Today it looks a bit like this:
The Lovely Daughter is off to camp. A whole week without relatives of any sort pushing her around. She's had a rough go of some things but I think a corner is being turned.
Some Changes
Remember this?
Today it looks a bit like this:
The Lovely Daughter is off to camp. A whole week without relatives of any sort pushing her around. She's had a rough go of some things but I think a corner is being turned.
Today it looks a bit like this:
The Lovely Daughter is off to camp. A whole week without relatives of any sort pushing her around. She's had a rough go of some things but I think a corner is being turned.
Concert's Galore!
This week has been one of concerts. And it's not even over yet! I attended a concert Sunday and another on Monday. There was one we wanted to go to tonight (Tuesday), and will be going to another (though much more casual one) Wednesday. Geez...tired yet? Cause I know I am!
Last week, we got an email at work from our boss that the Browns had donated 250 tickets to the Brothers of the Sun Tour- Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw. That's a LOT of tickets. And they were AWESOME seats. We gave away hundreds to our clients, and still had plenty left over for staff and family/friends. It was a Sunday so unfortunately Doug couldn't make it (stupid work schedule), but some of my great friends joined me downtown and as always, had a fabulous time hanging out with my coworkers.
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| Our group (please ignore my lazy eye...can't believe I'm posting, but only full group photo) |
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| My coworker- also Margaret- the M&M team! |
The concert was a blast, the weather was gorgeous, the beer was flowing, and let's be honest- watching Tim McGraw in tight white pants and white shirt isn't a bad way to spend a Sunday evening.
Thankfully, I thought ahead and took the day off Monday. I knew I would need a day to recover before concert #2- which I did. After sleeping and marathoning One Tree Hill/watching the Olympics for most of the day, Doug and I picked up our friends and headed down to Jacob's/Nautica Pavilion for the Florence and the Machine concert. With a quick dinner at Shooter's (never been there sober before...definitely a new experience) with a great lake view, we headed over to the pavilion.
Now, I absolutely LOVE this concert venue. It is open air, great view of downtown CLE, and is right on the river- which always provides even more entertainment when the HUGE boats go past. I love it.
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| Pretty view by the water with my lov |
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| Awesome concert! |
While it was a slightly different crowd from the concert crazies on Sunday, the music was fabulous and she put on a great show!
Now as much as I would love to see The Head and The Heart tonight (saw them open for the Decemberists last year and officially love them), I just couldn't handle three nights in a row. Plus tomorrow we are going to Wade Oval Wednesday to see Carlos Jones and the P.L.U.S. band. I need a day to relax.
I officially don't have a free weekend for the next 6 weeks. Oh and I'm getting married in 60 days. Right.
Follow the money
A somewhat less than gripping story in the Times about new criteria for teacher certification being developed in several states—uh, that's nice. Less testing, more live observation, that's still nicer. But it's a long story, and by paragraph 21 you're really wondering why it's there. Then,
If you clicked the above link and wondered what Pineapplegate was, click below and find out:
(1) The Hare and the Pineapple, by Daniel Pinkwater. With comprehension questions. (2) Helplessly outraged commentary.
The new system [in New York state] will require teachers to electronically submit their work, including the videos, for grading by trained evaluators who have been recruited by the education company Pearson.Ah, Pearson!
“Our decisions are being outsourced,” said one faculty member at a state university in New York who supervises student teachers and asked not to be identified because she feared retribution from her employer.And
At the University of Massachusetts, 67 of the 68 students in a program for future middle and high school teachers refused to submit two 10-minute videos of themselves teaching, as well as a 40-page take-home test. The students said that evaluators chosen by Pearson were not qualified to judge their abilities, and should not be allowed to do so over their own professors.It's that story, about another little hole being tapped in the public school system by corporate giants through which they can suck out more cash. It's just about always that story, nowadays, if you read it all the way down.
If you clicked the above link and wondered what Pineapplegate was, click below and find out:
(1) The Hare and the Pineapple, by Daniel Pinkwater. With comprehension questions. (2) Helplessly outraged commentary.
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| From W.I.L.D. Exploits. |
Oil, Delivered Right To Your Door
Convenience!
WISCONSIN - Canada’s Enbridge Inc. raced on Sunday to repair a major pipeline that spilled more than 1,000 barrels of oil in a Wisconsin field, provoking fresh ire from Washington over the latest in a series of leaks.And hey, what do The Terrorists make of a giant pipeline full of flammable stuff snaking across The Great Satan?
The spill on Friday, which comes almost two years to the day after a ruptured Enbridge line fouled part of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, has forced the closure of a major conduit for Canadian light crude shipments to U.S. refiners and threatens further reputational damage to a company that launched an over $3 billion expansion program just two months ago.
Romney's Opposite Day
Last time we visited Willard Mitt Romney's Middle East policy, he'd come up with a persuasively simple program to cover just about any eventuality:
The fact that he's there is not exactly the opposite of Obama. As a matter of fact, it's exactly the same. Democratic nominandus Barack Obama visited Israel toward the end of July 2008, just four years ago.
Before dawn Thursday morning, July 23 2008, Obama made an unscheduled visit to Jerusalem's ancient Western Wall, leaving the customary prayer on a slip of paper. On Sunday afternoon, July 29 2012, Romney visited the Western Wall, leaving a personal prayer on a slip of paper. But: Romney's not wearing a kippah!
Obama met separately with President Peres, prime minister Olmert, and later in Ramallah with President Abbas. Romney is to meet with Peres, prime minister Netanyahu, and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad--couldn't manage to fit Abbas into the schedule. Or the Israeli Labour Party.*
*Nope, with Labor it turns out that Netanyahu just ordered him not to go, so he cancelled.
Obama didn't schedule any fund-raising events in Israel, as far as I can determine. Romney, of course, planned a $50,000-a-plate extravaganza for today, but it turned out to be Tisha b'Av in the Jewish calendar, a day of national mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the two Temples and hence not a great time to invite a lot of Jewish people to a party. Never mind, they'll just have it tomorrow.
Obama issued a warning to Iran that
Update 7/30
I have to make a correction: Romney was wearing a yarmulke, a very discrete little black number; you can hardly make it out in the pictures unless you know it's there.
He responded with ridicule when asked what he would do, if elected, to strengthen U.S. relations with the Jewish state.
“I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite,” Romney said, to laughter and applause from members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an evangelical Christian political organization.Now, after his hilariously triumphant tour of the London Olympics, as he takes his first trip to the region as official about-to-be presidential nominee (I think the correct term would be nominandus), let's have a look at how he's doing with that.
The fact that he's there is not exactly the opposite of Obama. As a matter of fact, it's exactly the same. Democratic nominandus Barack Obama visited Israel toward the end of July 2008, just four years ago.
Before dawn Thursday morning, July 23 2008, Obama made an unscheduled visit to Jerusalem's ancient Western Wall, leaving the customary prayer on a slip of paper. On Sunday afternoon, July 29 2012, Romney visited the Western Wall, leaving a personal prayer on a slip of paper. But: Romney's not wearing a kippah!
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| New York Times. |
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| New York Times. |
*Nope, with Labor it turns out that Netanyahu just ordered him not to go, so he cancelled.
Obama didn't schedule any fund-raising events in Israel, as far as I can determine. Romney, of course, planned a $50,000-a-plate extravaganza for today, but it turned out to be Tisha b'Av in the Jewish calendar, a day of national mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the two Temples and hence not a great time to invite a lot of Jewish people to a party. Never mind, they'll just have it tomorrow.
Obama issued a warning to Iran that
''A nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat and the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.'' He said no options were ''off the table'' in dealing with a nuclear threat from Iran but that the country should be offered ''big carrots'' as well as ''big sticks.''Romney, of course, feels about carrots the way Justice Scalia feels about broccoli. In the first draft of leaks about what he intended to say about Iran, he was expected to say—repeatedly!—that Israel should feel free to bomb Iran whenever they liked, but was walking it back an hour or so later:
“Governor Romney believes we should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course, and it is his fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so,” Mr. Senor said in an e-mail statement released by the campaign. “In the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. Governor Romney recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with it.”Romney himself seems to have felt that statement was a little too specific, so he came back with more:
In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Mr. Romney said: “I’ll use my own words and that is I respect the right of Israel to defend itself and we stand with Israel.”There's some opposite behavior for you: Obama never announces that he'll "use his own words" but habitually does use them. With Romney, it's just the opposite!
Update 7/30
I have to make a correction: Romney was wearing a yarmulke, a very discrete little black number; you can hardly make it out in the pictures unless you know it's there.
Suing People is the Model
How to make money from art:
The record labels that successfully sued The Pirate Bay for millions on the grounds that the network had infringed upon artists' copyrights have announced that it will not share any of the money it receives from the suit with those artists. Instead, the money will be used to bankroll more "enforcement" -- that is, salaries and fees for people who work for the industry association.
Inside the Brooksian mind
Shorter David Brooks:
Broken down into skeleton form, the itinerary on this occasion is something like this:
1. Deconstructed quotation no. 1:
2. Definition: A house divided is a contradictory individual or institution. [jump]
* Not many people know this, but this is what deconstruction actually means—turning an overfamiliar idea upside down and seeing if it works any better that way.
3. Evaluation: Contradictory individuals are good, contradictory institutions are enduring except when slavery is involved.
4. Example: The Olympics are a contradictory institution, since they feature both cooperation and competition, and they endure. Also, athletes don't smile when they're at work, which is a good thing.
5. Definition: The competitive virtues are "tenacity, courage, excellence, supremacy, discipline and conflict." There are possibly cooperative virtues too, but they are not discussed.
6. Inference: The example of the Olympics shows that
8. Example: A.G. Laffley of Procter and Gamble, torn between the idea of cutting costs to remain competitive, and that of improving products to remain competitive, decided to go for both simultaneously.
9. Definition: Monomaniacs are abnormal people who cannot hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time.
10. Example: Certain monomaniacal schoolteachers insist that cooperation is OK but competition is not.
11. Example:
Still, beneath this superficial incoherence lies yet another layer, which you can only become aware of by looking at the thing structurally. In the column's 800 words, there are a couple of concepts that are mentioned three times each, although neither seems to be all that close to the center of the discourse: that dichotomy between cooperation and competition, and the idea of an "enduring institution" or "institution that lasts".
In my view these, and the weight Brooks gives them without apparently realizing it, represent the share of the column written, so to speak, by his unconscious; the anxieties that shove themselves to the fore as he babbles about Scott Fitzgerald and A.G. Laffley.
The first is familiar; we've been there ourselves, à propos of his Henry V column: he's obsessed with an imaginary teacher of progressive leanings (drives Volvo, swills Chardonnay) who hates boys and doesn't allow competitiveness in her classroom ("How about you play the game but you don't keep score?"), presumably because that would give the boys an advantage.
I can't believe this is Brooks's own idea, but Dr. Google and I are having a hard time flushing out a pedigree for it; seems to be a hybridization between the talk radio response to Robert Slavin's "cooperative learning" and more recent concerns about the "feminization" of schools and the crisis of boys. In Brooks's case, believe me, it's all about unresolved masculinity issues.
The other pole is harder to figure. In repeating like a prayer that a self-contradicting house really can stand he seems plainly to be fending off the fear that it will fall, but which house is he afraid of? His own? His family? The Republican Party, the nation? Or is it perhaps the temple of his mind? Does he believe he is doomed to collapse, like the bourgeoisie in classic Marxist theory, from his own internal contradictions? Before his pen has gleaned his teeming brain? Stay tuned.
A house divided against itself actually can stand, as long as it doesn't have anything to do with slavery, and if it's a house of Congress it's a good idea, because then politics will be just like the Olympics, i.e., incoherent.While Friedman may get much of his information from taxi drivers (or perhaps, come to think of it, it's just one polyglot taxi driver following him around from exotic location to exotic location, because he always says pretty much the same thing), Brooks tries to think like a taxi driver: about how long he can keep the meter running and still have the passengers think they're getting a surprise shortcut.
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| Charon's Big Yellow Taxi. Photo by Desolate Places. |
1. Deconstructed quotation no. 1:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. (Abraham Lincoln, June 1858)Deconstruction: Actually, it can. *
2. Definition: A house divided is a contradictory individual or institution. [jump]
* Not many people know this, but this is what deconstruction actually means—turning an overfamiliar idea upside down and seeing if it works any better that way.
3. Evaluation: Contradictory individuals are good, contradictory institutions are enduring except when slavery is involved.
4. Example: The Olympics are a contradictory institution, since they feature both cooperation and competition, and they endure. Also, athletes don't smile when they're at work, which is a good thing.
Dancers, especially at the opening ceremony, smile in warmth and friendship. No true sport is ever done smiling (this is the problem with figure skating and competitive cheerleading).
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| Carmelo Anthony, future cheerleader. |
6. Inference: The example of the Olympics shows that
if you find yourself caught between two competing impulses, you don’t always need to choose between them. You can go for both simultaneously.7. Deconstructed quotation no. 2:
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up)Deconstruction: Actually, it's the test of a normal mind, and the "mark of any institution that lasts."
8. Example: A.G. Laffley of Procter and Gamble, torn between the idea of cutting costs to remain competitive, and that of improving products to remain competitive, decided to go for both simultaneously.
9. Definition: Monomaniacs are abnormal people who cannot hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time.
10. Example: Certain monomaniacal schoolteachers insist that cooperation is OK but competition is not.
11. Example:
Politics has become a contest of monomaniacs. One faction champions austerity while another champions growth. One party becomes the party of economic security and the other becomes the party of creative destruction.12. Conclusion:
The right course is usually to push hard in both directions, to be a house creatively divided against itself, to thrive amid the contradictions. The Olympics are great, but they are not coherent.Which sounds like the compromise the Republicans were hoping for: austerity for thee, more government contracts for me. And to paraphrase (not deconstruct) Ralph Waldo Emerson, a foolish coherency is the hobgoblin of little monomaniacs. Which is not just making his point, but also defending his column, which may have many virtues but coherence, foolish or otherwise, is not one of them today.
Still, beneath this superficial incoherence lies yet another layer, which you can only become aware of by looking at the thing structurally. In the column's 800 words, there are a couple of concepts that are mentioned three times each, although neither seems to be all that close to the center of the discourse: that dichotomy between cooperation and competition, and the idea of an "enduring institution" or "institution that lasts".
In my view these, and the weight Brooks gives them without apparently realizing it, represent the share of the column written, so to speak, by his unconscious; the anxieties that shove themselves to the fore as he babbles about Scott Fitzgerald and A.G. Laffley.
The first is familiar; we've been there ourselves, à propos of his Henry V column: he's obsessed with an imaginary teacher of progressive leanings (drives Volvo, swills Chardonnay) who hates boys and doesn't allow competitiveness in her classroom ("How about you play the game but you don't keep score?"), presumably because that would give the boys an advantage.
The other pole is harder to figure. In repeating like a prayer that a self-contradicting house really can stand he seems plainly to be fending off the fear that it will fall, but which house is he afraid of? His own? His family? The Republican Party, the nation? Or is it perhaps the temple of his mind? Does he believe he is doomed to collapse, like the bourgeoisie in classic Marxist theory, from his own internal contradictions? Before his pen has gleaned his teeming brain? Stay tuned.
Believing the Hype
Via Yglesias via Atrios here is an article about Microsoft's various and continuing failures. This is the kind of thing that's fun gossip - who doesn't like to see the impediment to what they do take a kick in the teeth? - but more than that it's a frustrating demonstration of how much bullshit about making things has been internalized by people who think they're experts.
Now we infuriate mikey. I think I'm going to investigate 10.8 largely because of Dictation. It could make my mom's life a lot easier if it works well.
Microsoft’s low-octane swan song was nothing if not symbolic of more than a decade littered with errors, missed opportunities, and the devolution of one of the industry’s innovators into a “me too” purveyor of other companies’ consumer products.There are fifteen mentions of some form of the word "innovate", which is interesting because I can't really think of any Microsoft innovations. Were there some? I'm sure I'm missing one or two. Or is this standard middle-management language that justifies middle-management positions? Yglesias, eyeing a future in management, sees this bullshit and follows with:
The basic issue facing Microsoft over the past ten years has been this—innovating is really hard.He says some other boring stuff too. As a long-time unwilling Windows user I cannot recall wanting them to innovate, I just wanted them to clean their fucking systems up, make tasks take less clicks, show me the information I wanted, et cetera. Microsoft got where it did by having The Stuff That Is On The Machine, not by "innovating". Everybody else beat them to the good stuff and they fucked it up, from MS-DOS forward, but they did good business so that was what you got. FUCK INNOVATION, LET ME DO MY WORK. The Atrios take is right in principle:
I think the real lesson is it's okay to be a big company with a stable revenue and stable predictable dividends.That's true, but Microsoft produced stuff that people always seem happy to abandon where there's a viable alternative. The lock on the pre-loaded OS has always been their big strength. They can't just cruise along because they've never built the good stuff. They're the god of the gaps, needed by those who don't see or understand the alternatives. If Windows or Office were inherently satisfying their position might be different.
That used to be the norm.
Now we infuriate mikey. I think I'm going to investigate 10.8 largely because of Dictation. It could make my mom's life a lot easier if it works well.
Just Not Bothering
Kevin D. Williamson:
DEATH UPDATE!
Where is the liberal outrage?
A little perspective on the gun-control debate: According U.N. data, the number of homicides committed with firearms in the United States runs typically between 9,000 and 10,000 a year, with the numbers going:In a classic case of putting the punchline before the pantomime horse, the item is entitled
2009: 9,146
2008: 9,484
2007: 10,129
2006: 10,225
2005: 10,158
2004: 9,385
2003: 9,659
2002: 9,369
2001: 8,890
1999: 8,259*
1998: 9,257
According to the Journal of American Medicine, the number of deaths caused by U.S. cardiac patients’ not bothering to refill their heart-disease prescriptions is about 113,000 per year. (The cost of filling prescriptions is of course a factor, but not the only factor. More from Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog here.) In one category of disease, skipping meds causes about eleven times as many deaths in this country each year as all firearms murders combined. One of these things is treated by liberals as a national emergency, the other is not. This is a curious thing for people proclaiming themselves to be empirical, evidence-driven rationalists.
Laziness Is 11 Times More Dangerous than Guns...
DEATH UPDATE!
Where is the liberal outrage?
Facepalms and headbangs
Foreign Policy magazine's blog, Passport, reports a new use by US forces of heavy metal music as an implement of psychological pressure, from their friend Mikko Hyppönen, a Finnish security expert, who received an email from an anonymous Iranian nuclear scientist:
pretty nasty, but used on prisoners it is certainly part of an apparatus of torture. What is amusing, however, is the virtually endless juvenility of whoever is in charge of doing it, coming up with the same plan decade after decade. It's as if we had to have a debate on whether it's OK for boys to yank on girls' pigtails. No, pigtail-pulling is wrong, but you don't expect to have to tell that to an adult. Indeed, you don't really expect to have to tell it to a boy; most of the time they'll get it on their own.
There is something distinctly juvenile, or immature, or regressive, about torture practices in general. I don't think it ever gets talked about, because it sounds like minimizing the suffering of the tortured, but it's true nevertheless. Using cunning machinery to make yourself overwhelmingly powerful against your bogeyman, the tramp in the attic, the shoulder-squeezing vice principal, the burglars waiting outside, that's a boy's fantasy, and an entirely acceptable one too. That's what made the movie Home Alone so great.
But the bogeymen aren't real, and putting such plans into reality isn't acceptable. In the last analysis, that's what James Holmes was acting out. For US forces, who already are overwhelmingly powerful, it is also wrong, and not very dignified either.
Herewith a semi-random chronological sampler of rock as weapon:
Canal Zone, 1963:
Pentagon, 1997:
USA, 2008:
I am writing you to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility Fordo near Qom.
According to the email our cyber experts sent to our teams, they believe a hacker tool Metasploit was used. The hackers had access to our VPN. The automation network and Siemens hardware were attacked and shut down. I only know very little about these cyber issues as I am scientist not a computer expert.
There was also some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out. I believe it was playing 'Thunderstruck' by AC/DC.A lot of people think these stories are kind of amusing, every time they come out, which is surprisingly often. I don't exactly; used in combat, the music may not be so evil, although [jump]
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| From Vulture. |
There is something distinctly juvenile, or immature, or regressive, about torture practices in general. I don't think it ever gets talked about, because it sounds like minimizing the suffering of the tortured, but it's true nevertheless. Using cunning machinery to make yourself overwhelmingly powerful against your bogeyman, the tramp in the attic, the shoulder-squeezing vice principal, the burglars waiting outside, that's a boy's fantasy, and an entirely acceptable one too. That's what made the movie Home Alone so great.
But the bogeymen aren't real, and putting such plans into reality isn't acceptable. In the last analysis, that's what James Holmes was acting out. For US forces, who already are overwhelmingly powerful, it is also wrong, and not very dignified either.
Herewith a semi-random chronological sampler of rock as weapon:
Canal Zone, 1963:
Our Special Forces “A” Teams had to go through a Prisoner of War and an Escape and Evasion Course. That training really prepared me for my two tours in Vietnam. Once we were captured, and placed in a dungeon at Fort Sherman, Canal Zone, all our clothing and foot gear were taken away from us. They would hose us down with cold water all night so that we could not sleep, and then blasted loud speakers, with different types of American music. (The Use of Music in Psychological Operations)Panama City, 1989:
Noriega remained at large for several days, but realizing he had few options in the face of a massive manhunt and a $1 million reward for his capture, he obtained refuge in the Vatican diplomatic mission in Panama City. The U.S. military's psychological pressure on him and diplomatic pressure on the Vatican mission, however, was relentless, as was the playing of loud rock-and-roll music day and night in a densely populated area. (Wikipedia)
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| The Three Stooges 2012 |
Acoustic weapons” have been in development by Department of Defense contractors since at least the 1997 creation of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Task Force, accounting for 1/3 of the Task Force’s budget in 1998-99. Thus, they are not peculiar to 21st-century wars, or to the current administration. The earliest contract I know to have been let for such a weapon was on November 18, 1998, authorizing now-defunct Synetics Corporation to produce a tightly focused beam of infrasound–that is, vibration waves slower than 100 vps–meant to produce effects that range from “disabling or lethal”....
Capable of projecting a “strip of sound” (15 to 30 inches wide) at an average of 120 dB (maxing at 151 dB) that will be intelligible for 500 to 1,000 meters (depending on which model you buy), the LRAD is designed to hail ships, issue battlefield or crowd-control commands, or direct an “attention-getting and highly irritating deterrent tone for behavior modification”. (http://www.atcsd.com) As of March, 2006, 350 LRAD systems had been sold–to the US Navy, the Coast Guard, various commercial shippers for marine interdiction; to the US Army and Marines for use by PsyOps units, and at checkpoints and internment facilities; to the police departments of Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and Broward County, Florida. (Trans: Revista Transcultural de Música)Guantánamo, 2003:
The next time Ahmed was taken to the interrogation cell, the music was heavy metal instead of Eminem. The volume was earsplitting and the music was played for hours, even entire days. Sometimes they also stuck a stroboscope in front of his face. The cell was dark and he could see nothing but the flashing lights in his eyes. The interrogators also turned down the temperature on the air-conditioning, forcing Ahmed to endure hours of the music and flashing lights in an ice-cold room. He wasn't permitted to use the bathroom and was left to urinate or defecate in his pants. The shackles caused his legs to swell up while the deafening music continued incessantly. (Der Spiegel)Iraq, 2004:
As tanks geared up to trample Fallujah and American troops started circling the city, special operations officers rifled through their CD cases, searching for a sound track to spur the assault.
What would irk Iraqi insurgents more: Barking dogs or bluegrass? Screaming babies or shrieking feedback?
Heavy metal. The Army's latest weapon.
AC/DC. Loud. Louder!
Let's roll. (Tampa Bay Times)Camp Cropper, Iraq, 2006:
Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a sonic bludgeon.
"Stains like the blood on your teeth," Trent Reznor snarled over distorted guitars. "Bite. Chew."
The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, told The Associated Press he was soon suicidal. (AP, via Fox News)
The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.
But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents. (New York Times)
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| From CUCollector.com. |
Now the detainees aren't the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.Tuscarora, Nevada, 2009:
A campaign being launched Wednesday has brought together groups including Massive Attack and musicians such as Tom Morello, who played with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and is now on a solo tour. It will feature minutes of silence during concerts and festivals, said Chloe Davies of the British law group Reprieve, which represents dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees and is organizing the campaign. (AP, via Fox News)
Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way.Afghanistan, 2010:But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. (Wall Street Journal)Reno Gazette-Journal
The 2-inch-long insects often carpet the arid landscape in the spring and summer, devouring vegetation and driving residents to distraction.
Chicago, 2011:US special forces have a novel weapon in the fight to expel Taliban from a desolate and war-weary farming community in southern Afghanistan – heavy metal music....The playlist has been hand-selected to "---- off the Taliban", according to one US special forces officer. "Taliban hate that music," said the sergeant involved in covert psychological operations, or "psy ops", in the area in Helmand province. (Daily Telegraph)
A court says two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm can move forward with a lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of being responsible for U.S. forces allegedly torturing them....
Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel claim they were tortured in 2006 after blowing the whistle on alleged illegal activities by the contracting company. They say they were subjected to sleep deprivation, blasting music, hunger and various threats.
U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen in Illinois last year found that the two could pursue claims that they were tortured using Rumsfeld-approved methods. This most recent decision was the former Defense Secretary‘s appeal to Andersen’s position, which he lost. (The Blaze)
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| Not what it looks like; Shemp is merely stuck in a hole in the ceiling. From Anthony Balducci's Journal. |
The Lay of the Land
Mike "Gamecock" DeVine has a question about the Chick-fil-A stuff:
But seriously, are there enough gays, lesbians, transvestites, transgenders and even gender questioners anywhere except San Francisco and Mid-Town Atlanta to make an ongoing boycott discernible? I’m asking, and shouldn’t boycotting same-sex marriage advocates be defined as intolerant, anti-parental-diversity-for-children-o-phobe bigots?I am guessing that Mike "Gamecock" DeVine has been to one big city and it is Atlanta. Perhaps it was fun.
Getting Your Own Seat On the Bus
Yes, it's a long-awaited portrait of me riding the bus and looking especially dashing. For those with the temerity to experiment with Quartz Composer it turns out there's a face-recognition widget. Follow the file path thisaway and you'll discover all the special effects modules in the nearly useless Photo Booth application, which can bug your eyes out or whatever:
Since those thingies were only intended for Photo Booth they won't work in Quartz Composer without you adding the video input patch, but that's easy enough, and then they provide an example of how to extract positional data about the face it finds, allowing you to manipulate to your heart's content:
You too can be a Resident.
Mitt's Charisma Advantage
Thomas Sowell, on side for his team:
After the charismatic -- and disastrous -- Woodrow Wilson presidency, the voters did not elect another president in the next decade who could be considered the least bit charismatic. Let us hope that history repeats itself.
Airborne Elephant Watch: London
The Olympics have not yet begun, but there's already a hot contender for this year's Thomas P. Friedman Award for best "Islam is scary" story composed exclusively of materials that can be found in an ordinary taxi.
It's NPR's faith-based correspondent, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, for
Best of luck to Egyptian 10.000-meter open-water swimmer Mazen Aziz, who loses 11 pounds in a typical race!
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| From Roqoo Depot. |
It's NPR's faith-based correspondent, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, for
Olympians' Dilemma: 'Starve My Soul' For Ramadan?
with the Olympics falling during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the 22-year-old athlete had to make a choice: be in top physical condition or maintain a primary tenet of his faith.She didn't find any religious authorities to say that you had to fast (you can postpone it, as with pregnancy or sickness), or any Muslim athletes who would in fact be fasting, though she thought there must be some of those from the more conservative countries or in some of the less aerobic sports, so the amount of controversy she found on the issue would be exactly 0.0, but she filed the story anyhow.
Best of luck to Egyptian 10.000-meter open-water swimmer Mazen Aziz, who loses 11 pounds in a typical race!
Sweetness
Ann-Marie Murrell:
Comparing the differences, I finally understood why so many Democrats remain Democrat no matter how unreasonable and unintelligent it may seem.Add delicious toppings.
In food terms, Republicans are the healthy (yet boring and tedious) meat, potatoes and vegetables of a meal. They are there to nourish, and to keep you strong and fit. Although Republicans represent the most responsible and important part of the meal, they’re nothing to really get excited about--unlike the sugary, yummy excesses of dessert.
Which is exactly the part of the meal that Democrats symbolize.
Ah, dessert. It’s what most children would rather eat first, skipping the “healthy” portions altogether.
Children don’t care about nutrients, vitamins, minerals—they just want the stuff that tastes good in their mouths. They don’t care how it’s made, who made it, how it got there--they just want it in front of them so they can scarf it all down. Or as Veruca Salt famously said in Willie Wonka, “I want it and I want it NOW!”
In real-life terms, Republicans will talk a thing to death, providing details and data and reasonable, logical facts while Democrats thrive on as few words and sentences as humanly possible: Things are fine! Go Green!
Sigh.
So how can boring, wordy Republicans compete with the “desserts” of the world?
Deep in a world of delusion
Shorter David Brooks:
Anyway, gun control might not even work;
And familiar charts like this one?
I guess we'd be told that they're obviously biased. They leave out countries with very strict gun control and horrifying murder rates, like Russia and South Africa. It's so unfair to compare us to places like Canada and Australia with which we have virtually nothing culturally in common.
Brooks ends up going the full Oprah, as it were:
A person who commits a spree killing is likely to be mentally ill; therefore, don't start by limiting his access to guns, start with therapy.It's the new gun-nut compassion!
When you investigate the minds of these killers, you find yourself deep in a world of delusion, untreated schizophrenia and ferociously injured pride.... The crucial point is that the dynamics are internal, not external. These killers are primarily the product of psychological derangements, not sociological ones. Yet, after every rampage, there are always people who want to use these events to indict whatever they don’t like about society.Like say, for instance, what you don't like about society is the way it allows crazy people to buy very dangerous weapons. Then when something like the Aurora massacre happens you will be totally tempted to blame it on that and start howling for better gun laws instead of worrying about your killer's exaggerated sense of his own significance and deeply wounded self-esteem. You'll be treating a symptom instead of the disease.
Anyway, gun control might not even work;
it’s not clear that those laws improve public safety. Researchers reviewing the gun control literature for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, were unable to show the laws are effective.It's true! That CDC study in 2000-2002 found that there was not enough evidence to say whether the laws currently in operation in the US were effective or not. You remember 2000-2002, don't you? That was when the Bush administration cleaned all the rotten old politicization out of the CDC and other agencies by staffing it with brilliant young professionals from academic hothouses like Regent University. Or something.
And familiar charts like this one?
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| From Sodahead. |
Brooks ends up going the full Oprah, as it were:
The best way to prevent killing sprees is with relationships — when one person notices that a relative or neighbor is going off the rails and gets that person treatment before the barbarism takes control.At least if you can find them; you can usually recognize them by the fact that they seem totally normal, quiet and polite, not the kind of person who would ever do such a thing. That's what all the neighbors always say. Anyway, Brooks foresees such objections—that's why he recommends something that's a cross between the individual mandate and racial profiling:
there also has to be a more aggressive system of treatment options, especially for men in their 20s.Mandatory hugs! Self-esteem boot camps! Makes your average gun-control law sound downright masculine, don't it?
Next up, swimming pool vouchers (for people with adequate back yards only)
Glory be! The Times thinks "Republican Senators Face Risks" over insisting that this round of tax cut extensions should be only for the wealthy:
Senate Republicans will press this week to extend tax cuts for affluent families scheduled to expire Jan. 1, but the same Republican tax plan would allow a series of tax cuts for the working poor and the middle class to end next year.
Republicans say the tax breaks for lower-income families — passed with little notice in the extensive 2009 economic stimulus law — were always supposed to be temporary. But President Obama had made them a priority in 2009 and demanded their extension in 2010 as a price for extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two years...Wow, I sure hope they stick with this. It will be so clarifying for people who aren't quite sure what the party stands for.
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| Sheriff of Nottingham costume from Haslemere Wardrobe, UK. |
Someone to Help with Everything!
Planning our wedding has pretty much been a breeze. At every step, there is someone to help us out. Friends, family, friends of friends, family of friends, etc... So many steps of our wedding are being done by those that we know and love, and it really has made the planning process enjoyable! Not to mention, I love how personal the big day will be.
- I have known our photographer for a large portion of my life. We knew each other from church and school and have always gotten along wonderfully. Her little sister will also be doing my hair and the hair of a few of my bridesmaids
- Our invites were designed by my sister-in-laws sister. Her other two sisters will also be coming the morning of to do our makeup and help with hair.
- The band is a group of boys- most of who I have known since elementary school- the lead singer for even longer.
- In addition to a band, we're having a DJ. One of my longest friends happens to work for a large DJ company and has offered to get us a DJ as his gift to us. While we weren't planning on having this, I'm happy to not have to worry about having music on an IPod for when the band is taking breaks.
- We're doing a hog roast- close family friends are raising the hog. They are also providing a place for the boys to all stay the night before (a house they have fixed up for people who come down to hunt).
- A friend of my dad's is doing all the cooking and another friend of his is managing the kitchen/bar staff. As a caterer, my dad has experience doing this, but definitely didn't want to be in charge the day of the wedding!
- The dad of one of my friends is actually roasting the hog.
- And through a friend of a friend, we found someone to bake our cake.
- Since we're just having a small cake, my aunt's and other family friends will be making assorted cookies and brownies and desserts.
- We're being married by my dad's best friend- who I have known my entire life- and who also happens to be a Catholic deacon. I'm thrilled that we will be married by someone who has been such a large part of my life.
- My mom's co-worker is in a string quartet and they might be (this one isn't set it stone yet) be playing at our ceremony.
As I said, there are friends and family helping with every aspect of this wedding. I love everything about it and it truly has helped me not be stressed. I have so much help from all the wonderful people in our lives that I know our wedding day will be fantastic!
Out of hell
I've always ranked Batman low on my personal scale of superheroes, below Superman, say, and particularly Spiderman, on sort of political grounds--that he doesn't really have any superpowers, just money, that his invincibility is all hardware, which he pays for by calmly writing a check, whereas for the others there is some fatality in their being different from everybody else, born on a different planet, bitten by a radioactive spider, and some big emotional cost in getting there.
Yes, I know Bruce Wayne lost his parents to criminal terrorism and this is why he fights, but that just proves the point: it's his own personal therapy, not some broader vision; he doesn't have to choose against private happiness, unlike Peter Parker, who is constantly forced to think about how happy he could make Aunt May and Mary Anne if he dropped the quest, even became a criminal himself.
My son, as a small boy, hated Batman, whose name I think he misheard as "Badman", and wanted nothing to do with him, but by the time he was 11, when The Dark Knight was released, he wanted to see it, and so we did. I felt very peculiar about it--extraordinary in parts, but I hated the structure of the screenplay building to its greatest tension when they blow up Maggie Gyllenhaal at the end of act 2 and then nobody ever speaks her name again, like poor Clover Adams, as if it were all her fault instead of the writers. And then I was repelled by the way Batman collaborates with the transparently fascist district attorney, does a torture interrogation himself on the Joker, and never distances himself from that Dark ideology even after the DA is revealed to be a Two-Face, a hypocrite who has never been more than a step away from being a criminal all the while. Harry, meanwhile, thought it was the best film he had ever seen.
Still does, too; we were talking about it, the other night. The interesting thing is this: he didn't disagree with my moral scruples at all. He just doesn't expect the protagonist to be a good guy, and it doesn't interfere with his pleasure if the hero is a dick. I thought that was pretty sophisticated.
Yes, I know Bruce Wayne lost his parents to criminal terrorism and this is why he fights, but that just proves the point: it's his own personal therapy, not some broader vision; he doesn't have to choose against private happiness, unlike Peter Parker, who is constantly forced to think about how happy he could make Aunt May and Mary Anne if he dropped the quest, even became a criminal himself.
My son, as a small boy, hated Batman, whose name I think he misheard as "Badman", and wanted nothing to do with him, but by the time he was 11, when The Dark Knight was released, he wanted to see it, and so we did. I felt very peculiar about it--extraordinary in parts, but I hated the structure of the screenplay building to its greatest tension when they blow up Maggie Gyllenhaal at the end of act 2 and then nobody ever speaks her name again, like poor Clover Adams, as if it were all her fault instead of the writers. And then I was repelled by the way Batman collaborates with the transparently fascist district attorney, does a torture interrogation himself on the Joker, and never distances himself from that Dark ideology even after the DA is revealed to be a Two-Face, a hypocrite who has never been more than a step away from being a criminal all the while. Harry, meanwhile, thought it was the best film he had ever seen.
Still does, too; we were talking about it, the other night. The interesting thing is this: he didn't disagree with my moral scruples at all. He just doesn't expect the protagonist to be a good guy, and it doesn't interfere with his pleasure if the hero is a dick. I thought that was pretty sophisticated.
1% problem
Sometimes when my daughter realizes that she is on the point of getting seriously upset about something monumentally trivial, she smiles brightly and says, "White girl problem!"
Which I like very much, also in the variation I've overheard a couple of times, "First-world problem."
How is one to respond to the story in today's Times headlined,
Luckily, there are consultants to help you through it all, as well as a book, by Roy Williams and Vic Preisser, Preparing Heirs: Five Steps to a Successful Transition of Family Wealth and Values (Robert Reed Publishers, 2003). Or there are special therapists, according to Mother Jones, "wealth psychologists", who can assist in pulling you through.
And for the rest of you, sleep, well, adding yet another to the list of problems you don't expect to have.
Which I like very much, also in the variation I've overheard a couple of times, "First-world problem."
How is one to respond to the story in today's Times headlined,
What to Tell the Children About Their Inheritance and When
For the rest of us, inheritors seem like a democracy’s version of royalty: born into a world of privilege we would love to know. Yet the inheritors I spoke to said they were ill equipped to handle the windfall and found that it quickly made them feel separate from their peers.For example,
Jason Franklin, now 32, said he received a call from his grandfather’s secretary asking if he wanted to serve on the board of the family foundation. He was 21 at the time, and up until that point, he said he thought his parents were just affluent professionals like his friends’ parents. The invitation prompted questions.
So he had to go out and buy some new friends, right away, and they didn't have any in the right sizes. No, that's mean. Similarly,“If your family has enough money to create a family foundation, that means you have to ask about issues of wealth,” said Mr. Franklin, who works for a philanthropic consultancy. “It caused me to really pause. The reaction I was getting from my friends — it was isolating and confusing.”
When Naomi Sobel learned at 20 that she would receive a large inheritance, she said she knew it was a lot of money, and for her, too, it raised questions about a house: would it be enough to buy one? She laughs at this today, since it would have paid for many, many homes.
Heh heh indeed, that's a scream.“I have enough money that I don’t ever have to work,” said Ms. Sobel, now 28.
Luckily, there are consultants to help you through it all, as well as a book, by Roy Williams and Vic Preisser, Preparing Heirs: Five Steps to a Successful Transition of Family Wealth and Values (Robert Reed Publishers, 2003). Or there are special therapists, according to Mother Jones, "wealth psychologists", who can assist in pulling you through.
And for the rest of you, sleep, well, adding yet another to the list of problems you don't expect to have.
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| Photo from The L Magazine. |
Depends what you mean by credible
Talk to any credible economist, wire any serious politician to a polygraph, and you will hear at least 80 percent agreement on what is to be done: investment to goose the lackluster recovery and rebuild our infrastructure, entitlement reforms and spending discipline to lower the debt, and a tax code that lets the government pay its way without stifling business, punishing the middle class or rewarding sleight of hand. (Bill Keller, 7/21/2010)I'm going to start referring to Krugman as the Incredible Economist.
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| From the Pulitzer Prize citation for David Leonhardt, NY Times, November 2010. |
Still, there's something going on here. Keller doesn't bemoan the absence of a president willing to try to stimulate the economy and balance the budget at the same time, because he knows we already have one, which is a big step forward in awareness, and he (and old Erskine Bowles) have joined what I thought was an entirely leftist crowd—well, starting with Senator Patty Murray last week, and then Matthew Yglesias—urging Democrats to play chicken with those Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year, and also with the ghastly across-the-board spending cuts from the last budget pseudo-agreement, which kick in at the same time.
That is, after Boehner offers his next unacceptable budget, Obama could Just Say No, and then call a lame-duck session after the election to crank something out before January 1. I don't know, though, wouldn't that be affected (1) by what happens during the election, and more important (2) what the congresspersons, victorious and defeated, think happened?
Sim pathogen
Scientists at Stanford University and the J. Craig Venter Institute have developed the first software simulation of an entire organism, a humble single-cell bacterium that lives in the human genital and respiratory tracts. (NYTimes, 7/20/2012)
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| I am curious-mycoplasma. From The Inquisitor. |
The inevitable theological part, for me, is like this: if this is the handiwork of a god, the watchmaker who left his watch on the beach x many millennia ago, why is it so absurdly complex? Why so roundabout in getting where it's going, why so profoundly inelegant? Why is there no engineer's pride here?
The scientist never knows quite how to say this, but if it isn't God, that's because it's better than God! More true to life, funnier, more original, in the end more beautiful.
So congratulations to the folks at Stanford and Venter. Not sure I want to live to see the simulated mouse (by the time it's ready, I suppose, it'll be down to a couple of dozen computers, while our phones will be holding things like the international Zagat, self-updating star and planet charts, and the complete bloodlines of all the thoroughbreds that ever lived).
Chagrin Falls visit
Last week, Doug and I made our first trip to Chagrin Falls. A groupon encouraged this trip, as I had purchased one that was going to expire...last week. Oops.
So last Wednesday, we headed to Umami. Now let me pause here and tell you how much I love Groupon. It is awesome to find deals to restaurants like this, that are in places I don't normally go. I always here great things, but it's not exactly the norm for me to find myself in Chagrin Falls. So not only did we get an amazing meal- it encouraged me to explore someplace new.
But back to our meal. So. Good. We both started off the evening with our drink of choice- mine being a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, his a beer. After the drinks arrived, we ordered the goat cheese dumplings. As described by the menu: Goat Cheese Dumplings...mushrooms, miso mushroom vinaigrette.
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| Oops...forgot the photo until we were well into our meal. |
The goat cheese flavor was strong, but not over powering. The mushrooms added a nice earthiness to the dish. And I kind of wanted to lick what was left of the vinaigrette.
Next came our main dishes. Doug decided to go with the Udon noodles. I ordered one of the specials- a grouper dish, but it was unfortunately sold out, so I went with the scallops. And let's be honest- it's hard to go wrong with scallops (as long as they are, of course, cooked well).
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| (from website) Udon Noodles...spicy steak, shiitakes, bok choy, basil, ginger, parmesan, dashi |
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| And of course, this isn't on the website and I forgot to write it down. Seared scallops, crispy noodles, cucumber (was shredded like noodles), jalapenos, and I reallly wish I remembered the sauce! |
Both were delish. I definitely snuck more than one bite of Doug's noodles. I can't even pinpoint one thing about this dish that I liked- everything blended together perfectly, while still having distinct flavors- the beef, the shiitakes, mmm.
The scallops were cooked perfectly. Served hot, with a nice sear, over a bed of chilled noodles made for the perfect balance on the hot evening. Both plates were empty by the end of our meal.
I'm not going to lie- we're broke right now. So going out for a dinner like this isn't a normal occurrence (thank god for Groupon), and I unfortunately don't see us going back until after the wedding and our funds have replenished. I'm not saying it's overpriced- it was actually very reasonable for the quality of the food and service. But we're unfortunately running on a low budget at the moment.
And since we were in Chagrin Falls- we over course had to have Jeni's Ice Cream. A three scoop sampler (Whiskey and Pecans, Honey Pistachio and Brambleberry Crunch) and a walk down to the falls was a perfect end to the evening. I'm still dreaming about that Whiskey and Pecan icecream...the BEST.
I would love to go back to Chagrin Falls- walk around more, check out more of the restaurants and sites. It is a relatively quick drive for us, so hopefully we'll be back soon!
I will not be afraid of death and Bain
I know, I know! It all has to do with the bizarre way Bain Capital was organized. I kept thinking, if old Romney was the CEO, and the president, and the chairman, and the sole shareholder in 1999-2002, wouldn't he have been obliged to show up once in a while, just to avoid awkward rumors? ("I heard that Romney's out on the West Coast in one of those rehab facilities—seems in the end he just couldn't handle the chocolate milk.")
But then the New York Times took a little time to explain to me. The Bain Capital, Inc., to which Romney was Lord High Everything was not the same entity as the Bain Capital that did all the deals. Indeed, in a certain sense the latter did not exist. Every time they did a deal they would put together a new little entity, with a name like "Bain Capital Investors Inc. VI" or "Bain Capital Investors Inc. VII", in which all the partners would be partners, and it was all these little Bains smooshed together, like pictures of square dancers in a kaleidoscope, that constituted the famous company. Presumably the structure turned their salaries into capital gains and reduced everybody's income tax by 50%.
But Romney's company was the managing company that managed them all, and so he had to do what managers always do, to wit, nothing. In Boston, of course, he was also one of the active partners, so he must have been busy schmoozing and golfing and flying hither and yon to negotiate. The managing part would have taken up so little of his time, though, that he could move to Salt Lake City and "24/7" Olympics responsibilities, and continued on as bishop of Boston as well, and nobody would ever notice.
However, this is exactly what he is desperate that the American public should not know, that managers don't actually do anything; since it's a central part of his campaign that his managerial experience qualifies him uniquely for the presidency, just like Herbert Hoover.
Then again, I don't suppose he's aware that managers don't do anything. Most managers think they work like hell; or as David Brooks puts it,
The Times also noted that in 2002, after the brilliant Olympics were over, Romney had to fight off Democrats who said he wasn't qualified to be governor of Massachusetts, not having lived there for the past three years. To the contrary!
But then the New York Times took a little time to explain to me. The Bain Capital, Inc., to which Romney was Lord High Everything was not the same entity as the Bain Capital that did all the deals. Indeed, in a certain sense the latter did not exist. Every time they did a deal they would put together a new little entity, with a name like "Bain Capital Investors Inc. VI" or "Bain Capital Investors Inc. VII", in which all the partners would be partners, and it was all these little Bains smooshed together, like pictures of square dancers in a kaleidoscope, that constituted the famous company. Presumably the structure turned their salaries into capital gains and reduced everybody's income tax by 50%.
But Romney's company was the managing company that managed them all, and so he had to do what managers always do, to wit, nothing. In Boston, of course, he was also one of the active partners, so he must have been busy schmoozing and golfing and flying hither and yon to negotiate. The managing part would have taken up so little of his time, though, that he could move to Salt Lake City and "24/7" Olympics responsibilities, and continued on as bishop of Boston as well, and nobody would ever notice.
However, this is exactly what he is desperate that the American public should not know, that managers don't actually do anything; since it's a central part of his campaign that his managerial experience qualifies him uniquely for the presidency, just like Herbert Hoover.
Then again, I don't suppose he's aware that managers don't do anything. Most managers think they work like hell; or as David Brooks puts it,
They work much longer hours than people down the income scale, driving their kids to piano lessons and then taking part in conference calls from the waiting room.Oh, those conference calls! It's worse than picking cotton!
The Times also noted that in 2002, after the brilliant Olympics were over, Romney had to fight off Democrats who said he wasn't qualified to be governor of Massachusetts, not having lived there for the past three years. To the contrary!
For 30 years, his lawyer argued, “the center of his social, civic and business life has been in this commonwealth.”He got that gig, as we know. Now he wants a gig for which, oddly, he is supposed to say that he did not live in Massachusetts from 1999 to 2002. So he'll say that. It doesn't matter, in the final analysis, which is true; he'll lie whichever way works. But oh, it does put him out of joint when they make him contradict himself.
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| Birnam Wood. From iTravelUK.co.uk. |
Wedding weekend!
This weekend brought wedding #4 of the year! My amazing co-worker Ellen, and her fabulous fiance Mike, tied the knot on Saturday.
But before we headed to the wedding- the fiance and I made a huge step towards our own wedding- SENDING INVITATIONS!! I started getting text messages last night that people had receive theirs- so I will be anxiously awaiting the RSVPs (which of course will all show up right on time...HA). I'll do another post showing off our invites because they are pretty much fabulously amazing and I completely love them.
Ellen and Mike were married in a gorgeous Catholic Church- St. Patrick's in Ohio City. Minus the 80 degree temperature inside (according to my other coworkers, it wasn't that bad. I just don't handle heat that well...), it was a gorgeous ceremony and you could just tell how very in love they are.
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| Mr. and Mrs. Dubiel! |
The reception was a fabulous time! After a mini break at Crocker Park (with a few beers/margaritas/sangrias for the group), we headed over to the Fuller House on the BAYarts Campus. Talk about gorgeous! The setting was amazing- the food was fabulous- there was corn hole, a bon fire, s'mores, plenty of dancing and as previously documented, whenever there is plenty of dancing, there is plenty of booze.
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| We're next!! |
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| More coworkers with the bride and groom |
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| Dancin' fools |
Overall- it was a wonderful night, spending time with some awesome people. Yeah, I see them every day. But it is definitely more enjoyable to spend time with them outside of work.
And yes...we have had four wedding this year so far. But now, we're next!! 74 days to go...
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