Month: January 2005

I must apologize to my readers for not weighing in sooner on the crisis involving the “gay-tolerant” Spongebob Squarepants. I have been extremely busy out here, and what time I have that hasn’t been sucked up by other things has been spent repairing computers. The latter, even when they work, are nowhere near as fast…

This seems utterly inane: Under a program begun in 2001, South Carolina drivers may pay a $70 fee to purchase license plates with the “Choose Life” message. The revenue generated goes toward local crisis pregnancy programs and may not, according to the statute that authorized the plates, go to any organization that provides or promotes…

I can’t imagine why anyone — even a spammer — would do something like this, but I’ve been getting hundreds of spam trackbacks. It’s bizarre, and there’s no way to stop it. I guess that means I’ll be missing legitimate trackbacks, because I won’t be able to see them. It’s sad that the biggest threat…

I realized with a start that just the other day I linked to (gasp) Michael Moore, a man who, despite his protestations of patriotism, many would consider an anti-American bigot of the first order. Nothing new there; I often link to things I disagree with. If I only linked to stuff I agreed with, I’d…

I guess it’s because I’m back in Berkeley, but certain blog posts — like this one from Confederate Yankee — are triggering intermittent outbursts of Berkeley nostalgia: I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning, it smells like… bacon. Yes, the fat frying this morning belongs to none other than Michael Moore. Moore, who…

Because of public perceptions, some things just don’t seem capable of existing, despite the fact that they exist. One such thing is the existence of Israeli Arabs. I was reminded of this after talking with an Israeli Arab friend. He told me that he is unwelcome in Arab countries, and when he traveled to Egypt…

I’m haven’t been keeping up as I should, and I’m running late in my posts, email, and everything… But I’ve noticed the rest of the world does not stop. A cruel white curtain of snow has descended over the East Coast while I enjoy balmy 60 degree weather! Naturally, I feel extremely guilty, and doubtless…

When I telephoned a man named “Alex” in Los Angeles last week, I wondered who might answer. A Michael Moore operative? A media whore posing as a grassroots blogger named “Martini Republic?” Someone paid by George Soros to oppose the war? Or simply an angry deconstructionist with some mixed feelings about the American presence in…

It’s like pulling teeth trying to find the time to blog (and getting myself to blog at all during this transition), but I have to start somewhere. Might as well be with this fascinating pronouncement (culled by Tim Blair): They [right wing bloggers] don’t care. They don’t care about their own self-evaluations. What matters- the…

My near failure to write my usual posts is not because of any lack of desire, but because of a complete lack of time. Between social obligations and much neglected repairs, I haven’t had a spare moment. However, today (inspired by yesterday’s comments) I managed to obtain some video editing software and took the time…

In Berkeley today a group of pro-terrorist hecklers protested this exhibition of an Israeli commuter bus which was blown up last January by terrorists. As luck would have it, I just bought a cheap ($69.00) digital video camera, and I was able to film a group of them as they heckled the mostly pro-Israel crowd.…

Justin made me take this mystery picture! I don’t see why that obligates me to say what it is, though. . . Seeing the photo (which I was forced to take on my cell phone), Justin muttered something about “young muscular fascist youth” or something. (What’s he trying to pull?)

An incredibly weird thing has happened which I can’t explain, so I am going to attempt a post in order to prove it. Right now, I am online using the Sierra 750 aircard, which delivers Internet via GPRS. The card is a cell phone, and in order to make it work, you must insert the…

Serendipity can be both educational and amusing. Not long ago, I made some appreciative remarks about a book by Sherwin Nuland. That post generated more comment traffic than I’m generally used too, which was both novel and welcome. Now, by the merest fortuitous happenstance, I find that Dr. Nuland and Leon Kass are fellow travelers.…

This week is certainly not consistent with regular or sane blogging. I have spent the entire day feebly trying to catch up with deferred maintenance on my place here, and Puff and I are both discombobulated. Blogging will be light for the next couple of days, although I’ll try to check in. (Much obligatory social…

Puff and I are finally back to Berkeley late tonight, and totally crashing out. Too pooped to post! Here was Puff earlier in the desert: It’s good to be back!

The snow stopped (I hope for good) and I’m outa here for the final stretch! Now if I could just convince Puff….. He hates the snowy cold and refuses to cooperate and get up. Must be a syndrome.

The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles is hosting this week’s Bonfire of the Vanities. Spacemonkey obviously had fun burning them, and he “panned” my Pan post! (Pan fried it, till it scorched the “Pan”…..) The Bonfire is fun, and I wish more people participated. Being riciduled keeps you humble. (One of these days I’ll take my…

Unbelievable as it sounds, I got stuck in a blizzard of snow and ice in the middle of Arizona. It just appeared out of nowhere, and now I’m stuck in Flagstaff for the night. (I had expected to reach Kingman, and now I don’t know when I’ll get out of here.) I’ll did my best…

Missing from yesterday’s photo collection (just going too fast) was any documentation of Missouri’s adult sign wars. (I’m sure what I noticed was nothing new, but for some confounded reason the search engines don’t work right now and Google won’t load at all.) While I lost count of the number of times I saw “ADULT…