Thursday, May 21, 2009
Mark Steyn is Objectively Pro-Iranian Extremism
I guess this is from the most bizarre arguments ever department.
Shorter Mark Steyn (those of you unaware of all internet traditions, c.f. Sadly, No! for references for the "shorter" concept):
Iranian hardliners don't like the peace process. Therefore, Israel should not work toward peace. (warning -- link is to NRO)
Perhaps my paranoia about the neo-cons and Iran/Contra is correct? As much as they claim to be pro-Israeli and anti-Iranian, they really are moles working for extremists in Iran? Nah ... that would make more sense than today's right wing is capable of!
Shorter Mark Steyn (those of you unaware of all internet traditions, c.f. Sadly, No! for references for the "shorter" concept):
Iranian hardliners don't like the peace process. Therefore, Israel should not work toward peace. (warning -- link is to NRO)
Perhaps my paranoia about the neo-cons and Iran/Contra is correct? As much as they claim to be pro-Israeli and anti-Iranian, they really are moles working for extremists in Iran? Nah ... that would make more sense than today's right wing is capable of!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Poetry Corner: A Hokey Post Title for a Hokey Poem (I wrote it myself)
The Shapes of People
(Upon reflections leading to consideration of Chapter 5 of Pikei Avos)
"There are three kinds of mathematicians:
Those who can count and those who can't"
Some people are pears
and some are apples
They say (and they know all)
that pears are healthier
If some people are squares
nu? maybe some people are rectangles
and some are ovals?
Some people are so circular
as they walk, you imagine them
as roly-polies (or is that rolies-poly?) already in a ball
not as scared Armadillos, though -- not at all
Meanwhile, other people are so thin
you can barely see them
And some stand so erect
it makes you think
about how we all stand on two legs and not four
(When this is all you think about
when watching a sitcom -- you know
that the sitcom deserves to be
cancelled, even
though they give the stars a raise
while you remain out of work)
Some people form a line
Aesclepian snakes of bromine
or Iodine or whatever elements you can imagine
Nature (a singular person,
your heart she alone will gladly batter)
doesn't limit herself to only a few measly elements
the way a committee of divinities would
Of course, like sulfur dioxide,
most people are molecules
It's the combination of shapes
that makes art and keeps life bright
red, green and blue
or at least cyan, magenta and yellow
And yet, somehow
you always seem to meet people
made up of the same constituent elements
a beautiful, if sometimes inelegant tapestry of colors
painted out of indigo dyed canvas
that's Jackson Pollack for ya!
There are two kinds of people
those who classify people into multiple kinds of people
and those who don't to
but somehow the shallow monist
who refuses to see divisions
and connections
and relations
misses the giant, unitary mural
and there's a foundational pun in there
if you choose to find it
if not
well
that's a fine choice too.
(Upon reflections leading to consideration of Chapter 5 of Pikei Avos)
"There are three kinds of mathematicians:
Those who can count and those who can't"
Some people are pears
and some are apples
They say (and they know all)
that pears are healthier
If some people are squares
nu? maybe some people are rectangles
and some are ovals?
Some people are so circular
as they walk, you imagine them
as roly-polies (or is that rolies-poly?) already in a ball
not as scared Armadillos, though -- not at all
Meanwhile, other people are so thin
you can barely see them
And some stand so erect
it makes you think
about how we all stand on two legs and not four
(When this is all you think about
when watching a sitcom -- you know
that the sitcom deserves to be
cancelled, even
though they give the stars a raise
while you remain out of work)
Some people form a line
Aesclepian snakes of bromine
or Iodine or whatever elements you can imagine
Nature (a singular person,
your heart she alone will gladly batter)
doesn't limit herself to only a few measly elements
the way a committee of divinities would
Of course, like sulfur dioxide,
most people are molecules
It's the combination of shapes
that makes art and keeps life bright
red, green and blue
or at least cyan, magenta and yellow
And yet, somehow
you always seem to meet people
made up of the same constituent elements
a beautiful, if sometimes inelegant tapestry of colors
painted out of indigo dyed canvas
that's Jackson Pollack for ya!
There are two kinds of people
those who classify people into multiple kinds of people
and those who don't to
but somehow the shallow monist
who refuses to see divisions
and connections
and relations
misses the giant, unitary mural
and there's a foundational pun in there
if you choose to find it
if not
well
that's a fine choice too.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Government's Secret Plan to Make Everyone Get Cable
(aka the DTV conversion)
So it seems the reason why our apartment building's rooftop antenna won't work after the DTV conversion is that after DTV, some of the stations will be shuffled to UHF or something or other. I'm still confused from my electronics 101 understanding of such things how switching from analog to digital will free-up bandwidth? My guess is that it's more about shuffling bandwidth to make us think this is a good idea.
I still don't get the point of the switch: sorry to sound like a libertarian here, but if the switch were such a good idea, the free market would have made it already.
Anyhoo, it seems that after the switch, we won't get any TeeVee anymore (unless we pay for cable). My wife has long argued that we don't get signal with our antenna because we either need a converter box to receive digital signals (but our TV is already digital ready) or because we need to set our antenna in some special way. But it seems that we need (get/do) neither. We simply don't get enough signal in our apartment to make an antenna (even our amplified one) too useful.
So is this really a plot to get us all to buy cable? Or is the government, bent on proving glibertarians correct, so stupid as not to have figured out that not all of us can get TeeVee signals in our apartments, which have recalcitrant co-op boards who are too busy enriching cronies to have any money to spend to replace roof-top antennas? (if only one of our board members could manage to have a crony in the antenna business)
Why didn't they run a pilot switch to make sure everyone could actually receive DTV signals before fixing when and how they'd make a permanent switch?
So it seems the reason why our apartment building's rooftop antenna won't work after the DTV conversion is that after DTV, some of the stations will be shuffled to UHF or something or other. I'm still confused from my electronics 101 understanding of such things how switching from analog to digital will free-up bandwidth? My guess is that it's more about shuffling bandwidth to make us think this is a good idea.
I still don't get the point of the switch: sorry to sound like a libertarian here, but if the switch were such a good idea, the free market would have made it already.
Anyhoo, it seems that after the switch, we won't get any TeeVee anymore (unless we pay for cable). My wife has long argued that we don't get signal with our antenna because we either need a converter box to receive digital signals (but our TV is already digital ready) or because we need to set our antenna in some special way. But it seems that we need (get/do) neither. We simply don't get enough signal in our apartment to make an antenna (even our amplified one) too useful.
So is this really a plot to get us all to buy cable? Or is the government, bent on proving glibertarians correct, so stupid as not to have figured out that not all of us can get TeeVee signals in our apartments, which have recalcitrant co-op boards who are too busy enriching cronies to have any money to spend to replace roof-top antennas? (if only one of our board members could manage to have a crony in the antenna business)
Why didn't they run a pilot switch to make sure everyone could actually receive DTV signals before fixing when and how they'd make a permanent switch?
