Practicalmadness

And it's a bad idea not because women are worthy of respect, but because they got sued last year.

I guess these things are easier to set up in cities that have been destroyed by a hurricane then left for dead by incompetent emergency response.

There’s a funny thing about the labels ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative:’ they have to do with how the government spends money. And there’s a whole set of ideological baggage that comes with those labels — the money spent as a reflection...

The Associated Press is reporting that CNN has declined to offer Tucker Carlson a new contract, and with his departure may come the end of Carlson’s long-running debate show Crossfire. New CNN chief executive Jonathan Klein was quoted as saying...

Awaiting Ivan in the Big Uneasy (washingtonpost.com): Walter Maestri, an emergency manager here in America’s most vulnerable metropolitan area, has 10,000 body bags ready in case a major hurricane ever hits New Orleans. As Hurricane Ivan’s expected path shifted...

Let’s see: a mysterious explosion occurs on North Korea’s most important national holiday, Sept. 9 (which was the day the North Korean Communist state was founded), involving a giant crater and ‘a peculiar cloud.’ Yet neither the South Korean nor...

Items in the news, on my radar and reported by the voices in my head on Thursday, 8 July 2004.

Which might also explain how "We Didn't Do It, You Can't Prove Anything" became a surprise front-runner in that contest.

Plastic has this thrilling story about the US Armed Forces’ policy of discharging homosexuals for being gay, including a short breakdown of who’s been fired: As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions continue...

Almost half of a $273,000 grant awarded in 2002 to fight the Goth culture in Blue Springs has been returned because of a lack of interest — and the absence of a real problem. Silly humans; don’t they know...

In which Slate has a couple of nice feminism-related pieces this morning.

In which I lament the death of the American middle class.

CNET News.com reports that The New York Times has decided to begin charging for an improved version of its Times News Tracker service. News Tracker lets you create search robots which automatically e-mail you whenever news stories appear about a...

BBC News is reporting on a controversy regarding certain ill-chosen categories in an upcoming children's beauty pageant in Thailand: Organiser Songwut Khumarak said the "sexy body" category was only meant to boost the self-confidence of the children, some of whom...

From The New York Times: "L'Auberge Espagnole" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Its characters often have just one thing on their minds, and those minds are often spoken. I love it when critics come...

AT&T has just started pushing a new mobile phone service called GoPhone, which seems to be exactly the same as its usual mobile service, except for a few key points: » No credit check. » No contract. » No activation...

Disney has announced that the release schedule for their Platinum Collection series of animated films on DVD -- their ten most popular, enduring titles given the deluxe two-disc treatment -- will be accelerated starting in March 2004. Currently, Disney Platinum...

This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You can click the Blue Link. The story ends and you go on believing whatever you want to believe. You click the Red Link and you stay in...

Ain't It Cool is running what they are claiming as the first review of The Matrix Reloaded anywhere. However, those of us attracted to the Matrix series for its skillful blending of chop-socky and philisophical sci-fi will be less than...

New Line Home Video has announced the release dates (finally) for the upcoming video & DVD editions of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Just as happened last year, the DVD will be offered in three different editions:...

The fighting is all but over, the people are still impoverished and we don't really know what happened to Saddam Hussein and his top guns. So what's the next logical step in the liberation of Iraq? Wi-Fi!...

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information minister whose surreal, hyperbolic propaganda has amused the world since the start of the war weeks ago, may or may not have committed suicide. The Iranian newspaper Mardomsalari and Iran's Arabic newspaper, Al Wifaq,...

Both of Chicago's "red papers" have already reported this link, but I needed validation from one of the weblogs I read before I would even look at WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com. It really is a hoot. From the Treasury of Deathless Quotes: »...

Howard Bloom ("a paleopsychologist and the author of Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind", not to be confused with the literary critic Harold Bloom) has written an article for Wired Magazine that I think I can summarize thusly: "so...

CNN.com reports tonight that a surprising number of people -- either journalists, armchair generals or honest-to-god U.S. troops -- are blogging about the war even as they are out there fighting it. LT SMASH has the distinction of being both...

CNET News.com is reporting that beginning Sunday, AOL Time Warner will begin limiting access to the websites for its magazines, starting with People and Entertainment Weekly. Over the next month or so, other titles -- including such vital, hard-hitting publications...

This evening U.S. President George W. Bush told the American people they can stop saying 'if we go to war...', announcing that unless Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, his sons and his entire regime abdicate and leave Iraq within forty-eight hours,...

Several news outlets (CNN, Globe and Mail) are reporting that the restaurants in the three House office buildings will change the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries" (and "french toast" to "freedom toast") in a culinary act of rage...

IMDB's StudioBriefing has this very, very welcome news: In an apparent move to place more emphasis on hard news in order to differentiate itself from rival Fox News Channel, CNN announced Friday that it has canceled TalkBack Live , its...

Ain't It Cool News is reporting that legendary experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, whose 400 films are revered by film scholars while remaining unwatched by most moviegoers (myself included) has died. Most of your readers probably don't know who Stan Brakhage...

NetNewsWire, Gleaner and Hourihan are all pointing me to this story on The Morning News about the Chinatown bus trade-- "inexpensive, Chinese-operated shuttles that run between the numerous big-city Chinatowns dotting the Eastern Seaboard" -- and recent, generally enthusiastic New...

I've found a new blog to read: I find myself with a few spare minutes and make the mistake of reading Thomas Friedman again. His conclusion after a long, dull and witless ramble about the introduction of "democracy" to Iraq...

Dave Kehr writes in the Old Gray Lady today about the Academy's slowness in picking up on the digital revolution, which starts to sound like a think piece about the abortive attempt by New Line Cinema to get an Oscar...

Now, this is a connection I missed when I was writing about DPSU's 'mad cow' viral marketing scheme: Well gosh, best of luck with the viral marketing thing there, Dr Pepper/Seven Up (DPSU). I think if I were handed the...

MSNBC reports that not only is Dr. Pepper launching their own MT blog to promote Raging Cow, the company's new line of milk-plus drinks, but they are recruiting "key-influence bloggers" to help start a grass-roots marketing campaign in return for...

First, look at this. Yes, that's a weblog, powered by Movable Type, written by a cartoon cow. Now, look at this. It's the website for Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., makers of fine beverage products. See anything familiar? "Having escaped from...

Can you even tell me the name of the person who directed Chicago? Is it a man or a woman? White or black? Those questions are unfortunately easy -- the vast majority of Hollywood directors are white men. So which...

The Guardian Online is running a profile of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the third-in-command of al-Qaida who was arrested in Pakistan this weekend, and will soon be extradited to the U.S. for his apparently very, very major role in planning September...

In an e-mail to Ain't It Cool News, Lord of the Rings producer/director Peter Jackson has shot down growing rumors and anticipation regarding a possible 'to be continued...' preview trailer for The Return of the King (reportedly to be attached...

Salon Premium is running a story about how the Southern tendency toward denial, indirectness and euphemism -- i.e., anything but just coming out and saying it -- is making the South the United States's fastest-growing hotbed of AIDS infection. "This...

This is an outrage: a Canadian woman of Indian descent, while changing planes at O'Hare while traveling from India to Toronto, was tossed head-first into a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare when INS officers decided that her Canadian passport was a fake....

The Guardian is reporting that the Bush administration is planning a secret meeting, to take place this August, to discuss the construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons. The leaked preparations for the meeting are the clearest sign yet...

It's a well-known fact that news outlets prepare and constantly obituaries for prominent figures so that they can be ready to go the moment they die. This often goes both ways....

News outlets are reporting that the shuttle Columbia lost contact with NASA controllers and is now believed to have broken apart on its final descent. There were seven astronauts aboard, including one Israeli fighter pilot serving as a payload specialist....

Wired is running this brief piece that raises a couple of good points and generally puts it all into perspective. Puts what into perspective? I'm glad you asked: AOL Time Warner (motto: "If you enjoy it, we probably own it")...

This article would be genuinely creepy if it wasn't so short. Well, and insane: People talking on the web know you shouldn't ever take a government immunization and that they real reason for them is to make lots of money...

Okay, class: pencils down, predicting caps on, shot glasses at the ready.

Proving once and for all that Warner Bros. really, truly does think that its Harry Potter movies are just a slightly downmarket, kid-friendly version of its sister studio New Line's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Warner Home Video has announced...

This video is the funniest thing I have ever seen....

With the first rumblings that Saddam Hussein may be allowed to seek exile rather than be the first target in a major US/British military campaign, the Guardian today is running a story looking at where some of the world's most...

The US, demonstrating once again the need to show no mercy towards the evil dictatorship holding Iraq hostage, offered Saddam Hussein's regime immunity from prosecution if they would agree to kinda, you know, leave the country and never return. What...

This morning's Wall Street Journal reports that the X-Men are not human, according to a U.S. judge ruling in a dispute between Marvel Comics and the U.S. Customs Service. Judge Judith Barzilay found the X-Men and their fellow Marvel characters...

The British news site Ananova reports that rumors (well, ok, my snarky opinion) that the fifth Harry Potter novel will never be finished are greatly exaggerated: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released on...

The Associated Press reports that the Supreme Court has upheld lengthier copyrights, safeguarding the profits of media companies such as Disney, who would have been at risk of losing some of their product to the public domain within the next...

Via SNN: Survivor has its first deaf contestant. Christy Smith, the 24-year-old camp counselor from-- oh, forget it. Christy is severely hearing impaired, although not completely deaf, and can only hear very minimal sounds. Survivor host Jeff Probst told ZAP2IT...

From the Washington Post, via Boing Boing: A coffee shop on Dupont Circle in our nation's capitol is selling the "Trent Lotte": black coffee and steamed milk, served in separate but equal portions. The Post writes: "Our call to the...

The DVD Journal has a review of Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise, which reviewer Damon Houx calls "cinema's greatest sex comedy". My biggest question: down what deep, dark hole has Amazon.com lost the copy I ordered almost two weeks ago?...

Via Cruel: This project has a solution to the pressing problems of overpopulation, illiteracy, global warming, nuclear annihilation, starvation, global economic downturn, not enough new PowerBooks to go around, not enough items on McDonalds's new Dollar Menu, too many people...

Via Cruel Site of the Day: Who among us is immune to the continuing cultural obsession with lesbians? Most of us, I'd imagine, but that hasn't stopped someone from archiving cover artwork from lesbian erotic fiction of the 50s and...

From The Guardian: Now that the weeks-long pissing contest between the US and North Korea seems to be, y'know, accomplishing the Bush administration's obvious goal of starting World War III, somebody has blinked. Of course, it was us....

I guess the burqa modeling competition wasn't enough of an olive branch, guys. Also: Homeland security, a la HP Compaq.

(Having to reconstruct this from memory and my browser history after QuickTime vomited all over Mozilla and the latter ran out of the room to cry, shower, and cry some more.) Deep Discount DVD For when you really want some...

Today is September 11th, and one year ago today -- at around this time, as a matter of fact -- terrorists linked to the Al-Qaeda network hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed them into both towers of NYC's World Trade...

Some information every guy/girl should have in their pursuit of that perfect guy/girl....

According to Plastic, soon your mailman (or rather, letter carrier) could be informing on your suspicious activities to federal authorities, in addition to just reporting your spending habits and monthly utility bills to marketers as he or she does now....

Salon.com is running, in typical style, an op-ed/news/rant about parents suing schools for flunking their precious darling children. This story details something we already knew: how lawsuits are just the modern way for today's not-quite-grown-up parents to run away crying...

This is an experiment. Warning: this blog is not under warranty, and we are not responsible for any festering sores on your head.

Oh my. According to Yahoo! News, it seems Dubya was quite upset by the implication that our government -- which has always been so caring, so reliable, so trustworthy -- would lie to the media (who, of course, always check...

In a Chicago Tribune interview last week, Ralph Nader -- yeah, him again -- is quoted saying...well, you read it:Q. Would you have made an effective wartime president? A. This war would never have happened had I been president, because...

Salon.com is running this Associated Press story today about the Air Force adopting "let's roll" -- the now famous last words spoken by Todd Beamer, one of the passengers who tried to regain control of United Flight 93 on Sept....