10 June 2007
In Case You Missed It
I know, I know, we get corruption weary. The Onion had an article about Outrage Fatigue, or something to that effect, a few years ago. It had something to do with liberals (or, ahem, progressives) suffering from so many scandals and lies and corrupt practices of the Bush Administration that they just gave up and became inured to it all.
I feel like that sometimes. I wasn't planning on writing any sort of blog entry. It's Sunday. I've got stuff to do. Why am I typing? Well...
Seems that Bush & Co. aren't real big on playing the role of anti-trust police. Big surprise. Since he and his fellow knuckleheads follow the path blazed by the man who broke the air traffic controllers strike (amongst other things, you could hardly expect them to be vigilant about things like, oh, Microsoft.
Seems that the top anti-trust official in the Justice Department is a fellow by the name of Thomas O. Barnett. There has been what has been described as a 'confidential antitrust complaint' made by Google. The new Vista OS from Microsoft has a search engine built in that can't be turned off. If you'd like to use a different one, say the one by Google, the computer slows down, making the Vista system the only one that people will use. You can't turn it off.
In the world of the interents, this is kind of a big deal. Microsoft controls the vast share of access to the internet, and by restricting anyone else's ability to get there, they act as some sort of gateway that you have to cross. That's a very dangerous amount of control for one company to have (and it's not that I think that Google or Apple would necessarily be any more charitable).
Oh, so what's the example of the corruption, you ask?
Thomas O. Barnett? Remember him? Head of antitrust? Recommended that the case be dismissed? Former attorney for...big surprise...MICROSOFT!
There's more examples of this buddy buddy relationship the Bushies have with the Gatesies.
From the New York Times article that I've been reading:
Last year, for instance, the United States delegation to the European Union complained to European regulators that Microsoft had been denied access to evidence it needed to defend itself in an investigation there into possible anticompetitive conduct. The United States delegation is led by Ambassador C. Boyden Gray, who had worked for Microsoft as a lawyer and lobbyist.
Robert Gianfrancesco, a spokesman for the delegation, said that Ambassador Gray had not formally removed himself from involvement in Microsoft issues but was not involved in the complaint to European regulators, which was handled by other American diplomats in the delegation.
In December 2005, the Justice Department sharply criticized the Korean Fair Trade Commission after that agency ordered major changes in Microsoft’s marketing practices in Korea.
And in 2004, the Justice Department criticized the European Commission for punishing Microsoft for including its video and audio player with its operating system.
Just bringing this to your attention
09 June 2007
08 June 2007
Reasons for Fall of Communism #162: Their video games sucked.
From Wired.
The Lost Arcade Games of the Soviet Union
Alexander Zaitchik
See related story: Soviet-Era Arcade Games Crawl Out of Their Cold War Graves
06.07.07 | 2:00 AM
Stick It to Me
In Gorodki, the stick is aimed by moving the joystick left and right. The "throw" button, or brosok, is on top in red. The goal is to collect as many sticks in the basket as possible.
Photo: Alexander Zaitchik
That looks like the saddest, most boring video game ever. They Soviets should have known that if there is no opiate for the masses, they'll start agitating.
Bono Resists The Urge
When I heard that Bono was 'guest editing' an issue of Vanity Fair to be dedicated to the plight of the less-fortunate residents of the African continent, I could just see the cover in my head.
[cue dreamy harp music]
Bono, wearing trademark douchebag sunglasses, leather jacket, and typical Christ-like sneer, standing with one foot up on a gutted car chassis, holding a starving African child with flies on his/her face, in a sun-bleached desert.
[end harp music]
Amazingly, that isn't the case. But what he did is just about as asinine. As pointed out by Amelie Gillette in The Hater (from the Onion's A.V. Club), Bono instead devised 20 different covers in the most awkward game of telephone, ever. Pictures of one celebrity featured with another, starting with Barack Obama and Don Cheadle (they're both black!), then Obama with Muhummad Ali (black too!), Ali and Queen Rania of Jordan (she's an Arab! and hot!), Rania and Bono (who does he feel is as attractive as him, plus as powerful? a queen of an oil-rich country!).
It gets more and more ridiculous from there on. Warren Buffet and Chris Rock (what?). Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes (huh?). And one of my personal favorites:
You can just tell that W. is looking at Tutu, thinking, "This guy was great in The Shawshank Redemption!"
You can see all of the covers here.
Bono is such an ass. So many things that you could put on the cover, and you have to go with some mystifying gimmick. Are people supposed to buy all 20? And what the hell is Madonna trying to do to Maya Angelou?
Aside from putting all of the obvious Famous Black People on the covers (The only black people he could find were Oprah? Condie Rice? Chris Rock?), would it have been difficult to find someone who is actually making a difference there? A teacher? A doctor? At least Chris Rock has some sense of humility. He is quoted as saying:
"I went to Mandela's house, but I didn't have a sense that he knew who I was; I didn't have these great accomplishments or anything," Rock, who helped launch (Red), says. "His kids, grandkids, and security guards knew who I was, but what do you say to Nelson Mandela? This guy's so great, what the fuck is he doing meeting with me? Is Ja Rule coming in next? Mandela should be meeting with Bono and Oprah … He shouldn't be meeting with the guy from Pootie Tang."
When the world is relying on celebrities like Bono and Oprah to change the world (let alone rich white guys like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, who are trying to atone for past sins like Andrew Carnegie, who gave away much of his wealth in some sort of desperate bid for heaven, like charity can atone for past crimes), we are merely putting a pretty band-aid on the problems. Oh, Oprah and Jay-Z care? Great, now I don't have to . Those rich folk can solve all of the world's problems for me.
05 June 2007
03 June 2007
02 June 2007
Rob Schneider: Not an Asshole. Plus, poison toothpaste, and the worst place names in the world!
Have you seen Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo? No? Really? How about Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo? You missed that one too, huh? Yeah, me too. One would think that if you were the type of actor who would make these movies, you would realize that the lowest (lowest) of lowbrow humor would not be greeted with open arms by the vast majority of critics. You should be okay with that. David Lee Roth once said ," You know why rock critics like Elvis Costello and hate Van Halen? Because critics look like Elvis Costello." He got it. He was cool with it. He took his money and ran.
Hell, even Groucho Marx said "I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member."
But Schneider got mad when Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times wrote the following: "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,' a film that was sadly overlooked at Oscar time because apparently nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic."
I mean, I could understand being insulted by that, I suppose, but then again, I never would have made Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, either. Schneider replied in an open letter in the L.A. Times that stated, ""Well, Mr. Goldstein, I decided to do some research to find out what awards you have won. I went online and found that you have won nothing. Absolutely nothing. No journalistic awards of any kind ... Maybe you didn't win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven't invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who's Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers."
This lead Roger Ebert to write one of his funniest replies in his review of the film: "But Schneider is correct, and Patrick Goldstein has not yet won a Pulitzer Prize. Therefore, Goldstein is not qualified to complain that Columbia financed "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" while passing on the opportunity to participate in "Million Dollar Baby," "Ray," "The Aviator," "Sideways" and "Finding Neverland." As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks."
Ebert has been very ill recently, and he wrote of recieving a big bouquet of flowers recently from Schneider.
"They were a reminder, if I needed one, that although Rob Schneider might (in my opinion) have made a bad movie, he is not a bad man, and no doubt tried to make a wonderful movie, and hopes to again. I hope so, too.
Thanks, Rob."
I thought that was big of Schneider. Seems that he's not an asshole after all.
---
I try and buy local whenever possible. I purchase locally grown produce, I frequent locally owned businesses, I drink locally roasted coffee (since they can't grow it here). A great deal of this is simply to support those who live around me, who in turn not only enrich my life, bu make up the economy of my area. Plus, we've got great stuff here.
When I can't buy local, I buy American, for the same reasons. If we continue to purchase items and services from overseas because they are cheaper, we'll find that a nation made up soley of consumers is bound to start devouring each other, like the Donner party.
We've had a big problem with China recently. Okay, so we've had a lot of problems with China (and we're just getting started), but beginning with the poisoned pet food scare, authorities have begun reporting (because I'm going to make the conspiritorial assumption that they already knew but weren't telling) that food has been coming over from China that is poisoned, perhaps by malice, but more than likely from ignorance or simply because when you try and produce as cheaply as they are, corners get cut.
And now even our toothpaste is unsafe. People shopping at Dollar Plus stores in Miami, the Port of Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico have purchased a brand of toothpaste called ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste, which contains a poison called diethylene glycol.
Buy American. Buy local. Think about it.
---
And now for some fun. I found a list of The 22 Worst Place Names in the World. You should read the actual list, because it's pretty funny.
22. Cockburn, Western Australia
17. Titty Hill, Sussex, England
12. Bald Knob, Arkansas, United States
10. Whiskey Dick Mountain, Washington State, United States
and one of my personal favorites:
3. Disappointment, Kentucky, United States
This Week In Stupid
It looks like we're in Baghdad to stay, at least until they kick us out. When they do, the Iraqis will have an excellent new billion dollar palace, the under-construction Embassy Baghdad (which sounds like a hotel, but is really the new U.S. Embassy). On average, U.S. embassies cover about 10 acres...This lovely piece of construction covers 104. Kind of a little bit bigger.
As ridiculous as that sounds, that's not the winner of This Week In Stupid. That prize goes to Berger Devine Yaeger Inc., the architecture firm that has designed the damn thing. I'd like to know which genius was responsible for...wait for it, this is good...posted computer generated images of the floorplans of the thing. I'm sure they just wanted to let the Iraqis know the most convenient route to get inside.
Unsurprisingly, the State Department didn't think that this was too kosher, and made them take the pics down. But unless the insurgants are unfamiliar with Google, well, I think they know what's going on.
Congratulations, Berger Devine Yaeger Inc.! You are the winners of This Week in Stupid!
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