the Red Cross: Perennial Target of Misinformation
Tue Sep 13, 2005 at 04:12:43 PM PDT
There's a lot of talk about what the Red Cross is and is not doing during the aftermath of Katrina. I'd like to get to the bottom of it as much as the next person, and a number of people whose word I trust have been critical of the organization.
But I've also read countless stories about "so-and-so's great-grandfather's best friend" being sold coffee and donuts at the frontlines during WWI, or of allegations that the Red Cross sells their relief supplies to disaster victims. Stories which sound rather fishy to me.
So, I went to the best source to clear these things up: the Urban Legends Reference Pages. Let's see what the talented Barbara Mikkelson has to say...
KY's Gov.: merit-based hiring law is sooo last century
Thu Aug 25, 2005 at 01:09:08 PM PDT
In his first-ever radio address, KY governor Ernie Fletcher compared the commonwealth's merit-based hiring law for state government jobs to a 1960s sitcom, and basically said that his administration has violated the law so many times due to ignorance and incompetence, not a lack of ethics.
No, seriously - he did:
In his radio address, Fletcher said the merit law dates back to the time of the old Andy Griffith Show of the early 1960s. Fletcher said the law has not been significantly changed, even though the General Assembly overhauled the law about a decade ago.
Without changes, Fletcher said, "current problems with the Merit System will be constantly in reruns" like the television show.
...
"Because many in my administration lacked the knowledge and expertise to manage in our out-of-date Merit System, I acknowledged that some mistakes were made," Fletcher said in the recording obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Ernie, it's just a law - it's not like you have to learn Aramaic or something.
Cornwallis to George III - insurgency in "last throes..."
Sun Jul 03, 2005 at 10:15:04 AM PDT
(Cross-posted on infidelica.)
MEMO
FROM: General Charles Cornwallis
TO: His Majesty, King George III
RE: Colonial Insurgents
Your Majesty,
Please forgive my lack of correspondence of late, have been busy getting retrenched and back on track. I do believe that, after some setbacks, we have turned a corner, are making progress, and that the insurgency happening here in the Colonies is in its last throes. The vast majority of the colonists do want freedom, the kind of freedom that only bowing down before a benevolent monarch such as yourself really affords.
Please also note that I feel confident that our plentiful supplies of tobacco, sugar, cheap real estate and other goods are now secure - not that this is why we're fighting this war... I mean, insurgency.
Forget Grokster... How `Bout Glock?
Mon Jun 27, 2005 at 10:04:48 AM PDT
One of the SCOTUS's decisions announced today was that file-sharing networks like Grokster
can be held liable for the illegal downloading of copyright-protected material by their users.
As a songwriter and musician, I have mixed feelings about the downloading of MP3s, though ultimately I'm against restrictions on it, because I think the potential benefits outweigh the "stealing" that's happening. Besides, I have no delusions that college kids are downloading my songs in droves - hell, anyone can download a bunch of `em for free on my website. Please, share all you want. Instead of Googling myself, I'd love to do a search on WinMX and find a bunch of my songs. (End of shameless self-promotion.)
But, that's not what I want to talk about right now. What I want to know is, if file-sharing networks, who aren't encouraging anyone to violate copyright laws and who have no control over how people use their product, can be held responsible for illegal activities that involve their "product," what about handgun manufacturers?
"Battle of Algiers" - required viewing for all Americans
Sun May 22, 2005 at 02:06:25 PM PDT
(Cross-posted from Infidelica...)
This past Christmas, I received Criterion's 2004 three-disc reissue of Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers. (I'm so glad I explained to my older sister how amazon.com's wish list thingy works.) For reasons that escape me now, I didn't get around to watching until this week.
And then I watched it again. Then I watched all the bonus material. Then I watched the film a third time.
The Battle of Algiers has leapfrogged all my other film snob favorites to become my alltime favorite film, even surpassing fellow Italian Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief. Simply put, there is no other film like it.
right and wrong and "Law & Order"
Thu May 12, 2005 at 12:12:47 PM PDT
(Cross-posted on infidelica.)
I'm a sucker for "Law & Order," the original franchise anyway. (Slightly less so for "SVU" and not much at all for the other two. I watch too much TV as it is.)
Last night's episode was rather good, thought-provoking, and ultimately left me angered. Not by the show, mind you - it was a fine show, avoided hysterics, and had that great "L&O" plot device where it starts out with one crime then sneakily shifts gears to another entirely different one.
No, I was angered by thoughts of the subtle, pernicious ways religion, specifically Christianity, insinuates itself into American life, on which "Law & Order" shined some light last night.
the REAL "Justice Sunday" in photos...
Sun Apr 24, 2005 at 05:09:46 PM PDT
I made it to the event held in response to the so-called "Justice Sunday" (or "Just us, please!") at Central Presbyterian Church, an old, lovely little church on Kentucky St. in Louisville. This part of Kentucky St. is the southern border of Louisville's downtown, and the northern border of the Old Louisville neighborhood, a beautiful, colorful urban residential area filled with gorgeous Victorian-era houses and restored mansions.
It's an area where upper middle class urban homesteaders live next door to families on food stamps and Section 8 housing assistance, who live across the street from a one-time mansion now divided into small apartments housing students, artists, punk rockers and Deadheads. Where on one corner is a chic vegan-friendly bistro, and around the block is a check-cashing joint and liquor store with bullet-proof glass. My friends and I call 4th and Oak, two blocks from Central Presby, "4th and Fellini." You can guess why.
Pretty much like the Democratic Party, and much like the crowd that showed up for the real "Justice Sunday." Pictures below the fold...
Wingnuts: Cowards, Punks, or Cowardly Punks? Discuss...
Fri Mar 25, 2005 at 12:25:40 PM PDT
From time to time I write Letters to the Editor, usually when something pisses me off so much that steam starts billowing from my ears. Sometimes I write to the
local daily, more often to our
alternative weekly. As was the case a couple weeks ago, when the bankruptcy bill - and the Republicans successful efforts to kill the decent, common sense amendments to it - left me so mad I could spit nickels.
LEO didn't actually run the letter until the latest issue, which came out this past Wednesday. Today (Friday), I came home, and in my mailbox was, as Bulwinkle would've said, "fanmail from a flounder" - an anonymous love note from some slack-jawed wingnut...
The Last Time I Didn't Hate Duke...
Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 04:14:48 PM PDT
I was just looking at a
nifty article about the "top ten NCAA upsets of all time" and had an earth-shattering epiphany: there was a time when I did
not hate the Duke University men's basketball team.
The year was 1991. They were dark days; George Bush the Elder had needlessly taken our nation to war twice by then, if you can call what happened in Panama a "war." The man was riding high in public approval, looking like a lead-pipe cinch for re-election in `92. No great Democratic savior was yet looming on the horizon.
More importantly to me, my beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats were still in their last season of probation for recruiting violations, and would not be eligible to play in the NCAA men's basketball tournament again until the next year.
Christo's "The Gates": a "guy from Europe" gets last laugh on conservatives?
Sat Mar 05, 2005 at 10:24:01 AM PDT
(NOTE: cross-posted from my blog, Infidelica...)
Let me say this upfront: like FOX News's Shepard Smith, I'm "just a redneck" who doesn't "get it." (And I promise, that's absolutely the last time I will ever compare myself to one of the worthless crypto-fascists on FOX.) I don't know a whole lot about art, though I do consider myself to be a least one or two notches above the tasteless morons nice folks who patronize Thomas Kinkade. I like Pollack, and I really like Kandinsky, though I can't really explain why.
I know even less about things like installation art, which is what they call Christo's work, including the soon to be gone from Central Park "The Gates." All I know is that I thought "The Gates" looked absolutely beautiful, giving a great big splash of riotous color to an otherwise bleak, depressing February. Call it "safron," "creamsicle orange" or "traffic cone" - I don't care, I just think it's a welcome contrast to the grays and browns of the pre-spring outdoors, and I wish it had been installed somewhere a little closer to where I live.
But many conservatives, often a colorless lot, didn't see it that way...
WAVE TV's Michael Moore hatchet job, part deux
Thu Feb 10, 2005 at 12:00:57 PM PDT
Last night, I diaried about a mind-boggling "investigative report" called "The Truth About Michael Moore" that my local NBC affiliate did. (I'm in Louisville, KY.) I've given up on local news long ago, but I happened to be watching "Law and Order" and numerous teasers for the piece were shown during the commerical breaks.
the original diary is here. A couple of quick explanatory notes... no, the report isn't a syndicated piece simply shown by WAVE. It was done by Erick Flack, a WAVE reporter and part of their "WAVE 3 Investigators" team. No, WAVE is not owned by Sinclair, it's owned by Liberty Corporation. And I don't know yet if the piece is intended to be shown on other stations, Flack (is that a perfect name, or what?) didn't answer my questions about that. Also, there is a second part to the report tonight, which I'll diary about afterwards.
Please read or skim the original diary for the numerous problems I had with the report.
I wrote Flack directly about the report last night. He responded today, and I have since responded to that. All these exchanges below the fold...
my local TV news does hatchet job on Michael Moore
Wed Feb 09, 2005 at 09:23:24 PM PDT
I am so f'ing angry I could spit nickels.
I was watching "Law and Order," which tonight was obviously inspired by Bill O'Really's sexual harrassment lawsuit. (Main difference: in the TV show, the O'Rielly character gets killed by the lesbian lover of his wife. Of course, in real life, there's still time... oh, I digress.)
The show also briefly featured a character who was obviously based loosely on Michael Moore (documentarian, unkempt appearance, only this guy was skinny). Interestingly, during a commercial break, my local NBC affiliate showed a teaser for the 11 o'clock news, saying that their investigative team (ingeniously named "The Investigators") were going to "tell the truth about Michael Moore."
If the Senate Debated Basic Arithmetic...
Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 09:06:44 AM PDT
(the following are highlights from the recent Senate debate on the Senate resolution, introduced by Senate Republicans, authorizing the right of 2+2 to equal 5...)
A "Going Upriver" Allegory...
Sat Oct 23, 2004 at 09:11:39 PM PDT
I periodically get comments on my blog from an anti-Kerry conservative. (I hesitate to call him a "freeper" or "wingnut" or some other pejorative because this one at least doesn't use fake email addresses like "blowme@fuckyou.com" and the like.) His most recent comment: "Just finished watching 'Stolen Honor'... Kerry should be ashamed of himself."
I of course suggested he should watch Going Upriver, but this also got me thinking, and I posted an essay that I thought I'd also share with any Kosmopolitans who may care to read it...
SHOW A LITTLE FAITH - there's magic in the night
Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:19:16 PM PDT
with apologies to
jsmdlawyer, who wrote a firsthand account of the concert last night, I've been sitting on my review of the Vote for Change marathon concert last night in DC. I started it after the show, but was just too wound up to finish it until this morning (then I had chores to do).
I've cross-posted it on my blog, but here it is for Kossacks who care to read it.
My Letter to Tim Russert...
Sun Oct 10, 2004 at 08:40:07 AM PDT
Watching "Meet the Press," and in Russert's interview with Edwards he repeatedly harped on the "you voted to go to war" falsehood. Edwards repeatedly said no, that's not what I voted for. I got pissed off. I emailed Russert...
"Going Upriver" is a must see
Fri Oct 01, 2004 at 07:58:31 PM PDT
okay, I'm going to try this again... I just did a diary entry on this that somehow didn't post (site problems?)...
I saw Going Upriver tonight, and I highly recommend this documentary. Though some will accuse it of being a rose-colored hagiography (and the early parts of the film more or less fit that bill), the war and post-war footage is gripping. I learned much more about the "Winter Soldier" hearings than I previously knew. If you have a friend or loved one who thinks Kerry is a traitor for his post-war activities, drag them to this film.
"First" and/or "Frist" posts...
Sat Sep 11, 2004 at 09:06:10 PM PDT
Okay, I've learned my lesson. The one and only time I actually made a "frist" post, I had several zeroes and ones rated, and the comment was removed. Yes, I now know better.
But I must ask this, Kossacks: was it really necessary to troll-rate my post?
Was it really necessary to saddle me with these low ratings, the first ones, to the best of my knowledge, that I've ever received? Could you not tell, from the text of my message, that it was meant in a lighthearted, satirical way?
