Machinations of a Mathematical Mind

Recession makes for good TV

2009-04-09T10:40:00.002-05:00

From the WaPo, 4/7/09...gotta love it

Sacked Employees To Provide Fox with Ratings -- Everyone Wins!

Coming to Fox: a reality series in which actual companies that are struggling to stay afloat in this lousy economy agree -- presumably in exchange for money -- to let their staffs decide which among them is going to get pink-slipped to save money.

To populate its new "Lord of the Flies"-esque series, "Someone's Gotta Go," Fox has lined up actual companies -- smaller, Dunder Mifflin-esque-sized (15-20 employees) ones -- having financial difficulties.

In each case, the company's boss or owner will call all the employees together and tell them someone's going to get laid off. But rather than the boss/owner making the decision, he or she will instead give the employees all the available information about one another -- salaries, job evaluations, etc. -- and let the employees decide who will get pink-slipped.

Fox -- or at least its genius/madman head of reality-TV Mike Darnell, whom no one over there seems willing or able to reign in -- thinks people will flock to this show. Because it is about -- wait for it -- wish fulfillment. Because we've all been there when someone -- we'll call them Mister A -- once again cons their way out of getting shown the door at our place of employment, while poor old hard-working slob -- Mister B -- gets the old heave ho, and wished we were in charge so it hadn't played out that way.

We called Darnell to ask how, among other things, Fox is handling the legal quagmire when it comes to revealing details of employees' personal evaluations, etc. on national TV. He declined to comment.

Fox's latest effort in the art of television programming was developed, and is being sold internationally, by Dutch-based production company Endemol, who also brings us CBS's "Big Brother," which used to seem mean-spirited and skanky, but which suddenly looks quaint and charming.

An Endemol spokeman told a Reuters reporter in Amsterdam the new show "will be an interesting experiment." The reporter, in turn, likened "Someone's Gotta Go" to NBC's "The Apprentice" -- to which this new show bears virtually no resemblance, in that the "employees" of The Donald are fake, and when he shouts "You're fired!" they're not losing their actual jobs, they're only losing a made-for-TV competition.
By Lisa de Moraes | April 7, 2009; 4:59 PM ET

Back from a break...

2009-03-18T10:10:00.002-05:00

As usual, I have let my blog slide...lots of excuses, plenty of reasons...most of them I've given before. But I am back, for now...

Primary reason I come back to the blog is to keep in touch with Beav...one of maybe 4 people from my days in the AF that I want to try to keep up with. One of the many things Beav and I have in common is our love of the Karaoke. He has been ROK'ing a while (be back this summer). The wife and I have found a new place to hang out. The County Grill in York County now has karaoke on Friday nights after 10PM. We go just about every week, the KJ is awesome (nowhere as strict as the one at York Lanes), and the selection is almost limitless. There are a few hardcopy catalogs, but you just write the name of the song you want to sing on the list...he has about 50,000 songs on his hard drive. Can't wait for him to get back so we can wow the crowds together.

PS Beav...I posted a comment on an older post of yours...I am ready for my interview.

Beav after a night on the town?

2008-12-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

Check out the comic strip "Rhymes With Orange" for 12/8/2008 .

Uncle Sam's my boss again!

2008-12-05T13:10:00.002-05:00

No, I didn't re-enlist or get a commission as an officer. I am now a civilian in the employ of the US Navy.

Basically the JFCOM folks I was supporting as a contractor loved what I was doing and didn't want to lose me so they offered to transition my contractor position to a GS position. So what does that mean? Well, the pay is about the same and the Thrift Savings Plan has a little better match than I was getting, but the primary reason is that as a contractor I was getting a total of 19 days/year for general leave (vacation + sick) and only 9 holidays/year. Now as a GS, my 11 years prior active duty service counts toward leave calculation (because I didn't retire). So I start out with 20 days/year annual leave + 13 days/year sick leave and 10 federal holidays and every base down day/extra day given to the military. 14+ extra days a year off is worth it I think.

Basically the only thing that has changed @ work is the source of my paycheck...oh, and the fact that I get to go to more meetings now since I can officially represent the gov't. They don't know what they have done...

It's been a while...

2008-11-13T10:21:00.002-05:00

Okay not too bad...less than 3 months (barely) since my last post.

Okay, HERE is my Johari quad--it isn't really a square--if you want to add your insights into my personality. (Insights into - isn't that redundant?)

And no, before you even check, obsessive-compulsive/anal-retentive/stickler/picky isn't one of the options.

The Clone Wars...I Surrender

2008-08-19T07:09:00.003-05:00

George, what have you done?

I went to see "The Clone Wars" with my 6-year-old daughter this past weekend. It was...okay. That is about as positive as I can get with this review.

And to answer the question above (since Mr. Lucas doesn't read my blog)--"I have completely sold-out. I have milked the Star Wars franchise for so long it is now completely dry, but all I know how to do is tug on that udder so I will keep on a-yanking until I die or the cow does." I understand that it has long since become simply a revenue source for Mr. Lucas...gone are the days when he had a vision and a real story to tell. That doesn't mean I have to like it. With A New Hope, Lucas paid homage to Kurosawa. Now he just pays homage to himself.

Enough with that...let's talk about the movie...

I was gonna write a bunch a stuff, but I found way to many other reviews out there, so I will repost one...

Aug 15, 2008, Eric D. Snider

The only thing slightly mollifying my hatred for Star Wars: The Clone Wars is that it's meant for kids, not adults. It's shallow, cheap, and silly, just like a Saturday-morning cartoon -- which is what it's supposed to be. The Clone Wars will launch as an animated series on Cartoon Network and TNT in October, and this movie serves as a sort of pilot episode.

The story is set between prequels 2 and 3, with the clone wars raging and Count Dooku's separatists fighting the Republic. In this episode, Jabba the Hutt's infant son has been kidnapped, and the Jedi Council tasks Obi-Wan Kenobi (voice of James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) with rescuing him. Why? Because Jabba controls space routes that the Republic needs to pass through safely in order to fight the war. This fact is mentioned at least a dozen times, in case the viewer forgets why the Republic wants to curry Jabba's favor.

While Obi-Wan participates in a less-important subplot that I have already forgotten about, Anakin goes on the rescue mission with his new trainee, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein). Yes, surly Anakin has a padawan! And she's a teenage girl, and she's really spunky, and they get on each other's nerves! And they have to rescue a baby Hutt and take it to Tattooine! It's Star Wars: The Sitcom!

It's every bit as awful as it sounds, and maybe worse. The dialogue, credited to three TV-cartoon veterans, has Anakin and Ahsoka bantering and teasing each other relentlessly, though never in a way that's funny or interesting. It's always drivel like this:

ANAKIN: (as Ahsoka catches up to him in the heat of battle) I knew you'd get here eventually!
AHSOKA: Always in time to save your life!

Repeat that formula a hundred times and you get the idea.
Then there's the fact that Jabba refers to his son as his "little punky-muffin," Ahsoka calls Anakin "Sky-guy", and the battle droids' moronic personalities that turn them all into stooges, and Ahsoka's cutesy nicknames for everything (the junior Hutt is "Stinky," while R2D2 is "Artooie"). There's the ongoing battle scenes, which are completely devoid of suspense or excitement -- partly because we know who's going to survive them (we've seen the stories that come after this one), and partly because they're animated in generic, assembly-line fashion.

And then there's Ziro the Hutt, who is bound to become the most infamous Star Wars character since Jar Jar Binks. Ziro is Jabba's uncle, a jazz-club denizen who seems to be a gay pimp, or possibly a drag queen, and whose voice (provided by Corey Burton) sounds like a combination of Truman Capote and Droopy the dog. He is painfully unfunny comic relief in a movie that's already lousy with shtick, shenanigans, and cartoon lameness.

Say what you will about the Star Wars films, at least they never looked cheap. The Clone Wars looks cheap. The computer-animated faces are expressionless, and the general quality of the art is light years behind Lucasfilms' usual standards. They went with mostly no-name voice actors to save money, hired somebody cheap to bastardize John Williams' musical themes, and slapped together a movie that insults everyone's intelligence. Anakin's conclusion while investigating the kidnapping sums up the entire movie: "This smells like Count Dooku to me." Yes, Ani, it smells like Dooku to me, too.

Grade: D-

Got Drunk?

2008-07-23T09:24:00.002-05:00

Recent quote from our President, the leader (sic) of the Free world...

Bush on Economy: 'Wall Street Got Drunk'

Explaining the current economic downturn to a closed-door fundraiser last week, President Bush said, "Wall Street got drunk."

"There's no question about it," Bush said. "Wall Street got drunk, that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras. It got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments."

Bush made the remark at a closed-door fundraiser for Republican Pete Olson, who is challenging Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas). No cameras were allowed in the fundraiser, but an ABC affiliate in Houston acquired the video and posted it on its YouTube page Tuesday. Last week, Bush indicated that he fears YouTube moments such as this making it to the web.

After asking a room of 400 supporters gathered for a fundraiser in Tucson, Arizona to turn off any recording devices, Bush said, "I don't know a lot about technology, but I do know about YouTube."

I don't know what bothers me the most about this. Could it be that President can only relate the current financial crisis in the terms of a drunken fratboy? Could it be that he knows he is gonna say something stupid and wants to make sure the cameras are off? Could it be that, regardless of whether he is going to say something stupid or not, the President doesn't want a record of what he says? Or maybe that he knows more about YouTube than technology, and the economy too, it seems?

Back from Vacation...Back to Reality

2008-07-07T09:30:00.002-05:00

Was away...at the beach...but now I'm back.

While on vacation I finally unwrapped and watched the DVD "Across the Universe" which I have had since Christmas. And here's the review...

-----

I remember about 1 1/2 years ago seeing the first trailer for "Across the Universe". My first reaction was something along the lines of "Come on...give me a break...they are going to ruin the Beatles' songs" whilst images of Moulin Rouge filled my head. After looking up the movie online, I realized that there might be a chance that the film might be good...but I was still leary.

So I bought the DVD, but never got around to watching it. I took it to the beach because I knew that I would have time and since it was vacation (time to relax, not worry about things, etc.) if the movie turned out to be drivel and tripe, then oh well, at least I would still be at the beach and could easily make another Pina Colada to make me forget about it. Needless to say (what good is that idiom?), the movie was great. BTW, I did have a couple extra Pina Coladas anyway.

One of my hesitations going in was wondering how the vast scope of the Beatles songbook could be laced together to tell a coherent story. I knew that the background was Brit dude (named Jude, from Liverpool) comes to America, meets Lucy and falls in love during the tumult of the late '60's. So there was an expectation that the movie would be too political, too anti-war, too drug induced/trippy, etc. It was all those things, but I believe in just the right measures. A lot of the movie is told through the lyrics and the accompanying visuals...not a lot of dialog to push the story along. Mostly unknowns in the film, but very good appearances by Bono, Joe Cocker and Eddie Izzard.

Not every Beatles' song is in the film, hey, it's a 2-hour film...not a mini-series. For me it is kind of a love-hate thing for me. Having listened to The Beatles' my entire life, their music is ingrained into my being and I don't normally like other people re-doing the almost sacred. Take for example the soundtrack to the decent Sean Penn movie "I Am Sam". Loved the movie, the soundtrack not so much. About half the songs I liked because they were "true" to the original...not necessarily new artists trying to sound like the original, but trying at least to capture the original intent. The rest I could live without.

There are several good re-interpretations in this film however. One is "With a Little Help From My Friends". It starts out as the Sgt. Pepper's' version and morphs into the Joe Cocker version...very well done. But the best by far IMHO is toward the beginning when Prudence (yes...we have Lucy, Prudence, a Sadie and a Rita, along with Dr. Robert and Mr. Kite, more on this after the music discussion) is singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". Here is my esteemed colleague's take on the music...

"The arrangements are sometimes familiar, sometimes radically
altered, and the voices are all new; the actors either sing or
sync, and often they find a mood in a song that we never knew
was there before. When Prudence sings "I Want to Hold Your Hand,"
for example, I realized how wrong I was to ever think that was a
happy song. It's not happy if it's a hand you are never, never,
never going to hold. The love that dare not express its name
turns in sadness to song." Roger Ebert, Sept. 14, 2007

The film is full of stunning visuals and interpretations (Check out the interpretation of "She's So Heavy"...wow!) However, the joy to be found is the multitude of references to other songs/lyrics/Beatles trivia scattered throughout the film. Of course there are the aforementioned character names...almost all of them are there. Some are a little obvious and you see them coming a mile away. Like when Prudence shows up in Sadie's apartment in NYC. She climbs up the fire escape, enters the apartment and makes herself at home. When Sadie sees her, she asks the other tennants, "Where did she come from?" Jude's reply? "She came in through the bathroom window."

Then there are the other small things that only the true Beatle-phile would pick up on...like when Jude (the artist) is sitting at a table sketching an apple. He seems to have "artists' block", so he takes a knife and cuts the apple in half as if in desperation to get a new perspective on his subject. Yes the apple is a Granny Smith...wonderful reference. We also have Lucy's brother Max (yes, short for Maxwell). When he meets Sadie to rent a room in her apartment, she jokes that he doesn't look like the kind of guy that would murder his grandmother with a hammer. Priceless! I will definitely be watching the film again...I am sure I missed the majority of the references...much like the first viewing of the video to "Free as a Bird".

Okay... a little wandering in my review...but it is good, go get a copy, watch multiple times for full effect.

I'm Back!

2008-06-18T14:15:00.004-05:00

Okay, okay...I know. It's been over a year, and this makes only my 2nd post since oh, about Christmas 2006?! I was busy, sort of. Actually I just forgot about the blog as other things arose. It wasn't until I saw Beav at a former co-worker's retirement ceremony last week, and he chastized me for lack of upkeep that I got with it and created a Google account to I could access the blog again. Okay that's done, and here I am.

So what's been happ'nin' with me? I have changed jobs since my last post (and getting ready to change again), now working for a different gov't contractor (soon to become a gov't employee dong my current job) in a different location, but still within commuting distance from home. Good thing now is that my new location is about 1/4 mile from where the wife works, so we now carpool. Not bad seeing as how gas is 3 times what it was when I last posted!

I promise I will try to post at least once a week...maybe more. At least with the election coming up, there is always something I can rant about.

Later!

Sucked in by another reality show

2007-01-05T08:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know reality shows are some of the most mindless drivel on television these days. But I have found one that seems to distill the enjoyable quality that links all good reality shows...schadenfreude.

The show is "Beauty and the Geek" on the new CW channel, Wednesdays at 9PM. Simple premise - pair up beautiful yet vapid women (Hooters' chicks, beauty queens, etc.) with genius yet geeky men (a singer in a Star Wars band, Trekkers, MIT grads, etc.) and the winning team at the end wins $250,000. Each week the team faces 2 challenges...one for the beauty (usually something requiring some sort of inteligence) and one for the geek (involving some sort of social interaction). Sterotypical, yes. Funny, hell yes!

Example - The beauties' task - find 3 books in the library using the Dewey Decimal System, inside which were the clues related to the geeks' tasks. I never thought I would enjoy watching the Dewey Decimal System make ditzy blondes cry. It was awesome. The geeks' then had go to a busy city street and accomplish tasks such as getting a woman to rub suntan lotion on their backs and getting the telephone # of a beautiful girl.

The team with the winning girl and the team with the winning guy each pick a team to eliminate. Those two teams go head-to-head in a question/answer segment, team answering the fewest questions correctly leaves. Girls have to answer questions related (loosely) to their challenge and likewise for the guys.

If you are looking for a show to either make you feel smart or make you feel socially adept (or both), check it out...at least once.

Post-yuletide Bliss

2006-12-27T08:14:00.000-05:00

Okay...it has been a while. Work has become a localized area of extreme low pressure (a vacuum) and boy does it ever SUCK! It is bad when the team (well, those who are doing most of the work) disagree with the direction the middle management wants to go. To use an analogy (as I am apt to do), it is like being told to drive a train (going about 100 MPH) to a certain location, but you are being made to go on a track that happens to be on is going the wrong direction, and over a cliff. You know that failure lies ahead, you and others have voiced this fact multiple times, but no one (that has the power to change tracks) is willing to listen. Did I say that I LOVE going to work in the mornings?

Now that I got that out of my system, let's talk about the holiday: Christmas/Xmas/Kwanza/Hanukkah/Festivus/whatever you choose to celebrate or not.

I am not going to waste my time or yours venting about the idiocy regarding whose holiday can be celebrated/what decorations (or not) can be placed where. I wanna talk about the real meaning of the season (in today's day and age)...presents! Well, one of them anyway.

2 years ago, I bought the "Smile" album/CD that Brian Wilson released after 35 years. I was blown away and moved as no music had moved me before. I listened to it over and over, in the car, at home with the headphones. I had listened to it enough to identify that a 5-note section in one track is the basis for another track toward the end of the CD. It is truly a modern symphony, 3-related movements, each telling an individual story, but together the three comprise a grander vision. Yes, I think the album is great. I thought it would take a an equivalent genius to come up with any work that is on the same level and I thought it would be years before that genius came along.

Well, that work has been released and the genius behind it, like the esteemable Mr. Wilson, has been around a while. This genius of course is Sir George Martin and the work is the new compilation of Beatles' work "Love". Like "Smile" before it, "Love" begs to be listened to in it's entirety, in one sitting. The trip is one and half hours long, but covers much ground...primarily the middle-late era ("Rubber Soul" and later) during which Sir George was the producer. The juxtaposition of bass line of one song and the lead riffs from different song, overlayed with the vocal tracks from yet again another song are in almost all instances wonderful. In my opinion, track 14 "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" and it's seamless flow into "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and then further into "Octopus's Garden" is the best segment of a totally enjoyable disc. The best track, when taken by itself is definitely "Strawberry Fields Forever" which starts with an acoustic version (similar to that on Beatles' Anthology 2) and slowly transitions to the full orchestra version before your very ears. If you couldn't tell, I am a huge Beatles' fan. But this wondrous album is a perfect illustration of how the lads' music transcends time and generations.

When is a dunk in the water not a dunk in the water?

2006-10-27T12:32:00.000-05:00

The White House said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about a torture technique known as "water boarding" when he said dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer." In an interview Tuesday with WDAY of Fargo, North Dakota, Cheney was asked if "a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives."

The administration has repeatedly refused to say which techniques they believe are permitted under the new law. Asked to define a dunk in water, [Press Secretary Tony] Snow said, "It's a dunk in the water."

Link Here

You need help with your medical bills? Sure, as long as you don't drink, smoke, have lustful thoughts, etc...

2006-10-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

Check out this wonderful cost-sharing program.

One of the benefits of the Medi-Share program?

You Will Not Be Subsidizing Unbiblical Lifestyles

Our Medi-Share members and their healthcare dollars do not subsidize abortions, drug addictions, or any other unbiblical lifestyles that inevitably lead to the premature destruction of the body, mind, and spirit.

I never thought that "Christian charity" was meant only for Christians. I guess "Do unto others..." was a mis-translation. Maybe it is better translated as "Do unto others (but only those like yourself)..."

But believe it or not, the very "red" state of Kentucky is moving to ban the group. It must be the work of those damn "activists" judges again!

Weird Al hits top 10

2006-10-23T10:10:00.000-05:00

'Weird Al' Yankovic finally hits the top 10

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Now this is weird. "Weird Al" Yankovic's new album, "Straight Outta Lynwood," has scored the enduring song parodist his biggest chart successes in a career that spans nearly three decades.

"Lynwood," Yankovic's 12th album, debuted this month at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, his first top 10 album ever. Meanwhile, the Chamillionaire parody "White and Nerdy," reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, besting his previous high of No. 12 with "Eat It" in 1984.

You can check the video out on YouTube Wierd(sic) Al - White and Nerdy

Gotta love it!

2006-10-19T09:41:00.000-05:00

A recent incident that upset social conservatives involved remarks by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week. With First Lady Laura Bush looking on, Rice swore in Mark R. Dybul as U.S. global AIDS coordinator while his partner, Jason Claire, held the Bible. Claire's mother was in the audience, and Rice referred to her as Dybul's "mother-in-law."

"The Republican Party is taking pro-family conservatives for granted," said Mike Mears, executive director of the political action committee of Concerned Women for America, which promotes biblical values. "What Secretary Rice did just the other day is going to anger quite a few people." just a few?

Moral relativism

2006-10-12T09:35:00.000-05:00

As much as the right in this country pushes the idea that they are the only ones with any morality and that the problem with the left is moral relativism, it just surprises me how much the republicans are always comparing their actions to those of former/current democrats...but only when pointing out that they are not as bad as the democrats..you never see them pointing out that the democrats did something better.

One example is the tried-and-true "Well, look at what happened under the Clinton administration" as the recent John McCain blaming N. Korea's nuclear test on the former president...not the one that has been in the White House for 6 years.

But today's quote takes the cake...

Shays on Foley handling: At least no one died

HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- Republican Rep. Christopher Shays defended the House speaker's handling of a congressional page scandal, saying no one died like during the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident involving Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," the embattled Connecticut congressman told The Hartford Courant in remarks published Wednesday.

"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added.

Okay so what is the moral here? Don't get in a car with Ted Kennedy? Or is it Don't trust the right to do what is right?

New kid on the block

2006-09-25T15:38:00.000-05:00

How much more of a mess can the Middle East become?

Egypt to Begin Nuclear Programme

Egypt has said it will re-launch its nuclear energy
programme after a 20-year freeze as it announced plans
to build a nuclear power station on the Mediterranean coast.

...and the ticks on the doomsday clock just keep coming faster and faster...

Well said!

2006-09-19T13:07:00.000-05:00

From a blog I frequent...

Puppy Training Supplies Courtesy the WSJ
by soccerdad

From the Opinion Journal The Liberals' War: Why is the left afraid to face up to the threat of radical Islam? By Brett Stephens

Usually I try and just let this kind of nonsense pass realizing that it panders to a certain unthinking crowd that will just accept it without giving it a second thought. But for some, as yet, unexplainable masochistic impulse I decided to take a closer look.

Here's a puzzle: Why is it so frequently the case that the people who have the most at stake in the battle against Islamic extremism and the most to lose when Islamism gains--namely, liberals--are typically the most reluctant to fight it?

This opening paragraph left me going WTF. Why do liberals have more at stake? Certainly liberals don’t enjoy any more freedoms than anyone else. Islamic extremists have shown no proclivity of attacking liberals as opposed to conservatives. So what’s the point? Is it a strawman? I’ll take a stab at this in a moment.

This may be reading too much into Ms. Newman's essay.

I love this kind of nonsense, since it’s basically saying “yeah we are interpreting this in a self-serving way, out of context, but we’re going ahead anyway”.

Yet after 9/11 at least a few old-time voices on the left--Christopher Hitchens, Bruce Bawer, Paul Berman and Ron Rosenbaum, among others--understood that what Islamism most threatened wasn't just America generally, but precisely the values that modern liberalism had done so much to promote and protect for the past 40 years: civil rights, gay rights, feminism, privacy rights, reproductive choice, sexual freedom, the right to worship as one chooses, the right not to worship at all.

Lets look at the second part of this quote. Here I see some progress for the right. They are finally admitting in public and in writing that it is liberals who fight for personal freedom. And by implication, it is the right who doesn’t or does so with much less enthusiasm.

Now lets get to the crux.

An instinct for pacifism surely goes some way toward explaining the left's curious unwillingness to sign up for a war to defend its core values.

This statement is breathtaking in the magnitude of the logical jump one has to make to accept this at face value. Exactly how are the Islamic extremists going to undo the freedoms that the liberals have fought for? Exactly how are they going to force us to re-segregate the south, or impinge on the other rights that Mr Stephens listed? The irony in him mentioning privacy rights is priceless, although I suspect it was lost on him. Certainly for the Islamic extremists to actually and directly cause an abrogation of the liberties, would imply that they would somehow take over the US government. Clearly this is ludicrous on its face. What the Islamic extremists are capable of doing is to inflict fear, by the threat of more terrorist attacks. But the Bush administration has assured us we are now safer than we were.

Since Mr. Stephens as admitted to his relatively diminished interest in promoting liberties, I would like to offer an alternative explanation. The liberals, who are much savvier with respect to liberties, realize full well that the threat to our liberties and, in particular, to those mentioned by Mr. Stephens are not from Islamic extremists, but to the right wing administration whose leader sees the Constitution as a damn piece of paper. I mean how can we take seriously the musing on liberties by someone who admits that his side isn’t that interested in them. Just maybe the liberals who have fought the hardest for personal liberties have it right. It is the so-called “conservatives” who are exploiting the fear of future terrorist attack to restrict the liberties of Americans, employ torture, and spy on Americans. So unless the Islamic extremists hijack our government how will we lose the personal freedoms Mr Stephens lists? Is he suggesting that they are capable of defeating the US on its own soil?

From there, Mr Stephens article degenerates into a piece unworthy of a mid-level Conservative blog. We have the perfunctory reference to appeasement that is so last week. And of course what would a conservative based article on liberals be without a thinly veiled attempt to equate Islamism [having already made it clear that Islam is evil] and liberalism.

This is thin gruel indeed. Unfortunately I don’t have a puppy to train.

I love it!

2006-09-12T08:09:00.000-05:00

Top evangelical: Don't believe our ads

A full-page advertisement in this month's Christianity Today warns that America's evangelicals may soon be on the endangered species list...along with spotted owls.

But the ad, which is endorsed by the National Association of Evangelicals, is a false alarm -- or at least an exaggeration -- according to the group's president -- Pastor Ted Haggard.

"We're church people. We always use fear and guilt to motivate people," Haggard told Bible Belt Blogger, punctuating the quip with hearty laughter.

The ad, which promotes the Battlecry Leadership Summit, a national series of meetings for youth pastors, contains the following warning. "Christianity in America won't survive another decade. Unless we do something now." It warns that young people are rejecting the faith in droves and that "current trends show that only 4% (of teens) will be evangelical believers by the time they become adults."

Reality, Haggard said, isn't nearly so dire. "Evangelicalism is exploding worldwide. We're growing rapidly in the southern hemisphere. We're growing moderately in the United States. We're declining in Europe... In the United States, there are some difficulties and I'm not going to get into that now, but we're trying to encourage people to solve these problems before they are created too severe."

It's unclear how the four percent figure was calculated. That number originally appeared in a book that was written nine years ago by former Southern Baptist Theological Seminary dean Thom S. Rainer.

The ad isn't confined just to Christianity Today. "Those ads all ran in Christian magazines in order to motivate NAE churches and others to do a better job at building youth groups," Haggard said.

But American Christianity will survive another decade -- even if the summit is a flop, Haggard suggests. "Right now, modern American evangelicalism is very healthy, very helpful and very thoughtful," he added.

So what ever happened to "Thou shalt not bear false witness"? Maybe it went away with the whole "love thy neighbor" thing...

Thank God we're free...for now

2006-07-05T10:10:00.000-05:00

Okay, after a hiatus I am back. I guess I stopped posting in honor of Beav's journey south. Now that he made it out alive...on with the post.

Today's stories I find interesting...

CIA closed it's bin Laden unit

CIA analysis was that bin Laden's video released just before the election had the purpose of helping Bush get elected

Air Force officer's thoughts about how much America care/worries about what goes on in Iraq

And don't get me going about the recent flag burning amendment push...

I wanna see how they (GOP) handle this...

2006-06-15T14:03:00.000-05:00

(emphasis mine)

BAGHDAD, June 14 -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (who Bush visited and said was doing a great job this week) on Wednesday proposed a limited amnesty to help end the Sunni Arab insurgency as part of a national reconciliation plan that Maliki said would be released within days. The plan is likely to include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops, a top adviser said.

Maliki's declaration of openness to talks with some members of Sunni armed factions, and the prospect of pardons, are concessions that previous, interim governments had avoided. The statements marked the first time a leader from Iraq's governing Shiite religious parties has publicly embraced national reconciliation, welcomed dialogue with armed groups and proposed a limited amnesty.

Reconciliation could include an amnesty for those "who weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood," Maliki told reporters at a Baghdad news conference. "Also, it includes talks with the armed men who opposed the political process and now want to turn back to political activity."

1) If Bush is telling you you are doing a great job (a la former FEMA director Brown), odds are you are getting ready to do something stupid.

2) Okay, so let's get this straight...the Iraqi gov't that the adminstration supports, will basically be saying it is okay if you killed only American soldiers. Isn't that saying that it is an acceptable response to our presence there? So we are occupiers?

If the GOP goes along with this then we won't offer amnesty to illegal immigrants but we would support amnesty for those that kill our soldiers. Talking about your land of confusion! Where's the puppet of Ronald Reagan to press the launch button when you need him?!

Blonde Geometry

2006-05-25T07:40:00.000-05:00

Okay...I have never been a big fan of blonde jokes...the whole making fun of someone based on a genetic variation never made sense to me. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying I am a saint or anything...I enjoy people watching and making fun of people...but only for things that are within their control (actions, words, etc...)

Anyway...

After careful scrutiny, it is our understanding that the blonde
student was given credit for the answer, but the board of education
has warned math teachers to be more explicit in the future.

The times they are a changin'

2006-05-18T07:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know that polls don't mean whole heckuva lot...but this is so heartening...

This graphic represents county-by-county results of the 2004 presidential election, red counties voted for Bush, blue for Kerry.

And this graphic shows the results of a May 15, 2006 presidential approval poll. Red counties have net favorable poll results, blue net negative.

"As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'."
--Bob Dylan

I want off this rock!

2006-05-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

In my daily read of the left-leaning blogs I frequent, I came across an article that simply blows my mind. Here is a snippet:

Certainly since Vietnam, America has increasingly practiced a policy of minimalism and restraint in war. And now this unacknowledged policy, which always makes a space for the enemy, has us in another long and rather passionless war against a weak enemy.

Why this new minimalism in war?
It began, I believe, in a late-20th-century event that transformed the world more profoundly than the collapse of communism: the world-wide collapse of white supremacy as a source of moral authority, political legitimacy and even sovereignty.

I guess I was just brainwashed by the lib'rul edukashun system and even lib'ruler media that those things are(were) a product of our constitution, the wonderful 3 branches of government with their checks and balances and what-not. I never thought the American moral authority, political legitimacy and sovereignty was a product of the KKK and neo-nazi skinheads. If you want, you can read the rest of the article here. But I think the excerpt above says it all.

It's nice to be employed

2006-05-01T15:01:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is May 1st. I was almost out in the street marching with the illegal immigrants today. Not becuase I am an illegal, but becuase I almost didn't have a job. Long story, here it comes....

September 2005, I left a job after 7 months for one that paid better and has actually in my field. The selling point for the job was that there was a 1- year "Feasibility Study" period and then a 3-year "Test and Evaluation" period. Well, come this past February, we found out that the 3-year period (which had originally been slated to be conducted in the local area) was moving to a location 2+ hours from home.

In March, the conversation went something like this--

Company: Your position is moving.

Jim: Well, I ain't moving.

Company: Well, we need you to move.

Jim: I'm sorry, but I ain't moving.

Company: Well, what about moving there temporarily for 6 months.

Jim: Are you freakin' crazy?

Company: Okay how about doing a geo-bachelor arrangement where you live up there during the week and go back home on weekends, starting April 1st?

Jim: For how long? I get custody of my kids the first of June.

Company: Six months.

Jim: (dumbfounded stare)

Company: Okay how about 2 months.

Jim: And what about after the 2 months?

Company: Well, we don't really have anything open for you on the horizon, but we can work something out.

Jim: And how much am I going to be compensated for this living away from my family during the week?

Company: Well, we will pay your actual living expenses (food and hotel).

Jim: That's it?

Company: Well, find the average cost per hotel in the area and we will pay you that amount.

Jim: (Thinking...well it is a military area and the average will be the local per diem rate...I can get a hotel for a lot cheaper than that.) Okay.

So...April 1 rolls around. They aren't ready for us to move becuase there are contract negotiation issues. It is not until April 15th that we hear anything about the contract. Okay...new start date is May 1. I remind them that my kids are coming June 1 so they will only get 1 month from me...And still no word on any other position for me. I make the arrangements for a hotel May 1 - May 4th (I plan on working 10-hour days and leaving there Thursday night). Friday April 28th I get an email that I am not to go to this other location on May 1st. But that is all the e-mail said. An hour later I get another e-mail saying that they "found" a position for me here, but the details are not arranged yet so on or about the first week of May, the position might be available. So basically on or about May 1st, I may or may not get paid? I got a call that afternoon telling me to show up Monday, and hopefully all will be worked out ove the weekend. I got no word of anything this weekend, so not knowing if I had a job or not, I got dressed and went in. I waited until about 8:30 before I got any official word...I am employed! And this time it is for 3 years and the position isn't moving anywhere!

And I was looking forward to the "No Gringo" Day.

Advertising Slogans

2006-04-11T08:03:00.000-05:00

Okay...I't not going off on a rant against Madison Avenue. If you want that, see Beav's post.

Every wonder what the slogan would be if you were a product? Well, here's mine:

Grab Life by the Jim.

I guess just make sure you wash your hands afterwards?

What's your slogan?

Poor little monkey

2006-03-30T13:03:00.000-05:00

It looks like he lost his cymbals. Just wind him up and watch him go!

Decision making

2006-03-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

In my current job (as in life) there are lots of decisions that need to be made. Many of these decisions must be made rather quickly and without the supporting information one would desire in order to feel comfortable said decisions. We have used all kinds of tools - flowcharts, analytical hierarchy process, stop-light charts, etc. The problem is that as a vestige of the "quality" movement in the military during the early 1990s, the process seems more important than the decision. If you make a decision withou using a "process" then the decision is considered suspect and you have to go through the motions of an accepted process anyway. Okay, enough of my rant. In the course of researching a process modeling tool called UML (Unified Modeling Language), I came across this flowchart. If only all decisions could be this simple...

Following in Beav's Blog-steps...

2006-03-22T20:53:00.000-05:00

I had to post one of my perosnality test results.

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick.
You're always willing to lend a helping hand.
In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.
"15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Childhood personalities and future political leanings

2006-03-22T11:25:00.000-05:00

Found this interesting article about a 20-year study...very interesting...

How to spot a baby conservative
Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ...

Mar. 19, 2006. 10:45 AM
KURT KLEINER
SPECIAL TO THE TORONTO STAR

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial.

In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it's a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.

And yes, I was a self-confident, independent child.

I'm back...

2006-03-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

Okay...I've been gone the past 3 weeks. One week of crazy work, one week was my annual spring-break/anniversary vacation (to get away from crazy work...This year it was Punta Cana, Dominican Republic...Not as great as Aruba, but a close runner-up to heaven on Earth) and then another week at work, doing the work that didn't get done the week I was gone.

Here's your daily dose of stripping...

Why is it so hot? And what is America doing in a handbasket?

2006-02-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

I just love the direction this country has taken. First, the President's "public" speeches are by invitation only. Then, private citizens are having their phones tapped without court order. Okay, the President says he has that power in time of war.

First, when did Congress issue a declaration of war? Since they didn't, and as I understand the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8 - "The Congress shall have the power...to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water" - we are not "at war". Also, this Article would also seem to imply the thte President doesn't have the power to determine what happens to those prisoners of war/enemy combatants/terrorist/brown-skinned-guys-we-don't-know-if-they-are-a-threat-but-we-will-detain-them-anyway.

Second, following the administration's resoning, what isn't within the President's power during a time of war? Reading your 1st class domestic mail? What if you are suspected of being a terrorist/terrorist supporter/terrorist sympathizer/anti-Bush administration. (They are the same, right?) How about the assasination/targeted killing/murder of a suspected terrorist/et al.? Anything to keep us safe, right? All it takes is being suspected...no longer innocent until proven guilty? We can't take the chance that they might not be guilty, right? The ends justify the means?

How about he rise of the secret police?

"And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I think I'm free..."

One of the the joys of not being a single parent

2006-02-23T13:39:00.000-05:00

What a Dog!

2006-02-22T13:47:00.000-05:00

New hobby/pastime/activity

2006-02-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Okay...I know. How many "hobbies" have I gotten all excited about, rushed out and bought the requisite equipment, only to use it once and move on to something else? Rock Climbing, Astronomy, etc. But this is different, I promise.

My new thing is Geocaching. Basically, its modern-day treasure hunting with a GPS device. Somoene hides a container (maybe big, maybe small) in a public place. Inside is at least a log, usually there are items inside as well. Then the "hider" posts general coordinates on the above website and hints as to the cache's location/how it is hidden/etc. Your job is to find the cache, sign the log, take an item and leave an item. Then you post back to the website when you found the cache-what your experience was like (did you like the hunt, was it hidden well, etc.), what item you took, what item you left, etc.

It is a great family activity...kids love it. You get outdoors, get to walk/hike, enjoy the thrill of the hunt. Then later you hide your own and enjoy that side of it as well...how well can you hide something/how good are your hints?

Okay, so I haven't yet actively hunted a cache. I know where there are a few located very near my house and I did obtain the requiste equipment. My lovely wife got me a GPS device for Valentine's Day. Nothing says I love you like a nifty electronic toy! Either that or she has forever negated the wonderful excuse of "I got lost."

Down boy!

2006-02-07T09:17:00.000-05:00

The result of abstinence?

Good Boy!

2006-02-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

For you pet lovers out there...

It is amazing how far man has come!

2006-01-26T09:43:00.000-05:00

Go Granny Go!

2006-01-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

Ya just gotta love Grannies that are still going strong. And you wonder why the batteries are missing from your PSP when you leave it at her house!

Daily Dose of Stripping

2006-01-24T09:03:00.000-05:00

Here's today's...

Stripping

2006-01-23T15:51:00.000-05:00

Okay... I have found my calling--stripping. No, no...keep your loose $1s and $5s in your pocket. Stripping is replacing the text of a comic strip with text that is usually funnier, more satirical or even lewd.

So, here is one of my first...this one was begging for it!

More to come in the days ahead...

Back in the saddle (and no, that is not a reference to Brokeback Mountain)

2006-01-12T12:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I am back in the blogosphere after over a year in reality.

I have a new job (well, since last posting, I have had 2 new jobs.) I actually get to use some of the skills and degree I paid good money for. It is good being the only "critically thinking" person on a team trying to solve a problem...all those years playing "Devil's Advocate" just to annoy people is finally paying off!

Will post more later...

Right Wing Anthem?

2004-06-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

Came across this anthem while surfing my progressive (to you right-winger, reactionary neo-cons that would be liberal) news web sites.

Anthem

Enjoy!

MthNrd

And not to be outdone...some of my favorite sites

2004-05-20T09:09:00.000-05:00

Since Beav is spouting some of his favorite PG-13 sites, I though so would I.

In the vein of IMDB, here are a couple great sites for those more inclined to the small screen vice the silver:

Sitcoms Online
--for, uhmm, sitcoms
TV Tome
-- all-inclusive site...has full episode guides

For those that enjoy their potent potables (damn you, Alex Trebek!) we have Webtender

For general research:
Webster's Online Dictionary
---more than just definitions

and

Wikipedia
--a really good user-written encyclopedia

And a site recommended by my daughter, for muggles who need to brush up on all things Potter:

Harry Potter Lexicon

All for now,

MthNrd

Domo arigato

2004-05-16T07:53:00.000-05:00

Isn't technology great?!

Just think, 20 years ago if a man were to sit on a park bench and philosophize to no one, or to stand on a street corner and argue with the wife that left him 10 years earlier, or to sit in the subway and complain about how the government was tracking his every move; he would definitely be considered in need of serious psychological help.

But now, thanks to the computer and internet (and don't forget the cable modem), that same man can sit in the comfort of his own home/apartment, and carry on that same one-sided conversation and he is considered technologicaly savvy and a modern man.

Either technology has integrated the paranoid schizophrenics into the on-line society, or it has created new ones.

Just remember, Mr. Roboto was a modern man too.