Sex and Violence
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OK. No Sex. Just violence.

If you are familiar with the Crazy Frog phenomenon, you might find this fun. If not, you still might enjoy it, if beating cartoon characters to death with a bat is your cup of tea. (Crazy Frog Baseball)

Look, I know it is not very nice or politically correct to enjoy this. But, I'm not very nice or politically correct and I have a keen appreciation for this kind of nonsense, especially when it is posted on a website (Something Wrong) whose tag line is "Someone has way too much time on their hands and I think it's you." Please note that while I offer no justification for my atavistic tendencies, the damn frog has been killed 7.6 million times since they put the kill counter up on July 15th. I am only responsible for a couple of hundred of them.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, September 30 2005 07:13:06 PM

Hurricane-free Moon Villages
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Scott Ott at Scrappleface posted this "news" item today:

NASA Promotes Hurricane-Free Moon Villages

by Scott Ott

(2005-09-22) -- While Republicans in Congress eye NASA's budget as a potential money source to cover Hurricane Katrina recovery costs, a spokesman for the space agency today offered a new plan to permanently evacuate Gulf Coast residents to the moon, "where the native language doesn't even have a word for hurricane."

"Cutting NASA funding is a wrongheaded reactionary measure at a time when we should be proactive about providing people with a safe place to live," said the unnamed NASA source. "You never hear about devastating natural disasters on the lunar surface -- no hurricanes, no forest fires, no tornadoes, no tsunamis."

Read the rest here.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 22 2005 11:33:02 PM

"Tread Softly, Else hear a Crunch"
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Rat, Jr. has been hounding me to take a look at her blog. I've been putting it off, as I wasn't sure I really wanted to read it. I was very pleasantly surprised. Given her genetic tendency toward her father's self-absorption, I guess I was expecting a series of whiney rants. Not only was it not terribly whiney (certainly a lot less whiney than anything I wrote when I was 21), she has some reasonably interesting comments about her fiction writing, and a fair amount of it is pretty humorous. (I lifted the title of this post from her tagline on the blog. It seemed like something one of her characters would say.) Anyway, at one level it is pretty weird, reading the "grown-up" stuff your little girl is writing about. At another level, I feel kind of honored that she wants me to read it. (I've never told my parents that I have a blog.) Now if she could just buy some punctuation marks from Vanna White, it would actually be readable.

But, here's a tip for all you boys and girls out there: If you want your parents (who are paying for your education (at least ostensibly), room, board, and saki habit) to read it, you probably shouldn't post to your blog from a school computer during class. (The time stamp gives it away, Jr.)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 22 2005 11:07:02 PM

Look in the Dictionary under "Irony"
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I was going to let this one slide by, but sometimes I just can't help myself. (via Cafe Hayek)

The UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) is picketing the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Stores in Las Vegas. From the UFCW Website:

Every person working hard for a living earns the right to a decent wage, affordable health care and a voice on the job. But Wal-Mart’s greed provides other companies a license to chip away at the rights of working America, influencing everything from wages to working conditions.

And that is why they are picketing Wal-Mart, right? Except that the UFCW isn't actually doing the picketing. They are hiring temp workers to do the picketing:

They're walking five-hour shifts on this corner at Stephanie Street and American Pacific Drive in Henderson—anti-Wal-Mart signs propped lazily on their shoulders, deep suntans on their faces and arms—with two 15-minute breaks to run across the street and use the washroom at a gas station.

(...)

They're not union members; they're temp workers employed through Allied Forces/Labor Express by the union—United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). They're making $6 an hour, with no benefits; it's 104 F, and they're protesting the working conditions inside the new Wal-Mart grocery store.

(...)

Rivera removes his watch to show the dark tan his arm has gotten working in the sun; he talks about how he takes three buses to get to this work site on weekends; it takes two hours to get there and two hours to get home—a nine-hour day including that transportation for a gross pay of $35.

"I asked him (union organizer Hornbrook), I said, 'How come we're working here for $6 an hour? I need you to help us find a better job. I want information on the union,'" Rivera said.

He was told, he says, to secure his own job with a grocery store, and then the union would help him to be sure the store paid him appropriate wages.

Apparently, Wal-Mart's evil campaign to "chip away at the rights of working America" is so powerful and unstoppable that even the honorable and virtuous UFCW is unable to withstand the evil.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 22 2005 10:24:00 PM

That was a mistake
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(Insert audio file of an anguished wail here) I just opened my RSS feed aggregator for the first time in 12 days. 1119 unread posts.

I officially declare defeat. I'll delete them all tomorrow and start fresh.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, September 21 2005 12:05:30 AM

I like Opera
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(Please re-read the title. I said I like "Opera" not "Oprah" just in case you thought my absence had addled my brain.)

In this case the "Opera" I'm referring to is the Opera Browser. After years of supporting its development through licensing fees and banner adds, the folks at Opera have decided to offer it for free. (via the Register)

The newest version is 8.50 . There are a lot of really cool things about it. A lot of the add-ons I use in Firefox are built into Opera. As much as I like Firefox, I have to say that Opera does seem to render pages and images significantly faster than Firefox. The only thing I really don't like is the way it handles Javascript. In Firefox, you can choose to temporarily enable javascript for a particular page or web site or enable it for places you visit regularly (like the bank or the phone company), which is not possible in Opera. If you are one of those people (like me) who try to avoid Internet Explorer at all costs, this is something you would probably find to be worth checking out.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, September 20 2005 11:19:23 PM

First Book on the Left
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It appears that Howard over at The Smedley Log has turned into something of a Mememeister. The latest:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

For some reason, I found this fascinating. My text:

“The one you longed for will be ready, the one you wailed for ready, just as soon as you plow an adder-infested field, turn over a snake-ridden field without the plow proceeding, the plowshare shaking.” - from Poem 19, The Kalevala

It was the first book on the left of the shelf on my desk; the shelf that holds all of those books that I really, really, want to read, but somehow never quite get around to. And no, I haven't read it, yet.

(But I will, he says to himself, fully intending to follow through, yet knowing somewhere in the back of his mind that it will never quite get to the top of his list of things to do.

And then, depression set in.)

Update: I found out after the fact that the term "Mememeister" is not original, not that I thought it would, or could, be. That said, at least we are not dealing with memes of the "Life is a bowl of cherries. What are you a bowl of? sort.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, September 20 2005 11:06:19 PM

Fatigue
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Not that I blog like clockwork anyway, but I suspect I won't be posting much in the immediate future. I am tired. I've been working a lot. I'll be going back tonight on 3rd shift and probably again Saturday and Sunday on 2nd. Too much stuff going on, and too many things that need fixing. On top of that, I have what I've been calling "feed fatigue". Basically, in what surely must be related to some compulsive drive toward self destruction, I've been reading everything posted on 33 RSS feeds every day for the last week. There's lots of good writing out there, but the usual suspects are blaming the usual suspects according to the immutable laws laid down by the gods of the blogosphere and I'm reasonably sure that they will still be doing and saying pretty much the same things in two or three days and I just can't stand reading another set of articles from the NYT. So I've shut off my feed aggregator shut down my browser and when I finish with this entry, I'm going to ignore the internet for two or three days (with the exception of internet radio - Groove Salad to be exact, at Soma FM).

I'll write again in a few days. Now its off to engage in mindless entertainment until its time to go to work.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, September 09 2005 08:46:05 PM

I don't like Mondays
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Before Bob Geldof got famous for Live 8, he got famous for Live Aid twenty years ago. Before he got famous for that he was in a band called the Boomtown Rats. They had a song called "I don't like Mondays." I don't mind Mondays. I just don't much like Social Workers.

As a group, I mean. Individually, I've found a few I get along with fairly well, but put them in a herd, and the group-think impulse drives them to "out-compassion" each other and the whole mess degenerates into overflowing "buckets of love." At least that's my theory.

Given the mass of contradictions that is my life, it should be no real surprise that in the organization I work for, I am the individual assigned to supervise the social work interns. (Yes, there is a real MSW who signs off on my paperwork, but I'm the one who does the actual supervision.) Consequently, I have the dubious privilege of attending a fair amount of Social Work meetings and training seminars. Generally speaking, I try to limit my exposure to no more than two hours, but on some days (like today) the exposure is particularly intense and I find myself expending all my effort to stifle the scream that rises, unbidden, from somewhere deep inside me. It is especially crucial that I keep my mouth shut, as I live in deadly fear that if it were to open, other things (like my true opinion of the Social Work profession) would come tumbling out, uncontrolled. OK. That's a bit harsh. It's not really that bad. It's just that there are some underlying ideas that permeate Social Work that just annoy the living daylights out of me.

One is this nonsense about Family Centered Therapy. (Truth in Advertising Alert: remember that I work in Corrections and that my world view is inherently skewed because of that.) Maybe out in the real world, Family Centered Therapy is a reasonable foundation on which to build a discipline. From where I'm sitting, at least with our clients, it just looks like a really bad idea. The worst possible thing you could do with most of the sex offenders we deal with is try to "reintegrate" them into a healthy family structure. If there was any hope of anything remotely resembling a healthy family structure anywhere in their lives, they probably wouldn't be what they are. Making reintegration a mandated "given" not open to question seems dangerous and blindly oblivious to what is actually going on.

The second is the idea that therapy (especially that paid for by government programs) should be unlimited. I was again awestruck listening to a Social Work Professor today. He seemed genuinely hurt and offended that the government agencies who pay for a lot of the social work programs have the audacity to impose arbitrary time frames (like 12 or 18 months) in which some progress should be demonstrated.

Third, I've only met a handful of Social Workers who aren't hopelessly enamored of the idea of self esteem. I met one lady today who challenged my ability to keep a straight face. I have no idea what her program is supposed to do, and you can't tell from the performance measures she uses. The only measure they use to determine if their program (whatever it is supposed to accomplish) is successful is that they give their clients a survey to see if they feel better about themselves.

What's the point? I don't like herds of social workers. Thankfully, I don't have to go to any more of these meetings until the end of October. (Not that you really needed to know that, and if you are still reading, I'm really sorry. Sorry you don't have anything better to do than read this crap. Maybe you should go donate some money to Hurricane Relief.)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 08 2005 10:44:21 PM

Desperate Columnists Everywhere...
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(Via Samizdata) Published in the Irish Times (appears to be subscription only) today and reprinted on Slugger O'Toole:

As the full horror of Hurricane Katrina sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if this is the end of George Bush's presidency. The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that every copy of the US Constitution was destroyed in the storm. Otherwise President Bush will remain in office until noon on January 20th, 2009, as required by the 20th Amendment, after which he is barred from seeking a third term anyway under the 22nd Amendment.

As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if the entire political agenda of George Bush's second term will not still be damaged in some terribly satisfying way.

The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that the entire political agenda of George Bush's second term consists of repealing the 22nd Amendment. Otherwise, with a clear Republican majority in both Houses of Congress, he can carry on doing pretty much whatever he likes.

As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if...

It continues for eight more "ifs". Definitely worth reading.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 08 2005 09:58:31 PM

Drill Everywhere
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I just found this from James Lileks on how to reduce gas prices..

* Drill! Drill everywhere!. Not just Alaska, but California. Florida, too. To heck with what Jeb Bush wants; put those platforms so close to the coast you could incorporate them into golf courses. Drill in Central Park if you have to. Would the aesthetic damage be more important than the economic damage caused by high oil costs?

Depends on who you ask. New Yorkers, who think the island runs on ego juice distilled from brokers and real-estate moguls, say YES. Because oil is bad and ugly and gives the Artic Ice Shelf cancer. But drilling no longer requires big gushing structures that look like an Eiffel tower for hillbillies. You could probably hide a drill in a nice office building. It would look peculiar in ANWAR, granted; the caribou would have trouble breeding, because they’d never get past lobby security. But in New York, who’d know?

Read the rest, if you have a sense of humor about these things.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 08 2005 09:50:06 PM

It's about time
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Bill Whittle has finally posted a new essay. It is called Tribes. Go read it. Now.

 

 

No, really. Go read it. You may not agree, but it will definitely provoke a thought or two. You've got time for that, right? Beats late night TV all to hell.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, September 06 2005 11:30:37 PM

What He said...
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As is usual in most matters involving rational thought, I was profoundly unhappy with my post yesterday about what the choice of where you choose to lay the blame for the problems in New Orleans says about your beliefs about government. The bigger point (that I was unable to articulate) was made today at Protein Wisdom by Jeff Goldstein:

It’s been remarkable, throughout this debate, to watch “progressives” shriek that the President did not use his federal authority (and often, their arguments call for more than that—advocating that President failed for not exceeding his Constitutional authority) to usurp authority from the Governor of LA.

Whereas, Bush did what an (ostensibly) conservative President simply MUST do: he deferred to the local authorities and continued to use the powers of the federal government to assist the local authorities in the ways THEY THEMSELVES REQUESTED. And it’s my position that in doing so, the President did the right thing—even if the locals in question weren’t up to the job. Which shows not the failure of federalism, but rather that local elections have material (and potentially dire) consequences. And if we don’t make that case over and over again, I fear MORE federal control, where less federal control—and better local preparation—is the answer.

So, what He said...

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, September 05 2005 11:08:02 PM

The State is Not Your Friend
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From Samizdata:

Image available as a wallpaper at Samizdata.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, September 04 2005 08:42:43 PM

18 students of Soren Kierkegaard...
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I've spent most of today and most of last night combing through my RSS feeds for news and information about the situation in New Orleans. I have grown increasingly frustrated by the almost rabid fervor with which some on the left end of the political spectrum (generally speaking) are blaming the Federal Government (in general) and the President (in particular) for everything that has happened. There seems to be no end to the ways this natural disaster is Bush's fault. Likewise, I have been utterly disgusted with the almost rabid fervor with which some on the right end of the political spectrum (generally speaking) have responded with predictable and emotional (albeit somewhat logically deficient) defenses of the President. There is probably plenty of blame to go around, although in the end, where you choose to put the blame says more about your beliefs about the size and role of government in your life than it does about the actual realities of the situation. (More on that in a minute.)

Truth in Advertising alert: Just like everyone else in the world, my opinions are colored by my beliefs. Just so you know, for me, individualism and personal responsibility are the cornerstones on which most of my worldview is built. Obviously, that colors and informs my biases about what is to follow. Just so you know. If you are not a big fan of personal responsibility, you aren't going to like what I have to say and would probably be happier if you quit reading now.

My take on the situation:

We need to do everything we can to help the victims of Katrina. That would be "we" as in you and me, not "we" as in "let's send the government to help." I would rather send money (and have) to the Red Cross to provide aid than to the government to provide aid. For a reason (actually, several) why expecting the government to be doing disaster recovery isn't the best idea we've ever had see this chart.

Anyone who had the means to evacuate the city and didn't has no room to complain about what services they are or aren't getting now. Not that they don't deserve to be helped or that they deserve to suffer, just that they don't have the right to complain about the aid they are or are not receiving.

The city government of New Orleans has no room to complain about the services those who did not have the means to evacuate are or are not getting, given that 1) the City's response to the knowledge that they did not have the capacity to evacuate the poor in case of a hurricane was to produce a DVD this past spring and summer telling the poor that in case of a hurricane they are on their own, and 2) apparently since they knew they were going to fail, the powers that be in New Orleans (who had several hundred buses at their disposal) apparently decided not to try to save anyone (there is a much better article about this at junkyardblog, but I can't get to it now as the bandwidth limit has been exceeded).

After that, the levels of abstraction start getting fuzzier and individual responsibility gets harder to pin down. It does appear that the Governor of Louisianna should have probably done her homework on exactly what power she has/had to mobilize the Louisianna National Guard instead of waiting for the Feds to mobilize military forces for her (or at least been less concerned with retaining the ability to blame someone else for the mess).

As for the rest, we will be hearing folks yap about the blame for years, so I'll just move on to the point of this post, namely, who you choose to blame says more about your beliefs about the size and role of government in your life than it does about the actual realities of the situation.

If you believe that Bush and the Federal government are to blame for this natural disaster, what that says about you is simply that you expect the Federal Government to take care of you (and everyone else).

From Kate McMillan at SDA: In today's modern, increasingly socialist democracies, nanny-state legislation (if it saves one life!) and cradle-to-grave "social safety nets" are the opiate of the middle class, while the politics of race and identity, envy, and "social justice" are the stock and trade of the economic underclass.

The net result is a society of entitlement that absolves the individual of personal responsibility and creates an illusion that consequences are made to be avoided. There is always "failure of society", a previous generation, or corporate dynasty at whose feet the blame for personal failure lies, always someone else with more "ability to pay" to pick up the tab.

"They owe you" .

In this case, they owe you protection from yourself, protection from your local and state governments, protection from Mother Nature, in short, protection from every unpleasantness life can send your way. And (whether or not you could have taken any action to help yourself) should any of that protection break down and the nasty, brutish nature of the real world intrude on your life, they owe you immediate relief from your unpleasant exposure to the real world, instant amelioration of your suffering, and of course, eventually compensation for your suffering and financial assistance so that you can go back to doing what you were doing, the way you were doing it, where you were doing it, without any need for you to alter anything about your life.

If you don't believe the Federal Government is to blame, well, you probably have some antiquated notions that people are responsible for themselves and that they should help each other instead of waiting for the Government to help them. Ideas that seem to be increasingly rare in this post-modernist, nanny-state world we live in. But then, if you have those kinds of ideas your response to the situation in New Orleans (after you sent in your private contribution to the relief efforts) was to clean your guns and check your ammo supply (like I did).

And what does all this have to do with the title of this post? Nothing, except that the only even remotely funny thing I saw in the last two days of information surfing was this note at the bottom of The Conjecturer web site, "18 students of Soren Kierkegaard created this page in 1.189 seconds while awaiting the end of winter's frigid cycle. © The Conjecturer. Powered by WordPress 1.2.2"

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, September 04 2005 08:18:52 PM

This would be funny if...
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The government has told the Red Cross not to go into New Orleans. This would be funny if it weren't for the fact that people are dying.

(from Cafe Hayek) Digest this: government turned away one of the world's most skilled and experienced agencies from bringing relief to starving, thristy, dying New Orleanians. Why? Why? Why???

Judging from the Red Cross's explanation (above), government apparently feared that the Red Cross would deliver relief with too much success. Why else would people choose not to leave a destroyed city, and even want to return to it?

Just one of the reasons to buy into the idea that Goverment is not your friend.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross and others are doing what they can, where they can. You know how to contact your charity/relief agency of choice. Do it.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Saturday, September 03 2005 11:23:33 PM

Fashion Statement
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I find humor in a lot of strange places. Admittedly, a lot of it is rather grim and, frankly, probably in somewhat less than good taste. The latest example of this comes from New Orleans. Yeah, I know, "what could possibly be funny about the situation in New Orleans?" Well, I think this is hilarious.

On one of the news reports a couple of days ago there was video of three young men engaged in looting. They were quite merrily hauling bags of merchandise away from a damaged store. One of the three was dressed in what we in Kansas would refer to as "gang" style. (You know; pants sagging halfway down his butt with six inches of underwear showing.) And no, I'm not saying the guy was a gang member. It may have just been a fashion statement. Anyway, the two guys he was with were carrying huge bags of loot. Our hero, however, was only able to manage a small bag, because his pants had gotten wet and he had to use one hand to keep the heavy denim from falling off.

It's a sad thing when your fashion statement interferes with your ability to loot effectively.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 01 2005 11:55:15 PM

The Sheehan Show
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The Cindy "my son was a moron" Sheehan Tour hit Wichita today. Actually, it was just one branch of the "Bring Them Home Now" tour and Sheehan wasn't present. It was another stunning display of the kind of tolerance and civility we've all come to recognize as a hallmark of these anti-war protesters. The "tour" members were rude and obnoxious and refused to allow Iraq War veterans who support the war to speak. When the veterans tried to be heard, "tour" members attacked them physically (although, I must say, to little effect, as the vets were apparently more than capable of defending themselves and had the class not to retaliate). Thankfully, the local TV folks in Wichita relegated the story to the very end of the newscast and only gave it about 30 seconds, which is more than enough time to show rude, closed-minded, fat, long-haired malcontents not getting their asses kicked because the recently returned soldiers they chose to attack had the same kind of discipline and restraint their comrades in arms display daily in Iraq. (I watched the late news. In the early news the story got about a minute 30 and in fairness to the "tour" members, some of them may have behaved honorably, but you couldn't confirm that from the video. The difference in the two newscasts was that they cut out the background footage on Sheehan for the late news because the Machinists Union just voted to go on strike against Boeing, meaning that about 1000 people will be on the picket lines as of 12:01 tonight. Much bigger news in these parts than a busload of cranky middle-aged war protesters.)

I have kept quiet on the whole Cindy Sheehan thing. I disagree with her. I think she is wrong. But, I think she has the right to protest and say what she wants. End of story.

Except that something has been gnawing at me for a while now, and it is going to come out tonight. Let me reiterate that I believe Cindy Sheehan has the right to protest in any legal way she wants and say anything she wants no matter how wrong I believe she is. That said, the woman is despicable for one reason: She has continued to blather on about how her adult son (who enlisted) was duped into serving his country in Iraq and then (somehow, and this continues to puzzle me) was duped into re-enlisting and got killed in Iraq. This argument, boiled down to its bare bones, can be summarized as: My son was too stupid to think for himself. (Compare this image of a soldier too stupid to understand that he has been conned with the image of the soldiers in Michael Yon's dispatches.)

This is just wrong. If you are against the war, say so. If you hate Bush and Co., say so. If you want to trot out your "grieving mother" routine (no matter how genuine or not), do it. If you want to argue that your charming, intelligent, caring, gifted son sacrificed his life for a cause you don't believe in, do it. If you want to tell the world that your son is dead because the powers that be are engaged in unwise, ineffective or downright wrong foreign policy, go for it.

But for God's sake, don't go around telling the world that (because your son enlisted, served and bought into the mission enough to re-enlist) your son died because he was stupid.

Update: One more thing. On the video there was a woman who said something to the effect that Sheehan can't be called a traitor because she gave her son to the cause. No, she didn't. If it had been up to her, he wouldn't have joined up. She didn't "give" anything. He did.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, September 01 2005 11:21:08 PM