tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56268252011-07-07T19:38:40.993-04:00Fat Kids Are Hard To Kidnap.Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comBlogger9441100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-30803374377256117732009-09-01T01:49:00.003-04:002009-09-01T02:01:03.729-04:00

Just finished reading The Corrections by Franzen. At page 100 it was an effort on behalf of literature and self-betterment to continue. At 200, pushed onward by a spark of interest and hope. 300 passed uneventfully. At 400 commitment was overpowering curiosity, and by 500 it was mindless. 600 was knowledge mixed with desperation, a chunky appreciation of Franzen's prowess and ego welded to the

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-58378464696901080252009-06-27T19:58:00.001-04:002009-06-27T19:59:58.283-04:00

It’s hot. I can’t tell if the air in my place is stagnant or just absent. Our bedroom – our whole apartment - is the attic of an old brownstone, where the servants used to swelter until the bell would ring from below. Maybe the windows back then were sealed shut, so as to induce a torpor in the lower classes. It prevents revolution. Regardless, even with the windows open wide to the bus traffic

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-14067379905313581042008-12-28T13:45:00.002-05:002008-12-28T14:28:13.103-05:00

It is boring, I know, to keep noting the increasing number of times that the anti-Israel media is willing to simply chuck the thin veneer of "objective" news reportage and jump right into the jihad. But I bring you these nuggets not to highlight their predictable-yet-somehow-still-mind-blowing hostility and factual imbalance. Rather, it is simply so that someone, somewhere notes its occurence. 

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-40767923318939757982008-10-13T12:12:00.002-04:002008-10-13T12:39:47.205-04:00

Their ability to show contempt is truly impressive.  Try this for fun - go to the Air France website to check the status of an incoming flight. Type in airfrance.com. You will be redirected to airfrance.fr.  Because instead of using the .com site to cater to their English-speaking customers, the goal is to make absolutely no allowance for the fact that the, for lack of a better term, lingua

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-5673402622677586832008-10-11T19:54:00.003-04:002008-10-11T19:55:38.556-04:00

If you, like me, have been wondering about the makeup of the Milky Way recently (and I knows you have) this is a pretty enlightening four minutes.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-71530033292790651952008-10-04T20:31:00.002-04:002008-10-04T21:17:52.277-04:00

Today I played croquet in the park. This is the first time I have actually played a full game, according to rules not made up by me at the moment. It is an interesting pastime. The chief joy is obviously in thwacking the balls through the hoops, that basic phallic pillar of most popular sports. But it is the essentially English nature of it that is fascinating. On the surface, all is gentlemanly

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-31839080143756350762008-08-24T00:55:00.002-04:002008-08-24T02:22:57.105-04:00

It's sad when you take a break from something you once enjoyed and respected only to return and find its current iteration so unimpressive and disappointing that you immediately understand that it has not just degraded over time, but that in reality it never rose to the level you thought, and you had been blinded by some minor aspect of its (now less understandable) appeal.For me this happened

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-80734743756507331812008-08-01T14:29:00.002-04:002008-08-01T14:32:44.757-04:00

You can just imagine what kind of a home life this guy had growing up. No wonder he started poisoning people.His oldest brother, Thomas, said he was short and slight as a child and grew up with a fascination for books and science. "He was like a wuss," he said.s

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-79761890582561248452008-03-10T14:19:00.000-04:002008-03-10T14:20:22.218-04:00

Could these people get any more hypocritical or creepier?http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/03/10/sot.lewis.mich.fl.should.count.cnn

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-152944536930596542008-02-04T21:31:00.000-05:002008-02-04T21:37:50.934-05:00

George Habash, murderer of dozens, dies and the admiration of David Hirst of the Guardian knows no bounds:In his later years, George Habash, who has died of a heart attack aged 81 or 82, was often known as "the conscience of the Palestine revolution". He had been one of the very earliest founding fathers of that movement, which pioneered armed struggle and revolutionary violence as the sole

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-51729915641133909652008-01-29T23:31:00.000-05:002008-01-29T23:33:24.469-05:00

"For the first time, passengers in Germany can fly completely in the nude."Oh, thank god.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-49116370657268216482008-01-27T10:36:00.000-05:002008-01-27T10:38:49.517-05:00

Where else could a cheat who devastated a large national institution/employer be considered a hero? From today's Observer:He is the man who nearly broke the bank ... and who is fast becoming a hero to millions of his compatriots.Jérôme Kerviel, the 31-year-old trader whose fraudulent stock market transactions last week cost his employer, Société Générale, £3.7bn, was yesterday in a Paris police

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-8534897430678587672008-01-21T15:43:00.000-05:002008-01-21T15:45:56.980-05:00

You go, Shirley:Atlanta mayor takes political shot at Bill Clinton During the MLK service, Franklin addresses Clinton's reference to Barack Obama's rise as a 'fairy tale' By AARON GOULD SHEININThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 01/21/08 With former President Bill

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-32092522511644515902008-01-20T17:21:00.000-05:002008-01-20T17:22:54.604-05:00

Yeah, bowl me over with a feather. From Commentary Magazine:Joel Pollak (no relation) reports on his blog that Charles Enderlin, the France 2 television reporter implicated in the Mohammed al-Dura fabrication, admitted at a talk at Harvard last night that the famous scenes of Yasser Arafat donating blood after the 9/11 attacks were, like the footage of the IDF killing al-Dura, staged: Enderlin

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-18678855257004174392007-12-24T14:02:00.000-05:002007-12-24T15:55:03.083-05:00

I understand the importance of internal context and the different cultural readings of events. Honest. For instance, some call the September 11 hijackers terrorists; others think they were just irritable flight school students, etc. Different approach. However, there is a fundamental level of objective logic that is required for useful discourse that one assumes transcends culture. For example,

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-36371616125459825492007-11-20T18:35:00.000-05:002007-11-20T19:51:55.237-05:00

No longer content with merely drinking themselves into a coma, the British are now more often managing to explode their bladders through the force of their socialbility. God, how I miss it.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-15674509997392926282007-11-14T10:33:00.000-05:002007-11-14T10:34:34.139-05:00

Here's the new take on WW2 over at the Guardian:"After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US government assured the country of retaliation. President Franklin D Roosevelt pandered to anti-Japanese prejudice by establishing internment camps for those West Coast immigrants of such ancestry, however loyal to America. Simultaneously, heroically, came the first air raid on Japan. One of its last

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-20381704579638406802007-09-11T20:30:00.000-04:002007-09-11T20:31:54.746-04:00

Waaaay cool:Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt WaterBy David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteTue, 11 Sep 2007, 11:41AMERIE, Pa. - An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-32716311535644915642007-09-10T20:01:00.000-04:002007-09-10T20:15:41.979-04:00

A fun little game I like to play is to wonder whose policy-determiners will be tortured worse when they end up in hell - real estate agents, insurance companies, credit card companies or phone companies? I used to think real estate agents would take it in a walk (of fire), but it seems like the cellphone people are pulling ahead.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-48269698098552935252007-09-10T19:32:00.001-04:002007-09-10T19:34:25.039-04:00

Making of Family Guy:

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-31311899729579526162007-08-27T17:03:00.000-04:002007-08-28T00:24:34.192-04:00

I'm certainly not the first one to point this out, but of the Arabs had any brains they would simply leave Israel alone for a few years and then watch it fall into the chasm of its own internal schisms.One suggested answer to the religious-secular divide is to create two states once again - Israel and Judea, with the latter ruled by the Aidah Haredit or the Chief Rabbinate or whoever else is

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-72539788585556151102007-08-27T16:05:00.000-04:002007-08-27T16:10:00.895-04:00

If I thought George Bush was capable of self-reflection or humorous irony, I would have raised an eyebrow over his whining that 'Berto was "unfairly" hounded out of his job for political reasons. As it is, I think this comment from a "former senior national security official who served in the Bush administration" says it all:(T)he battle over Guantanamo still rages inside -- and the next AG may

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-10789918808117426522007-08-15T18:36:00.000-04:002007-08-15T18:47:34.765-04:00

Here's a fun article from the BBC pointing a snarky finger at a number of US groups whose computers have been used to edit various Wikipedia pages, including the CIA, the Democrats, Microsoft and, for good measure, the Vatican.Meanwhile, here's an even funner one on the same technology showing edits made by...the BBC. Odd that the Beeb missed that, what?

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-10800127040512504592007-08-09T19:18:00.000-04:002007-08-09T19:30:11.201-04:00

I knew Chipper Jones was a badass, but this just makes my whole day:Chipper Jones’s love of Shea Stadium is well documented. In 2004, he and his wife named the second of their three sons Shea because he has played so well there. Mets fans don’t return the love, chanting his full first name — “Lar-ry! Lar-ry!” — during many at-bats.Jones and the Mets’ faithful went head to head during the fifth

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-6945525362673894152007-07-28T17:39:00.001-04:002007-07-31T20:58:17.485-04:00

UPDATE: The offending comments have finally been taken off the Guardian's website. I now vote that we ask them to lead davening on Rosh Hashana.For those of you who like to engage in extreme sports, commenting on the Guardian's website is a real rush. For instance, I recently posted the following comment in response to a poster who described Israel as "Zionism's vile colony in Western Palestine":

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-76594623411516875372007-07-26T17:19:00.000-04:002007-07-26T17:30:02.477-04:00

Dear Barack Obama:Hope all is well. I kind of enjoyed watching the YouTube debate. You have nice teeth. I have to tell you though, I was bothered by your response to the question in the video above. Why don't you have the courage to give the obvious answer to the question "are the troops being sacrificed in vain"? The answer is simply yes - there was no valid reason to enter into this war, so

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-60451608237567813342007-07-21T14:16:00.000-04:002007-07-21T14:37:07.088-04:00

The missus and I have an ongoing debate about the compatibility of Islam with the West. At its most nuanced and sophisticated, it usually boils down to her calling me a ranting Islamaphobe, and me pointing out that she simply hates freedom. So we spend a lot of time emailing articles back and forth that support our respective positions (mine = right, hers = ridiculous). In a fit of evenhandedness

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-35428748693573095142007-07-19T02:30:00.000-04:002007-07-19T02:35:41.696-04:00

So I donated money to a political campaign for the first time in my life. Who did I give my money to?Who else?When you watch the video, try and think if you've ever seen Hillary - or Guiliani or Kerry or Gore or Romney or anyone but McCain, who sadly seems to have nonetheless driven the Straight Talk Express right off the Cliffs of Selling Your Integrity to the Base - be this much of a real,

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-57032354545225893172007-07-18T00:44:00.000-04:002007-07-18T00:48:40.695-04:00

This, for some reason, made me really laugh:One habit I got into with the F430 was digging deep into the throttle and then pulling back for an upshift a few thousand r.p.m. short of the redline. This seems to trick the engine computer into dumping loads of fuel into the intake ports in anticipation of a run to 8,500 r.p.m., because when the F1 transmission clicks off the shift, it’s accompanied

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-11666395663969396712007-07-17T11:05:00.001-04:002007-07-17T11:54:45.803-04:00

I know I enjoy pointing out some of the weirder aspects of Japanese culture (the horse sushi! the death by video game! the panty sniffing!), but lets not forget our friends the Chinese when it comes to zany cuisine and misguided public policy. I mean, you have to love a country whose first response to a wave of vermin is "free snacks!", and the second is to indulge in their odd prediliction for

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-23100157257775939032007-07-14T14:48:00.001-04:002007-07-14T19:39:18.263-04:00

...the French.UPDATE: And don't miss this gushing love letter to Hizb'allah, courtesy of the AFP.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-17030509984040930812007-07-14T11:27:00.000-04:002007-07-15T15:04:09.339-04:00

As usual.A reader writes: This president often mentions his oath but never talks about protecting the constitution. On the contrary, he regularly talks about his oath to protect the people, or to protect America. But it's possible to justify any number of tyrannies in the name of protecting the people. The framers were aware of that danger and so wrote an oath of office that demands the

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-87677001047930093162007-07-07T11:18:00.000-04:002007-07-07T11:22:17.051-04:00

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-19597290589723584972007-07-06T00:19:00.000-04:002007-07-06T00:25:52.323-04:00

Here's the map of the new Jerusalem light rail project. It's sad that the project will, of course, turn out to be a huge fashla, with massive cost overruns and corruption, not to mention strikes and inconvenience. I hate to be Mr. Cynic, but there's just no way that this thing gets built without at least 3 public/private officials being indicted for fraud or embezzlement. But the cars look really

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-59308937596821690142007-06-24T22:51:00.000-04:002007-06-24T23:33:53.241-04:00

...but the recent sympathy note from Mid East BBC correspondent Paul Adams to Hamas is too treacly for me to ignore anymore. Let's start off gently, with a bit of BBC-brand historical elision that must be read to be believed: Men and women who had already fought their own first intifada paid a heavy sacrifice in blood, and forced Israel to take them seriously. Move aside, the newcomers seemed to

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-15690702603256661632007-06-19T19:00:00.000-04:002007-06-19T19:02:51.236-04:00

The phrase "a new low" is bandied about with abandon these days. But really, when you have a former US president taking sides with Hamas - over Fatah no less! - it's really hard to come up with something original.Remember, of course, that Carter is completely unbiased and that if you infer anything else from his support for a mass-Jew-murdering organization you are a rabid Zionist tool.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-62396350845516813532007-06-18T19:22:00.000-04:002007-06-18T19:29:31.290-04:00

Here's a fun little article for those of you who are mad at me for failing to keep the heat on the Brits during the Spring (and Summer, Fall, Winter, etc.) of their New Jew Review.Honestly, this guy is much better suited for this than me, since he is Director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism. Which means this article has both great, manageable hair and 71

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-31008809694628054462007-06-18T12:49:00.000-04:002007-06-18T12:50:41.979-04:00

And you thought God had no sense of humor.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-81180610047786598362007-06-08T10:00:00.001-04:002007-06-08T10:00:33.989-04:00

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-8928019422154446442007-06-07T20:34:00.000-04:002007-06-07T20:35:30.057-04:00

Physics is, like, cool.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-82992883113281245262007-06-03T01:19:00.001-04:002007-06-03T01:19:40.884-04:00

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-44225623947392009012007-05-23T11:04:00.000-04:002007-05-23T12:23:54.951-04:00

I'm not sure what the reason is for the lack of bloggage recently. For one thing, life has gotten much busier, what with my trade in human organs picking up after Chinese execution season. Ha ha - that's just a little joke I like to share with my friends in the FBI who monitor this site. Those kids down at the Hoover building have such a great sense of humor.But seriously, I have been dealing

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-23568220471726421262007-03-28T16:28:00.000-04:002007-03-28T16:32:19.105-04:00

Andrew,I realize that you claim to have been misled regarding the causes of the war. But the specious reasoning offered by your "honest neocon" friend is fundamentally at odds with every one of your other moral stands, and makes me call (as others have done) bullshit.The invasion of Iraq was an exercise in deception and un-American values from day one. We claim to resort to force for only two

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-90725245337871965332007-03-23T18:37:00.000-04:002007-03-23T18:41:49.748-04:00

We'll just let this one speak for itself:BBC pays £200,000 to 'cover up report on anti-Israel bias'The corporation, which has itself made extensive use of FOI requests in its journalism, is refusing to release papers about an internal inquiry into whether its reporting has been biased towards Palestine.BBC chiefs have been accused of wasting thousands of pounds of licence fee payers money trying

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-81872872788135730232007-03-23T13:05:00.000-04:002007-03-23T13:23:39.963-04:00

I just bought a new camera from the chassidishe audio-visual elves at B&H Photo. Here is the list of scene settings it offers: • Portrait • Soft Skin • Scenery • Sports • Night Portrait • Night Scenery • Self Portrait • Food • Party • Candle • Fireworks • Starry Sky • Beach • Aerial

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-32943340932234503242007-03-23T10:45:00.000-04:002007-03-23T10:47:31.035-04:00

When NPR starts doing stories on the Geico cavemen, you know it's an official cultural moment. And if the sitcom actually works, these people should be installed as oligarchs.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-70271822652668674052007-03-11T11:12:00.000-04:002007-03-11T12:37:04.727-04:00

Here's a list of the Modern Library's 100 best novels. It's by a large publisher (Random House), which might explain why some notables are missing (Confederacy of Dunces, anyone? For Whom The Bell Tolls, perhaps?) and others included (From Here to Eternity makes you wha?), maybe because they are in a fight with that bitch over at Penguin or something.For some reason, over the last few years I

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-8334965002473429642007-03-09T10:53:00.000-05:002007-03-09T10:58:27.127-05:00

I could go through all the constitutional and moral ravages our country has sustained in the last six years, but, as usual, Andrew has distilled the question to its essence:How comfortable do you feel living in a country where the president has the right to detain any one indefinitely without trial, and subject them to torture if he deems to appropriate?That's Bush's America.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-79615872058203704292007-03-06T16:16:00.000-05:002007-03-08T23:23:30.815-05:00

Purim, to me, has always been a fascinating holiday because of its relative newness. I kind of feel like it's like a bridge between the bible and the modern historical era, where claims are made that can (or should) be proveable historically. In fact, the megilla itself ends with the statement that the rest of the events of Purim and the acts of King Achashverosh and Mordechai are to be found in

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-81254024459089042402007-03-06T13:01:00.000-05:002007-03-06T13:08:14.770-05:00

For reasons that need not concern us here, I have been forced to become involved the world of "infotainment" and all its murky underpinnings. When not plotting how to package and sell your every waking (and some sleeping) moment as a commodity to marketers (I'm a great guy!), I spend a lot of time looking and thinking about advertising. Much of it sucks. But some of it is artful and brilliant,

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-17913296484054717742007-03-04T22:12:00.000-05:002007-03-04T23:18:24.459-05:00

Ok, so I finally gave in to all my friends who have been talking about how fantastic the new Battlestar Galactica is, and Netflixed it. I started with the miniseries; three days later, I had completed the first season and a half. Yes, it's that good.Well, almost that good. If you are a Netflixer, you will see that the second season is divided up into Season 2.0 and Season 2.5. What's obvious is

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-5619022784101573522007-02-27T15:14:00.000-05:002007-02-27T15:35:49.826-05:00

I just watched Jesus Camp. If you haven't seen it, the movie is a documentary about an evangelical Christian group's summer camp and other youth programs. It's caused something of a stir with its depictions of youth pastors telling children they are in a spiritual war against the forces of secularism, and hoping that the kids grow to be as "ready to die for the gospel as Muslim children are ready

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-50585179154183429752007-02-26T23:04:00.000-05:002007-02-27T00:24:19.510-05:00

If you want to know, and I'm sure you don't, why I try to never read Powerline, this basically sums it up:The Democrats are floundering because in reality, they don't have a policy on Iraq. They know that the American people's first choice is victory, but that is the one option that, for them, is not on the table. They would like to surrender, but know that the consequences would be far worse

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-67116145001262712562007-02-21T19:25:00.000-05:002007-02-21T19:27:44.777-05:00

Ratings are a little low here at the Yamim, so I thought I would engage in some shameless, tawdry exhibitionism at the expense of a dead starlet to generate some visits.It's the American way.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-48543498837634527712007-02-19T03:01:00.000-05:002007-02-19T04:11:06.176-05:00

In Italy they now play soccer matches without any fans because they proved themselves to be so barbaric and wanting of perspective that the sport simply revoked their participation rights.We should institute the same policy in this country regarding the most destructive strain of political hobbyists.From today's New York Times:Mr. Scaife, reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, spent more

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-46521506141009059302007-02-16T15:13:00.000-05:002007-02-16T15:53:03.392-05:00

Dispatches from my home state (less exciting version here)!Georgia State Representative, barber college graduate, charter member and vice president of the Gainesville Breakfast Optimist Club and apparent Kabbalah expert Ben Bridges has distributed a memo in the Georgia and Texas state legislatures stating that "Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-41108832709658262892007-02-16T11:51:00.000-05:002007-02-16T12:35:32.863-05:00

What has been apparent since, say, 1939, is that the American assumption of life - Good Guys Always Win - is not just patently false, but an inversion of the truer maxim: Bad Guys Almost Always Win, And Good Guys Generally Win Only Once They Start Acting Like Bad Guys.This has been proven in two ways in just the last week: Hamas, which has utterly refused to meet the three basic conditions set by

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-14607624599003210552007-02-12T18:29:00.000-05:002007-02-12T18:31:42.245-05:00

If there is one thing stupider than underestiomating the taste of the American consumer, it's thinking that there is a level to which some Jews will not sink in their desire to shit on themselves and the rest of the religion. Woody Allen would have a hard time coming up with something like this.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-70652075338879269292007-02-09T11:28:00.000-05:002007-02-07T22:20:19.543-05:00

This post by Ted is not only an excellent microcosm of the current situation in Iraq, but a strong argument for cutting funding to graduate programs across the board.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-76755144892000700762007-02-07T21:48:00.000-05:002007-02-07T22:19:42.343-05:00

The goyim are coming! And not just any goyim - low income shoppers.Many ultra-Orthodox Monsey residents don't want a Wal-Mart in their neck of the woods because they are concerned that it will attract many non-residents, including non-Orthodox shoppers, and compromise the safety of their community...A Monsey protester complained that residents would be forced to put bars on their windows if the

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-86948585292261314082007-01-31T18:49:00.001-05:002007-01-31T18:49:55.017-05:00

Tee hee!

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-31067407751137151672007-01-28T23:41:00.000-05:002007-01-29T19:40:58.360-05:00

Why is Africa, for lack of a better term, such a fucking basket case?Meanwhile, not a word from the concerned European left, of course.UPDATE: Some semblance of sanity has prevailed.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-91198442628764113822007-01-28T22:26:00.000-05:002007-01-31T18:31:06.348-05:00

I have previously made the by now not very controversial case that Bush Jr. will go down as one of the worst Presidents in history (I think it's scientifically provable that anyone who voted for him again in 2004 will probably burn in hell - but I digress). His competition is usually narrowed down to Hoover, who I know little about, and Carter, of whom I wish I knew less.What I had not really

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-12395073256767905962007-01-25T12:05:00.000-05:002007-01-25T12:30:30.616-05:00

If you needed a reason to change your drawers this morning, here's one. The picture above is of four ounces of highly enriched uranium, siezed by Georgian security officials from the jacket of a "sunken-cheeked" and "wispy-mustached" Russian man on his way to sell it to Muslim terrorists. This presumably sterile fella claimed that this was just a teaser, and that he had the the three kilos

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-58222590770327977452007-01-22T23:31:00.000-05:002007-01-22T23:44:51.618-05:00

Sometimes I am jealous of the recipients of my letters of complaint. Do they know the kind of love I put into each and every one? Clearly not. Tennessee Department of Tourist Development William Snodgrass/Tennessee Tower Building

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-61657291651452018652007-01-22T16:52:00.000-05:002007-01-29T19:43:40.186-05:00

Four great things about this article:1. There is a person with the title "Receiver of Wreck."2. The now-all-too-rare image of torch-bearing crowds scavenging "wine, car parts, haircare products and nappies", not to mention partially wrapped motorcycles, from a beached shipwreck. It brings to mind the 19th century prayer of a town on the Massachusetts coast, which went something like "Lord, let

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-50632434567327637652007-01-21T16:30:00.000-05:002007-01-21T16:39:21.393-05:00

If you want to know why there won't be peace between the Israelis and Palestinians in my lifetime, this article gives you a nice heads-up:Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Saturday that his Hamas group would be willing to accept a temporary Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in exchange for a 10-year truce with Israel. His comments, reiterating Hamas policy,

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-8003752964564874692007-01-17T12:57:00.000-05:002007-01-17T12:58:48.136-05:00

Sacha Baron Cohen's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes was, well, what you'd expect.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-82728518723810410922007-01-17T01:12:00.000-05:002007-01-17T01:15:25.525-05:00

In our overpromised and underperforming society, there are very few events that live up to the hype of words like "awesome", "cool"' or even "bitchin'". But I just attended the inaugural meeting of the Athanasius Kircher Society, and I have to say, it was simply fantastic. As in, of or relating to fantasy, exceptionally superior. I'm adding it to the blog, singing it's praises, and literally

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-76808444790513906022007-01-16T15:38:00.000-05:002007-01-16T16:33:19.604-05:00

I kind of rock at trivia. Particularly bar trivia, where I take advantage of the social approbation against "girlie drinks" (Cosmos are my standby) to stay sober and use both the drunkenness and iodine deficiencies of my competitors against them. However, sometimes while I am casually thrashing the teams of sorority girls and moody hipsters that think their in-depth knowledge of ASU cheerleading

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-70801005245740983032007-01-16T15:08:00.000-05:002007-01-16T15:14:34.658-05:00

I frequently opine to my friends and neighbors about how awful it must be to be famous, because that's, like, a real challenge in my life. But then something like this comes along and I realize that it's not all omnivorous paparazzi-stalking - sometimes, you also get to appear drunk off your genectagazoink on national TV. Which I think balances it all out. And extra points to Paula Abdul for not

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-48721291245693477942007-01-11T15:45:00.001-05:002007-01-11T15:45:52.983-05:00

From Ted.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-14135055604932423422007-01-10T11:43:00.000-05:002007-01-10T11:47:07.024-05:00

I just watched Scoop, the movie by Woody Allen (who, by the way, strolled past me on Park Avenue last week the same day I saw both Keanu Reeves and Tony Bennett, looking not at all like a pederast. Woody Allen, that is; Tony Bennett always gave me the heebie jeebies.) Anyway, in perhaps the most transparent piece of miscasting since anything starring, well, Keanu Reeves, Woody gets Scarlett

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-70635991045609309092007-01-10T11:17:00.000-05:002007-01-10T11:28:25.641-05:00

While we're discussing the Constitution...

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-12692015849430917552007-01-10T10:17:00.000-05:002007-01-16T16:32:04.431-05:00

I took this test that Andrew linked to, and I came out, unsurprisingly, as almost dead center, but leaning slightly left and libertarian.More interesting, however, was this description of world leaders' positions on the scale:(yes, I am both a world leader and an amazing artist)Ehud Olmert may be kind of inept and sleazy, but more of a fascist than Pope Benedict? And almost twice as authoritarian

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-91081271625054753942007-01-02T16:46:00.000-05:002007-01-10T11:10:39.412-05:00

I recently got a speeding ticket while driving through Manchester, Tennessee. It was my first, and I was, to say the least, irked. My love letter to the Manchester City Court is below. [Address]Manchester City Court200 W. Fort StreetManchester, TN 37355January 2, 2007Re: Citation No. 46323Dear cretins*:

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-17847174681550509042006-12-28T09:56:00.000-05:002006-12-28T11:12:47.192-05:00

...the BBC never fails to amaze me. For the "world's largest broadcaster", the level of petty, juvenile unprofessionalism - 99% of which is manifested as anti-American, anti-Israel or (although now to a much lesser degree) anti-Toryism - is ridiculous.Take this article on the death penalty in Japan:Four prisoners on death row in Japan have been hanged, the country's justice ministry has said.They

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-60329114168690652222006-12-27T01:30:00.000-05:002006-12-27T02:09:28.480-05:00

I spent all day in the library learning about the advertising business, so I was inspired to go find a few of my favorite ads of all time on YouTube.Enjoy.1. Got Milk2. Bud Light3. Levis4. Stella Artois

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-29419706364228520192006-12-25T12:36:00.000-05:002006-12-25T12:38:18.705-05:00

From today's Times:"...So you can expect to see (Charles and Camilla) at the races from now on, along with their cushion-bearers pursuivant. Charles has long travelled everywhere with a cushion to, well, cushion the effects of a long-standing polo injury. Now guests at a Mayfair charity function last week say Camilla arrived with her own cushion, a rather dog-eared tartan affair carried by her

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-67731575380731568792006-12-10T22:52:00.000-05:002006-12-11T00:04:58.126-05:00

Here's an enlightening interview with the head of Al-Jazeera for those who actually think it is anything other than a hardcore Islamist propaganda channel. (via LGF).And what is surprising about this article is...nothing. Well, maybe that it took three months for Kofi Annan to be shocked that the Syrians - the Syrians - have not, in fact, been trying their super-hardest to stop Hezbollah from

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-66110716102720144102006-12-08T09:46:00.000-05:002006-12-08T10:00:35.756-05:00

So there's this thing called MySpace that has lots of websites with music and stuff. Who knew? I was drawn there to find a collection of songs from a new and apparently compelling operetta entitled "The Beastly Bombing or A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangles of True Love". As you can infer, it has a somewhat political bent (one conservative blogger described it as "a comedy,

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-9914303540122365062006-11-29T12:50:00.000-05:002006-11-30T18:30:48.360-05:00

I am no fan of insurance companies. It has been proven that their business model is to reject any and all claims in the first instance, the idea being to place the onus on the insured to fight them to get redress. This is outright unethical - if is paying for a service, the onus should be on the party receiving the money in advance to either pay out immediately or to prove why they shouldn't have

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-68331987030199172782006-11-28T23:40:00.000-05:002006-11-29T00:07:41.535-05:00

So, it was my birthday last week. Apropos of nothing, and because I am probably too old for it, here is a list of what I got from friends and family:1. Three birthday cards, all from one family of women.2. A pair of corduroy pants (my personal sartorial style has been described as "tweedy", and the two pairs of cords I wear fairly constantly are beginning to fray).3. Balloons and a pirate-themed

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-69297870576192627812006-11-28T11:15:00.001-05:002006-11-28T11:15:58.957-05:00

I know it's gauche to simply link to, say, Andrew, but when he's got a winner, what else can you do?

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-46421546907846523842006-11-28T03:05:00.000-05:002006-11-28T03:07:58.179-05:00

Drawing Mohammed or dropping a Koran on the floor is cause for riots in the streets by Muslims around the world.Decapitating fellow Muslims inside the local mosque? Not so much.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-28074629533244358082006-11-27T13:06:00.001-05:002006-11-27T13:22:15.449-05:00

So, you may think that the interesting part of this story is that a mob of French soccer hooligans tried to lynch a Jew after a French team lost to an Israeli team. Or that the black policeman who killed one of them to save his life is now in custody.Nah. What I love is this:French Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday tickets at Paris St Germain's Parc des Princes would now be sold

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-28303572323898866592006-11-27T10:09:00.000-05:002006-11-27T10:30:44.264-05:00

Seven months after publishing a report that "exonerated" the BBC from any sort of anti-Israel bias - nay, excoriated it for it's philo-Israelitism - one of the "independent experts" of the study publishes an article in the Guardian lambasting the Israelis for trying to counter anti-Israel media propaganda.Squealer, please report to Napoleon in the barn immediately.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1163952796529832952006-11-19T11:05:00.000-05:002006-11-19T11:13:16.553-05:00

There is apparently no one too odious for determined anti-Semites to get into bed with, as the conflation between the Muslim community and the far-right in the UK continues. I find it fascinating that the basic structure of society - enlightened self-interest - seems to break down as soon as the opportunity to hammer the Jews presents itself to either side.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1162960142715814342006-11-07T23:05:00.001-05:002006-11-07T23:29:02.716-05:00

So, it looks like the Dems will take at least the House, probably the Senate. This is good news, obviously - if they really get down to brass tacks, maybe they can restore habeus corpus, stop the government from torturing people, open hearings into the Iraq war and roll back a couple more of the medieval national degredations of the Bush administration before they get kicked out once more in two

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1162829753119330902006-11-06T11:02:00.000-05:002006-11-06T11:15:53.143-05:00

It's like an episode of "Overheard in San Francisco", where everyone's brain is burned out on drugs:Police: Sir, please stop exposing yourself and masturbating. This is a public transport station.Psycho: No.Police: Well, then, you are under arrest.Psycho: Ok.Police: Do you have any dangerous weapons?Psycho: Well, there's a screwdriver up my ass.Police: Where?Psycho: Up my ass.Police: Ah. (

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1162799007360470422006-11-06T02:26:00.000-05:002006-11-06T10:51:56.683-05:00

I just watched the Squid and the Whale. I have trouble, in general, with movies that have no clear narrative structure or plot, but instead try and simply capture a time, place or emotion. I think it takes more brains, or at least more capability for abstract thought, than I have. That said, I frequently enjoy them, especially the Wes Anderson genre, which make me suspect that I am too stupid to

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1162510921620504412006-11-02T18:23:00.000-05:002006-11-02T19:40:26.676-05:00

Fine, so he may be a fan of Hamas; whatevs. But Cat Stevens (nee Steven Georgiou, Greek-Swedish dishwasher, not frustrated yeshiva bochur, I'm afraid) can still strum the old tympani, and is in fact coming out with a new religio-pop record. And if you've wondered, as I have, what the hell led to him going off the deep end and where he's been, you will find this interview fascinating. And unable

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161845304498159632006-10-26T02:46:00.000-04:002006-10-26T02:48:24.516-04:00

If you've ever had a nagging worry about how JetBlue manages to be so much cheaper than every other airline - you were right.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161620475888329512006-10-23T12:19:00.000-04:002006-10-23T12:21:15.916-04:00

Here's a difficult statement that is rarely put so succinctly:This week’s “Modern Love” essay in the NYT brings out a couple truths that seem self-evident, yet are frequently lost on those living in Jewish bubbles: First, despite the smattering of alterna-veggie-indie minyans, for the majority of American Jews, the tenets of Jewish ritual and theology are almost unapproachably meaningless. Second

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161534708914407342006-10-22T12:22:00.000-04:002006-10-22T12:31:48.946-04:00

Wow. You know political correctness has run amok when the British police stop arresting Muslims on Ramadan - and even the Muslims tell them that's ridiculous. But the Muslim community has at least promised a looming race war over the full-face veil issue, so there's that. Cheerio!

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161387757015678902006-10-20T19:41:00.000-04:002006-10-20T19:43:33.886-04:00

God, I love YouTube.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161380728752366732006-10-20T17:41:00.000-04:002006-10-20T17:52:17.900-04:00

... the BBC describes Ahmedinejad's latest call to destroy Israel as "trenchant criticism", while the Guardian chuckles about how naughty he is for "poking fun at the Zionist lobby".And, apropos of nothing, it's fun when the Russian Foreign Office is forced to issue the following statement: "(Putin's) comments were meant as a joke and in no way meant that President Putin welcomes rape. "

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161379998204545522006-10-20T17:31:00.000-04:002006-10-20T17:33:18.223-04:00

The Big Sandwich pointed me to this demonstration given by some math whiz about the future of human-computer interface. Go ahead - add your voice to the aroused geeks in the crowd.

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1161277155690011422006-10-19T12:58:00.000-04:002006-10-19T12:59:15.713-04:00

WonderTwins power ... activate!

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626825.post-1160784124463376912006-10-13T19:57:00.000-04:002006-10-13T20:02:04.486-04:00

Before I forget, here's a link to the new "style guide" for the BBC's Middle East reporting. Forget, for a moment, the expected bias of the guide itself; the joy, for lawyerly-minded fellows like myself, is that we now have a template to argue against the most egregious examples of the Beeb's white-hot venom - from their own book. O joy!

Dash Riprocknoreply@blogger.com