slow-dog.backintheusa

Monday, April 29, 2002

An odd ad on an email list, looking to rent a room:

A room for rent in 2BR apartment: (large kitchen, small living room)

A Spacious room, w/beautful bay windows (15th floor) overlooking hudson river and GW bridge. (a room with a view)

Middle of nowhere, but an awesome building. Manhattan (171 and ft. washington) 24 Hr/Doorman; cheap as hell: $650/mo (includes gas/water, but not electric)

must be: CLEAN, generous, normal individual (happy people are very welcome) -- that rules out most of manhattan. Concepts that should be habits: knowing how to SHARE -- (and understands this does not mean dividing the refrig with lines); not suffering from any psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive compulsive disorder; throwing out the trash, pissing in the hole and not on the seat; not f***ing loudly every SINGLE every night, though an occasional outburst is well undersood . .. . and understands that when you gotta go, you gotta go.

cheers,

phil

09:48 PM PST
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Friday, April 26, 2002

The Stanford Tree and ESPN have a long storied history. Most notably, in 1996, the Tree was banned for five years from online mascot tournaments at espn.com. Today, a new poll asks {{popup mascotpoll.gif mascotpoll 116x362 who is the most hated mascot}}? As of 16:00 PDT, it's the Tree in a runaway.

04:06 PM PST
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Thursday, April 25, 2002

I'm concerned about discrimination in the Robert Blake murder case. Apparently, prosecutors won't seek the death penalty. They tried for the death penalty for OJ, why not Blake. No, I'm not worried about that kind of discrimination. But what if Bonny Bakley looked like Nicole Brown Simpson instead of Bonny Bakley?

04:35 PM PST
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A fine takedown of emo:

Actually, the only real difference between female Emos and male Emos is behavioral. Female Emos behave like adolescent boys. They curse, spit, throw rocks at cats, and even walk like they have a load in the back. Male Emos "emote." That's it. They react to everything. If they're not screaming at an innocent kid for listening to Kid Rock at the TigerMarket, they're crying along with their friends to a drone of a single bass chord over and over and over again

02:38 PM PST
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Lane McFadden seems like a cool guy. By that, I mean he has good taste in music, and he writes about property rights. Why, what's your definition of cool?

12:56 PM PST
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Wednesday, April 24, 2002

This show was so great, I missed it the first time around. Actually, I think I was out of the country, but no matter--it's never too late to comment on pop culture. I'm amazed that Amazing Race II is on the air. As far as I can tell, it's an hour of shots of people waiting in airports and canned footage of planes taking off and landing. It's bad enough when you have to live through the experience, but to spend free time watching others do it, I just can't abide.

09:28 PM PST
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Tuesday, April 23, 2002

In a stunning turnaround, environmentalists have come to the conclusion that encouraging a market for products from trees will support habitat preservation. Sierra Club and the Earth First immediately announced plans to discontinue protests and work with loggers to ensure that demand for lumber remains strong. Tree sitters in Oregon came down from their perches, smelly but happy:

The creeping acceptance of plastic corks, however, is more than a matter of wine quality; it may spell the end for several endangered species of animals, as well as an ancient way of life in Spain and Portugal, where most cork is grown.

05:21 PM PST
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Are you a women's golf fan? I am now.

10:35 AM PST
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Sunday, April 21, 2002

The cheese eaters had their primaries, and boy are lots of people upset with the results. Here are the tallies:

Jacques Chirac President (RPR) 19.8%
Jean-Marie Le Pen National Front 17.4%
Lionel Jospin Prime minister (Socialist) 16%
François Bayrou UDF 6.5%
Arlette Laguiller Trotskyite Workers' Struggle 6.3%
Noel Mamére Green 5.5%
Jean-Pierre Chevènement Radical nationalist 5.3%
Olivier Besancenot Trotskyite Revolutionary Communist League 4.5%
Jean Saint-Josse Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition party 4%
Alain Madelin Liberal Democracy 3.8%
Robert Hue Communist party 3.6%
Bruno Mégret National Republican Movement 2.4%
Corinne Lepage Independent ecologist 1.7%
Christiane Taubira Radical Left party 1.6%
Christine Boutin Independent centrist 1.1%
Daniel Gluckstein Trotskyite Workers' party 0.5%

Did anyone know that there were three separate Trotskyite parties in France, as well as a Communist party? And that still, this is inadequate choice for some, such that a Radical Left party was needed to represent another viewpoint? Looking at the party names, it appears that the same can be said for the environmentalists, who have two parties, and for the nationalists, who seem to have three. So now all the Trotskyites are going to have to swallow their pride and vote for Chirac, who doesn't appear to make anyone in France happy with his shifting positions on everything from economics to the environment.

07:24 PM PST
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I was led from libertarian samizdata to this from-the-trenches report on the anti-civilization protests in Washington D.C. There are many choice bits, but this is the choicest:

After ten minutes or so, a kid in glasses wearing a "Nerds Against War" button asked us if we were "interested in justice." Well, of course. Who isn't?

"Justice," it turns out is the official newspaper of the Socialist Alternative, a group that demands, among other things: 30 hour work weeks, $12.50/hour minimum wage or $500/ week (whichever is greater), public ownership of the 500 largest companies in the country, and immediate cancellation of the public debt, with zero payoff to "big investors."

"Sure," Bryan said, "I'll take a copy."

"That'll be a dollar."

"A dollar?"

"Yeah, a dollar."

"I have to pay for a socialist newspaper?"

"Of course."

"But I don't believe in money," Bryan said, obviously jerking the guy's chain.

"Oh. Man. Not at all? How do you eat?"

It's a shame Ranko didn't mention the "Free Mumia" guys who I saw on TV.

01:37 PM PST
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K-Meleon now chokes on my Greymatter install. This makes me mad...........

Update: Problem solved.

01:30 PM PST
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Friday, April 19, 2002

That spinoff of a sequel, The Scorpion King is coming soon to a theater near you. This review's best line?:

I hate to say this about a professional wrestler, but the Rock seems a bit grown up for all this foolishness.

10:49 AM PST
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Thursday, April 18, 2002

I don't buy the arguments in this article about institutional racism that some of the people quoted infer from Abercrombie and Fitch selling these shirts, but boy was that dumb. And when you're PR firm says "We personally thought Asians would love th[ese] T-shirt[s]," you sure did hire the wrong firm.

11:21 AM PST
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Monday, April 15, 2002

A reasonably good discussion of suicide terrorists and morality comes from--I am not making this up--the Arab News. Here's the bit which may be problematic:

In the case of the Palestinians, the decision must come from the Palestinian National Authority, their embryonic organ of state. That authority, as far as this writer knows, has never organized or condoned suicide bombings. Its head, Yasser Arafat, has condemned such acts on several occasions, at least when speaking in English. No state can order suicides because that would amount to human sacrifice.

"At least when speaking English"? That seems more of an admission than the author acknowledges. But can one expect that if Arafat and the Palestinian Authority appeared to be more equivocal about suicide terrorists, that perhaps this would call in to question the legitimacy of their rule? One eagerly awaits Amir Taheri's next column. He could be the new voice of Islam.

04:38 PM PST
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Sunday, April 14, 2002

From alec baldwin's guestbook:

Due to the constant and steady stream of offensive material that has been posted here on my Guestbook, regretfully we are closing the Guestbook indefinitely.

Pure gold.

11:43 PM PST
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I didn't expect it would happen, but someone arrived at slow-dog.com by searching for OLSEN TWINS PORN. Currently, slow-dog is the 35th ranked site for OLSEN TWINS PORN. For future searchers......there is NO OLSEN TWINS PORN here. If you are looking for OLSEN TWINS PORN, don't ask me, because I don't know a) if it exists, or b) where to find it if it does exist and c) that's illegal. Might I suggest reforming your ways and searching for legal porn until the Olsen twins turn 18.

01:08 AM PST
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Saturday, April 13, 2002

Got 5 minutes to spare? Go here and SAVE INTERNET RADIO!

12:34 AM PST
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Friday, April 12, 2002

The best single day haul of searches that led to this site:

windows 98 won't wake up
white trash grilling
hard tattos
horoscopes 2002 russian

03:06 PM PST
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Thursday, April 11, 2002

The Super Karate Monkey Death Car site has been brought to the forefront of my thoughts several times in the past few weeks. Just go there.

03:14 PM PST
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On a lighter note, I'm playing fantasy baseball this year (first time), and it's really a great way to rekindle your love of baseball. Now suddenly, I care about 6-8 games a night. Did Frank Thomas get any hits in that White Sox yawner? This year, it matters. Of course, it also gives you new reasons to be angry, e.g. it's the 3rd inning now, and my ace Roger Clemens is handing out runs like they were free samples at Costco.

10:52 AM PST
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Ken Layne points to an article on an Israeli-biased Congress:

As President Bush comes under growing international pressure to rein in Israel's military offensive against Palestinians, he faces countervailing pressure from an overwhelmingly pro-Israeli Congress where some members are pushing for new statements of support for the country.

The powerful Israeli lobby gives millions of dollars to lawmakers, lining their pockets and poisoning their minds against rational thought and rendering them incapable of seeing the other side of the story (recent C-Span viewing shows congressman of all political stripes eager to give their speeches on the necessity of supporting Israel in their precarious position). But why is the Arab lobby so inept? They've got scads of cash. Saudi Arabia takes out full page ads in the New York Times reminding us what great friends they are. Certainly, the lobbying firms are willing to take the money. The article doesn't explain this mystery. It does note:

And Jews are well represented in Congress. There are 10 Jewish members of the Senate, for instance, and no Arab Americans.

It also fails to point out that the Arab American Institute lists 6 Arab-American representatives, 1.3% of all reps. AAI also estimates 3 million Arab Americans, which is 1.1% of the 2000 census estimate of 281.4 million Americans. So, Arab Americans are at least proportionally represented in the lower house. Perhaps, then, the reason for the lack of "reasoned discourse" is really a recognition that positions staked out by groups like the AAI are beyond the pale to reasonable Americans, Arab or otherwise. Or it's a Zionist conspiracy--you decide.

01:32 AM PST
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Wednesday, April 10, 2002

This is dumb.

11:15 AM PST
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Tuesday, April 9, 2002

In a further attempt to break this site, I've started using some simple PHP. Let me know if anything doesn't seem to work.

02:27 PM PST
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Saturday, April 6, 2002

Based on absolutely no concrete information, I predict that Colin Powell will never make it to Israel. Maybe that was part of the plan, and the reason why Bush announced that he was sending Powell there, but not until late next week. There's plenty of time for Israel or the Palestinians to do something which makes sending Powell unthinkable. Bush gets credit for elevating US diplomatic efforts, but doesn't have to follow through and see his Secretary of State fail to produce anything meaningful.

UPDATE: This article seems to think it was more designed to allow Israel the time it needs to finish up operations.

UPDATE (12 April): Apparently, I was completely wrong.

02:48 PM PST
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From ArabNews:

Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday urged Saudis who demonstrated near the US Consulate in the eastern city of Dhahran to support the Palestinians by actions, not by words...... Prince Naif called on the zealots who took part in the demonstration to take effective steps in support of the Palestinians. "These enthusiasts should help Palestinians through donations to the Saudi Committee for Supporting Al-Quds Intifada"

11:28 AM PST
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Thursday, April 4, 2002

From brunching shuttlecocks:

Pi, by and large, is very useful, but there is this ridiculous obsession with finding the nth digit of Pi, where n is stupid. A value of pi that's accurate to the 31st digit is good enough to measure the circumference of the entire universe within one proton, so anything beyond that is bordering on the -- please forgive the coinage -- mathsturbatory.

03:44 PM PST
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A good op-ed by Daniel Weintraub about teacher's union attempts to hijack curriculum in California. Hopefully this will get shot down before it gets to Gray Davis, although he seems prepared to veto it. Hopefully he'll follow through if it comes down to his veto--this is too bad of an idea to let political considerations sway him, and it's not like the teacher's union is going to back Bill Simon in the upcoming gubernatorial race. In fact, this might pick up Gray some votes from the right, although I doubt it.

12:29 PM PST
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From random web person:

Disinformation is disinformation. Lies are lies. Just because a lie appeals to YOU doesn't make it any more true.

12:18 PM PST
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Wednesday, April 3, 2002

The Michael Moore of cartooning, Ted Rall, unintentionally gets one right. Here he shows the fallacy of depening on world organizations with pliable moral and ethical standards where countries like Syria, part of the the UN Security Council, and Cuba and Libya, part of the UN Commission on Human Rights, are part of the decision making process. I guess that thousand monkeys typing theory isn't so far fetched.

11:03 AM PST
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