CD Purchase: Merle Haggard

I ordered the two-disc "Lonesome Fugitive: The Best of Merle Haggard" tonight. I couldn't find the CD in stores, but I think it should be pretty good. I'm looking forward to its arrival.

Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap

This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.  The film mocks the excesses and pretentiousness of heavy metal with characters so similar to real artists that the fictional band Spinal Tap might be plausible as a forgotten artist wedged somewhere in the timeline of glam metal as the predecessor to Posion.  My favorite part of the movie was the Stonehenge scene on stage, I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.  Some people might think the movie gets a little boring, but I enjoyed it the whole way through.  I'd recommend this movie to anyone who is somewhat familiar with heavy metal music and can enjoy good satire, inane song lyrics, and hilarity.

Rating: 7/10

Top Albums update

Thanks to all who submitted their top albums, please feel free to submit yours if you haven't already. I've added a few of your favorites to the top CDs that I want.

health update: aches and fever

Maybe my low blood sugar yesterday can be attributed to something, after all. Last night I had a temperature of 37.44º C (99.4º F), one of my lymph nodes is swollen, today I have a few aches, and the inside of my mouth is sensitive to my braces. Those are all of my symptoms right now, I don't know what the cause is. This reminds me, I want to get a flu shot as soon as it's available, just like I do every year. I suspect that the problems I have will increase in force and I'll be able to identify a more specific cause.

Bush/Kerry debate summary

While foreign policy is crucial in this election, I'd say too much of the debate centered on foreign policy and especially Iraq. In regards to Iraq, things got a little repetitive, I thought.

I think Bush started out strong, he had a few good points, such as when he pointed out that 75% of al-Qaeda's leaders had been neutralized and that 10 million people in Afghanistan had registered to vote.

Kerry also had some good points, like when he said that the president said war was a last resort, "You've got to be able to look in the eyes of families and say to those parents, 'I tried to do everything in my power to prevent the loss of your son and daughter.' I don't believe the United States did that."

Bush held up well against this argument, he said that he went to the UN and he feels that UN resolutions should mean something. He said that the world is safer without Hussein and that the war on terror can include a hunt for Osama Bin Laden as well as a war in Iraq.

I think one mistake the president made was defending the USA PATRIOT act. That's a pretty controversial act and bringing it up might not have helped him.

Kerry said that the US was seen as occupiers, but he offered pretty vague and dubious answers to what he would do in Iraq. He said he'd hold a summit and bring new credibility and a fresh start. Bush raised the good point that Kerry voted against the $87 billion package to fund the troops.

Kerry made a bad analogy at one point, he said that invading Iraq after 9/11 was like Roosevelt invading Mexico after Pearl Harbor. Then he hurt himself when he said that the war in Iraq was wrong and a big diversion but that he'll get allies to join the effort. Bush jumped at this and questioned Kerry's leadership abilities, how can you get people to join us if you call the war a grand diversion? He implied that Kerry was unfit to lead. At this point Bush was doing the best in the debate.

Kerry started to make his best points when he said that Bush didn't plan carefully and that North Korea got nuclear weapons under his watch. Bush implies Kerry has been inconsistent on Iraq, but Kerry says that we just did things in the wrong way. Kerry said that he had a 4 point plan and that the president has a 4 word plan, "my plan is better."

When Kerry was finally asked about some specifics in Iraq, he said that we're giving the impression that we'll be there a while and that we need to do a better job of training the people there.

Around this point I thought the president looked his worst, he was simply repeating that we must and will win the war and we must be consistent to the Iraqis. Bush started to look a little better when he said that more resolutions wouldn't have worked, but Kerry struck back by saying that North Korea has nuclear weapons, Darfur has a genocide, and the world is less safe now. Kerry said that we lost our credibility and respect. Bush sighed in response and raised the issue of the international criminal court. He says he didn't join in order to protect our interests and that Kerry would join, but I'm not sure that bringing up the fact that he hasn't joined will win him any votes.

In regards to North Korea and Iran, Bush says they have a strategy. Kerry makes the good argument that previous to the Bush administration, we had cameras and inspectors in North Korea and that the president broke off talks and since then North Korea has obtained weapons. The president had the rather weak argument that talking to North Korea would make the coalition of countries, like Japan and China, unravel.

At one point Kerry said that we are overextended, which I thought was interesting because 4 years ago Bush said that our troops were overextended in the world. Kerry said that we could never allow another Rwanda and that we should provide logistical support to help Darfur. Bush's answer was weaker, he said we're already providing a lot of money and that he hopes the African Union can move fast enough.

When asked about Kerry's character issues, Bush started to take the high road by complimenting Kerry but then he mentioned Kerry's inconsistency and Bush said that he was a better leader because he knows how things work. At times I the president seemed to be saying, "I know how things work, I'm better, believe me." Kerry answered the question even better than Bush by not addressing any of Bush's character issues.

Then, Bush said, "I fully agree that one should shift tactics, and we will, in Iraq." I thought that was interesting, they're going to shift tactics in Iraq? How so?

Kerry said that he would secure nuclear material in the former Soviet Union faster than Bush would. Bush said that they've made progress and that they got Libya to disarm. They both agreed that nuclear proliferation in the hands of terrorists is the biggest threat, Kerry says Bush hasn't done enough about it, Bush says that we can't open talks with Kim Jong Il of North Korea.

I think that Kerry's closing statement was better, he said he'd continue to defend this country and that he believed in forming alliances. Bush said that we cannot show weakness in this war, he said we'd use an all-volunteer army (an important point to make to diffuse talks of instituting the draft), and he said that we would spread freedom.

I thought that from a personality standpoint, Bush seemed a little brash and cocky. He said things like, "I believe I'm going to win" and "that's absurd" and it seemed like he always tried to get the last word.

Kerry seemed to try to put a lot of emphasis on Bush's shortcomings, rather than on his own advantages. Bush's greatest advantage in this election is that people think he'll be better at leading the war on terror, but Kerry is doing a pretty good job, I think, of indicating that the war on terror is important to him too and that he'll do a better job. So, Kerry is sort of infringing on what used to be the issue that gave Bush the biggest advantage. Bush has been trying to portray himself as a stronger, better leader, but Kerry is making himself look better on terror than before, I think.

Overall, I'd give Kerry a slight advantage. At the beginning, Bush looked better, but as he kept rehashing his talking points and seemingly running out of things to say and Kerry had the opportunity to rebut some of them, I think Kerry did better overall.

Update:

I agree with most of your analysis, good job.

I think Bush's worst moment was probably when he said, "We expected to whip more of them going in. We achieved victory in Iraq so fast that the Saddam loyalists disappeared... And now we're fighting them."

I don't think Kerry has a moment quite that bad, but I agree that it was a close and surprisingly issue-filled debate.

remember, this debate was meant to focus on foreign policy, the next ones will focus on other issues.

Thanks for pointing that out, I wanted to point that out because that's a critical issue. Things aren't going well in Iraq and the only thing that Bush can say is that our invasion was too successful?

The Bush/Kerry debate in short

I watched last night's debate. They spent the entire time discussing foreign policy, especially Iraq, and at times I thought things were a little repetitive. For those who didn't watch the debate, here is a summary of what was said.

Kerry: I can fight a better war on terror than Bush, he's not doing a very good job.
Bush: Kerry's a flip-flopper, a president must be resolute, we're going to win the war.

A longer analysis is upcoming.

Anyone interested in backgrounds?

I've taken some reasonably nice photographs with my digital camera, so I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in downloading a few of the better ones, presumably for use as a desktop background. I don't want to spend the time uploading them on my 56k modem if nobody is going to download them.

Here are a few examples of what I can offer, let me know if you'd download some of them if I provided them in a larger size.

Looking up at the city center tower in downtown Fort Worth

The water fountain at Texas Christian University at night

Downtown Fort Worth and the Trinity River as seen from the Lancaster bridge

A nice scene from the Botanic Gardens

I have more, most of them are of buildings, like the Pier 1 Imports headquarters, the old Montgomery Ward building, and buildings downtown.

Low blood sugar

Today at work I wasn't feeling very good in that I felt a little weak and anxious in a way that I couldn't really attribute to anything and haven't experienced before. It felt sort like the weakness I feel when I haven't eaten in a long time. Symptoms persisted, so I asked someone to take me to the plant hospital since I didn't know if I would pass out or if there was anything wrong and I just wanted to be checked out. The doctor initially suspected I was having an anxiety attack, but then he tested my blood sugar and it was 65, which is apparently low. My mom has low blood sugar so I don't know what this means for me, but I had some Dr Pepper and now I feel a lot better.

Presidential Debate

The first presidential debate is this Thursday at 8:00 central time. I'm pretty sure that I'll watch it.

Top Albums

I made a list of the top 25 music albums that I own.

• Led Zeppelin - IV
• Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
• Led Zeppelin - II
• Doors, The - The Best of the Doors
• The Clash - London Calling
• King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
• N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
• Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
• Willie Nelson - Greatest Hits (and some that will be)
• Dave Brubeck - Time Out
• Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
• DiMeola, Al - Elegant Gypsy
• Yes - Close to the Edge
• Radiohead - The Bends
• Cash, Johnny The Sun Years
• Charles, Ray - The Best of the Atlantic Years
• Gaye, Marvin - What's Going On
• Monk, Thelonious - Brilliant Corners
• Genesis - Foxtrot
• Parliament - The Best of Parliament: Give up the Funk
• Stone Roses, The - The Stone Roses
• Coltrane, John - A Love Supreme
• Pink Floyd - Echoes
• Springsteen, Bruce - Nebraska
• Wonder, Stevie - Innervisions

If you have time, I'd like to read a list of any number of your top albums. I haven't bought many CDs at all this year and I've decided that I'm going to buy more CDs so I'm looking for some ideas.

Oakland police halt DUI checkpoints

This article seems to highlight the differences between a liberal and a conservative mindset.

OAKLAND -- Oakland police officers have stopped setting up roadblocks to check whether drivers are under the influence because of a rash of complaints from the Latino community and City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente.

The checkpoints, which allow officers to demand licenses and proof of insurance, are an effective way to get drunken drivers off Oakland's streets, city leaders agree. But the checks also have ensnared dozens of illegal immigrants who are not licensed to drive yet otherwise obey the law.

Liberal position:

"These checkpoints make people's lives miserable, not make them safer," said Jesus Rodriguez of Oakland Community Organizations, which filed most of the complaints about the checkpoints. "I've watched while the police have towed away cars (full) of groceries, leaving children crying on the sidewalk."

Conservative position:

"I don't care if they are illegal immigrants," [Councilmember Larry] Reid said.

"They should not be driving on our streets without a license, without insurance. I expect the Oakland Police Department to do its job and get them off the street."

In the past I would have passionately shared the conservative viewpoint, but upon first reading this article I was able to see both viewpoints. Still, I have to agree with the conservative point of view. Something that many liberals seem to overlook about illegal aliens is the fact that they are illegal. If we want to treat them like legal citizens, as many liberals seem to want, then the laws need to change so that they'll no longer be illegal. Perhaps liberals want to treat immigration laws like other antiquated laws that are not observed but were never repealed, like laws against growing a beard, spitting on the street, and sodomy. I say that as long as a law is on the books, law enforcement has a right to enforce it. If people don't like the fact that illegal aliens are being punished because they're violating the law, then these people shouldn't be opposing the enforcement of the law, they should be opposing the law itself, as I see it. Am I right?

Strange Fort Worth

Lesley and I wanted to walk along the Trinity River near downtown so we parked at the Courthouse and walked by Heritage Park, down a bricked walkway with personalized bricks from 1976, and found a few interesting buildings. These buildings were apparently constructed a long time ago, since they're on the riverbank and not near the street.

What is this? Why is it boarded up? I didn't notice the green sign to the left of the building when I was there, so I don't know what it said, it might answer of my questions.

This is another building that was not preserved as well. What is this? When was it built? Why isn't the historical society trying to preserve it? I didn't go inside because I noticed a mattress and a shoe inside and I didn't want to intrude on someone's home.

Here it is from another angle. Notice the precariously supported staircase. There was half of a wall remaining from another building to the right of this one.

We realized it was too hot, so I decided I wanted to explore the streets near La Grave Field just across the river.

I thought this building was interesting, it had apparently caught on fire sometime. It's not fenced off or boarded up, either.

This is the side of the building. Notice the two bottles on the ground on the left and right side of the picture. I took this picture to show the mattresses piled up inside. I don't know why there were so many mattresses in this building or why they're piled in an uneven fashion that did not seem to be conducive to comfortable sleep.

I enjoy finding interesting, unusual, or unkown things in the city.

Cowboys vs. Redskins: Review

It's always nice to beat the Redskins, even though the Cowboys didn't deserve to win. The defense looked impressive at first and the offense had a few good pass plays, but by the end of the game the Redskins had earned almost 400 yards and the Cowboys less than 300 with a rushing attack led by Eddie George, who is currently ranked 2nd in the league on the list of running backs that need to retire (behind Emmitt Smith). The Cowboys didn't seem able to get good offensive momentum, unlike the Redskins who moved the ball well, starting at the end of the first half.

So far this season I'd say that the Cowboys played better in the game they lost than in the games they won. The Cowboys could have lost this game by more than 10 points if a questionable pass interference penalty wasn't called against the Redskins in the end zone to set up the Cowboys' first score, and if a flag was called on the Cowboys in the end zone. Still, it's nice to beat the Redskins for the 13th time out of the last 14 times we've played them. I predicted the Cowboys would finish the year 10-6, and they're on their way there with a 2-1 record, but right now they're not playing like a 10-6 team.

Where to get the weather?

What is a good place to get the local forecast and radar online? I have been a longtime user of weather.com, but the local weather page is extremely cluttered and at work I get pop-up advertisements when going there. The pop-ups aren't a problem at home because I have Ad-Muncher, which works excellently and might actually have been worth the $25 I spent on it because it makes life so much more enjoyable than at work when I get pop-up ads and at Lesley's house when her Emerald Pop Stop freeware even blocks new Internet Explorer Windows from links that I try to "open in new window". So, anyway, where's a good place to go for the weather? Other than "outside."

re: Electoral College editorial

Very good job:

my monty python & the holy grail adaptation to the question of the electoral college:

Citizen: Who are you then?
President: I am [any president], President of the USA.
Citizen: Well I didn't vote for you.
President: You don't vote for Presidents!
Citizen: How d'you become President then?
President: The Electoral College, arcane institution from days of yore, its purpose shrouded in mystery and its workings unfathomable, heard the will of the people and skewed it sometimes beyond recognition. That is why I am your President.
Citizen: Strange people sittin' around in Electoral Colleges distributin' meaningless numbers is no basis for a system of government!
President: Look, it doesn't matter, it -
Citizen: Why, if I went 'round sayin' I was an emperor just because some group of people decided so based on relative vote worths, they'd put me away!
President: Be quiet. I order you to be quiet!
Citizen: See the violence inherent in the system! Come see the violence inherent in the system! Help help, I'm bein' repressed!

dac

Previous post here.

U.N. Calls on N.Korea to Scrap Its Atomic Arsenal

Not that UN resolutions have any effect whatsoever on rogue nations, but I guess this is still a good thing.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=703&e=11&u=/nm/20040924/wl_nm/nuclear_korea_north_dc

Child Abuse Seen on N.C. Military Bases

From DAC's DeadJournal:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=6&u=/ap/20040925/ap_on_re_us/military_child_abuse

what? you mean people in the military are more likely to act violently and inappropriately when forced to function in normal societal contexts? the hell you say! could this mean that training people to be unquestioning, dehumanized killing machines might have negative ramifications? why didn't someone figure this out a long time ago? gosh, do you think this attitude is pervasive in the military and leads to irresponsible behavior during wartime as well? would that mean they're not necessarily the heroic liberators popularly portrayed, but rather intimidating strong-men with shortsighted aims and a tenuous understanding of the "American" principles of freedom and goodwill?

hmmm... naaaah.

Article about Human Rights professor

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there was an article about my former human rights professor, Rick Halperin. The article was quite long, but I thought it was neat to have such a long biography of one of my more interesting professors and that I already knew a lot of what the article mentioned. One new thing I learned is that he has an eye problem and the author implies that his eye problem is why he wears sunglasses indoors.

Electoral College editorial

"The Hoary Question of the Electoral College" by David Schribman

Should the Electoral College (news - web sites) survive in its current form, or at all?

...

The current system sometimes deprives the majority of its chance to rule, skewing the meaning of democracy, and it almost always deprives many voters of the chance to make a difference in a presidential election, skewing the purity of our politics and the nature of presidential campaigns.

...

In the cool light of reason (and that cool light is found only in off-election years, preferably many decades after a contested election), many people believe the Electoral College is an idea whose time has come and gone.

But it may never be gone.

That's because there will always be a party, or an interest, or a political figure, who will see opportunity in the peculiarities of the system. For the foreseeable future, for example, Democrats in California wouldn't support junking it, while Republicans would. In Texas, Republicans would oppose replacing it, but Democrats support it. And the opponents will inevitably wrap themselves in the old arguments of the sanctity of the states and will, disingenuously or not, summon arguments about the prerogatives of the smaller states. Political bedfellows sometimes are strange indeed. But so, too, is the system we have.

Send this editorial to your friends. With awareness and reason, someday the Electoral College will only be a memory.

Comment posted here.

Restrained energy and frustration

The past few days I've been in a very happy and excited mood, but I feel that things haven't been working out so well. For example, today I was happy and excited about the day, but things turned out unsatisfactorily. I wanted to do something outside, but I couldn't figure out what and so I never really got to. I feel like I've had some energy and excitement that I haven't been able to let out and it's been frustrating.

UN official proposes autonomy for Darfur

Some Darfur news, this might be marginally beneficial:

ABECHE, Chad -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees proposed autonomy for the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, a solution the government has resisted but said yesterday it would be willing to discuss anew in an effort to end the violence that has killed 50,000 people.

...

Nothing less than radical change would stop the violence, the refugee chief said. "We have an enormous responsibility now, not to accept that this can go on and on," Lubbers said at a border town serving as the UN base for camps holding most of the 200,000 Darfur refugees in Chad.

SMU won a game

SMU beat ESPN's #2 ranked team in the nation, #2 worst team, that is. Still, a win's a win, except in SMU's case, since we hardly ever get wins, so we consider some losses to be wins, practically, like our competitive showing against Texas Tech. It's nice to get our only win of this season over with so that we don't have to spend weeks agonizing over the thought of being winless again and can set our sights towards gaining some momentum from this win and maybe winning two games next season.

Sports website

Hey, what's a good sports website? Right now I usually go to ESPN.com, but I don't really like it because the site design is extremely cluttered and there are too many ads, so I was just wondering if you know of a better place to get sports news and scores. Sometimes I go to NFL.com, but I don't know of a good place for any other sports.

I'd like more readers

Right now, only a few people read my page, which is fine, but I think I'd sort of like more readers. I think that being on Blogger might refer some people to my page. Maybe I need to write more or write about more interesting things in order to get more readers and keep them. I don't know, but maybe you do.

Church volunteerism

Last week at church, someone made an announcement that the upcoming fall festival needed more volunteers. So, figuring that we could spare the time and wanting to get a little more involved at church, Lesley and I volunteered to work a couple hours at the festival today. We showed up and everything was pretty disorganized, but we walked around and found someone who looked like they were in charge of things and told them we were here to work. For a while, we didn't really have much to do and at one point everyone was panicking because there were no toy ducks. But, we finally both got assigned to Bingo and we worked there for a while. The festival had food and drinks and kids games, but it was honestly a little lame and the attendance was rather low. Still, I didn't regret doing it, and the weather was great.

Melting pot/mixing bowl

I used to think that America was better described as a melting pot, with diverse immigrant cultures mixing into society to form a single, homogeneous American culturure. But, now I'm not sure, I think now I'm definitely more tolerant of the "mixing bowl" philosophy, i.e. that foreign cultures can come to this country and still retain their own uniqueness while contributing to the overall eclectic, varied, and diverse American cultural tapestry.

However, it seems that cultural differences are a great cause of what makes groups in American society stick more with people of their own culture and this cultural cliquishness seems to precipitate distrust, stereotyping, misunderstanding, and animosity between different cultural groups. Perhaps that's just temporary though, and in a future mixing bowl society, we will understand and appreciate other cultures more and be able to enjoy the richness of them. However, it seems to me that the more we understand and accept other cultures, the more we will adopt and assimilate other cultures, thus fulfilling the melting pot ideology. What do you think?

What is the deal with splashback?

What is the deal with toilets and splashback? Can't someone design a toilet with no splashback? You'd think with millions of years of excretory experience that the human race could create a human waste receptacle with no splashback. I mean, come on.

Restaurant Review: Olive Garden

One of the most overrated restaurants, the Olive Garden is an okay place, despite no longer being as good as it once was. Their bread used to be quite noteworthy when they made it fresh, but now it's no better than "okay." The salad that comes with every entree is pretty good, but the lettuce seems to consist more of the core of the head of lettuce than of the choicer green leaves. The food itself is still pretty good, but neither their fettucine alfredo or their lasagna are remarkable.

Rating: 5/10

Restaurant Review: Black-Eyed Pea

In the past I've tried to underrate this establishment, but I must recognize that the Black-Eyed Pea is a pretty good place to eat. The pre-meal bread is quite good and their salmon is very good and their pot roast is very good. However, their sides are mediocre, with average-at-best okra, undercooked broccoli, and unremarkable macaroni and cheese. Still, a pretty good value and a reasonable place to go on occasion.

Rating 6/10