I try to respect our leader. I really do, but once again, courtesy of The Lady Janet, a well-written, if slightly biased, article about Mr. Bush's shortcomings: My Private Idaho - New York Times.

Update: This turned out to be a pretty rich vein, what with the reference to an old Keanu Reeves movie that I corrected in the title of this post to match the B-52s song it was named after (I think Maureen Dowd was concerned about copyright issues, but she got the point across). There's a lot more stuff about the movie on IMDB, and be sure to check the quotes page too.

Labels: bush, movies, politics

posted by Chris at 10:24 AM Permalink

 
The Lady Janet and I have been looking at houses for a few weeks now, and this morning, she sent me a copy of this article: Bubble? What Bubble? (login required, but you need to be able to read the New York Times' stuff anyway)

Please read it, it's a hoot, and I don't use that term lightly. In fact, I'm considering erasing "hoot" right now, so just trust me. Here's a sample:

More important, the housing market is incredibly durable. Unlike sneakers with lights in them or monogrammed poker chips or - I believe - computers, houses are not some fad that people will any day now look at and say: "This is stupid. I don't want mine anymore." Housing is a basic need, not unlike shelter.

By the way, this guy is a writer on the new CBS show with Alyson Hannigan and Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother.

I don’t give it a second season, even if it were NBC and had someone from Friends, but it’s probably worth a look, especially since I now suspect there’s someone clever behind it, besides just having Willow.

posted by Chris at 11:30 AM Permalink

 
This site's name is fairly self-explanatory: Stuff On My Cat.

Labels: cats, links

posted by Chris at 5:44 PM Permalink

 
Everything you wanted to know about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from the wonderful Wikipedia. (I stumbled on this trying to remember if War of the Worlds was originally broadcast on Halloween, but it was actually October 30th, 1938.)

Labels: buffy, joss whedon, tv, whedonverse

posted by Chris at 4:32 PM Permalink

 
Here's an idea I saw over at Idea a Day, where ideas are free:

Allow voters in a political election to cast a vote against a candidate. Voters would still only get one vote, but each "against" vote would nullify a "for" vote.

I think this might help.

Labels: ideas, politics

posted by Chris at 11:04 AM Permalink

 
Arizona highschool trades books for laptops

posted by Chris at 3:18 PM Permalink

 
Well, I feel bad, but I just voted "No" in Excite's online poll asking whether Mr. Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan. Yes, she has a legitimate gripe. Yes, we don't belong in Iraq and probably never did and need to get out. Yes, our President has not yet impressed me with an intellectual tour de force or his rapier-sharp delivery, but that doesn't change the fact, for me, that he should not be meeting with this woman and encouraging every family member of someone we've lost to picket the ranch or The Whitehouse. And yes, we have no bananas.

It's beneath the dignity of a world leader, and he has better things he should be tending to. This goes also for taking a 5-week vacation and reading Salt (see below).

So, yeah, he can invite her into the Crawford estate and talk her down for 5 weeks while he's "off duty" and think long and hard about the boys overseas, but when the vacation's up, I want to see plans for the budget, social security, education, homeland security, our impression on the world, our impact on the environment,and much, much more that actually make sense, morally, ethically, spiritually, financially, democratically, and every other way. Let's have a war on poverty and homelessness, not stem cells, abortion, or gay marriage. Cripes.

posted by Chris at 2:53 PM Permalink

 
Regarding Intelligent Design, I'm afraid I still fall somewhere on the side of a mystical interpretation of the anthropic principle, but I still enjoyed this article a lot: The Onion | Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory. (And thanks to "romzoid" from the Sacramentals Yahoo™ group.)

Labels: parody/satire

posted by Chris at 2:02 PM Permalink

 
Constructed of 15,000,000 popsicle sticks, The Sea Hart Viking was expected to set sail today in hopes of a Guinness world-record-making Atlantic crossing.

We here at Asparagus Pee say "bon voyage" and wish them well.

(If you click the picture, there's a representative shot of a laminated plank being glued up out of popsicle sticks, and there's a pretty full gallery behind the Sea Hart link above.)

Labels: neat stuff

posted by Chris at 3:19 PM Permalink

 
Whatcha readin' these days? I'm painfully slogging my way through Roger Penrose's Road to Reality and cross refrencing websites and math texts to try to figure out what the heck he's on about and getting caught back up on polar representations of complex variables in the complex plane, with the goal of truly understanding Euler's Formula.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here's what our majoritorially popular misunderestimated philospher king is taking with him on a 5-week vacation: Newsday.com: Bush Salts His Summer With Eclectic Reading List.

(A colleague at work sent me a link to this article as an inside joke because I use Salt as the archetype for things we sell a lot of where I just can't understand the appeal - we've sold around 200 copies of the audiobook on cassettes and CDs at $40-50 each, and it's around a 15-hour listen. I gave up 3 or 4 tapes in.)

posted by Chris at 12:11 PM Permalink

 
For some strange reason, Yahoo search is lovin' Asparagus Pee right now - whatever their spider is doing, it's vastly over-page-ranking this site. My own name is a good example: Yahoo! Search Results for chris benson.

posted by Chris at 1:24 AM Permalink

 
I've spent a couple of days now crying over the beauty of anyone lived in a pretty how town, but today's winner is Swing Life Away by Rise Against. As far as I can tell, everything else they're doing doesn't suit my tastes, but this one sounds like Rubber Soul and it makes me cry, which is a great compliment in my mind. For me, at least, it speaks of lost innocence and simple childhood pleasures regained. My favorite line, after talking about comparing scars is, "we'll tear up these pages and replace them with our own words."

That's powerful stuff.

posted by Chris at 12:22 AM Permalink

 
I was going through my old Neatstuff folder a few nights ago, you know, one of those two-pocket folders where I keep all the neat stuff that I collected through college and beyond. It's got things like a bunch of Mark Alan Stamaty Carto-o-o-o-ns and things that friends of mine have written and drawn, but it's also got this amazing poem by e.e. cummings:

anyone lived in a pretty how town
by e.e. cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

From Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright © 1923, 1931, 1935, 1940, 1951, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976, 1978, 1979 by George James Firmage.

posted by Chris at 11:29 PM Permalink

 
If this request came from any less a man than J-walk, I would call him a link-whore and blow it off, but I think he has an interesting idea here to see if the link referral logs really work at various places. So here it is, John: The J-Walk Blog: Attention Bloggers!.

posted by Chris at 11:44 AM Permalink

 
This is just wrong, right? $100,000 to watch The Rolling Stones with Arnold

posted by Chris at 10:56 AM Permalink

 
In the what the heck department, Das Keyboard - UberGeeks Only, a blank keyboard for proving you know how to touch-type, or something.

posted by Chris at 11:12 AM Permalink

 
Truth be told, I actually struggle a little with giving up on the theory of Intelligent Design, but Open Letter to the Kansas School Board is funny.

posted by Chris at 2:36 PM Permalink

 
I used to have a tag line in my header that said "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." and someone found their way here by looking up part of the quote on Google. Here is a page of pretty good "time" quotes from the only page that came up above mine: Time.

My favorite is:

Time keeps everything from happening all at once. Space keeps everything from happening all to you.

posted by Chris at 5:08 PM Permalink