"[H]e [stands] firm behind his paranoia and radical beliefs. I respect that. Besides, he [is] a good source of nudie links."--Ravenwood.
"Its foci, in no particular order, seem to be baseball, Bush-bashing, and bare breasts. Not the stuff of legend, perhaps, but a lot easier to read than, say, Bartcop."--Dustbury
"This was a fine blog; it's just too bad his talent is wasted on the dark side." "Aesthetically speaking, LARS isn't the prettiest blog... it looks like a California mudslide at dusk."--The Smartercop
Red Sox foil Clemens' attempt at 300 Much to my glee, I woke up on Memorial Day, after a long night's rest, to see my Red Sox foiling Roger Clemens' attempt at a 300th win. What joy it was to have a rare Monday without work, and to enjoy my favorite baseball team (along with the Cubbies) beat the New York Yankees, who I despise more than anything in the world. But it was stopping Clemens short in his bid for history that was especially sweet. I hate Roger Clemens. He used to be my favorite baseball player. But I'm bitter about the way he left Boston. The ESPN commentators (was it Rick Sutcliffe?) kept defending Clemens and saying how stupid the Red Sox were, and that if the Boston management had looked deep into Roger's numbers, they wouldn't have "forced him out." I almost started to agree with what they said. But then, one more look at Clemens, and a few more runs scored off him, and I remembered the one thing I am sure of: I hate Roger Clemens.
A day-and-a-half later, I wander to ESPN.com's baseball page and find another wonderful article by the most entertaining sports writer in the land, Bill Simmons. An excerpt:
[W]atching Clemens light it up in Canada was like breaking up with your girlfriend, then watching her hire a personal trainer, shed 15 pounds, spend 10 Gs on a boob job and join the cast of "Baywatch." But worse.
If you know anything about baseball or Beantown, you'll sympathize with myself and the Sports' Guy here. Now read the whole thing.
posted by The Rust One on 5/28/2003 03:44:00 AM |
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I can't say it anywhere as close as good... So read the American Sentimentalist's excellent post regarding the upcoming relaxation of FCC regulations, which will now allow major media corporations to own several media carriers in a single market. One point of correction, I would use the term oligopolies instead of monopolies.
posted by The Rust One on 5/25/2003 11:49:00 PM |
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That sure is a big arm that's reaching towards us... Hoping to jump-start the economy, by placing large orders at Boeing and friends, and to scare the shit out of any dissenter in the country, Tom Ridge announced that unmanned Predator drones may be regularly patrolling the US over both land and sea. Apparently, the government needs to watch over more of us more of the time. And now, they don't even need humans! The drone, which killed several in the Afghan and Iraq wars, along with providing entertainment for the commanders, is a flying group of cameras that is controlled by people far, far away from the action, who probably have cigars in their mouths and their hands down their pants, a la Al Bundy. Using Predators during war is absolutely ridiculous. First of all, the controller of the weapon is far from the action, and never in any danger himself. He can sit there, completely not at risk, and kill people through the aid of technology, instead of skill. Basically, can uses America's wealth as a weapon. True, we always want to minimize the risk to our soldiers, but all this does is shelter them from true war. We put the other side at risk without putting ourselves at any risk at all.
And now we want to use them to patrol our borders. That's the equivalent of putting soldiers on the streets as policemen, or making all police cruisers hummers or tanks. We are going to be using a weapon of war--and a very pussy one at that--to patrol ourselves and our neighbors. Sure, the press releases saying how it's protecting us from terrorism try to put a nice, American spin on things. However, the truth of the matter is that this is just an invisible Berlin Wall. It is designed to keep us in, them out, and to watch over us the whole time. It is much better than a wall made of cement and brick. It is a wall made of cameras, weapons, and the full force of the government. This should not stand. Come on, Americans! We are allowing our privacy to be invaded by ourselves! Protect the constitution, you unpatriotic buffoons!
posted by The Rust One on 5/22/2003 10:29:00 PM |
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Tree-grown meat has been created. May hit shelves of the US in 2005. Holy shit. I feel like I'm freaking out. Human scientists have discovered a way to splice genes from a mammal with genes from a plant, in order to have meat grow in fruit. This is unbelievable! This is incomprehensible. This is sick. Enough of the God-playing, already. Sooner than we know it, we will be living in a world full of mutants. And we will be the ones who created it. The school of genetic engineering, eager to make that next big discovery that will win them money, fame, or the Nobel Prize, will not stop at any level of ethical dilemma in their quest for the latest bio-engineering breakthrough. The most disgusting part of the article had people praising the discovery as way of lowering the cost of beer. It's all about the economy, stupid.
Post Script (12:55 AM): Ok, I feel kind of stupid now. My friends and I spent about a half hour (which, in this world of fraction-of-a-second search engines, is an eternity) scouring the internet to find any other articles about this. I could not find them, which leads me to believe that this is just a hoax. It certainly sounds crazy. I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow the real truth, but until then, if you know the answer, let me know.
Thanks to... E-Nuff
posted by The Rust One on 5/21/2003 01:47:00 AM |
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Why even bother with Homeland Security and Intelligence measures if they use it for this? The Left Coaster has some great commentary on the DHS's involvement in the Texas legislature AWOL adventure, wondering if a Republican-controlled and -created department is being used purely for partisan political matters. In the follow-up to the Iraq War, American Intelligence is doing very little to aid weapons inspectors, who have found none of what they're looking for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but was not the objective of the war to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction?
posted by The Rust One on 5/20/2003 02:46:00 AM |
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Presenting Howard Dean Since he entered the race, Gov. Howard Dean has been my front-runner for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination. Truthfully, I didn't know a whole lot of his political philosophy, mostly just generalizations from hearsay. However, Liberal Oasis has posted an excellent interview with the Presidential candidate. Whether or not you agree with him, I think you have to respect the fact that he is asked very tough questions, and does not back down from them. Rather than act like a slick politician and try to re-arrange the question to his liking or duck it altogether, Dean sticks by his beliefs, and also does a good job at presenting them in a clear manner. He just upped his stock big-time with me, and I hope that the rest of voting America feels the same way.
posted by The Rust One on 5/20/2003 12:02:00 AM |
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Gotta love... Charlie O'Neal (not nudity but close). Since the link to Carmella Decesare, the most popular of the gotta love's, was broken, I found a new one here. Enjoy!
posted by The Rust One on 5/19/2003 11:36:00 PM |
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"I think those baseball gods kind of work in weird ways, don't they?'' Little said.
"On the eve before the Yankees are coming into town they kind of put us in a tie and I don't guess that any of us would have it any differently,'' he said.
"Boston and the Chicago Cubs are the only teams that have not lost three in a row this season."
"Nomar Garciaparra went 2-for-4 for the Red Sox to extend his hitting streak to 19 games, the longest current string in the majors."
The Red Sox have tied the Yankees for first place, just as the spoiled New York bullies come to town. You have to be excited for this. Let the fun (or misery) begin.
posted by The Rust One on 5/19/2003 04:08:00 AM |
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This Beck's for you If you're a baseball fan, you'll love this article, one of the best I have read in some time. Former Major-League closer Rod Beck is on a minor-league rehab assignment at AAA Iowa. He lives in an RV just outside the park, and often shares his Coor's and autographs with fans after the game. If only every star athlete acted the same...
Thanks to... Jared, ESPN.
posted by The Rust One on 5/17/2003 01:50:00 PM |
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Ironically, the recent bombing in Saudi Arabia, which was allegedly carried out by al-Qaida, may bring the US and Saudi governments closer together, instead of weakening their relationship, as planned. Just yesterday, I finished reading an article in The Atlantic describing the US-Saudi relations, and the reasoning behind the House of Saud's strange decisions. Unfotuantely, that article is not online. If you get a chance to read it, you really should, and compare it to this Washington Post article.
posted by The Rust One on 5/14/2003 04:02:00 PM |
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The $20 bill is getting a facelift. But the other facts about the US currency described in the article is a much more fascinating story. Two-thirds of US currency circulates outside the US!
posted by The Rust One on 5/13/2003 03:28:00 PM |
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Only in Texas... And thank God for that! After Democratic lawmakers skipped out on a legislative session in order that a quorum would not be reached, the state governor asked that they be arrested. The AWOL legislators felt they would be forced to vote on a re-districting plan they felt the President forced upon the state. Best quote of the article: "I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy," said [New Mexico Attorney General Patricia] Madrid, a Democrat.
Another doozy:
As the hours passed, the House doorkeeper kept watch over the chamber's front door, its historic brass lock turned shut. Inside, lawmakers with nothing to do lobbed toy balls, whistled the "Star Spangled Banner" and dined on white-linen covered tables.
OK, I'm a little miffed right now, because I just received a very unintelligent e-mail from someone telling me that I'm stupid and never use any evidence. While I admit that my blog does not meet as high of standards as I wish it did, I always back up my statements with evidence. And funny, the guy who e-mailed used no empirical evidence whatsoever to contradict my points. People like that probably still won't believe that the war with Iraq was a complete scam and all support for it was based on administration lies.
"We didn't have all these people in [protective] suits" for nothing, [the head of the inspection team] said. But if Iraq thought of using such weapons, "there had to have been something to use. And we haven't found it. . . . Books will be written on that in the intelligence community for a long time."
Yet, I'm sure that those who were for the war will still find some way to justify it. They, like President Bush, will keep changing the reasons behind the decision to go to war, and probably start saying that it was for economic revitalization.
posted by The Rust One on 5/12/2003 12:34:00 AM |
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House approves Bush Administration's tax cut Ok, so they pared it down just a little bit. Still, less than two years after pushing through a $1.3 trillion tax cut that did little to spur the US economy, another tax cut, which will probably cost $400-500 billion, is coming through. This one will benefit wealthy investors who have to do nothing to line their pockets, except make a few calls to their brokers. No doubt, investment should be encouraged, but when the tax burden is shifting from the rich, who can afford to pay their taxes to the poor, who have a tougher time, there is a serious problem with economic policy.
posted by The Rust One on 5/09/2003 03:17:00 PM |
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Last night, I traveled the 15 miles south on the 5 freeway to San Juan Capistrano to watch my buddy and former roommate, Danny Walters, sing with his band at the the Coach House. Much to my surprise, Danny and his band was opening for the Spin Doctors. I remember when, as a freshman in high school, I loved this band. My lifelong next-door-neighbor, MC Kenna, and I saw them on Saturday Night Live back in 1993, and thought they were awesome. Then out came Turn It Upside Down. I couldn't believe it. I had read in Rolling Stone that the Spin Doctors had been in the studio for days, weeks, months, that they pared this album down from 28 tracks they had recorded. And it totally sucked. I never really listened much to them anymore, though I did see them in concert at Great Woods back in 1994. I went to see Cracker and the Gin Blossoms (ugh) who were also playing. That was 9 years ago. I was 16 years old.
Nine years later, that hideous song, which forever drove me away from this band, "Big Fat Funky Booty," was their opener. I couldn't help but notice how much lead singer Chris Barron look liked Eric Stolz when he played the drug dealer in Pulp Fiction. After the half-ass response by the crowd of about 200 to their opening song, Barron looked as if he were thinking, "We played Saturday Night Live goddammit! What the hell are we doing here?!?" They next played "Little Miss CAn't Be Wrong," which got the crowd going a bit, including this spectator.
The show ended up being a delicious display of funk-pop, with wonderful solos peppered in by guitarist Eric Shenkman. To tell the truth, I was really impressed by the band's talent level. Musically, they're actually very good. Bassist Mark White and drummer Aaron Comess are a quite talented rhythm section and ripped off a couple good solos each as well. Barron, despite maintaining a fine-sounding voice, just didn't look right on stage. It looked to me like he wanted to hippy-dance around the stage like he did in his younger age, but seemed to accept the fact that those type of games were no longer for him. Every time one of his bandmates ripped off a solo, he stood on stage uncomfortably, looking around not quite knowing what to do.
The set the band chose to play itself was pretty decent, with a large percent of their songs coming off of Pocket Full of Kryptonite, which, in this writer's opinion, is the only good album the band released. "What Time is It?" was one of my favorites on the night, as that song has a special place in memory. In a couple of songs towards the end (sorry, I can't remember the specific songs), Shenkman went ballistic, squeeling an amazing long solo, then later performing the vocals on "Off My Line" and adding a killer guitar solo there as well. The rest of the show's songs pretty much can be seen right here.
Since the show ran pretty late, and I wasn't really expecting to see the Spin Doctors anyways, I took off as they played (what I'm assuming was) their last song. Seriously, I felt really bad leaving, as the Stolz look-alike seemed really bummed that only 200 came out to see them in the first place, and less than half were sticking around for the encores. I felt like a stupid Orange Countian who always leaves events early for some reason, even when the defending World Series champion Anaheim Angels are playing an extra-inning game against the Boston Red Sox. I went to see my home-town team play the locals a couple weeks ago, and very few of the "fans" stuck around till the 14th inning of an early-evening game (and most of them were BoSox fans). Despite feeling that the band themselves would think I was one of these types of people, I left the show anyways.
I would rate the Spin Doctors' show as a B+ musically, but the lack of energy from the lead singer downgrades it to a B. Overall, the show gets an A-, as I got to see my old roommate on stage, was on the guest list, and the opening bands were really rockin.
posted by The Rust One on 5/09/2003 01:05:00 AM |
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Well, the SiteMeter is just about to hit 20,000. While I know that's not a completely accurate reading of the visitors to this site, I am excited to hit the milestone. I don't really know who my everyday readers are (if, indeed, there are any), but thanks for listening. I hope people do enjoy this, or at least find it entertainingly annoying. If you're a regular, drop me a line. Thanks for stopping by.
posted by The Rust One on 5/07/2003 11:02:00 AM |
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President Bush has taken a firm stand against the Army Corps of Engineers, keeping it under a tight budget. In the meantime, the environmental destruction of the Corps, which is backed by powerful people on Capitol Hill as a source of local pet projects, is being stymied. Whether Bush cares about the enviornment or not, or whether he's just trying to cut away some pork from the federal budget, this is one decision of the President's with which most people can agree. That is unless, of course, you're an employee of the Army Corps of Engineers.
posted by The Rust One on 5/06/2003 01:00:00 AM |
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Blogging hits big time "I am not a blogger launcher," Bart writes on the chalkboard in this week's Simpson's episode. At least, I think that's what he wrote, I only got a quick glance. Is "blogging" that big now?
posted by The Rust One on 5/04/2003 11:06:00 PM |
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Some people hate blogs, but I don't... Here's a fun little entry covering numerous topics in the blogging world. Point of clarification, though. I don't hate conservatives. Some of them are my dearest friends and family members. I just think their politics suck. :) Enjoy.
posted by The Rust One on 5/04/2003 04:36:00 PM |
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A native New Englander (now re-located in Southern California), I made a few memorable trips to see the old man. Family vacations, when we traveled north to the White Mountains, and a couple years spent as a camp counselor on the banks of Lake Winnepesakee (I have no idea how to spell it, sorry). I'm saddened that the landmark for the state who's motto is "Live Free or Die" (but try using that on a cop when you're pulled over there) has vanished, and I wonder if they'll be any token efforts to reconstruct it.
posted by The Rust One on 5/03/2003 04:47:00 PM |
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Bush=Hoover? Sorry to continue with my rants on the Bush Administration's tax cut proposal, but that's what seems to be in the news lately. And, having a degree in economics, this type of stuff is pretty interesting to me.
Despite talks that his proposed tax cut will create 1.4 million jobs over the next 18 months, Bush is actually the first President since Herbert Hoover to oversee a net loss in jobs under his watch. Even if we see increase of 2 million jobs over the next 18 months, which is the historical average (and has very little to do with the tax plan), this country will still have fewer jobs under Bush's watch than it had previous. Now, I know that the current job destruction isn't all Bush's fault, but his economic ideas use faulty logic. If the economy doesn't turn around soon, Bush will very likely have the same legacy as daddy did.
posted by The Rust One on 5/02/2003 12:04:00 PM |
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What's to hide? A commissioned report on intelligence failures leading up to September 11, 2001 was supposed to be released. But at the last moment, members of the Bush Administration are re-classifying information so it will not be released to the public. Idiotically, the infamous "Phoenix memo" was part of the information re-classified, even though that controversy is well-known throughout the public sphere. I am greatly disappointed that the release of this report is further delayed and scaled back. Congress made a much bigger deal of the fact that President Clinton was getting blowjobs from an intern, with the Starr Report and all, and is allowing this report, which is actually important, to slip by all cut up.
I applaud MSNBC for having the balls to publish this article, but I wonder if the media overall will actually push for freedom to access public information, or if it will rollover after the Bush Administration throws them a morsel of exclusive TV access. I'm absolutely sure that the general public will allow this important evidence to stay out of its hands, and any serious challenge to the Bush Administration on this matter will quickly fade away.
I wonder, why is this the case? I have made a hobby of reading the bitching and moaning of "liberals" over several of the Bush Administration's political tricks and treats. The mainstream media will even pick up the criticism in an off-the-cover article or news clip. But then George or one of his cronies will deny the accusation, and no one presses the matter. Why the lack of resistance? Why do we liberals bitch and moan continuously, but never really do anything about the problems. Sure there are a lot of rallies, post card sending, and lobbying going on, but this has yet to work. Are we really that unable to find new ways to become the squeaky wheel? Despite good reporting and good questioning of authority, the liberal work does not seem to be getting done. It's one thing to simply disagree with the President's views. It's another when he is lying or keeping private what should be public information. Liberals have valid reasons to question the President, yet they are allowing their opposition to be easily squelched. What gives?
posted by The Rust One on 5/02/2003 03:32:00 AM |
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So I'm up way early right now, as I have been overcome by sickness. Still debating whether or not to go to work tomorrow. I probably should "nip this in the bud" and skip work, rest up, and hopefully the sickness will never be able to put its grasp fully around me.
Now to the point... I've seen some interesting articles, such as this one about the push for President Bush's tax plan. It seems every politician, no matter from which side of the aisle, has an idea or plan on how taxes or a cut in taxes can improve the US economy. I figured that I would check out the ranking of the individual states' income tax rates, and compare it to the ranking of their economies. I figure that the state's economic plans should at least shed some sort of light for the overall US economy.
This study gives Total and State and Local Tax Burden as a Percentage of Personal Income, 2002 and ranks the states in order. Unfortunately, I didn't find this study too user friendly. There are no definitions about what exactly they're calculating, and it's not really clear how to accurately read the information. Or maybe it just doesn't show what I was hoping to find. Now, I was unable to find a ranking of states by size of their economy, to compare the burden of taxes on growth for individual states. Unfortunately, I can't find a ranking of the states' economies (I didn't think it would be so difficult--I'm sure I'm just not combining the right key words for Google). So, here's my completely unscientific, total guesswork analysis: Taxes by themselves have very little to say about the growth of an economy. If you look at the top 10 states on the tax burden list, you see that they are all over the economic map. I must assume the states' rankings since I can't find them, but let's analyze intelligently... Maine (1), seems like it would be in the middle to lower end of the economic spectrum, New York (2) is certainly near the top, Wisconsin (3), is probably somewhere in the middle, Hawaii (4), is probably towards the bottom, Minnesota (5), is probably middle to top, Rhode Island (6), middle to bottom, Arkansas (7), towards the bottom, Utah (8), middle to bottom, Ohio (9), towards the top, Vermont (10), towards the bottom. Like I said, where these states ranks as far as economic "bigness" (I use that term on purpose) is a guess, but it is an educated guess. It seems, by these rankings, and my not-very-good analysis, that tax burden doesn't really tell us where the states will rank. President Bush thinks that a higher rate of taxes means a lower rate of growth, but the states economies and tax policies doesn't say that to us. One thing I do know for sure: Connecticut is the most prosperous state in the union. It's local and state taxes rank 11th highest, and it's overall tax burden takes the number 1 ranking. But its economy is number 1 among states. But it's share of taxes is high, according the President, shouldn't that have killed its growth???
While it's obvious that this isn't the most scientific or academic study, this... I'll call it a "quick survey"... this quick survey shows that the percentage analyzing tax burden of states within our country doesn't necessarily show us how much or how little taxes affect growth. Yet, without any such evidence, the President proposes $550 billion cut to taxes, cause it makes him feel good inside thinking that this will spur growth.
During my research, I also found an interesting study called the State New Economy Index. Interesting to see the state of my childhood ranked first. Here's also a comprehensive list of tax studies that are pretty interesting. Of course, they are slanted because they are published by an anti-tax group, however you can certainly glean some important information from the studies.
10:43 AM: On the subject of taxes, should there be a "fat" tax? Clay Johnson thinks so.
posted by The Rust One on 5/01/2003 08:23:00 AM |
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