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Mailto:: rur42 at yahoo.com

 
Michael Gorman suggests that he's not an idiot, and strikes back::

In the eyes of bloggers, my sin lay in suggesting that Google is OK at giving access to random bits of information but would be terrible at giving access to the recorded knowledge that is the substance of scholarly books. I went further and came up with the unoriginal idea that the thing to do with a scholarly book is to read it, preferably not on a screen. It turns out that the Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief.

More: "Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable."

Meanwhile, I'm browsing the Library Journal online to see what complex texts and scholarly books are most in demand by library patrons whose intellectual needs are presumably not met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs:

The Books Most Borrowed in U.S. Libraries
- Fiction - WEEK OF MARCH 1, 2005
*London Bridges.* /James Patterson/ Little, Brown
*The Da Vinci Code.* / Brown, Dan/ Doubleday
*The Broker.* / Grisham, John/ Doubleday
*Trace.* / Cornwell, Patricia/ Putnam
*Echoes.* / Steel, Danielle/ Delacorte
*Skeleton Man.* / Hillerman, Tony./ HarperCollins
*Whiteout.* / Follett, Ken./ Dutton
*Northern Lights.* /Nora Roberts/ Putnam
*The Five People You Meet in Heaven.* / Albom, Mitch/ Hyperion
*The Plot Against America.* / Roth, Philip/ Houghton Mifflin
*R Is for Ricochet.* /Sue Grafton/ Putnam
*Hour Game.* / Baldacci, David/ Warner
*Black Wind.* / Cussler, Clive/ Putnam
*White Hot.* / BROWN, Sandra/ Simon & Schuster
*The Kite Runner.* /Khaled Hosseini/ Riverhead: Putnam

All, all, -- I'm sure, "complex texts."

Nonfiction?
1 America (The Book). Jon Stewart
2 My Life. Bill Clinton
3 He's Just Not That into You. Greg Behrendt
4 Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar Nafisi
5 His Excellency: George Washington. Ellis, Joseph J.
6 A Paper Life. Tatum O'Neal
7 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Sedaris, David
8 The South Beach Diet. Arthur Agatston
9 Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Lynne Truss
10 The Perricone Promise: Look Younger, Live Longer in Three Easy Steps. Nicholas Perricone
11 The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. Kelley, Kitty.
12 The South Beach Diet Cookbook. Arthur Agatston
13 When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?. Carlin, George
14 How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must):The World According to Ann Coulter. Ann Coulter
15 Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Malcolm Gladwell

I'm for it-- I'm certainly eager to delve into the complex texts of Dan Brown, John Grisham, Tony Hillerman and Sue Grafton. And I vow to do some sustained reading in the scholarly works of Ann Coulter, George Carlin, and Tatum O'Neal. Hie me to la bibliotecha. (Ooops there I go polyglotting again.)

No more random facts and paragraphs for this dude.
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posted by degustibus at 3:27 PM

 
Condi Struts


posted by degustibus at 11:28 AM

 
Top diplomat eschews typical female attire for sexy, 'Matrix' look

Vapid WaPo: CondiLiar wears sexy swashbuckling boots......

Even though every thing Condi has touched over the past four years has turned to, well, you know, the press isn't talking about that. Even though she's continuing to screw stuff up on a daily basis, we're not talking about that.

No, oh no. Instead of talking about anything of substance, the paragons of the Washington press corps are now writing silly-ass fluff pieces about Condi's clothes.

Holy shit. How vapid is that?
Link

Purty vapid. But par.

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posted by degustibus at 11:18 AM

 
Then there's the Kansas AG

The Kansas attorney general, as part of a criminal investigation into child rape and late-term abortions, is demanding that two health centers hand over the medical records of about 90 female patients, including minors.

Presumably Kansas AG Phill Kline will also be charging teachers, parents, and other adults who knew of pregnancy with child abuse/neglect and obstruction of justice. And boyfriends? Viz Atrios:

An abortion isn't the only potential evidence of illegal sexual activity. Getting pregnant at 15 is a crime even if you carry the child to term, if your partner is under 16. Why aren't they subpoenaing maternity ward records?

And, of course, what about the boys? As Kansas's STD reporting shows, there are lots of people under the age of 16, many presumably male, who have contracted these diseases. In 2003, the last year for which there's full data, for people 14 and under there were 121 cases of chlamydia, and 38 reported cases of Gonorrhea. 15 year olds are lumped in with the 15-19 group, so presumably that would add a few more cases. Why no subpoenas there?

On another, but related issue, (teaching teenaged abstinence) Mr. Morford:

Abstinence is a gnarled wart on the big toe of hot wet life. This much we know. . . .

Did you see this story? It's the latest finding, the outcome of the most recent and quite thorough nonpartisan study, from Texas A&M no less, surveying teens in 29 Texas schools and all proving once again that these insidious and dangerous programs have absolutely zero effect on curbing teen sexual appetites and activity, and, if anything, actually induce teens to have more sex. . . .

People who advocate such nastiness should be ashamed. Ashamed and humiliated and then flogged with the dead fish of their own tepid and miserable sex lives. Just an opinion.

Gnarled wart. Big toe. Hot. Wet. Salacious stuff in a family paper. (Where the California AG when you need him?)

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posted by degustibus at 10:50 AM

 
Rocket Fueled Breasts?

American babies can now incinerate their own diapers by farting.

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posted by degustibus at 9:29 AM

 
Hunter Thompson croaks, but leaves an indelible memory of Nixon, up almost everywhere, but in full at Counterpunch::

Also see Maureen Farrell column in 2004.

And here is Thompson on the eve of the last election:

I look at elections with the cool and dispassionate gaze of a professional gambler, especially when I'm betting real money on the outcome. Contrary to most conventional wisdom, I see Kerry with five points as a recommended risk. Kerry will win this election, if it happens, by a bigger margin than Bush finally gouged out of Florida in 2000. That was about forty-six percent, plus five points for owning the U.S. Supreme Court -- which seemed to equal fifty-one percent. Nobody really believed that, but George W. Bush moved into the White House anyway.

It was the most brutal seizure of power since Hitler burned the German Reichstag in 1933 and declared himself the new Boss of Germany. Karl Rove is no stranger to Nazi strategy, if only because it worked, for a while, and it was sure as hell fun for Hitler. But not for long. He ran out of oil, the whole world hated him, and he liked to gobble pure crystal biphetamine and stay awake for eight or nine days in a row with his maps & his bombers & his dope-addled general staff.

They all loved the whiff. It is the perfect drug for War -- as long as you are winning -- and Hitler thought he was King of the Hill forever. He had created a new master race, and every one of them worshipped him. The new Hitler youth loved to march and sing songs in unison and dance naked at night for the generals. They were fanatics.

That was sixty-six years ago, far back in ancient history, and things are not much different today. We still love War.

George Bush certainly does. In four short years he has turned our country from a prosperous nation at peace into a desperately indebted nation at war. But so what? He is the President of the United States, and you're not. Love it or leave it. (Rolling Stone )

Other Thompson links. . .



. . . and away he goes . .
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posted by degustibus at 11:55 AM

 
Manwhore to Sue?

Deposition proposed by Steve Gilliard ::

So, let's go with 10 random questions from the deposition:

1) Are you a male prostitute?

2) How many times have you been paid for sex?

3) Exactly why and when did you start using the name Jeff Gannon?

4) What was your main source of income from the years 1998 to 2002? Did this include prostitution?

5) How did you wind up $20,000 in arrears on your taxes?

6) When did you first charge for sexual activity with men?

7) Have you ever encouraged, solicited or invited any members of the United States Armed Forces, including the Marine Corps, to ever act as a prostitute? Did you ever have sex with any members of the United States Armed Forces while either on active or reserve duty?

8) Did you discuss your prostitution with close friends or family members?

9) Did you know anyone on the White House staff before 2003, and when and how did you meet them?

10) Did you use the name Jeff Gannon with your clients? And why did you continue to use that name when you started to work for Talon News?

Enquiring minds want to know.

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posted by degustibus at 11:12 AM

 
Adventures in Corporate Self Regulation:: The Lead Cabal

from Seeing the Forest, this link ::

The Secret History of Lead, by Jamie Lincoln Kitman. In which we learn:

• There is no lead in gasoline unless somebody puts it there. And, a little more than seventy-five years ago, some of America's leading corporations--General Motors, Du Pont and Standard Oil of New Jersey (known nowadays as Exxon)--were that somebody. They got together and put lead, a known poison, into gasoline, for profit.


• The leaded gas adventurers have profitably polluted the world on a grand scale and, in the process, have provided a model for the asbestos, tobacco, pesticide and nuclear power industries, and other twentieth-century corporate bad actors, for evading clear evidence that their products are harmful by hiding behind the mantle of scientific uncertainty.

And

§ the severe health hazards of leaded gasoline were known to its makers and clearly identified by the US public health community more than seventy-five years ago, but were steadfastly denied by the makers, because they couldn't be immediately quantified;

§ other, safer antiknock additives--used to increase gasoline octane and counter engine "knock"--were known and available to oil companies and the makers of lead antiknocks before the lead additive was discovered, but they were covered up and denied, then fought, suppressed and unfairly maligned for decades to follow;

§ the US government was fully apprised of leaded gasoline's potentially hazardous effects and was aware of available alternatives, yet was complicit in the cover-up and even actively assisted the profiteers in spreading the use of leaded gasoline to foreign countries;

§ the benefits of lead antiknock additives were wildly and knowingly overstated in the beginning, and continue to be. Lead is not only bad for the planet and all its life forms, it is actually bad for cars and always was;

§ for more than four decades, all scientific research regarding the health implications of leaded gasoline was underwritten and controlled by the original lead cabal--Du Pont, GM and Standard Oil; such research invariably favored the industry's pro-lead views, but was from the outset fatally flawed; independent scientists who would finally catch up with the earlier work's infirmities and debunk them were--and continue to be--threatened and defamed by the lead interests and their hired hands;

§ confronted in recent years with declining sales in their biggest Western markets, owing to lead phaseouts imposed in the United States and, more recently, Europe, the current sellers of lead additives have successfully stepped up efforts to market their wares in the less-developed world, efforts that persist and have resulted in some countries today placing more lead in their gasoline, per gallon, than was typically used in the West, extra lead that serves no purpose other than profit;

§ faced with lead's demise and their inevitable days of reckoning, these firms have used the extraordinary financial returns that lead additive sales afford to hurriedly fund diversification into less risky, more conventional businesses, while taking a page from the tobacco companies' playbook and simultaneously moving to reorganize their corporate structures to shield ownership and management from liability for blanketing the earth with a deadly heavy metal.

Conclusion::

There is at least one simple lesson to be drawn from the tetraethyl lead story. Industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself, as Clair Patterson--the man who dated the earth and single-handedly deflated ethylized science--once remarked. "It is not just a mistake for public health agencies to cooperate and collaborate with industries in investigating and deciding whether public health is endangered--it is a direct abrogation and violation of the duties and responsibilities of those public health organizations."

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posted by degustibus at 10:19 AM

 
This is REALLY suspicious ::

I'm talkin about the suspicious guy in the bow tie . . .
posted by degustibus at 10:08 AM

 
OUCH

While all of the other bloggers are relishing the idea of the Eight Inch Bulldog being deposed on his connections to the White House, I'm much more interested in hearing about his full-time job as an Escort with Benefits in the DC area. In particular, a "client" list or little black book.

That sound you just heard was Ken Mehlman's sphincter snapping shut so tightly that if you popped a briquet in his butt you'd have a diamond by Tuesday. [my linking]

tbogg
posted by degustibus at 11:33 PM

 
The Creation of Gannon::

Absolutely the best Michelangelo knockoff ever.
posted by degustibus at 10:19 PM

 
Inquiring minds want to know:

This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?

Americablog

It just keeps getting . . . more . . .
posted by degustibus at 2:16 AM

 
Great Tsunami Conspiracy List

The internet can make a difference.
posted by degustibus at 1:59 AM

 
Patriot Act Up For Renewal.

It Can Happen Here
posted by degustibus at 1:57 AM

 
Now we know why Bush supports an amendment to prohibit gay marriage: To protect the Whitehouse corps of gay hookers.

Wonkette:

Letter From Wonkette: Hookers In The (White) House

posted by degustibus at 7:55 PM