The New Republic Online: Preaching to the Choir

Some guy shot a judge and a few other people in Atlanta recently. Quite frankly, I could care less and since I don't have Cable have spared the barrage. i am posting this because it is beautiful writing from the TNR's TV critic, Lee Siegel. He takes the media to task for how they have handled the entire fiasco. I had no idea.

Oh did I mention it disses CNN, which i always enjoy. I hate those bastards.

And now for the 'Slobby Chic"

According to NYDN - the latest trend is partly slobby and chic with scattered "nonchalant, no-effort-needed" style. My only objection (personal) to fashion and trends is, it bloody well makes you like everybody else. I figured this out when I was in Italy, the people looked the same. And then it hit me, everybody dressed the fucking same. It was stylish, sure - but it was like Benetton robots, or whatever.

You can't pay me enough money to look like everybody else: so now apparently I have a problem. The Fashionistas are telling all those who cares to chill, or stress hard to achieve the fashion Zen-like state. What the fuck am I (and similar fashion traitors) supposed to do now? Walk around naked?

I love this:

Publicist Gabrielle Bernstein, 25, is one of them. "I love the idea of putting in very little effort," Bernstein said. "A couple of months ago, I dyed my hair back to my natural brown so I no longer have to go every two months and spend $300 to $400 on highlights. I used to get a trim with the highlights, but since I'm not going in for the color now, I just have my friend cut my hair in her kitchen, and I've been cutting my own bangs."

Now, Bernstein (please, don't desert the fashionistas) can pay more for looking like she did it herself. Cunning plan. Why didn't i think of that?

US bars Italians from examining victim's car

out-fucking-rageous! AP reports that the US has obviated Italian Intelligence attempts to examine the car wherein, we must conclude, an assassination attempt was made on journalist Giuliana Sgrena, which resulted in the killing of secrete service agent Nicola Calipari.

Remember this was supposed to be a snafu, a mishap as it were, a "terrible, terrible mistake," my ass. Now they won't let the Italians examine the car. Christ.

Even If Terry Schiavo had a Living Willing, it wouldn't matter

The Republicans , lifer-evangelicals would not permit for it to be executed. They would simply argue that it is not her life to take, whatever that means. In the same that "suicide is evil" and sinful. They would shift the goalposts, and argue that she has no right preferring death than semi-death. And the Duma, no, I mean Congress would get similarly involved.

These are the same fuckers who are only too happy to see the State kill people in their name and "security." Maybe it's because, the State kills Black people largely. I mean mostly Blacks go on death row. If Schiavo were Black, would there be all this hoopla about erring on the side of life? Me thinks, not.

100 oo0 dead Iraqis, and not a wimper about a right to life. No, that's just collateral, not life. Life is when it is in a persistent vegetative state, clinically dead, stomach-churning to look at. That's life.

Schiavo, would be turning in her grave if she saw what they had allowed her to look like. For good measure, they've made sure she can't even turn in her grave in disgust. For fuck's sake if I wind up like that, somebody please kill me: put a fucking bullet through my head. Trust me, I will be happier. I do not want to ever be force-fed with a look that would scare small children. Just fucking pull the trigger/plug/whatever, but just check me out of planet Earth.

Admiring Hitler has never had good consequences.

Minnesota killer 'admired Hitler' - BBC

One of their homegrown Nazis does his "terror" thing. CNN and their Cable colleauges must be salivating: actual news, not MJ and not Schiavo. Something to go on and on about for the next 72 hours, at least. Mmmm.

Harvard's Larry Summers is not a Scientist, Either.

The only reason I hate Larry Summers is because in Jan 2002, flying to Hawaii, I read an article or opinion piece in the WSJ (yes, that piece of Bush shilling shitrag) where he seemingly he thought the solution for disposing of nuclear waste was, wait for it, dumping it in developing countries (it probably read, "Third World"). I was so incensed, I started screaming at my travelling companion. Not good, but I needed to scream at fucking anything. Now Summers is an economist, and when he sprouts-off shit like that, people take him seriously. Afterall, in this consciousness of the short-term imperative, nukular-waste is simply an economic problem: We generate nukular-waste, you don't have money, we give you money and you keep our nukular-waste. Problem solved. Immoral, you can't fucking put a $ cost to shit like that.

Anyway, recently he's surfaced again because he muttered something idiotic, not on the same scale as nukular-waste idiotic, but still pretty dumb. At some diversity Indaba, he made a statement to the effect that women don't make it to the highest echelons of the Math and Science fields because, and in that order,

1) They are unwilling to put in the time needed to succeed, away from their families yadi yadi yada.
2) There is a "intrinsic aptitude" problem, i.e. general lack thereof.
3) and discrimination, "probably," he was really wanted to add.

In that fucking ludicrous order?

I won't bother going into the fact that he is an economist and bureaucrat, that is, he is not qualified to speak on the matter. The thing that struck me most was, how the fuck can he be so sure of the order of how these factors play out? How the fuck did he arrive at that? There is absolutely no evidence to corroborate this claim, no scientific evidence anyway. He should fucking know better. It may be intuitive/gut-feel , like WMD evidence, but certainly not fact.

Second thing is, hasn't he heard of the problem of the third variable? If you claim A affects B, so that B is what it is, you better fucking make sure there isn't a C, that you know or don't know about that produces these effects on B. If there is a C, you have a confounding variable and therefore your claim is not valid, not scientifically anyway. So, question to Mr Summers, "how the fuck can you claim, "intrinsic ineptitude" ==> "lack of success in Math and Science" when you can't control for "discrimination" ==> "lack of success in Math and Science"? uhhh? If you made sure discrimination was not factor, you could safely measure "intrinsic ineptitude." With discrimination I am afraid you cannot. It's like, White people claiming Black people are intrinsically stupid, when they were doing everything they could to deny Black people an education. The confounding variable in both cases is diminished educational opportunity as a consequence of discrimination. Science.

Anyway, it's ironic that Mr Summers commits a very basic scientific fallacy to draw attention to women's 'intrinsic ineptitude" to do well in Math and SCIENCE. And that's why he is an idiot this time. Somebody needs to tell him, by his own definition, he ain't no fucking scientist either.

The Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle

Arianna Huffington (alternet) is one of a few sane pundits left. Bill Maher and even Jon stewart have joined the village of happy clappers, where shit is as good and better than fact.

Incidentally this reminds me, Dubya has launched an assault on "intellectualism" which it seems to me is getting the "just one of those things" treatment. Every fucking Town Hall tete a tete, he's mastered recently has been like, "Fuck, educated people - y'all can fucking bite me, I am a C-student, and I am giving you an ass-fucking" He is turning the learned classes into an enemy (real or imagined) of the people. The Democrats, fucking wimps that they are, are letting it pass because, god forbid you take a stand that might actually have you attacked by the Republicans. In a country that worships rich people? This is interesting. Of course GW's lackeys elsewhere are also fighting the fight against intellectualism, Ward Churchill is the perfect whipping boy for this exercise.

And, I am afraid, people are buying it. They are equating "intellectualism" to "liberalism," we know the latter is already swear-word. Those fucking educated liberals, hate them! I wonder, does this means, "Fuck, education" too? That everyone will soon want to be rich, but without the hassle of getting a god-forsaken education. It's a fucking brilliant plan, except - it's the stuff of dreams, which ordinarily is okay for an individual, but as a national plan/outlook, it's a fucking visitation-in-the-making.

The big news in the US is, or should be, economic. (great column from Stephen Roach, MorganStanley Economic Forum) But what? with MJ on trial, and random guy shooting random people in Atlanta you would never know.

The Bolton and Wolfowitz appointments/nominations are not even worthy of comment. What the fuck did people except? Bill Clinton to get the nod?

Chimera Tech: Are you a man or a mouse?

This, boys and girls, is mildly disturbing. And I speak as a scientist. I am always fucking fascinated by the fact that professionally, i can fucking call myself that. I feel like such a fraud, really. but that is indeed what I am. One of my colleagues even refers to us as scholars It's fucking naff. We can't even punctuate properly.

Are you a man or a mouse?

This, boys and girls, is mildly disturbing. And I speak as a scientist. I am always fucking fascinated by the fact that professionally, i can fucking call myself that. I feel like such a fraud, really. but that is indeed what I am. One of my colleagues even refers to us as scholars It's fucking naff. We can't even punctuate properly.

Boeing chief fired for office affair

Urgh. There's just no justice anymore.
If you can be fired for consensual extramarital misadventures, you know fun ain't what it used to be.

Yes, even in the case of duplicitous hypocrites like Stonecipher. It sets a precedent for the rest of us, you see. "Stonecipher ..... what a fucking name, sounds like you could catch that could fucking kill you.