Saddam gets cranky

This just in from CNN.com...

As court was adjourning for the day in his trial, Saddam Hussein suddenly shouted that he would not attend Wednesday's session. "I will not be in a court without justice. Go to hell, all you agents of America," he said. He also complained that he had been wearing the same shirt and underwear for three days.

Um, that's a little bit too much information. And what was that thing about him doing his laundry in the presence of his guards in the immediate days following his capture? Has he suddenly forgotten how to wash clothes?

That thing I was saying...

OK, so a little while ago I was griping about limited release films; that is, the films that are always advertised as "... starts this Friday in selected cities." Among such current films are "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Capote." I figured they'd never come to Athens. Well, I was wrong. Just saw "Good Night, and Good Luck" and with a little luck (and time) "Capote" will be taken care of as well.

Hey, I have no problem being wrong. At least I get to see the movies that I want to see. Not like "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Holy crap. For a football weekend, there sure wasn't a shortage of people eager to see "Goblet of Fire." Both evening shows were sold out by the time I got to the theater. Dag. Oh well, I guess I'll be seeing that one over Thanksgiving,

Cranky rant of the day

This is directed at the art house film studio marketing geniuses. "Now showing in selected cities." Translation: For those of you who don't live in New York or Los Angeles, we'll show this movie in your local theaters when you learn how to read. Gee, thanks. Now I'll never get to see movies like "Capote" or "Good Night and Good Luck." There's a better chance that a snowball will come out of a blast furnace intact than the chance that either of these movies are going to show up in Athens.

Vampires!

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President Bush nominates replacement for Justice O'Connor...

... and it's Supreme Chancellor Palpatine? Gah.

Cranky rant of the day

OK, this is directed at the marketing geniuses at Coa-Cola who came up with the idea of updating "I'd LIke to Teach the World to Sing" as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Chill": Chill on this, motherf*ckers! For cryin' out loud... "I'd Like to Teach the World to Chill." Someone ought to teach the marketing department how to pull their heads out of their collective asses, that's what ought to be taught.

What was that about "government... for the people?"

From today's edition of "All Things Considered," here's a two-part chronology of how contingency plans were originally envisioned as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast, followed by how those plans completely fell apart.

Après moi, le déluge

Or not, perhaps.

So, it's been ten days since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast and left devastation in her wake. The dumbfounding missteps at all governmental levels have been well documented. And yet, I can't help but feel that the Bush administration is operating with the mindset that everything that has transpired has done so in the only manner possible.

If given the chance to reconsider decisions, should such decisions have been decided in a different manner? Of course. Certainly, the New Orleans city government should have had made contingency plans to evacuate its citizens in advance of Katrina's landfall. And yes, the system of levees that was supposed to protect New Orleans from just such a disaster to which we've just borne witness should have received funding from the Federal government for structural improvements. Would these same decisions have resulted in different outcomes that could have prevented this tragedy? Could they have resulted in different outcomes? It saddens me when I come to the conclusion that the answer is: No. Certainly at the Federal level, I don't expect any outcome other than the one we've experienced.

Welcome to Bushworld, where, as Maureen Dowd describes it, "It's their reality. We just live and die in it." In this best of all possible worlds, President Bush plays Candide to Karl Rove's Pangloss. Everything that transpires does so because it was meant to be so and cannot possibly result in any other outcome than that which has transpired.

We are so screwed.

Holy crap

Or maybe: "When MRI magnets attack..."



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More ursine wackiness

Ur? Did I do something wrong? (Click on the image for the full story.)

Platypi!

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Water, water, everywhere

As if "Dark Water" wasn't creepy enough, now comes news of a woman charged with a water bill of $74,000. Gah.

Fun with science, part IV

More specifically, William F. Buckley, Jr. believes in God, but not the scientific method. To quote his contribution to "This I Believe":

This I believe: that it is intellectually easier to credit a divine intelligence than to submit dumbly to felicitous congeries about nature.

This I wonder: has Mr. Buckley, Jr. ever taken penicillin, a drug whose antibiotic effects were deduced and demonstrated by the very methods he seems to have no confidence in?

Krazy kable hijinks

So, last Wednesday, I came home late after a long day in lab. Looking forward to the two episodes of "The Inside" that I had programmed my VCR to tape, I noticed that my cable had gone out (no signal on my cable modem). My first thought was, "OK, maybe the signal just went out so maybe the VCR was still able to tape it." No such luck. Rewound the tape and all I had was static. Called the cable company and got the "We are experiencing outages due to inclement weather" message. (To be fair, Hurricane Dennis was approaching the Gulf Coast. The crappy weather was kind of like the way the Silver Surfer used to announce the arrival of Galactus. Except that no one's homeworld got eaten for lunch.) Finally got through to a human operator and was told that they would send someone over to take a look. To sum up: came home tired, no TV, no Internet connection. Oh well, maybe I'll read a book. (Actually, I think I watched "Hellboy" again.)

Came home the next day, still no TV signal or Internet connection. Spoke with another representative at the cable company and this time, after a little snooping, he concluded that someone was trying to steal my cable because none of my neighbors were having problems with their cable. He said he'd put in a request for someone to come over to the building and fix my cable connection. The score thus far: still no TV, still no Internet connection, and I had missed "Beauty and the Geek" not once, but twice. Crap.

OK, so now it's Friday. Came home and saw that my Internet connection had been restored. So far, so good. How about the TV? Turned on the TV only to discover that I was receiving less than half the channels I had been receiving for the better part of a year and a half. And of course, leave it to my luck that the channels that I was no longer receiving were the ones I watched the most (e.g. - Cartoon Network, SciFi Channel, ESPN, the History Channel). Called the cable company yet again. Turns out that I wasn't supposed to be receiving those channels at all since I had signed up for the basic subscription rather than the extended basic subscription. Damn. I guess the Man caught up with me.

Final score: Internet connection is back. TV viewing is now restricted to broadcast channels plus Chicago's WGN Superstation (which will come in handy if I'm interested, say, in the weather in a city from which I moved away almost two years ago). I think I'll start paying a lot more attention to PBS from now on, especially since I joined Georgia Public Broadcasting a couple of months ago.

Once again, the cable company wins. Down with the Man!

Supreme Court Justice O'Connor to retire...

... Supreme Court nomination battle to begin sooner than expected.

With Justice O'Connor's announcement of her resignation, it became clear that President Bush's choice to replace her would represent not only an opportunity to maintain the current ideological balance in the Supreme Court but actually shift it towards the right. At stake, once again, is the fate of Roe v. Wade. With the imminent departure of Justice O'Connor, conservative opponents of Roe are already mobilizing to take advantage of what they perceive to be a golden opportunity to overturn Roe. In the words of Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:

We in the conservative movement have been waiting for over a decade for this moment in time to see a philosophical shift in the Court and we will seize this opportunity... We will be mobilizing over 20,000 churches across the nation through a variety of means. We are in communication daily with over a million people through our website. We have brought on new staff just for this battle that is pending.

So, in other words: "Gee, we can't wait to turn this country into a misogynistic theocracy!" Good times.

Fun with science, part III

Granted, we haven't reached a point akin to Galileo's experience with the Inquisition, but who knows what the next three and a half years will bring, let alone the next presidential election.

And while I'm on the topic of bacteria, the National Academy of Sciences has thumbed its collective nose at the Department of Health and Human Services in proceeding to publish the PNAS article analyzing the ease with which the US milk supply could be contaminated with botulinum toxin and the subsequent harm that would be inflicted on the public.

Fun with science, part II

Platypi! I think the only other animal I like more is the otter. Yeah, otters rock. Otter pops, anyone?

One Congressional showdown averted...

... is another one in the wings? The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would expand federal funding on stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research. The Senate is prepared to pass the bill and, according to Senator Arlen Spector (R-Pa), there is enough support to override a Presidential veto. President Bush, for his part, has clearly stated his disapproval of the bill and his intention to veto it.

Hmm, so, let me see if I understand this correctly. In other words... President Bush to stem cell research proponents: "Already born? Got Alzheimer's? Parkinson's? A degenerative neuromuscular disease? Too fucking bad! You're shit out of luck. Besides, I don't need your vote anymore."

Fun with science

Hey, if evolution is just a "theory," might as well question everything else under the sun, right? (Click on the images for a larger version.)





Yeah. Good times.

You've got to be kidding me

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith just opened today (or last night, rather) and already it's been seized upon by liberals and conservatives alike as Exhibit A in their respective agendas.

People, it's just a movie. Does anyone seriously believe that the man who punished movieviewers with Episodes I and II would have the artistry to craft political allegory in the guise of science fiction adventure? And don't get me started on the whole Joseph Cambell and The Hero with a Thousand Faces business, either. George Lucas practically bought out the entire sledgehammer industry to make that point.

Having said that, I've made my plans to see Episode III this Friday. Wa-hoo! What? Just because I rant about Episodes I and II doesn't mean I'm sitting out Episode III. It's become a matter of principle at this point.