A Little Night Salmonella

Update on the peanut recall front.

For the Inner Geek

A little bit of ur-computer history, with a picture.

B.A.D. to the Bone

[ETA:  Which I need to retitle, because Jurassicpork beat me to it.]

I'm looking forward to passing this on to Skippy as part of [drumroll] *Blogroll Amnesty Weekend Day* [/drumroll].  Links following.

So far:  Noli Irritare Leones; Kindly Póg Mo Thóin; Maple Leaf Rag; Opopanox; Carrie's Nation; Carnival of the Elitist Bastards; Off Our Pedestals; Margaret and Helen.

Since I don't know whether these are smaller than this blog, I'll just say that they are blogs I have enjoyed and not necessarily gotten around to entering on the sidebar but will as soon as I announce pitchers and catchers report in 13 days!!!.  (Confidential to J:  The next time photographers catch you looking as though you were just rousted by mean-faced cops from a half-hour nap after 5 days of insomnia fueled by Serious Drugs?  Make them wait at least until you've washed your face.  I half-expected height marks on the backdrop.  Dude.)

Speaking of Enclaves

Here's a respectful article about radical separatists, which touches on one of their points of privilege while ignoring others.  

Also, corn fritters would be tasty right about now...

Warning Note 3

From A. Silber:

This is not to say that the system cannot ever be altered, but it is crucial to appreciate just how changes occur and their severe limitations. In general, and in every case I can think of, the elective branches of government were the last to respond to the demand for change, and they responded then only after demands for change were made known on a scale that proved overwhelming, and only after many people had paid what was often a terrifying price. The civil rights movement is a notable example of this dynamic.

 Read the whole thing.

Access

Stevie Wonder talks about technology and accessibility.

No.

No.

Vocal Mannerism in Cinema

Accents, or lack of same, in the movies.

Musical Interlude

Since older embedded videos have been taken down:

By Neddie Jingo! hosts a video of "Hey Bulldog."

Another Observation

Listening to the local radio station on its dot-com feed in the morning, when the listeners get to call in and bloviate discuss and share their opinions.  The topic was Facebook.

Facebook has been a bit in the air for the last couple of days.  Friends of mine have accounts, it's the "fashionable" social networking site, and people are retreating there in light of the recent kerfuffle.  (No!)  What with the possible (layoffs!) shakiness of Live Journal (and after a couple of kerfuffles with that platform), migration may be necessary.  So I had a quick look, and...

Facebook is a gated community.

No, not in that sense.  Yet.  But you have to sign up (i.e. register) with your name, gender, date of birth, and whether you are in higher ed, lower ed, working for a company, or "none of the above".  And unless you're signed up, you can't read postings there.  At all.

Now, I am a little funny about "gated communities" even though I spent time growing up in one.  That community was called a "military base" and military bases have history going back to prehistoric times of being a clump of "us" in a sea of "them" and "not-us."  Mostly I remember I had to show ID to go onto the main base as a child.  Our school bus only carried kids from the base, and if you missed it, you were in trouble.  On the other hand, we knew that what was off-post was not contaminating, just off-post.  As kids we were pretty insulated (the nearest towns were about a mile away, so what happened in bars was not on the radar).

And I do understand enclaves.  I think they're dumb, but I get needing to band together to reduce the stress that other people are just by existing (I'm from New York, in case you haven't guessed by now).  Once in a while.  Enclaves mostly make me deeply uncomfortable, mostly because they are more about keeping people out than keeping people in.  That exclusionary thing.  Ick.

But, you know?  I don't want to register with Facebook.  I don't particularly want to hand out my birthday or my "none-of-the-above" status ( isn't that special? < / violin >) or my gender.  Live Journal, for all its faults, and no, I'm not signing up for that either, only wants an email address and a password; they ask for a birth date, and presumably if you don't enter that, they assume you're a child and won't let you at "adult" designated posts, but it isn't mandatory, as it is with Facebook.  Live Journal is also not interested in what you do with your life, which is fine by me.   Live Journal also has the friends-locked option, which is, how you say, the users' prerogative.

Facebook feels like a friends-locked house party at the moment.

End rant.

Pitchers and catchers report 16 days from today!

Observation

We all try to reduce God to our own pettinesses.

God is bigger than that.

Via skippy:  Why is the Army still dealing with KBR?  Why are the chiefs and management of KBR not in prison?

The reason DCBureau keeps pounding away at KBR is because we can’t get the remnants of the major media off the Tiger Woods story long enough to focus on a company that was given preferential treatment in Army contracting only to use it to harvest huge profits while it injured and killed our troops. Oh, one more thing. Despite all this, KBR has yet to be debarred from doing business with the Pentagon.

Because Eternal Truths Need Highlighting

From Shakesville:

Here’s the take-home message: when someone calls your gender conformity into question it is always about control. That person is trying to control you or to feel more in control hirself. I am trying to think of an exception from my experience, and I can’t come up with one. So, while it’s easy to laugh at Dr. S. and his sissy-yogurt nonsense, it’s important to remember that nobody who makes this kind of “joke” is ever really “just” joking.

Emphasis in original.  But making it the link reinforces the message.

Gung Hey Fat Choy!

And long may you live!

Polityx with the Gears Exposed

Textbook anatomization of Caroline Kennedy's curtailed Senate non-appointment.  Noteworthy for the following sentence:  

See, that there is so delightfully full of a dazzling array of fervent and authoritative totally fucking wrong that it's hard to know where to begin, but I think I'll go with how someone at the National Journal's Hotline thinks New York is a "solidly blue state" (although it's possible that opinion is being attributed to "many liberal bloggers," in which case someone at the National Journal's Hotline really should straighten out that sentence some)[.]

Heh.

Via Sisyphus Shrugged, via The Sideshow.

Thermopylae

(I usually explain the movie title 300 as "Nobody in Hollywood can spell 'Thermopylae'.")

This was going to be a post of taking stock, but has been derailed by spiritual journey stuff and this posting by Nextian, which informs parts of the spiritual journey stuff.  [ETA:  via Arthur Hlavaty]

God is calling, and I need to dig more deeply into the whole spiritual tradition I'm trying to follow.  (Also, it interested but didn't surprise me that Rev. Lowrey and Rt. Rev. Robinson got it and Pastor Warren didn't.)

So, no essay yet.

Three hundred posts.  Yow.  What was I thinking?

Buster Keaton Lessons

I think this is #299 in this series of blitherings, and I want to write a real essay for #300, but meanwhile:  Jesus' General explains the opposition to Eric Holder as Attorney General.

I'd quote, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

Before I Forget

The quick and dirty history of marijuana prohibition.  From The Sideshow.

In memoriam

David "Fathead" Newman, sax-man extraordinary.

Qaddafi the Peacemaker

Seriously.  New York Times Op-Ed article.  I doubt either side would accept the conclusions, but it's refreshing to have the situation laid out concisely for a change.

Question

I trust women; why don't you?

So now we get to work.

Today I am Proud of My Country

Watching.  Not live-blogging.  Rick Warren is giving the invocation, and I have muted the sound.  Best I can do.  Once Obama is sworn in as President *glee* I'm going to do my laundry.

ETA:  Wooooooo-hoooo!

EFTA:  Jurassicpork in the house.  (Wednesday, 1/21, but still.)

Quoth Jurassicpork:

For the first time in ages, I am proud to be an American, proud of my president and hope to be proud of my government. And I am not merely proud that my President is African American. I am proud also because we chose to elect him to the White House and, in doing so, eschewing the media and right wing fear mongers. I am proud of my fellow Americans. I am only starting with President Obama.

You Know,

I am in danger of taking myself seriously.

Footage of Opening Prayer, Since HBO Punked

Bishop Gene Robinson giving the Invocation at the beginning of the inaugural ceremonies.

Courtesy of Christianity Today magazine, via Pam's House Blend, via Skippy.

More Music, More Music, More Music

1. I've mentioned Jon Carroll before;  this column is about comfort music.
A quote for flavor:

"One of Us" is a perfect example of a comfort song. It was way overplayed when it was popular; it was the theme song of a bad TV series; it flirts with drippiness the whole way through. But when the lyric reaches "Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home," I am hooked. I like songs about people going home, or looking for home, or whatever. I have issues. Songs have issues.



2. Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast hits for the cycle.

But it occurred to me yesterday while watching the extraordinary crowd reaction to the new president-to-be that the only way Democrats have won the White House in the last twenty-eight years is to run extraordinarily charismatic candidates -- the kind that don't come marching into politics every day. When we don't have candidates as with the kind of force of personality that Barack Obama has, and that Bill Clinton had, we lose. And I'm sorry, folks, but that means that we still aren't getting the message out.

3. Skippy gets at something that has irked me for a long time, although usually the rant was triggered by someone speaking of unemployment as equivalent to welfare.

however, letting people label them as "entitlements" also lets people imply that they are not things i and millions of americans have earned, and thusly are bound to be taken away on a moral basis, quite incorrectly, thus profiting the elite class.


4. Remember Poe?  It's his birthday, and Driftglass cooks up special cake.

The time in 1843 that a fan of his -- Robert Tyler, son of President John Tyler –- got him invited to the White House to meet the President, at which time he blew an opportunity to gain valuable support and status by showing up drunk and trying to sell Tyler a magazine subscription.

5. And I'm going to make a point of getting some Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Also, apparently more stores are going down in this economy, and it's time to make like a (cheap) vulture.

This Land is Your Land

As sung 1/18/09 by Pete Seeger, Tao (grandson of Pete Seeger), and Bruce Springsteen.  (I got it from a comment at Making Light.)

ETA: Video removed due to copyright claim by Home Box Office. Mmm-hmmmmmmmmmm.

Buildings in New York

Via The New York Times:  One mystery of the gargoyles is solved.

A series of crouched, grimacing figures in limestone runs across each wing: a cook stirring a pot, taking a taste with his finger; a man with a spoon eagerly eating from a bowl; another carrying a platter with a roast chicken; and a man with a long flowing beard writing in a ledger with a quill pen.

There's another building with similar gargoyles, though, and I've forgotten its location. Rats.

Be Seeing You

Via File 770: AMC TV has up all 17 episodes of The Prisoner.  And yes, it's been 20+ years since I last saw it (and 20 years since my Prisoner t-shirt was disappeared in Boston), and wow, have the details gotten blurry.

Ninety Years Ago

The 18th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution was ratified by the states.  (It was certified later that month.)

Today's Lesson

Justice must be tempered with mercy.

Mercy must be tempered with justice.

Either without the other is a mockery of itself.

More Requiescat

Andrew Wyeth, the painter, and John Mortimer, author and playwright, have died.

In memoriam

The last couple of days have been particularly obituary-rich.

Ricardo Montalbán.

Patrick McGoohan.

Arne Naess.

Hortense Calisher.

R. I. P.

Lack of Walls Does Not Freedom Make

Evan Robinson of The Group News Blog on Guantánamo.

Money quote:

Without the rule of law, we are no longer the United States of America. We may bear the same name, but the heart is rotted, the head corrupt, the limbs twisted and foul.

Couldn't be much clearer.

In the Tocsin Department

This.  And this.

There's more.  

Arthur Silber is an unsung prophet.

Potentially Triggering

One segment of Republic of T's Poisonous Parenting series.  Warning:  Three video/sound clips begin playing immediately, with information about the murders of children.  You might want to mute the sound before clicking on the link.  Not to mention the post itself.  Not cute bunny stories.  You are warned.

ETA:  Sound is back on.

Instructive Post

Polygamous cults aren't just for the rural Southwest anymore.  Via Twisty Faster of I Blame the Patriarchy (I am not worthy).

ETA:  Apparently I missed this.

Anniversaire

Motown (the record company, not the city) turns 50 this year.

A brief history of Motown from the BBC's Detroit correspondent, who misses some things. 

Speaking of Baseball

I didn't forget that Jason Giambi was going back to the Oakland Athletics.

I just didn't feel like noting it.

So there.

Cooperstown Music

Rickey Henderson.

Jim Rice.

Both these men will get to give tearful speeches in July when they get inducted into the Hall of Fame.  I can't wait to see under which hat Henderson goes in.

Dance on Film

A Busby Berkeley appreciation at Lincoln Center, New York.

You Don't Wanna Buy This Book

I occasionally peruse Jesus' General, mostly because folks point at it (and laugh), but this...anti-book review...was amusing.

See why:  

But, we’re booksellers, dammit, and if you really want it, I will order it and send it to you. The book costs $100.00; shipping will be $75.00. A bit steep, you think? You need to factor in, however, the amount of vomiting that we will have to endure in getting you this tome.

Not Exactly Dreams

Many possible topics, the weirdest one being someone who insisted that we had hit an iceberg, even as I protested that we were on a ferryboat, for Pete's sakes.  Although second was a vision that I pretty much had to interpret as a new idea to be embraced is on the way, because the ol' subconscious laid on seriously disturbing imagery.  

'Nuff Said

Driftglass.  Who mentions Dick.  ;)

Oh, And...

Also, today seems to be Elvis Presley's birthday.

Remember when you could just say "Elvis," and everyone would know whom you meant?  And now you might mean Stojko, or Costello, or Grbac, or Mitchell.  And only one of them is a singer.

Recovering from the Holidays. All of Them

It's interesting what sparks off a good essay and what said essay sparks off in turn.  This piece by Maggie Jochild at Group News Blog starts with asthma and ends with the Muslim family forced off a flight, with a side trip to Hollywood in the '30s and '40s.  (Of course, I can never get enough of that "La Marseillaise" scene from Casablanca.)

1. In a comment on that article, BOHICA on the human condition. 
2. I haven't had any recent interesting run-ins with TSA folk.  (There were a couple of times I got tickled, and I don't have to explain the metal in my arm because apparently it doesn't set off alarms anymore.)  (I bet my next flight will be...fraught, let's say.)  Back in 2005, though, Jen (of The News Blog) had an incident with them in Cleveland.  (She brings it up in a comment on the same article.)

Not tonight, dears, I have a brain ache.

On the Shattering of Doors

From The Republic of T:  Milk, and a life.

And Just Incidentally

Happy 215th birthday, Lucretia Mott!

Presentation of Self and Advocacy of Change

Or:  Why role-play doesn't work, for suitable values of "role-play" and "work".  Or:  It's the power imbalance, not the packaging.

I may have to elaborate on this later.  Meanwhile, I would suggest researching the history of the Pussycat League.

Call for Help

Here.

The basics:  Her father died suddenly.  Last minute plane tix cost the earth.  A friend loaned her the price via credit card, which must be repaid.

I don't have money, but I can put this flyer-equivalent on the Net.  Details and PayPal button at link.

Via Shakesville.

In memoriam

And so into 2009.

Helen Suzman, Donald E. Westlake, and Claiborne Pell have died.

Of these three, I only met Mr. Westlake, only once, and that at a book signing in Bogie's Restaurant, where I photographed him.  One of the shots was decent, so I had it blown up and took it back to Bogie's, with the vague idea that they would send it to him; it was displayed on the dining room wall for years (he may even have autographed it at some point; memory is vague) until the place closed.