Archive for February, 2008

Which way does the tower of Pisa lean?

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Non-leaning tower of Pisa

I first saw this article at Verum Serum this past weekend, when I came across the link at Brutally Honest. I didn’t have anything to say other than, “See! Another example, and really blatant this time.” until I read what Morgan Freeberg had to say about it.

As he says,

That media bias exists and that it slants to the left, seems to be something that can’t be doubted by anyone except the insane. But that’s just the way I see it. I can’t speak for others.

I don’t know where Morgan lives, but the area I live in is so far to the left that the Republican candidate for Congress drew about 1% of the vote in the last election. The rest was split about 3-to-1 between the incumbent Democrat and the Green Party candidate. I have no trouble finding people who believe that the media is either balanced (except for Fox) or tilted to the right.

Like media bias, whether you believe that a candidate is a moderate who works well with others is a function of your point of view (and whether you have a historical perspective on the matter).

Snopes says that Hillary’s quotes (“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good”) aren’t really Marxist. I couldn’t find anything there about her Christmas video. However, Snopes has its own problems with bias.

I don’t like John McCain. I respect the man for his military service, but it’s going to be hard for me to vote for him in November. I’m not a Republican, so appeals to party unity have no standing with me. I took an online quiz not that long ago that said he was the best match to my positions, but the quiz seemed to be looking for simple answers to hard questions, and McCain lands on the wrong side some issues I consider very important.

I do feel that Obama and Clinton are unacceptable choices – given that the liberal-conservative split in this country is roughly even, with slightly more identifying as conservative, I don’t see how they even have a chance without the active support of the media. Then again, I’ve seen McCain described as the third Democrat in the race.

It’s depressing to think about – radical left-winger, socialist-in-all-but-name, or Republican-in-name-only. Harsh characterizations, perhaps, but contrast them with the media portrayals as the election approaches.

I might have known

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

HowManyOfMe.com
Logo There are
605
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

It’s not a terribly uncommon name. I’ve never actually met anyone with my name, but I’ve come close. I have a couple of cookbooks on my shelves written by someone with the exact first, middle, and last name I have. When I was a senior in high school, we had a student transfer in whose name was Wheeler Ronald Stevens, which is eerily close to being mine in reverse (my middle name is Robert).

I keep thinking that I should someday write an autobiography for my “about” page that uses the results from a Google search to produce a life history that is more interesting (if totally fanciful) than my own. Given that one of the people who comes up when you search on one of the variants of my name is an ice-skating stage magician, that wouldn’t be hard to do, and might turn out to be quite fascinating.

The cat, however, was a raging psycho

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Good anecdote here.

Via Kim.

Do you know …

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

… who this man is? Scroll down slowly, so you don’t get the second photo too soon.

I did not recognize him.

This is not a spoiler.

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

John dies at the end.

Is that car an import?

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

Dangerous Car

Why, yes, it’s a 2004 Molotov (click for larger).

Saw it yesterday at lunch.

Sounds interesting (or, interesting sounds)

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

Radio David Byrne – a two-hour-or-so loop of new music that changes monthly.

And here’s Pamelia Kurstin, theremin virtuoso. I was aware that there were theremin virtuosi, but hadn’t heard one perform before.

And, if you like Bossa Nova, you can find it here. There’s some Jobim I’d like to learn to play.

Jackass – The Wildlife Documentary

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

Found via Maggie’s Farm. They had another version of the video, but I like this one better. Mine got removed by YouTube, so I replaced the embed code with the one from Maggie’s Farm.

I think I agree

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Fireball throwing robotic catapult is the best post title so far this year.