Friday, August 31, 2007

Friday Cat 8/31/07


Peanut, originally uploaded by repsac3.

This is Peanut, who I met while out for a walk two days ago & adopted on the spot. (That makes us a seven cat household... Yeesh!!)



She was born April 7th,2007, making her almost 5 months old.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

iPod Semi-Random 10 - 8/26/07

I'm Cute -
Animaniacs -
Animaniacs Soundtrack

Painted from Memory -
Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach -
Painted From Memory

Stripper's Holiday -
Sonny Lester & His Orchestra -
Take It Off! Striptease Classics

Back in Black -
Mashuptown.com -
Mashup of the Week Podcast

Coming in From the Cold -
Bob Marley & the Wailers -
Legend [Deluxe Edition] - Disc 2

Stairway To Heaven -
Leonard Teale -
Stairways to Heaven, Stairways to Hell

Heaven Help Us All -
Madeleine Peyroux and William Galison -
Got You On My Mind

Sweetwater, Texas -
Fastball -
All The Pain Money Can Buy

Honky Cat -
Elton John -
Sliding Doors

Where Did Our Love Go? -
Keahiwai -
Satisfied

Friday, August 24, 2007

Friday Cat 8/24/07


Tuffy-Books.jpg, originally uploaded by repsac3.

Tuffy's no longer with us... but while he was alive, he was one voracious reader.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

iPod Semi-Random 10 - 8/19/07

1) Better -
Antigone Rising -
From the Ground Up



Antigone gets a little extra oomph because my wife's known two of 'em (the sisters) since they were all in diapers or so... I've been regailed with tales of houses almost burned down and similar female preteen hi-jinx... Aside that, they're very, very talented...

2) I Walked Away -
Sunfall Festival -
NPR: Open Mic Music Podcast

3) Congress...Your Fired -
Jason Brock -
The PEACEPOD Podcast

4) Whole Of The Moon -
Mandy Moore -
Coverage

5) "To Elsie" or "The pure products of America / go crazy" -
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) -
In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry (Disc 1)

6) Play That Funky Music -
Wild Cherry -
The Disco Box [Disc 2]

7) Like Castanets - Bishop Allen -
KEXP Song of the Day Podcast

8) I Will Move On Up A Little Higher -
Mahalia Jackson -
Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack for a Century - Folk, Gospel & Blues: Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Disc 1)

9) Americano -
Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers -
Paste Magazine Issue #9

10) Llama -
Phish -
Picture of Nectar

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Phil Rizzuto, RIP

I wasn't much of a baseball fan, but that doesn't mean The Scooter meant nothing to me... As a cultural icon, he was quite a guy...



And then there were The Money Store ads...

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

John Gibson: Heartless scumbag (with audio)

Fox News' John Gibson calls Jon Stewart a phony after mocking his post-9/11 return to air comments and show of emotion. What kind of a heartless bastard does one have to be to make fun of another person's grief? I never had much respect for this guy in the first place... ...but now I have even less. Follow the link for the audio...

read more | digg story

Here's a link to a video of the original show opening, September 20, 2001. Have tissues handy (unless you're more the heartless Gibson type...)



I suggest watching the video, particularly if you've never seen it. (I hadn't, until tonight.) The transcript doesn't do it justice:

September 20, 2001

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Show. We are back. This is our first show since the tragedy in New York City and there is really no other way to start the show then to ask you at home the question that we asked the audience here tonight and that we’ve asked everybody we know here in New York since September 11, and that is, "Are you okay?" And we pray that you are and that your family is.

I'm sorry to do this to you. It's another entertainment show beginning with an overwrought speech of a shaken host--and television is nothing if not redundant. So I apologize for that. Its something that, unfortunately, we do for ourselves so that we can drain whatever abscess is in our hearts and move on to the business of making you laugh, which we haven’t been able to do very effectively lately. Everyone has checked in already. I know we are late. I’m sure we are getting in just under the wire before the cast of Survivor offers their insight into what to do in these situations. They said to get back to work. There were no jobs open for a man in the fetal position under his desk crying. . . which I gladly would have taken. So I come back here and tonight’s show is not obviously a regular show. We looked through the vault and found some clips that we think will make you smile, which is really what’s necessary, I think, right about now.

A lot of folks have asked me, "What are you going to do when you get back? What are you going to say? I mean, jeez, what a terrible thing to have to do." And you know, I don’t see it as a burden at all. I see it as a privilege. I see it as a privilege and everyone here does. The show in general we feel like is a privilege. Even the idea that we can sit in the back of the country and make wise cracks. . . which is really what we do. We sit in the back and throw spitballs--but never forgetting that it is a luxury in this country that allows us to do that. That is, a country that allows for open satire, and I know that sounds basic and it sounds like it goes without saying. But that’s really what this whole situation is about. It’s the difference between closed and open. The difference between free and. . . burdened. And we don’t take that for granted here, by any stretch of the imagination. And our show has changed. I don’t doubt that. And what it has become I don’t know. "Subliminible" is not a punchline anymore. Someday it will become that again, Lord willing it will become that again, because it means that we have ridden out the storm.

The main reason that I wanted to speak tonight is not to tell you what the show is going to be, not to tell you about all the incredibly brave people that are here in New York and in Washington and around the country, but we’ve had an unenduring pain, an unendurable pain and I just. . . I just wanted to tell you why I grieve--but why I don’t despair. (choking back tears) I’m sorry. . . (chuckles slightly) luckily we can edit this. . . (beats lightly on his desk, collects himself).

One of my first memories was of Martin Luther King being shot. I was five and if you wonder if this feeling will pass. . . (choked up). . . When I was five and he was shot, this is what I remember about it. I was in school in Trenton and they turned the lights off and we got to sit under our desks. . . and that was really cool. And they gave us cottage cheese, which was a cold lunch because there were riots, but we didn’t know that. We just thought, "My God! We get to sit under our desks and eat cottage cheese!" And that’s what I remember about it. And that was a tremendous test of this country's fabric and this country has had many tests before that and after that.

The reason I don’t despair is that. . . this attack happened. It's not a dream. But the aftermath of it, the recovery, is a dream realized. And that is Martin Luther King's dream.

Whatever barriers we put up are gone. Even if it's just momentary. We are judging people by not the color of their skin, but the content of their character. (pause) You know, all this talk about "These guys are criminal masterminds. They got together and their extraordinary guile and their wit and their skill. . ." It's all a lie. Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters and these policemen and people from all over the country, literally with buckets, rebuilding. . . that’s extraordinary. And that's why we have already won. . . they can't. . . it's light. It's democracy. They can't shut that down.

They live in chaos. And chaos, it can't sustain itself--it never could. It's too easy and it's too unsatisfying. The view. . . from my apartment. . . (choking up) was the World Trade Center. . .

Now it's gone. They attacked it. This symbol of. . . of American ingenuity and strength. . . and labor and imagination and commerce and it's gone. But you know what the view is now? The Statue of Liberty. . . the view from the south of Manhattan is the Statue of Liberty. . .

You can’t beat that. . .

Sunday, August 12, 2007

IPod Semi-Random 10 - 8/12/07

Last 10 songs/stories/podcasts played on my iPod:

1) Fresh - Kool & The Gang - The Disco Box [Disc 4]

2) Ocean - Joan Armatrading - Lovers Speak

3) Lesson #027 - Let's Speak Italian! Podcast

4) iTunes New Music Tuesday July 31, 2007 - iTunes New Music Tuesday Podcast

5) Lazy Eyes - Chow Nasty - KEXP 90.3 FM Song of the Day Podcast

6) Jesus is Just Alright - Doobie Brothers

7) Drum Boogie - Gene Krupa - The Drum Battle At JATP

8) Blue Moon - Chris Isaak

9) Spiritual High (State of Independence) Part II - Moodfood - Moodfood

10) The Philosophy Of Loss- Indigo Girls - Liberation: War Is Over

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

In Reply: Anti-Capitalist Pizza

In reply to: Burkean Reflections: Johnny's Pizza Faces Papa John's, and the following, in particular:
My first thought upon reading this story was that if Johnny's Pizza is as good as it sounds, Johnny's family's got nothing to worry about: Their restaurant will put away the competition. In fact, the circulation of the anti-Papa John's petition is not only anti-capitalist, but probably unnecessary.
---

I hope the petition is unnecessary... But I've seen a whole lotta independent (put type of business here) run out by franchises & big boxes with inferior products &/or service, but the financial backing lose money by selling below cost & whatnot until they're the only game in town...

While it may be anti-captialist*, I'm all for citizens/consumers petitioning & otherwise speaking up.

*I'm not sure it is anti-capitalist. I see it more as negative advertising, making PJ look bad for "forcing" themselves into this community against the community's wishes, and trying to run "the little guy" out of business. Now, should these citizens try to pass some kinda law against PJ's, I'd be more inclined to agree.

Posted August 8, 2007, 6:35:15 PM EDT (No permalink. Go to post, and hit "comment" link to see original commentary.)

Monday, August 06, 2007

A (poetic) Public Service Announcement:

I'm working on my addiction to the other box. (This box here is a two way street, at least. While it'd be best to shut 'em both off, lifewise, at least this one lets you give, as well as get.)

A poem by a guy I know, vaguely...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

television

in our livingrooms kitchens bedrooms
in Feng Shiu a television screen is a mirror
and a mirror facing the marital bed is bad luck
pluck moving pictures and sound
from the electromagnetic spectrum
wherever there is electricity
piped-in cables condensing crisp, multi-channeled feasts
broadcast signals are weaker
since cable television has become ubiquitous
all the materials, chemicals and gases that go into its making
a condensed history of the electronic age
from giant vacuum tubes to little transistors
from small grainy black and white pictures to big screen color
Did we dream in black and white before photography?
our multicultural liturgy Marcia Marcia Marcia!
knowing where I was the moment the last Seinfeld episode aired
ordering our lives supper must be eaten
and home work must be done before prime time
I can pick you up from the train as soon as X Files is over
Infotainment mostly, commercials
paying for privilege of watching It’s free, you say?
did you pay for that appliance? your monthly cable bill?
is time with your kids worth nothing?
your spouse? your parents? yourself?
wherever you live, there is tons of good live local music
often it’s free or just the cost of a drink
turn the television off
you will be surprised how you no longer have time for it
turn the television off
unplug it cover it up stow it away
turn it off

-isw
television - On the Wilder Side
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Blog Pimpin' - My debate with Freedom Now

This is a debate between me & and another gentleman that was going on on a consevative political blog. We were also discussing politics in our posts, but this off-topic thing about blog promo was getting bigger & bigger in our posts. After writing the post below over there--and almost posting it--I decided to post it here instead, and just leave a quick explanatory post & a link over to here, on that site. Below that, I also excerpted the previous portions of the debate out of our previous comments. Hopefully, FN will come visit & continue discussing this, since we both seem interested...

Any reference to where we are ("here," "this site" ...) refers to the site where we were having this discussion.

If you're interested, previous debate on subject was here.
-----------------------------------------------------

FN: "You can promote your blog anyway that you want. I never said that it was bad that you try to get people to go to your blog… that would be stupid. Everyone should try to promote their own blog. How go about it and who you target doesn’t really matter to me."

I know this "blog promotion" thing is a silly argument. I know I should just let you have the last word & be done with it. I know it... ...but I'm a glutton for punishment.

Here's the thing: You brought it up.

All I did was post a link back to my blog, where I had written a whole post on this subject. I thought it was better to post the link than cutting & pasting the whole thing from there over to here. In point of fact, if I had written a big long diatribe about this subject in your comment section, I would've posted a link to YOUR blog.

Folks do it all the time. I didn't think it remarkable in any way. To my mind, it's the polite thing to do.

That would've been the end of it, but you chose to remark on it, saying that I was trying very hard to promote my blog. (I wasn't--not that I don't want traffic--but I wasn't, regardless of what you believe. I was no more promoting my blog by doing what I did than promoting yours when I link to it, as I did last evening on my blog.)

You say that it was just an observation, nothing more. My reply--noting that you don't make the same observation when fellow conservatives post links, and yet, you've made this same observation about me on two occasions, months apart--is no more or less an innocent observation than yours. (For the record, I think both of our "observations" have not-so-subtle-hidden-meanings in them, and call suspect your assertion that yours is a purely innocent thing you just so happened to notice & mention in passing.)

I don't really know your purpose in making the comment or continuing to defend your doing so. I agree that you probably don't believe blog promo is bad... I do think there's something not "fair & balanced" about your making this comment about my back links and not other people's, though... I also think that in saying someone is posting a link to promote their blog, you're cheapening their post, a little. Finally, I think it's a little impolite, regardless of whether the observation is true or not. (It's like making an observation about the frequency with which one uses the restroom. It's one thing to reply if someone asks; it's another to blurt it out in a crowed room, "just because".)

As for "how I go about it & who I target not really mattering to you":

1) it still assumes I am in fact, promoting my blog, rather than giving those interested more info on my position via something else I wrote on the subject, and

2) it doesn't jibe with what you said in an earlier post, where it seems to me you're saying it was "who I was targeting" that was the whole reason for the comment in the first place.

"It is a normal every day experience for likeminded bloggers to try to drive traffic of likeminded individuals to their blog. You are unusual in that you are trying to drive traffic from people that are hostile to your views to your blog."


Now, I'm thinkin' this is getting far off topic, here... I would've e-mailed this reply to you, but I don't have that info. I would've posted it on my blog & just left a link, here, but that'd just be more proof of my blog whoring. I'd of posted it to yours, but... well... I'm guessing you know why I might be reluctant to bother.
--------------------------------------------------------

ABOVE is what I almost posted on the other site, but didn't. (There was probably going to be something more in closing, but once I realized/wrote about how off-topic it was, I couldn't continue.)

BELOW is all of the relevant posting up to this point--in order, first to last:
------------------------------------------------------------------

More from me on the subject here
repsac3 | Homepage | 07.28.07 - 6:50 pm #
------------------------------------
RepSac,

You try very hard to promote your blog dont you?

There's nothing wrong with that, I'm just pointing that out. Controversy can be big. This is just an observation, nothing more.

Freedom Now | Homepage | 07.29.07 - 4:53 pm #
------------------------------------------

"You try very hard to promote your blog dont you?"

Not really... I Just don't see the point of cutting & pasting (or worse, rewriting) my thoughts when I can just provide a link to them. You & I have both seen more rightward thinking people do the same on other blogs where we both post... ...and yet you only refer to it as "blog promotion" when I do it... I wonder why...

FN: "http:// freedomnowonline.blogspot...ates.html#links"

Blog whore 8>)

repsac3 | Homepage | 07.29.07 - 5:59 pm #
---------------------------------------

I merely observed that you try to drive traffic to your blog. You have done the same on Mike’s America. There’s no harm in that. It was solely an observation. That’s all.

Freedom Now | Homepage | 07.30.07 - 12:57 am #
--------------------------------------------

And I am simply making the observation that I have never seen you make that same observation when someone on the right links back to their own blog in posts, though you've had plenty of opportunities to do so.

repsac3 | Homepage | 07.30.07 - 10:57 am #
--------------------------------------

Repsac you think that you are on to something by saying, “I am simply making the observation that I have never seen you make that same observation when someone on the right links back to their own blog in posts, though you’ve had plenty of opportunities to do so.”

It is a normal every day experience for likeminded bloggers to try to drive traffic of likeminded individuals to their blog. You are unusual in that you are trying to drive traffic from people that are hostile to your views to your blog. That is worthy of note. And that is all it is, an observation. Yet you act like I have wronged you somehow.

Freedom Now | Homepage | 07.31.07 - 10:20 am #
------------------------------------------

As far as the "driving traffic" linking thing, I'm fine... You made an observation about what I was doing, and I made an observation about your observation. Unless you want to continue discussing it for any reason, I'm willing to leave it as is and let you, me, & all reading us think as we will about it.

repsac3 | Homepage | 07.31.07 - 12:25 pm #
--------------------------------------

You can promote your blog anyway that you want. I never said that it was bad that you try to get people to go to your blog… that would be stupid. Everyone should try to promote their own blog. How go about it and who you target doesn’t really matter to me.

Freedom Now | Homepage | 08.01.07 - 6:03 am #
--------------------------------------

"You can promote your blog anyway that you want. I never said that it was bad that you try to get people to go to your blog… that would be stupid. Everyone should try to promote their own blog. How go about it and who you target doesn’t really matter to me."

This "blog promotion" bit is getting wicked off topic--and I almost took it further, before realizing I'd only be making it worse.

So, at the risk of being called a blog pimp, I took it over to my blog (My other, non-political blog--'cause it'd be off-topic on mine, too): What'd I Say?: Blog Pimpin' - My debate with Freedom Now. Much as I kinda want to, I won't continue to discuss that subject here. Those interested are welcome to come on over & read the response I had all written in this very comment box--& was yea close to "publishing."

Hopefully, FN will show up too, or this'll all be in vain.

...&, like it or don't, I'll likely be back to tackle the rest of FN's post, soon.
repsac3 | Homepage | 08.01.07 - 10:30 am #

Nerd Score (Do nerds score?)