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Saturday, March 22, 2003
I've amassed quite a collection of DVDs in the few months. As I've mentioned before, pawn shops in bulk are the way to go. The market has been mostly stable, with a slight upward trend recently. I do my best to maintain the 5.50 - 6.50 sans tax price range by curtailing my spending if the price is higher. Today I was forced to give up 14 choice DVDs because the salesperson who approached me was one of those young, eager, commission-focused types and wouldn't budge from his $8 per disc price. When he's older he'll understand that a small commission on an $80 sale is better than bobkes.
My collection needs a new home. I have a DVD/CD/VHS case which is full and holds roughly 70, but I've got 40 more stacked on my teevee, and a few out on loan. The most bang for your buck is absolutely series on DVD sets. I have Sex and the City Season 2 and The Simpsons Season 2, 3 and 4 disc sets, for $6 apiece as well.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/22/2003
Friday, March 21, 2003
There is a Jordanian thrust in the war, just like I said there would be.
.: posted by andy 3/21/2003
I came out 100% Left/Liberal, so I don't think that quiz is accurate. It's too small--they need to address more issues.
.: posted by andy 3/21/2003
According to this completely scientific quiz, I'm not anywhere near libertarian. I feel so violated now.
Shawn and Bethany are moving to some suburb northeast of Charlotte.
.: posted by Jeremy 3/21/2003
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Sorry I hosed up that link to the Agonist. I posted from the studio, where I spent my whole day.
.: posted by andy 3/20/2003
Turned on the TV and watched reporters interviewing people, Talking Heads, and each other. Turned off the TV. I ran across this neat site about engines and got a kick out of it.
.: posted by George 3/20/2003
I think anyone who compares Bush with Hitler is way, way off-base. The Progressives are always trying to brand the United States as the Fourth Reich, and I'm glad they do because it serves to handily discredit them. We certainly have our problems in the United States, but Bush isn't wrong when he calls America a Beacon of Freedom.
Ada, in the second line of your original post, you said, "so much for comparing Saddam to Hitler." Tell me how that isn't a very relative parallel. Saddam road a tidal wave of public fervor to power, consolidated his power through a series of purges, repeatedly invaded neighboring countries on trumped-up pretexts, denied basic rights to Iraqi minorities, and in several cases carried out campaigns to ethnically cleanse Iraq.
Read The Agonist for up to the minute reporting on the war.
.: posted by andy 3/20/2003
using 'homeland' instead of 'fatherland' as the translation for das vaterland is a little hokey, but it hardly invalidates the whole metaphor. (incidently, another translation for das vaterland is home country). progressive (liberal, neo-communist, whatever) or not, the article makes some valid points about how an entire people can get swept up in a leader who purports to be acting in his country's best interest and then patently promotes policies that contradict it. the brillant public opinion campaign (dare we say propaganda) the bush administration launched after 9/11 has blinded no one but americans. but at home it has worked, swaying public opinion in favor of the war by drawing links (albeit tenuous) between Iraq and terrorism. hitler did the same thing, drawing illusionary links between hitler's 'jewish terrorists' and its political enemies and using those ideological links to justify military invasion. hitler did not start out as the extreme fascist dictator that he is remembered for being. bush will never be allowed to become the extreme fascist dictator that hitler ended as-- if only because of term limits, but that's not to say that he is not travelling down a similar road.
you don't have to be a progressive to see the value of this kind of comparison.
.: posted by aida 3/20/2003
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Common Dreams is a bunch of crap, and I hate Progressives.
It looks like the war has started for real now. This is so wrong.
.: posted by andy 3/19/2003
And to further bash my very good friend Ada:
Common Dreams is a national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together to promote progressive visions for America's future.
I hope you understand the way the term "progressive" is used today. It's really just meant to be a happy-sounding synonym for "neo-communism."
.: posted by Jeremy 3/19/2003
Ada, Ada, Ada....
After reading the first third of that article the phrase that immediately came to mind was: "so much bullshit." And the feeling that came to my bowels was kind of strange, too.
Has every historical account misinterpreted the true translation of what I previously thought to be the word "fatherland?"
I guess that article proves that if a situation is generalized enough, it's possible to use any metaphore to describe any situation.
I've heard the term "rolling start" a lot over the past few days. I've also heard that we started attacking iraqi artillery in the "southern no fly zone" sometime last night. Since most artillery can do very little to impede no-fly-zone patrolling operations, I'd say the war's on right now. I think the big question is when will the seige of bagdad start, and more importantly, end.
.: posted by Jeremy 3/19/2003
Fnord, you could use the turbine to make daquiris.
I think the war will start sooner than Friday, if we know what's good for us. The ideal move would be for Bush to say that we're waiting to see if Turkey will cooperate, and then launch the war as soon as the Iraqis think they've got extra time. I don't think there's much to be gained by waiting longer, especially with the Iraqi summer getting closer and closer.
.: posted by andy 3/19/2003
terrorists, dictators, nationalism and bush. this article is long but interesting. so much for comparing saddam to hitler.
.: posted by aida 3/19/2003
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
I'm not good enough at raquetball to lose and look like i'm really trying. That was my explanation today after beating my opponent 15-3. I don't think she believed me, but I think she appreciated the effort to not gloat.
.: posted by Jeremy 3/18/2003
I'm betting we invade Friday. Manley, from work says Sunday. I remember back in January the pundits talking about how we'd wait til a new moon so they couldn't just shoot the stealth bombers out of the sky, and our night vision would be a bigger advantage, but it looks like a full moon to me.
So, I'm working on a novel design for a steam engine which would use both turbine and piston power, and would be able to be directly controlled by a throttle, like a car engine, as opposed to Stirling engines, which take a long time to wind up and down. The turbine and piston would be asynchronous, though, and I haven't come up with a good use for the turbine yet.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/18/2003
The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business. (That's a super-annoying rollover ad they placed right next to their content.)
Also, what a bunch of posers the French are. "We're absolutely against an American invasion of Iraq. BUT, if the United States illegally invades Iraq and then Iraq uses its only effective weapon to defend itself, well then we'd have to support the United States." What kind of crazy world is this? If we have to have a war on Iraq, why don't we come up with some legitimate reason, like the fact that Saddam Hussein is running his country into the ground, and is likewise holding neighboring countries back. Instead, the Bush administration insists on some fabrication about the likelihood of Saddam Hussein giving his chemical weapons (that's right, the ones he's risked everything to KEEP) away to terrorists. Like that would ever happen.
.: posted by andy 3/18/2003
The Great Lakes, frozen over.
.: posted by andy 3/18/2003
Monday, March 17, 2003
Our president looking like a deer in the headlights.
.: posted by andy 3/17/2003
I miss my old car. If I had money, I'd buy another Pontiac Parisienne. You just can't beat a car like that. It got totalled in 1996. Some woman ran a stopsign in her Lexus (Infiniti? Mercedes? I forget.) and T-boned me at the intersection of Chinn Chapel and 407. I was driving at about 55mph, and she was going 35. I looked over as I passed through the intersection, saw her headlights, and thought, "I'm dead." She knocked us (Beth was with me) off the road, and I think we did at least one 360. We were kind of stunned, but not really hurt. Beth said her back and neck hurt for a while after that, but she didn't want to see a doctor about it. I had a bruise on my neck from my seatbelt, but that was it. The poor old car was pretty smashed, but still drivable. The whole frame seemed to be bent, and when Dad drove it home, it seemed like he had to put the car at an angle to the road in order to drive straight. The passenger-side window in the back seat was broken, but mine wasn't at all. That door bore the brunt of the collision, and caved to the point that it was putting pressure on the backseat's upholstery. I think that any backseat passengers would have gotten off with some bruises.
The tape player in that car stopped working before I started driving it in 1995. I kept an old boombox in the frontseat so that I could listen to tapes. It had a rear-facing back backseat that folded up. If you put the rear window down, the tailgate opened like a truck's tailgate. We used to call it the back porch, and spent many many hours back there. The other great feature was the benchseat in the front. I don't know why they ever got rid of the benchseat.
.: posted by andy 3/17/2003
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