Bakesales aren’t Just for Literary Awards

April 16, 2004 – 12:00 am

Dammit, I forgot the MoveOn Bakesale for Democracy happens tomorrow. If you want to sponsor a bake sale, you’ll find the Tiptree Award HOWTO useful.

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This is Rumor Control: April Fools Edition

April 1, 2004 – 12:00 am

Membership in the Nation’s Book Club ™ is manditory for all citizens over the age of 18.
Damn, there goes the free wifi and cheap refills at my favorite coffee house.
The reactions to a bait and switch on Live Journal are funnier than the original prank.
EFF announces key escrow plan.
If they are good enough for Jack [...]

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Libertarians in Black and White

March 10, 2004 – 12:00 am

Gary Farber took that Libertarian Purity test, and like me, found it wanting, but he took the time to write about its shortcomings.

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Fish, Barrel, Hydrogen Bomb

March 7, 2004 – 12:00 am

From the “an armed society is a polite, albeit rather twitchy, society” desk:
“The posts in this thread have only demonstrated that anarcho-libertarians can only exist in the two more fantastic locations mentioned within it: asteroids and the internet.”

and
“I think that in an anarcho-libertarian society, I’d probably shell out a few quid a year to someone [...]

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1984 plus 20

February 7, 2004 – 12:00 am

On April 4th, twenty years after Winston Smith started keeping his diary, people will stage public readings of 1984.

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Understanding France

February 1, 2004 – 12:00 am

Understanding France is written by an American ex-pat in Paris, and comes recommended by several ex-pats.
The site answers all sorts of naive questions us Americans have about the country and its culture:
Are the French anti-American?
No, they’re pro-French! [**]

I sympathize. But then I grew up in Dallas and was shocked to learn, when I left [...]

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TV Turnoff Week

January 27, 2004 – 12:00 am

I’m still going to watch Angel (on tape) if it’s new that week, even if it means that Naomi Klein appears with a flaming sword to send me to heck for doing so.
But other than DVDs and the occasional PS2 game, that’s the only thing the TV’s used for.

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Interview with Stan Robinson

January 24, 2004 – 12:00 am

[ via Electrolite ] SciFi.com interviews Kim Stanley Robinson. The focus is on his new novel on the politics of climate change, Fourty Signs of Rain, [ thanks, PNH ] which will be called The Capital Code in the States.

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That’s why it’s called politics, rather than ethics or justice.

January 23, 2004 – 12:00 am

Excellent advice to the Deannie Babies from Patrick over at Electrolite: Laugh it off and claim it as your own battle cry.
Molly Ivins paraphrasing Emma Goldman: “You gotta have fun while you’re fightin’ for freedom.” Pee Wee Herman: “I meant to do that.” See also: Last Night’s Top Ten on Letterman.
Update: bloody hell, I broke [...]

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Gov. Dean’s Top 10

January 22, 2004 – 12:00 am

Democratic Candidate for President Howard Dean, the doc who roared/ranted, was on Letterman tonight, doing the Top Ten list.
Not a home run, but a good natured gag. [ QuickTime, Real, That Other Format ]

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The moral collapse of the Republican Party is complete

January 22, 2004 – 12:00 am

This is vile. So much for the vaunted integrity they claimed. I want to see these people in jail, doing hard time.

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Top 10 Reasons for Bush to Invade Mars

January 16, 2004 – 12:00 am

Mars welcomes their new, carbon-based, conservative masters.
10. American troops sure to be greeted as liberators.

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GOP starts their own Stalin cult

December 5, 2003 – 12:00 am

First the airport. Then the jihad against CBS’s counter-revolutionary thought. Now this. Soon we’ll have giant bronze statues of Reagan in every mall, and the Great Leader will review his troops and missiles rolling past Reagan’s Tomb every May Day on the National Mall.

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diebold+18181

November 22, 2003 – 12:00 am

[ via Electrolite ] Another Googlism.
That looks like a bug in the vote counting software.
And yes, I’m still willing to think it’s a bug, not a conspiracy, because I write software, and make boneheaded mistakes like everyone else.

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Mapping Votes by County

November 21, 2003 – 12:00 am

A nice visualization of the by-county vote in the 2003 California recall election, done by the same person responsible for the analysis of the airspeed of an unladen swallow.
Here, the state map is re-calibrated by votes instead of land area, which shows the importance of small, but densely populated areas relative to large, sparsely populated [...]

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