Month: August 2004

Does anyone remember Admiral Boorda? He committed suicide back in 1996 because of a flap over the illegitimate display of the “V for Valor” on his medals: WASHINGTON (CNN) — The nation’s top Navy officer, Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, died Thursday from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound hours after learning Newsweek magazine was raising questions…

Here’s a column that doesn’t say anything you haven’t seen in the blogosphere for weeks, but at the very least it shows that commentary in the press hasn’t yet quit on the Cambodia story (there’re more recent pieces here, here, here, and here where bloggers are respectfully credited with pushing the story, though referred to…

I hate elections. But whether I like them or not, elections happen anyway. Hating them makes about as much sense as hating gravity, because elections are a form of undeniable reality. Last week, while I was away at sea, an election happened which I’ve watched closely, and discussed repeatedly: a guy named Vernon Robinson, billing…

I stumbled across this, and thought it was sort of funny. They sure look like a fun bunch. They do public outreach like Protest Warrior, but demented. Click here, and scroll down to “The People’s Cube”. Look at the top left corner of their mainpage and marvel at the revolutionary hair of bronze. And don’t…

Sometimes, when you are curious about where the world is heading, asking an expert is the worst thing you can do. Experts know too much. They know the pitfalls and roadblocks with an intimate, hands on knowledge, and they will brook no backchat as to what can and can’t be done. Often, they are correct…

Here’s one of the best discussions I’ve seen on Kerry’s multiverse. How can it possibly be that his actions thirty years ago, which Kerry himself described as shameful war crimes, are now so undeniably honorable that no one is allowed to question Kerry’s account of those actions, not even the very men whom Kerry accused…

When Eric invited me to blog here he set up the name Varius, and I had fun with it for a while, but to be honest I’ve never much cared for Romans and it takes about 2 seconds longer to log in with a name like Varius Contrarius. So from now on I’m just Dennis,…

Not really … not even close. But I’m running out of clever titles. The following is from Axis of Logic, a cute play on Axis of Evil: Some people look at the situation in Iraq and profess to believe that things are going just fine. But they are looking through a retro-lens; when they see…

Spiteful egalitarianism? This article — Neighbors as Negatives, by Erzo F.P. Luttmer — intrigued me. [D]o people care about relative position and does lagging behind the Joneses’ diminish well-being? To answer this question, I match individual-level panel data containing a number of indicators of well-being to information about local average earnings. I find that, controlling…

I don’t know how it happened, but while I was away, Kerry’s “Christmas in Cambodia” story seems to have found its way into the mainstream news. Because I have complained about their lack of coverage, I think it’s only fair to praise today’s Philadelphia Inquirer for actually conceding that this story exists in an article…

And George Dubya has now been indicted! Here’s Spike Lee, discussing his latest film “She Hate Me” in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer: Q: Are you putting this movie out in an election year on purpose? A: It just happened. The indictment of big business is an indictment of George Bush because he has…

Israel has done it again. Another technological triumph. For a change, I?m less than thrilled, and hoping it?s just a false alarm. You?ll have to make your own judgment on that score. The first thought I had upon reading this was that life really does imitate art. The heart of Nemesysco’s security-oriented technology is a…

I took a little bit of flak last week when I speculated that certain Republican ideologues might actually want to lose — or at least not care whether they make their party lose. Whether or not such people are the Republican “base” — and whether such a thing can even be defined — are open…

Here’s another gem from my favorite news site: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sen. Ted Kennedy, the archetypal liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, is often called names by Republicans. But until this year he had never been viewed as a threat to U.S. air travel. Kennedy — one of the most recognizable figures in American politics — told…

A triplet of interesting posts at “Fight Aging!” (Definitely not an ambiguous monicker). First, some poll results. I am always rather suspicious of any poll that presumes to settle an issue. So much depends on how you phrase the question. “There is a type of medical research that involves using special cells, called stem cells,…

Has anyone been to this restaurant? I owe someone dinner and thought it looked promising. Strolling gauchos carve choice slices of churrasco, for your dining pleasure. Did I mention it’s all you can eat? Problem is, someone told me Brazilian Barbeque is too salty. Anybody have a first hand account? Operators are waiting to take…

Is there a media bias in the things that are left unsaid? Consider this excerpt from the BBC: Little guys come last The idea of the national conference had been promoted by the UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. He had organised the loya jirga, or grand assembly, which chose the post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan. The…

I was reading more of “The Lever of Riches” today, and it reminded me of my latest post. We have far more good ideas at any one time than we can ever “make real”. But we can still see that many of those ideas are balanced right on the edge between dream and reality. More…

Tomorrow is a very special day. Did you think I would forget? Oh, no. Not a chance of that. Tomorrow the newest Jeremy Rifkin book is released in the stores. I suppose I could have ordered it from Amazon by now and read it cover to cover, but frankly, I don’t want to pay him…

It seems Bush can do nothing right, if we listen to Kerry who says that the President’s plan to realign the military and shift 70,000 troops to U.S. soil was “vaguely stated” and “hastily announced.” Did you hear what I just said? (Okay, wise guy. Did you read what I just typed?) Not only did…