Campanastan

Already Gone: Leaving From a Theater Near You - 'Machine Gun Preacher'

NYU DRI voted this the Best Insulting Picture at the Exploiting Africa Academy Awards (EAAA).

Gerard Butler plays a White Messiah with a machine gun.

Too bad Jennifer Aniston's not in the film; she was on a shopping trip.

Here's the trailer:

  

Check out the MGP WWW site and see what you think. Read more about the MGP himself, Sam Childers.

Hey, maybe Childers and Butler can get together and kick some butt to get 1000 Wells for Darfur going!

Reminds me of the Eagles song Already Gone. Why? The film has come and already gone.

Thanks to William Easterly for bringing this to my attention.

"It ([Machine Gun Preacher] comes off like a morally unreliable story in which Gerard Butler saves Africa from itself." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 29 September 2011 

Meet The Canada Party - America, But Better

The Canada Party. Why not, eh? Take off, hoser!

 

 "The Canada Party - America, But Better."

I-Am-A-Guerrilla-In-Manila: Week 1

Friend and former graduate school officemate Barney Popkin is off on another trip, this time to Manila for the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Here is his seriocomic report.

Download I-ama-guerilla in Manila - Week One

Here is Barney with a good friend.

"The rattan basket criticizes the palm leaf basket, still both are full of holes." - Philippines proverb

The Inscrutable 1960s: One Got Fat

I sure don't recall seeing this video!

Thanks to Philip Bump.

Interesting that the children wearing monkey masks get wiped out, while the one without a mask, Orville, escapes unscathed and gets to eat all the food.

Morals:

1) Don't wear monkey masks while riding bikes, lest they obstruct your vision and get you killed.

2) Always carry the food when bicycling with people dressed like monkeys.

WTF???

 

 "But what [...] is it good for?" - Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

TSA 3-1-1: The REAL Cost of Flying

The infographic following the one immediately below the TSA one was prepared by the folks at eCollegeFinder. It documents the environmental and other costs of the TSA 3-1-1 regulation:

Here is the eCollegeFinder infographic. Click on it to see it in its entirety or go here.

Thanks to Britany Behrman for sending it my way.  

 

"At the airport if you refuse to be patted down, they arrest you. And what’s the first thing they do when they arrest you? They pat you down." –Jay Leno  

Read Timothy Snyder's 'Bloodlands'...If You Dare

I just finished Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands, a book describing, in painstaking detail, the murder of over 14,000,000 people in the region between what is now central Poland to western Russia and north to the Baltic Sea and south to the Black Sea.

That region is what Snyder calls 'bloodlands'. On the accompanying map the bloodlands are the areas with the diagonal lines (from Anne Applebaum's review).

The slaughter occurred during the period 1933-1945 when Hitler and Stalin were murdering Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, et al. These people did not die because of war, but because deliberate decisions were made to murder them.

The book is one of the mist difficult I've ever read. But I am glad I did. Here is the Preface.

From the homepage:

Americans call the Second World War "The Good War". But before it even began, America's wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens — and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war's end, both the German and the Soviet killing sites fell behind the iron curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness.

Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlandswill be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history. 

Unforgettable and compelling. And did I say 'disturbing'?

But so necessary.

‎"No major war or act of mass killing in the twentieth century began without the aggressors or perpetrators first claiming innocence and victimhood. In the twenty-first century, we see a second wave of aggressive wars with victim claims, in which leaders not only present their peoples as victims but make explicit reference to the mass murders of the twentieth century. The human capacity for subjective victimhood is apparently limitless, and people who believe that they are victims can be motivated to perform acts of great violence." - Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands, p. 399-400.

The Content of Our Character...

Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr ,,who would have turned 83 yesterday. I have come to appreciate and admire him (and all the civil rights workers) by reading Taylor Branch's brilliant trilogy of the civil rights era: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63; Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65; and At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68.

What thoroughly amazes me were the toughness, resiliency, and resolve of the civil
rights workers, and how they honored King's insistence upon nonviolent resistance. Along with King, the names of heroes such as John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Rosa Parks, Coretta King, Septima Clark, James Meredith, Andrew Young, Marian Wright, Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Bevel, Bob Moses, et al., are forever burned in my mind. Similarly, I shall not soon forget place names like Selma and Montgomery, or people like Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Bull Connor, Orval Faubus, Strom Thurmond, and their ilk.

As I read the aforementioned books, cringing at what humans can do to each other, one thought haunted me: what would I have done had I been a Southern white person during that time (I am actually half-North Carolina Scots-Irish WASP)? I've concluded that I probably would not have been one of the segregationist ringleaders, but certainly would not have risen to the defense of the oppressed. I probably would have (very quietly) supported their cause, but not done anything to jeopardize my comfortable middle-class lifestyle (see the quote below). Certainly Northerners were no better than Southerners when it came to desegregation; recall the Boston busing "incidents" of the 1970s.

Another thing also amazes me: how much the Southern poor whites ("poor white trash") and blacks had in common. Both were horribly oppressed, but skillful politicians kept the poor whites riled about the "uppity Negroes". If the two groups had united, there would have been hell to pay.

Here is King's "I Have a Dream" speech:

 

 I do have a few interesting memories about that period, as I was a student in Virginia (College of William and Mary) from 1966-1970. Just after I arrived in Virginia, Sen. Harry F. Byrd died - he was the scion of the infamous Byrd (members of the FFV) political dynasty in Virginia, and the whole state mourned his death. What I remember most about that time is the characterization of Byrd by a local columnist:

"Never was there a man who so dragged his feet through the sands of time."

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963

Happy Triskaidekaphobia Day! Paraskevidekatriaphobes Beware!

There are actually two more Friday the 13ths this year: 13 April and 13 July. Rare! But that makes sense; after all, the Maya predicted that the world would end in 2012.

In any event, it's not a good
year for those who suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia —fear of Friday the 13th.

Have a great day! 

"Luck has a peculiar habit of favoring those who don't depend on it" --
 Unknown

 

A Trip Down Memory Lane: Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945

Make that a 'terrifying trip'.

Thanks to Jerry Sehlke and Natalie Burtenshaw for this item.

Fascinating map created by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto. It covers the period from 1945 through 1998.

From the WWW site:

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea's two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing"the fear and folly of nuclear weapons." It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

Brings back 'memories' - the President-For-Life once experienced an underground nuclear test in Nevada in the early 1980s. Exciting and frightening. [See My Former So-Called Life as a Tool of the Nuclear Weapons Program.]

 

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." - Gen. Omar N. Bradley

"They're not 'bombs'; they are 'devices'! They are only called 'bombs' when we drop them from the sky." -  an especially irritating Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist, educating yours truly on the correct nomenclature for nuclear devices, 1976

Papa John's Wishes the Customer Had 'Bette Davis Eyes'

No, the customer did not have 'Bette Davis Eyes' so the clerk typed in what kind of eyes she appeared to have.

Here's the story.

"Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." - Friedrich Schiller

The Bain of His Existence: Mitt Comes to Town

From the PAC WinningOurFuture.

Here is the story from the New York Times.

Funny thing is that the $5M to produce this film was donated by a pro-Gingrich Las Vegas casino owner. So casino owners are not 'vulture capitalists'? The pot is calling the kettle black here, folks.

 

Odd that a Republican candidate and a casino owner would criticize another Republican for being a capitalist.

“The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.” - Newt Gingrich

Tom Friedman Blows Bubbles: 'Suck on This'

Got this from a Paul Krugman Tweet, 'Why Is Tom Friedman Still Writing for the New York Times?'

Here's Tom Friedman with Charlie Rose in 2003 talking about the Iraq War.

 

What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, “Which part of this sentence don’t you understand?” You don’t think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we’re just gonna to let it grow? Well, Suck. On. This.[28][29][30] ..We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That’s the real truth…'- Tom Friedman (from the above video)

Friedman should remember that bubbles are often full of hot air, just like he is.  

Here is what Friedman is saying these days (thanks to Jay Ackroyd):

As I never bought the argument that Saddam had nukes that had to be taken out, the decision to go to war stemmed, for me, from a different choice: Could we collaborate with the people of Iraq to change the political trajectory of this pivotal state in the heart of the Arab world and help tilt it and the region onto a democratizing track? After 9/11, the idea of helping to change the context of Arab politics and address the root causes of Arab state dysfunction and Islamist terrorism — which were identified in the 2002 Arab Human Development Report as a deficit of freedom, a deficit of knowledge and a deficit of women’s empowerment — seemed to me to be a legitimate strategic choice.

You go, Tom!

 'We hit Iraq because we could. That’s the real truth…' - Tom Friedman, 29 May 2003

If It Takes a Thief to Catch a Thief, Then Who Can Catch a Murderer?

Another murderer?

Since I posted on Darfur yesterday, why not post today on Syria, another place ruled by a murderer? Better still, why not link the atrocites in Syria to those in Darfur?

I don't have to; Kate Cronin-Furman already did it for me at the Wronging Rights blog (thanks to William Easterly): 

In a late entry for most absurd human rights story of 2011, the Arab League has appointed Sudanese General Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi to head their observer mission to Syria. As David Kenner points out in an article titled "The World's Worst Human Rights Observer," Dabi is implicated in the Bashir regime's organization of atrocity-committing janjaweed militias in Darfur, making him rather an unconventional choice for a human rights observer mission.

An anonymous reader suggests that Dabi's background as an (alleged) participant in genocide mean he's overqualified to monitor mere crimes against humanity. But I'm kind of thinking the Arab League might be onto something. I mean, it's like home alarm system companies using ex-burglars as "security consultants," right? Who better to catch a war criminal?

Hmmm....What goes around, comes around? Nope - better still:

"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities." - Voltaire

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - attributed to Edmund Burke

Has '1000 Wells for Darfur' Dried Up?

Happy New Year! 

Perhaps I can make this first 2012 post an optimistic one. I'll let you be the judge.

It has been a while (21 February 2011) since I provided an update on the aforementioned project on this blog. Over at WaterWired I posted a more recent update on 4 September 2011: Earth to '1000 Wells for Darfur': SOS?.

You can go here to find links to my early posts about the project, including some of the scientific aspects.

Intending to do an update, I went to the project's WWW site and Dr. Farouk El-Baz's blog, only to find both defunct. So I emailed El-Baz and received his prompt reply on 31 December 2011:

There is still fighting in Darfur, but hopefully that will end soon after the death of the rebel leader Ibrahim.

In the meantime there are several efforts continuing, including student volunteers who are collecting funds
for a well in the name of their institution. Boston Univ. students collected $7,300 of the $10,000 needed for one.

The effort will be initiated as soon as the Doha peace agreement is fully accepted.

Farouk El-Baz

There is no mention of any test drilling to verify the existence of the postulated groundwater reservoir suggested by satellite imagery. Ground truthing is needed before '1000 Wells for Darfur' can be realized.

I appreciate Dr. El-Baz's reply and encourage him to reactivate the project WWW site/blog to keep people apprised of the project's progress.

We'll see what happens. Let's hope for good things in 2012. I am afraid I am not very optimistic.

"The Darfur initiative will bring hope to the people of northwestern Sudan; it will allow the migration of the labour force to locations where economic development is suitable and environmentally sustainable. This initiative can be a starting point for ameliorating the human suffering in the region and raising the quality of life and capacity of its people." -- Dr. Farouk El-Baz, 25 June 2007

Egyptian Democracy Made Simple

Got all this from David Zetland.

 He is vacationing in Egypt.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2011 - Let My People Vote - Egyptian Parliamentary Election
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

 And here is the pièce de résistance (click to enlarge):

"A woman will be twice bound when her chains feel comfortable." - Egyptian proverb

She Would Have Been 60 Today

Hard to imagine that my 'baby sister' should be turning 60 today. Today would have been my younger sister Ann's 60th birthday had not five Saudi Arabian murderers taken her life on 11 September 2001. It's not hard for me to imagine what she might have looked like today: not much different than she did in the picture below. She was one of those people who would never look her age.

Here are some pictures I took at the Pentagon just a few days after 9/11. One shows the damage done to the Pentagon by American Airlines Flight 77, and the other shows an impromptu memorial we and others set up on a knoll overlooking the Pentagon. The spot was just off Columbia Pike in Arlington, VA, and shows some of Ann's favorite things: Marlboro Lights, Diet Coke, M & M Peanuts.

Niece Becky Weaver Templeman and I thought about putting a bottle of Dewar's there but figured it would be gone as soon as we turned our backs.

Here is my post about visiting the Pentagon Memorial.

At the top of this post is her name carved on the rock slab at the memorial.

Ann's murder left a gaping hole in the lives of many - not just friends and family, but co-workers and strangers as well.

Her memorial service on 17 September 2001 was quite the event. I gave the eulogy.

The hardest part was seeing my mother laying her youngest to rest.

Below is a picture of Ann (left) and my older sister Ellen. I think this was taken in the Spring of 2000 or so. Happier times prevailed then.  

But even in death Annie's still having an impact through the Ann Campana Judge Foundation.

I miss her.

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." -- William Shakespeare (from Julius Caesar)

Season's Greetings from Campanastan!

“Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes - goodwill among men and peace on earth." - Albert Einstein

Kim Jong-il: Energy Conservation Genius!

Few people realize that the late Kim Jong-il was something other than just another pretty face, fashion maven, skilled diplomat, and fervent humanitarian: he was an energy conservation genius who brought North Korea to the top of the world's nations when it came to efficient use of energy.

Don't take my word for it - witness this nighttime satellite image of the Korean Peninsula. Can you guess which country is North Korea?

"DPRK [North Korea] citizens are guaranteed many provisions that are uncommon in many developed capitalist societies, which are home to real poverty. Unlike in many countries of the capitalist world, the DPRK is a state free of homelessness, unemployment, prostitution and starvation.” - Kim Jong-il

New TV Show! 'Governor Rick, Science Hick'

From Tom the Dancing Bug by cartoonist Ruben Bolling.

You go, Rick!

 "George W Bush did a incredible job in the presidency, defending us from freedom." – Gov. Rick Perry (2010)

1994 Mitt Romney Explains How 2011 Mitt Romney’s Wall Street Donors Will Corrupt Mitt Romney

The title is from @drgrist; here is the original link.

Wonder if Mitt has flip-flopped on this issue?

 
"I'm happy to learn that after I speak you're going to hear from Ann Coulter. That's a good thing. I think it's important to get the views of moderates." -- Mitt Romney, right before Coulter called John Edwards a "faggot"

I-Am-Not-Too-Bad-In-Islamabad - Week 5

My former U of AZ graduate school office mate Barney Popkin, who is wrapping up his trip to Pakistan, submits his fifth report.

Download I-am-not-too-bad in Islamabad - Week Five

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."- Judy Garland

Sen. Bernie Sanders' 'Saving American Democracy' Constitutional Amendment

Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) making waves again with a proposal to amend the Constitution to stipulate that corporations are not persons.

Download Saving-American-Democracy

Check out his speech:

  

Sign a petition here.

You go, Bernie!

Thanks to good friend Bob Jarrett.

"The ruling will, to a significant degree, give control of the political process in the United States to the wealthiest and most powerful institutions in the world and the candidates who support their agenda. Instead of democracy being about one-person one-vote, it will now be about the size of a company’s bank account." - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Assad, Corzine, & Sandusky: Los Tres Chiflados

That's 'The Three Stooges' in Spanish. Maybe 'Los Tres Malos' - 'The Three Bad Men'  is more appropriate.

Thanks to Taylor Jones.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - attributed to Edmund Burke

OMG! LMAO! SVS! It's 'Graduate School Barbie'!

From Racquel Rancier's FB page and originally from Ceej and Em's blog. 

From the blog:

A new gift idea for your loved ones: Graduate School Barbie (TM).

Graduate School Barbie comes in two forms: Delusional Master's Barbie (TM) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (TM).

Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours: Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first). She also has adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes.

Comes with two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans and 5 year old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "I hate my life" T-shirt. Grad School Barbie talks! Just press the button on her left hand and hear her say such upbeat grad school phrases like, "Yes, Professor, It'll be done by tomorrow", "I'd love to rewrite" and "Why didn't I just get a job, I could have been making $40,000 a year by now if I had just started working with a Bachelor's. But noooooo, I chose to further my education, I wish somebody would drop a bomb on the school so that I'd have an excuse to stop working on my degree that's sucking every last drop of life force out of my withered and degraded excuse for a soul..." (9V lithium batteries sold separately)

Other accessories include:

Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (TM) Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!),and a small bottle of Mattel Brand Rum (tm).

Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet comes in Fabulous (pepto-bismal) pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. Johns Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription).

Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation. Comes with miniature obsolete PC (in pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation with (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price. Tech support sold separately).

What about Ken?

And Grad School Barbie is not alone! Order now and you'll get two of Barbie's great friends! GRADUATE ADVISOR KEN, Barbie's mentor and advisor in her quest for knowledge, higher education and decreased self esteem.

Grad Advisor Ken (tm) comes with a supply of red pens and a permanent frown. Press the button to hear Grad Advisor Ken deliver such wisdom to Barbie as "I need an update on your progress," "I don't think you're ready to defend yet", and "This is nowhere near ready for publication."

Buy 3 or more dolls, and you can have Barbie's Thesis Committee! (Palm Pilot and tenure sold separately.)

Hilarious. But probably too close to reality in some cases.

And don't forget the collection of New Mexico Barbies! 

BTW: 'SVS' = 'So Very Sad'.

Have you heard about 'Single Mother Barbie'? There's not much time for primping anymore! Ken's shacked up with the Swedish au pair in the Dream House and Barbie's across town with Babs and Ken, Jr, in a fourth-floor walk-up. Barbie's selling off her old gowns and accessories to raise rent money. Complete garage sale kit included

'I Could Use Pants' & Other Great Quotes: Cain Gets the Stewart Treatment

Jon Stetwart gives Cain the business. 

  

"The rush of power to the head is not as becoming as a new hat." - Herman Cain

I-Am-Not-Too-Bad-In-Islamabad - Week 4

My former U of AZ graduate school office mate Barney Popkin, who is wrapping up his trip to Pakistan, submits another report.

He even manages to invoke the musical South Pacific, and finds some women chemical engineering professors (see below). 

Download I-am-not-too-bad in Islamabad - Week Four

"Have fun, be happy, don't worry - it doesn't help!" - Barney P. Popkin

How the BCS - Bowl Chimpionship Series - Chooses Its Teams

Not much solace for the folks at Oklahoma State University.

 

 

 

“College football is a sport that bears the same relation to education that bullfighting does to agriculture.” - Elbert Hubbard

“The only bowl Rutgers is going to is the one I just got off of.” - Boston College QB Glenn Foley

No Longer Able, Cain Cuts and Runs, Will Vacation in Libya With Girlfriend and Silvio Berlusconi

Herman Cain, the Presidential aspirant who was unsure about Libya and didn't know China had nuclear capability, decided to pack it in today. 

He and long-time girlfriend Ginger Ale will vacation in Libya, where he plans to introduce the newly-liberated country to Godfather's Pizza.

Cain said that's a natural thing to do, since 'Libya and Italy have a longstanding relationship, and everyone, even I, knows that pizza is from Italy.' Cain noted that deposed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
will head up the pizza operation in Libya, 'as long as he can keep his hands out of the cookie jar, if you know what I mean.' Cain added that he expects to learn a lot from Berlusconi, because 'He's been around a long time and just keeps coming. He really knows the score when it comes to business and chicks. And he also knows where Libya is, and is buddies with that guy who's the President of Libya, Col. Gaddafi.'

Cain noted that Berlusconi must also be a very good pizza chef, because he had heard that even after 70 years, he can still make the dough rise. 

When asked if Silvio, Ginger, and he would engage in a ménage à trois, Cain look perplexed and replied, 'I don't understand Spanish.'

"Stupid people are ruining America!" - Herman Cain encouraging supporters to stay informed on the issues.

Oh, What a Tragedy! Lesbians Raised This Young Man!

I got this from Julie Elkins Watson's FB page and from MoveOn.org.

 

From the site:

Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wahls has two mothers, and came to oppose House Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.

From what I see, the world could use some more Zach Wahls.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream

Bernie Bashes Bank Bailouts

Got this from Laura Crossey's FB page.

You go, Bernie!

"Watching Washington rush to throw taxpayer money at Wall Street has been sobering and a little frightening." — Newt Gingrich

I-Am-Not-Too-Bad-In-Islamabad - Week 3

Here is another gem from my former U of AZ office mate, Barney Popkin, who's now in his third week in Pakistan.

Download I-am-not-too-bad in Islamabad - Week Three

"You can dress a monkey in a suit, but it is still a monkey." - Pakistani proverb 

Leonard Pitts, Jr. Opines: If Cain Only Had a Brain

Leonard Pitts, Jr., one of the best columnists around, wrote this incisive column about the shortcomings of Presidential candidates, especially Herman Cain.

Unfortunately, it says more about us than it does about them.

I did not realize that Cain thought China did not have nuclear capability.Where has this guy been?

You likely remember the 3 a.m. phone call.

In 2008, the most effective line of attack his opponents mounted against candidate Barack Obama centered on the freshman senator’s lack of experience. An ad for Hillary Clinton famously implied that you did not want this callow naif answering the phone at a moment of predawn crisis.

Though the country eventually decided it did, in fact, want Obama, the argument was valuable in that it forced the electorate to ask itself what kind of experience is necessary to a president. There is a corollary question that becomes more obvious and urgent with each passing day. It involves not quality of experience, but quality of mind.

On Monday, an editorial in the Manchester (New Hampshire) Union Leader attacked Herman Cain for blowing off an interview with the paper. It seems that after video of Cain stumbling to articulate a position on Libya in an interview with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel went viral last week, the candidate instituted a new rule: no video cameras in newspaper interviews.

A spokesman for the Cain campaign said this was because “videos are typically used for television, and it’s a newspaper.” But as the editorial noted, videos are used for pretty much everything these days. It suggested Cain’s real problem lay not in the presence of cameras, but in the fact that “newspaper interviews tend to be longer and more in depth” and require answers that go beyond canned sound bites. Cain’s refusal to engage in that sort of rigorous give and take, said the paper, “gives the impression that he’s got something to hide.”

Cain capitulated that same day.

But the damage is done. The attack solidifies a perception that he does, indeed, have something to hide, i.e., the fact that once you get him past his talking points (“9-9-9” and fences to electrocute unsuspecting Mexicans) – he really has nothing to say.

That has become a disturbingly common thing in recent years. Sarah Palin considered “What do you read?” a gotcha question. Michele Bachmann thinks HPV vaccinations cause brain damage.

Now comes Cain mangling a basic question about foreign policy. He has claimed he simply paused to gather his thoughts, but anyone who has seen the video knows better. In his painful hemming, hawing and false starts, Cain comes across like a fifth grader called up to the blackboard and wishing he had studied the night before. This is the same Cain who asked how to say delicious “in Cuban” while at a restaurant in Miami, the same Cain who spoke of the need to keep China from developing nuclear capability — which China did 47 years ago.

A presidential campaign constitutes the world’s longest and toughest job interview. While it’s fine to vet candidates on likeability, credibility and, yes, experience, it might not hurt to require that they also show evidence of having thought deeply and with an informed mind about the world and America’s place in it. We are, after all, choosing a president – not a golf buddy.

One sometimes wonders if some of us know the difference. That Cain stumbled so badly on a routine question does not speak well of his intellectual firepower.

That he is a leading candidate for the presidency does not speak well of ours.

One thing Cain's gotten right: stupid people are ruining America!

"Stupid people are ruining America!" - Herman Cain, encouraging supporters to stay informed on the issues.

Love Those 'Silver Threads and Golden Needles'

Listening to XM6 this evening I heard the favorite version of one of my favorite songs,Silver Threads and Golden Needles, written in 1956 by Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds. It was first recorded that same year by Wanda Jackson with a verse missing from most later versions and slightly different lyrics:

 

Here are the Honky Tonk Angels - Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette - with their rendition:

  

The song seemed to be a huge favorite among Country & Western female vocalists (Gee, I wonder why?). Versions were recorded by Skeeter Davis, Jody Miller, Emmylou Harris, Crystal Gayle, Lynn Anderson, Martina McBride, et al. But there are also versions by the Grateful Dead, Johnny Rivers, the Everly Brothers, and Johnny Cash, and a truly pathetic version by the Cowsills.

Linda Ronstadt's version is probably the best known. Here she is with the Eagles.

But my favorite is the 1962 version by the Springfields (Dusty and her brother Tom):

 

"You can't buy my love with money
For I never was that kind
Silver threads and golden needles
Cannot mend this heart of mine." 
--Silver Threads and Golden Needles, written by Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds (complete lyrics)

On This Thanksgiving Day, Words of Wisdom from Sigmund Freud

Thanks to David Zetland.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! But don't celebrate in the Stewart manner...

"Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse." - Henry Van Dyke

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land." - Jon Stewart

Duh...Libya? The Pizza Salesman Can't Sell Us

Tina Brown on NPR's Morning Edition, talking about newspaper columnists.

First up is Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan's recent piece, A Caveman Won't Beat A Salesman, which uses Walter Isaacson's recent biography of Steve Jobs to make a point about American politics.

Noonan opens her column with a comment Jobs once made about how great companies decline. She quotes Isaacson's book: "The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesman, because they're the ones who can move the needle on revenues."

In other words, Brown tells NPR's Steve Inskeep, the salesmen eventually take over — and that's not too different from what happens in American politics.

"Obama in [Noonan's] mind was also a salesman who really didn't understand ... the quality of the product — in [this] case, you know, America," Brown says. "She talks about how Herman Cain is also, therefore, an embarrassment to America because Herman Cain also kind of doesn't respect the product — in this case politics, the democracy, the way the body politic runs."

Noonan writes that Cain showed disrespect for the democratic process when, earlier this month, he had trouble answering questions about Libya during a meeting with the staff of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

 

 This guy's a moron. I'm sorry - that's all there is to it.

Read more here.

 

"Stupid people are ruining America!" - Herman Cain, encouraging supporters to stay informed on the issues.

I-Am-Not-Too-Bad-In-Islamabad - Week 2

Since I'm alive and now back on Barney Popkin's distribution list, here is another gem from my former U of AZ office mate, the original wandering...oh, never mind.

Download I-am-not-too-bad in Islamabad - Week Two

"The people who illegally cross into the country are from countries that have very close ties to al Qaeda, whether it's Yemen or Afghanistan, Pakistan, China. It is an absolute national disgrace." - Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Drop Your E-meters and Dance! Awesome Scientology Hip Hop!

A rapper reputed to be Chill E.B. proves that at least one rapper is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Here's the source of this story, which includes the lyrics to this masterpiece. Aw, what the heck - I will post them below.

I'm guessing this is a call to arms for all good Scientologists.

Watch those LGMs, guys!

 

Against impossible odds.
And deceptive facade.
One group outshines, man - just look at the signs.
See we winning all over the place.
Giving solutions to the world and the whole human race
We ain't never gonna back down, leave town, play the clown.
Phychiatry and SPs you know we take 'em down.
See the purpose ingrained.
It's burning in our blood.
They the passing storm.
We the unstoppable flood.
See, cuz we the IAS.
And we're dauntless and defiant.
We confront even the giants, yo.
Handle anyone barring freedom for all.
Cuz you know when we win then nobody falls.
So bring it harder y'all.
Let's make it stronger now.
Unite as one, answer the call.
Come on, and we'll forever be the winners!

Chorus: IAS. Dauntless and defiant.
So resolute. There's nothing we can't do.

Scientology ads and the PSA's.
Let's play them 24/7, watch them clear the haze.
We're lighting the path that Man has sought so long.
And now the search is over, the truth is out, the mystery's gone, see.
That's why I say there is no letting up
'til all the people are free.
You know it's up to us.
With Narconon and Criminon, Applied Scholastics.
New AOs in the conts.
Yo, it's truly fantastic.
Cuz there ain't no limit to what we can do.
So I wanna see you up your status.
Yeah - you and you and you! And you too.

Chorus: IAS. Dauntless and defiant.
So resolute. There's nothing we can't do.

From the VMs down in Haiti.
Who saved so many lives.
To the Cavalcades spreading the help so wide.
You see we unite for human rights and restore for
Man all that belongs to his life.
The Way to Happiness.
Brings the calm and the peace.
Helping all reduce crime - even the police.
Psychotropic drugs - we'll make a thing of the past.
Expose the fraud of the psychs.
And watch them dwindle real fast.
We got islands of sanity 'round Ideal Orgs.
Let's make the islands the sea by creating even more.
The dwindling spiral.
We'll turn it around.
We got the greatest campaigns
this world has ever had.
So keep the force going.
You know we'll never rest.
Cuz as a matter of course.
We be the very best.
So stand proud, shout it loud.
That we the IAS!

Chorus: IAS. Dauntless and defiant.
So resolute. There's nothing we can't do.

"How about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?" -- Frank Zappa, to a concert audience at the Rockpile, Toronto, May 1969

Today's Quiz: Who's the Job Creator?

Matt Wuerker poses that question below. 

"People ask me, 'What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?' Well, that's not my job as a U.S. senator." –Sharron Angle, 14 May 2010 

We Are The Many

 

This came from good friend and former colleague Janie Chermak. Enjoy!

Check out some quotes:

"I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare." - Mitt Romney 

"I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" - Herman Cain

I-Am-Not-Too-Bad-In-Islamabad - Week 1

Firend and graduate school roommate Barney Popkin emailed me a week or so ago saying that he heard in October 2010 - Halloween, no less - that I had died of swine flu. So he emailed me to see if I was alive, and I responded in the affirmative. So I am back on his email list, and here is his latest missive.

Here is his entire report (four pages).

Download I-am-not-too-bad in Islamabad - Week One

"I need a break. I've been working for about a year and a half. I think I'd like to go to Pakistan." - Mia Kirshner.

No Turn Left Unstoned

From Rex Barron.

Guess I can expect a fatwa.

"Every fundamentalist movement I've studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced at some gut, visceral level that secular liberal society wants to wipe out religion." - Karen Armstrong

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler: Of Bureaucrats and Barristers

A colleague sent me this. It's for real. Or not (see dw's comment). Still funny, though.

This proves there are some attorneys worth their fees.

Part of rebuilding New Orleans caused residents often to be challenged with the task of tracing home titles back potentially hundreds of years. With a community rich with history stretching back over two centuries, houses have been passed along through generations of family, sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership. Here's a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA on behalf of a client: You have to love this lawyer.........

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply.

(Actual reply from FHA):

"Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows: (Actual response):

"Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France , which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain . The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus 's expedition. Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana . God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our damn loan?"

The loan was immediately approved.

(These are the same geniuses charged with the Government mortgage bailout.)

"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Hump Day Humor: 'Tis the Season to Be Folly

Hump Day Humor! Brian McFadden's latest (click to enlarge). Thanks to Joe Romm.. 

Even T. Boone Pickens has come around.

 “The science is not settled on this.  The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just nonsense. Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the fact. Galileo got outvoted for a spell.” -- Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX). referring to climate change

The Best Multiple-Choice Question Ever!

A brain teaser. This will give me inspiration for my upcoming water science exam.

Thanks to William Easterly, originally from Raymond Johnson.

Feel free to leave your answer.

"Statistics always remind me of fellow who drowned in a river where the average depth was only three feet." -- Woody Hayes, former Ohio State University football coach

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan: The Butt of Jokes

Do you suppose these belong to the women who....Nahhhhhh!!

Thanks to GOATunpublished.

"It will be a twenty foot wall, barbed wire, electrified on the top, and on this side of the fence, I'll have that moat that President Obama talked about. And I would put those alligators in that moat!" -Herman Cain on his illegal immigration plan.

"America has got to learn to take a joke." - Herman Cain, when asked about his alligator moat to stop immigration.

Why Adults Should Be Banned From Wearing Halloween Costumes

Minister of Humor Marty Ennis provided these decadent Halloween costumes to demonstrate the utter depravity of Western culture. Such dress would never be tolerated in Campanastan! No words are necessary. 

Note that all of the offenders are men.

 

 
 

And while you're trick-or-treating, have something to eat!

 

 
Oh yeah - happy birthday, Nevada! Remember Chic Hecht this Tuesday!

"From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night, good Lord, deliver us!" -- Scottish proverb

So You Think You're Special? Try Being One of 75,491,735,358

Lest you think you are someone special try using BBC's tool to discover where you fit in the panoply of human existence.

Yes, I am the 75,491,735,358th human to have ever lived, and when I was born, I was the 2,480,775,909th person alive on Earth.

Maybe that's special after all!

If you also enter your country and gender you can get more information. Here is what I got:

What's next? The global population will continue to increase during your lifetime and beyond, reaching 10 billion by 2083. However, the rate of growth is expected to slow. Little of the current growth is happening in developed countries like yours.

Longer lives: Working-age people like you will be supporting increasing numbers of older people during the next decades. By 2050, there will be just 2.2 people of working age supporting every person aged 65 or older in the developed world. In Europe, this will drop to just two.

Battle for resources: It is estimated that your group of the richest countries consumes double the resources used by the rest of the world. The UN estimates that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030s we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us.

Did you know? The average family size globally has declined by half since 1950 - from five children to the current 2.5.

The site also told me that 4,136 people had been born since I entered the site.

Bringing attention to the 7 billionth person is good. It will focus our attention on the issue of increasing population and its ramifications.

So how's this for a wish? Hard to believe Prince Phillip said this. Click on the yellow text for more quotes about population control. 

“If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels. -- Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh

Good Riddance to a Relic of the Cold War

This morning on NPR I heard a story about the dismantling of the final blockbuster nuclear weapon in the USA's arsenal: a 9-megaton bunker buster known as the B-53. The story related how these weapons were the size of a minivan (see below), weighed 4.5 tons, and could obliterate all life within 9 miles of ground zero and spread radiation for hundreds of square miles. Only two could be carried aboard a B-52, and during the height of the Cold War, 24 of these things were always in the air ready to take out the Soviet Union.

Years ago I was involved in the nuclear weapons program. Read about it here.

Here is a PDF of a lecture on the effects of nuclear weapons and the classic text by Glasstone and

Dolan,The Effects of Nuclear Weapons. Here is an online version of the 1977 edition. Above is a picture of the 'Strangelove Slide Rule', the circular 'Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer' that came with the Glasstone and Dolan book. I still have mine! John Walker has an online version of the computer.   

 Talk about macabre displacement behavior! Enjoy, if you can.

"They're not 'bombs'; they are 'devices'! They are only called 'bombs' when we drop them from the sky." -  an especially irritating Lawrence Livermore physicist, educating yours truly on the correct nomenclature for nuclear devices, c. 1979

Science Scams America

Ah, those crafty scientists....Aasif Mandvi gets to the truth.

The Daily Show
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  "Scientists have odious manners, except when you prop up their theory; then you can borrow money of them." -- Mark Twain

Anonymous Gets the Colbert Treatment

Stephen Colbert is up to his old tricks....from Disclose.tv. 

Disclose.tv - colbert report about anonymous Video

"Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity." - Bob Woodward