7:03 AM

For today, because I realize some folks are getting sick of politics, I've conveniently moved all political stuff (except for the broad discussion of politics in DeadWood) down to the bottom of this post and clearly labeled it with [politics] [/politics] tabs. (And if you're still feeling grumpy about politics and need a reason for smiling, try this)

Ah, there's a nice long weekend coming up for me. Shari's birthday is May 1st, so if you're looking for something to do Saturday night swing by Nick's and join us in the "hump room" for some libation and cheer. (Which reminds me, be sure to tell Davey Happy Birthday as well, and ask him if he's enjoying those last few cigarettes. Nice work Dave, good luck! But he forgot something else he'll be doing this summer: painting the kid's room in the new house -- just doing my part to spread the "Julie's pregnant" rumor) update: I forgot to mention, tomorrow morning is also the first day of this summer's Farmer's Market!

And now onto the toilet memories.... Just this week I had two urinal experiences which would probably gone unreflected had it not been for all the recent talk of streams and coverage in Sean's comments. First one: I stroll into the men's restroom and find a housekeeping guy standing behind the urinals holding a roll of TP, just sort of staring at them. Not sure what to make of it, a approach slowly, waiting for an explanation. Turns out he's waiting for someone to finish up in one of the stalls so he can replace the roll, but by the time I put two and two together, I'm a little wigged out by the idea of having a bored audience, so I grab the stall. I still feel self-conscious, though, as the guy in the next stall is now hurrying up to finish because he's heard the housekeeping guy say he's waiting for him....

Second: later that day I walk into the restroom again and find a co-worker already relieving himself in one of two urinals. As I step up he farts. Reflexively I joke, "Oh, thanks a lot," and then immediately wish I hadn't said anything. He sort of proudly chuckles under his breath as he closes up shop and says, "Hey, at least it wasn't in your cube." "You're right," I answer, "I appreciate that." And just like that the not-discussing-bodily-functions-at-work-the-way-I-do-with-friends-at-home-line is broken forever. Oh well, at least he's right about the farting in my cube; our receptionist thinks it's funny to do that to some folks in our office, though she apparently never thought (thankfully) that I'd appreciate the joke.

Boy, all this talk about restrooms makes me ... well, it makes me realize that I'm going to be late for work if I don't leave soon (I've got a bad case of short-timer fever there - I'm itchin' to get started at the library). So I'll just throw out some quick thoughts about television and call it a post.

This is probably of no interest to anyone who's doesn't watch HBO's Deadwood (and little to those who do) but ....

A few interesting points here:MatthewYglesias: Anarchy, State, Deadwood. I held off watching any Deadwood episodes in part because I wasn't sure I wanted to get sucked into another TV series, but it's a Western (potentially interesting genre) on HBO (potentially as interesting as Sopranos has been) and John recommended it -- eventually my curiosity got the best of me. That, and my cable service makes it possible to watch all the old episodes whenever I want ("on-demand"), so it was inevitable. (I'm still frustrated that I watched all of K-Street only to find that the last episode wasn't "on-demand" and I'll probably end up having to rent it -- if it ever comes out on DVD, that is). Anyhoo....

What does Anarchy look like? One of the reasons the idea of Right and Left in politics fails to mean much is when we look at the "extreme fringe" of both; Anarchists and Libertarians are in theory at opposite ends of the spectrum, but they desire quite similar elements in their vision of utopia. Deadwood is sort of a Libertarian/Anarchist idea society, as it lacks a central authority. Wait a minute, you might say, what about the gangsters who run the town? Aha, yes.

Would it make things any better if Al Swearengen formed a city council and pretended to share his influence equally with the rest of the town? Al measures each person he comes in contact with. You can almost see his mind figuring out the pros and cons of ways to address any potential threat to his command. When the Bella Union crew comes into town Al is angry, but he doesn't lose his cool. He approaches them, feels them out, tests their reactions to his probes ... and they too know exactly what he's doing.

Everyone in Deadwood is a criminal to some extent; the town is in "Indian" territory and therefore offlimits to US citizens. But there's gold to be had, so folks come and pretend that the natives are the savage invaders. True to the perspective at the time, this issue is rarely addressed directly, though the community's "leaders" have no problem cynically manipulating the racism of their customers/victims to their gain. I don't want to belabor the obvious, but it's hard to imagine any system of human civilization where strangers come together to work and prosper which doesn't attract those who wish to control it.

What's been interesting for me, beyond watching the overt power struggles between the characters, is the way each character's personal morality is explored. Trixie is stronger and smarter than she seemed in the first episode. Dan Dority is willing to buck Al's wishes under certain circumstances despite his loyalty to his master. I have no idea why the Doctor chooses to stay in town, and am intrigued by his commitment to such a brutal place.

In some ways the least interesting characters are the "good guys," at least in terms of what they're doing there. Let's face it, they're capitalists looking to make a stake regardless of the damage to the native population they're displacing. I don't expect folks from that time period to have that perspective, but that's the reality of it.

Anyhoo, that's all for now, but I'm digging this show so far.

[politics]
Jimmah mentions Sam Smith's (Undernews) link to the James Ridgeway's offhand dismissal of Kerry's campaign in the Village Voice; it sounds like a load of recycled RNC bunk to me. The medals nonsense is pure smear, lacking substance. Medals and ribbons are interchangeably referred to as medals. As a vet told me at work yesterday (while voicing his disgust with GWB and his VP), some medals are actual metal, some are ribbon, some are both. But throwing anything away never changes the fact that the medal was awarded. That's an easy concept to understand, and yet for some reason no one can quite get their minds around it. (And don't get me started on that hack Kaus; just do a search on his name at the Daily Howler.) There's plenty about Kerry to disagree with; this ain't it.

Maybe I'm just pissed because Sam pretends not to understand the difference between "pro-choice" and "pro-abortion," which pisses me off nearly as much as being told that I'm either pro-war or pro-peace, period. Sam, you ignorant slut. You can be pro-choice without being pro-abortion. I can be pro-legalization without being pro-pot. A small thing? Not in my mind, but maybe he just caught me on a bad day.
[/politics]

Still reading? Sure, sure you are. Happy Friday, all!

10:08 AM Review of the new Brando album (they like it); gotta pick this up.

6:58 AM Lot's of big news going on here (Congrats, Hope!)

I'm obviously not checking all the blogs often enough, since I only just noticed Clint's latest post (thanks, bro, and congrats on the long steady shower). Time will tell, indeed. I can't believe you were able to take that picture holding a camera up to your scope, Slick Johnny; impressive.

I think it's still way too early to tell how the election is going to shape up, but I do like checking out sites like the interactive map on John Edwards' page: [link]. If Kerry keeps the states Gore won (not such a stretch in my mind) and manages to take either Ohio or California (both were close in 2000) then he wins. This poll page suggests Kerry won't hold onto Oregon, but I'm not convinced. update: looks like even that has changed since I first looked - such is the nature of polls this far out

"Almost a quarter of the coalition combat deaths in Iraq could have been prevented -- if the Pentagon had bothered to invest in fully armoring its vehicles." [link]

"...Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer warn that the spread of sex selection is giving rise to a generation of restless young men who will not find mates. History, biology, and sociology all suggest that these 'surplus males' will generate high levels of crime and social disorder, the authors say. Even worse, they continue, is the possibility that the governments of India and China will build up huge armies in order to provide a safety valve for the young men's aggressive energies."[link]

Empire Strikes Back in Legos [link] (not the whole film, unfortch, but still fun).

"Did you know that since January 1, women in Texas have not been able to obtain abortions from the sixteenth week of pregnancy on?" Katha Pollitt explains [link].

9:00 AM

Okay, I know this has been covered to death (especially after GWB's non-answer to the obvious question of why), but Why? I thought the whole reason Cheney disappeared for so long after 9-11 was because of the inherent threat of having both the President and the VP in the same place for too long. Rhetorical.

Since John recommended Deadwood I've been devouring it; A real life, capital-A Anarchic pirate community (random google link). But this is just a teaser. I'll post something longer later this week.

I love cool nights this time of year....

12:41 PM These days Friday night means ... going to bed early. I'm not sure why, but that's what it's become for me. Last night I was in bed asleep by 10:00pm.

Today's plan is to make a trash/recycling run, then check out a GURPS demo which will hopefully touch on Traveller, and later hearing Nader speak in the IU Memorial Union. I also will continue to get Red Hat to recognize and play DVDs (though I may have to get Jay to help me with this) - I downloaded RH9 this week and finally got around to installing it this morning.

In case you didn't know, the March for Women's Lives takes place this weekend too.

My DVD collection is a nearly random mish-mash of titles. I don't collect very deliberately, going back and forth between wanting to get copies of old favorites (Brazil, Rushmore, etc) and wanting odd titles because I don't expect to ever borrow them from someone I know (like General Idi Amin Dada or Versus). So here's my question: What are five titles you think any good DVD collection should include? Interpret however you'd like, just give me five titles.

7:02 AM You may have heard by now, but it's official: I accepted a job with the Monroe County Public Library. After living in Bloomington for so long while working in Indy, in some ways this feels too good to be true; now I'll actually be a contributing part of the local community. Or at least that's the plan.

I'll post more on this later, I just wanted to make it official to my millions of readers who had started hearing rumors.... Heh, heh. My last day at the state is May 12th, and I expect I'll be scrambling a bit to get things wrapped up there. First day at the library is May 17th, the following Monday. The position is similar to what I did at the state, but more challenging from my perspective as I'll be working with stuff I'm less familiar with. Excelsior!

10:41 AM From American Airpower Strategy in Korea, 1950-1953 by Conrad C. Crane:

FEAF fear of flying cases were not limited to multiengined bomber crews. Although the F-86 interceptor pilots got all the publicity and glory and did much to restore the interest of American youth in jets and flying, the fighter-bomber pilots in less glamorous aircraft had more dangerous and less rewarding missions and suffered from far more fear of flying and other symptoms of combat stress. Problems usually appeared after an average of eighteen missions. Sometimes periods of "enforced idleness" due to bad weather caused an increase in fear of flying cases, as anxious pilots feared that they had lost their combat edge. The psychiatric drug of choice for flight surgeons was alcohol. All USAF combat units received mission whiskey during the war. Although it was usually handed out by the fifth on a monthly basis, in the Eightieth Fighter-Bomber squadron, flight surgeons started handing out shots of bourbon after each sortie to steady pilots' nerves. This practice did not last long, however. When pilots were called on to conduct five or six missions in a day, there was no one sober enough to fly by midafternoon. As with the bomber crews, those fighter-bomber airment who suffered from fear of flying were usually reservists who had been recalled to active duty, and most had World War II experience.*

*Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits, 108-110; letter, Sherwood to author, 19 May 1998. Most pilots who received a monthly ration of USAF "rotgut" stashed the bottles in their quarters and preferred the cold beer and ten-cent whiskey of higher quality at the officers' club. The mission whiskey tradition was a carryover from World War II that also appeared to a limited extent during the Vietnam War.*

Perhaps the most eloquent description of the fighter-bomber pilot's plight was a song popular among Marine airmen providing close air support for UN forces in early 1953. They especially hated attacks on heavily defended targets such as Pyongyang -- which they called "Ping Pong" -- or those in MiG Alley. The words fit the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey":

On top of old Ping Pong,
All covered with flak
I lost my poor wingman
He'll never come back.

Though flying is pleasure
And crashing is grief
A quick-triggered Commie
Is worse than a thief.

A thief will just rob you
And take all you save
A quick-triggered Commie
Will lead to the grave.

Now come all ye pilots
And listen to me
Never fly over Sinanju
Or old Kunari.

The moral of this story
Can plainly be seen
Stay east of San Diego
Be a stateside Marine.

(this is what I'm reading right now)

1:23 PM "Remember Hillbilly Billy? Man he was all that!" [TomTDBug link]

Quite nice intimate little show last night (which unfortunately caused me to oversleep this morning - okay, that and my inability to go straight to sleep when we got home). Mysteries of Life, Brando and Gentleman Caller all put on good sets. The seats in Bear's Place still remain uncomfortable, though.

Looking for Fidel looks interesting. Shari caught some of it and tells me it's highly "edited," which is what I'd expect from Ollie, but I still want to check it out.

It's tax day. I ended up owing a bunch more than I expected (though I could have expected it if I'd given it some more thought several months ago). It's a drag, especially since I don't think the government is spending my money on stuff it should, and is spending it on stuff I disagree with. Oh well, goes with the territory.

I'm Listening to AirAmericaRadio today and loving the O'Franken Factor.

Not saying I necessarily agree, but I found this interesting: The Last Word on Ralph Nader. Why do some folks dislike his campaign this year so much? Cause they don't trust him (imho). [update: I think he's getting this from here, the 4/14/04 post]

11:15 PM Ugh. I don't have anything to say about the President's press conference that won't be said better by various pundits across the web tomorrow, but here's some of my observations:

• He was asked if he'd made any mistakes; he couldn't come up with any.
• He was asked why he and Cheney are appearing before the 911 commision together; after trying to duck the question he was asked again, and he pretended not to understand what was being asked.
• He said that freedom comes from God, and the US has an obligation to spread freedom around the world.
• He repeated his point about "mustard gas hidden in a turkey farm" in Libya to describe his admin's success in the WOT; I assume this is meant to become a repeated phrase.

I dislike this man.

UPDATE: early transcription here and at NYTimes.. Some Bush statements I didn't mention are addressed here.

8:56 AM Sporatic posting to continue. For now, it's nice to see that Justine and John are posting again.

"The UN rep is there now to ... work on the umm ... on a uhh ... on to whom we transfer sss ... sovereignty." [link]

11:03 AM Good Friday is, for some reason, a state holiday.

I missed the Rice hearings yesterday; I link to a transcript so I can go back and read it sometime if I'm so inclined. I did see some of the Daily Show take on it, which was good. I'm hoping LisaRein'sRadar will have clips online eventually.

Lacking much else to add or post today, feeling disinteresting in saying anything and being much more interested in reading and drinking in the sunshine, I quote Clarke's book at length:

Any leader whom one can imagine as President on September 11 would have declared a "war on terrorism" and would have ended the Afghan sanctuary by invading. Almost any President would have stepped up domestic security and preparedness measures. Exactly what did George Bush do after September 11 that any other President one can imagine wouldn't have done after such attacks? In the end, what was unique about George Bush's reaction to terrorism was his selection as an object lesson for potential state sponsors of terrorism, not a country that had been engaging in anti-U.S. terrorism but one that had not been, Iraq. It is hard to imagine another President making that choice.

Others (Clinton, the first Bush, Carter, Ford) might have tried to understand the phenomenon of terrorism, what led fifteen Saudis and four others to commit suicide to kill Americans. Others might have tried to build a world consensus to address the root causes, while using the moment to force what had been lethargic or doubting governments to arrest known terrorists and close front organizations. One can imagine Clinton trying one more time to force an Israeli-Paslestinian settlement, going to Saudi Arabia and addressing the Muslim people in a moving appeal for religious tolerance, pushing hard for a security arrangement between Indian and Pakistan to create a nuclear-free zone, and stabilizing Pakistan. Such efforts may or may not have succeeded, but one thing we know they would not have done is inflame Islamic opinion and fruther radicalize Muslim youth into heightened hatred of America in the way that invading Iraq has done.

There's more, but that's enough for now. I'm not sure that I'd agree with Clarke on everything, but he strikes me as a pretty serious guy who got fed up with the Bush admin for good reason. He doesn't give Clinton a free ride, pointing out much that they didn't do when they had the chance, but his real frustration was GWB and Iraq.

I've also been reading, er, that is, I am also reading War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, suggested by Liz some time ago. It's a good read, though depressing so for. Here's a passage:

The violent breakup of Yugoslavia, which was preceded by economic collapse, began in 1991. It was the same year that the government decided to permit hard-core sex films to be broadcast on public stations and that the first locally made pornographic film was produced. While the old Communist Yugoslavia did not censor love scenes in its state-run film industry, it condemned pornography as the exploitation of women and banned its production. The first graphic pictures of mutilated and dead from the war, along with the racial diatribes against Muslims and Croats, hit the airwaves at the same time Yugoslavs were allowed to watch porno films. The war was, like the sex films, about the lifting of taboos, about new forms of entertainment to mask the economic and political collapse of Yugoslavia. War and sex were the stimulants to divert a society that was collapsing.

Yeah, a good book but pretty much a downer. I hope I will never know how I'd handle living in a war zone.

Otherwise, there's exciting things afoot in the Baugh family, all of it good, so my spirits are up and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Eddie is patiently kneading my belly now as he sits in my lap. He knows there's no milk to be had, but it must be an instinctual thing. Sometimes he leaves tiny pink marks if I'm wearing a thin shirt, as I am now. But it hurts so good.

UPDATES: Okay, wait, I also want to link to this story on eyeball decoration (yikes!).

And Tom pointed this out, so I'm adding a link to Jew to help google bomb the bad stuff away.

8:18 AM "Train hard, or don't train at all." Blackwater U.S.A. and Blackwater Targets. These are the guys who were dragged through the streets in Fallujah on Wed.

9:30 AM April Fools CSS humor (mostly for Huffy): mezzoblue and stopdesign show the flexability made possible by separating content from design.