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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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May 31, 2003
Salam gets disrespected
I had written a critique a few days ago of this hysterically libelous column [deleted from website] from the Ottawa Citizen making wicked and unfounded accusations against our blog buddy Salam from Baghdad.
"Salam is the scion of a senior figure from Iraq's Baathist nomenclature. He was brought up at least partly in Vienna, which is the OPEC headquarters; his father was therefore an oilman, and possibly a former head of Iraq's OPEC mission. Another clue is a hint that his grandfather was an Iraqi tribal chief, from which I infer that his father was one of the Iraqi tribal chiefs that Saddam Hussein rewarded for loyalty, outside the Tikrit clan."
It wasn't until I was reading Salam's response that I understood the depths of just how nasty the columnist Warren really was. He had not only questioned Salam, but thourghly disrespected his entire family.
"You are being disrespectful to the people who have put the first copy of George Orwell's 1984 in my hands, a heavy read for a 14 year old with bad English. But that banned book started a process and gave me the impulse to look at the world I live in a different way."
I'm one of the first to lose sympathy with people acting overly sensitive to criticism. I am particularly impatient with Arabian shame-based culture stuff.
But crikey, this Warren guy couldn't have possibly said more scandalous things about Salam's family than he did- and all of it just made up out of the frickin' air. Now that I think about it, if some jackass made up crap like that about my people to print in the paper, they'd be doing good if I didn't have a couple of crackheads with tire irons waiting for him one night in the parking lot.
Columnist David Warren and the Ottawa Citizen owe Salam and his family a very public retraction and apology.
posted by Al at 5/31/2003 11:28:00 PM
17th Ammendment ratified
On this day in history, May 31, 1913 the 17th amendment to the US Constitution providing for the direct popular election of senators was declared ratified.
This was one of the two or three worst mistakes in the history of our republic. It might not seem obviously so, but it destroyed most of whatever idea of federalism survived the Civil War. In the name of cheap egalitarianism, they seriously upended one of the critical checks and balances.
For starters, senators had a layer of legislators between them and the public which made it much easier for them to say no to lots of expensive give-aways. It generally gave the state governments input into the federal government.
The constitution is a complex instrument. A great deal of sophisticated thought went into the setup of the system. People are idiots to go around pulling apart the careful structure of the thing for cheap good feelings.
posted by Al at 5/31/2003 01:44:00 AM
May 30, 2003
The Bill of Rights- Security Edition
Found a groovy little website run by some no account lowdown libertarian, designed for a little carefully engineered protest: the Bill of Rights- Security Edition. From their website:
What is the "Security Edition" ?
The First Ten Amendments to the constitution of the United States printed on sturdy, pocket-sized, pieces of metal.
The next time you travel by air, take the Security Edition of the Bill of Rights along with you. When asked to empty your pockets, proudly toss the Bill of Rights in the plastic bin.
You need to get used to offering up the bill of rights for inspection and government workers need to get used to deciding if you'll be allowed to keep the Bill of Rights with you when you travel.
This would make a nice modest protest display, and an interesting civics lesson for you, the security personnel, and your fellow travelers watching from the sidelines. Make them decide if they are going to literally confiscate your Bill of Rights, and do so in front of your fellow citizens. Sweet.
And wouldn't these babies be fun to give out on the 4th of July?
posted by Al at 5/30/2003 10:54:00 PM
Joan of Arc, Sexy Martyr
On this day in history, May 30, 1431 Joan of Arc was burned as a witch by the English at Rouen at age 19. She's since become the greatest modern symbol of martyrdom in western society. I guess she's got some kind of virgin sacrifice thing going on there.
I become more skeptical of most martyrs, and especially people who seek martyrdom. There is some major inherently unhealthy, dysfunctional psychology going on in people who seek death when there is any other reasonable option.
Nonetheless, religious passion, suffering and martyrs make great stories. You can build books and movies about them. They work beautifully as subjects for drama. They lend meaning to suffering- a desperate need in the human psyche.
In addition, did you ever want to make it with Joan of Arc? Note that I ask this after seeing the Leelee Sobieski performance in the role- and about the same time as her noteworthy performance in Eyes Wide Shut.
Martyrs are just plain sexy. So passionate, so crazy. They're liable to do anything. I bet Jesus had the poontang thrown at him left and right.
posted by Al at 5/30/2003 10:33:00 PM
May 28, 2003
Psychobabble as a weapon
Utter worthless psychobabble ad hominems come at the president from every side. They are supposedly analysis of the president's personality, but are really just vultures looking to make up something convincing to discredit the president. They don't reflect any useful analysis or insight into the president's character nor even an honest attempt at understanding, but merely a cheap smear. Liberal commie dirtbags have been losing policy debates, elections, pretty much everything. So now all they've got is made up psychobabble nonsense.
The most classic form of cheap psychoanalysis for Dubya comes in the form of the absolutely most lowbrow Freudian Oedipal complex. Bush is cleaning up Dad's mess in Iraq, he's trying to prove that he can do what Dad didn't, a hundred variations. Whatever Dubya does, it will just prove that he's sick in the head.
Maureen Dowd may be the worst of this. Among her many cheap shots, her New York Times column from 10-20-2002, "The Souffle Doctrine" works with stuff like this, "The Boy Emperor picked up the morning paper and, stunned, dropped his Juicy Juice box with the little straw attached."
The new catch phrase for Bush's supposed mental illness is to accuse him of being a "dry drunk", as per this column by sociologist Katherine Van Wormer. That is, he's a raging alcoholic with an out of control personality who just isn't actually drinking. Goddam, that's a great tactic. He can be accused and convicted of being an out of control drunk without even claiming that he's drinking.
Take also for example this ignorant nonsense outlined at Blogcritics. It amounts to saying that Bush being willing to use force to deal with thugs proves that he's just an alcoholic acting out. If he weren't emotionally disturbed or mentally ill or suffering with issues or whatever term the opposition arbitrarily wants to make up, then he'd be a good liberal appeaser.
What, the president is showing righteous indignation at the people who are planning terrorist attacks against our civillian population? Why, alcoholics show righteous indignation. See. Actually, I wouldn't trust a president who wasn't a little pissy on the topic. We need a commander in chief, not a lip-biting understander in chief.
What, the president rewards people who do what he wants? He witholds favor from those who work against him? Why, there must be something wrong with him. What, he should reward his enemies and punish his friends to prove that he's magnanimous? Are you people retarded?
None of these people would admit as a possibility that President Bush may have laid aside petty personal issues, and made an honest decision that he thinks it important to our national security to take out Saddam and generally show a willingness to use force in the world.
Whether these are wise policies is a completely different issue. Just consider the possibility that the president might be a decent, honest, mentally healthy person who has honest and reasonable disagreements with you on public policy issues.
I don't know what all goes on inside the president's brain. I just know I'm sure glad that it's a halfway sensible, stable guy with his eye on the ball who is leader of the free world rather than some therapeutic culture idiot.
posted by Al at 5/28/2003 01:16:00 AM
May 27, 2003
On Warren Buffet and Bush's tax cut
Warren Buffet has spoken out against the president's newest tax cut plan. When a highly successful bazillionare like this comes out against a tax cut, that sounds pretty bad.
On the other hand, Mike Kole at the Kole Hard Facts offers one interesting possible explanation:
Buffett did fail to mention one important fact. His Berkshire Hathaway shares don't pay dividends.
Hmm? Could it be that Mr. Buffett is afraid that if the tax cut on dividends passes, stocks that do pay dividends will become more valuable for producing tax-free income? Could it be that Mr. Buffett would rather not have to feel pressure to start paying a dividend?
Elvis Costello fans at ABC News.com
I get "The Note" from the ABC News website, which is basically a good daily roundup of political news and especially political writing on the web. [Archives]
The got my attention today (May 27, 2003) with an interesting if obscure headline:
Well, If You Must, You Must
A Girl Woke Up In a Naked Light and Said "Oh No Not Again"*
It took me seriously ten solid minutes of hunting to find where the asterisk and connected explanatory link were a couple of thousand words later, but I already knew. They were quoting Elvis Costello. They weren't just quoting Elvis, but from a verse of an obscure album track, "Sleep of the Just". That kind of thing gets my attention. Obsessive, who me?
Reading the note, I still cannot for the life of me figure out what the connection of these words of the king are to the content of the ABC page. My best theory is that the writer has had a good long weekend jamming on King of America, and just went with it. I can dig that.
It's probably just as good that they didn't continue with the next line, "He even looks like her brother in the army, but she never mentions him." That would just be taking them places they might not be able to get back from.
posted by Al at 5/27/2003 12:35:00 PM
May 26, 2003
Kissinger turns 80
Henry Kissinger was born May 27, 1923. Happy #80, Dr. Kissinger.
Kissinger was most famous (or infamous) for being Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, and thus a co-planner (or co-conspirator if you hate him) in some of the harshest American applications of force since WWII.
Kissinger would generally be regarded as the American embodiment of some idea of "realpolitick" meaning that policies are judged stringently on advancing what are seen as America's national interest with little regard to, for example, worrying about how this will affect the populaces of countries controlled by our enemies, ie Cambodia.
People of the left seem in some cases to especially and particularly hate him to a degree that seems irrational. People who have a wink and a nod for Castro think that Kissinger is Satan. I'm not particularly endorsing anything that Kissinger has done. He just doesn't seem like an evil Nazi to me, even if some policy calls seem questionable.
Christopher Hitchens in particular seems to have special personal grudge against the man, what with his book The Trial of Henry Kissinger. There's so much as a whole movie to go with it.
The point of Hitchens' book is to argue that Kissinger should even today absolutely stand trial for war crimes in front of an international tribunal "for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture."
Is he really quite THAT bad?
posted by Al at 5/26/2003 11:50:00 PM
May 25, 2003
Dear Mr. Congressman:
I'd like to call the following news item to your attention from CNN.com:
As of late Thursday, the Kazaa Media Desktop application -- a file-sharing software that has drawn the wrath of the music industry by enabling its users to swap songs for free -- had been downloaded 229,150,955 times, as measured by Download.com, which is owned by CNET Networks Inc.
Sharman said by midday Friday it expected Kazaa would top the record set by ICQ. As of Thursday, ICQ has been downloaded 229,363,307 times, according to Download.com.
A Sharman spokeswoman said Kazaa has been receiving an average of 366,000 downloads per day, whereas the ICQ application has been receiving an average of 50,000 downloads per day, as measured by Download.com.
You and your colleagues have been in the back pocket of the RIAA and other such suckheads who wish to trample on our free exchange of information. This is bad because they are mostly plain WRONG. Nonetheless, they have lots of money to give to your campaigns. As we know, money talks and bullshit walks.
However, notice 230 million downloads. How badly do you want to be on the wrong side of this number? All the campaign donations in the world won't do you squat good if 230 million people are cheesed off with you come election time.
Hows about you consider helping to bring some equity back into the copyright law before we put you out of office, and make you go looking for a real job?
posted by Al at 5/25/2003 02:13:00 AM
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