Bad Idea of the Week

(Scary Photo Source)

First he said he'd do it. Then he said he didn't want to do it. Then he was upset McCain picked someone else...

Meanwhile, if anyone is looking for a new Cheddar Jesus, he's in Missourah. Of course.

Would you like condescension with that?

A group that promotes "community" vegetable gardens on vacant lots along North Ave. is going to ask the Board of Zoning Appeals tonight to bar a fried-chicken franchise from moving into a vacant restaurant at 17th and North.

I read this as "fascist--possibly racist--assholes would rather a building remain empty than let a business move in, hire people from the neighborhood, and start paying city taxes."

I'm guessing this group is not comprised of conservatives, or even those rare liberals who realize that low-income adults (of color) aren't children.

Thoughts on the Milwaukee Massacre

The Iowa State Cyclones Football page at Wikipedia contains no information at all about 1979-1994. For good reason (representative sample...I tried to find a reference to the 1991 Sports Illustrated cover that named ISU the "worst football team in NCAA history" but Google sucks).

When I lived in Indianapolis, I would joke that Iowa State was a good preparation for watching the Colts. I wasn't really joking, but since no one this side of the M'sippi had ever heard of Iowa State (thank you, Larry Eustachy *spit*), they just laughed.

So...yeah. I should have known not to expect too much from perennial lovable losers when I move to town. Not sure what happened the past few weeks.

The usual coping mechanism is to wait for the next season to start--chanting "Sweet 16" at the Hawkeyes, that sort of thing. Jim Sorgi's big day is Sunday already!

Ludacris follow-up

What's the over/under on when this guy gets fired for dissing the Obama Or Die crowd?

"As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to," campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail statement Wednesday. "This song is not only outrageously offensive to Sen. Clinton, Rev. Jackson, Sen. McCain and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics."

Ludacris' publicist and manager did not immediately return calls Wednesday for comment.

I'm not sure I believe that O's been criticizing rap lyrics "many, many times in the past." *cough* But at least they didn't shrug.

Tangentially related: Not all celebrity endorsements are helpful.

UPDATE: Gutfield!

Let`s state the obvious – if the singer was a white, pro-McCain rapper, and the paralysis joke was directed at Obama, the outcry would have filled the airwaves, and the streets. But that sort of thing never happens – mainly because there`s no such thing as a white, pro-McCain rapper – and most conservatives don`t wish ill-will on their political adversaries. That`s because, to them - good and evil is more important than left and right. On the progressive end of things though, it`s built into the recipe: if you don`t agree with me, something evil lurks in you – and you should probably die. And when you die, I will dance on your grave.

I can't keep up with the rules.

I've been wondering if there is a group that lobbies on behalf of the actual (mentally or physically) disabled that has the balls to call out "Ludacris" for this bit of filth.

Not because they disagree with anything he says on behalf of The O (heaven forfend!), but because calling an able person "handicapped" as an insult is a re-educationable offense when anyone else does it (and for awhile, just using the word "handicapped" was verboten--is that still on?).

But there might be an exemption for rappers I'm unfamiliar with...

Quote of the indeterminate time period

Colts Middle Linebacker Gary Brackett:

“You’ve got to love what you do. We’re off for about five or six months, then you’re out here running around, playing a kid’s game again. Obviously, we’re very competitive. We love competing with the offensive guys. I think that’s how you get better.”

Victims? No, not really.

I'm going to quote from an AP article. Come sue me.

LAKE CITY, Ga. - More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.

Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.

Gosh. How can a family who was given a FREE HOUSE on their existing lot get foreclosed?

After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.

They don't say whether they started their own business with this irresponsible financing or just gave the money to someone else to lose, but either way, they're not a "victim of the foreclosure crisis", they're a victim of their own selves. They gambled and lost--they weren't robbed by the banking industry.

Anyway, if someone would like to give me a free "four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage" with "a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office" (or even two bedrooms and a basement with a sink) I promise I can hold on to it, unless I get shot on the way home from work or crunched by a FIB on the freeway.

This is such a great idea I can't believe no one's shut it down yet

From Reason, inner-city students in several cities work five days a month at area businesses to pay for most of their Catholic-school tuition.

Nutshell: Taxpayers waste thousands of dollars to give kids (the ones who bother to show up) a crappy education, here's a chance for the motivated, able kids to get real-world job experience *and* a good education, at a fraction of the cost, borne by private companies/individuals who actually get a little ROI. These kids all plan to further their education after graduation, but how hard would it be to open it up to kids who want to learn a trade....

Read the whole thing.

It's brilliant. Expect the NEA to and its subgroups to drag it out behind the bar and kill it with an axe as soon as they find out about it (see WEAC and the online schools, ugh).

While I'm pricing plastic surgeons...

Middle and upper-class women around SE WI feel they have a right to be jerks in public because they never get to have fun and no one ever listens to them. Or something. Ladies at the wine bar screaming about their "issues they might be having with the men in their lives"--I'd rather be in a Hieronymous Bosch painting. *shudder* Even if the wine bar is showing SportsCenter.

And Heather Mac Donald explains--again--that there is more variability in math ability among men than among women, and the difference between genders actually exists at the high end of the curve, and--sorry, feminists--most women choose to do better things with their lives.

This I find interesting:

(Asians, however, showed a very slight skew toward females above the 99th percentile, while there were too few Hispanics and blacks scoring above even the 95th percentile to compute their gender ratios.)

Math isn't just sexist, it's racist, too (and since the Asians don't fit the desired outcome, we ignore them, just like college admissions). Has anyone studied the sexual orientation of the 99th percentile? Math could hit the trifecta...

Posting about my life at the risk of boring people.

My tickets for the Colts-Packers game arrived today!!!

This will be my first time at Lambeau. Please don't hurt me.

I've been enjoying reading the Packers blogs this week for some reason.

In which I consider gender-reassignment just to avoid derision by association 2

I've often wondered if one of my X chromosomes has some damage...

Women come to feel so close to celebrities, they almost consider them part of their circle of friends.

Yeah. When Angelina Jolie or Katie Holmes helps you move or even invites you to their birthday party, let me know.

And there there's these women. Not Rachel Lucas, the laydeez who annoy her. Sweet Olivia Manning! Katherine Berry called it: It’s not because you’re a female. It’s because you bore them.

And trust me, it goes both ways--they're as bored with me as I am with them. I got kicked out of a ladies' online group just after 9/11 after being told that "real women" don't and shouldn't care about history, art, or travel--they have husbands and babies to tend to! Changing a diaper was far more thrilling, relevant, and POWERFUL than anything I will ever do in my entire worthless unwomanly life!

Instead of whining about being taken seriously, I started reading more history and art stuff. Meh.

(What's wrong with cat-blogging? *scritch*)

Yup.

Frank and Ernest:





A-yup.

We're boned, so let's just get it over with already, mmm-kay? This whole pulling-off-the-bandage-slowly thing is making me crazy....er than usual.

Submitted without comment

Iowa case raises question: Is stripping an art?

It does seem to be different from the recent "but it's art" controversy in Australia, where the underage nude models weren't photographing themselves--their parents volunteered them.

ARTNews recently had a "how far is too far" article that mentioned 57 varieties of "artists" taping themselves and others having sex, but didn't mention depictions of Mohammed at all. Apparently we are all in agreement that that is too far.

More Postville...

Congressmen from California and New Jersey visit Iowa to listen to people whine about how mean and unfair it is to arrest people for breaking the law. Note that neither they nor the "reporter" bothered to talk to anyone who might have disagreed...

''This is wrong,'' he said. ''We've taken men and women who want to work and made felons out of them.''

Oh, come ON. They chose to commit felonies when they stole Social Security numbers and used them to fraudulently apply for jobs they were not legally eligible to take. The only culpability "we" have is not stopping them at the border when they entered illegally.

I'm so tired of these clowns.

Comments I want to make on blogs but don't because it's not worth the blizzard of insults I'll get 3

No specific blog singled out for this one...but apparently I'm the only X-Files fan (X-Phile, for those who watched the show as it originally aired) not infected with shrieking BDS.

There was a scene from the movie--this won't give anything away--in a federal building and the camera focused on a framed portrait of the 43rd POTUS. It was unflattering, but humorous, and I laughed, mostly out of joy at NOT seeing Janet Reno and that antimilitary nympho clown who was POTUS during most of the show's run on TV (would be a good one for an X-Files drinking game--JANET RENO! DRINK!!!).

So anyway, all the freaking X-Files movie fan sites are full of users posting about how they pissed their pants laughing at the ChimpyMcHitler reference, and spouting the usual twaddle about how we're living in some fascist unfree world. As if! They wouldn't know a fascist if one forced them to do 50 hours of unpaid labor every year. *cough*

So, a big STFU for all you spoiled brats who started watching the show on DVD two years ago when you were 23 and living in your mom's basement, and got to see the midnight showing because it doesn't matter what time you roll out of bed when you're still living in the basement, thinking you're so cool because you hate George Bush.

I swear, it is impossible for a reasonable adult with even the slightest conservative leanings to participate in the popular culture of the 21st century without getting smacked on the head with a 2x4 every time they venture out.


Short review: Very much for existing fans; one of the guys I was with fell asleep (my fault for keeping them out past 8, I suppose). Needed more explosions. Nice to see Scully as a real doctor, not just doing autopsies. Would have preferred a "sentient fungus the size of the UP" monster. Xzibit is a terrible actor--Agent X is spinning in his grave.

Mostly I'm bummed because it doesn't seem to be very well attended--possibly from lack of publicity--which means there won't be another one with a better monster.

I need a new hobby.

It's Friday, I'm in love

I haven't had my coffee, and I'm already twitching close to my resonant frequency. Stand clear, this could get messy...

Training camp starts today!! Football!! FOOTBALL!!!!! (I think the only guy in the "arriving to camp" photos that I recognize without his helmet on is Vinatieri.)

Mulder and Scully are back today!! Die Wahrheit ist da draußen! I've got seven geeks from the office going with me tonight to scoop me up after the movie and make sure I get home. Heh.

ZOMG, the Brewers. I know I'm technically a bandwagon fan since I didn't start following them until they were good (which just happened to coincide with the first complete season I lived here, does that remove the stigma?), but except for a few dark weeks in May, they've been amazing to watch. Er, listen to on the radio.

The only metaphoric pebble in my shoe? A temporary crown from yesterday's root canal prevents me from eating Milk Duds at the movie tonight. Otherwise I'd be squealing like my niece when she opened the box containing a Sparkly Cotton-Candy Dora the Explorer doll.

Biting sarcasm will return Monday.

Brewers news

On Monday, Yost announced that any player who attempted to devour another, no matter how delicious they seemed to appear, would be subject to disciplinary action.

Seems reasonable...

#6 with a caveat

Reason Magazine puts Milwaukee #6 on a list ranking the 35 biggest cities in America for "exercising personal freedom." However, as Ace notes, they didn't look at taxes, property rights, or the costs of doing business in the city; they used adolescent measures like strippers and junk food. But it's a neat vacation guide.

Chicago, of course, came in dead last. Vegas is first. Vacation accordingly.

This is the funniest sentence in the article: "Today, nearly one quarter of Chicago’s precincts are alcohol-free." Yeah. Just like there are no handguns in Chicago, 'cause they're banned. (Insert Capone joke here.)

VULTURES!!!

This delights me, in a way I have not been delighted since I was living in Cedar Falls and turkey vultures decided to live in the power plant downtown.

If you’re a vulture, Orthopaedic Hospital is conveniently located near the Milwaukee River and the roadkill-rich I-43 freeway. Plus, you have Solly’s across the street, and you know all those butter burgers are going to take someone down eventually.

Rollin' on the Lincoln Highway

Annual Iowa tradition RAGBRAI--who in their right mind rides a bicycle across Iowa in July!?--rolls through my hometown today on what's left of the Lincoln Highway (I feel like I've just outed myself...). When the Favre did they get a website?? I tried to make one in 1995, with clippings from the library, and no one was interested...

I've been homesick lately, but most of the people I miss have been dead for years, and when I read news I don't recognize the names--I'm sure they're related to someone I do know, because who in their right mind moves to towns with no stoplights in the middle of nowhere without being related to someone there already??--so there's no point in taking a long weekend drive.

OTOH, I can always save up to drive the whole Lincoln Highway. I've lived in three towns it passes through, and driven on it in five states, but never across the whole continent. OTTH, I expect AlGore will have outlawed the ownership of internal combustion engines for anyone making less than a million dollars a year before I have enough money. Bah.

(Photo is of the Lincoln Highway marker in the formal rose garden. I tried to take photos of the Mr. Lincoln roses therein, but they didn't turn out too well.)