This hell of a week, work and sickness is finally coming to an end.
Perhaps tomorrow I will actuallly move in.

The soba restarurant was a fitting reward to several days of long hours.

Did anybody else catch Mr. Izzard (outed as a wheatard) on Leno this week?

When asked what he thought about the election he answered in that classic, dirty older knowing unclish sort of way, "What [the hell] happened there?"

I wonder if my apartment has acquired silverware yet (as anthropomorphized apartments are oft to do.)

:: issue 58 :: for that technicolor ::

Yo. There's a badmash in your inbox. You'd think with the advent of color televisions, people would demand more color on their televisions. The latest rounds of eliminations on reality television this week says otherwise. Fortunately, some folks perservered in their attempts to help make television look more like America and less like a red state. Now they're headed for the auction block? BADMASH CREW :: featured sponsor :: Send Badmash to friends (or that special someone): :: featured sponsor :: To unsubscribe, click on the unsubscribe link below. You are receiving this because you are 1) a brown person; 2) a friend of a brown person; 3) an individual who has spoken to someone who is brown; 4) fired. On a weekly basis, we send comics, announcements, news, and missed connections to hella people via email. Please see the unsubscribe info at the bottom of this message or contact us directly if this email or brown people are unwanted.

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:: issue 57 :: for them november sweeps ::

Yo. There's a badmash in your inbox. November 2nd has come and gone, so we'll have to wait awhile before the next round of whacky electoral hijinks and other insights about what it all means and stuff. Maybe we'll just go hide in a movie theater for four years. BADMASH CREW :: featured sponsor :: Send Badmash to friends (or that special someone): :: featured sponsor :: To unsubscribe, click on the unsubscribe link below. You are receiving this because you are 1) a brown person; 2) a friend of a brown person; 3) an individual who has spoken to someone who is brown; 4) a sleepy Japanese commuter.On a weekly basis, we send comics, announcements, news, and reminders to do your homework to hella people via email. Please see the unsubscribe info at the bottom of this message or contact us directly if this email or brown people are unwanted.

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The right question about religion...maybe: "

It's only been two days, and I feel like I've already been through way too many discussions among seculars on the "Religious Problem." I'm tired of the cartoon about "Jesusland," of arguments about whether religion just has too much influence, about how we can encourage low-income whites to vote "their interests" rather than what they consider moral values, or whether we should "encourage moderate religious voices," whatever that would entail.

I think the right way to frame the question about the role of religion in current American life is as follows:

We are clearly in the middle of one of the great periods of Christian revival in American history, the third or fourth of the "Great Awakenings" in American Protestantism. Each such period has begun with a change in the nature of worship itself, essentially a private phase, and moved onto a public phase where it engaged with the political process. These have been significant moments of progress for this country. The Second Great Awakening led in it public phase to the Abolitionist movement. What some historians consider the Third Great Awakening beginning in the 1890s led to the Social Gospel movement, settlement houses, and the beginnings of the progressive era idea of a public responsibility to ameliorate poverty.

The right question, I think, is not whether religion has an undue influence, but why it is that the current flourishing of religious faith has, for the first time ever, virtually no element of social justice? Why is its public phase so exclusively focused on issues of private and personal behavior? Is this caused by trends in the nature of religious worship itself? Is it a displacement of economic or social pressures? Will that change? What are the factors that might cause it to change.

I need some reading suggestions here. If you've read Robert Fogel's The Fourth Great Awakening & the Future of Egalitarianism you'll probably recognize that my question comes from there. Here's a chart that summarizes Fogel's basic view of the Great Awakenings, which I believe is idiosyncratic compared to that of most historians of religion (Fogel is an economic historian) Fogel helped me understand the question, but not to answer it. I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice.

"

(Via The Decembrist.)

This hearkens back to one Dr. Collar's great achievements - drumming the idea of cycles in history into my head, one of those wonderful light bulb moments in my education. I saw him a couple years back, referring to OHS as cloistered - of course, he left OHS to teach at a college. I hope they appreciate him as much as we do.

Ok, in a respite from the world's events (Arafat - dead or alive?) (Kerry - does his concession speech matter if the provisional ballot count puts him ahead [actually no]) I'd like to note that gali, antonia & I have a place now in Harlem, right on 125th st. On an express stop, a block from an old navy, magic johnson movie theatre, health club, post office, pharmacy and enough fast food and fried chicken to last a lifetime. And the apartment? Marble floors in the bathrooms, a jacuzzi tub, wooden floors, walk-in closets with shelving we suspect can double as midget bunk beds three bedrooms and a shaftway. (for the bodies.)

The search for the essentials (beds, sofas) continues.

Now if you come visit, you might actually have a place to crash with me.

In regards to events, the republicans say that they won on a "morality" platform.

Bigotry equals morality? Should I be crying? Who are these people? Today's Decembrist essay puts it well. Fuck this national reconciliation bullshit. I am ashamed today to be a part of the country that validated this administration based on... morality.

Does anybody else remember the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?

And btw, if annybody tells you "you voted, now STFU" remember that if you vote, you signed off on the process, so don't complain is a bas an argument as "you didn't vote, so you have no right to complain."

Oh my God! Brian Boitano....

The shock of 9/11, all over again.

Back then, US vs the Fundamentalists.
Now, us vs the Fundamentalists.

There are Two Americas.

And this is not "Et tu"

What can I say?

After 2000, I decided to be far more cautious about the election this year, and despite my optimism, there was a persistent kernel of doubt that kept me worrying about the results of a republican sweep this year.

Will Bush win? At this point it seems all but a done deal. Getting out the vote combined with voter suppression seems to have been a winning ticket in the federal elections.

The major fear was that with the judiciary on the line this year, the democrats would be able to stave off an appointment or two to the Court. This now also appears to be unlikely, especially with Rehnquist's serious problems.

At the same time, despite the irregularities in the swing states, the country appears to have given the GOP time and time again the mandate to govern. Allen points out that this is cause for some to desperately pull out their copies of Democracy in America. It has been far too long since I have pulled out those volumes (if I'm not mistaken not since high school).

Perhaps it has come time again to reevaluate the American Experiment. In most objective circles (dare I consider myself among those) it is generally acknowledged that the winners in this years races while of ideological purity were ... lacking. The Daily Show (unfortunately watched from Television last night my loyal readers) perhaps put this best in the last ten minutes of their election special, rattling off some of the more ridiculous parts of the regional platforms and rhetoric espoused by GOP candidates.

Despite the closeness in the votes in the electoral college, this was not a close election. Any election where these candidates get sixty million votes is a loss. My initial impression is that the problems with this election stem not from a failure to get out the vote, but an inherent failure in the logic behind the get out the vote drives. Voter canvassing attracts marginal voters to the cause.

We have a serious problem with the electorate en-masse. We have to face the fat that there are many Americas, and that most of us are not familiar with them, or their ideas, that we have no strategy to change their core beliefs, which were reflected in this election. To sink to the level of palliative metaphors, "You can't boil water with a blow torch, you just end up making steam."

A majority of Americans are amenable to religious demagoguery, affiliated homophobic paranoia, and a willingness to reject a global context in favor of allegiance to narrow mindedness.

If we who pride ourselves as intellectuals want to regain control of our political process, our international soft power, our pride in our nation, we will have to start from within. "Strength" and false "resolve" are not the only alternative panaceas to ignorance.

Reeducation begins at home.

Today, I live on an island.

See the problem?

From inside, I've been told the Drudge numbers reported so far are correct.

Looks like a landslide...

Thanks to Chibisuke on totalfark. My favorite unexpected poll result.

Just Click Damnit. Totally WorkSafe.

And what's with all this "Just Vote" bull I'm hearing all over?

You don't go to a baseball game and hold up a sign that says "Win!"

I want to see more "Vote Kerry" signs up. If you're a Bush voter, my opinion (and dare I say the opinion of my colleagues) is "Stay Home!"

Money

sex & thought control

A generation without soul

Perfect people

In a perfect world

Behind closed doors

All in control

Life in a world of luxury

Cold cash money mentality

You gotta keep the faith

You gotta keep the faith

You better keep the faith

And run away


Run away

run away

Run away and save your life

And only the last stanza in the luxury car commercial.

I love it.

Firefox tidbit.

If you want to delete an entry from the auto-complete drop-down menu in a field (say in a username or password field on a web page form, where you accidentally entered the wrong information and don't want it saved, you usually hit shift-delete once you have it highlighted to get rid of it.

If you have a mac laptop, hit shift-Fn-delete instead.

Also, we may have a place in harlem.

Stay tuned...

Wandering Brooklyn through the day with Yulia, Jeanne, & Avigail looking at apartments.

A no show landlord at Parkside, followed by a nice apartment in an abysmal location near East New York - followed by seeing an abysmal apartment in an excellent location (Bedford in the heart of Williamsburgh) - mediated by a bus ride through Bed-Stuy (generally not referred to as an up and coming area), the location of a (since canceled) appointment-to-be on Sunday to look at a place purportedly in Clinton Hill (generally considered to be an up and coming area).

For some reason, the bus driver said "last stop" at the outskirts of Williamsburgh well before the actual end of the bus route. Our walk through Williamsburgh, though considerable, was lightened by the walk through the block which contains strong whiffs of the nearby Peter Lugers.

That and posters in authentically Chasidic Brooklyn, full of writing in Hebrew and Yiddish, and a two paneled poster that showed first a concentration camp oven, and secondly various pieces of technology, including cell phones and (IMHO) a 1994 era Mac Centris. The caption (as translated to me) implied that both led to the destruction of Jewry...

Oy.

Dinner (with Bill & Katie, and sans Avigail) was at a Thai place in Bedford called See, which is apparently the restaurant that was used to film the early crappy asian restaurant scene in Garden State. See has great atmosphere, and rather mediocre food.

In lieu of going out, we decided to be lame and stay in. PBS won out this evening, with renditions of The Candidate (not only with Robert Redford, but also a much younger incarnation of Peter Boyle, of Everybody Loves Raymond) and Stardust Memories.

Fantastic Fantastic Earlier Allen.

Tomorrow, the Search continues, in Roosevelt Island, Long Island City (props to Bill for that recommendation) and further along in Queens.

Also, the Onion's AV Club this week has a really nice interview with newbie scifi director ___. There's this great little bit about the role of science fiction in culture today that was really nice:

O: Science-fiction movies are usually big-budget action films set in space. Was Primer intended as a corrective to that? Does science fiction in film need to be redefined?

SC: I wasn't trying to change the industry or anything, that's for sure. It does seem like there's the aesthetic of science fiction, with the aliens and chrome and neon and explosions in space, and then there's science fiction that's used as a literary device. That's the kind I'm interested in. The Greeks had their mythology, and they had a great shorthand. They could assign a human trait to a god and suddenly be able to talk about all sorts of things. I feel like we've got science fiction, which is an even better shorthand, because if you do it right, it's not a matter of "What if this happens?" It's "When this happens..." What will be the reaction, how will we cope with it, and what does it mean for who we are? People complain about I, Robot not being about ideas, and then it makes a ton of money. It's weird. I know I'm not doing anything that's going to change that.

The Onion reports the news first.

From the nyt today:

There were also complaints about possible dirty tricks in some precincts. In Pennsylvania's Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, the police and the district attorney's office were investigating a letter telling voters that the state had extended voting to Wednesday, Nov. 3.

The letter, written on fake Republican Party letterhead, instructed Republicans to vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday.

Tiny Humans update #3: "
Michael sez "There may be new impetus to visit Kerinci Seblat National Park in Indonesia. The Orang Pendek may be a living fossil - the same species as Homo Floresiensis, but be very much alive. There are still sightings of such "little people" even today, and none other than Fauna & Flora International, the worldâ€'s oldest conservation charity, is searching for the creature.

They have set up camera-traps in likely areas of forest or in areas where local people have reported sightings. So far the picture that will make world news has proved elusive and as reported sightings get rarer, the naturalists fear that if orange pendek does indeed exist it may be very close to extinction. Link

- Mark Frauenfelder
"

(Via Boing Boing.)

As I was saying...

Don't laugh, but perhaps it is time to seriously think about the Prime Directive before the missionaries (damn them) get their hands on them.

And the important questions have yet to be asked about whether they have achieved a human level of intelligence.

Have they created a market economy?

More importantly (a far better indicator, in my humble opinion) have they discovered bacon?

#!/bin/sh

#==============================================================================
# File: OSServicesStartupItem.sh
# Installed As: VirtualPCOSServices
#
# Contains: Bash shell script for OS Services startup item.
#
# Copyright (c) 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
#==============================================================================

I never thought I would see a MS bash shell script.

And here's a hint. If you can't get the Virtual Switch working in VPC 7, it may be because the special kernel extension it uses didn't get started.

Just open up Terminal before you start Virtual PC, and run this command:

sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/VirtualPCNetworking.kext

HOBBITS

Scientists say they have found skeletons of "hobbit sized people."

Which is interesting on at least two levels. First, that a separate species of humans was in existance until 500 years ago, and secondly, that they are referred to as people, as opposed to just hominids. It appears that there's a line beyond which we are willing to see organisms, even of a separate species, as akin enough to use to consider people.

This obviously leads to the question, "are there others?"

Working from 8am to 11pm should imply that I am getting sufficient quantities of food, water, and sleep.

My Bad.

Kudos to jeanne for pointing that out and taking care of the aftermath of the absence of aforesaid necessities.

Monday Joke Edition

From here via boingboing, of course. Also, Chris Dobosz stopped by last night on his way to teh Swiss Consulate this morning.

Notables:

Three women had a very late night drinking. They left in the early morning hours and went home their separate ways.


The next day, they all met and compared notes about who was drunker the night before. The first girl claims that she was the drunkest, saying, "I drove straight home and walked into the house. As soon as I got through the door, I blew chunks."


The second said, "You think that was drunk? Hell, I got into my car and wrapped my car around the first tree I saw. I don't even have insurance!"


The third proclaimed, "Damn, I was the drunkest by far. When I got home, I got into a big fight with my husband, knocked a candle over, and burned the whole house down!"

---

The room was silent for a moment. Then, the first girl spoke out again, "Listen girls, I don't think you understand. Chunks is my dog."

One day, Kermit Jagger goes into a bank because he needs a loan. He asks the teller and is directed to Ms. Patty Wick. He tells Ms. Wick that he needs a loan. She tells him (rather haughtily) that he needs some sort of collateral because they don't go loaning frogs money every day.


So, Kermit reaches into his bag and hands Ms. Wick a small glass elephant. "What is this?" she asks. "We can't give you a loan using *this* as collateral!" Kermit tells Ms. Wick to go talk to the bank manger.


So, Ms. Wick goes to the manager and asks him why she should take the glass elephant as collateral. The manager replies......


"It's a knicknack, Patty Wick. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone."

---

Q: Why can't engineers tell jokes timing?

---

What does the H. stand for in Jesus H. Christ?
Haploid.

---

How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

LET'S RIDE BIKES!




A man walks into his kitchen with a duck under his arm and says
'This is the pig I have been fucking'
His wife says' That's not a pig that's a duck'
He replies ' I wasn't talking to you'

---

A guy gets hit by a car and goes to hell. When he
gets there, the devil is standing in front of 3
doors. The devil says, "It's your lucky day. I'm
gonna give you a chance to get out of here. You
have to complete 3 tasks.


"Behind this first door is a 5 gallon jug of Jack
Daniel's. You have to drain it in one drink.


"Behind the second door is a 600 lb. grizzly bear
with a sore tooth. You have to pull the tooth out.


"Behind the third door is a nymphomaniac. When
you've completely satisfied her, you can leave"


The guy figures it's worth a shot, so he goes in
the first door and manages to drink the whole jug
of liquor. He goes in the second door, shuts it,
and the most horrible commotion can be heard from
inside the room. 20 minutes later, the guy finally
comes out. His clothes are torn to shreds, and he
is sliced and scratched head to toe.


Finally he manages to say, "Ok, where's that girl
with the sore tooth...?"

ok I'm done now.

The Bush campaign has a new campaign ad out, Wolves. Decembrist deliciously tears it apart.

Josh Marshall brings www.wolfpacksfortruth.org to my attention, a fantastic rebuttal.

homage to delirium

waking yourself after food coma after a breakfast of freshly cooked ground chicken tacos with shredded cheddar and sliced cherry tomatoes with the first track to the Dancer in the Track soundtrack just barely audible in the background as iTunes runs through the entire playlist but really it was Dave who had woken you up with a text message asking if we were coming over to watch the Michigan v Purdue game at his dorm also so I could use faster internet to look for apartments, schools and then getting on the internet to let him know that we will miss the kickoff but oh wait the game starts at 3:30 not 3 as jeanne thought and then getting reminded (repeatedly) that the laundry needs to be put in the dryer and then reading blog about cat and remembering an article about animal culture and the lion that herded instead of eating animals because it was orphaned and grew up and learned from the sheep dog and oh yeah Jeanne says I can't smell fall which is true and I couldn't smell it even if it came behind me and bit me in the ass and by the way I finally understand why people wear high heels because I bought these hot looking patent leather dress shoes but they feel so gawd awful painful while I break them in and suddenly I feel so gloriously vain to which Sarah rolls her eyes and calls me a metrosexual and now I must go.