| Today in dumb punditry |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
"You know, if they bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York, he'll probably get government health care." -- Neal Boortz (paraphrase from memory) Um, I'm pretty sure the doctors at Gitmo are on the government payroll. "I've said for many years now that neutrality is not part of my being," -- Lou Dobbs And it only took 30-some years in journalism to figure that out? |
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| Photo gear advice sought |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|05:15 pm] |
I'm looking at two lenses. One is a Canon IS 75-300mm USM (http://www.adorama.com/CA75300AF2UR.html), the other 55-250mm stabilized (http://www.adorama.com/CA55250AFSR.html). Both have the same aperture range, f/4-5.6. I'm leaning toward the stabilized lens.
Thoughts? Any alternatives I should be considering? I don't shoot a lot of sports or anything like that; I need a long lens for candid portraits more than anything, and I think the IS will help in marginal light. |
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| Joyce Flint Holland, 1921-2009 |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|09:08 pm] |
 When Joy was a little girl in Mount Airy, Georgia, she once summoned the courage to ask her mother, "are we poor?"
"No, child," Mother answered. "We just don't have any money."
It was no minor distinction. Growing up in Appalachia during the Depression, Joy certainly saw enough of real poverty. Not just a lack of money, but of dreams. A narrowing of horizons. A grinding, grim existence that she certainly saw, but that never took root in her.
Somehow, there was always just enough. Enough to fill the always-cold house with piles of books that covered every flat surface, and might start piling up on one of the dogs if it moved too slowly. Enough to send Joy, her two brothers and her two sisters to college.
The war brought Joy to Atlanta, where she met her husband, about whom the less said the better. Some 20 years and two children later, she was a young widow, a medical transcriptionist at the VA, and the author of more than a dozen children's books that ran 14 printings.
When the first black family moved in around the corner, opening a day care center with a mostly-black clientele, some of the local biddies tried to recruit her for their campaign to run "them" out of the neighborhood. Instead, she brought them cookies and did her best to make them feel welcome, to make it clear that they did not speak for her.
I'm spinning off the mere facts of her life because I cannot find the words to express just what a remarkable woman she was. She was the only Scrabble player my mom, a state champion, could never beat. While her face grew wrinkled, and her back stooped, her eyes kept their childish sparkle, and her wit, while quick, was never cruel.
When her sister Rosena died, Joy was helping clean out her house (no mean feat). She was carrying a heavy, framed portrait of my great-uncle Sam when someone offered to take it from her. Without missing a beat -- she rarely did -- she pulled away, saying, "he ain't heavy. (pause for effect) He's my brother."
She outlived one husband, all four of her siblings and one of her children, and whatever pain she bore, she kept to herself. Until a few years ago, when her mind began to slow, the sparkle in her eyes began to dim, and for the first time I saw her react with mindless anger and fear. If there is a crueler disease than Alzheimer's, I don't want to know about it.
In her confusion, when she didn't know where she was or what decade she was in, she was full of restless energy. She had to get home; Mother would worry.
Tonight, just at dusk, her long twilight drew to an end, and she went home. |
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| Okay, so it ain't exactly "Oz." |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|11:52 am] |
The Huffington Post is reporting that con man Bernie Madoff got in a fight with a fellow inmate over the stock market. Madoff apparently won.
So without further ado, from the home office at Eglin Air Force Base, the Top five signs you're in a white-collar prison:
1. The prison gangs are the "Bulls" and the "Bears"
2. You've learned to fashion a shiv from a copy of the Wall Street Journal
3. Conjugal visits with former clients (why stop screwing them now?)
4. Vocational training includes Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
5. Prison bitches called "interns" |
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| Welcome to 1979 |
[Oct. 10th, 2009|02:55 pm] |
 Okay, so let's recap. We're in a deep recession with skyrocketing unemployment. U.S. automakers are circling the drain. The US is calling for a boycott of Iran. There's a swine flu epidemic. And now, in the latest cover version of a disco-era hit, the Justice Department is investigating IBM for its dominance of the mainframe computing market.
Forget about Hollywood. It's the real world that's running out of ideas. |
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| No he di'n't! |
[Sep. 18th, 2009|12:33 am] |
One of the best, and most inexplicable, anchor bloopers ever. h/t Jon Stewart.
( NSFW ) |
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| Isn't that "special?" |
[Sep. 9th, 2009|12:30 pm] |
Just heard on the news: A group of 10,000 physicians presented a petition to, erm, somebody, complaining that too much attention has been paid to special interest groups and not enough to doctors.
I hate to be the one to break it to the medical community, but doctors are a special interest group. "Special interests" are folks, and the groups they form, that have -- wait for it -- an interest in a particular piece of legislation that's more specific than that of a citizen in general.
Which is why "special interest" is a bullshit epithet that for some reason only exists in the third person. Their special interest groups, our concerned citizens. But throwing about "special interest" persists because it's a good way to say something without saying it. Blaming those damn schoolteachers, old people, black people, women, gun owners, cops, firefighters, small business owners or doctors isn't smart politics. |
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| Sticking it to the man: A heartwarming tale |
[Aug. 28th, 2009|09:00 am] |
H/T Hoyden About Town
In 1984, Roxanne Shante recorded "Roxanne's Revenge," a reply to UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne." Those of you of a certain age might have them stuck in your head right about now.
The song was a hit, making Shante the first female hip-hop star at age 14. But after a couple of albums, she was disillusioned and felt she'd been screwed by her record company, and returned to the projects as a single mom.
Here's the twist: a clause in her contract required Warner Music to pay for her education for life. Warner probably figured it was an empty gesture for a ghetto kid. Heh. Shante got her Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell in 2001 and now has a therapy practice in Queens. She offers college scholarships to young rappers.
Here's the story in the New York Daily News. |
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| Unclear on the concept |
[Aug. 26th, 2009|09:23 pm] |
From a review of the prosaically-named, but accurately described, Weather Radar iPhone app:
You can only view the past and present with this radar app. I bought this app to see what the weather is going to be like, not to see what I've already experienced first-hand. That's not the only problem, it's also inaccurate. Right now I can't even see the sky from where I'm standing The radar is telling me that there are barely any clouds in the sky. Yay! It just started to rain! |
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| Score one for the morons |
[Aug. 13th, 2009|07:22 pm] |
I've retired the *headdesk* subject line because it was trying to make me woozy, and I can't handle recurring head injury without health insurance.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is apparently saying that "We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."
The provisions would have had Medicaid pay doctors for voluntary consultations on end-of-life issues. So your grandma could talk to a professional about living wills, DNR, power of attorney, and other advance directives, so you and your family won't have to try to guess what she would have wanted.
But Republicans, the estimable scholar Sarah Palin among them, saw an opening and started railing about "death panels" and euthanasia. It was a complete line of fabricated demagogic bullshit. And it has worked.
If you've been beating the "death panel" drum, congratulations. You've won. I hope this victory gives you a warm fucking feeling when your loved one is dying and your family is at each other's throats because she didn't have any help making her wishes known. |
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| *Headdesk* OTD (gonna need a new desk) |
[Aug. 10th, 2009|11:39 pm] |
From an unsigned editorial in Investor's Business Daily:
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
H/T TigTog.
The level of sheer made-up horseshit in the health care debate is simply staggering. |
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| *Headdesk* OTD |
[Aug. 8th, 2009|11:08 pm] |
"Keep your government hands off my Medicare!"
-- A South Carolina town hall participant, quoted by Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) |
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| *Headdesk* |
[Aug. 1st, 2009|12:03 am] |
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Nisha Kataria, the latest person to have a few seconds of fame for knowing Michael Jackson: "He listened to my demo of me singing 'I Will Always Love You,' originally by Whitney Houston ..." |
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| Finally |
[Jul. 30th, 2009|11:12 pm] |
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I don't watch the "real housewives" show, but I'm glad to see that the "Atlanta" show finally includes one (one!) who actually lives in Atlanta. Really, Duluth? That's like having "Real Housewives of New York" where they're all from Long Beach. Or "Real Housewives of LA" where they're all from ... erm, Long Beach. |
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| Shoot me now |
[Jul. 26th, 2009|06:44 pm] |
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CNN has a countdown clock for Sarah Palin's resignation. |
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| Damnit. Just damnit. |
[Jul. 22nd, 2009|09:46 am] |
So I woke this morning to find my bedside glass of tea on its side atop the iPhone. Fuck. It's in a plastic bag with a silica gel pack, and it might work again this time tomorrow; 'm hopeful, but not optimistic.
Meanwhile, does anyone on my flist have an old AT&T / Cingular / unlocked GSM phone where my SIM card can camp out for a while? I'd rather not be incommunicado. |
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| No love for bureaucrats |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|03:23 pm] |
The anti-universal health care ads are out in force, with the usual bag of tricks. Grainy pictures, spooky music, big scary words like "BUREAUCRATS" splashed across the screen. The nightmare scenario: "health care decisions made by bureaucrats instead of you and your doctor."
Which leaves me to wonder: Have these people never had any contact with an insurance company? |
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| Justice |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|01:10 pm] |
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Oh, thank God they gave Bernie Madoff 150 years. I was afraid he'd skate with only a 50-year sentence. He'd be eligible for parole before his 120th birthday! |
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| Mamase mamasa mamakoosa |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|11:45 am] |
I was all prepared to defend the coverage of Michael Jackson's timely [1] demise. He was about as big as any entertainer ever. But e-fucking-nough already.
[1] Not to be cruel, but seriously, is there anyone who didn't see this coming, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but in the foreseeable future?
I also couldn't resist the opportunity to use the seldom-used affirmative form. In other news, the weather is clement and I'm feeling ruthful, but still not gruntled. |
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| Waiting for the next shoe to drop |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|05:46 pm] |
Okay, so we finally got a good Southern sex scandal. Somewhere the ghost of Wilbur Mills is smiling. Eat it, tri-state area!
But what's really delicious about this one is the way it unfolded. The governor is missing! On Father's Day! He's hiking the Appalachian Trail! No, he's in Argentina (Argentina?)!
So I put it to my friendslist. What will be the next shoe to drop?
( I'm no gallup, but I'll run with it ... ) |
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