Yah. Sorry. The Hobbit and I are headed up to
Reno tomorrow for the Tailhook Convention (yes,
that
Tailhook - only different). We come back Sunday evening and then it's off to the
deep blue sea for your humble narrator. For three weeks.
Next update:
October.
Enjoy yourselves in the
comments/shoutbox areas, if you so desire. I'll try to check in from time to
time.
I
will
be spending four days and three nights alone with my best girl, a thing I do not
think we have done since we were perhaps 25. So I
won't
be
blogging.
------------------------
Good
contact with Tammi made yesterday. She's still hunkering
down. Ivan's coming next, if you can believe that. Forgive her for not blogging,
she's
busy.
------------------------
Remember
that female Russian motorcyclist, who did a photo-journal from Chernobyl? Turns
out that the narrative there wasn't entirely consistent with the facts. The
times we live in perhaps. Too
bad.
But - she's got a new journal
up from the battlegrounds around Kiev, her hometown. It's fascinating, and I
found myself clicking "next" over and over again. It's fascinating, and
compelling and sobering. Check it
out.
Well,
I thought it was funny anyway. Your mileage may
vary.
-----------------------
Fun
with Google, Part I
-
Did you realize that there's a blog
stock market
out there? I didn't.
I was
engaging in the occasional narcissism of googling myself and discovered that
there's a market out there that apparently rates blogs by links in, links out
and allows exchange members to spend theoretical dollars against their choices.
I'm not high up on the list (a P/E ratio of less than 8.0 - a
very
conservative investment), but I do like my
charts:
Shares
are up a thousand dollars since
mid-August.
Who
knew?
---------------------------
Fun
with Google, Part II -
A few months ago, I engendered a bit of a debate on the subject of "outrage" in
the world, cross-referenced by religion.
So anyway, the issues of passive voice
and euphemisms has been on my mind lately. In discussion of the Beslan atrocity,
some of the world's major media outlets have been reluctant to use
the word "terrorist," preferring "militants" instead. Because, as Lileks pointed out , one man's terrorist is
another man's freedom fighter, practicing his marksmanship on children.
Speaking of the passive voice, what on
earth can Reuters mean by putting the word 'terror, ' associated with Beslan, in
quotes? I mean, I'm sorry, but good
Christ!
<takes
deep breath>
But the real point is
that "terrorist" is not correct-speak. They're simply misunderstood.
So setting aside the word,
"terrorist," and leaving "outrage" out of the question altogether, I wondered if
we could learn anything by cross-referencing the preferred term "militants"
against the world's major religions, and see how many hits we
get:
Christian militants - 681
Jewish militants - 106
Hindu militants - 2210
Buddhist militants - 65
Islamic militants - 110,000
And because the words "Islamic," and
"muslim" are often used interchangeably, for good measure I
included:
Mulsim militants -
22,900
So if you take the liberty of
combining the mulsim and Islamic categories, you get 132,900 hits. Against a
grand total of 3062 for all of the rest the world's major religions combined. I
didn't sample the Jainists or wiccans, in case you were curious.
But here's the really important
thing to understand: There's no conclusion to be drawn here. It doesn't mean a
thing.
Just one of those goofy things
you do on the internet, when you've got a spare
moment.
------------------------
Meanwhile,
the Bear Left blog has been held hostage to The Man
for 31 days, and counting. Updates have been promised for weeks, but so far,
none have been forthcoming
Ruthless
capitalist
wreckers.
------------------------
The
media is a-buzz with the word that W didn't serve his full commitment in the Air National Guard. Ready
replies are already in the
air.
It's all a fight by
proxy of course. W isn't running on his Vietnam record. He's got some more
recent things to talk about.
What
piffle. How did it ever come to
this?
------------------------
You
know what I just realized, I mean, just this very moment? When I come back from
sea there will only be four weeks left until the national elections. You folks
have to sit here and endure it all.
I
pity
you.
------------------------
That's
all folks. See you in the funny pages.
Posted @
09:17 PM
|
Posted in
""
|
Sendit
|
Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." - John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Ceasar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friederich Nietzsche
