Music, Poetry, and Paste

I almost forgot that it was Friday. Well, here is my random 10 (although I’m too lazy to find youtube links):
One More Dub The Clash
Time Pink Floyd
Ruby Cake
Watching The Wheels John Lennon
Distant Shore Billy Bragg
Topaz The B-52’s
Take Me To The Sea Kevin Connolly
Don’t Say A Word (Hot Chicken #2) Yo La Tengo
Delilah The Cranberries
Emenius Sleepus Green Day
Eleanor Rigby The Beatles
Sexy Sadie The Beatles
and a poem:
The eyes scream
Unable [...]

McCain: Gov Sarah Palin for VP

So, it seems that Senator McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Palin as his VP candidate. You might think that choosing a woman would show he supports women, but I don’t. First, I agree with Kevin that this is an obviously cynical choice, but I think it goes further. Let’s look at the woman he chose:

She has [...]

The Conscience Clause and Contraception

I’m a bit late to the table, but it seems that the HHS has come out with proposed new regulations about health care providers and their right to refuse to provide certain services due to their religious beliefs. It notes that there are currently three laws that protect this right. You might think this would [...]

A Thousand Posts and a Poem

It seems this is my one thousandth post (not my duo 1000 though). To mark the occasion, here’s a poem:
I watch the window
The sun is rising up
Its light reaches round to me
I do not reach back.
Yeah, I know, it’s not much for a celebration but I’m just back from taking a week off and too [...]

No Poetry

I’m up in NH until the middle of next week, so no poem or random 10 this week. I’ll put up two poems next week to make up for it. I think I’ll be climbing Mt. Monadnock tomorrrow (I’ll probably be one of the few there since almost no one climbs this mountain), so say [...]

Intolerance

In case you thought that blatant bigotry has gone underground, cases pop up like this one:
When a high school senior told her principal that students were taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents, and ordered her to stay away from children.

He suspended some of her [...]

Pakistan and Zimbabwe

In some ways, what has happened over the last few days in these two countries shows a large difference despite some similiarities. Both countries have had a dictator in power for quite a while and both dictators showed that they would use their power, but now they have diverged:

Musharraf has now resigned. This says something [...]

Olympic Sportsmanship?

I haven’t watched too much of the Olympics, but I wouldn’t be surprised by this (via here):
China’s determination to win as many gold medals as possible – what one Western reporter snottily, and bizarrely, brands its ‘gold medal culture’ – is held up as evidence that the ruthless and robotic Chinese, with their well-oiled ‘sports machine’, [...]

Do Democracies Go to War?

Not too long agoI noted that the war between Russia and Georgia showed that democracies go to war. Brainiac notesthe same thing, but also adds that it’s a case where two countries with a McDonalds have gone to war ( which Thomas Friedman said never happens). So I missed one. On the other hand, I [...]

Bolt Sets Record in 100

Wow. Not only did Usain Bolt break the record in the 100 meters, he did it while easing up:
It was there for all to see, too, in his “How good am I?!” mugging for the cameras with about 20 meters to go, already certain victory was steps away — outstretched arms with palms up, slap [...]

Russia and Georgia

I have long worried about Russia under Putin. He has a fairly strong anti-democratic streak (although he still mostly follows through with elections) and seems to like making bellicose statements. On the other hand, Russia is in much better shape than it was when he came into power (life expectancy has started to go back [...]

Free Free

Umm, what was I saying? Nothing is free, except that which is. It seems I have a couple songs with really long titles (the titles are free) and I include a few links (free again). Yay for a random (duo–two extra digits for free) 10:
Homecoming / The Death Of St. Jimmy / East 12th St. [...]

Smells and Mates

I have posted about how scent can drive mate selection before (based on this article). It seems there was a follow up study (which I see via here and here) that is talked about on MSNBC. I’m sure you’ll be stunned to learn that the part of the study that MSNBC talks about is the part [...]

Tuition Crisis?

With the difficult economy and the continued rise in tuition, the problems with our higher educational system is coming to the fore:
Public colleges and universities in Massachusetts received nearly 15 percent more financial aid applications over the first half of 2008, compared to the same period last year, a striking jump that surpassed the expectations [...]

Rub Some Dirt On It

Another tale of the wonderful treatment of immigrants is out:
In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng’s lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. [...]

Next: Companies Decide?

In some ways I’m a bit confused about this:
The Bush administration is proposing to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants, according to a draft of planned rule changes obtained by The Associated Press.
The proposed regulations, which do not require the approval [...]

Cease Fire in Georgia

It seems that President Medvedev of Russia has agreed to a cease-fire in Georgia:
The six-point agreement — which the Georgians had endorsed in an earlier draft — would withdraw troops to the positions they occupied before fighting broke out Thursday. It would grant unfettered access to humanitarian aid, cease the use of force in South [...]

.1*20*120=2700?

I’ve been confused by this (an increase in the retirement for retired teachers and other state workers) for awhile:
Fiscal watchdogs had warned that the benefit could cost the state more than $3 billion over the next 20 years, but retirees argued that they desperately need a cost-of-living increase as costs for everything from groceries to [...]

What About Russia?

There have been arguments that the ‘War on Terror’ is more difficult than the Cold War was. Unfortunately we might soon find out if that is true.
KD and Matt Yglesias note that conservatives haven’t said much about Russia’s incursion into Georgia and what they have said isn’t very helpful. I don’t want to pick on Robert Kagan, [...]

Clark Rockefeller, Anglicans, and Men’s Groups

Alex Beam had an article in yesterday’s Boston Globe about New Hampshire (it’s one of his occasional bits). It had two interesting bits:

He paid the town of Cornish, NH $119,000 to get control of the Episcopal church, which he then changed to an Anglican church in 2004. It seems:

Rockefeller and Sandra Boss, now his ex-wife, [...]