So the other day (last week, actually) I was doing some elliptical at the gym. The only machines available were in the “big plasma TV” corner. Fox news was on. I tried not to watch it, but there it was. Now, I’m no fan of the mainstream media in general, though usually I can chalk their journalistic failures up to maxims like “if it bleeds, it leads” and “don’t scare the demographic.” But Fox? We need new pithy sayings to describe just how thin the veil has become between their protestations of journalistic integrity and the reality clearly visible beneath.

The newscasters talked a bit about the bailout, and the Republicans in the House refusing to vote for it. Now, I’m no fan of the current plan either, but I think most people would agree that phrases like “They held the line,” and “They stood strong” indicate a lapse of objectivity. When discussing Rush Limbaugh’s apparent power with the GOP leadership, as well as Obama’s criticism of Republican leaders who seem to model their rhetoric on Rush’s, the talking heads were saying things like, “doesn’t the President have more important things to do than discuss radio talk show hosts? Isn’t there an economic crisis going on?” and accusing him of wasting the nation’s time.

There was more of this. It made me shake my head in wonder. Okay, maybe there’s never true objectivity or neutrality in journalism, but since Fox keeps claiming (loudly) that it has no agenda and no political leanings, can’t they at least try to look like something other than self-esteem coaches for the conservative base? Sheesh.

I’ve heard Fox compared to CNN or ABC News, as if it’s just across the political spectrum from those networks; but it’s something else, entirely. It’s more like the conservative answer to the Huffington Post. No wonder I surf news online instead of watching TV. The TV news experiences are pretty punishing, and at least most of the news blogs admit their biases up front.

when did it start, then?

Online things that are bugging me or I find interesting this week:

• Yard Signs and Websites – Not that I’m surprised, but this report suggests that Megan’s Law (community notification for sex offenders) probably has no real impact on sex offending.
• Autism and Fraud – Apparently in a key study cited by folks who firmly believe (despite mountains of evidence to the contrary) that MMR vaccines cause autism… the researcher faked the data.
• Education <> University – I have great respect for Professor Dennis Rancourt, who dared to think critically about the education system, and got fired for it. The article brings up all kinds of interesting ideas, including the deep intertwining of money and learning in our education institutions, and also the University of Ottawa sounds like a scary place to work.
• Bailulous? Stimout? - This article suggests that the abomination stimulus has a chance (if done properly) of creating job growth. Another recent article demolished claims that FDR’s “New Deal” did not work. Okay, that’s pretty cool, if true. But it’s only part of the problem. The other part is whether we should do this, even if it might create jobs and economic growth. My feeling is still generally “no.”
• Horrifying – This is horrendous. An Iraqi woman admitting that she orchestrated the rapes of dozens of women, so they would feel — within the strictures of Arabic social structures — that they were better off dead, and therefore be willing to become suicide bombers. It reminds me of reports last year that a high percentage of male suicide bombers were recruited because they were suffering from terminal medical conditions. Evil still exists, apparently.
• Inconceivable! - This questionably newsworthy item is all about the demise of a breed of dog. A non-useful, just-for-show, fully-artifically-human-genetically-engineered pointless breed of ridiculous fluffy dog. The tagline of the article actually says “danger” and (more egregiously) “extinction.” I do not think that word means what you think it means. It’s a breed of dog. It’s not a species. Is there some lonely, mateless Sealyham Terrier living out his or her final, dejected days on an ice floe, drifting farther and farther from his or her traditional hunting grounds, family and friends slowly killed by industrialization and destruction of their natural habitat? Is the decline of this little anti-mutt robbing the world of even one teensy shred of naturally-occurring genetic diversity? NO. More likely, there are many very happy Sealyham Terriers having lots of enjoyable puppydog sex with non-Sealyham breeds of dogs, and raising gaggles and herds of genetically impure, totally adorable little fluffballs who are just as useless and genetically modified as their parents and grandparents, but less racially pure (and less profitable). In the process, they have unknowingly dealt a tiny but meaningful symbolic blow to the whole insane “show dog” culture. Man, this article was stupid. But ranting about it was fun.

First off, Alex loves muppets, as can be seen from this pic:

Secondly: Okay okay okay okay okay I totally want to make one of these! But, unlike the guy in the video, I will not be doing any experiments at borders near where I live. I can only imagine the body-cavity searches I’d have to endure before finally convincing them that this is not, in fact, any kind of weapon.

In other news, I am (as usual) extremely disapppointed in the willingness of the American public (including myself) to be  manipulated by our leaders. Here are some highlights:

• Obama capitulated on the FISA bill — which he previously promised to fight tooth and nail –  and thereby actively participated in solidifying and legalizing the expansion of presidential powers, reduction of domestic freedoms, and criminal activities of this administration. I know I already blogged this, but I only have 3 readers anyway, and I hope they’ll forgive me for continuing to be pissed about this. I’m wondering if Obama-as-president would be an executive version of the disapointment that is Nancy Pelosi. You know, failing to do much of anything he said he’d do.
• Not to be out-caputulated, the Supreme Court refused to hear environmental lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security about their little multi-billion-dollar border project down there. But there is still hope: Homeland Security isn’t just giving itself unconstitutional authority to ignore environmental law; it’s insisting it gets to ignore all the laws, precedents and human rights it feels are standing in the way of its effort to get the Border Fence constructed before someone figures out what a bad idea this is.
• Despite Certoff’s claims (don’t get me started on that guy…) to the contrary, global terrorism is much, much worse since we began our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

aaaaaand back to work.

Pic: A.J. Haygarth pondering the absurdity of The Constant K

The Constant K is an absurdist play. I gots no issues with that. It understands its own absurdity. Current U.S. politics, however, are a different matter. At times, it seems we’re supposed to pretend we don’t notice the absurdity of certain things happening around us¹. Here are some insane bits:

•  An interesting graph of false statements made by the Bush administration, month by month, 2001 – 20003. Increasingly, as journalists wake from the daze they’ve been in for the last 7 years, they’re discovering that many of these false statements were probably made with a full understanding of their falsehood. And, of course, they were integral in shoring up public support for a war against a nation that had not seriously threatened the U.S.
• Kucinich introduces articles of impeachment, the mainstream media doesn’t seem to think this newsworthy.
• The major media outlets also don’t seem to think it’s very interesting that the Pentagon clearly colluded with the Bush Administration  to manipulate analysis and coverage of the war effort, creating a machine that presented the administration’s talking points as if they were independent opinions by nonbiased individuals.
• My lovely government, pushed by huge wads of cash from failing media dinosaurs, apparently shoved a DMCA-style copyright law down Canada’s throat a few days ago, by threatening to make the border harder to cross if my adoptive nation didn’t appease the big labels.
• Finally–insanely–This document from 2001 suggests that the people who work to keep us safe have been taking Neurolinguistic Programming seriously! GAH! We might as well base our criminal justice policy on phrenology, with judges and juries using tarot cards in tie-breaker situations.

Sheesh. I’m done for today.

1. kind of like in 1984 [↩]

So, Michael Bloomberg might run for president in 2008. Interesting. Sure, he’s a ridiculously rich politician who probably has little in common with mere mortals, but that just makes him the same as the others in the field. Here is what little I know about him at this moment:

• He’s fiscally conservative (good)
• He’s socially fairly liberal (good)
• He has little patience for annoying journalists (good)
• He likes John McCain and possibly Barack Obama (good)
• He seems to be annoyed by most of the other major candidates (good)
• He has done pretty well running NYC (good)

Hm… I could vote for this guy, even if the pollsters are saying he doesn’t have a chance.

In other news, I’m a sissy. I biked to the store (like 3 blocks) and shopped, then biked home. That just plum tuckered me out. It must be the illness, because it’s certainly not the altitude.

In other other news, Mi Topita is finally (FINE-uh-LEEE!) reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I read it a year ago. Now, at last, I can discuss its plotty details! If only I could remember what they were…

The Virgina Tech shooter did something horrible. That’s his fault. But he existed in an environment in which he knew with a certainty that he would become famous for it. That’s the news media’s fault. That’s our fault. All of us.

The news media’s predictable vulture-like picking at the corpses of the victims is sickening. The most revolting thing about this, however, is the fact that the media are giving the killer everything he ever wanted. And, of course, this is because they’re giving us what we want. So, in the end, we are the problem. Continue reading →

On my way to work today, I passed a Lotus in the visitors’ parking area. Yes, a Lotus. At least it was in the visitors’ area, not in the administrators’ parking spots. I think the car was one of the models here (the Exige or the Elise). What’s this car doing in our parking lot? We’re a university. Actually, now that I thik about it, perhaps it belongs to some wealthy person giving a donation to the school. That would be acceptable. If there must be huge income inequalities in the world, some of the filthy lucre should trickle down to the educational system. You know, for the students’ increased learning outcomes. And my paycheck.

On the other hand, I looked up the prices on these things, and it looks like the Elise only (heh) costs between about $40,000 and $50,000, while the Exige goes for approximately $50,000 to $60,000. If I’m not mistaken, you can buy an SUV for the same price. OK, so that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement; it’s still luxury car pricing (a la Acura or Lexus), but despite the extremely sexy looks of this Lotus, it’s not in the price range of a quarter-million-dollar Lamborghini or Ferrari, or the million-plus McLaren F1. So I guess conspicuous consumption has fine gradations of magnitude.

Discussion of British cars (like Lotus) Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw on an MG once: “The parts observed falling from this car are made with the finest British craftsmanship.”

Diane Arbus would be proud.

I don’t know why I suddenly started to like this little snapshot. maybe because it looks so surreal, with the contrast of the three different qualities of light. I find interesting incongruities in the subject matter, too. Actually, it’s just Alex and me having dinner at a cabin in Tennessee, and I didn’t intend any of the interesting aspects of the photo; accidentally interesting.

In other news, this morning on my ride to work, I understood how I will eventually die. I will be lying in a hospital bed, and the doctor will have a grave look on his face (he will look like the doctor from BSG), and Alex and the children will be shaking their heads, sadly, as if they knew it all along. The medical chart will show that I have multiple cancers, respiratory problems, and probably some kind of brain damage, all due to biking to work while sucking down the exhaust of a hundred pickups and SUVs per day. In the next hospital room over, there will be a soccer mom and her yuppie husband, in for a checkup, and in perfect health. In fact, they’re so healthy, they’re scrapping their plans to start cycling, or taking walks. The doctor tells them they’ll live to be a hundred, as long as they avoid breathing any of the air outside. Cause that stuff’ll kill ya.

Roof puppies in Oaxaca also like the sun

It was sunny outside! For only a few hours, true, and now it’s back to an overcast thingy, but at least it’s a bright overcast thingy. I got up late (7:45), fooled around with stuff, then finally left the apartment at 9:00, got to work at 9:30 (I took the extremely long way; my commute is actually about 7 minutes if traffic cooperates), and didn’t even mind all the mud on my bike. And on me. It’s been lead-dark and cloudy for 2 weeks, now. And ridiculously cold for this part of the world. maybe we’re starting to have a normal winter again (i.e., sunny and warm).

In other amazing and excellent news, I went into the locker room in the gym, where I have a locker in the non-faculty area (menos cool). I shower, however, in the faculty lockers, because it’s a much better shower experience. So, I browsed around the locker area (as is my wont, from time to time) and saw what I was looking for: a free locker! I’ve waited for a year and a half. So, I snatched it. With the requisite paperwork, of course. I now have a faculty locker. No more wandering the length and breadth of the undergrad locker room in nothing but the way-too-small university towel, on my way to and from the shower. Yay! Plus, if your gym shorts are really stinky, you can hang them on the outside of your locker without worrying that the staff or the other students will trash them.