The Washington Post has a headline that Mexicans are stunned at the murder of the police chief of Tijuana. Given that a previous police chief was killed on the same street, it seems unlikely that it comes as that much of a surprise.
The latest in 10 Commandments gimmicks, as passed most recently by the Indiana legislature, is to post it in classrooms alongside other "historical" documents like the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. Nice try.
The Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of a lovely practice, drug-testing pregnant women without their consent and then reporting them to the police. Is there an actual question here?
McCain and Bradley are preparing to go out in a final burst of glory. McCain said what everyone thinks about the Christian right, which must feel good. Now tell us, what do you really think about the North Vietnamese? And he calls Bush a Pat Robertson Republican who will lose to Al Gore. By the way, he said will lose, not would lose, which is an admission unto itself. Bush says that he is a problem-solver and McCain is a finger-pointer, whatever that means. And says that Reagan was never so divisive, so far as he remembers. Of course he spent the '80s in a drug-induced stupor, and probably remembers Reagan as the guy who beat off the invasion of giant spiders from the Crab Nebula.
And Boo Bradley is running really hard in... Washington state. Ignoring, oh say, New York and California, just so that he can say he won one state when he has to pull out.
OK, the California election. It seems that I was wrong about 29 being the evil twin of 1A. It's actually the puny younger brother, and should be voted for in case 1A is defeated.
Also, I finally have an opinion on Prop 25, campaign financing. The need for campaign financing is shown by the fact that Governor Beige is raising money he won't have to disclose the source of for another year and can use for whatever he wants, including defeating this proposition. But this one ain't it. Too many loopholes and, the killer provision, unions are restricted to the same limits in total as a single individual person.
Tuesday, February 29, 2000
Saturday, February 26, 2000
Prince Charles was in Trinidad this week. They just could not get the man to limbo.
I'm sure you all want to know just what Monica Lewinsky's deal with Jenny Craig is. Well, she's paid by the pound. $25,000 per pound she keeps off for a year, to a maximum of 40, and more for a second year. They can weigh her at any time and she doesn't have to do anything she considers immoral.
The Utah House of Reps votes ban discussion of birth control in public schools and that children be taught that "any sexual relations outside of marriage constitutes criminal conduct." One presumes the latter is not actually true.
A jury in Albany acquits four NY city policemen of shooting Dialou, whose name was not spelled that way, but never mind. The trial was marred only by the fact that when the foreman of the jury reached into his pocket to bring out the verdict, one of the cops yelled "Gun!" and the rest shot him 682 times.
If you wish to consult an actual South African witchdoctor, his website is woza.co.za. I know what woza means, but I can't remember if it's from Zulu or Khosa.
I'm sure you all want to know just what Monica Lewinsky's deal with Jenny Craig is. Well, she's paid by the pound. $25,000 per pound she keeps off for a year, to a maximum of 40, and more for a second year. They can weigh her at any time and she doesn't have to do anything she considers immoral.
The Utah House of Reps votes ban discussion of birth control in public schools and that children be taught that "any sexual relations outside of marriage constitutes criminal conduct." One presumes the latter is not actually true.
A jury in Albany acquits four NY city policemen of shooting Dialou, whose name was not spelled that way, but never mind. The trial was marred only by the fact that when the foreman of the jury reached into his pocket to bring out the verdict, one of the cops yelled "Gun!" and the rest shot him 682 times.
If you wish to consult an actual South African witchdoctor, his website is woza.co.za. I know what woza means, but I can't remember if it's from Zulu or Khosa.
Thursday, February 24, 2000
UCSC committed suicide today, if you haven't heard, voting to require grades. No decision yet on whether narrative evaluations survive, but if so they will be gone within five years, I would guess.
George II's ads, the only ads he's running here so far that I've seen, are directed at McCain, telling him that he can disagree with him, but can't attack Bush's integrity. I can't for the life of me think why he thinks his integrity is out of bounds. He looks very determined in this ad; his eyes are squinting and you can hear this little voice in his head telling him "don't smirk don't smirk don't smirk."
The Paris newspaper Liberation has horrified French snobs everywhere (60 million and counting) for praising the cuisine of a restaurant with an imported Scottish chef, introducing some of the worst cuisine in Europe to the frogs-leg crowd, such as chicken in 7-Up, chocolate-filled ravioli, and the height of Glaswegian cuisine, the deep-fried Mars bar.
At the Harlem debate, Gore still refused to ask Clinton to sign an executive order ending racial profiling and accused the state of New Jersey of "practically inventing racial profiling." That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the former senator from the state of Tennessee is accusing New Jersey of racism. Bradley was too polite to bring up that whole lynching thing.
Bush II keeps talking about Democrats "hijacking" the Michigan primary to vote for his opponent. I hope Al Gore stuffs those words back down his throat when he starts appealing to the voters who might actually elect him president in November, the ones to the left of Pat Robertson. More to the point, did anyone tell him that 35% of Michigan's registered voters are independents? This is what happens in a state with open primaries. He should really watch who he keeps insulting.
I've been thinking about diplomatic immunity today. The feds recently arrested an INS agent who spied for Cuba. Actually, if he told Cuba anything, it was about some of their military people who were thinking of defecting. That may be wrong, but why should it be illegal? That the US is trying to bribe members of another country's military may be one of our secrets, but really he was just telling another country that one of their citizens was about to commit a crime. Now if he'd told Colombia about drug traffickers...
OK, so they arrest him and then tell his Cuban diplomatic contact to leave the country. The Cuban refuses. He is after all, the witness for the defense. He's got a point. Should the US be allowed to make its case by deporting witnesses for the other side? But if he has diplomatic immunity, should be be able to testify when there is no perjury penalty hanging over him? In either case, the US has given him until Saturday to leave, at which point he reverts to civilian status. My question is whether they can then arrest him for spying. The real question is, of what does diplomatic immunity consist? Does it turn a crime into a non-crime, in the way that a police officer is allowed to speed? Or is it more like a statute of limitations, where something remains a crime, but the perp can be prosecuted on one side of a line but not the other? If that is the case, then he can be prosecuted the minute his immunity lapses.
George II's ads, the only ads he's running here so far that I've seen, are directed at McCain, telling him that he can disagree with him, but can't attack Bush's integrity. I can't for the life of me think why he thinks his integrity is out of bounds. He looks very determined in this ad; his eyes are squinting and you can hear this little voice in his head telling him "don't smirk don't smirk don't smirk."
The Paris newspaper Liberation has horrified French snobs everywhere (60 million and counting) for praising the cuisine of a restaurant with an imported Scottish chef, introducing some of the worst cuisine in Europe to the frogs-leg crowd, such as chicken in 7-Up, chocolate-filled ravioli, and the height of Glaswegian cuisine, the deep-fried Mars bar.
At the Harlem debate, Gore still refused to ask Clinton to sign an executive order ending racial profiling and accused the state of New Jersey of "practically inventing racial profiling." That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the former senator from the state of Tennessee is accusing New Jersey of racism. Bradley was too polite to bring up that whole lynching thing.
Bush II keeps talking about Democrats "hijacking" the Michigan primary to vote for his opponent. I hope Al Gore stuffs those words back down his throat when he starts appealing to the voters who might actually elect him president in November, the ones to the left of Pat Robertson. More to the point, did anyone tell him that 35% of Michigan's registered voters are independents? This is what happens in a state with open primaries. He should really watch who he keeps insulting.
I've been thinking about diplomatic immunity today. The feds recently arrested an INS agent who spied for Cuba. Actually, if he told Cuba anything, it was about some of their military people who were thinking of defecting. That may be wrong, but why should it be illegal? That the US is trying to bribe members of another country's military may be one of our secrets, but really he was just telling another country that one of their citizens was about to commit a crime. Now if he'd told Colombia about drug traffickers...
OK, so they arrest him and then tell his Cuban diplomatic contact to leave the country. The Cuban refuses. He is after all, the witness for the defense. He's got a point. Should the US be allowed to make its case by deporting witnesses for the other side? But if he has diplomatic immunity, should be be able to testify when there is no perjury penalty hanging over him? In either case, the US has given him until Saturday to leave, at which point he reverts to civilian status. My question is whether they can then arrest him for spying. The real question is, of what does diplomatic immunity consist? Does it turn a crime into a non-crime, in the way that a police officer is allowed to speed? Or is it more like a statute of limitations, where something remains a crime, but the perp can be prosecuted on one side of a line but not the other? If that is the case, then he can be prosecuted the minute his immunity lapses.
Wednesday, February 23, 2000
The thing about presidential elections is that everyone is so busy with politics that they forget about politics. We now know what pretty much everybody thinks about the bigotry of Bob Jones but have any of the candidates mentioned that of Haidar? Was anyone asked about China's new threat of war with Taiwan if it doesn't start negotiating pronto?
Chicago has a new ordinance allowing the cops to order loiterers to disperse and order them to stay away from sight and sound of a given spot for three hours. Just in case you didn't think this was giving arbitrary power to the police that would only be exercised over minorities, the ordinance only covers the bad part of town.
Bush and McCain are accusing each other of running "negative smear campaigns." As opposed to the positive smear campaigns.
Pakistani soldiers have been chasing wild boar over the border into India, wreaking havoc with local farmers. Could this war get any sillier?
Yes, probably.
Chicago has a new ordinance allowing the cops to order loiterers to disperse and order them to stay away from sight and sound of a given spot for three hours. Just in case you didn't think this was giving arbitrary power to the police that would only be exercised over minorities, the ordinance only covers the bad part of town.
Bush and McCain are accusing each other of running "negative smear campaigns." As opposed to the positive smear campaigns.
Pakistani soldiers have been chasing wild boar over the border into India, wreaking havoc with local farmers. Could this war get any sillier?
Yes, probably.
Twenty years ago this week J.R. was shot on "Dallas." Also Archbishop Oscar Romero.
A lesbian couple legally marries in Britain. One was born a boy and has since had a sex change operation. By the same loophole, somewhere there is a woman Catholic priest who I haven't heard anything about in five years. Do they still have catacombs under the Vatican?
The pope was in Israel, in an event that didn't require one-tenth of the news coverage it received. Vis a vis the Holocaust, he asked today, "How could man have such utter contempt for man?" He added that the Catholic church usually prefers that utter contempt be directed towards women.
To some people, the issue of the papacy's silence on fascism in the 1930s might bring up the question of what it has to say about the rise of the fascists in Austria. Well, there's a story in tomorrow's London Times about a bishop in Austria who did in fact speak out and has been forced to go into hiding in the face of a hate campaign, out of fear for the safety of her children. The Times didn't say what the bishop's religion was, but I'm betting not Catholic.
Interestingly, the pope evidently thinks that Jesus was born 2,000 years ago.
He stood next to Arafat, the only other world leader with a really atrocious command of the English language who nonetheless insists on speaking in English.
Clinton is still on the sub-continent. His trip to a Bangladeshi village was called off because of concerns his helicopter would be shot down by missiles which were those originally given to the Afghans by the US to kill Russians.
Mississippi becomes the second state to ban adoption by homosexuals. It occurs to me that I don't know how you define homosexuality in a legal sense. Florida was the first.
A lesbian couple legally marries in Britain. One was born a boy and has since had a sex change operation. By the same loophole, somewhere there is a woman Catholic priest who I haven't heard anything about in five years. Do they still have catacombs under the Vatican?
The pope was in Israel, in an event that didn't require one-tenth of the news coverage it received. Vis a vis the Holocaust, he asked today, "How could man have such utter contempt for man?" He added that the Catholic church usually prefers that utter contempt be directed towards women.
To some people, the issue of the papacy's silence on fascism in the 1930s might bring up the question of what it has to say about the rise of the fascists in Austria. Well, there's a story in tomorrow's London Times about a bishop in Austria who did in fact speak out and has been forced to go into hiding in the face of a hate campaign, out of fear for the safety of her children. The Times didn't say what the bishop's religion was, but I'm betting not Catholic.
Interestingly, the pope evidently thinks that Jesus was born 2,000 years ago.
He stood next to Arafat, the only other world leader with a really atrocious command of the English language who nonetheless insists on speaking in English.
Clinton is still on the sub-continent. His trip to a Bangladeshi village was called off because of concerns his helicopter would be shot down by missiles which were those originally given to the Afghans by the US to kill Russians.
Mississippi becomes the second state to ban adoption by homosexuals. It occurs to me that I don't know how you define homosexuality in a legal sense. Florida was the first.
Tuesday, February 22, 2000
Well wasn't that a vicious little primary? Who was it who set the rule that Gore and Bush can smear their opponents but not the other way around? At least when they turn on each other neither one will be constrained in any way, since they're already down in the mud. Bush Bush Bush. Never has one man looked so smug with so little cause. Except for Clinton, Starr and Guiliani. Poor McCain has now been branded an out-of-wedlock father, a corrupter of children, an abortionist (for supporting fetal tissue research along with 92 other Senators), a tax raiser (tobacco taxes, but the ads didn't say that), the candidate of the Democrats and fags...
More on the great-grandmother Bush will execute this week: it seems that the person who could have been the witness to prevent her getting the death penalty was actually her lawyer. See, he had been the one to advise her to try to collect the insurance on one of her several, um, missing husbands. This means that she wasn't planning to gain by his death, which is what got her the needle, but her lawyer then was also her lawyer for the trial, so he would have had to give up the potentially lucrative media rights in order to be a witness. Mr. Ethical, a major alcoholic, was later a DA who tried to sell exemptions from the death penalty. But this is Texas, where snoring is not considered proof of ineffective counsel, so don't expect much from that.
Mark Shields commented that the National Right to Life group has proven itself the wholly-owned subsidiary of the official Republican party by its smears of McCain, who is as anti-abortion as they could wish for.
Bush is now a "reformer with results", which will doubtless prove to be as meaningful a label as "compassionate conservative."
More on the great-grandmother Bush will execute this week: it seems that the person who could have been the witness to prevent her getting the death penalty was actually her lawyer. See, he had been the one to advise her to try to collect the insurance on one of her several, um, missing husbands. This means that she wasn't planning to gain by his death, which is what got her the needle, but her lawyer then was also her lawyer for the trial, so he would have had to give up the potentially lucrative media rights in order to be a witness. Mr. Ethical, a major alcoholic, was later a DA who tried to sell exemptions from the death penalty. But this is Texas, where snoring is not considered proof of ineffective counsel, so don't expect much from that.
Mark Shields commented that the National Right to Life group has proven itself the wholly-owned subsidiary of the official Republican party by its smears of McCain, who is as anti-abortion as they could wish for.
Bush is now a "reformer with results", which will doubtless prove to be as meaningful a label as "compassionate conservative."
Monday, February 21, 2000
A follow-up: a while back I mentioned that the South Carolina Republican party had been criticized for not opening polling booths for its primary in black areas. I don't know if that situation is changed, but the D's realized that if they were going to criticize the R's, they'd better not do the same. Then they realized how expensive it would be, and cancelled the primary.
Speaking of primaries, it's time for the Californians on this list to make up their minds who they're going to vote for for president. Remember, the vote doesn't count in any meaningful way unless it's in the party in which you are registered. So you can technically vote for Alan Keyes to make mischief for the R's, but under the compromise by which the parties decided to ignore the express will of the voters, they would get to ignore you. This only applies to the presidential race. If you want to change your party registration, the deadline is Feb. 7.
Speaking of circuses, one of the first things his caring relatives did for Elian Gonzales after he came to this country after watching his mother drown, was take him to Disneyworld and stick him on a boat in a ride. He was heard to ask whether it would sink. Worse, it was It's a Small World. No fit guardian would subject a child to It's a Small World at the best of times.
The EU, en masse, told the Austrians not to let fascists into government. Finally, the EU is good for something.
And the governor of Illinois is planning to actually pay attention to executions and maybe stop them altogether, because they keep convicting innocent people. Put that way, it's entirely reasonable, but I don't see any other state doing it. I understand that Michael Moore sent a brass band to join one of those little Fry the Guy parties they hold outside the prison during executions in Texas, and some cheerleaders--George George, he's our man, if he can't kill him, no one can!
The Times & Post are downplaying it for some reason, but Britain just convicted a doctor of 15 murders. He killed old patients, some of whom he got to leave him him money. And he didn't kill just 15, he killed as many as ten times that number. Don't know if they were National Health patients. They also have a doctor over there who is defending, nay proud, of having cut the perfectly healthy legs off a couple of people with strange ideas of what is sexually arousing. And a doctor last week took out a patient's good kidney, leaving the ailing one. There's a simple solution when such things happen--at least, depending on how many kidneys the doctor still has left.
So those are the stories I've been reading for the last week in preparation for my doctor's visit today. Which turned out ok.
T-shirt seen on sale in Berkeley: “Fuck your Valentine.” Who buys these things?
Speaking of primaries, it's time for the Californians on this list to make up their minds who they're going to vote for for president. Remember, the vote doesn't count in any meaningful way unless it's in the party in which you are registered. So you can technically vote for Alan Keyes to make mischief for the R's, but under the compromise by which the parties decided to ignore the express will of the voters, they would get to ignore you. This only applies to the presidential race. If you want to change your party registration, the deadline is Feb. 7.
Speaking of circuses, one of the first things his caring relatives did for Elian Gonzales after he came to this country after watching his mother drown, was take him to Disneyworld and stick him on a boat in a ride. He was heard to ask whether it would sink. Worse, it was It's a Small World. No fit guardian would subject a child to It's a Small World at the best of times.
The EU, en masse, told the Austrians not to let fascists into government. Finally, the EU is good for something.
And the governor of Illinois is planning to actually pay attention to executions and maybe stop them altogether, because they keep convicting innocent people. Put that way, it's entirely reasonable, but I don't see any other state doing it. I understand that Michael Moore sent a brass band to join one of those little Fry the Guy parties they hold outside the prison during executions in Texas, and some cheerleaders--George George, he's our man, if he can't kill him, no one can!
The Times & Post are downplaying it for some reason, but Britain just convicted a doctor of 15 murders. He killed old patients, some of whom he got to leave him him money. And he didn't kill just 15, he killed as many as ten times that number. Don't know if they were National Health patients. They also have a doctor over there who is defending, nay proud, of having cut the perfectly healthy legs off a couple of people with strange ideas of what is sexually arousing. And a doctor last week took out a patient's good kidney, leaving the ailing one. There's a simple solution when such things happen--at least, depending on how many kidneys the doctor still has left.
So those are the stories I've been reading for the last week in preparation for my doctor's visit today. Which turned out ok.
T-shirt seen on sale in Berkeley: “Fuck your Valentine.” Who buys these things?
Saturday, February 19, 2000
Bush Lite said of McCain that "You can't take the high horse and then claim the low road." No indeedy, you cannot.
On Nightline Friday he corrected Ted Koppel, no, you can't call them anti-abortion, they are more properly called pro-life. A minute later he referred to the other side as anti-life.
We just can't elect another president who pronounces nuclear as nook-yu-ler. We just can't.
Speaking of anti-life, this week Boy George gets to execute his, I believe, 120th, a great-grandmother of all things.
Has anyone else noticed that the California ballot contains one initiative against gay marriage (22) and another that would pretty much create them (21)?
Anyone else seen those ads against Props 30 & 31 featuring a discussion of how to jump in front of a car and then collect insurance? What did they call it, curb jumping or something? Winner of this year's Reefer Madness award.
King Letsie of Lesotho gets married and says that he will only marry the once. Of course Lesotho doesn't have that annual topless women dancing event like Swaziland, whose king always seems to pick up a new wife each year.
On Nightline Friday he corrected Ted Koppel, no, you can't call them anti-abortion, they are more properly called pro-life. A minute later he referred to the other side as anti-life.
We just can't elect another president who pronounces nuclear as nook-yu-ler. We just can't.
Speaking of anti-life, this week Boy George gets to execute his, I believe, 120th, a great-grandmother of all things.
Has anyone else noticed that the California ballot contains one initiative against gay marriage (22) and another that would pretty much create them (21)?
Anyone else seen those ads against Props 30 & 31 featuring a discussion of how to jump in front of a car and then collect insurance? What did they call it, curb jumping or something? Winner of this year's Reefer Madness award.
King Letsie of Lesotho gets married and says that he will only marry the once. Of course Lesotho doesn't have that annual topless women dancing event like Swaziland, whose king always seems to pick up a new wife each year.
Wednesday, February 16, 2000
Prague refuses to name a square or street after Kafka. Insert your own joke here, I can't be expected to do all the work.
During yesterday's Republican debate, Governor Smirk said that his economic policy was to make the pie higher. Something like that.
Dubya now has a campaign finance reform plan, which somehow magically only affects stuff that McCain might ever have done, and not anything he has ever done. Last month of course campaign finance reform was evil because it would hurt the Republicans and help the Democrats. Now he's got one of his own, without evidently needing to explain why this u-turn is anything other than a cynical ploy to steal McCain anti-establishment voters. Or does it have something to do with those stories that he's running out of money?
At Clinton's press conference today, some reporter asked if he had any advice for his wife on how to connect to women voters. 'Cause if anyone knows how to connect to women, it's Billy Bob. I can't remember what his answer was, but it probably wasn't anything to the effect that if Hillary connected with women, he wanted to watch.
During yesterday's Republican debate, Governor Smirk said that his economic policy was to make the pie higher. Something like that.
Dubya now has a campaign finance reform plan, which somehow magically only affects stuff that McCain might ever have done, and not anything he has ever done. Last month of course campaign finance reform was evil because it would hurt the Republicans and help the Democrats. Now he's got one of his own, without evidently needing to explain why this u-turn is anything other than a cynical ploy to steal McCain anti-establishment voters. Or does it have something to do with those stories that he's running out of money?
At Clinton's press conference today, some reporter asked if he had any advice for his wife on how to connect to women voters. 'Cause if anyone knows how to connect to women, it's Billy Bob. I can't remember what his answer was, but it probably wasn't anything to the effect that if Hillary connected with women, he wanted to watch.
Sunday, February 13, 2000
Czech prime minister Zeman says that there is no place for women in his cabinet.
Under sharia law, the eldest male relative of a murder victim gets to personally execute their killer. In Afghanistan this weekend, a ten year old shot his father's killer four times with a rifle in a sports stadium.
At tickettoheaven.com you can buy, for a mere $10, a ticket that gets you into heaven. I'm guessing Greyhound.
New product, available soon: Crop Circle Beer, brewed entirely from barley grown in fields with crop circles.
The next story is about how if you really want to screw up a situation beyond imagining, it requires a lawyer. Which reminds me. I've been reading the ballot statements for superior court judge, and none of them are written in decent English. "Respect and courtesy are the way I treat victims of crime, jurors, witnesses..." One guy ends "I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful children. We ask for your vote." Well, I might vote for the wife and one child, but two seems excessive.
Under sharia law, the eldest male relative of a murder victim gets to personally execute their killer. In Afghanistan this weekend, a ten year old shot his father's killer four times with a rifle in a sports stadium.
At tickettoheaven.com you can buy, for a mere $10, a ticket that gets you into heaven. I'm guessing Greyhound.
New product, available soon: Crop Circle Beer, brewed entirely from barley grown in fields with crop circles.
The next story is about how if you really want to screw up a situation beyond imagining, it requires a lawyer. Which reminds me. I've been reading the ballot statements for superior court judge, and none of them are written in decent English. "Respect and courtesy are the way I treat victims of crime, jurors, witnesses..." One guy ends "I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful children. We ask for your vote." Well, I might vote for the wife and one child, but two seems excessive.
Saturday, February 12, 2000
Governor Smirk is now accusing McCain of taking special interest money. Of course no one has more of that than Shrub, and everyone knows it, so the point is to increase the cynicism and apathy of the electorate, reduce turnout and slide through unnoticed.
Putin to reestablish military training for school boys (and girls to a lesser extent), including lessons in patriotism. The good old days. Remind me, didn't Yeltsin promise to abolish the draft?
Haidar's illegally-gotten estate is worked by underpaid immigrant workers. It just gets better and better. (Please note that I just used Dubya's technique of pointing out the hypocrisy of my opponent, of which I complained two paragraphs ago).
Prince Charles is thinking about becoming a King George rather than a King Charles.
Putin to reestablish military training for school boys (and girls to a lesser extent), including lessons in patriotism. The good old days. Remind me, didn't Yeltsin promise to abolish the draft?
Haidar's illegally-gotten estate is worked by underpaid immigrant workers. It just gets better and better. (Please note that I just used Dubya's technique of pointing out the hypocrisy of my opponent, of which I complained two paragraphs ago).
Prince Charles is thinking about becoming a King George rather than a King Charles.
Friday, February 11, 2000
George II says that Bob Jones University's ban on interracial dating is not based on hatred or bigotry. So that's all right, then.
China orders that Tibetan women be sterilized after two children, in violation of previous promises.
Northern Ireland devolution, RIP, age 72 days. I told you so. Well I did.
Another reason to vote for gay marriage in California and elsewhere: the demagoguery about the "marriage penalty." Which is actually a penalty for only a bare majority of married couples filing jointly, as it turns out. In the context of this mailing list, that means that the rest of us will pay higher taxes to subsidize Kevin's chosen lifestyle. Say thank you to the good people, Kevin.
Another Israeli soldier was killed in Lebanon by a missile. What you don't see in the US media is a discussion of where those missiles came from. Remember Iran-Contra? Remember the TOW missiles given to Iran in exchange for hostages, a deal brokered by Israel? Well guess what...
China orders that Tibetan women be sterilized after two children, in violation of previous promises.
Northern Ireland devolution, RIP, age 72 days. I told you so. Well I did.
Another reason to vote for gay marriage in California and elsewhere: the demagoguery about the "marriage penalty." Which is actually a penalty for only a bare majority of married couples filing jointly, as it turns out. In the context of this mailing list, that means that the rest of us will pay higher taxes to subsidize Kevin's chosen lifestyle. Say thank you to the good people, Kevin.
Another Israeli soldier was killed in Lebanon by a missile. What you don't see in the US media is a discussion of where those missiles came from. Remember Iran-Contra? Remember the TOW missiles given to Iran in exchange for hostages, a deal brokered by Israel? Well guess what...
Thursday, February 10, 2000
Other countries' troops are being sent to "support" French troops in Kosovo. Which actually means doing their job for them, since by all reports the French have been incredible cowards, even by French standards.
British soldiers in Kosovo are still in tents. They could have used the Serbs' barracks except the US insisted on bombing them all. Not because they were of any military use, having already been abandoned by the Serbs, but because they would look good blowing up on CNN.
The Bay Guardian says that P G & E donated $50,000 to Prop 21, the one to put juveniles in adult courts and prisons.
Today the British Parliament voted to reduce the age of (male) homosexual consent to 16. This gave a lot of Tory MPs the opportunity to see how many times they could say buggery in the course of a ten-minute speech.
Don Imus said that Forbes spent $100 million to make himself a laughingstock. The New York Times says that is is "a harsh formulation." It was actually $70 million.
British soldiers in Kosovo are still in tents. They could have used the Serbs' barracks except the US insisted on bombing them all. Not because they were of any military use, having already been abandoned by the Serbs, but because they would look good blowing up on CNN.
The Bay Guardian says that P G & E donated $50,000 to Prop 21, the one to put juveniles in adult courts and prisons.
Today the British Parliament voted to reduce the age of (male) homosexual consent to 16. This gave a lot of Tory MPs the opportunity to see how many times they could say buggery in the course of a ten-minute speech.
Don Imus said that Forbes spent $100 million to make himself a laughingstock. The New York Times says that is is "a harsh formulation." It was actually $70 million.
Wednesday, February 09, 2000
NY Times headline: Bush and McCain, Sittin' in a Tree, D-I-S-S-I-N-G
Finland elects a single mother president. The US is making great progress in that direction, as there are now fewer straight white guys running for president than there were last week.
The East German illegitimacy rate is now over 50%, about twice that of the West.
Jorg Haidar today offered to compensate Austrian Jews who were victims of Nazis. Of course he linked it with compensation for Austrian Nazis who were victims of the Russians. He has also demanded compensation from the Czech Republic (would that include Slovakia as well, I wonder?) for Sudeten Germans expelled after the war.
The embargo on Austria is already breaking down. Princess Whosis of the Belgium went there, although Prince Charles cancelled a planned visit. But the right wings of several European countries are not cooperating. Tory MEPs, for example. And the Bavarian CSU is going out of its way to be friendly with the new Austrian government, because 1) they are assholes, 2) they have links with the other party in the right-wing coalition.
Tony Blair's attempt to give freedom to Wales through devolution and then given them slavery by imposing his own First Minister on them failed spectacularly today.
Russia gives the monopoly over Chechnya's oil and gas reserves to the last remaining state-owned company. Also, they're talking about leaving Grozny in ruins...well, they'll do that in any case...and remove the capital to the 2nd city.
It seems that in 1862 Abe Lincoln offered the command of the Union armies to Garibaldi, the Italian who led the country to unity. Only, Garibaldi wanted a statement that the war was to end slavery, and Lincoln wasn't willing to do it.
Spain lowers the minimum IQ to get into the military from 90 to 70.
Vietnam is going to pave the Ho Chi Minh Trail and turn it into a freeway. There's a joke there about turning the country into a parking lot, but it isn't worth the effort.
Israel has announced it will ignore its agreement not to kill civilians in Lebanon.
This Chinese guy who's been living in the US 20 years goes to China with $25,000 in charity money for the victims of Tienanmen Square. They arrest him and demand that he turn all the money over to them or they'll put him in prison. He agrees, leaves the country, the check he wrote is stopped. Now they're threatening his 78-year old father with taking away his house unless he gives them the money.
This week's Bay Guardian (in paper or on the Web) looks like having some useful articles on the California propositions. Even for non-Californians, some of it looks like fun reading.
Finland elects a single mother president. The US is making great progress in that direction, as there are now fewer straight white guys running for president than there were last week.
The East German illegitimacy rate is now over 50%, about twice that of the West.
Jorg Haidar today offered to compensate Austrian Jews who were victims of Nazis. Of course he linked it with compensation for Austrian Nazis who were victims of the Russians. He has also demanded compensation from the Czech Republic (would that include Slovakia as well, I wonder?) for Sudeten Germans expelled after the war.
The embargo on Austria is already breaking down. Princess Whosis of the Belgium went there, although Prince Charles cancelled a planned visit. But the right wings of several European countries are not cooperating. Tory MEPs, for example. And the Bavarian CSU is going out of its way to be friendly with the new Austrian government, because 1) they are assholes, 2) they have links with the other party in the right-wing coalition.
Tony Blair's attempt to give freedom to Wales through devolution and then given them slavery by imposing his own First Minister on them failed spectacularly today.
Russia gives the monopoly over Chechnya's oil and gas reserves to the last remaining state-owned company. Also, they're talking about leaving Grozny in ruins...well, they'll do that in any case...and remove the capital to the 2nd city.
It seems that in 1862 Abe Lincoln offered the command of the Union armies to Garibaldi, the Italian who led the country to unity. Only, Garibaldi wanted a statement that the war was to end slavery, and Lincoln wasn't willing to do it.
Spain lowers the minimum IQ to get into the military from 90 to 70.
Vietnam is going to pave the Ho Chi Minh Trail and turn it into a freeway. There's a joke there about turning the country into a parking lot, but it isn't worth the effort.
Israel has announced it will ignore its agreement not to kill civilians in Lebanon.
This Chinese guy who's been living in the US 20 years goes to China with $25,000 in charity money for the victims of Tienanmen Square. They arrest him and demand that he turn all the money over to them or they'll put him in prison. He agrees, leaves the country, the check he wrote is stopped. Now they're threatening his 78-year old father with taking away his house unless he gives them the money.
This week's Bay Guardian (in paper or on the Web) looks like having some useful articles on the California propositions. Even for non-Californians, some of it looks like fun reading.
Greece is *still* trying to pressure Macedonia into changing its name, this time to Northern Macedonia.
And the good news from the pharmaceutical industry is that Eflornithine may go into production again. It cures sleeping
sickness, an especially nasty disease that unfortunately for them, only effects poor people in Africa. So no one's made it since 1999. But since it also eliminates facial hair in rich white women, there's now a market that the industry cares about. How'd you like to explain that one to the Africans?
Correction of the Week
From London Times, best topic sentence of the week: “A HOSPITAL apologised to patients yesterday for selling their skin for chemical warfare research.”
From the Daily Telegraph: “An American student sold his soul for $400 on an internet auction site yesterday.”
And the good news from the pharmaceutical industry is that Eflornithine may go into production again. It cures sleeping
sickness, an especially nasty disease that unfortunately for them, only effects poor people in Africa. So no one's made it since 1999. But since it also eliminates facial hair in rich white women, there's now a market that the industry cares about. How'd you like to explain that one to the Africans?
Correction of the Week
"Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about the court case in Chile against Gen. Augusto Pinochet misidentified the ocean into which the military apparently dumped the father of Viviana Diaz, a woman who leads a group of surviving family members. It was the Pacific, not the Atlantic."--The New York Times, Feb. 3, 2001
From London Times, best topic sentence of the week: “A HOSPITAL apologised to patients yesterday for selling their skin for chemical warfare research.”
From the Daily Telegraph: “An American student sold his soul for $400 on an internet auction site yesterday.”
Saturday, February 05, 2000
California primary
So I've been reading the election booklet, and here are my thoughts and recommendations.
First, the arguments are getting wackier each year. Something has to be done to make them at least honest. Where is Gary Wesley, attorney at law, when we need him?
1A Indian gambling. Yes, we just voted on this. Evidently this will allow the use of video slot machines, the crack cocaine of gambling. Well that's what it says here. Vote yes.
Bond measures, 12 through 16, no as always. No reason to go into debt during an economic boom.
12 is evidently to "buy more land for insects, rats and weeds that your family will never get to see or use."
13, say the people against, is not *that* Prop 13. They actually feel they have to say that. And don't wear platform shoes and mood rings to the polling places, people, it's not 1978. The people for say that "Without it, we all face a very uncertain water future." As long as it doesn't have Kevin Costner in it.
15, for crime labs, aka the O J Simpson Initiative. "If it were the opponents' father who was murdered, sister who was raped, or child killed by a drunken driver, we believe there would be no argument against Proposition 15."
16, for Veterans' homes: one statement beings "Pear Harbor, Iwo Jima, Omaha Beach...Khe Sanh, Kuwait, Bosnia..." Yup, the only mention of Vietnam is one designed not to be understood by anyone who wasn't there. We want to help veterans, but not *those* veterans.
17 to legalize raffles for charities. The opponents present it as a "professional gambling operator's dream" although the Prop specifically says that the money has to actually go to charity and the operator has to belong to the charity. Vote yes, or no, who cares.
18, the hand of George Deukmejian reaches out of the political grave on this one, which would make all sorts of things into "special circumstances" for the purposes of death penalty. Vote no, of course, but note that it would make kidnapping or arson or lying in wait in relation to murder a special circumstance, even if it was always intended to be a murder, rather than a real kidnapping or arson. In other words, it's really one crime, murder, but they're trying to treat it as two crimes for the purpose of inflicting a death penalty. Dishonest, but par for the course. Note one of the opponents was B.J. on MASH.
19 increases penalties for murder of BART police & Cal State police (but not UC, for some reason) to those for the murder of, ya know, real cops. Vote no, but note that the arguments against are entirely fictional, saying that the Prop does things like let BART impress people into a posse and fine people $1,000 who refuse, and that it covers bomb threats and falsely reporting crimes. The actual text of the prop is quite short and mentions none of that.
20. Allocation of the lottery to school districts, telling them how to spend it (a % on textbooks). First, who cares, second, let the districts make their own decisions. So vote who cares, I mean no.
21. Every election has an atrocity, and this is it. Especially after the figures on what LA does to juvenile criminals in the adult court system, this would require trying as adults a lot more 14 year olds, requires registration for gang members just like sex criminals, imprison juveniles before trial, bar sealing juvenile records and, here's my favorite part, allowing the cops to release the name of juveniles arrested, before any actual charges are even made. Oh, and more crimes count towards 3 strikes, although without trawling through the 13 pages of this initiative, I can't tell you which ones. Spitting on the sidewalk, no doubt. No no no no.
22. No gay marriages. The statement in favor was written by a 20-year old Hispanic woman, and is not the only personal statement on this ballot, the other being a thing by a recovering gambling addict against Prop 1A. This is a trend that should stop at once. Anyway, Ms. Santacruz says "Marriage is an important part of our lives, our families, and our future. Someday I hope to meet a wonderful man, marry and have children of my own. By voting Yes on 22, I'm doing my part to keep the dream alive. If it fails, I will have to marry a big bull dyke." I made up that last sentence. Lady, you're 20 and Hispanic; tick tock, that mustache isn't growing any smaller.
23. A None of the Above ballot option. If anyone knows how this got on the ballot, tell me. I suspect a dirty trick. It is non-binding, so Mr. Above can never win an election, so it is politically meaningless. But it would siphon votes away from the Greens, Libertarians and such, who might subsequently lose their ballot status like Peace and Freedom has, which is where the dirty trick comes in. The argument is written by 3 California citizens who usually don't vote, and think many more citizens will register and will vote in order to cast a pointless vote. I've cast more than my share of pointless votes, but this is too pointless. No.
All together in an Australian accent: Proposition 22: No pooftas! Proposition 24: there is no proposition 24.
Prop 25 campaign spending limits. I need more time on this one. There are voluntary aspects to it, including a fine on people who break a voluntary pledge, and there is something about millionaires being able to spend whatever they like, a reference which I think means that this is Ron Unz's initiative.
Prop 26 removes the requirement of a 2/3 majority for school districts to issue bonds, and gives money to charter schools. You know, I was going to say yes on the theory that 2/3 is undemocratic, but if it's just to issue bonds, which I don't believe in anyway, I think I will recommend a no vote. Both sides on this one have typewriters whose CAP key keeps sticking.
Prop 27, a voluntary declaration of adherence to term limits can be put on the ballot next to a candidate's name. Term limits are bad, politicizing the ballot form is bad, and I believe other states that tried this had it struck down in the courts. No.
Prop 28 to repeal to Prop 10's cigarette tax and anti-smoking programs, has an amusing statement by the sponsor, the president of Cigarettes Cheaper! That's his exclamation mark, not mine, so it's rather surprising he gets through a statement and a rebuttal with only 2 of them, 3 if you count the sentence that you can call them at 1-800-Cheaper! I didn't know my telephone even had punctuation marks. Evidently "The primary use for Prop 10 funds has been to publicize Rob Reiner." Although elsewhere he says none of the money has been spent. As the aliens told Woody Allen in Stardust Memories, if you want to benefit humanity, just make funnier movies, Meathead. Mr. Exclamation Point also says that Prop 10 money will be spent on a Brave New World approach to raising children wherein bureaucrats will take over from parents. Sounds like Epsilon thinking to me. Vote no.
Prop 29, the evil twin of 1A. No.
By the way, James Doohan, who played Scotty, just fathered a child at 80. I dinnae know how much more of this my testicles can stand, captain!
First, the arguments are getting wackier each year. Something has to be done to make them at least honest. Where is Gary Wesley, attorney at law, when we need him?
1A Indian gambling. Yes, we just voted on this. Evidently this will allow the use of video slot machines, the crack cocaine of gambling. Well that's what it says here. Vote yes.
Bond measures, 12 through 16, no as always. No reason to go into debt during an economic boom.
12 is evidently to "buy more land for insects, rats and weeds that your family will never get to see or use."
13, say the people against, is not *that* Prop 13. They actually feel they have to say that. And don't wear platform shoes and mood rings to the polling places, people, it's not 1978. The people for say that "Without it, we all face a very uncertain water future." As long as it doesn't have Kevin Costner in it.
15, for crime labs, aka the O J Simpson Initiative. "If it were the opponents' father who was murdered, sister who was raped, or child killed by a drunken driver, we believe there would be no argument against Proposition 15."
16, for Veterans' homes: one statement beings "Pear Harbor, Iwo Jima, Omaha Beach...Khe Sanh, Kuwait, Bosnia..." Yup, the only mention of Vietnam is one designed not to be understood by anyone who wasn't there. We want to help veterans, but not *those* veterans.
17 to legalize raffles for charities. The opponents present it as a "professional gambling operator's dream" although the Prop specifically says that the money has to actually go to charity and the operator has to belong to the charity. Vote yes, or no, who cares.
18, the hand of George Deukmejian reaches out of the political grave on this one, which would make all sorts of things into "special circumstances" for the purposes of death penalty. Vote no, of course, but note that it would make kidnapping or arson or lying in wait in relation to murder a special circumstance, even if it was always intended to be a murder, rather than a real kidnapping or arson. In other words, it's really one crime, murder, but they're trying to treat it as two crimes for the purpose of inflicting a death penalty. Dishonest, but par for the course. Note one of the opponents was B.J. on MASH.
19 increases penalties for murder of BART police & Cal State police (but not UC, for some reason) to those for the murder of, ya know, real cops. Vote no, but note that the arguments against are entirely fictional, saying that the Prop does things like let BART impress people into a posse and fine people $1,000 who refuse, and that it covers bomb threats and falsely reporting crimes. The actual text of the prop is quite short and mentions none of that.
20. Allocation of the lottery to school districts, telling them how to spend it (a % on textbooks). First, who cares, second, let the districts make their own decisions. So vote who cares, I mean no.
21. Every election has an atrocity, and this is it. Especially after the figures on what LA does to juvenile criminals in the adult court system, this would require trying as adults a lot more 14 year olds, requires registration for gang members just like sex criminals, imprison juveniles before trial, bar sealing juvenile records and, here's my favorite part, allowing the cops to release the name of juveniles arrested, before any actual charges are even made. Oh, and more crimes count towards 3 strikes, although without trawling through the 13 pages of this initiative, I can't tell you which ones. Spitting on the sidewalk, no doubt. No no no no.
22. No gay marriages. The statement in favor was written by a 20-year old Hispanic woman, and is not the only personal statement on this ballot, the other being a thing by a recovering gambling addict against Prop 1A. This is a trend that should stop at once. Anyway, Ms. Santacruz says "Marriage is an important part of our lives, our families, and our future. Someday I hope to meet a wonderful man, marry and have children of my own. By voting Yes on 22, I'm doing my part to keep the dream alive. If it fails, I will have to marry a big bull dyke." I made up that last sentence. Lady, you're 20 and Hispanic; tick tock, that mustache isn't growing any smaller.
23. A None of the Above ballot option. If anyone knows how this got on the ballot, tell me. I suspect a dirty trick. It is non-binding, so Mr. Above can never win an election, so it is politically meaningless. But it would siphon votes away from the Greens, Libertarians and such, who might subsequently lose their ballot status like Peace and Freedom has, which is where the dirty trick comes in. The argument is written by 3 California citizens who usually don't vote, and think many more citizens will register and will vote in order to cast a pointless vote. I've cast more than my share of pointless votes, but this is too pointless. No.
All together in an Australian accent: Proposition 22: No pooftas! Proposition 24: there is no proposition 24.
Prop 25 campaign spending limits. I need more time on this one. There are voluntary aspects to it, including a fine on people who break a voluntary pledge, and there is something about millionaires being able to spend whatever they like, a reference which I think means that this is Ron Unz's initiative.
Prop 26 removes the requirement of a 2/3 majority for school districts to issue bonds, and gives money to charter schools. You know, I was going to say yes on the theory that 2/3 is undemocratic, but if it's just to issue bonds, which I don't believe in anyway, I think I will recommend a no vote. Both sides on this one have typewriters whose CAP key keeps sticking.
Prop 27, a voluntary declaration of adherence to term limits can be put on the ballot next to a candidate's name. Term limits are bad, politicizing the ballot form is bad, and I believe other states that tried this had it struck down in the courts. No.
Prop 28 to repeal to Prop 10's cigarette tax and anti-smoking programs, has an amusing statement by the sponsor, the president of Cigarettes Cheaper! That's his exclamation mark, not mine, so it's rather surprising he gets through a statement and a rebuttal with only 2 of them, 3 if you count the sentence that you can call them at 1-800-Cheaper! I didn't know my telephone even had punctuation marks. Evidently "The primary use for Prop 10 funds has been to publicize Rob Reiner." Although elsewhere he says none of the money has been spent. As the aliens told Woody Allen in Stardust Memories, if you want to benefit humanity, just make funnier movies, Meathead. Mr. Exclamation Point also says that Prop 10 money will be spent on a Brave New World approach to raising children wherein bureaucrats will take over from parents. Sounds like Epsilon thinking to me. Vote no.
Prop 29, the evil twin of 1A. No.
By the way, James Doohan, who played Scotty, just fathered a child at 80. I dinnae know how much more of this my testicles can stand, captain!
Friday, February 04, 2000
Jorg Haidar is threatening to use the Austrian veto on everything in the EU to *make* them talk to Austria. This is actually rather promising, I think. If he still doesn't get his way, he'll invade Poland.
Actually, that would probably be against the paper the Austrian president (who was actually lobbying other EU countries to protest events in his own country) made them sign, saying that democracy is good and fascism is bad. Now if only President von Hindenburg had thought of that in '33.
A by-election in Wales sends into Parliament its first earring-wearing male MP (Plaid Cymru party)(which is pronounced exactly like it's spelled, except not).
I actually know the perfect country for Haidar to rule. The water off Sicily is bubbling and they're expecting Graham Island to rise again. Last seen in 1831, when it was claimed, according to the London Times, by Britain, France, and Italy (which did not exist at the time, so that was remarkably prescient).
In my continuing search for alternative ways to render George Walker Bush's name, I am adding two more:
Shrub. Collect them all.
Actually, that would probably be against the paper the Austrian president (who was actually lobbying other EU countries to protest events in his own country) made them sign, saying that democracy is good and fascism is bad. Now if only President von Hindenburg had thought of that in '33.
A by-election in Wales sends into Parliament its first earring-wearing male MP (Plaid Cymru party)(which is pronounced exactly like it's spelled, except not).
I actually know the perfect country for Haidar to rule. The water off Sicily is bubbling and they're expecting Graham Island to rise again. Last seen in 1831, when it was claimed, according to the London Times, by Britain, France, and Italy (which did not exist at the time, so that was remarkably prescient).
In my continuing search for alternative ways to render George Walker Bush's name, I am adding two more:
Governor Smirk.I will continue using Dubya, Bush the Younger, Bush Lite, and
Boy George (after the tendency of his mother and father to refer to him as "my boy").
Shrub. Collect them all.
Wednesday, February 02, 2000
Web sites
Christian nudists.
alienresistance.org. Evidently you can stop aliens from anal-probing you by just saying the name of Jesus.
tencommandments.org. On why we need to make the 10 Commandments the basis of US government. Read the essay on how the US Constitution actually turns people into homosexuals.
All of these sites are serious, and are compiled on ship-of-fools.org (or com? I forget). Enjoy.
alienresistance.org. Evidently you can stop aliens from anal-probing you by just saying the name of Jesus.
tencommandments.org. On why we need to make the 10 Commandments the basis of US government. Read the essay on how the US Constitution actually turns people into homosexuals.
All of these sites are serious, and are compiled on ship-of-fools.org (or com? I forget). Enjoy.
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