the great turkey debate

Yglesias demands that the domination of the nation by turkey end now.  I tend to agree, when does anyone eat turkey besides Thanksgiving?  That's what I thought.  Ezra, a "politcal realist," says it is not the birds fault it is ours.  He points out this column by Mark Bittman pointing to another way to make turkey that sounds way better than the traditional method. So there.  Of course this post is way too late to help anybody, whatev.

robot menace update

Ezra Klein points out this NYT peice.

Robots have fared best, Dr. Teller said, in highly structured environments made just for them, and in the company of other robots. “If you took a welding bot from an assembly line and put it in your local body shop, it would end up killing somebody in about 30 seconds,” he said. “It would weld a person to a wall.”

It is almost go time folks.

Ouch!

see Sarah Palin pictures

riding the night train...

or showing my growing man crush on Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Simply the best.  

Update: in honor of Chinese Democracy.

on being a cowboys fan

Coates is a much better writer than I am and expresses this much more effectively than I could.  Read the the whole thing. But this stands out.

Anyway, as any Cowboy fan can attest, being a Dallas fan in the 80s may have been the worst possible decade to pledge. The Cowboys were two things in 80s--really awful, or a game away from the Super Bowl.  I think we went to three straight NFC championships--and lost. Shit was rough. Imagine being a six-year old kid when "The Catch" happened. But I've been there for it all--for Hogeboom, for Landry brining Ed Jones back out because of fans, for Jerry firing the whole lot of everyone. That 92 game against the 49ers was such great payback--the 49ers ruined my childhood, and to beat them in that way had me floating for a week. The thing is this--I'm old school like Dexter Clinkscales, Rafael Septien, and Tony Hill. How can I switch now? 

Tony Romo: Mensch

Romo took a homeless guy to the movies. Which led to this text exchange between me and BBA.

BBA: Yo did happy homo n jessica break up cause i heard he is dating some homeless guy named doc...

Me: Fuck you!

told you so

see Sarah Palin pictures

new template

I changed my template so that photos and such wouldn't be cropped out. So... expect alot more lolcats pictures I guess. (wink face)

how gay marriage would effect us

more music charts

say hello to...

This Too shall pass.  It is my buddy's blog, so read it. That is all.

food blogging

DIY hot sauce.  In an effort to escape or at least slowly choke off my addiction to politics I am reading blogs on other subjects.  Food blogging is awesome and this NYT blog is cool, so I have added it to the blogroll.

googlephile

Google is hosting pictures from LIFE magazine from 1860s onward it is super cool if you have nothing to do with your day. (wink face)

Here are some Utah pics.

why people vote for republic party

This has been around for a minute and I meant to write about it but with the election I never found the time.  Jonathan Haidt makes the case that liberals "don't get it" about right wing voters because they operate through a different moral foundations.  

I would say that the second rule of moral psychology is that morality is not just about how we treat each other (as most liberals think); it is also about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions, and living in a sanctified and noble way.

When Republicans say that Democrats "just don't get it," this is the "it" to which they refer....

A Durkheimian ethos can't be supported by the two moral foundations that hold up a Millian society (harm/care and fairness/reciprocity). My recent research shows that social conservatives do indeed rely upon those two foundations, but they also value virtues related to three additional psychological systems: ingroup/loyalty (involving mechanisms that evolved during the long human history of tribalism), authority/respect (involving ancient primate mechanisms for managing social rank, tempered by the obligation of superiors to protect and provide for subordinates), and purity/sanctity (a relatively new part of the moral mind, related to the evolution of disgust, that makes us see carnality as degrading and renunciation as noble). These three systems support moralities that bind people into intensely interdependent groups that work together to reach common goals..

I find this pretty convincing and Haidt gives some useful advice for the Democrats to try and take fuller advantage of the latter three moral foundations.  However the Enlightenment thinker in me can't help but think that instead pandering to these factors we should try to change them.  Be cause to me ingroup/loyalty reads, tribalism, authority/respect eqauls hierarchy and blind obedience, purity/sanctity is disgust.(Obviously I followed the author's lead.)  

The problem being that all of these values are fear based, the first two are probably part of our primate brain, and I find that operating out of fear to be a troubling way to live, which perhaps explains why I am a liberal/commie.(also the fact that this post is the first time I have used the label morality is a pretty good indicator that I lack the latter three moral foundations.)

the times they are a changin'

Bob Dylan says.

"I was born in 1941," he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. "That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now."

in praise of subtle remonstrance*

This seems like a good idea.  

So the other day, when a stroller-pushing mother semi-vigorously bumped into me at Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street — this corner is apparently the Bermuda Triangle of manners — I expressed remorse, and added, “No one says I’m sorry anymore, so I do it for them.”

“O.K..”

“My idea is that if I say I’m sorry, then at least the words have been released into the universe.”

She stared at me with equal parts irritation and faint horror, as if I had just asked her to attend a three-hour lecture on the history of the leotard.

I continued: “The apology gets said, even if it’s not by the right person. It makes me feel better. And maybe you’ll know what to say next time.”

“Wow,” she said. (The tickets for the leotard lecture were $200, or $500 at the door.)

And then, finally, came the words I have longed these many months to hear: “I’ll think about it.”

I think I will give it a try.

*I promise no more NYT links today I just couldn't help it.

things i didn't know about something i thought i knew all about*

Burroughs and Kerouac wrote a book together in 1945.  I am a huge fan of the Beat writers so I am surprised I had not heard of this book.  Apparently it was not very good.

None of these one-dimensional slackers are remotely interesting as individuals, but together they give the reader a sense of the seedy, artsy world Kerouac and Burroughs inhabited in New York during the war years. And so these, really, are the only reasons to read this undistinguished book: for the period picture it provides of the city — think of Billy Wilder’s “Lost Weekend” crossed with Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” — and for the semi-autobiographical glimpses it offers of the two writers before they found their voices and became bohemian brand names.

*alternate title: I should read the NYT more or I will lose my cultural-elistist-amerikkkahating card.

remebrance day poem: dulce et decorum est

"Dulce et Decorum Est "

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under I green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Update: Here is a good article on Wilfred Owen.

the south will fall again

NYT says.  I only hope we can have a latter day General Sherman who can burn the whole fucking thing down again.

The region’s absence from Mr. Obama’s winning formula means it “is becoming distinctly less important,” said Wayne Parent, a political scientist at Louisiana State University. “The South has moved from being the center of the political universe to being an outside player in presidential politics.”

Amen!

Non political blogging finally...

I have never heard of the Big Five personality test.  But it was interesting.

I'm a O65-C8-E48-A6-N22 Big Five!!

Openness to Experience/Intellect
	High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.
		You are relatively open to new experiences.	(Your percentile: 65)
Conscientiousness
	High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent.
		You probably have a messy desk!	(Your percentile: 8)
Extraversion
	High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet.
		You are neither particularly social or reserved.	(Your percentile: 48)
Agreeableness
	High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.
		You find it easy to criticize others.	(Your percentile: 6)
Neuroticism
	High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy.
		You are generally relaxed.	(Your percentile: 22)

I am not sure if this describes me or not? Thoughts?

its not civil...

but it is exactly how I feel.  Rude Pundit is worth quoting at length.

Because yesterday, the United States of America, east, west, north, and south, motherfuckers, shook its collective ass at and farted in the face of the Bush administration, of John McCain, and of the entire right wing that, since Ronald Reagan, has yanked this nation further and further rightward like it's a leashed dog. We bit the hand that fed us, man, and the blood tastes so very good....

A great big "fuck you" to the warmongers, the fearmongers, the hatemongers, and the neocons. Last night, we said to them, "You can't scare us anymore." And we shoved their Iraq and their 9/11 whoring and their Iran threat and their WMDs and their pre-emptive doctrines and their Gitmo and their torture right up Dick Cheney's ass and laughed while he tried to get it out 'cause it burns his sphincter so fucking badly....

and finally for the conclusion...

Let us dance, motherfuckers, mad, grotesque, ancient dances that lead us into ripping our clothes off, eating the hearts of our enemies, and fucking like the carnal goddamned human beings we are, all around the burning flames of an ideology that told us we were traitors and un-American. No, we can say now, loudly, this is what America is.

I totally agree.  that's all.

and now we can laugh

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Teh funny.

it's over

going to drink, liberally, I suppose.  Oh yeah, Obama wins. I almost don't believe it.

yes, Virginia there is a Democrat!

Tell any one you know in Virginia to get out and vote.

not so deep thought: crystal ball edition

We will know in a few hours if Obama won.  What will the republic party response be to an Obama victory?  Well, gee, let me tell ya'.  It will go something like this.

• Obama and acorn and william ayers stole the election.  
• We only lost because we weren't hardcore enough.
• Obama has no mandate, he stole the elction.
• The librul media lies and we are huge victims of this vast conspiracy, they hate baby jesus and are coming for your guns.
• "Hold it! Next man makes a move, the nigger gets it!"*
  
• or maybe this...
• and finally acceptance...."I guess life in the gulag isn't so bad after all." They will say as they cling bitterly to their guns and religion.

Your thoughts?  

*Egregious Blazing Saddles quote, that doesn't really work but it makes me laugh.  And I couldn't find the youtube for it.

palin's stupid really buuurrrns

When the media criticizes her it violates her First Amendment rights.  Is this silly trollop for real?

Read for yourself.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Can't make this shit up.  Please vote against this crazy like a dumbass wingnut.  Seriously.... I got nothin'.