tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59879292011-12-14T20:45:53.990-06:00Maintaining Optimism in the Face of Reality. Occasional observations on the state of the world, society, business and politics. Usually anchored by facts, always augmented by opinion.Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.comBlogger2371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1117460061833144202005-05-30T07:35:00.000-05:002005-05-30T08:34:21.893-05:00

I had a couple of my friends since college visit this weekend. It was good seeing them. We discussed a variety of things, but on Sunday morning, the conversation for some reason turned to Walmart. My friend from L.A. was particularly surprised that I, a business owner and typically pro-business Republican, am actually very much in favor of municipalities using zoning to prevent Walmarts from

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1115053686738070482005-05-02T11:51:00.000-05:002005-05-02T12:08:06.740-05:00

Last year, the then-head of the Minnesota Lottery, George Anderson, committed suicide shortly before a probe of the lottery's finances and operations was the be released. At the time, I thought this was pretty unusual. It's one thing for there to be some kind of misfeasance or malfeasance, and entirely another when a public official kills themselves before the report's release.Well, it seems the

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1114839746464741902005-04-30T00:20:00.000-05:002005-04-30T00:42:30.803-05:00

I had to do some travel earlier in the week to visit a client's client down in Lexington. Since NWA doesn't fly direct to Lexington, I had to connect through Detroit. All went well on the trip down, but on my return flight idiocy struck (I did mention I was flying Northwest, so I'm sure you were already expecting some sort of fuckwittage).The problem came up at the Lexington airport, where my

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1112117175805834792005-03-29T11:17:00.000-06:002005-03-29T14:47:51.376-06:00

My friend (previously referred to as Slats Grobnik) e-mailed me this great tidbit from The Guardian today. "Big Mac Rap May Mean Artists' Payday". The basic idea is taking product placements out of the movie and television world and putting them in the recording arts.Rap artists are accustomed to name-checking prestige car, clothing and jewellery brands in their lyrics. But if McDonald's has its

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1110301350818106482005-03-08T10:46:00.000-06:002005-03-08T11:11:06.053-06:00

I really enjoy movies. I went and saw Constantine last night, on which an old college friend (and fellow blogger at Deliberate Cinema) worked. It reminded me that I still have not seen The Machinist, which I would love to see, but I apparently will have to wait for it to come out on DVD. Why? I think there are one of two possible reasons:1) It has not and will not be shown in my small rural

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1109863495426674162005-03-03T09:18:00.000-06:002005-03-03T11:22:30.923-06:00

....there's never a suicide bomber around when you could really use one.While the King of Pop has his own media circus going on out west, France is doing a mass prosecution of 66 pedophiles for sex crimes against 45 children ranging from 6 months(!) to 14 years of age.More information via the BBC.Ironically, the trial is taking place in a town named "Angers"...kind of appropriate, as the whole

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102437456569188912004-12-07T10:04:00.000-06:002004-12-07T10:37:36.570-06:00

It appears NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will be announcing his candidacy for Governor of New York. [Reuters via Yahoo] This should come as a surprise to exactly no one. Obviously, one would presume he has had this on his mind for a while. After all, he did run on a platform of cleaning up state government but apparently figured that getting buried back in the "State News" section or only

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102403249095636102004-12-07T01:07:00.000-06:002004-12-07T01:09:06.506-06:00

I was alerted by Powerline to the new blog from Richard Posner and Gary Becker. Becker is a Nobel-winning economist and Posner is a federal judge, and for years was a leader (the leader, arguably) of the law and economics school of jurisprudence at Chicago. These are very powerful minds and the fact that they will be blogging is everyone's good fortune. I agree with Deacon's comment on Powerline

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102398660834588692004-12-06T16:57:00.000-06:002004-12-06T23:51:00.833-06:00

I was under the impression that, in general, juries are "triers of fact," while judges apply, and as necessary, interpret, the law. So I guess I was a little confused when I read the article about a federal jury determining that for purpose of the payouts with nine insurers, the WTC attack was two separate events (two planes, after all). [WSJ] [Reuters via FT] Needless to say, this will have a

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102369843528639912004-12-06T15:48:00.000-06:002004-12-06T15:52:24.716-06:00

john snowApparently nothing to smile about. Snow just doesn't look like a salesman. Internet treasure hunt: try to find a picture with John Snow smiling.Time to update the scorecard as Treasury Secretary John Snow's gotta go, according to the Bush administration. [NY Times] That's understandable, given that Bush's man at Treasury is going to have one hell of a sales job, explaining why everyone

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102350098279037292004-12-06T09:12:00.000-06:002004-12-06T10:21:38.280-06:00

Busy times with the U.N. lately. Coleman calls for Kofi Annan's resignation, Danforth resigns from the U.N. ambassadorship for "personal reasons", and last Friday, outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell provided a slight endorsement of Kofi Annan, calling him a "good" Secretary General. [Reuters via Yahoo] Over the weekend, the Bostin Globe's Jeff Jacoby ("Annan is a symptom of UN's sickness..

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102217515087936512004-12-04T21:31:00.000-06:002004-12-04T21:38:12.300-06:00

I just finished one of the most interesting and though-provoking pieces of writing I've read in recent memory. It is the English translation of French philosopher Alexandre Kojève's "Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy." The translation is from the August '04 issue of Policy Review, the Hoover Institution's journal. The issue also includes an essay, "Kojève's Latin Empire," by Robert Howse of

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102196180727842452004-12-04T15:36:00.000-06:002004-12-04T15:36:20.726-06:00

If you just want a quick guide to the changes in the Bush cabinet since the start of his first term, and now with Tommy Thompson becoming the eighth cabinet change since before the election. I've included the extended cabinet, not just the main Secretaries. PostOriginalCurrentFuture Chief of Staff Andy Card Agriculture Ann Veneman Mike

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102182268205783062004-12-04T11:44:00.000-06:002004-12-04T11:44:28.206-06:00

I don't normally post just to pass along links, but I stumbled across the MythicJourneys.org site "The Big Myth." Geared probably toward children, it is a really quite interesting overview of a variety of cultures' creation mythology. It's done with Flash, and has voiceovers to accompany all of the written text as well. The narrator has the appropriate solemnity for the material. Even though it

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102122873250741922004-12-03T16:53:00.000-06:002004-12-03T19:21:00.523-06:00

I am assuming most readers have heard of JFK Reloaded when it was launched a couple of weeks ago. If not, it is a simulation (some would say a game) that allows you to reenact the events in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. You play Oswald, or multiple shooters, placed in different locations, including the proverbial grassy knoll. As an aside, I'm surprised no Democrats have claimed Karl Rove

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102094466938873422004-12-03T11:21:00.000-06:002004-12-03T11:21:06.936-06:00

German CondomsGerman condom "superstore" Vinico: size matters. According to their study only 18% of German men wear a properly-sized condom, with 34% buying too large and the balance buying too small. [Reuters via Yahoo] One British site gives the story a more insulting headline.Sparked by the article, I actually visited the Vinico website. Quite a selection...I think my favorite was the "Pullit.

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102020716837591312004-12-02T14:20:00.000-06:002004-12-02T14:51:56.836-06:00

New York Times columnist David Brooks is in the Twin Cities today. He'll be speaking at the University of St Thomas in St Paul tonight [info] (tickets are $20, with a discount for MPR members). His topic this evening is the polarization in America. While he was in town he was over at MPR studios for an interview an call in on Midday with Mike Mulcahy. Brooks is my kind of conservative, and I

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1102007616103410462004-12-02T10:22:00.000-06:002004-12-02T11:17:59.036-06:00

President Bush has called for a full and open investigation into the United Nations' administration of the Iraq Oil-for-Food program, although he didn't go as far as Norm Coleman in asking for Annan's resignation. Actually, I think Bush was fairly diplomatic about it all things considered. [Reuters via Yahoo] I'm not sure if he was just being diplomatic when he said: "In order for the taxpayers

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101932151823814522004-12-01T13:16:00.000-06:002004-12-05T12:29:19.136-06:00

My post yesterday on France brought me a message from a long-time friend in Chicago, I'll call him Slats Grobnik (I'm sure he won't mind). Unlike Mike Royko's Slats who was a commonsense working-man, I consider this individual one of the most erudite and articulate people I have the fortune to know, and do find it unfortunate that we have lived in different cities since college. However, as

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101917972467917312004-12-01T10:19:00.000-06:002004-12-01T10:34:09.296-06:00

Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman has an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today calling for Kofi Annan's resignation. Those who have followed the news on the Oil-for-Food scandal are certain to immediately understand why this should be necessary, but I think Coleman sums up the main reasons fairly well:The decision to call for his resignation does not come easily, but I have arrived at this

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101851391078629792004-11-30T14:22:00.000-06:002004-12-05T12:28:06.410-06:00

I will be the first to admit that we Americans seem to go overboard on our derision for the French, but it is a two-way street in many ways. Of course, many liberals take it upon themelves to defend all things attacked by the majority, whether it be high taxes, partial birth abortions or, in this case, France. Witness the "I hate Pat Robertson" blog. Now, any regular reader probably knows that I

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101832138320773492004-11-30T09:21:00.000-06:002004-11-30T10:28:58.320-06:00

Yesterday the other cynical Barry Johnson commented about the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the Massachusetts gay marriage case. He said: Some conservatives will be chagrined that the Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to Massachusetts' gay marriage law. Some liberals are no doubt disappointed as well, since this development doesn't really fit their whole "Jesusland" narrative.

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101748063020806212004-11-29T10:59:00.000-06:002004-11-29T15:08:53.076-06:00

vs. While normally one might think that a 20-to-1 deficit would indicate some kind of loss, this is one case that I think we can be happy coming it such a distant second. So what are the above numbers? The word lengths of the not-yet-ratified European Union constitution compared to our comparatively brief U.S. Constitution, including all of the amendments it has taken on over the past 200-plus

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101595929090813332004-11-27T16:05:00.000-06:002004-11-27T16:52:09.090-06:00

Apparently Bill Gates learned something from Saddam Hussein's using of bribery and payoffs to help with gaining support for a more relaxed and permissive attitudes by those ostensibly focused on reigning in their capacious appetites. [For recent discussion of Saddam's "Oil for Alliances" program, you can start with a recent update that provides backlinks.] Just as Saddam spread ill-gotten wealth

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101523139004911552004-11-26T18:41:00.000-06:002004-12-01T10:35:56.476-06:00

In the process of analyzing some data for clues about how informed Americans are about the news (the answer is not very, read the full post for the breakdown), I decided to look at the verbatim poll results from a 2002 Pew survey for the question "Can you tell me who Yasser Arafat is?" All of these people had initially answered, "Yes" to the question of "Do you know who Yasser Arafat is?" In

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101505163612977102004-11-26T15:27:00.000-06:002004-11-26T15:40:22.656-06:00

This is a followup from my prior post discussing political ignorance. At the end, I promised to dig into a decent-sized dataset from a survey, primarily to measure media consumption, conducted by the Pew Center for the People and the Press in 2002. This all relates to a post from a couple of days ago about the great "political divide" in America, which I tend to question. Read the first post on

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101435807864139492004-11-25T20:14:00.000-06:002004-12-01T10:58:25.836-06:00

In my recent post about the nature of the political divide, I basically suggest that there really isn't as much of a divide as people would suggest, and attributed the appearance and sense of a divide to a fairly comprehensive set of factors. I claimed that the fertile soil in which the problem starts is the evil twins of political apathy and political ignorance. Hopefully I won't have to defend

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101402283470137022004-11-25T10:13:00.000-06:002004-11-25T11:24:59.053-06:00

When writing yesterday about what to do about the division in America, I questioned whether or not our nation really is that divided. I pointed to the case of the much closer, higher-turnout election of Kennedy over Nixon in 1960 as a point of modern comparison. However, in the interests of keeping the piece shorter, one of the things I left out from my draft were some historical examples of a

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1101163092052495552004-11-24T10:37:00.000-06:002004-12-06T10:25:09.930-06:00

Since I was delinquent in addressing last week's Homespun Symposium topic, I will get this week's out of the way immediately. This topic this week is three (really four) questions: Is the division in America important to you?What will be necessary to heal it?What part do you see Bloggers playing in that discussion and how will you personally contribute to it? Before answering any of these

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100923128264179212004-11-21T20:19:00.000-06:002004-12-01T10:43:27.573-06:00

This (last) week's Homespun Symposium question is: Is it time for the U.S. to end the Electoral College? If so, in favor of what alternative system? If not, why is it still relevant and beneficial to the nation?[Links to other responses on this question] In a nutshell, my thoughts on the Electoral College are in line with Churchill's comments on democracy, namely, that it is the worst possible

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100885766671879902004-11-19T10:42:00.000-06:002004-11-19T11:36:06.670-06:00

About a month ago, I wrote about some bad seeds, children who exhibited staggering antisocial behavior, like a 12 year-old girl murdering her sleeping mother and an 11 year-old attacking her babysitter with a machete. News today is almost as troubling: In Philadephia, an 11 year-old boy raped one of his male classmates. [KTVU] Apparently this resulted over a fight about a handball. As an aside,

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100838148632334322004-11-18T21:43:00.000-06:002004-11-19T17:49:11.546-06:00

Just a few quick comments about the state of things: It looks like Specter will get the chair of the Judiciary committee. That's evidence of something being right with the world. The entire tempest in a teapot created by his perfectly reasonable observation was just ridiculous. The religious right behaved in an embarrassing fashion that simply called into question their grip on reality. People:

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100790305820632052004-11-18T08:23:00.000-06:002004-11-18T09:05:05.820-06:00

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution today is encouraging us to read a post from Asymmetrical Information about the impact of welfare and the future of poverty. The AI post largely comes to the idea that that a good long-term way to raise people out of poverty is to eliminate the role of welfare in making bad short-term decisions, such as having children out of wedlock (or lets just say before one

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100755204695074282004-11-17T22:44:00.000-06:002004-11-17T23:20:04.696-06:00

Well, now I understand. I guess the majority of Americans, including myself, who voted to reelect George Bush just did it because we're uninformed. Michael Moore explains in the UK Guardian: Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information [in this election] and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators and it's up to us to start doing it

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100735343118853732004-11-17T17:08:00.000-06:002004-11-17T17:49:03.116-06:00

The (bad) news keeps spilling out in the investigations in the Oil-for-Food program. With committees in both the House and Senate investigating things, I imagine we will start having significant news come to light. Here's a roundup of some news today. The United Nations ignored private intelligence firm's leads in the case, reports the Washington Times. Some of the firm's findings: A network

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100713216457245242004-11-17T11:05:00.000-06:002004-11-17T11:41:22.130-06:00

Well, apparently there are some murders that rank-and-file Muslims will object to, if still rather quietly. The murder, confirmed yesterday, of Margaret Hassan has apparently struck a nerve among many Iraqis. ["Iraqis Angry, Distraught at Aid Worker's Murder" Reuters via Yahoo] [BBC] One Iraqi is quoted as saying, the killers "made a very big mistake. This was the wrong person." Another

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100653615900031222004-11-16T22:39:00.000-06:002004-11-16T23:05:01.426-06:00

Sanofi-aventis, the makers of the sleeping pill Ambien, and Sperling's BestPlaces put together a report, "Sleep in the City," which ranks the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. by the quality of our sleep. They assembled the report based on CDC and BLS data. [Release] [Ranked List] Minneapolis was #1, followed by Anaheim, San Diego and Raleigh-Durham. The Motor City, Detroit came in dead

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100651236038290242004-11-16T17:15:00.000-06:002004-11-16T19:19:12.946-06:00

Senate Majority leader Bill Frist talked of trying to change the 60 vote cloture requirement on ending senate filibusters to a 51-vote simple majority back in 2003, and now it's on the table again. Combined with the Specter brouhaha, this is getting tiresome, and actually working to alienate me from my Republican tendencies. I hope it stops soon. Personally, I am weary of the fetish-like

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100631483920820352004-11-16T13:35:00.000-06:002004-11-16T12:58:03.920-06:00

About two months ago, I wrote about the offense to moderation International Truck was committing with the CXT 7300, a 21.5 foot-long SUV gone awry. Basically, my complaint was that the last thing a country already too dependent on expensive fossil fuels needs is a monstrosity of this sort directed at consumers who feel the Hummer is simply too small for them. Today, Hardee's steals a page from

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100614794322678482004-11-16T07:24:00.000-06:002004-11-16T17:06:30.176-06:00

Since I first highlighted the oil for abuse scandal ("How Can You Build Alliances If Your Enemy Is Buying Them?") on October 2nd, the news died down a little bit, although there were some follow-ups [1] [2] [3 - Duelfer Report] [4 - Duelfer Followup]. Now that Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman's Special Committee on Investigations has been digging into things, there has been some new light shed on

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100545583363759872004-11-15T13:02:00.000-06:002004-12-01T11:15:47.563-06:00

I was more than a little surprised to see the Strib running an above-the-fold frontpage article on a policy issue such as tax reform. (Of course, had the Vikings defeated the Packers yesterday, I imagine the entire frontpage would have been devoted the battle that far predates red-states vs. blue-states: the purple-state vs. green-state rivalry.) The Strib also provides a sidebar mentioning two

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100528662537507972004-11-15T08:00:00.000-06:002004-11-15T10:08:56.296-06:00

Most of us are taught at an early age to apologize, "say you're sorry" is a common directive from parents and teachers to children who have just committed a minor slight or (relatively) major harm against another. Well, from the "everything I need to know I learned in kindgergarten" file, doctors and hospitals are finding that a simple apology goes a long way toward reducing their litigation and

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100445257893803702004-11-14T08:38:00.000-06:002004-12-01T11:17:14.470-06:00

I know a a number of people who point to Bush's belief in using faith-based organizations to deliver services often provided by the government as another indication of his rabid attempts to further the aims of religion in the U.S.. I have always attributed it to more economically-sound reasoning: namely, these organizations have centuries of experience providing these services, a large

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100363967381694922004-11-13T10:17:00.000-06:002004-12-01T11:04:35.733-06:00

This morning, another Muslim target came under attack, as a mosque was set on fire in the southeastern village of Helden, near the Germany border. [AP via CTV] (Interesting that helden is German for "hero.") This brings the number of cases of arson or vandalism against Muslim buildings in Holland since the Muslim murder of van Gogh to twenty. There have also been reprisals against Christian

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100309070996338342004-11-12T19:20:00.000-06:002004-11-12T19:24:30.996-06:00

While CBS resisted recanting, then providing any apology, for putting together a hatchet-job on Bush based on some amateur forgeries, cutting off three minutes of CSI to announce Arafat's death warranted firing the news producer responsible and an immediate apology, as well as reairing the episode CSI this evening. Unbelievable. Hat tip: Pundit Guy

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100144237920841852004-11-12T17:00:00.000-06:002004-12-01T10:56:51.650-06:00

This is really quite distressing news, as I may need to come up with a new way to refer to news of the obvious, as apparently a man did bite a dog today (a police dog, no less): "Man Allegedly Bites Officer, Police Dog." After capitalism, what else can Russia learn from the U.S.? Well, it appears frivolous litigation is high on the list: "Russian hits McDonald's with coffee burn lawsuit." In

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100295599291650972004-11-12T15:25:00.000-06:002004-11-12T15:39:59.293-06:00

If you haven't you should. And if you don't listen, you really, really should tune in (and then pay). Public radio is really some of the best, most objective, and most interesting news and information around, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. Sure, sometimes you might not agree with a speaker or a commentator they have, but they are very good at equal time, and their news

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100283441126852592004-11-12T11:57:00.000-06:002004-11-12T12:17:21.126-06:00

Mark Steyn's piece last week in the UK Telegraph lets UK readers know, "Believe it or not, it wasn't just rednecks who voted for Bush." It's a great opinion piece, and a real kick in the nuts to Europeans, most notably directed at The Mirror's Brian Reade, who wrote in his column last week (titled "God Help America"): You have to feel sorry for the millions of Yanks in the big cities like New

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100219960966629812004-11-11T17:55:00.000-06:002004-11-11T18:39:20.966-06:00

In late October, Professor Bainbridge brought attention to a WSJ article, "U.S. Senators' Stock Picks Outperform the Pros'"citing a study (got that?) showing the significant excess investment returns members of the U.S. senate enjoy. How significant, the beat the market by 12% over 1993-1998, about double corporate insiders (who were up by 6%) and trouncing the people they represent; average

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100204079420802152004-11-11T14:00:00.000-06:002004-11-11T14:33:21.016-06:00

This is really getting a little tiresome. At first, it was rants of how "stupid" folks from the "red states" are. To which, I told anyone who said it to me: I think most Republicans would be more than happy to bring literacy tests to the polls. But, now, some want to claim that the red states are sucking on the teat of government and the financial support of the blue states should somehow

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100150459302827102004-11-10T22:35:00.000-06:002004-11-11T07:26:28.626-06:00

Many liberals and progressives claim the Bush campaign used the "politics of fear" to win: fear of terror, fear of gays, fear of who knows what else. I might give them fear of terror, but the argument can be made that this is not some sort of made-up boogeyman. Recent events demonstrate it is not an entirely remote risk. And, candidly, the idea of a guy like John Kerry running things is, to me,

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100141516059648072004-11-10T19:39:00.000-06:002004-11-10T21:38:45.726-06:00

Alex Tabarrok's post on Marginal Revolution, "Brands on the Run" points to an interesting article in Wired about "The Decline of Brands," in which James Surowiecki describes the lack of enduring value that brands are able to maintain in the present day. The reason for the decline in durable brand value: "a new breed of hyperinformed superconsumers," a phrase that reminds me why I stopped

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100122122335426252004-11-10T15:20:00.000-06:002004-11-10T15:52:10.633-06:00

Well, it looks like Bush appointed Alberto Gonzales to the Attorney General post vacated by Ashcroft's resignation. Brilliant move. While some may be concerned about possible attacks on Gonzales for his involvement with the military tribunal creations, what Democratic senator can possibly object to George Bush's nomination of the first Hispanic-American Attorney General? Even if Gonzales made

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100117538011334412004-11-10T13:15:00.000-06:002004-11-10T14:36:10.446-06:00

The New Republic's editors have a message for John Kerry: please drift peacefully into obscurity. Or in their words: Kerry certainly does deserve to retain a role within the party. That role ought to be the same as it was before he ran for president: second-most influential senator from Massachusetts.Ouch. These are your supporters John. This is all in reference to the idea of Kerry possibly

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100099692363165362004-11-10T08:48:00.000-06:002004-11-10T09:14:52.363-06:00

Well, I imagine many liberals are pleased about John Ashcroft's resignation as Attorney General. He was clearly a polarizing AG, and his singing didn't help. It's funny to think how things may have been different if he had not lost his election to the Senate in Missouri back in 2000. One of the frequently overlooked aspects of his tenure has been the fairly aggressive prosecution of corporate

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1100011698957004152004-11-09T08:06:00.000-06:002004-11-09T22:07:06.570-06:00

It appears that the major networks, excluding ABC, got the news story they wanted: America is definitely becoming more divided in the wake of their exit poll results from last week. As I last wrote, by any reasonable assessment, the NEP exit poll was poorly designed just to find such divisions in the American electorate, and the "moral values" question was a big part of that. I give ABC credit

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099755221611946732004-11-07T18:10:00.000-06:002004-12-01T10:45:03.753-06:00

In my last post, I discussed the problems and maybe even the pointlessness of exit polls as tools for predicting election outcomes, given both the logistical challenges of coming up with a meaningful sample in numerous narrowly fought races around the country as well as the fact that there is really just not that great a delay in learning the true election results from the polling places and the

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099669026235322222004-11-06T07:27:00.000-06:002004-12-01T11:03:50.000-06:00

The blamestorming is rampant. "Report says Problems Led to Skewed Polling Data," reports the NY Times. The exit poll results had the biggest partisan skew since 1988, the first year the started keeping track. I think that's a nice way to put it, rather than saying they were the least accurate since 1988, which would seem to be the same thing, and a much clearer way of putting it. Results

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099609857775592022004-11-04T17:00:00.000-06:002004-12-01T11:06:52.726-06:00

I was a tad bit surprised when they came out with "W" Ketchup as a Republican alternative to Heinz, I mean, it only struck me a as a little less nutty than the change of "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries," which I thought was embarassingly juvenille behavior for our elected representatives. A friend gave me a bottle of "W" Ketchup on election day; it's actually good Ketchup. It's definitely high

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099576854026144932004-11-04T07:43:00.000-06:002004-11-04T13:40:57.896-06:00

While the Judeo-Christian God is the same entity as the Muslim Allah, I can't help but think that maybe said entity isn't more on-board with the Judeo-Christian intepretation of religion, when you consider that Wednesday: George Bush defies an incredibly biased media, emotional blinders on half the electorate, and all kinds of conventional wisdom to win a sizable majority (not just a plurality

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099534598301516812004-11-03T20:13:00.000-06:002004-11-04T14:05:22.456-06:00

Now that the election is over, I can get back to some observations about the state of the world (namely that it is in decline, despite the blip of hope provided by Bush's reelection): These two US army soldiers will have no trouble remembering the Alamo: "Couple Arrested for Sex at the Alamo." Don't worry Texans, no sodomy laws were violated, in the case, public sex at a national monument is

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099527790687451142004-11-03T17:41:00.000-06:002004-11-04T13:13:36.736-06:00

I've already heard from a couple of people trying to suggest that the "wedge issue" of same-sex marriage drove out the extreme religious right for Bush yesterday. A quick check of the numbers simply don't bear it out. This is preliminary analysis, but doing the quick analysis of voting age population turnouts, we can get an idea of how true this sort of claim may be. For states with same-sex

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099513835262244522004-11-03T14:22:00.000-06:002004-11-03T16:28:42.166-06:00

Kind of sad, when I ran down to our building's cafe, there were 15 or more people watching Kerry's concession speech, but when I ran down to watch Bush's victory speech, I watched alone. They missed a good speech. It showed Dick Cheney's sense of humor: "Once again, I delivered the state of Wyoming." Seriously, outside of LBJ versus Goldwater in 1964, Wyoming hasn't voted for a Democrat since

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099511380160941262004-11-03T13:25:00.000-06:002004-11-03T13:49:40.160-06:00

It just doesn't seem like the world is that broken up about a Bush victory, contrary to what many Kerry supporters suggested prior to the election. [Reuters via Yahoo] A few snippets: Putin said victory for Bush meant the United States had not allowed itself to be cowed by terrorists. "I can only feel joy that the American people did not allow itself to be intimidated, and made the most sensible

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099504547711013732004-11-03T11:28:00.000-06:002004-11-03T20:08:53.820-06:00

A number of left-leaning individuals read the Hopeful Cynic. Some are my friends, and some come by way of some bloggers that consider me to be a "sane" Republican. Just a quick message to you: thank you all for generating the passion and excitement about this election; although your guy didn't win, American democracy did. We now have a President with a subtantial popular vote margin generated by

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099498499763620832004-11-03T10:12:00.000-06:002004-11-03T10:14:59.763-06:00

CNN reports that at 11:05 AM Eastern Kerry called Bush to concede. Kerry's apparently making his concession speech at 1PM in Boston. Fantastic. On with our lives.

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099497624078460212004-11-03T09:44:00.000-06:002004-11-03T10:00:24.076-06:00

It sounds like there are about 154,000 provisional ballots in Ohio, according to an interview on CNN. (We still need to definitive number from the Ohio SOS.) That means for Kerry to win Ohio, they would need 94.3% of those ballots to be valid and be for Kerry. (Or get 100% of 89% of provisional ballots validated.) Apparently the Kerry campaign is saying they won't wave the white flag until Kerry

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099472144728421592004-11-03T02:51:00.000-06:002004-11-03T03:28:16.213-06:00

It looks like Karzai will be officially certified as President of Afghanistan tomorrow (judging from Fox report I just saw). Bush is now up 147,613 in Ohio The exit polls this time really sucked. Did they not notice just how many women they had in their samples, or did they think women would turn out disproportionately? Very disappointing. Thune's about to make a victory speech. First time in

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099469888053895292004-11-03T01:57:00.000-06:002004-11-03T02:26:12.673-06:00

It sounds like Kerry won't be saying anything until tomorrow. John Hinderaker from Powerline looks like he's holding up well on NBC, and pointed out the fundamental mathematical improbability (if not impossibility). Poor Joe Trippi can't say anything other than the left-wing blogosphere is whining about NBC and Fox calling the Ohio race. Wonkette said something vaguely intelligble, but I'm not

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099467014771490852004-11-03T01:13:00.000-06:002004-11-03T01:30:14.770-06:00

The Kerry guys are thinking Ohio is still in contest. Mike McCurry wasn't kidding (see my last post for his truly hilarious comments): those Kerry guys really are bad at math. With 97% of precints reporting, Bush is leading Ohio by 2,702,479 to 2,574,487, that' around 127,000 votes. The Ohio secretary of state says there 140,000 or so provisional ballots. The Kerry campaign seems to think there

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099457164879848502004-11-02T22:37:00.000-06:002004-11-02T22:46:04.880-06:00

Brokaw interviewing Mike McCurry around 10:35PM central, after talking to Karen Hughes: Mike McCurry: Well, Tom, I'm reporting to you live from a parallel universe called Kerryland and we just have a different view of the world. I'm not as good at math as my friend Tim Russert, but I'll tell you...We just have a much different view of the world You just can't make up stuff like that. Brokaw then

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099438124433911442004-11-02T16:50:00.000-06:002004-11-02T17:28:44.433-06:00

Two words: Buy It. Three more words: Buy It Now. I picked it up after voting today. This soundtrack lets you appreciate just how good the Parker and Stone team are at creating genuine musicals. Some highlights: A great longer version of "America F**k Yeah!" Kim Jong-Il singing "I'm so Ronery" (lyrics here) "The End of An Act" (a.k.a. "Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You") "Montage" (

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099425509394610752004-11-02T13:31:00.000-06:002004-11-02T16:47:39.466-06:00

The Philly Inquirer reports on people casting their votes in New Jersey: Camden stories: Two nuns, 64 and 55, who wanted to vote for Kerry, had to get a judge to certify their eligibility. The same judge shot down 28 year-old Kerry supporter Grace Rodriguez' pleas, as there was no record of her registration. First time voter Vinnie Rimmer, 22, finally arrived at his correct polling

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099415291583656652004-11-02T10:47:00.000-06:002004-11-02T13:21:45.476-06:00

We should all thank the Associated Press for producing a news infographic with a subhead, "Population, not land determines number of electoral votes." I wish I had known that sooner, because I've been confused why the candidates were bothering going to places like New Hampshire or New Jersey but skipping Alaska, Texas and California. It all makes more sense now. But seriously... There was a

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099405581679596702004-11-02T08:23:00.000-06:002004-11-02T08:30:23.273-06:00

Federal courts have intervened to overturn the ruling of the Ohio courts, allowing election monitors in Ohio polling places, thereby prevent the likes of Mary Poppins voting. I'll stick with my prediction on New Jersey going for Bush, which could make this a landslide from an EV perspective. Original prediction: Bush 291 - Kerry 247

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099405139660880082004-11-02T08:14:00.000-06:002004-11-02T11:20:41.690-06:00

That's right, we are all mortal, even the President. Ask yourself if you feel that a relatively brief, if lucrative, career chasing ambulances and six years of experience in the Senate is enough training to be the leader of the free world. As George Bush said when Kerry picked Edwards as a running mate, the difference between the two Veep candidates is that Dick Cheney actually could be

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099378498429338282004-11-02T07:00:00.000-06:002004-11-02T10:38:31.940-06:00

Here is my current prediction for the election outcome tomorrow. I am only covering states that have ever been considered in contest. States that have been a lock from the beginning start Bush with 191 electoral votes and Kerry with 149. From there, I break down the states. I could do a lot less interesting prediction (which will follow), but this one is more interesting, feels good, and was more

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099368832061270652004-11-01T22:13:00.000-06:002004-11-01T22:36:39.236-06:00

In a post earlier today, I said in response to Joe Trippi's hope that younger voter turnout would put Kerry over the top: I would agree with Joe's logic, however: if John Kerry wins then it will mostly likely have been due to younger (and yes, less informed) voters making it to the polls in droves on Tuesday. I don't think that's necessarily something to be pleased about.Some people have

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099367026020957532004-11-01T21:15:00.000-06:002004-11-01T21:46:06.413-06:00

After forcing myself through Michael Moore's little rant, it was nice to stumble upon the thoughts of Tom Wolfe. Wolfe is everything Michael Moore is not: stylish (if eccentric) in his dress, in shape and well-groomed, well-spoken and relevant across generations. In addition, Wolfe is erudite and unquestionably literate with a PhD from Yale in contrast to Mr. Moore's apparent absence of

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099356605600748422004-11-01T18:06:00.000-06:002004-11-01T21:10:25.620-06:00

Well, maybe not a true tautology, but Michael Moore is a megalomaniacal moron, I think that's clear. Well, if you really care what Michael Moore thinks, here's his election eve plea, to anyone who is listening. Given that this was forwarded on with a comment of "good points" attached, I guess some people do. In his message, he plays as fast-and-loose with the facts as he does in Fahrenheit 9/11

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099352952725012282004-11-01T17:30:00.000-06:002004-11-01T17:49:12.726-06:00

Quinnipiac's got new polls out today, based on calls from the 27th-31st. Frustratingly, no details. Even more frustrating, they have the Presidential race in New Jersey swinging from a 48-48 tie to a 48-43 Kerry lead over just one week. I am not sure how to interpret this at all, especially without any more detailed data. It should pleased Adele Stan. She's commented previously on the NJ race as

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099346113240961462004-11-01T15:15:00.000-06:002004-11-01T16:33:45.990-06:00

A couple of interesting polling items. From a comment over on Jay Cost's blog, I was pointed at the Tarrance Group's poll. [Latest results in PDF] The results were unsurprising: like most national horserace polls now, they have Bush ahead 46-41 and if leaners are pushed, they split 1:1 for a 49-45 result. What did strike me about the poll, however, was the demographic questions. If a respondent

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099323846725834412004-11-01T09:38:00.000-06:002004-11-01T09:46:41.906-06:00

Last week I wrote "Not Exactly 'Man Bites Dog'" reporting on an Editor & Publisher article on the pro-Kerry media bias. At the time, I wrote: At a very fundamental level, I think the media has had to stoop to this level because their editorial influence has been lost. No one really makes their decision based at all on what editors write in their endorsement. It's just another stat to be tallied

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099321375601927082004-11-01T08:50:00.000-06:002004-11-01T09:16:34.690-06:00

The NY Sun today reports on Kerry's discharge from the military being "other than honorable," and that's not good news any way you slice it. There's more in the article, but this passage gives a pretty good sense of the issue: With the only discharge document cited by Mr. Kerry issued in 1978, three years after the last date it should have been issued, the absence of a certificate from 1975

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099304370928550622004-11-01T04:56:00.000-06:002004-11-01T04:56:30.770-06:00

A lot of Dems have tried to suggest that the surge of newly registered voters or those individuals with only cellular phones means that polls undersample Kerry's support. These people simply don't understand math and/or polling. Random-digit dialing insures that new registrants are picked up as they register, and I've already completely taken down "The Cell Phone Only Polling Bias and the '50%

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099280766797397692004-10-31T20:07:00.000-06:002004-11-01T09:21:19.866-06:00

I traded some e-mail with someone who seems very concerned about how the election will play out. I thought I would try to put some information out to ease his mind, and hopefully some other people's minds. First, let's look at what's locked up: Bush has 191 electoral votes locked up and Kerry has 149. This leaves 198 up in the air. Let's look at a few different metrics. I'll start with the

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099246581881975382004-10-31T10:52:00.000-06:002004-11-01T16:35:56.116-06:00

I don't think John Kerry has a reasonably probable electoral vote win path if he loses New Jersey to George Bush, and I don't think that's out of the question right now, especially on the heels of Osama Bin Laden's tape release on Friday. Quinnipiac University first brought attention to this a few weeks back, which I wrote about on October 12th in "What New Jersey is Saying (We're Safer With

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099240409012884862004-10-31T10:17:00.000-06:002004-10-31T10:47:35.656-06:00

I've commented previously about how poorly run Kerry's campaign is, and that the real reason is that they fundamentally lack a positive message to offer voters, particularly independent voters. Even Dick Morris, Clinton's lead strategist for his 1996 reelection campaign, is calling the election for Bush. Why? Because of Kerry's hamfisted and idiotic approach to dealing with the "missing"

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099170734922044602004-10-30T15:23:00.000-05:002004-11-01T09:17:19.606-06:00

I read a lot of magazines. All kinds, newsweeklies, politics of every stripe, new age, design, technology, industry trade rags. I love absorbing information. One of my favorite magazines is Metropolis. It's subhead, "Architecture Culture Design" sums it up pretty well. From a design standpoint, it is one of the best, what Wired may have aspired to be, in my opinion, but they missed the mark.

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099162266915744372004-10-30T13:13:00.000-05:002004-10-30T13:51:06.916-05:00

When I was out last night and the conversation turned to politics, the debate turned for a moment to the "critical issue" of stem cell research. I was reasonably well-informed on the issue as I recently had an extemely lengthy, and at times heated, e-mail exchange about this subject. And after that conversation I realized it's worth getting some facts on the table, as I think this is poorly

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099156365556539782004-10-30T10:16:00.000-05:002004-10-30T14:31:56.416-05:00

I get an ungodly amoung of spam, even after my spam filter catches some. It's one downside of having the same e-mail address for over a decade (and I was doing web development back in 1994, so God only knows how many places I've submitted my e-mail over time.) But sometimes an interesting piece slips through, like a piece of mail I got from one of the countless personality/psychology sites; no

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1098815947954412852004-10-29T20:34:00.000-05:002004-10-29T20:45:40.613-05:00

I try to write a generally light post, and look what happens... I don't endorse the anti-gay politics behind this particular movie, but the fact is that the bulk of the movie, a montage of John Kerry and John Edwards and their fairly "touchy" nature, is pretty hilarious. I'd recommend just skipping the bits at the beginning of the flick, as they're needlessly inflammatory. The rest of the film

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099085931115907112004-10-29T16:00:00.000-05:002004-10-30T01:27:04.216-05:00

Well, the Bin Laden tape ran. I am still waiting to read a full transcript, but just from the quotations I am seeing in the wire accounts, he has got some serious audacity. He apparently suggests that the best way to avoid "another Manhattan" is to change U.S. policy toward the Mideast. He suggests that the reasons are still there. ""God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099078781339652162004-10-29T14:26:00.000-05:002004-10-29T16:00:08.643-05:00

From Reuters via Yahoo minutes ago... Jazeera TV Says to Air Bin Laden Video Tape DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab satellite television Al Jazeera said on Friday it would broadcast a video tape from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) addressing the American people. It said the tape, to be aired at 4 p.m. EDT, would discuss the reasons behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099072849662680572004-10-29T13:55:00.000-05:002004-10-29T13:46:42.800-05:00

This could be interesting. As you know, unless you just left your cave, the whole issue of missing explosives at Al-Qaqaa was the last bit of help the major media could try to give to John Kerry. (For more on the Editor and Publisher report on the media's bias towards Kerry, see my "Not Exactly 'Man Bites Dog'" post). Well Powerline directs us to see this breaking news in which an Army officer

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099071095247169602004-10-29T13:28:00.000-05:002004-10-29T12:31:35.246-05:00

OK, now for a somewhat atypical post, but it came up as I was really wishing Google Desktop worked on my Firefox history when I was looking for something I had browsed across recently. If you use, or want to use, Google Desktop, but use Firefox and are frustrated that Google only supports IE for browsing your viewed web pages, Ken Schuette's Slogger Firefox extension might be the ticket. It can

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099057447044054752004-10-29T07:22:00.000-05:002004-10-29T09:07:07.960-05:00

Well, here we are, the weekend before the election. I'm looking forward to it being over. I'll be happy to go back to covering policy and society more than politics. But this weekend is also probably the last chance many of us will have to speak with any undecided voters, or possibly talk about the facts with people who just don't have a sense of perspective about Bush's administration The

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1099015683878756592004-10-28T20:24:00.000-05:002004-10-28T21:08:03.876-05:00

Since I was beating up on Zogby's polling earlier today, here's a poll that at least is completely honest: Nerve's Completely Unscientific, Transparently Partisan Sexual-Politcal Opinion Poll. Best result: 45% of respondents say Republicans have the best sex, "because the most outwardly uptight and seemingly repressed people have the craziest, kinkiest, taboo-busting, hypocritical sex behind

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1098985983954178752004-10-28T20:00:00.000-05:002004-10-28T20:22:35.190-05:00

Wolf Packs for Truth is a satirical 527 about the wolves taking issue with being used in the Bush-Cheney "Wolves" campaign ad. The Wolves ad has taken some inexplicable abuse, while I think it hearkens back nicely to Reagan's 1984 "Bear" ad, available at The Living Room Candidate, a source for political commercials going back to the 1952 campaign. While you're at the LRC site, take a look at the

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987929.post-1098980862171159702004-10-28T11:02:00.000-05:002004-10-28T11:27:42.173-05:00

Ironic timing. I just got an e-mail from one of my Democrat friends. His message: Support Your Candidate! --------------- Hi Everyone! Just wanted to get this important reminder out - to show support for our presidential candidates, whomever they may be . . . If you support the policies and character of John Kerry, please drive with your headlights on during the day on Friday. If you

Barryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11825987394029567648noreply@blogger.com0