicial nominees because (and I can’t believe she wrote this in all apparent seriousness) the judges in question, while being minority judges, are not liberal minority candidates.
Now, I’m not entirely sure why Megan would completely disregard the actual reasons stated for why a relative handful of judges are being opposed; nor am I certain shy Megan apparently thinks that Democrats actually expect the President to nominate “the same judges Al Gore would have nominated”; nor am I certain why Megan is of the apparent belief that it’s their minority status that is riling the Democrats (that Charles Pickering fellow — in what minority does he fall?).
And then, one of the commenters on the thread, in just the fifth comment, provides some factual data that pretty much completely disproves Megan’s post. I can only assume that she has the flu and composed this post an hour after drinking half a bottle of NyQuil, because it makes so little sense that I had to check three times to make sure I was even on her blog in the first place. While I don’t find it uncommon to disagree with her, I do find it highly uncommon to actually think she’s being intellectually dishonest.
In another attempt to jump-start Collaboratory, I posted a couple of items there for discussion.
BTW, last year we tried to get a Collaboratory book club going, but we got a bit too ambitious and ended up getting crushed beneath the weight of The Brothers Karamazov. We’re thinking of taking another crack at a book club, this time with I Claudius, I think. If there’s abiding interest, leave a message there under the appropriate thread.
SDB thinks he’s safe from the fires, for the most part, and he also provides a handy map that shows where the fires are (or were, at the time of the map).
He also provides a brief explanation of the numbering system for the Interstate Highway system: odd-numbered interstates are mainly north-south routes, while even-numbered interstates are east-west routes. I’d also add that when a relatively short “spur” or “loop” is added, a third digit is added to the front of the number, with the last two remaining the same as the “mainline” highway with which the spur or loop is associated. Thus, by way of example, in Buffalo we have the following:
I-90: This is the mainline Interstate that traverses the Buffalo region.
I-190: This is the spur that branches off I-90 and leads downtown and then to Niagara Falls.
I-290: This is a loop that branches off I-90 and curves around the northern suburbs of the city (Williamsville, Amherst, Tonawanda).
I-990: This is a spur that branches off I-290 and leads to the University at Buffalo’s North Campus and a couple of miles beyond.
So, a “spur” will usually have an odd first digit while a “loop” will have an even first digit. (Strangely, this isn’t the case in Syracuse, where I-690 is, despite its even first digit, a “spur” and not a “loop”. I-490, though, is indeed a “loop”.)
And if you find all this just incredibly fascinating — and why wouldn’t you? — then you’ll just love this page, which has more than you’ll ever want to know about the Interstate Highway System, of which Charles Kuralt once said: “Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.”
Jessa Crispin points out that there may soon be a very compelling reason to move to Massachusetts.
Well, not really a “parable”, but a reflection. Or a meditation. Or a thought. Or….[head explodes]
Anyway, yesterday the wife and I had the wonderful occasion to foist the kid off on the grandparents for a few hours, during which we went shopping without the four-year-old in tow — a one-time normal thing that has been elevated to luxury status since the coming of the kid. We went to a couple of consignment shops, to Barnes&Noble, and a few other places. We were early in getting to the restaurant where we were meeting the grandparents for dinner, so we passed a few moments by going into Clayton’s, which is the Buffalo area’s nicest toy store. This is where you go in Buffalo if you’re looking for real toys: dollhouse furniture, the biggest selection of Playmobile stuff I’ve ever seen, kid’s crafts, fine dolls (both porcelain and Russian matryoshkas), fine model railroad supplies, et cetera. In other words, everything you won’t find on the shelves at Toys-R-Us or Wal-Mart.
What was amazing was that we’ve been looking, to no avail, for a couple of things in other toy places. I’ve been looking for wind-up bath toys for the daughter, like boats or whatnot. The wife has been looking for “sewing cards”, apparently cardboard or felt cutouts in different shapes that come with yarn and have holes punched in them to let the kid lace the yarn through the holes, an item which I guess shows kids the concept of sewing. (I’d never seen these before, so if my description is weird, sorry.) We could not find either of these simple items in any big store — not Wal-Mart, not Target, and not even Toys-R-Us. But we found both within five minutes of walking into Clayton’s.
It amazes me that simple things like these have been eclipsed into the realm of “specialty toys”. I walk through toy sections in the big-box stores and my attitude is, “God, let’s find what we want and get the hell out of here”. But I walk through a place like Clayton’s, and I start to actually think back to my own childhood, and I spot the things I used to play with, and a strange mixture of happiness and sadness sets in. I’m happy that I can still find these things and get them for my kid, but I’m sad because I wonder how many parents never even consider going to a place like Clayton’s, and thus have kids who will never play with a single toy that Wal-Mart has decided not to stock?
Folks, if you have kids, don’t do all your Christmas toy shopping at the big places. Find those small toy stores and get them something they’ll never see at those big places. And spread the word.
Here some science related articles I’ve had sitting in my bookmarks waiting to be unleashed on my unsuspecting readers at just the right time. Tremble, pitiful mortals! Mwwoooo-hoooo-haaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!
:: Alien hunters get new respect. After years of being seen by many as a “fringe” activity, SETI research is finally emerging as legitimate scientific inquiry. Where is Dr. Sagan when we really need him?
Someday I hope to see the new Allen Telescope Array, once it’s built. When I was in second grade and my family lived in West Virginia, we once drove by the radio observatory at Green Bank (back before they built the new Robert Byrd telescope). I find something beautiful, in a ghostly way, about large radio telescopes — these giant lattices of steel and mesh through which we have deepened our knowledge of the Universe.
:: Archaeologists recently uncovered evidence that the Amazon basin may not have been an unexplored and pristine jungle before the arrival of the Europeans after all. Evidence shows that the natives of that region were far from stone-age savages, working the region into a network of villages and even building roads.
:: If you like whiskey, you’re in pretty good company — no less a personage than George Washington, hero of the Revolutionary War and First President of these United States, drank the hard stuff now and then. In fact, Washington had his own distillery at Mt. Vernon, and a group of whiskey makers recently used the distillery to recreate General Washington’s own whiskey recipe (although, contrary to Washington’s likely practice, they’re going to age the stuff to make it taste better).
:: Here’s a new theory as to why ships disappear at sea without trace or reason: they are swamped, unawares, by giant methane bubbles rising from the ocean floor. What happens is that the pressure at the ocean bottom causes methane to form ice-like structures, like the orange blob in this picture:
But these structures can break off and head for the surface, and as they “thaw”, the methane reverts to gaseous form, making a huge bubble that can swamp an ocean-going vessel on the surface if it breaches at just the right spot relative to the unfortunate ship. If this turns out to be true, I wonder if the Bermuda Triangle is merely a region whose sea-bed produces a lot of methane.
:: If you plan to make an Egyptian-style mummy in the future, you’ll be happy to know that the secret ingredient in mummification that allows preservation on the millennial time frame has at last been identified: an extract from the cedar tree. (To this day, my favorite bit of the mummification process is when they use a really long needle to pull the cadaver’s brain out through the nose. Yeah, I’m warped.)
:: I’m not sure what the environmental implications are, especially for biodiversity, but an ongoing process to take a “census” of the oceans is revealing three new fish species a week, such as this new variety of scorpionfish:
Representatives of Red Lobster could not be reached for comment.
:: Applying Pat Robertson logic, maybe our abandonment of Sun-worship wasn’t such a good idea….
Yup, it’s Tuesday, which mean the Buffalo News (which, being a major metropolitan newspaper, really should be able to afford a website that actually loads more than 60% of the time) runs Jerry Sullivan’s football column. Today, he wants to fire Bills head coach Gregg Williams.
Now, I actually (somewhat) agree with that sentiment. I don’t think the team is playing on a level commensurate with its talent, and that — plus the lack of discipline evident after eight games — seems to me to reflect mostly on the coaching staff. I don’t think Williams has worked out, and I now doubt the Bills can make the playoffs. Assuming that at least ten wins are needed to make the postseason (unless one happens to play in the AFC North, a division which can be taken with an 8-8 record), the Bills would have to go 6-2 the rest of the way to make it in. I don’t see that happening, not with games left against good teams like Dallas, Indianapolis, New England (as much as it pains me to admit it), the Giants, and the Dolphins (who I still expect to swoon, but you never know). With two-and-a-half years under his belt, and with an upgrading of personnel each year, Williams has yet to really achieve.
But Jerry’s not content to can Williams when the current, lost year is over. Jerry wants him toasted right now. Firing a coach in mid-season should, to anyone familiar with football and its regimented, system-dependent nature, pretty much concede that the season is lost. But Jerry goes so far as to opine that such a move might not doom the Bills’ season, citing — of all things — the Florida Marlins. You see, the Marlins entered the 2003 season with Jeff Torborg as their manager, but they fired him about a month and a half into the season (when they were ten games under .500) and brought in Jack McKeon, who proceeded to steer them to the best record in baseball after that point and the eventual World Series championship. Yeah, that was inspirational and all, but come on, Jerry. Are you really suggesting that a baseball franchise firing its manager one-fourth of the way through a 162-game regular season is comparable to an NFL franchise unloading its head coach at the halfway point in a 16-game season?
(Yes, he’s really suggesting that.)
Jerry’s column is peppered with all manner of stupidities. Sure, Jerry, the University at Buffalo Bulls are the more respected football team in Buffalo right now. Sure, Jerry, the Bills are “the national joke”. Sure, Jerry, “Williams isn’t a lame duck, he’s a roast duck” is just the cleverest metaphor! And ultimately, Jerry doesn’t even answer the question of, What would be the point of canning the guy right now? If you’re only going to name an interim coach to play out the string — which Jerry tacitly concedes would probably be the case — how is that any less “giving up on the season” than just keeping Williams in place until the year’s over and the whole thing can be handled in a manner that wouldn’t be a mid-season distraction?
Jerry doesn’t have an answer for that, but then, the column isn’t about answers. It’s about Jerry going, “Look how just darn MAD I am! Wheeeee!”
Worst…columnist…ever.
Via Atrios I found this rather stunning image of San Diego fire damage:
How did the flames manage to completely destroy nearly everything manmade, but leave the trees relatively unsinged, just fifty feet away? Was this due to the efforts of firefighters, or did it have more to do with the way the fires spread?
Nefarious Neddie observed my expression of disdain for ESPN football commentator Joe Theismann the other day, and points out a Theismann gem I didn’t even know. After my expression of disbelief, Neddie instructed me to Google “Theismann Dumb Quotes”, wherein I discovered this wondrous collection of idiotic sports utterances. Amazing beyond belief.