A Babbling Stream of Semi-Consciousness
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Ed Bradley, R.I.P.
Ed Bradley, the longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent whose probing questions and deceptively relaxed interviewing manner graced some of that show’s most notable reports, has died. He was 65.
From an old interview excerpted on the NewsHour:
If I arrived at the pearly gates and St. Peter said “What have you done to deserve entry?” I’d just say, “Did you see my Lena Horne story?”
This enormous sculpture of a Native American listening to an iPod is proof positive that Mars was once home to an advanced culture. Only a superior technological society could have formed such a vast — huh? — it’s not on Mars? It’s a rock formation in Alberta, Canada, not far from Medicine Hat?
Wow. That Martian civilization was more advanced that I thought. Just imagine — flying all the way from Mars to Canada to carve that mountain sculpture.
Wired has a collection of Very Short Stories (Warning: some strong language):
We’ll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.
Dozens of our favorite auteurs put their words to paper, and five master graphic designers took them to the drawing board. Sure, Arthur C. Clarke refused to trim his (“God said, ‘Cancel Program GENESIS.’ The universe ceased to exist.”), but the rest are concise masterpieces.
Concise, anyway.
What a creepy feeling to know that George W. Bush is reading my blog. From yesterday’s press conference:
And they just — as I said, they’re dancing in the end zone. They just haven’t scored the touchdown, Mark, you know, there’s a lot of time left. And these candidates are working hard out there. And my message to them is, keep talking about the security of the United States and keeping taxes low, and you’ll come back here.
Here’s what I wrote on Tuesday night:
I visit a lot of anti-Bush blogs these days, and I get that same queasy sensation as I see some bloggers practicing their end-zone victory dance weeks before election day. National polls show Democrats with a big generic edge, but I’ve also see a lot of analysts doing race-by-race totals and concluding that Republicans may very well hold onto both houses of Congress. Bush may get another two years with no checks, no balances, and no Congressional oversight.
Because I’m the only person in the country who uses football metaphors when discussing political topics, I’m thinking of sending Bush a bill for my ghost-writing assistance.
CNET has collected images of the worst political web sites.
They all seem to be candidate sites. Maybe that’s why this site didn’t make the cut.
I don’t usually watch Jay Leno’s Tonight show, so I’m glad Crooks and Liars linked to a version of this video. That’s what inspired me to go find this one. NBC News White House correspondent David Gregory:
The War of the Words is an online mockumentary that tells “The Story of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders,” in the style of Ken Burns’ documentary of the Civil War. (Warning: strong language.)
They came from across America. Theirs is a story of courage, determination, and, above all, typing. They were the conservative bloggers, pundits and commentators, whose loud and prolific support of Republican foreign policy goals helped change the course of history in ways that would be felt for many years to come. They are the men and women — mostly men, though — who would come to be known as the 101st Fighting Keyboarders. This is their story.
I’m thinking most of the people immortalized here would rather have obscurity.
Words of wisdom from Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders:
[Y]eah, we all want to be perfect, but first we just have to suck less…
The compulsion to be perfect, immediately and eternally, is one of the most profound causes of procrastination for the garden-variety human, and it most certainly gives each of us all the reason we’ll ever need not to even try.
“Not even trying” is a huge time-saver, believe me.
Bush and Hastert campaign together:
President Bush is campaigning with House Speaker Dennis Hastert…
“Oh, that’s a winning strategy,” I thought, chuckling. Then it hit me — Karl Rove’s an acknowledged political genius — could he be sending Bush and Hastert out to campaign for… Democrats?
Could it be that all the screw-ups and abuses of the last six years have been a deliberate effort to turn Bush and other top Republicans into pure political poison, just so they could sabotage Democratic candidates with their support?
Look, look, I know it sounds pretty outlandish. But… but Karl Rove’s a genius. He could think of stuff like this, easy.
Wired has a YouTube video ad for the ultimate collectible. (Warning: strong language and something to offend everyone.)
Via Boing Boing: the smile helmet:
A helmet for people in jobs which demand an unusual amount of smiling, such as air-stewards, receptionists and politicians. A sensor in the front of the helmet detects anybody within a 2 metre range, at which point the mouth is pulled into a broad grin by a small servo motor and some concealed fishing wire. The helmet addresses the facades of social interaction and explores our responses to affected expressions.
There’s video of the helmet in action.
Hey, it made me smile.
The Other Paper is a free weekly here in Columbus, Ohio. When John Kerry came to town last week, they covered it with a short article. This is how the article ended:
And though his own career doesn’t hang in the balance this year, Kerry looked like he kind of wished it did. However, he declined to say whether he wished his presidential campaign had taken place in 2006 instead of 2004.
“That’s all the kind of silly speculation that doesn’t serve me or anybody any good,” he said.
Aww, he’s no fun! He’s part of the reality-based community.
This seems like an awkward moment:
Despite a steady downpour that chilled thousands gathered Saturday in the shipyard here, President Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, basked in the warm embrace of extended family and friends as they celebrated the christening of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier named after the former president.
…
President Bush also drew laughs when he lauded his steely mother, after noting that the USS George H.W. Bush will be the latest in the Nimitz class of aircraft carriers. “She is unrelenting, she is unshakable, she is unyielding, she is unstoppable,” Bush thundered.
“As a matter of fact,” he added, “probably should have been named the Barbara Bush.”
Uh…
Okay, I realize it was a joke, heh heh. But isn’t there a sort of creepy hostility, when something has been named in honor of your father, in saying it should have been named for your mother, instead?
There is a history here, remember. When Bob Woodward asked George W. Bush whether he consulted with his father in the run-up to the Iraq war, Bush said “You know he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to.”
In the short-lived CBS TV series Joan of Arcadia, God appears to Joan Girardi in a variety of human forms, and talks to her. When Joan listens and acts accordingly, good things happen or bad things are prevented.
At one point, Joan asks why a passerby didn’t see God. “Just didn’t notice me,” is the reply. “That happens a lot.”
In the even shorter-lived Fox TV series Wonderfalls, Jaye Tyler hears voices. Inanimate objects — a wax lion, a brass monkey bookend, a cartoon bunny printed on the side of a box — deliver cryptic messages. When Jaye deciphers them and acts accordingly, good things happen or bad things are prevented.
At one point, frustrated and fearful, Jaye demands of the brass monkey, “Tell me why you talk to me!”
The brass monkey answers, “Because you listen.”
When George W. Bush appeals to his “higher father,” do you suppose he ever listens? Could he ever hear something that would make him change his mind?