Take off that tinfoil hat!

Attention, conspiracy-minded readers:

It's worse, much worse than we thought.

Here. Read this. Empirical evidence (from MIT researchers) that tin-foil hats actually make the government's mind-control signals more effective.

Abstract: Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

Author and researcher Ali Rahimi
at his workbench.

Pencil Roving: Back when the Village was bohemian

Carrie points to Robert Otter's glorious, vintage photographs of a Greenwich Village past:

Pencil Roving: Back when the Village was bohemian

"Finding Peace In Canada"

Part three of the series I mentioned earlier, on French Jews fleeing France for Canada, is now up at the National Post:

National Post: Finding Peace In Canada

Mr. Saadoun knew they had made the right decision last month. He had attended a Jewish New Year service with his eight-year-old son, Yoni. Upon leaving the synagogue, he says, "Yoni looked at me and he said, very alarmed, 'Papa! You are wearing your skullcap on the street. You must take it off! It is not safe!' "

"I told him that in Canada you can wear a kippa on the street with no fear of danger. When I said it, I immediately thought, Thank goodness we're here. It will be good for us here."

InformationWeek: Scotch Tape Stymies Sony Copy Protection

enrevanche reader and pal Anne points us to this article in InformationWeek:

InformationWeek > Sony CD Security > Scotch Tape Stymies Sony Copy Protection > November 21, 2005

Sony BMG Music's controversial copy-protection scheme can be defeated with a small piece of tape, a research firm said Monday in a demonstration of the futility of digital rights management (DRM).

According to Gartner analysts Martin Reynolds and Mike McGuire, Sony's XCP technology is stymied by sticking a fingernail-size piece of opaque tape on the outer edge of the CD.

This represents a major security advancement over Sony's earlier security method, which could be defeated by--I am not making this up--drawing on the outer rim of the CD with a Sharpie.

McCain, Graham Warn: GOP May Be In Trouble (AP)

The two Senators (John McCain and Lindsey Graham) were interviewed in South Carolina, where they were campaigning together for a Republican candidate for state office. They predicted tough times ahead for the GOP if things stay on their current path.

"[W]e can recover," McCain said. "Reagan recovered. Clinton recovered. We can recover."

The party must show "progress in Iraq, we need a comprehensive energy package and we need to stop this profligate spending," he warned.

"If the election were tomorrow, we'd be in trouble," agreed Graham, who said the party must work to cut spending.

Their prescription, in addition to restoring a measure of fiscal sanity? Honesty about Iraq, including lessons learned from the mistakes we've made and straight talk about the necessity of success and the consequences of failure:

The party, [Graham] said, must be honest enough to admit that things aren't going as well as hoped in Iraq.

"Democrats who have this cut-and-run strategy--the public doesn't want to follow that. They want to follow Republicans who understand the war is not going as well as it should but who understand that our security is better off with a successful outcome in Iraq," he said.

The message in Iraq, McCain said, "is we are making progress, we have to make progress and we regret the loss of every single young American. But the benefits of success are enormous."

Quick, somebody, anybody, please... get these guys a bigger microphone.

McCain, Graham Warn: GOP May Be In Trouble (AP)

French Jews, bailing out

Many French Jews have had enough of anti-Semitism in their home country, and they're voting with their feet. Some are going to Israel, of course, and some to the United States (there's a huge established French Jewish community in Miami, already - who knew?) but an increasing number of them are heading straight for Montréal.

Canada's National Post is running a three-part series on the growing wave of French Jewish emigration. Part one ran on Monday, and part two ran today. (Part three is anticipated tomorrow.)

Here, for example, is an assessment of the current situation on the ground in Paris, from the soft-spoken principal of a Jewish school:

Mr. Barthel explains the buddy system instituted at the Benvenuti school for children both arriving and leaving the premises. The students must travel in a pack and are not allowed to wear visible skullcaps or Stars of David anywhere but inside the school. They are also discouraged from dressing in a manner that Mr. Barthel calls "Shalala," meaning that they asked to refrain from dressing in a style which in North American parlance might be termed "Jappy."

"The Diesel jeans, the tight bomber jackets, these things can also make them look like Jews," he says. "They must look more quiet now, for safety."

Not surprisingly, many are choosing to leave.

Paris was burning for two weeks this month. But Jewish Paris has been burning for five years -- a steady, fiery precursor that went largely ignored by the French authorities. The rise of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 sparked a wave of mainly Muslim-led, anti-Jewish violence in France that has since brought forth thousands of hateful acts aimed at French Jews and their places of business, study, recreation, prayer and burial.

I think these guys have sussed out the situation accurately:

"[O]ur future here is hard to envision, even if [we are] just looking at demographics." There are 500,000 to 600,000 Jews living in France, and the population is dwindling. "There are six million Muslims," he says, "and their population is growing." Mr. Malka says even though most Muslims in France are moderate, "for Jews this is still not a comfortable situation, even from the standpoint of politics. For politicians, it's plain where the votes are."

"Sometimes it's best," says Mr. Barthel, "to just look clearly and say, 'OK, it's been nice in the past, but now it's time to move on.'

"In the span of history," he adds, "this is a not an altogether unfamiliar situation for us."

National Post: Barricaded in Paris (Part One) - Nov 19, 2005

National Post: Taking leave of 'the fear' (Part Two) - Nov 21, 2005

Hat tip: Metafilter

---

UPDATE, November 22: Part three of the series is now up:

National Post: Finding Peace In Canada (Part Three) - Nov 22, 2005

enrevanche reviews: Michelin Guide, New York City 2006

Reviewed: Michelin Red Guide 2006 New York City: Hotels and Restaurants

I've happily used Michelin Guides when travelling in Europe, and as a New York City resident and something of a foodie (okay, glutton) I looked forward to Michelin's recently published New York City Guide with a great deal of interest. The writeups for the restaurants that I'm familiar with seem accurate for the most part, though one could quibble endlessly about who got stars and who didn't.

The overall results are mixed, however.

Graphically, the book is unquestionably the most attractive and readable of the New York City guidebooks, and the included maps and color photographs only add to the pleasing effect of the presentation. Including recipes from some of the starred properties is an especially nice touch.

The guide is *heavily* Manhattan-centric, however, making only token mentions of restaurants in Brooklyn and Queens and leaving the Bronx and Staten Island off almost entirely; the Bronx's very fine Arthur Avenue restaurant scene is represented by a single restaurant, Roberto's, for instance, and the guide suffers in general from what feels to me like a lack of local knowledge (e.g., some howlers, such as calling the NYC Subway the "Metro," should have been picked up and corrected by a local editor who knows the area... and are there really only *two* restaurants of interest in the entire neighborhood of Harlem? Real New Yorkers know there are more.)

If you're a real foodie visiting New York City, you'll want at least two restaurant books in addition to, or instead of, the Michelin Guide:

• Zagat Survey: 2006 New York City Restaurants for breadth of coverage (hundreds more properties than Michelin deigns to report on)
• The Chowhound's Guide to the New York Tristate Area for much better outer-borough coverage and tips on great, sometimes eccentric and out-of-the-way spots offering great cooking at reasonable prices.
  

As a general New York City map and guidebook, I also heartily recommend the Not for Tourists Guide to New York City 2006 which, despite the title, adventurous tourists will find indispensable.

Diggdot.us

Combining the best of Digg, Slashdot, and del.icio.us, meet Diggdot.us:

Why diggdot.us?

Digg, slashdot, and del.icio.us/popular - this is a constant browsing cycle for us. So why not combine them into a unified format without all the extra chrome? We can eliminate dupes and add some extra niceities.

Diggdot.us

A Turducken for Thanksgiving

It's behind the Wall Street Journal's pay firewall, or I'd be blogging the hell out of a story from last Friday: the Journal asked five top management consulting firms how to get through Thanksgiving with maximum enjoyment and minimal stress, and they responded--oh boy, did they respond--with PowerPoint presenstations, charts and graphs. It's complete fabulosity, but, as I said, behind the for-pay firewall. (sigh)

Psst. Drop me a line if you'd like a copy.

Here's a pre-Thanksgiving tidbit to get your tastebuds working: a recipe and an unusually coherent set of instructions for assembling and cooking a Turducken--a turkey stuffed with a duck which is in turn stuffed with a chicken and all of it stuffed with, well, stuffing.

The Turducken will need to cook for approximately 9 hours at 225 degrees F so begin preparation well in advance. The fowls can be deboned the day before and kept refrigerated overnight. Save the turkey carcass for making stock and some duck skin to render fat. We sometimes make the sausage stuffing the night before and store it in the refrigerator, but it helps to warm it in the microwave before final assembly.

I have always wanted to make one of these damned things. Someday, when I'm feeding 15 or more for Thanksgiving dinner, you can bet I will.

Turducken - Thanksgiving or Christmas Eating (Lynn Garry Salmon)

Nabaztag, the talking WiFi bunny

From some genuinely insane developers in France comes Nabaztag, a small robot rabbit who lives on your WiFi network and wiggles his ears and lights up when you get an e-mail.

Once the e-mail arrives, he can read it aloud to you (in English or en Francais) as well play MP3 music and do other nifty tricks, like automatically retrieve the local weather report for you.

I'm a newborn bunny, one of a unique species of intelligent, smart objects. I'm 23 cm tall, I wriggle my ears, I sing, I talk and my body lights up and pulsates with hundreds of colours.

Thanks to Wi-Fi technology, I'm always connected to the Internet. Oh, and I'll only set you back 95 €. Set me up in your home or office and I'll be your personal companion.

Nabaztag est un petit lapin intelligent
connecté à Internet en Wifi.

So far, you can only buy him in France, though some retailers will happily ship worldwide. (Let me know, enrevanche readers, if any of you will be dropping by a FNAC store any time soon... I have a proposition for you...)

Nabaztag

Knowledge Worker Toolbox: Updated

The Knowledge Worker Free/Open Source Toolbox, a modest little resource that I maintain, was updated today, November 20.

Additions: a few new freeware programs added to the list; updated prices of commercial products in the comparison table, and linked to some interesting related articles.

If you diddle information for a living, and would like some alternatives to commonly used (and very expensive) commercial software, check it out.

Mudville Gazette: A Brief History of a Long War

Greyhawk, at the Mudville Gazette, has posted the first iteration of what will hopefully be an evolving document: A Brief History of a Long War (Iraq, 1990-2003.)

Those of us who supported, and continue to support, the current intervention in Iraq, are obligated to advance our arguments based on the facts. While Greyhawk's timeline (at the moment) ends in 2003, I hope that he carries it forward, with a frank acknowledgement of the mistakes that have been made, the lessons that have been successfully learned and corrections applied, and the many real successes that have been achieved so far.

Mudville Gazette: A Brief History of a Long War (Iraq, 1990-2003)

Hat tip: Chapomatic.

A Mailable Feast

Back in New York City... I'm sitting down with a big cup of coffee and a plate of steak and eggs (no cholesterol problem here!) and the first thing I see in the news this morning is this horrifying specimen:

Thanksgiving dinner has a new, mail-order twist. More retailers are offering all-in-one, fully prepared feasts -- shipped on dry ice or ice packs -- that require little more than reheating. Since Hickory Farms launched its holiday-geared "Create Your Own Dinner" spreads in 2003, it has seen sales for the line rise 15% a year. Niche retailers, too, are playing holiday caterers: California-based Diamond Organics sends dinners with organic wine, while New York's 2nd Avenue Deli says it ships about 80 kosher turkeys a year, some as far as Alaska.

The writer and his colleagues proceed to taste-test the mail-order cookery, with predictably disastrous results.

Look here, y'all. I realize that with these crazed postmodern lives we lead, there isn't always a lot of time to make an elaborate production out of cooking dinner, but this is just pathetic. It's THANKSGIVING.

Given the requirements of business and personal travel that I have coming up, between now and the second week of January, 2006 I am going to be out of New York City much more often than I'm in it, but as Thanksgiving is one of those days I'm here, I'm planning on cooking a full dinner with all the trimmings, including Grandma Addie's famous cornbread dressing.

A "Thanksgiving MRE," as one of the taste-testers quipped, absolutely does not cut it, unless you are on survival rations somewhere far, far from home. Dust off your copies of "The Joy of Cooking" and get your collective asses into the kitchen, America.

A Mailable Feast (Wall St Journal Weekend via Yahoo! News)

Sync: Meet the IT Gigolo

Q: So, how long have you been a tech-support manwhore?

A: A few months. A friend was having trouble connecting to the Internet, this really attractive girl, and the idea just popped into my head: "Wow, it would be really nice if I could get sex for this." I placed an ad on Craigslist that read, "WILL FIX COMPUTERS FOR SEXUAL FAVORS," and I've had an overwhelming number of responses.

This seems like a good idea to me, except that many/most of the requests I get for tech support come from people who are either male and/or in my extended family, and while I am Southern and live in the West Village (which residence automatically shifts your Kinsey number one place to the right, regardless) I am not Southern or gay *enough,* I don't think, to do this.

Meet the IT Gigolo

(Hat tip: enrevanche reader and pal Clay.)

Pencil Roving: Mister Gato versus the Wild Shoelace

Fans of Mister Gato, don't despair:

Carrie has the Campbell family catblogging covered this week over at Pencil Roving. Go visit the Irascible One at her place.

Pencil Roving: Mister Gato versus the Wild Shoelace

Odds and ends from a Dallas high-rise

A few little odds and ends, posted from my Dallas hotel room, up on the 26th floor. (The nice people at the Adam's Mark Dallas have given me a hotel room that's larger than our apartment back in NYC, and I'm rattling around in this huge space like the last jellybean in the jar. Thank God for in-room coffeemakers... the hotel restaurant doesn't open for another hour, and neither does the Starbucks in the lobby.)

• My goodness, Sony certainly stepped on their collective corporate johnson-sans with the current Digital Rights Management (DRM) fiasco... Sony's copy-protection scheme, discovered and "outed" by blogger Mark Russinovich in late October, installs "rootkit" software on PCs, which creates all kinds of nasty vulnerabilities.
  
  Law of unintended consequences department: It appears that, for the time being, at least, until this godawful mess is unwound, the only safe way to use Sony's music is to steal it.
  
  Strange bedfellows department: This is one of the few situations where techies appear to be pulling *for* a class action lawsuit against a technology company from California's overpopulation of commercial tort attorneys.
  
  Mark's site, linked above, is the best place to go for detailed information, but other geek sites are covering this like white on rice (see, e.g., Slashdot.) Boing Boing has probably the best running summary for non-propellorhead users: Sony Rootkit Roundup.
  
  Or there's always the MSM: New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek.
  
  
• I see that the New York Times automotive section just covered the new Chevrolet HHR, Chevy's answer to the PT Cruiser ("2006 Chevrolet HHR: Let's Do the Time Warp Again.")
  
  I drove one of these odd little beasts for two weeks during my recent sojourn in Raleigh (it was all the rental car company had to offer me) and I have to say, it grew on me: there was plenty of interior room in that small vehicle for this large driver, and the retro styling didn't get in the way of a very nicely designed console with good ergonomics. Plus, I thought it had *plenty* of pickup and zip, and handled nimbly, not nervously... I guess the bottom line is, I liked it a little better than the Times' reviewer did.
  
  (Related site: Chevrolet's HHR page.)
  
  Stray thought - people who travel on business a lot and rent a lot of different car models would make interesting amateur car reviewers, potentially. Group blog, anyone?
  
  
• Carrie is taking up the Catblogger's Burden this week; look for pix of Mister Gato at her site later on Thursday or early Friday. (I know y'all get cranky when there aren't plenty of Gato pix around.)
  

Forecast: light blogging

Partly cloudy, with occasional autumn rants, breaking out in the next few days.

Headed out to catch a 7AM flight to Dallas. Back Friday night.

The Bruni Digest reviewed by AP

Julia Langbein's savage, merciless and incredibly funny The Bruni Digest, in which she blogs in counterpoint to each of Frank Bruni's eminently mockable New York Times restaurant reviews, got a glowing mention by the Associated Press over the weekend.

AP, via Newsday.com: Sassy blogger takes on NYT chief food critic

Orange Méchanique (Reason Magazine)

I feel strongly that Tim Cavanaugh, writing in Reason Magazine, has a point or two worth making.

His subject? The ongoing rioting in France.

So you've got underemployed but well fed kids with plenty of time on their hands, the depraved indifference of a welfare state that usurps the role of parents but provides no useful structure for the youth, a housing-project culture that sees itself (not without reason) as a defenseless ward of the state, politicians who veer between mealy-mouthed coddling of sociopaths and vicious denunciation of people with legitimate grievances, and kids who react to it all with theatrical violence. Clearly, the last century's great prophetic novel was not George Orwell's 1984 but Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

A badly needed rhetorical whack upside the head, y'all. I can't resist quoting one more paragraph, and then I'm sending you off to read the whole thing.

What makes Alex [the protagonist/antihero of A Clockwork Orange - bc] an engaging narrator, though, is not just his linguistic invention or the mordant wit of his observations, but that he harbors no illusions about the world he lives in—an overwhelmed, politically calcified welfare state where teenagers menace the streets when they're not being shuffled between public schools and juvenile detention centers. From page one, Alex recognizes a central fact about the state that provides his food, shelter, schooling, and jail time: The people in charge don't give a crap whether he lives or dies. They don't even care, really, whether he commits crimes. They just want to make sure he doesn't cause them trouble.

Reason: Orange Méchanique (via Hit and Run)

Kazakhstan protests Borat

The government of КАЗАХСТАН... er, Kazakhstan... is hopping mad about one of Sacha Baron Cohen's comic characters... Borat Sagdiyev, roving telejournalist and "Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man."

Kazakhstan's foreign ministry held a press conference Monday to condemn Cohen's brand of politically incorrect buffoonery.

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," ministry spokesman Yerzham Ashykbayev told reporters.

What specifically peeved the officials was Cohen's gig hosting the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards as Borat earlier this month in Lisbon. Appearing in the guise of the well meaning foreign correspondent with an avid curiosity of all things Western, Cohen arrived at the show on an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot holding a vodka bottle.

Following Madonna's show-opening number, the mustachioed faux newsman said: "That singer before me. Who was it? It was very courageous of MTV to start the show with a genuine transvestite. He was very convincing. It was only his hands and his testisatchels that gave it away." And he signed off by saying: "To the world, I love you! Apart from Uzbekistan. Assholes."

Borat loves you, New York City!

Lighten up, Yerzham. (I don't think that the foreign minister of Kazakhstan is entirely hip to the fact that he has just helped kick off the publicity campaign for the upcoming Borat, The Movie.)

Besides, Kazakhstan, you need to get ready for your closeup... with 26 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and right next door to China, too, everybody's going to be Really Interested in you soon enough!

Kazakhstan on Borat: Not Nice (E! Online via Yahoo News)

Sully goes to Time, Inc.

From today's New York Post:

Andrew Sullivan, an early proponent of alternative media, will move more into the mainstream, starting in January, when he begins posting his blog, known as the Daily Dish, on Time.com.

Time managing editor Jim Kelly said, in a statement, that he hopes Sullivan's blog will be the first of a "blog neighborhood" on Time.com, offering readers opinions from all points of view.

"This deal is the first to really connect the established independent blogosphere with a big media company," Sullivan said. "I have a feeling it won't be the last."

Sullivan, who began publishing his blog in 2000 and has been a Time contributor and essayist since 2003, will maintain full control over the content of his postings, Time said yesterday in a news release.

Curiouser & Curiouser - Carnival of the Cats

The 86th edition of the Carnival of the Cats is up at Curiouser & Curiouser.

The Strata-Sphere » RINO Sightings 11/14/05

This week's batch of RINO Sightings are up over at The Strata-Sphere.

Heading back to NYC

I've been in North Carolina since October 22nd, when my father passed away; after taking a week of bereavement leave, I've been working from the back bedroom of the house I grew up in ever since.

My bags are packed, and I'm leaving the land of barbecue for the land of bagels in a couple of hours.

There is still so very much to be done here... but we've made a good start.

Mom is coming home from the nursing home next week, thank God, to continue her recovery from back surgery in the comfort of her own home. I've done all that I can to make sure that her transition home will be a smooth one.

I've got business travel coming up -- I'll be on the road for a few days this month, much of December and part of January, and it's just time for me to return to NYC and start taking care of business there.

Alito's "Libertarian Streak"

More encouraging news on Samuel Alito, from, of all places, the New York Times. He seems to really be fond of the First Amendment.

"Judge Alito is part of the new breed of conservative libertarian jurists who are sensitive to safeguarding our free-speech freedoms," said Ronald K. L. Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, a research and advocacy group in Virginia. "They're particularly sensitive when it comes to issues involving speech and commerce and political orthodoxy."

These judges tend to be very protective of speech rights when they involve the marketplace of ideas, or the core of the First Amendment, said Jesse H. Choper, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bush's Conservative Judge Harbors Libertarian Streak - New York Times

Wired News: Biodiesel Keeps Home Fire Burning

Biodiesel, the vegetable-oil alternative to diesel that sparked a small, grass-roots movement, is exploding onto the commercial marketplace and rapidly gaining widespread acceptance. But not as an alternative to gasoline, as many had envisioned. This clean-burning, renewable fuel is making its way into a growing number of American homes as a substitute for residential heating oil.

Wired News: Biodiesel Keeps Home Fire Burning

Carrie's catblogging

Carrie has a catblogging post up this week about...gasp... a cat that isn't Mister Gato.

In fact, she met this cat about a year before Mister Gato came into our lives.

Pencil Roving: Oh, I've been through the jungle with a cat with no name

Thank you, Veterans

To all enrevanche readers on active duty or retired from military service -

Thank you for your service, and your sacrifice, and all that you have done to protect our country and its citizens.

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 , in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918 , is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

Source: The History of Veterans' Day

Armistice Day became "Veterans Day" by act of Congress in 1954.

Related:

• Veterans Day page at the VA

Robertson to Dover, PA: Go to hell

enrevanche reader John V., on a quick troll through CNN this morning, notes that TV preacher/professional nutcase Pat Robertson has just told the good citizens of Dover, PA that, having disrespected God, they'd better watch out:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

Wow. Who knew that God, Our Father who art in Heaven was so much like The Godfather?

Corleone: We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you ever came to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt.
Bonasera: I didn't want to get into trouble.
Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, you made a good living. The police protected you and there were courts of law. And you didn't need a friend like me. But uh, now you come to me and you say - 'Don Corleone, give me justice.' But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you, uh, ask me to do murder for money.
Bonasera: I ask you for justice.
Corleone: That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.
Bonasera: Let them suffer then, as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
Corleone (after standing and turning his back): Bonasera, Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.
Bonasera: Be my friend - - Godfather. (The Don shrugs. Bonasera bows toward the Don and kisses the Don's hand.)
Corleone: Good. (The Don puts his hand on Bonasera's shoulder.) Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day - accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day.
Bonasera: Grazie, Godfather.
Corleone: Prego.

Pew's Political Typologies

"The Party of Sam's Club" (the Weekly Standard story referenced in the post below) refers to the Pew Research Center's recent breakdown of the American public into nine "political typologies."

Intrigued, I went over to the Pew Research Center's web site and found the results of the study, entitled "Beyond Red vs. Blue," in which they asked a bunch of questions of a random sample of Americans and then assigned them their politico-demographic pigeonholes.

It will surprise none of you, I'm sure, to learn that "Principled Libertarian" is not listed as one of their typologies.

In fact, on their quick-and-dirty online test, I actually scored as a "Liberal" (!) despite my enthusiastic endorsement of horrific violence and officious meddling as important tools for foreign policy, my rah-rah boosterism of Big Business, my utter disregard for the environment ("the Earth can hack it") and my "screw the poor" attitude towards the provision of government services.

(I think that my positions on so-called "social issues" - homosexuality is fine, dirty books are fun, immigrants make our society healthier, etc. - pushed me solidly into the New York Review of Books crowd. Gah.)

See how you do.

And check out Profiles of the Typology Groups: Beyond Red vs. Blue to learn about Enterprisers, Disaffecteds, and Bystanders, among others.

I'll have what she's having

A little deeper drink
Originally uploaded by enrevanche.

"I'll have what she's having."

For some people, a statement of barroom conviviality; a way to show that you are an easygoing, kindred spirit.

For others, the phrase resonates as the coda and punchline (delivered by the director's mother!) to Meg Ryan's famous fake-orgasm scene in "When Harry Met Sally."

But for Mister Gato, it is a way of life.

Here, Carrie has snapped a couple of pictures of Mister G. helping himself to a glass of ice water that, strictly speaking, she hadn't really fixed for him.

But Gato's favorite drink is whatever is in *your* glass.

About time for a refill... I can't get my
head in here much farther.

Be sure to check out the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more bloggers' pets from around the world - and don't miss the Carnival of the Cats on Sunday, this week hosted at Curiouser & Curiouser.

(And if you're a catblogger yourself, don't pass up the chance to join Ferdinand T. Cat's "Cat Lovers Community.")

The Party of Sam's Club

Andrew Sullivan points to this essay in the current Weekly Standard: The Party of Sam's Club.

Excerpt:

The Presidency of George W. Bush has three years yet to run, but this season of scandal and disillusionment is an opportune moment for conservatives to start thinking seriously about the post-Bush era--and particularly how to fashion a domestic policy from the wreckage of Bush-style, big-government conservatism. Thanks to the abiding weakness of the Democratic party, Republicans haven't yet paid a political price for insider-friendly appropriation bills, Medicare boondoggles, or the smog of semi-corruption rising from the party's cozy relationship with K Street. But even if the GOP's majority survives the next election cycle, conservatives shouldn't kid themselves: President Bush's domestic policy looks less and less like a visionary twist on traditional conservatism, and more and more like an evolutionary dead end.

Forget the misplaced loyalty and incompetence on display in Hurricanes Katrina and Harriet. The intellectual exhaustion of the current majority should have been obvious at the close of the last legislative term. After months of political reversals--including the defeat, without a shot fired, of Social Security reform--the congressional leadership managed three victories: a pork-laden $286 billion in new transportation spending, an energy bill larded with generous corporate subsidies, and a noble but unpopular free trade act, CAFTA, that may prove a poison pill for vulnerable GOP congressmen come 2006. All in all, not a bad week--unless, that is, you believe in small government, expanding economic opportunity, and the long-term political viability of the Republican party.

It's quite a long essay, and I certainly don't agree with everything in it, but the straight talking, clear-eyed assessment of the current situation in the GOP is as bracing as a shot of overproof rum.

The Party of Sam's Club (Weekly Standard, November 14, 2005)

Happy birthday, USMC

Retired Marine Scott of Bill in Exile (site, but not this particular post, generally NSFW) wishes the United States Marine Corps a Happy 230th Birthday:

Founded on November 10th 1775 at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Colonel Samuel Nicholas, the United States Marines Corps has demonstrated throughout American history that there is just one phone call that the President of the United States needs to make when he has something that absolutely, positively needs to be destroyed overnight.

Related:

• United States Marine Corps History and Museums Site
• A Brief History of the United States Marine Corps

Intelligent voters reject "Intelligent Design"

Perhaps concerned about their town being viewed as a collection of scientifically illiterate, ignorant hicks, the voters of Dover, Pennsylvania dumped all the members of the Dover School Board who had gone on record as supporting "Intelligent Design" in the biology curriculum.

The election unfolded amid a landmark federal trial involving the Dover public schools and the question of whether intelligent design promotes the Bible's view of creation. Eight Dover families sued, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Dover's school board adopted a policy in October 2004 that requires ninth-graders to hear a prepared statement about intelligent design before learning about evolution in biology class.

Eight of the nine school board members were up for election Tuesday.

And all eight incumbent members lost, replaced by candidates united in their opposition to so-called "Intelligent Design."

CNN.com - 'Intelligent design' school board booted - Nov 9, 2005

Terra Nova: Anarchy Online to Teach Technical Writing

A member of the TECHWR-L list (a mailing list for technical writers that's been around for a long, long time now) points us to this great blog entry:

Terra Nova: Anarchy Online to Teach Technical Writing.

Amanda Linder, a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, now uses Anarchy Online to teach Technical Writing. While past teachers had students read a sci-fi novel as the context for all the writing assignments (reports, instructions, memos, and the like), Amanda has students play – and write from the context of – Anarchy Online. All technical writing assignments and class discussions are now based on in-game content, typically written from the perspective of employees of Omni-Tek, the mega-corporate power in the game.

Related: Course Syllabus for ENGL 3980, "Technical Writing Across Disciplines"

(sigh) And the Transit Bonds ballot measure passes.

Voters Approve Transit Bonds for $2.9 Billion - New York Times

Among other things, it rewards the most inefficient public transportation authority in the nation with at least half of the allocated $2.9 billion, saddling the citizens of the State of New York with a staggering debt burden, and best of all from the point of view of today's MTA honchos and city and state politicians, sticking our children with most of the bill.

Oh, if only my absentee ballot had arrived on time!

Related: "Reforming the MTA" (Straphangers' Campaign Fact Sheet - PDF Format)

Sign me up...

for The Colbert Nation. It's a note-perfect parody of an Internet fan site, just as the Colbert Report is a note-perfect parody of a cable "news-talk" show (positively dripping with gravitas and self-importance.)

I'm starting to think Monsieur Colbert is even funnier than Jon Stewart - or took the best writers with him.

(Hat tip: Metafilter.)

Don't use Express Mail. Ever.

Okay, I should have known better. Dammit, I already knew better.

But I was at the Post Office last Friday, mailing off a number of letters (containing certified copies of my father's death certificate) to everyone Dad ever had any sort of financial relationship with--banks, insurance companies, etc. And I was sending them all Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. (Old habits die hard, and this was the precise Legal Advice I had received about how to send the information.)

And, see, I had this absentee ballot for the November 8th Municipal Election in the City of New York. And it kinda needed to get there by Monday, November 7.

Not that the mayoral race was or is in any doubt, but I damn sure wanted to vote against the bond issue for the MTA.

Hey, I says to myself, you're here already... why not use Express Mail? After all, it's guaranteed next-day arrival, right? And you can track it online, just like FedEx, right?

WRONG.

Here, check it for yourself. I mailed Express Mail envelope EQ 149699767 US to the NYC Board of Elections, 200 Varick St, New York, NY 10014 from Zip Code 27612 in Raleigh, NC on Friday, November 5.

It didn't arrive on Monday, November 7 as "guaranteed."

It wasn't even *processed* out of the Flushing, NY (!) Post Office until sometime today, Tuesday, November 8th.

Think it'll arrive in time for my vote to be counted? (snort)

In case you're wondering, by the way, the USPS does have a formal complaint procedure. But then they also have instructions on their web site about how to address postal letters to Santa Claus or God ("Letters to God can be addressed in the same way replacing "Santa Claus" with "God." That's quite a theological minefield they've stepped into there.)

I think both techniques are likely to achieve the same results.

FedEx, please take me back, baby. I promise to do better this time. I will never entrust *anything* time-critical to the tender mercies of the United States Postal Service's Express Mail ever again.

---

Update, November 9

The overnight Express Mail letter "arrived" early this morning in Manhattan; no word on whether it's actually been delivered to the Board of Elections. The day after the election.

Check their tracking (in reverse chronological order)

• Arrival at Unit, November 09, 2005, 5:21 am, NEW YORK, NY 10014
• Enroute, November 09, 2005, 12:18 am, NEW YORK, NY 10199
• Enroute, November 08, 2005, 6:54 pm, NEW YORK, NY 10199
• Enroute, November 08, 2005, 2:15 pm, FLUSHING, NY 11371
• Acceptance, November 05, 2005, 12:01 pm, RALEIGH, NC 27612

Congratulations, USPS! Your "guaranteed overnight delivery" just took four days to travel from Raleigh to New York City.

Just about like a first-class letter with a 37 cent stamp on it, come to think of it. Only it cost me $13.65.

The end of my fourth decade.

Thirty-nine today. Gah.

Once I hit forty, I'm going to start counting backwards.

My wife, the SCUBA diver

Carrie has posted some (underwater) holiday snaps from a diving trip to St. John over at Pencil Roving.

Sadly, a physical anomaly (poor eustachian tube clearage, even when assiduously performing the Valsalva maneuver) prevents me from diving more than a few meters down--I get immediate, and excruciating, earaches and headaches from pressure changes like that. (I'm also lots of fun on airplanes.)

But I can vicariously enjoy the undersea world through Carrie's photographs... which, believe it or not, were taken with a cheap, disposable-but-waterproof camera; I think they came out brilliantly.

Pencil Roving: Fishblogging

The FBI's Secret Scrutiny (Washington Post)

"National security letters," created in the 1970s for espionage and terrorism investigations, originated as narrow exceptions in consumer privacy law, enabling the FBI to review in secret the customer records of suspected foreign agents. The Patriot Act, and Bush administration guidelines for its use, transformed those letters by permitting clandestine scrutiny of U.S. residents and visitors who are not alleged to be terrorists or spies.

The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters -- one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people -- are extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans.

Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.

The burgeoning use of national security letters coincides with an unannounced decision to deposit all the information they yield into government data banks -- and to share those private records widely, in the federal government and beyond.

The FBI's Secret Scrutiny: In Hunt for Terrorists, Bureau Examines Records of Ordinary Americans (Washington Post)

Bad idea.

David Pogue has an interesting "open letter" to electronics manufacturers in the November 2, 2005 edition of the New York Times: "10 Ways to Please Us, the Customers."

His second "commandment' bugs me a little. See if you can spot why:

II. Thou shalt hire native English speakers to translate thine instruction manual. "When the camera focus is not so possible, hold the shutter button vaguely until the beeping tone is heard." Is that really how your company wants to address customers?

Talk about New Math. You'll spend millions of dollars developing some breakthrough gizmo, but won't spring for somebody to rewrite your manual in proper English? I know some high schoolers who'd do the job for $50 and 10 free ring tones.

Oh, yeah. That's who you want writing your product manuals.

I know that Mr. Pogue had his tongue planted firmly in cheek, but it does cost a *little* more than that to have a competent translator and technical editor rework a user manual for you. God forbid you should use a high-schooler, unless the high school is Stuyvesant or Bronx Science (and then, I hope said high-schooler would be savvy enough to charge you the going rate.)

Still, Pogue's main point stands - the costs of hiring a competent technical writer or editor are a drop in the bucket compared to product development cost, and I would add that a good, readable manual can cut those pesky support costs like nobody's business.

Robert Shapiro, NY1's New Yorker of the Week

I was delighted to learn (from Carrie) that Robert Shapiro, owner and operator of Social Tees (a combined screenprinting business and animal rescue operation) was just named New Yorker of the Week by local cable channel NY1.

Robert plays a central role in Mister Gato's Arrival Story -- he's the Good Samaritan who placed the Irascible One in our home.

Robert Shapiro says he began the animal rescue because he wanted to do more than just his business of selling t-shirts.

"I got this really large space that I never use because my business is mostly wholesale, so I started rescuing animals,” he says. “We started doing exotics, and then every time I came back from the shelter I went past the dog and cat rooms that were on line to be euthanized and I started helping them. And they were very happy to give me animals, because they don't want to have to put them down. There's always a home for them. We keep them until they get adopted."

Robert, you're a mensch. This recognition is well-deserved. Mister Gato and thousands of other lovely animals are alive and well today because of you and the volunteers who work with you.

Rescued, and now running the show.

NY1: New Yorker of the Week, Robert Shapiro

Carnival of the Cats #85

Carnival of the Cats #85 is now up at pages turned

Like Gaul (Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est) this week's Carnival is divided into three parts:

Part the First
Part the Second
Part the Third

foldedspace.org: Get Rich Slowly!

J.D. at foldedspace has an excellent summary of money-management books for individuals: foldedspace.org: Get Rich Slowly!

These books have embarrassingly bad titles, seemingly designed to appeal to the get-rich-quick crowd: The Richest Man in Babylon, Your Money or Your Life, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, Wealth Without Risk, Creating Wealth, etc.

Some of the books out there — most of them? — really are as bad as their titles. Others, however, offer outstanding, practical advice. The best books seem to have the same goal in mind: not wealth, not riches, but financial independence. According to Your Money or Your Life, which I consider the very best of the financial books I've read, "financial independence is the experience of having enough — and then some". More practically, financial independence occurs when your investment income meets or exceeds your monthly expenses. Financial independence is linked to psychological freedom.

How is financial independence achieved? Again, the best books all basically agree. (To some of you, this will be common sense, stuff you've known all your life. To others, like me, this kind of thinking is a sort of revelation.)

foldedspace.org: Get Rich Slowly!

This week's batch of RINO Sightings...

...are up over at Tinkerty Tonk. Rachel does a fine job with this week's herd of RINOs, and includes some lovely graphical flourishes in her presentation.

Frappr! map filling out nicely...

Our Frappr map is filling out nicely.

But if you read enrevanche regularly and haven't planted your flag, please do!

Hey, specifically - where my Europeans at?

sisu: "It does not take into account the psychology of people"

Sissy Willis surveys the blogosphere (ranging from Minh-Duc to Excitable Andy Sullivan) on the Paris riots, pulls out some apposite quotations and excerpts, ties it all together with a long snippet from a column by theologian George Weigel and (believe it or not) Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" paintings, and just generally hits it out of the park.

Go read it now. Go on. We'll still be here when you get back.

No more "Compassionate Use"

Friends,

You're receiving this e-mail because at some point in the recent past, you linked to a side blogproject of mine called "Compassionate Use" (about medical marijuana.)

Sadly, with the recent Supreme Court ruling, the MM movement needs to rethink itself significantly, and I have not had the time to update the Compassionate Use blog in quite some time. I deactivated the blog last week, intending to send out notifications when I had time...

...and someone immediately picked up the URL and started using it for a gay erotica site.

Not that there's anything wrong with that (some of my best friends are big old queens, etc. and I've lived in the West Village for so long that I'm just about half a show-tune away from being one myself) but if you're not in the *habit* of linking to explicit gay porn sites, I thought you might wish to be aware of this.


Cheers,

Barry

Exegesis: Visualizing frequently quoted Bible verses

Exegesis is a Java-based Web application that, using data from Google, visually demonstrates which verses of the Bible (King James version) are quoted most often on the Web.

Says the app's author:

Every day the Bible is quoted in a range of contexts. To inspire. To persuade. To threaten. To deepen. To beautify. To make eloquent. Out of 66 books containing 30,652 verses, ministers, politicians, parents, protestors, scientists, scholars, and cynics choose the handful of lines that best make their point.

This selection process provides a guide to the most important or interesting parts of the Bible. With the help of my favorite search engine, I collected rough counts of how often each verse appears on the web. Making these verses bigger and darker helped them stand out.

The interface takes a little getting used to, but once you understand it, it's quite powerful: Click and drag to select the book and chapter that you want to start reading, and it starts slowly scrolling up the left side of the computer's window; frequently quoted verses are rendered in larger, darker type, and examples of sites quoting said verses can be seen as links to the right.

Top ten verses from the Bible on the Web, per Exegesis:

1. Thou shalt not kill.
2. Thou shalt not steal.
3. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying...
4. Give us this day our daily bread.
5. Jesus wept.
6. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God...
7. Pray without ceasing.
8. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
9. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
10. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
    

(Hat tip: Another truly great find from Jason Kottke.)

Well, that didn't take long.

Apple introduced the Video iPod not quite a month ago.

Well, everybody knew what--pardon the expression--was coming.

Vivid Entertainment Group, a major adult video producer that already offers high-resolution still images, video clips and footage from "voyeur cams" through its Web site, now plans to shoot shorter films specifically for the iPod and other portables.

"It could be a huge percentage of our business," says the company's chief executive, Steven Hirsch. "People love watching adult movies and to be able to carry an adult movie in your pocket is a powerful tool."

(snort) The derisive, double-entendre laden comment writes itself. Or already has.

Dirty Downloads Ready to Go on IPods - Washington Post

Lunch at the Char-Grill

CharGrill Order Form
Originally uploaded by enrevanche.

Went to hang out with Mom at the nursing home today (we hope to have her home by Thanksgiving.)

Lunch wasn't much to write home about, and she was picking at her plate pretty sadly. Sometimes the food at the nursing home is downright tasty, but usually it's mediocre and occasionally it's just awful.

This was a bad day.

Happily, I knew how to salvage the situation.

"Mom, I'm going on a Char-Grill run."

Just in case you've ever wondered, it *is* indeed possible for a blind person's eyes to light up.

Char-Grill is a Raleigh original, a holdover from the glory days of drive-ins. Located on a noisy stretch of Hillsborough Street about four blocks from the State Capitol, Char-Grill has Raleigh's finest young men cooking hamburgers behind huge plate glass windows. Drop off your handwritten order in a little slot and wait with the dozen or so hungry people whose ears perk up each time the loudspeakers crackle.

Although it's been ten years since I've lived in Raleigh, I still have the preferred Char-Grill orders for my entire extended family memorized. Mom is a Hamburger Steak Jr., well done with "everything" (and please put some extra raw onions on top.) As noted above, this is "slow" fast food - you fill out your own order slip (click the graphic above right to see mine) and wait for your number to be called.

Back home in New York City, I live virtually next door to the restaurant that is widely considered to serve one of the best burgers in town - the Corner Bistro - and yet, I make a beeline for the Char-Grill every time I visit Raleigh. (Char-Grill and its unrelated brethren in other Sunbelt cities are *exactly* what Danny Meyer has patterned his Shake Shack burger after... the Shake Shack is a hybrid of a Midwestern custard stand and a Southern burger grill.)

How was it, you ask?

A Hamburger Steak Jr.

Do you even have to ask?

Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings (Washington Post)

Reminiscent of the "Boys, this is a football" back-to-fundamentals locker room speeches legendary 'Bama coach Bear Bryant used to give after ignominious defeats, President Bush is requiring White House staff to attend "refresher courses" in ethics.

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the "spirit as well as the letter" of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, "the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information," according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide.

White House Counsel Miers' office will be conducting the ethics briefings, and all staffers must attend (I'm looking at you, Karl Rove.)

No word on whether the "ethics" classes will cover embarrassing topics like the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (50 U.S.C. 21 et seq):

Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings (Washington Post)

Panexa. Ask your doctor for a reason to take it.

The "Important Safety Information" should be read thoroughly first, though.

PANEXA is a prescription drug that should only be taken by patients experiencing one of the following disorders: metabolism, binocular vision, digestion (solid and liquid), circulation, menstruation, cognition, osculation, extremes of emotion. For patients with coronary heart condition (CHC) or two separate feet (2SF), the dosage of PANEXA should be doubled to ensure that twice the number of pills are being consumed...

MERD | Panexa (Acidachrome Promanganate)

Hat tip: MetaFilter.

Lenovo returning IBM PCs to retail stores...

...and rumor has it that HP is going to start selling $400 laptops at WalMart after Thanksgiving.

Read all about it.

God bless you, Mister Derbyshire

In a post over at The Corner today, John Derbyshire writes:

...[Intelligent Design] is an entirely American phenomenon -- really, an outgrowth of American folk religiosity. You can find a scattered few I.D. followers in other countries, but I.D. is not a public or pedagogic issue anywhere but in the U.S.A. People in other countries are just baffled by it; scientists in other countries just shake their heads sadly. This is not the case with any scientific theory that I am aware of. Real science is international. The presence of a strongly national coloring is, in fact, a pretty good marker of pseudoscience. Compare, for example, the "Soviet science" (Lysenkoism, Marrism, etc.) of Stalin.

There is nothing wrong with folk religiosity, of course. I personally regard it as a strengthening and cohesive force in the national life, and in the conservative movement. I am happy about American folk religiosity, and regard it with cheerful approval. But-- It. Is. Not. Science.

While I, personally, am not as sanguine about all of the effects of American folk religiosity as Mr. Derbyshire is, I think his entire post is well worth reading, as are many of the other things he writes.

Related item: ordained Dominican priest (and dual Ph.D. biologist and theologian) Francisco Ayala has some thoughts on I.D., elucidated in this entry at Mark A.R. Kleiman's blog.

Mo' betta PoMo

You are a Theory Slut. The true elite of the
postmodernists, you collect avant-garde
Indonesian hiphop compilations and eat journal
articles for breakfast. You positively live
for theory. It really doesn't matter what
kind, as long as the words are big and the
paragraph breaks few and far between.

What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

[Hat tip: Larry Bernard at Inside Larry's Head]

Buckley on Plame

enrevanche reader and pal John deVille (when, oh when, will you start blogging again, John?) points us to WFB's latest column, ostensibly about the Scooter Libby affair... but, after all, the core of that whole mess is really "who outed Valerie Plame?", isn't it?

Money grafs:

The great question here is Robert Novak. It was he who published, in his column, that Mrs. Joseph Wilson was a secret agent of the CIA. I am too close a friend to pursue the matter with Novak, and his loyalty is a postulate. What was going on? If there are mysteries in town, that surely is one of them, the role of Novak.

The importance of the law against revealing the true professional identity of an agent is advertised by the draconian punishment, under the federal code, for violating it. In the swirl of the Libby affair, one loses sight of the real offense, and it becomes almost inapprehensible what it is that Cheney/Libby/Rove got themselves into. But the sacredness of the law against betraying a clandestine soldier of the republic cannot be slighted.

"Who Did What? Covert Questions" (William F. Buckley, National Review, Nov. 1, 2005)

Now Carrie is catblogging.

I'm so proud.

The riots in France

You know, I remember when "Paris is Burning" was nothing more than a really good documentary about drag queens.

For the seventh night in a row, the heavily Muslim/North-African banlieues of Paris have been riven by violence and clashes with police.

[Coverage: BBC (includes audio/video links), Associated Press (via ABC News.)]

"Youth" (I prefer French Interior Minister Sarkozy's terms, "thugs" and/or "scum") have burned cars, thrown rocks (and shot at) police, and created general mayhem for a solid week.

Naturally, the leaders of the region are bending over backwards to excuse and explain away their behavior:

The violence, concentrated in neighborhoods with large African and Muslim populations, has highlighted the difficulties many European nations face with immigrant communities feeling marginalized and restive, cut off from the continent's prosperity and, for some extremists, its values, too.

"They have no work. They have nothing to do. Put yourself in their place," said Abderrahmane Bouhout, president of the Clichy-sous-Bois mosque, where a tear gas grenade exploded Sunday evening. Local youths suspected a police attack, and authorities are investigating.

(source)

The French have been quick to criticize (and lecture) America for our alleged mistreatment of Muslims. With the northern suburbs of their capital city in flames all around them, I for one now await their instructive response to the enemy in their midst.

Chap has a good (brief) post in which he posts an excerpt from (and link to the full text of) a 2002 City Journal article by Theodore Dalrymple that's well worth reading.

Related: "The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris" (Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, Autumn 2002.)

The tough guy thing? It's an act.

Irascible Tomcat Mister Gato may not be quite as irascible as we thought.

Sure, he's got the scary Clint Eastwood eyes, and he's got attitude for miles.

But he's a big old cream puff when he's missing his family - no humans and Chow Chows to keep him company.

Transcript of an IM conversation between my wife and a dear friend who took care of Mister G. while we were both down in North Carolina last week:

(my wife): Just wanted to say thanks again for all your help with Mr. G.
(our catsitter): Ah, no problem!
(our catsitter): He's so funny:
(my wife): ?
(our catsitter): Whenever I've been over there before, he's such the tough guy, showing off how he rules the house.
(my wife): Oh, totally.
(our catsitter): Then, when everyone was away and I came over, he was SUPER affectionate -- clearly very lonely, much as he didn't want to admit it!
(my wife): Awwwwww.
(my wife): The Buddy.
(our catsitter): It was very cute.
(my wife): Yes, he has been amazingly affectionate and demonstrative since I got home.
(my wife): When I walked in on Sunday he basically attached himself to me like a remora.
(our catsitter): Yeah, exactly.
(my wife): I petted him and talked to him for about half an hour, and then I headed out to pick up the chows... the look on his face as I went out the door was so sad.
(my wife): "But you just got here!"
(our catsitter): Clearly the whole badass tough guy thing is just a facade.
(my wife): He's really a remarkably demonstrative cat.
(my wife): Oh, definitely.
(my wife): It's all a front.
(my wife): Discourage any upstarts.
(our catsitter): Exactly.
(my wife): Anyway, your care and feeding of Gato was much appreciated.
(my wife): As I suppose he conveyed himself.
(our catsitter): Glad to be of service.
(our catsitter): And yes, he made the point quite clear himself as well.

Attention, NYC politics junkies: Meet Fred Newman (Pencil Roving)

Carrie, over at Pencil Roving, has a great and timely post introducing the unaware to Fred Newman, the head of the Independence Party in Manhattan.

Nutjob? Kingmaker? Sounds like he's a little of both:

In connection with the upcoming NYC mayoral election, local news channel NY1 is running a series on Fred Newman, political puppetmaster, former ally of Lyndon LaRouche and mentor of perpetual candidate Lenora Fulani (of the Independence Party). Again this year Mayor Michael Bloomberg is listed on the ballot on the Independence Party line as well as on the Republican line; according to NY1, in the last election the Independence Party delivered 59,000 votes for Bloomberg, a number that exceeds his margin of victory...

Post-Halloween Scare: Meet Fred Newman (Pencil Roving)

Cheap DVD players - no extra charge for the totalitarianism

The next time you think about buying a cheap Chinese-made DVD player at WalMart, think about this story:

David Ji used a few good contacts in his homeland to build a billion-dollar business selling cheap DVD players in the U.S. Then he crossed a supplier--and disappeared.

[...]

This is the dark side of doing business in a booming China, where government often is your partner, the lines between state and enterprise are blurry and respect for defendant rights is spotty at best. In the U.S. a spat over bills owed to a supplier can get you sued; in China it can get you jailed for months before any charges are filed. David Ji is one of a dozen or so U.S. businessmen detained without due process in the past decade in China. An implicit racism is evident in these cases: Most of the jailed execs are Asian-Americans, and even U.S. citizens get held.

The Chinese attitude is "Hey, you are, at least ethnically speaking, Chinese. You should know how the system works," says John T. Kamm, founder of Dui Hua, a nonprofit group in San Francisco that helps people wrongfully imprisoned in China. "These cases are many, and the business world should be troubled by them," says Jerome Cohen, a New York University professor who specializes in China's legal system. He has advised Ji's defense. "Many of these cases never get reported," he adds, citing "interference from local police, prosecutors and corrupt judges occasionally cooperating with local powerholders."

A powerful and disturbing article, well worth reading.

Held Hostage In China - Forbes.com

Gartner Analyst: Stop Outsourcing Now

More outsourcing/offshoring backlash. Check out this interview with Linda Cohen, the Gartner Group's chief of research for outsourcing, in Datamation.

Excerpt:

''Today, outsourcing is applied to basically be a remedy for cost problems or assumed cost problems,'' adds Cohen. ''The thought is if they outsource this, it will be cheaper. And that's not usually the case. We've gotten to a state of compulsive outsourcing. It's this need to outsource because everybody else is doing it... It's keeping up with the Joneses. If my competition is doing it, then we better do more of it.

''When your CEO stops asking, 'Should we be outsourcing this?' and starts asking, 'Why aren't we offshoring this?' or even worse, 'What more could we outsource?'... It's gotten to the point that it's almost a compulsive reaction.''

Breathtaking statistic: Gartner estimates that at least 50% of outsourcing engagements will fail to meet expectations. (I've seen private numbers even higher than that.)

Gartner Analyst: Stop Outsourcing Now (Datamation)

Kiva: Microloans to the developing world

Kiva.org is a "charitable loan" organization that allows interested folks in the First World to make a difference by offering microloans (as little as $25 or so) directly to businesses in the developing world:

By choosing a business on our website and then lending money online to that enterprise, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive monthly email updates that let you know about the progress being made by the small business you've sponsored. These updates include reports on loan repayment progress, photos of new capital equipment, narratives on business growth and standard of living improvements, and more. As loans are repaid, you will get your original loan money back.

This is a great take on the old "sponsor a child" idea that charities have been flogging for years, with some substantial differences in terms of transparency and overhead, and the very real likelihood of repayment and eventual self-funding of continuing operations.

Kiva

Related: Center for Economic Self-Reliance at Brigham Young University (good information on microcredit and microloans)

Hat tip: Cory at BoingBoing

I didn't need a test to tell you this, either.

You are a...

Modern, Cool Nerd
86 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 30% Dork

For The Record:

• A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
  
• A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
  
• A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks!)

Congratulations!

The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid.

Hat tip: enrevanche pal moonpath.

Michelin stars: full New York list (Financial Times)

The Michelin Guide to New York City is coming out soon, and foodie types have been breathlessly awaiting news of who will get the coveted Michelin stars.

The Financial Times has the complete scoop.

THREE STARS

Alain Ducasse, Manhattan, Midtown West
Jean-Georges, Manhattan, Upper West Side
Le Bernardin, Manhattan, Midtown West
Per Se, Manhattan, Midtown West

TWO STARS

Bouley, Manhattan, TriBeCa
Daniel, Manhattan, Upper East Side
Danube, Manhattan, TriBeCa
Masa, Manhattan, Midtown West

And thirty-one restaurants get the single star, including West Village neighborhood favorites Annisa, Babbo and Wallse. (Where, oh where, is Blue Hill? An unthinkable omission!)

Related:

• "Michelin Gives New York Four Thumbs Up" (Financial Times)
• "Michelin Rates NY Restaurants" (NY Times)

Small words, simple fonts make you seem smarter

Strunk and White said it, memorably.

George Orwell said it (see, e.g., Politics and the English Language.)

And now there's good scientific evidence: using short words makes the reader perceive you as "smarter."

(In an added twist, now that modern PCs and printers have made every man, woman, child and dog their own typesetters, using simple, classic fonts was shown to be the smart play as well.)

Daniel Oppenheimer at Princeton University conducted five experiments manipulating the complexity of vocabulary or font style. Samples included graduate school applications, sociology dissertation abstracts, and translations of a work by Descartes.

Times New Roman, the default font for Internet text and writing programs like Microsoft Word, was contrasted by the italicized Juice font (the sort of font you might see in a homemade newsletter that's trying to be more than it is).

The simple writing done in the easy-to-read font tended to be rated as coming from a more intelligent author than the more complex drafts.

"Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers' evaluations of the text and its author," Oppenheimer said.

Simple Writing Makes You Look Smart (Yahoo! News)

Hat tip: Arroxane and Ryan on the TECHWR-L mailing list.