True Pr0n Clerk Stories, an online journal I've mentioned a time or two, has apparently concluded, as author Ali Davis has decided to quit working for that particular store--for reasons that had nothing to do with its stocking pr0n; she just got a new job.
I wasn't a regular reader--it's in my links but not my blogroll, which is pretty much what I check regularly, but I'll miss Ms. Davis' insightful, thoughtful, and well-written reflections. Please join me in wishing her the best of luck.
Gore is supposed to be "stiff", so if he isn't stiff, he must be departing from his real personality. Or something. These guys have drawn up a map of Al Gore that looks nothing like Al Gore, but when the map doesn't match the territory they figure it's the territory that's wrong.
Of course, there is something new going on with Al Gore, which is that he no longer tries to hide his playful side. ...But during his political career, he's always tried to comport himself with the dignity he thought political office should have in public. He did tell the obligatory warm-up jokes, but he always considered it inappropriate to yuk it up during occasions of state. That didn't work in 2000, when he was painted as "too stiff" compared with a guy who gave people noogies. (And let's be honest about this: George Bush does not behave like a "regular guy", he behaves like someone for whom the technical term back when we were in highschool and college was "asshole". Not the class clown, who was at least sharp and funny. Not the "regular" guys, who were usually safe to hang out with. Not the captain of the football team, who was - well, he was Al Gore, actually. George Bush is the guy who everyone hoped wouldn't show up at the party.)
The myth of Gore's stiffness was so overwhelming that people mistakenly attribute Gore's playful activities to the supposedly press-charming George Bush. Bush, we all remember, was the guy the press seemed to like because he was fun to hang out with. But Al Gore famously asked reporters not to mention it when he was fooling around on the plane, because it wasn't, y'know, presidential behavior. George Bush, a man who you're always afraid is going to come up and snap your bra (or wipe his glasses on your skirt), was running around claiming he was going to "restore honor and dignity to the White House" - and Al Gore was running around showing people what honor and dignity actually looked like.
The "new" Al Gore is the guy who has learned the lessons of that campaign: That he cannot rely on the press to do anything but lie about him, and that therefore his only hope is to make sure the American public sees as much of him as possible, as he really is. The only way to do this is to appear as frequently as possible on the air, where people can see and hear him as he is rather than how he will be spun later by others.
But whatever Al is planning to do, he needs to bring it to the people, and that's what he's doing, and it's obviously scaring the hell out of the right wingers, who are spinning like crazy. But maybe - just maybe - it won't work a second time when the voters can see what Gore is actually like with their own eyes.
I still put "new" in quotes up there, though, because in fact there is nothing new about the fact that Al Gore can learn. Gore reads a book and learns something from it. Gore gets a letter from a constituent and learns something from it. Gore discovers the arpanet and learns something from it. Gore is trashed by the press and learns something from it. Gore has been absorbing new information all along and acting accordingly. I prefer this to the alternative.
The dictionary defines liberalism as "a political philosophy advocating personal freedom for the individual, democratic forms of government, gradual reform in political and social institutions." That doesn't sound too life-threatening. The political philosophy of liberalism has had a long and varied history. It arose in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, to protest the prerogatives of kings, aristocrats and the church.
I might add, at its best liberalism still protests the prerogatives of kings and aristocrats and church-as-state, while its counterpart supports those prerogatives.
They believe that government is inherently good, that it can make the human condition better. .... The conservative thinks government always makes things worse.
The liberals brought electric lights and indoor plumbing to our farm homes. They also brought the Civil Rights Act and Social Security, women's right to vote, bank-deposit insurance, and the Peace Corps.
Of course, some conservatives contend that liberals have been wrong about every issue in the last century. Pretty much shows where they stand, huh? Finally, this choice quote from John F. Kennedy:
I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas ... . For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves. ... For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society.
Arianna Huffington points out that the drug-liability provision was far from the only sleazy thing inserted, secretly and at the last minute, into the so-called Homeland Security bill. It also reversed a measure adopted at the peak of the public's ire about corporate scandals prohibiting government contracts to corporations that ostensibly relocate oversease as a tax-dodging measure. And, of course, Mr. Responsibility President Bush signed the bill anyway. (Like I said, unions were just not the right special interest.)
(via Daily Kos, who comments: "the Democratic Party's challenge is to take each of these gross abuses and build upon the last one -- the same way the GOP hammered home the "Gore is liar" theme. None of these incidents by themselves will expose the GOP for the facilitator of corporate corruption that it is, but with deft handling Democrats can help make the case. I hate to assume that the Dems will let this and other opportunities pass, so let's hope that our side is starting to learn their lessons.")
Consider for a moment how the national press corps would have treated such a story from within the Clinton White House in December 1994. They habitually gave far more attention and credibility to material of far less substance during the eight years of that administration. And there is no way that Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart would have been able to shut down questioning about an article like Mr. Suskind’s as curtly as Mr. Fleischer did. [Ed.: And have the "liberal media" let them get away with it, too.]
Then consider, after reading the Esquire article, which will soon appear on newsstands, what the press apparently cannot report (and probably doesn’t know) about the inner machinations of the Bush White House. The new occupants have changed the tone, indeed: It’s either happy talk or dead silence.
This essay in the online 'zine Savant calls for a quick and merciful death to Marvel Comics; Dan Traeger takes especially savage issue with the publisher's policy of underprinting to enhance the alleged "collectibility" of its comix.
Amazon.com's "recommendations" may be based more on what the company is interested in selling than super-duper quantum analysis of what you might be interested in buying, according to MSNBC. The company insists the pointers to its new apparel store are humorously phrased so customers will know the difference.
Campaign ad spending for the midterm elections amounted to [begin dr. evil voice tag] one billion dollars! [end dr. evil voice tag] The largest single amount--almost three times more than any other group spent on campaign ads--was the US$9 million spent by a group backed by the pharmaceutical industry, mostly supporting Republicans (now see this). However, interest groups, candidates and parties on both sides spent roughly equal amounts (now see this).
As I've said, I remain unconvinced that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is the best way to deal with the corrupting influence of money in politics, but it is corrupting, and absolutely needs to be remedied.
Andrew Hagen notes that more evidence has come to light indicating that the mammoth WWII German battleship Bismarck was scuttled by her crew, not sunk by the British.
One hopes the airlines are beginning to understand that passengers no longer expect, or want, luxury in the old-fashioned sense -- be it fancy entrées you can't pronounce or a choice of wines from five continents. ...What people want is some basic comfort and efficiency. ...What they want is a halfway comfortable seat, some food (at least on a long flight), something to do, and, for God's sake, an occasional 30-cent bottle of water.
It also includes the fascinating fact that a certain European carrier not only provides an individual video screen for each seat (in coach, yet), but offers a video feed from a nose-mounted camera during takeoff. c00L!
If the Bush Administration thinks the practice is such a great idea, one wonders why it was so hush-hush. This Administration appears to be obsessive about secrecy and opposed to accountability to a degree reminiscent of the Nixon administration, and for that reason alone it should be considered no more trustworthy.
And speaking of secrecy, Arianna Huffington wonders why absolutely no one seems to know how language protecting drug companies from lawsuits was placed into the Homeland Security bill. (via Blog Left) A bill, I might add, that Bush threatened to veto over what he called special-interest provisions (seems they just weren't the right special interests...). She's right about one thing:
This is clearly not a left-right issue. Any politician who has waxed lyrical about "accountability" and "transparency" -- that includes you, Mr. President -- owes it to the public to demand that Congress get to the bottom of just whose directive it was to insert into the homeland security bill a provision that has absolutely nothing to do with homeland security.
Teleport City's Keith Allison was really excited about the premise of a no-budget Japanese flick called Stacy: a cheapo zombie flick about an army of undead Japanese schoolgirls (sounds good to me!). Unfortunately, he discovered, the movie sux0rz; so much so that he couldn't sit all the way through its 80-minute length. And Allison, like myself, usually will watch just about anything all the way through (unless I fall asleep).
More sad news...animator William "Tex" Henson has died of injuries resulting from being struck by a pickup truck. He was 78. Henson, a former Disney animator, supervised the team of animators for the beloved Rocky and Bullwinkle show.
I learned something today. Any anime fan knows about hentai --the Japanese word for "perverted," it can mean anything from a teasing flash of a female character's panties to explicit pr0n. A common theme in hentai pr0n is schoolgirls being ravaged by demons or aliens with multiple, tentacle-like appendages; La Blue Girl (alternate site; FAQ) is a prime example. (I've never been into it myself, but I can also say that it isn't the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.)
Today I learned that depictions of tentacle sex is a theme in Japanese art dating back to at least the 18th Century (who knew?). This ivory carving (circa 1770) shows a pearl diver being, er, entangled by an octopus.
Here's the site's description of the carving:
A girl diver (ama), wearing nothing but a grass skirt is being ravished by an octopus. The creature's tentacles ensnares her legs and two of them curl about her breasts. She is making a token resistance but the arc of her neck, her hair tumbling down her back and the expression of pleasure on her face indicate her real feelings. Any ambiguity over the matter is dismissed when the piece is closely examined: it is possible by locking between the parted tentacles of the octopus, to see that the skirt by no means completely covers the girl, and that the embraces of the mollusc are far from displeasing.
Japanese art has always delighted in depicting women pearl divers being embraced by octopuses. Generally they are shown warding off the creature's blandishments but with this example the suggestion is that she is enjoying its attentions.
Noted broadcaster Roone Arledge has died at the age of 71. Not familiar with the name? Neither was I, but most Americans are probably familiar with his legacy. He launched Monday Night Football--the longest-running prime-time program in TV history--and inaugurated a number of now-commonplace sports broadcasting conventions, including instant replay and slow-motion. Arledge also helped create the news programs 20/20, Nightline and Prime Time Live and ABC's Wide World of Sports and coined its well-known tag line "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."
The 36-time Emmy winner was cited as one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and top White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey have both resigned. More later.
Update:Here's the WaPo story; the resignations were "at the request of the White House." Here's the AP story, which says "Bush advisers have been increasingly worried that a lagging economy could hamper the president's re-election prospects. [Duh!] The unemployment rate rose to 6 percent on Friday, the highest in nearly nine years."
The thing I don't get is, these announcements are supposed to be timed for a busy news day, not a slow one, so they're virtually ignored by the so-called "liberal" media. Instead, other big news includes the fact that unemployment is now at 6% (Merry Xmas, y'all!) So I can't feature why today--unless we're about to see Ashcroft announce an "elevated" level of terror threat, or something.
Update #2:Kos notes "that there were no pretensions about 'spending time with my family' ...This was a good ol' fashioned firing." and that it was tantamount to an admission "that his economic team was inept," as if a sluggish stock market and ongoing corporate layoffs didn't make it a foregone conclusion.
This site appears to be a collection of thumbnail photos (not linked to larger versions) of Japanese TV announcers and celebrities and jpop idols. Safe for work, although the site's home page is not.
