Then She Took Off My Pants
Chip Gibbons has a few script alterations for Troy.#
Hector, Prince of Troy, played by very sexy Eric Bana, says at one point that he lives his life in service to the gods, the woman he loves and his country. Or course, he is worshipped for it. After that I'm thinking, OK, he's cute but dumb. Maybe he deserves to die.
I sit through the rest of the movie because I don't want him to die. I kept thinking that since they like to change history so much in the movie they could have had him and Brad Pitt strip off their body armor and go skinny dipping in the Aegean Sea as a prelude to an all-night sword swallowing competition. But no. Nobody's interested in my script alterations. We get the same old, seemingly endless and not-too-subtly symbolic images of guys stabbing each other with their big, huge metal swords and poles while their bodies writhe and they gasp breathlessly.
Tony Pierce proposed the "Honest Bloggers-Only Quiz." He later posted additions.#
1. which political party do you typically agree with? Libertarian.
2. which political party do you typically vote for? I have not voted.
3. list the last five presidents that you voted for? None.
4. which party do you think is smarter about the economy? Libertarian.
5. which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs? Libertarian.
6. do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out? Pull them out now.
7. who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11? The terrorists who hijacked and crashed the planes.
8. do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in iraq? No, but I like Tony's answer "yes, ours."
9. yes or no, should the u.s. legalize marijuana? Yes.
10. do you think the republicans stole the last presidental election? No. I think the resolution of the last election was done in the fashion that was voted on over the course of the history of the country that gave power like that to the officials in Florida and the judges in the Supreme Court. Thus, I don't think that qualifies as "theft."
11. do you think bill clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with monica lewinski? Nope.
12. do you think hillary clinton would make a good president? Yes.
13. name a current democrat who would make a great president: Hillary.
14. name a current republican who would make a great president: Congressman Ron Paul.
15. do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion? Yes.
16. what religion are you? More Christian than not.
17. have you read the Bible all the way through? No.
18. what's your favorite book? The Divine Comedy, by Dante.
19. who is your favorite band? Drexel.
20. who do you think you'll vote for president in the next election? Kerry or Libertarian candidate.
21. what website did you see this on first? tonypierce.com + busblog
1. Do you try to look hot when you go to the grocery store just in case someone recognizes you from your blog? Of course.
2. Are the photos you post Photoshopped or otherwise altered? Generally no, but the main picture is made black and white.
3. Do you like it when creeps or dorks email you? In a perverse way I like all responses.
4. Do you lie in your blog? Nope.
5. Are you passive-aggressive in your blog? "that shits for chicks."
6. Do you ever threaten to quit writing so people will tell you not to stop? Nope.
7. Are you in therapy? If not, should you be? If so, is it helping? No, no. But again, TP rocks the answer.
8. Do you delete mean comments? Do you fake nice ones? I don't like comments. But I always link to blog responses.
9. Have you ever rubbed one out while reading a blog? How about after? Oh man, no.
10. If your readers knew you in person, would they like you more or like you less? Yes, maybe, they might see more personality rather than linkosity.
11. Do you have a job? Two.
12. If someone offered you a decent salary to blog full-time without restrictions, would you do it? Yes.
13. Which blogger do you want to meet in real life? Tony, obviously. Moxie. The Marginal Revolution guys.
14. How many bloggers have you made out with? None. :(
15. Do you usually act like you have more money or less money than you really have? More.
16. Does your family read your blog? Only recently, with the fire.
17. How old is your blog? A year and a half.
18. Do you get more than 1000 pageviews per day? Do you care? Yes, generally about 1 or 2K, but with the fire I was getting about 30/40K per day for the whole week.
19. Do you have another secret blog in which you write about being depressed, slutty, or a liar? Nope.
20. Have you ever given another blogger money for his/her writing? Yes, not enough though.
21. Do you report the money you earn from your blog on your taxes? Nope.
22. Is blogging narcissistic? Sometimes, like any writing.
23. Do you feel guilty when you don't post for a long time? I suppose, I certainly miss it.
24. Do you like John Mayer? I don't mind his music, I imagine he's a cunt.
25. Do you have enemies? I can think of a few people who hate me.
26. Are you lonely? Nope.
27. Why bother? It's fun.
My dad's friend Lon Hohberger blogs about looking around the rubble of my house.#
Searching for items in the rubble yesterday, I realized the same thing that Jay's parents did. Stuff is stuff. It doesn't smile; it doesn't live. It has no soul, personality, or compassion. It's not your friend. It's not your memories, or your love, or you. It simply exists.
That said, losing the majority of one's belongings is quite a loss. Every object a person acquires in his or her lifetime is created or acquired for a reason (except those gifts that you really *didn't* want ). Many things are held sacred by people: wedding videos, photo albums, a favorite hat or dress or book, high school yearbooks, or boxes of slides from a family vacation. Such things often can not be replaced.
Micha Ghertner writes about Marxism and Libertarianism.#
The central question of economics is how to use scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. Libertarianism addresses this question directly, which is why economics is so central to libertarian thought. Libertarian ideology does not promise a world of "freedom from alienation and oppression." Rather, libertarianism acknowledges that there will always be scarcity and unlimited human wants, and there will always be alienation and oppression. Getting rid of or reducing government will not solve these problems, but can at best only alleviate them.
Marxism, on the other hand, often denies both parts of the economic question: it denies that resources are scarce and it denies that human wants are unlimited. Marxism accuses capitalism of creating unnecessary wants that would not need to be satisfied in a world devoid of consumerism and flashy marketing. Marxism accuses capitalism of fostering vast inequalities, and claims that by redistributing resources from the haves to the have-nots, there would be more than enough to go around.
Erik Stattins links to me in language 'sv' -- Swedish?#
One of my favourite essays by Chip Gibbons was selected for inclusion in the pamphlet for the First National Mens' Rights Congress.#
Don Boudreaux is inspired by The Day After Tomorrow to write the notes for The Day After Liberty, or something to that effect.#
Suppose that a movie with exaggerations on a similar scale were made by a free-market enthusiast. That movie might contain some of the following scenes:
- A ten-cent increase in the federal minimum wage casts millions of blacks and Hispanics into permanent unemployment and despair; all of the unemployed women scrape up pennies by offering themselves as prostitutes, [...]
- The top bracket of the federal income tax is raised to 50%. The astonishingly stupid, ideologically driven soak-the-rich politicians and their freshly-graduated-from-Harvard aides blithely ignore warnings that tax revenue will plummet and, worse, that such a tax rate will impoverish the country; sure enough, within 48 hours, 80% of the workforce quits their jobs; a few lucky ones move to Ireland or New Zealand, while many of the rest scrape buy as prostitutes [...]
- An unholy alliance between greedy but smart (and subsidized) big chemical manufacturers and utterly doltish but ideologically fevered environmentalists cajoles Uncle Sam into banning all research on genetically modifying crops in ways that make them naturally resistant to pests. [...]
Dave Winer says that the bad science doesn't matter.
I went to see The Day After Tomorrow, yesterday, opening day. I liked it, but then I like almost everything. It wasn't totally terrible, in fact it's badness is part of what makes it good. There are some very good special effects, esp the opening scene. It's a big-budget Hollywood disaster movie. Kids will love it. You may wonder how Dennis Quaid saves the planet, it's actually fairly clever. I've heard that the science is all wrong, but this is one of those times when, sorry, it just doesn't matter.
Tony Pierce is pissed off at Instapundit for not using his linking power for more good.#
my hope is that my man would actually do something interesting with those hits other than just be a drudgeclone.
and although i am not implying that he is intentionally abusing his influence by linking solely to news articles and bloggers and blogs who echo is political bent, i would like to invite him to broaden his scope and share the love a little more than he has done in recent months, particularilly in regards to non-partisan news stories like the involvement of Riggs Bank and their record-breaking fine of $25 million for aiding the Saudi's to money launder and fund at least two of the 19 terrorists responsible for the tragedies on 9/11.
the reason mr. reynolds gets so many hits a day is because he is generally believed to be a reliable news filter. as a law professor he apparently has enough free time in his day to read scores of newspapers and websites and as a free service to the web he links to many of those current event stories and news blurbs and provides insightful and reasonable commentary in short, readable chunks.
however when he refuses to do things like discuss the testimony that donald rumsfeld gave earlier this month, seriously discuss the accusations that pulitzer winning investigative reporter seymour hersh levvied against the defense secretary saying that the cia said that rumsfeld expanded a highly secretive operation originally intended to find Al Qaeda to include the aggressive and sexual interrogation of prisoners in Iraq, or even mention Riggs Bank and its relationship to President Bush's uncle Jonathan (an executive of Riggs Investment), the illusion of impartiality is diminished.
Fucking A: Tony Pierce is the man! Especially when he points out what assbags the New York Times journalists are.#
There was more to this post, but Tinderbox destroyed it. Arggh. It's terribly obnoxious.#
Peter Lindberg posts about a fascinating book on Australian aboriginal customs. It sounds amazing.#