Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #46

Posted on February 6, 2007 in Roundup

He’s not a household name yet, but the court martial of Ehren Watada may go far in impressing the public about the immorality and illegality of the war in Iraq. Yesterday, he pled “not guilty” to missing movements and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer. This latter charge strikes me as capricious: is not the conduct of our armed forces in Iraq — not to mention our president — unbecoming our nation? (And sometimes dangerous even to our allies?) We know how this trial will go, but it will make its mark as surely as the execution of [[Saddam Hussein]] backfired. Repeat the name of [[Ehren Watada]]. It stands for conscience.

• A Test Case: Bill Gates may not look so good for prosecuting Alexander Ponosov who is accused of pirating software for use on his school’s computers. Mikhail Gorbachev has stepped in and asked Gates to grant Ponosov a reprieve. “Many people in Russia regard this scandalous case as trumped-up,” said Gorbachev, “launched on the initiative of Microsoft corporation to set a precedent”. Ponosov claims that the software came with the computers.
• Lost in Space: A U.S. astronaut used pepper spray on a rival for the affections of a shuttle commander. Navy Capt Lisa Nowak is now being held without bail.
• Wicked Stepmother? A British mother and stepmother challenges the sociobiological model that insists that stepmothers care only about their own offspring. “Rather than pushing my stepchildren away once my baby daughter was born, I felt increased affection for them. Previously I’d sometimes found them demanding, but I now looked on them with something approaching awe. My stepchildren could manage without being constantly suckled, tended and changed.”
• Suffer the Little Children: Experts are divided over whether Iraqi children’s war play is a healthy means of coping or a repetition that will lead to violent acting out in adulthood. They will become adults in a world where the term “moderate” means “less extreme”.
• The [[Laffer Curve]] is a Joke: If you believe we can balance the budget by keeping taxes low, then you must be a Republican.
• Among the Dead: Flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia has driven hundreds of thousands of refugees into the city’s cemeteries as others try to live in six inches or more of water.

If you find any articles worthy of mention in these roundups, send the URL to gazissax at best dot com. And feel free to comment!

Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #45

Posted on February 5, 2007 in Roundup

Everyone is excited by the arrest of movieland has-been Ryan O’Neil.

Insert A Trite Metaphor for A Corral #44

Posted on February 1, 2007 in Roundup

I’ll be out of town for a few days, enjoying our annual visit to the [[Lawrence Welk]] Resort in Escondido. Thus there will be no roundup until Sunday or Monday. Some people have expressed concern that the “old Joel” hasn’t been around. He’s had his reasons, but he shall try to return to his usual digest of daily life in Trabuco Canyon.

• Pity the mother of Antonio Vasconcelos (pictured above) who delivered that 6.6kg (14lb 8oz) whopper by Caesarean section in Cancun, Mexico. Ai chihuahua!
• Do you know what makes this year’s [[Super Bowl]] a major milestone? At no time in the previous history of the event has a team been coached by an African American. This year both teams have black coaches which cinches the first time an African American-led organization wins. We’re getting there. We’re getting there.
• A Russian woman using a mobile cell phone caught a hospital taping the mouths of orphan infants shut.
• [[Norfolk Island]] may have the lowest crime rate in the world: a New Zealand man may have upset the unblemished record by murdering a 29 year old Australiian restaurant manager. Nothing so spectacular has happened here since the [[Mutiny on the Bounty]].
• Passing: Gian Carlo Menotti, composer of Amhal and the Night Visitors and The Medium.
• So Bush Spake: “And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.”— Speaking on National Public Radio, January 29, 2007. He’s in a league with [[Joe Biden]], that one is.
• There’s no inner clock researchers say: “If you toss a pebble into a lake, the ripples of water produced by the pebble’s impact act like a signature of the pebble’s entry time. The farther the ripples travel the more time has passed. We propose that a similar process takes place in the brain that allows it to track time,” he added. “Every time the brain processes a sensory event, such as a sound or flash of light, it triggers a cascade of reactions between brain cells and their connections. Each reaction leaves a signature that enables the brain-cell network to encode time.” Sounds like a kind of inner clock to me. Still, it would be interesting to see how the physiology of depression affects those ripples. Lord knows how time drags when you are not having fun.

If you find any articles worthy of mention in these roundups, send the URL to gazissax at best dot com. And feel free to comment!

Insert A Trite Metaphor for a Corral #43

Posted on February 1, 2007 in Roundup

There. My site is now porn.

Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #42

Posted on January 30, 2007 in Roundup

Hundreds of thousands of people walk up and down the Capitol Mall. The next day, discussion about the war continue to reflect only the views of the pro-war crowd. Where the American people say the question is “whether or not”, policy-makers and pundits ask “How much?” Perhaps we should tell our congressional representatives not to watch television? There’s a campaign for the future.

• The century’s most compelling argument against the superiority of wealthy bloodlines, [[Paris Hilton]], filed a complaint against parisexposed.com. None-dare-call-her-an-actress Hilton hopes to stop the company from offering glimpses of the heiress’s home videos, medical records, and other possessions. Having heard and seen some of these, I can understand why she doesn’t want her vapidity known to the world.
• The rate of glacial meltdown is increasing. The BBC has charts and a series of pictures showing the retreat of one mountain glacier. But don’t let anyone tell you that there is such a thing as [[global climate change]]. It’s bad for business and, besides, pResident Bush does not believe in it. He can’t find it in his bible.
• Our eye on the heavens, the Hubble space telescope, shut down.
• An all-female contingent of peacekeepers has arrived in Liberia — from India. UN police advisor Mark Kroeker said “It sends a message to the post-conflict societies where we work that women officers can have any position and play any role in a police organisation.” Make a feminist happy: tell her about this.
• Greece isn’t forgetting the two hundred year old theft of the [[Elgin Marbles]] by Britain.
• Was Saturday’s march too tame? And should the demonstrators have dared to utter the word “impeachment“? It’s very clear to me that we’re not doing something right because politicians are not realizing that we don’t want the war but what, short of violence, is there for us to do? We need to think on these things.
• Bears in the Rockies are tense because of the lack of a canopy and food supply due to the mountain bark beetle infestation.
• Do you like to eat pasta that comes out of boxes festooned with little hares? Put the labels nose to nose with Kraft Instant Macaroni: “Annie’s has the same number of calories (Annie’s 270, Kraft 260), the same amount of sodium (Annie’s 550 mg, Kraft 580 mg), protein (Annie’s 10 g, Kraft 9 g) and fiber (Annie’s 1 g, Kraft 2 g), and a bit more fat (Annie’s 4.6 g, Kraft 2.5 g) and saturated fat (Annie’s 2.5 g, Kraft 1 g). But, you sputter, grasping at your last, best argument, “Annie’s is organic!” Not so fast, my friend. Only packages labeled organic are organic. Annie’s are labeled “totally natural,” which means, uh, which means … whatever you want it to mean, boys and girls!”
• White students at [[Clemson]] painted themselves black to “celebrate” [[Martin Luther King|Martin Luther King’s]] birthday. Is this conservatives’ dream the holiday’s future?
• Can you keep the queue moving in the game of Airport Security?
• What went wrong when Sealaunch blew up on the pad? I love how a press release merely states that “Sea Launch Experiences Anomaly during NSS-8 Launch“.

If you find any articles worthy of mention in these roundups, send the URL to gazissax at best dot com. And feel free to comment!

Insert A Trite Metaphor for a Corral #41

Posted on January 29, 2007 in Roundup

One wonders if the White House did anything over the weekend and if the Congress is still meeting.

Insert A Trite Metaphor for A Corral #40

Posted on January 28, 2007 in Roundup

The news is mostly death — suicide bombers and insurgents. News coverage killing of 250 Iraqi rebels near Najaf strikes me as resounding with too much joy in the slaugher. At least they used the words “alleged” when they spoke of the insurgents’ intents. Meanwhile there is very little talk of what Hillary Clinton is up to after her first invasion of Iowa on Friday. Aside from Barack Obama, the media behaves as if there are no other runners for the presidency.

• Latin — which is spoken only in the Vatican — is dying out as a language following church reforms of the 1960s. “At the Vatican, bishops appointments are still written on [[papyrus]] in Latin as are letters of congratulations from the pope, but many bishops and cardinals write back asking for translations.”
• Great Britain is taking steps to regulate alternative therapists following concerns about sexual abuse by [[acupuncture|acupuncturists]] and [[hypnotherapy|hypnotherapists]]. ‘The ‘Barefoot Doctor’ – known to millions from his TV career, his range of products stocked by high-street chemists and a form of healing based on Tao philosophy – has been forced to issue an extraordinary statement admitting to having sex with ex-patients in the past.’
• California is trying to relieve overcrowded prison conditions by enticing convicts to transfer to institutions in other parts of the country. Still, the old gang ties keep jailbirds from accepting the offers: only 600 of a needed 19,000 takers have signed on. Of course, if we decriminalized possession and use of street drugs, this might become less of a problem. But there’s money in building new prisons.
• Egypt is not happy with a contest to name the [[Seven Wonders of the World]]. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, argues that the pyramids live “in the hearts of people around the globe, and don’t need a vote to be among the world wonders.” Contest organizers say that it is time to move into a new century. (The New Seven Wonders website)
• The Mercury News has launched an investigation into the police custody death of a bipolar man with a history of “suicide by cop”.
• Check out the ads that PETA is using to promote its cause. (Anyone for a little bondage thrill?) One shouldn’t be too surprised by these ads, I think, because the [[Animal Rights]] movement has long had an antagonistic streak about it. At the heart of its message is the implication that human reverence for human life is impossible without granting full rights (voting rights, too?) to animals. Let’s just say that the issues are more complicated than [[PETA]] wishes to acknowledge and that their use of rights models ends up aiding the causes of those who wish to dehumanize others. How many viewers of these PETA ads use them for mastubatory material, I wonder? The only realistic answer that a PETA activist can really give is “that doesn’t matter” and that answer, I retort, damns the movement. If you say “human rights are not important unless animal rights are guaranteed” then this is what you get.

If you find any articles worthy of mention in these roundups, send the URL to gazissax at best dot com. And feel free to comment!

Insert A Trite Metaphor for a Corral #39

Posted on January 27, 2007 in Roundup

Anti-war rallies attracted tens if not hundreds of thousands across the country. Oh, I remember the days when we opposed the First Gulf War. But how lonely it was in the beginning of this one, when we had the absolute chance to listen to our own CIA and to the UN special investigatory panels. The new batch of war haters is “I supported this war in the beginning but –” and that is supposed to make them more sincere, more real than the opposition of those of us who never supported the war. It’s a bit like the rejection perpetrated by the witch hunters of the 1950s who villified anyone who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War as “being too early”. I am afraid — given the tepid opposition from the Congress that we elected to stop this war — that we’re too late. Next stop: Iran.

• The defining issue of the 21st century is going to be religion, says Nobel laureate [[Wole Soyinka]] of Nigeria, and our challenge is going to be fending off all kinds of fundamentalism.
• Stephanie Simon resolved to live a life without whines and lasted all of fifteen minutes. I don’t think that the point is to avoid complaining: it’s to save the energy for the things that mean something.
• The aborigines aren’t going to like this: a cave yielding a museum’s worth of ancient Australian marsupial fossils appears to demonstrate that what killed off the biota was not climate change as previously thought, but newly arriving humans’ use of fire.
• Success is skin deep. In a similar story, University of Buffalo researchers say that they have “found the first evidence” that being rejected for the way you look hurts. Someone hasn’t been listening all these years if you ask me.
• An explanation of borderline personality disorder.

If you find any articles worthy of mention in these roundups, send the URL to gazissax at best dot com. And feel free to comment!