November 01, 2004
For the faint of heart,
For the faint of heart, be forewarned that the following is a rant. Skip on by if you so choose.
Oh, for the love of all that is good and holy, Andrew, quit with the speculation about what's happening in Fallujah!
Everyone should quit speculating about what's happening in Fallujah.
And, yes, Wretchard,
that means even you should quit.
To explain, I don't have any issues with anyone spouting off after a
battle is over with. Pull your miniature sand table out of the garage,
throw on your Napoleon waistcoat, slap your three cornered hat on your
head and move your miniature soldiers around as much as you want. Chat
all you want about the results of the battle. I would expect nothing
less from any of you...but do it afterward.
Not during. For God's sake, there are men on the ground in Fallujah
whose lives are on the line. Their lives are wholly dependent upon
there being a proper plan that will not only save them from being
slaughtered, but will also allow them to achieve their objectives.
Worrying and criticizing and rampantly speculating about that plan
while the battle is in process does not do those men any good. While I don't doubt your intelligence or your ability to get things right, I do doubt that---ahem---YOU HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION THAT THEY DO.
Hence, you're automatically off the mark from the get go. Just. Shut.
Up.
Just so I don't get a bevy of replies and emails telling me that I'm
restricting someone's freedom of speech, know that I'd say this to one
of those talking head generals on CNN or FOX. I would have absolutely
no problem with telling some retired four star General to cram his
comments up his arsehole. So, you should know, I really don't have a
problem saying this to a blogger or two.
I come by this opinion honestly, if you were wondering. My mother's
side of the family is very military. In fact, I have a first cousin
who's (currently) a two star General. He may be stationed at the
Pentagon nowadays, but before that he was stationed in Tampa for a few
years, and was also deployed to Qatar for a while. I have copies of
pictures he took of Saddam's Baghdad Palace bathroom---you know, the
one with the golden fixtures that were in the news. In case all of
these CV clues slipped past you, allow me to spell it out for you: he
was on Tommy Franks' CENTCOM staff during the war and he's mentioned on
page 413 of Tommy's book, American Soldier.
One night during the runup to the invasion, the entire family, having
been tipped off, turned on the NBC Nightly News to see Tom Brokaw
interviewing him. Now, my cousin is a smart man. You don't get to be as
high up in the military as he is without being canny as all get out.
Whenever I see him, do I dare pipe up and speculate about the military
and how it's run? No. Not anymore I don't. Why? Because when I did so
in the past, his general response was to smile and then to inform
me---nicely, of course---that I'm full of shit and that no matter how
well informed I thought I might be, I didn't have all the information.
Because he did have all the information. He was in charge
of the information, for God's sake and he would know. As you might
imagine, I have a tendency to keep my mouth shut anymore because I
don't want to look like an ass.
This is what bugs me about anyone's rampant speculation about what is or isn't going on in Iraq. I know Sully, sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, does not have all the information, even if he is reading Stratfor.
Taking a few courses at Harvard that cover Clausewitz does not a
military expert make. Wretchard, while being supportive of the troops
and the war, doesn't have all the information. Even well-informed
speculation is precisely that: speculation. And these are times when
it's dangerous to speculate. There are men and women on the ground in
Iraq; they are beseiged, not by the Iraqis or by the insurgents, but
rather by the media. I would hazard a guess that the attacks that hurt
the most are the ones that come from the American media---of which the
blogosphere, for better or worse, is a part---who do nothing but second
guess their work. While I'm not denying there is a place for legitimate
criticism of the handling of this war, I will stick with my assertion
that until we know the whole story of Iraq (which, dare I mention it,
the media isn't giving us) we have no business speculating on what is
going on over there, let alone making any judgment calls about what
should be done. We don't know. And it hurts our soldiers on the ground
to be second-guessed incessantly by their own media. It doesn't matter
if the respective blogger is pro or anti war: they simply don't have
all the facts to wargame this pig in real time. Hence, all the
hand-wringing over this battle, makes bloggers---and the mainstream
media---sound more like a nervous mother on prom night, waiting for her
kids to return home, imaginging all the horrible things that could
befall them, rather than strategic analysts of the first order. Not
unlike myself when chatting with my cousin, they don't have all the
information. So the best course of action would be to shut the hell up.
Let the soldiers do their job, then when it's all said and done with,
you can throw your rampant speculation out there.
/Rant
Oh, for the love of all that is good and holy, Andrew, quit with the speculation about what's happening in Fallujah!
Everyone should quit speculating about what's happening in Fallujah.
And, yes, Wretchard,
that means even you should quit.
To explain, I don't have any issues with anyone spouting off after a
battle is over with. Pull your miniature sand table out of the garage,
throw on your Napoleon waistcoat, slap your three cornered hat on your
head and move your miniature soldiers around as much as you want. Chat
all you want about the results of the battle. I would expect nothing
less from any of you...but do it afterward.
Not during. For God's sake, there are men on the ground in Fallujah
whose lives are on the line. Their lives are wholly dependent upon
there being a proper plan that will not only save them from being
slaughtered, but will also allow them to achieve their objectives.
Worrying and criticizing and rampantly speculating about that plan
while the battle is in process does not do those men any good. While I don't doubt your intelligence or your ability to get things right, I do doubt that---ahem---YOU HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION THAT THEY DO.
Hence, you're automatically off the mark from the get go. Just. Shut.
Up.
Just so I don't get a bevy of replies and emails telling me that I'm
restricting someone's freedom of speech, know that I'd say this to one
of those talking head generals on CNN or FOX. I would have absolutely
no problem with telling some retired four star General to cram his
comments up his arsehole. So, you should know, I really don't have a
problem saying this to a blogger or two.
I come by this opinion honestly, if you were wondering. My mother's
side of the family is very military. In fact, I have a first cousin
who's (currently) a two star General. He may be stationed at the
Pentagon nowadays, but before that he was stationed in Tampa for a few
years, and was also deployed to Qatar for a while. I have copies of
pictures he took of Saddam's Baghdad Palace bathroom---you know, the
one with the golden fixtures that were in the news. In case all of
these CV clues slipped past you, allow me to spell it out for you: he
was on Tommy Franks' CENTCOM staff during the war and he's mentioned on
page 413 of Tommy's book, American Soldier.
One night during the runup to the invasion, the entire family, having
been tipped off, turned on the NBC Nightly News to see Tom Brokaw
interviewing him. Now, my cousin is a smart man. You don't get to be as
high up in the military as he is without being canny as all get out.
Whenever I see him, do I dare pipe up and speculate about the military
and how it's run? No. Not anymore I don't. Why? Because when I did so
in the past, his general response was to smile and then to inform
me---nicely, of course---that I'm full of shit and that no matter how
well informed I thought I might be, I didn't have all the information.
Because he did have all the information. He was in charge
of the information, for God's sake and he would know. As you might
imagine, I have a tendency to keep my mouth shut anymore because I
don't want to look like an ass.
This is what bugs me about anyone's rampant speculation about what is or isn't going on in Iraq. I know Sully, sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, does not have all the information, even if he is reading Stratfor.
Taking a few courses at Harvard that cover Clausewitz does not a
military expert make. Wretchard, while being supportive of the troops
and the war, doesn't have all the information. Even well-informed
speculation is precisely that: speculation. And these are times when
it's dangerous to speculate. There are men and women on the ground in
Iraq; they are beseiged, not by the Iraqis or by the insurgents, but
rather by the media. I would hazard a guess that the attacks that hurt
the most are the ones that come from the American media---of which the
blogosphere, for better or worse, is a part---who do nothing but second
guess their work. While I'm not denying there is a place for legitimate
criticism of the handling of this war, I will stick with my assertion
that until we know the whole story of Iraq (which, dare I mention it,
the media isn't giving us) we have no business speculating on what is
going on over there, let alone making any judgment calls about what
should be done. We don't know. And it hurts our soldiers on the ground
to be second-guessed incessantly by their own media. It doesn't matter
if the respective blogger is pro or anti war: they simply don't have
all the facts to wargame this pig in real time. Hence, all the
hand-wringing over this battle, makes bloggers---and the mainstream
media---sound more like a nervous mother on prom night, waiting for her
kids to return home, imaginging all the horrible things that could
befall them, rather than strategic analysts of the first order. Not
unlike myself when chatting with my cousin, they don't have all the
information. So the best course of action would be to shut the hell up.
Let the soldiers do their job, then when it's all said and done with,
you can throw your rampant speculation out there.
/Rant
Posted by: Kathy at
11:23 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 965 words, total size 6 kb.
Political correctness at the playground.
Political correctness at the playground.
Sigh.
One must wonder what they think of round-off back handsprings (someone
might get smooshed in the run needed to get the required force) or
somersaults (she might give herself internal injuries)or aerials
(Jesus, Mary and Joseph! She didn't use her hands to land! She could
break a leg!).
When I was in school, we had big steel bars on the playground, placed
there specifically
for the use of gymnastically-minded students. We had this one maneuver
that we called the flip. Basically, you pulled yourself up on the bar,
much like a gymnast would on the parallel bars, by swinging one leg up
through your arms to pull yourself up. When you'd accomplished that
maneuver, you hung upside down from the bars by your knees, your arms
floating free, then you'd start swinging. The ultimate goal of this
exercise was to get enough momentum going so that, at your highest
swinging point, you would release your legs' hold on the bar, and---if
you were lucky--- you'd land on your feet after flying for a small
distance. Every single girl in my class could do this. I eventually got
the hang of it, even after I'd landed facedown, flat on the ground, a
couple of times and managed to knock the wind right out of myself. If
you weren't careful when you were walking around the bars, you'd get a
foot straight to the face. That happened to me a couple of times. And
guess what? I didn't die.
No one told us to stop doing this because we could hurt ourselves or
someone else. They never told us to stop jumping from the swings,
either. If we hurt ourselves, well, we were told to shake it off. I
went to parochial school: our school nurse showed up a few times a
semester to check on ears and eyes and that sort of thing. We had no
full-time medical staff. Maybe, if you were swelling or something like
that, they'd send you to Mrs. Sundell, the school secretary, who'd give
you a bandaid or would send you down to the kitchen or the teacher's
lounge for a bag of ice.
Surprisingly enough, minor injuries aside, no one died and no one sued
the school for not being responsible enough. In case you were
wondering, I have two nieces who currently attend my old grade school.
I know for a fact they still have those bars on the playground, and I
know the girls still use the bars the way we did, almost twenty years
ago. And my nieces, God love them, managed to learn how to do "The
Flip," as it's still called, much earlier than I did. Childhood must
really suck if you can't do stupid stuff.
{...}Deirdre Faegre was suspended for a week after
repeatedly disobeying school officials who told her not to perform
gymnastic stunts during lunchtime. "Our first concern is the safety of
all children," San Jose-Edison Academy Principal Denise Patton told the
San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Patton said Deirdre could accidentally
strike another student, or injure herself, and other children could get
hurt trying to imitate Deirdre, who has been doing gymnastics for five
years.{...}
Sigh.
One must wonder what they think of round-off back handsprings (someone
might get smooshed in the run needed to get the required force) or
somersaults (she might give herself internal injuries)or aerials
(Jesus, Mary and Joseph! She didn't use her hands to land! She could
break a leg!).
When I was in school, we had big steel bars on the playground, placed
there specifically
for the use of gymnastically-minded students. We had this one maneuver
that we called the flip. Basically, you pulled yourself up on the bar,
much like a gymnast would on the parallel bars, by swinging one leg up
through your arms to pull yourself up. When you'd accomplished that
maneuver, you hung upside down from the bars by your knees, your arms
floating free, then you'd start swinging. The ultimate goal of this
exercise was to get enough momentum going so that, at your highest
swinging point, you would release your legs' hold on the bar, and---if
you were lucky--- you'd land on your feet after flying for a small
distance. Every single girl in my class could do this. I eventually got
the hang of it, even after I'd landed facedown, flat on the ground, a
couple of times and managed to knock the wind right out of myself. If
you weren't careful when you were walking around the bars, you'd get a
foot straight to the face. That happened to me a couple of times. And
guess what? I didn't die.
No one told us to stop doing this because we could hurt ourselves or
someone else. They never told us to stop jumping from the swings,
either. If we hurt ourselves, well, we were told to shake it off. I
went to parochial school: our school nurse showed up a few times a
semester to check on ears and eyes and that sort of thing. We had no
full-time medical staff. Maybe, if you were swelling or something like
that, they'd send you to Mrs. Sundell, the school secretary, who'd give
you a bandaid or would send you down to the kitchen or the teacher's
lounge for a bag of ice.
Surprisingly enough, minor injuries aside, no one died and no one sued
the school for not being responsible enough. In case you were
wondering, I have two nieces who currently attend my old grade school.
I know for a fact they still have those bars on the playground, and I
know the girls still use the bars the way we did, almost twenty years
ago. And my nieces, God love them, managed to learn how to do "The
Flip," as it's still called, much earlier than I did. Childhood must
really suck if you can't do stupid stuff.
Posted by: Kathy at
11:16 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 544 words, total size 3 kb.
...it all comes down to
...it all comes down to credibility. As in, is the mainstream media credible enough to tell the story of Falljuah?
I don't think they are. Hence, you should go and read this.
I don't think they are. Hence, you should go and read this.
Posted by: Kathy at
11:14 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.
Ok, so here's what you
Ok, so here's what you need to know about actually cooking the bird.
Forgive me if this is lacking some of the humor of earlier posts: I
woke up late and I'm afraid someone might
actually be depending upon me for their turkey cooking instructions and
I don't want to leave them hanging while I fret over making it funny.
Not like that's going to happen, but just in case...
First, basting is important, but instead of fussing with the drippings
in the bottom of the pan, get a chicken buillon cube out and mix it
with one cup of boiling water. If you didn't know, this is how you make
quickie chicken broth. Now, some people swear by using the drippings.
That's fine, if
you've got enough. If you have purchased a smaller turkey, chances are
you probably won't. Turkey's are also leaner nowadays and just don't
give off copious amounts of drippings. Hence, the chicken broth. This
way, whatever drippings you have left at the bottom of the pan you will
be able to use for gravy, rather than basting. General rule of thumb:
try and baste once an hour. Second, leave the bird alone for the most
part. You put the thing in the oven to cook. Let it do so. Third, when
you have about forty-five minutes left on the clock, take off the
tinfoil chapeau. The moonbattery your turkey had previously has now
been cured. Think of this as the final stage in the de-brainwashing
process: just think of Mulder when he finally rid himself of his
delusional theories. That's what you're looking for. Now keep an eye on
the skin while the foil is off. If it begins to get too dark, why, slap
that foil back on for the last few minutes of cooking. It just all
depends how crispy you like your turkey skin to be. Fourth, how to tell
when the turkey is done, paricularly since you told me that I didn't
need that handy-dandy pop-up button to inform me of that momentous
occasion? Well, it's quite simple: when you can shake hands with the turkey, it's done.
Take the end of the turkey leg in your fingers and see if you can give
it a shake. If you can, take it out of the oven. If you can't, keep it
in until you can. Pretty simple stuff. If you're hypernervous and don't
trust me, pull out your meat thermometer and insert it deeply into the
place between the leg and the breast: when it reads 180 degrees, your
bird is DONE. And that's it. When you remove the turkey from the oven,
remove the stuffing from both the neck and the main cavity: place it in
a bowl, cover with foil and keep warm for serving. If you're nervous
about the stuffing not being cooked enough, zap it in your microwave
for a minute or longer. That should get it up to temperature and cook
off any nasties that might be lingering in there. Pitch the apple and
the garlic cloves: I'm sure the apple halves are mush and unless one of
your guests will eat up whole garlic cloves, they probably don't want
them in their dressing. If you're making mashed potatoes, you might
want to recycle the garlic cloves by squeezing them out of their skins
(if you can't do this, well, don't bother because they haven't cooked
enough) and beating them into the potatoes. It's up to you if you want
to add a little turkey-garlic flavor into your potatoes. Then, let the
bird sit before you start carving. If you need to know how to carve,
well, go here and watch the video.
This is a pretty low-maintenence turkey. It's not gourmet by any means,
but it will please your guests. When you cook one at Christmas (because
of course your guests will demand that you do, now that you've proved
yourself a reliable turkey provider) you can get adventurous and try
glazes or different spices. But most importantly, enjoy cooking your
bird. Don't stress out. Like Mom said, it's pretty hard to goof up
whilst cooking a turkey. If you have questions, put 'em in the comments
and I'll try to answer. Finally---HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Forgive me if this is lacking some of the humor of earlier posts: I
woke up late and I'm afraid someone might
actually be depending upon me for their turkey cooking instructions and
I don't want to leave them hanging while I fret over making it funny.
Not like that's going to happen, but just in case...
First, basting is important, but instead of fussing with the drippings
in the bottom of the pan, get a chicken buillon cube out and mix it
with one cup of boiling water. If you didn't know, this is how you make
quickie chicken broth. Now, some people swear by using the drippings.
That's fine, if
you've got enough. If you have purchased a smaller turkey, chances are
you probably won't. Turkey's are also leaner nowadays and just don't
give off copious amounts of drippings. Hence, the chicken broth. This
way, whatever drippings you have left at the bottom of the pan you will
be able to use for gravy, rather than basting. General rule of thumb:
try and baste once an hour. Second, leave the bird alone for the most
part. You put the thing in the oven to cook. Let it do so. Third, when
you have about forty-five minutes left on the clock, take off the
tinfoil chapeau. The moonbattery your turkey had previously has now
been cured. Think of this as the final stage in the de-brainwashing
process: just think of Mulder when he finally rid himself of his
delusional theories. That's what you're looking for. Now keep an eye on
the skin while the foil is off. If it begins to get too dark, why, slap
that foil back on for the last few minutes of cooking. It just all
depends how crispy you like your turkey skin to be. Fourth, how to tell
when the turkey is done, paricularly since you told me that I didn't
need that handy-dandy pop-up button to inform me of that momentous
occasion? Well, it's quite simple: when you can shake hands with the turkey, it's done.
Take the end of the turkey leg in your fingers and see if you can give
it a shake. If you can, take it out of the oven. If you can't, keep it
in until you can. Pretty simple stuff. If you're hypernervous and don't
trust me, pull out your meat thermometer and insert it deeply into the
place between the leg and the breast: when it reads 180 degrees, your
bird is DONE. And that's it. When you remove the turkey from the oven,
remove the stuffing from both the neck and the main cavity: place it in
a bowl, cover with foil and keep warm for serving. If you're nervous
about the stuffing not being cooked enough, zap it in your microwave
for a minute or longer. That should get it up to temperature and cook
off any nasties that might be lingering in there. Pitch the apple and
the garlic cloves: I'm sure the apple halves are mush and unless one of
your guests will eat up whole garlic cloves, they probably don't want
them in their dressing. If you're making mashed potatoes, you might
want to recycle the garlic cloves by squeezing them out of their skins
(if you can't do this, well, don't bother because they haven't cooked
enough) and beating them into the potatoes. It's up to you if you want
to add a little turkey-garlic flavor into your potatoes. Then, let the
bird sit before you start carving. If you need to know how to carve,
well, go here and watch the video.
This is a pretty low-maintenence turkey. It's not gourmet by any means,
but it will please your guests. When you cook one at Christmas (because
of course your guests will demand that you do, now that you've proved
yourself a reliable turkey provider) you can get adventurous and try
glazes or different spices. But most importantly, enjoy cooking your
bird. Don't stress out. Like Mom said, it's pretty hard to goof up
whilst cooking a turkey. If you have questions, put 'em in the comments
and I'll try to answer. Finally---HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Posted by: Kathy at
11:13 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 719 words, total size 4 kb.
Blogger finally let me post.
Blogger finally let me post.
Don't quite know whether that's a triumph or not. I suppose we'll be
able to judge that when/if this post actually makes it through the
publication stage.
Don't quite know whether that's a triumph or not. I suppose we'll be
able to judge that when/if this post actually makes it through the
publication stage.
Posted by: Kathy at
11:05 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.
...and think it's the greatest
...and think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, you might want to know that the RIAA and the MPAA are still trying to cram that worthless piece o' legislation---the
Internet Property Protection Act---through the lame duck congress. Why,
are they trying to push it through now, you ask? Well, Orrin Hatch, the
distinguished gentleman from freakin' Utah and a champion of this bill,
is losing his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to Arlen Specter,
who has very different views about this sort of thing.
Worrisome.
The basic gist of this whole thing: everything we, the technology
users, hold near and dear to our hearts is on the chopping block. As I
understand it, Bloggers could be screwed: no more excerpts of articles
because it would violate fair use. That little bit up there that I
excerpted from the Wired
article wouldn't be there if this bill is passed and signed. Anything
you would purchase on ITunes would be copyright infringement, even
though you legally purchased it, simply because it's a file sharing
service. And for the Tivo users, no more skipping through the commercials.
While I don't own a Tivo, I find the notion that the MPAA and the RIAA
(not my favorite organization)are throwing their entire arsenal to get
this thing passed revolting. Why they don't see they're fighting a
losing battle, I haven't the foggiest. Piracy cuts into their profits,
I know, but damn!
Why don't they realize that the reason this hurts so much is because
their business models suck? They're monoliths. Dinosaurs. They have no
clue. They believe it's more productive in the long run to lobby
congress to ram through Draconian legislation banning this sort of
behavior, rather than being clever and adopting it into their business.
It's not going to work. People will come up with a way around these
laws, like they always do. Enterprising individuals will come up with
hacks for Tivos that will enable the user to skip through the
commercials. I can already get a hack for my DVD player that will make
it region-free, enabling me to work around the movie industry's
worldwide regulation that decrees I can only watch Michael Mann's shitty expanded edition of Last of the Mohicans rather
than the theatrical version that's out in the UK and Australia, why
should Tivo be any different in this regard? The minute this
legislation goes through, I can guarantee you someone, somewhere, will
suss out a way around it. Nothing's foolproof, after all. Look at the
recent history of file-sharing for some clues as to what will happen
with Tivos. The RIAA and the MPAA cracked down on services like Napster
and the Gnutella network, which has enabled the joy (and I really mean
that) that is Bit Torrent, which is virtually impossible to crack. It's not going to work.
For every move the MPAA and RIAA make, the hackers make a countermove that essentially nullifies it. The information wants to be free.
As I see it, it's a losing battle for the MPAA and RIAA: throwing gobs
of money at the problem only makes the lawyers rich. If they were
smart, they'd rework their system entirely and try to figure out
something new. Alas, however, they won't because they're too stupid to
realize they don't have control of the game anymore. The consumer does.
And alienating the people who pay your bills is not a good long-term
strategy, capisce? {h/t: Techdirt}
Internet Property Protection Act---through the lame duck congress. Why,
are they trying to push it through now, you ask? Well, Orrin Hatch, the
distinguished gentleman from freakin' Utah and a champion of this bill,
is losing his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to Arlen Specter,
who has very different views about this sort of thing.
The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual
Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge
could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players
and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The
bill would also undo centuries of "fair use" -- the principle that
gives Americans the right to use small samples of the works of others
without having to ask permission or pay.
The bill lumps together several pending copyright bills including
HR4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, which would criminally
punish a person who "infringes a copyright by ... offering for
distribution to the public by electronic means, with reckless disregard
of the risk of further infringement." Critics charge the vague language
could apply to a person who uses the popular Apple iTunes music-sharing
application. The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip
objectionable content -- like a gory or sexually explicit scene -- in
films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed
language, viewers would not be allowed to use software or devices to
skip commericals or promotional announcements "that would otherwise be
performed or displayed before, during or after the performance of the
motion picture," like the previews on a DVD. The proposed law also
includes language from the Pirate Act (S2237), which would permit the
Justice Department to file civil lawsuits against alleged copyright
infringers.
Worrisome.
The basic gist of this whole thing: everything we, the technology
users, hold near and dear to our hearts is on the chopping block. As I
understand it, Bloggers could be screwed: no more excerpts of articles
because it would violate fair use. That little bit up there that I
excerpted from the Wired
article wouldn't be there if this bill is passed and signed. Anything
you would purchase on ITunes would be copyright infringement, even
though you legally purchased it, simply because it's a file sharing
service. And for the Tivo users, no more skipping through the commercials.
While I don't own a Tivo, I find the notion that the MPAA and the RIAA
(not my favorite organization)are throwing their entire arsenal to get
this thing passed revolting. Why they don't see they're fighting a
losing battle, I haven't the foggiest. Piracy cuts into their profits,
I know, but damn!
Why don't they realize that the reason this hurts so much is because
their business models suck? They're monoliths. Dinosaurs. They have no
clue. They believe it's more productive in the long run to lobby
congress to ram through Draconian legislation banning this sort of
behavior, rather than being clever and adopting it into their business.
It's not going to work. People will come up with a way around these
laws, like they always do. Enterprising individuals will come up with
hacks for Tivos that will enable the user to skip through the
commercials. I can already get a hack for my DVD player that will make
it region-free, enabling me to work around the movie industry's
worldwide regulation that decrees I can only watch Michael Mann's shitty expanded edition of Last of the Mohicans rather
than the theatrical version that's out in the UK and Australia, why
should Tivo be any different in this regard? The minute this
legislation goes through, I can guarantee you someone, somewhere, will
suss out a way around it. Nothing's foolproof, after all. Look at the
recent history of file-sharing for some clues as to what will happen
with Tivos. The RIAA and the MPAA cracked down on services like Napster
and the Gnutella network, which has enabled the joy (and I really mean
that) that is Bit Torrent, which is virtually impossible to crack. It's not going to work.
For every move the MPAA and RIAA make, the hackers make a countermove that essentially nullifies it. The information wants to be free.
As I see it, it's a losing battle for the MPAA and RIAA: throwing gobs
of money at the problem only makes the lawyers rich. If they were
smart, they'd rework their system entirely and try to figure out
something new. Alas, however, they won't because they're too stupid to
realize they don't have control of the game anymore. The consumer does.
And alienating the people who pay your bills is not a good long-term
strategy, capisce? {h/t: Techdirt}
Posted by: Kathy at
11:03 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 815 words, total size 5 kb.
Despite the WaPo's alarmist take
Despite the WaPo's alarmist take on all the hubbub at the CIA, I agree with the Weekly Standard's Stephen F. Hayes.
While Hayes' critique of the WaPo article once again shows off the
WaPo's inside the beltway bias, as the reporter seems to fret more
about losing valuable leaks if everyone resigns, it confirms the
suspicions I had when I read the piece on Friday: Goss is cleaning
house. And he doesn't really care how he does it, or who gets their
noses out of joint in the meantime. Good. It's about freakin' time
someone showed those entrenched mandarins the door. What's really
amazing about the WaPo piece, however, is that the guys who are
resiging are the same men who dropped the ball on 9/11. They're they
same men who dropped the ball on WMD in Iraq. They're the same men who
apparently can't find their collective ass even when it's handed to
them on a silver platter. Why, I'll even bet a few of them were on
staff when the Soviet Union fell in August of 1991. Why, my devoted
Cake Eater readers, are these resignations a sign of "turbulence" at
the CIA? These guys should have been shown the door ages
ago. If this was any other agency in Washington, the media would have
been calling for their heads eons ago. If any other bureaucrat in
Washington was pitching a fit over being able to leak information, and
resigning over being called on the carpet for their illegal
behavior, the media and Congress would be going after them left and
right. Yet, surprisingly, they're only bugging out now, after their
protector, Tenet, left. And it's supposedly a bad thing that
these jerks are leaving. Hmmmmm. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, if Hayes
is right and the WaPo is more interested in protecting the few sources
at Langley who provide them with information than it is with reporting
the whole story. Which leads to the next question: how is, what I
believe to be, the imminent and monstrous shakeup at the CIA going to
be reported over the coming months? How much is the media going to
hamper the changes that Goss is obviously undertaking simply because
they're afraid of losing what little access they have? Has the WaPo set
the tone for the coverage of this event with this series of articles,
or is Goss going to be given a fair shot at reforming an agency which
the media has done nothing but criticize since 9/11? UPDATE: Jeff G. throws in his two cents.
UPDATE II: Jonathan Last disagrees with his Weekly Standard
compadre about whether all the hubbub is actually an indicator that
Goss is, indeed, cleaning house. Last has some valid insights, but I
completely disagree with his point that Goss need not piss off/clear
out all the entrenched bureaucrats to force the CIA to run efficiently,
citing FBI Director Muller's reform of the FBI as an example of what a
"skilled executive" can accomplish. Ah, nope. Sorry. That one's not
going to fly.
Muller took advantage of 9/11 in a way that Tenet was never forced to
do. He kept his job, and was never made to pay for the agency's
mistakes. Muller, however, took over the FBI in the days before 9/11:
no one in their right mind would ever slam him for the bureau's
mistakes, yet he took responsibility all the same and got to work.
Skill had very little to do with it, I believe, but more a thought that
if he goofed, his ass would be on the chopping block. For some unknown
reason, the CIA is cut more slack than the FBI. The FBI's spectacular
bungles over the past ten years have brought the bureau's vulnerability
to the fore. Muller knew this and acted accordingly.
The CIA and its employees, however, have never been called on the
carpet for all their goofs. They always seem to get away with it
because "they weren't funded well enough," or "their hands were tied
because of operating procedures," etc. The bureaucrats are too well
entrenched, and I truly believe that viper's pit has to be cleared out.
Goss, to my mind, knows this as well and he's using Patrick Murray to
do his dirty work. This way he gets to stay out of the fray and will be
able to lead when his time comes.
ON NOVEMBER 5, 2004, a top aide to new CIA Director Porter
Goss warned the associate deputy director of counterintelligence about
unauthorized leaks to the media. It was an admonition that might be
considered unnecessary: secrecy is a hallmark of the agency and, in any
case, such leaks are often against the law. But several officials
bristled at the forewarning and after a series of confrontations the
deputy director of Operations, Stephen R. Kappes, offered his
resignation as a protest.
How do we know about all of this? The details were leaked and appeared
Saturday on the front page of the Washington Post. Both the Post and
the New York Times ran follow-up stories on Sunday. That evening, CBS
News anchor John Roberts was already suggesting a failure, asking
reporter Joie Chen, "What went wrong?" And so we have, three months
into Porter Goss's tenure at the agency, a full-blown war between the
Bush administration and the CIA. In fact, this war has been underway
for years but only one side--the CIA--has been fighting. The White
House response to this latest assault will be an important sign of its
willingness to gut the rotten bureaucracy at the CIA.
{...}The reporting consists mainly of a one-sided chronology of the
dispute over media leaks and a collection of unsourced and
unsubstantiated personal smears of the Goss team. As for substance, the
Post reported on Saturday that former deputy CIA director John
McLaughlin believes top Goss aide Patrick Murray "was treating senior
officials disrespectfully." The article continues: "Current and retired
senior managers have criticized Goss, former chairman of the House
intelligence committee, for not interacting with senior managers and
for giving Murray too much authority over day-to-day operations."
The Post article from Sunday replowed much of the same ground. It added
one new wrinkle: Goss has not yet made time to meet with four former
senior CIA officials. (These weren't just any officials. According to
the article, "the four senior officials represent nearly two decades of
experience leading the Directorate of Operations under both Republican
and Democratic presidents." The not-so-subtle implication is that Goss
was unreasonable for failing to meet with the leaders. Was he?
According to yet another anonymous source in the Post piece on Sunday,
the group didn't want to talk so much as they wanted to lecture. The
former officials "wanted to talk as old colleagues and tell him to stop
what he was doing the way he was doing it."
After hundreds of words from the Post we still have very little idea of
what, exactly, Goss is doing that has caused so much heartburn at the
agency. But if he's aggressively reforming the bureaucracy, he should
most certainly not stop what he is doing. In fact, the concern among
critics of the agency is that Goss faces a nearly impossible job and
will not do nearly enough to change the dysfunctional culture of the
agency.
While Hayes' critique of the WaPo article once again shows off the
WaPo's inside the beltway bias, as the reporter seems to fret more
about losing valuable leaks if everyone resigns, it confirms the
suspicions I had when I read the piece on Friday: Goss is cleaning
house. And he doesn't really care how he does it, or who gets their
noses out of joint in the meantime. Good. It's about freakin' time
someone showed those entrenched mandarins the door. What's really
amazing about the WaPo piece, however, is that the guys who are
resiging are the same men who dropped the ball on 9/11. They're they
same men who dropped the ball on WMD in Iraq. They're the same men who
apparently can't find their collective ass even when it's handed to
them on a silver platter. Why, I'll even bet a few of them were on
staff when the Soviet Union fell in August of 1991. Why, my devoted
Cake Eater readers, are these resignations a sign of "turbulence" at
the CIA? These guys should have been shown the door ages
ago. If this was any other agency in Washington, the media would have
been calling for their heads eons ago. If any other bureaucrat in
Washington was pitching a fit over being able to leak information, and
resigning over being called on the carpet for their illegal
behavior, the media and Congress would be going after them left and
right. Yet, surprisingly, they're only bugging out now, after their
protector, Tenet, left. And it's supposedly a bad thing that
these jerks are leaving. Hmmmmm. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, if Hayes
is right and the WaPo is more interested in protecting the few sources
at Langley who provide them with information than it is with reporting
the whole story. Which leads to the next question: how is, what I
believe to be, the imminent and monstrous shakeup at the CIA going to
be reported over the coming months? How much is the media going to
hamper the changes that Goss is obviously undertaking simply because
they're afraid of losing what little access they have? Has the WaPo set
the tone for the coverage of this event with this series of articles,
or is Goss going to be given a fair shot at reforming an agency which
the media has done nothing but criticize since 9/11? UPDATE: Jeff G. throws in his two cents.
UPDATE II: Jonathan Last disagrees with his Weekly Standard
compadre about whether all the hubbub is actually an indicator that
Goss is, indeed, cleaning house. Last has some valid insights, but I
completely disagree with his point that Goss need not piss off/clear
out all the entrenched bureaucrats to force the CIA to run efficiently,
citing FBI Director Muller's reform of the FBI as an example of what a
"skilled executive" can accomplish. Ah, nope. Sorry. That one's not
going to fly.
Muller took advantage of 9/11 in a way that Tenet was never forced to
do. He kept his job, and was never made to pay for the agency's
mistakes. Muller, however, took over the FBI in the days before 9/11:
no one in their right mind would ever slam him for the bureau's
mistakes, yet he took responsibility all the same and got to work.
Skill had very little to do with it, I believe, but more a thought that
if he goofed, his ass would be on the chopping block. For some unknown
reason, the CIA is cut more slack than the FBI. The FBI's spectacular
bungles over the past ten years have brought the bureau's vulnerability
to the fore. Muller knew this and acted accordingly.
The CIA and its employees, however, have never been called on the
carpet for all their goofs. They always seem to get away with it
because "they weren't funded well enough," or "their hands were tied
because of operating procedures," etc. The bureaucrats are too well
entrenched, and I truly believe that viper's pit has to be cleared out.
Goss, to my mind, knows this as well and he's using Patrick Murray to
do his dirty work. This way he gets to stay out of the fray and will be
able to lead when his time comes.
Posted by: Kathy at
10:58 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1230 words, total size 8 kb.
No, I'm not dead. I'm
No, I'm not dead. I'm still alive. And I've actually decided to grace
you with my presence for a little while.
As listed in the post below, I was very busy with the book...until
about Friday. Then the DSL went out. We have no internet access at our
house right now. As you can imagine, this is driving the husband nuts
(Mr. I Spend 15+ hours per day on the internet), and it's working its
voodoo on me as well. Fortunately, however, we live in the city: there
are a few free wi-fi hotspots within walking distance of the house,
which makes life convenient. The only issue I have with the coffee shop
that I'm currrently posting this from is that---ahem---the coffee sucks.
Gack.
It's horrible. Tastes more like the roasted carcass of Juan Valdez than
it does actual coffee. Blech. Not to mention, they roast their coffee
in the store. Mmmmmm. Yummmy. NOT!.
I used to work for a coffee company. There were reasons why we had an
actual roastery, operated by an actual roastmaster, and one of them
that was that we didn't want our customers to smell the fabu smell that
is burnt coffee beans. You'd think roasting coffee would smell good,
right? Brewing coffee smells good, right? Why should the actual
roasting process smell bad? Well, it does. The first reason is that
this place focuses on the French Roast---which as we all know is
designed to bring out the bean to its utmost charred and oily stage.
The second reason is that they have one roaster for all their coffee
and they're not cleaning it between batches of light roast and French Roast.
Hence you have the smell of burning coffee bean oil floating throughout
the shop because to roast your own coffee in the shop is quaint.
Gack. This doesn't smell good. I don't know what the hell they were
thinking when they decided that in-store roasting would be their sales
hook, but it wasn't smart
Anyway, beggars can't be choosers, right? Right. Anyway, while the
smell of roasting coffee is making me gag, and---of course---with this
being the Minneapolis Province of the People's Republic of Minnesota, I
can't smoke to my heart's content in here, there are still some perks
to this gig: one of them being having a good laugh at people trying to
parallel park. It's humorous. Do they not teach people how to do this
in Driver's Ed anymore? There is one spot right in front of my window:
prime coffee shop parking, if
you can maneuver your car into the spot. This spot has gone unoccupied
for about a half hour: three separate cars have tried to park in it,
and all three drivers have failed to back their cars into the spot,
which is actually about the length of a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado sedan. A
volvo wagon didn't crank her wheel hard enough and wound up about a
foot from the curb. Seeing her failure, she just pulled her car back
out in traffic and jammed around the block. Some Japanese SUV did the
same. And a itty bitty Nissan as well. It's pretty funny to see them
slam on the gas after one measly attempt to parallel park. You can tell
just by the way they slam on the gas that they just don't want to
bother with it; that it's too difficult and that they have better
things to spend their time on. Well, that's fine I guess. As long as
you can park in other places where you don't have to back into the
spot, but you live in---dare I say it?---a city, where parking is
scarce. If you can't parallel park by now, kids, you might as well just
start riding the bus. Ah, anyway, if you're in the neighborhood, stop
on by. I'm going to be here for a time, making my purchased coffee last
as long as I possibly can.
you with my presence for a little while.
As listed in the post below, I was very busy with the book...until
about Friday. Then the DSL went out. We have no internet access at our
house right now. As you can imagine, this is driving the husband nuts
(Mr. I Spend 15+ hours per day on the internet), and it's working its
voodoo on me as well. Fortunately, however, we live in the city: there
are a few free wi-fi hotspots within walking distance of the house,
which makes life convenient. The only issue I have with the coffee shop
that I'm currrently posting this from is that---ahem---the coffee sucks.
Gack.
It's horrible. Tastes more like the roasted carcass of Juan Valdez than
it does actual coffee. Blech. Not to mention, they roast their coffee
in the store. Mmmmmm. Yummmy. NOT!.
I used to work for a coffee company. There were reasons why we had an
actual roastery, operated by an actual roastmaster, and one of them
that was that we didn't want our customers to smell the fabu smell that
is burnt coffee beans. You'd think roasting coffee would smell good,
right? Brewing coffee smells good, right? Why should the actual
roasting process smell bad? Well, it does. The first reason is that
this place focuses on the French Roast---which as we all know is
designed to bring out the bean to its utmost charred and oily stage.
The second reason is that they have one roaster for all their coffee
and they're not cleaning it between batches of light roast and French Roast.
Hence you have the smell of burning coffee bean oil floating throughout
the shop because to roast your own coffee in the shop is quaint.
Gack. This doesn't smell good. I don't know what the hell they were
thinking when they decided that in-store roasting would be their sales
hook, but it wasn't smart
Anyway, beggars can't be choosers, right? Right. Anyway, while the
smell of roasting coffee is making me gag, and---of course---with this
being the Minneapolis Province of the People's Republic of Minnesota, I
can't smoke to my heart's content in here, there are still some perks
to this gig: one of them being having a good laugh at people trying to
parallel park. It's humorous. Do they not teach people how to do this
in Driver's Ed anymore? There is one spot right in front of my window:
prime coffee shop parking, if
you can maneuver your car into the spot. This spot has gone unoccupied
for about a half hour: three separate cars have tried to park in it,
and all three drivers have failed to back their cars into the spot,
which is actually about the length of a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado sedan. A
volvo wagon didn't crank her wheel hard enough and wound up about a
foot from the curb. Seeing her failure, she just pulled her car back
out in traffic and jammed around the block. Some Japanese SUV did the
same. And a itty bitty Nissan as well. It's pretty funny to see them
slam on the gas after one measly attempt to parallel park. You can tell
just by the way they slam on the gas that they just don't want to
bother with it; that it's too difficult and that they have better
things to spend their time on. Well, that's fine I guess. As long as
you can park in other places where you don't have to back into the
spot, but you live in---dare I say it?---a city, where parking is
scarce. If you can't parallel park by now, kids, you might as well just
start riding the bus. Ah, anyway, if you're in the neighborhood, stop
on by. I'm going to be here for a time, making my purchased coffee last
as long as I possibly can.
Posted by: Kathy at
10:51 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 668 words, total size 4 kb.
According to CNN, Kerry has
According to CNN, Kerry has called President Bush and has conceded the
election.
He will be giving his concession speech at Faneuil Hall in Boston
around 1pm EST. After which, President Bush will give his victory
speech!
Thank frickin' God!
UPDATE: Here's the link to the AP story
I tip my hat to Kerry. Well done, sir, and you have proved yourself to
be a classy man. I will admit I was very afraid when I woke up this
morning and it still hadn't been decided that he would listen to the
same factions in his party that convinced Al Gore to bring us into
recount hell in 2000, Bush's massive electoral gains around the country
notwithstanding. I am very happy to see that Kerry will not throw the
country into recount hell on a misguided whim. Perhaps he might have
made a good president after all. I don't know, but he's got his
priorities in the right place on this one.
The thing that interests me is how the Democratic Party will regroup
after this stunning defeat. They lost the presidency and they made
absolutely no gains in the House or the Senate. I haven't paid
attention to the Gubernatorial races, so I have no idea if they made
gains there, but I would think it's obvious that the trend is shifting
right across the board. When are they going to realize this, and adjust
their message accordingly, or are they going to stick their heads in
the sand, play up to the moonbat section of the party, and completely
ignore the message that has been thrown through their window? In other
words, now that their message has been found faulty, will they readjust
their message or will they stick with the cult of personality politics
they've been so fond of since Bill Clinton---trusting that if their
message is delivered by someone the majority of the country finds
palatable they'll succeed.
I don't know. It sounds like a losing strategy to me, but hey, that's
just me.
election.
He will be giving his concession speech at Faneuil Hall in Boston
around 1pm EST. After which, President Bush will give his victory
speech!
Thank frickin' God!
UPDATE: Here's the link to the AP story
After a long, tense night of vote counting, the Democrat
called Bush Wednesday to concede Ohio and the presidency, The
Associated Press learned. Kerry ended his quest, concluding one of the
most expensive and bitterly contested races on record, with a call to
the president shortly after 11 a.m. EST, according to two officials
familiar with the conversation.
I tip my hat to Kerry. Well done, sir, and you have proved yourself to
be a classy man. I will admit I was very afraid when I woke up this
morning and it still hadn't been decided that he would listen to the
same factions in his party that convinced Al Gore to bring us into
recount hell in 2000, Bush's massive electoral gains around the country
notwithstanding. I am very happy to see that Kerry will not throw the
country into recount hell on a misguided whim. Perhaps he might have
made a good president after all. I don't know, but he's got his
priorities in the right place on this one.
The thing that interests me is how the Democratic Party will regroup
after this stunning defeat. They lost the presidency and they made
absolutely no gains in the House or the Senate. I haven't paid
attention to the Gubernatorial races, so I have no idea if they made
gains there, but I would think it's obvious that the trend is shifting
right across the board. When are they going to realize this, and adjust
their message accordingly, or are they going to stick their heads in
the sand, play up to the moonbat section of the party, and completely
ignore the message that has been thrown through their window? In other
words, now that their message has been found faulty, will they readjust
their message or will they stick with the cult of personality politics
they've been so fond of since Bill Clinton---trusting that if their
message is delivered by someone the majority of the country finds
palatable they'll succeed.
I don't know. It sounds like a losing strategy to me, but hey, that's
just me.
Posted by: Kathy at
10:32 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 406 words, total size 2 kb.
Heh.
Heh.
Posted by: Kathy at
10:22 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 3 words, total size 1 kb.
The other day when Suha
The other day when Suha Arafat freaked out on Al-Jazeera, I was
wondering what she was playing at. Turns out, she was looking out for
number one: namely, herself. According to DEBKA:
In other words, Yassir wasn't going to be allowed "to die" until Sufa
got hers. And the Palestinian Authority will be footing her bill until she cacks. Yet, I think there's a little more to it. We get Forbes here at the house and I remembered seeing Yassir on one of those lists that they so enjoy publishing. According to Forbes:
So, my question would be, if Yassir's supposedly worth at least$200M,
why isn't his wife being paid off out of that money, instead of having
the PA foot the bill? I realize that amount would only keep her in her
extraordinary lifestyle for ten years or so, but still...$200M isn't
exactly chump change. Especially not with interest tacked on. Now, it's
important to keep in mind that $200M is only what Forbes
thinks Yassir's worth: they don't know for sure. All of their numbers
are, generally speaking, best guesses, (yes, and that even includes how
much they claim Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are worth, too) and often
Forbes gets them wrong. They didn't mention the missing $900M
that was siphoned off from the PA for shits and giggles, either. I
would hazard a guess that they think Yassir's got the loot stashed
away, but they can't prove it. Neither is it insignificant that they
mention Sufa was/is being investigated by the French for receiving a
large chunk of change from an account in Switzerland. Hmmmm. What does
this add up to? Well, I'm not sure, but it does bring up some
interesting questions, doesn't it? It also makes her "Yassir's ALIVE!"
fit seem like, well, a diversionary tactic. I don't know and it's
important to mention that this is all speculation on my part, but I
would like to know how much did Sufa know about the missing $900M and
if she parlayed that into $22M a year for the rest of her life. It
might be unlikely that Sufa, a woman living in Paris, far from
Ramallah, would have any information or doings with the management of
that money, particularly given how Islamic women are treated most of
the time, but it does make some sense, in a limited sort of way.
Someone was needed to look after all those accounts, and that someone
needed to be placed on the continent, for easy access. Swiss banking
rules have tightened up over the years, and while it's still possible
to transfer ungodly amounts of money via a phone call or a fax, you
still need someone there to look after regulatory issues, like keeping
the bank manager happy. Also, if she's receiving wire transfers from
Switzerland, into her personal account, well, that might be an opening
into learning about how much she knows. How many other transfers did
she receive that the French government doesn't know about? The only way
that having the PA foot the bill for her extravagant lifestyle, when
they could have easily told her to piss up a rope given what the world
knows about Yassir's net worth, makes any sort of sense is that she
held out the return of all that loot as incentive for them to play her
game.
I don't know. My mind could be running away with me, but I still think
there's more to it than just keeping Yassir "alive." That's not a big
enough trump card to play, in my humble estimation, to get the PA to
cough up all that loot. That all this is going on while Palestinians
suffer should be unbelievable. Unfortuately, given Yassir's actions in
the past, it's not. Apparently he taught his wife a few tricks on how
to play the game. {hat tip: Fausta. See also: Roger Simon}
UPDATE: 11/01/2004 Steve-o suggests that they can get Stifler's mom to play her in the movie.
Although, if she offers you scotch, I would recommend running the other way.
wondering what she was playing at. Turns out, she was looking out for
number one: namely, herself. According to DEBKA:
Tuesday, November 11, Suha Arafat̢۪s French lawyers and
former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), struck a
deal. It fixed the Palestinian Authority̢۪s financial obligations to
Yasser Arafat̢۪s widow and let him finally die unambiguously and in
peace at the end of a morbid tug of war between his wife and
Palestinian Authority leaders. But this did not happen immediately. The
confusion surrounding Arafat’s condition for eleven days –
officially alive, unofficially dead – was to be sustained a little
longer – mainly to save Mrs Arafat’s face. The settlement allowed a
funeral to be arranged on “Orphan Friday†of Ramadan, November 12
(as DEBKAfile reported earlier) – unless a new crisis pops up. Our
sources have seen some of the principle terms of the Palestinian accord
with Suha Arafat. {...} Last July, Arafat sent his wife $11 million to
cover her living expenses and those of their daughter for six months -
$1.8 million per month. The
new accord guarantees her the same allowance from the Palestinian
Authority as a regular annual remittance, i.e. $22 million per annum,
for the rest of her life. Abu Mazen and prime minister Ahmed Qureia
(Abu Ala) signed on the dotted line, although they have no notion how
the penniless Palestinian Authority faced with a people in dire poverty
can possibly stump up this kind of money.
In other words, Yassir wasn't going to be allowed "to die" until Sufa
got hers. And the Palestinian Authority will be footing her bill until she cacks. Yet, I think there's a little more to it. We get Forbes here at the house and I remembered seeing Yassir on one of those lists that they so enjoy publishing. According to Forbes:
Yassir Arafat, President Palestinian Authority
Net Worth: $200 million Skillfully deflected attempts by the U.S. and
Israel to diminish his power in the Palestinian territories. His access
to funding has been curtailed by Salam Fayyad, the PA's reform-minded
finance minister. Arafat's office still enjoys a $74 million yearly
budget--6% of the PA's annual budget--but funds are closely monitored.
This after the International Monetary Fund estimated that $900 million
had been siphoned out of the PA from 1995 through 2000, much still
unaccounted for. Wife Suha reportedly under investigation by French
authorities regarding $11 million transferred to her bank account from
an unnamed Swiss institution.
So, my question would be, if Yassir's supposedly worth at least$200M,
why isn't his wife being paid off out of that money, instead of having
the PA foot the bill? I realize that amount would only keep her in her
extraordinary lifestyle for ten years or so, but still...$200M isn't
exactly chump change. Especially not with interest tacked on. Now, it's
important to keep in mind that $200M is only what Forbes
thinks Yassir's worth: they don't know for sure. All of their numbers
are, generally speaking, best guesses, (yes, and that even includes how
much they claim Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are worth, too) and often
Forbes gets them wrong. They didn't mention the missing $900M
that was siphoned off from the PA for shits and giggles, either. I
would hazard a guess that they think Yassir's got the loot stashed
away, but they can't prove it. Neither is it insignificant that they
mention Sufa was/is being investigated by the French for receiving a
large chunk of change from an account in Switzerland. Hmmmm. What does
this add up to? Well, I'm not sure, but it does bring up some
interesting questions, doesn't it? It also makes her "Yassir's ALIVE!"
fit seem like, well, a diversionary tactic. I don't know and it's
important to mention that this is all speculation on my part, but I
would like to know how much did Sufa know about the missing $900M and
if she parlayed that into $22M a year for the rest of her life. It
might be unlikely that Sufa, a woman living in Paris, far from
Ramallah, would have any information or doings with the management of
that money, particularly given how Islamic women are treated most of
the time, but it does make some sense, in a limited sort of way.
Someone was needed to look after all those accounts, and that someone
needed to be placed on the continent, for easy access. Swiss banking
rules have tightened up over the years, and while it's still possible
to transfer ungodly amounts of money via a phone call or a fax, you
still need someone there to look after regulatory issues, like keeping
the bank manager happy. Also, if she's receiving wire transfers from
Switzerland, into her personal account, well, that might be an opening
into learning about how much she knows. How many other transfers did
she receive that the French government doesn't know about? The only way
that having the PA foot the bill for her extravagant lifestyle, when
they could have easily told her to piss up a rope given what the world
knows about Yassir's net worth, makes any sort of sense is that she
held out the return of all that loot as incentive for them to play her
game.
I don't know. My mind could be running away with me, but I still think
there's more to it than just keeping Yassir "alive." That's not a big
enough trump card to play, in my humble estimation, to get the PA to
cough up all that loot. That all this is going on while Palestinians
suffer should be unbelievable. Unfortuately, given Yassir's actions in
the past, it's not. Apparently he taught his wife a few tricks on how
to play the game. {hat tip: Fausta. See also: Roger Simon}
UPDATE: 11/01/2004 Steve-o suggests that they can get Stifler's mom to play her in the movie.
Although, if she offers you scotch, I would recommend running the other way.
Posted by: Kathy at
10:16 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1017 words, total size 7 kb.
I know everyone's going to
I know everyone's going to link this article, but damn, I cannot help myself. I just flat-out love the way Peggy Noonan writes.
While I don't believe a word of it, or, at best, think it's a wee bit
exaggerated, I've never been more flattered to be a blogger. And, of
course, I'm currently writing this, a steaming cup of coffee resting
beside the laptop...in my pajamas.
Who was the biggest loser of the 2004 election? It is easy
to say Mr. Kerry: he was a poor candidate with a poor campaign. But I
do think the biggest loser was the mainstream media, the famous MSM,
the initials that became popular in this election cycle. Every time the
big networks and big broadsheet national newspapers tried to pull off a
bit of pro-liberal mischief--CBS and the fabricated Bush National Guard
documents, the New York Times and bombgate, CBS's "60 Minutes"
attempting to coordinate the breaking of bombgate on the Sunday before
the election--the yeomen of the blogosphere and AM radio and the
Internet took them down. It was to me a great historical development in
the history of politics in America. It was Agincourt. It was the yeomen
of King Harry taking down the French aristocracy with new technology
and rough guts. God bless the pajama-clad yeomen of America. Some day,
when America is hit again, and lines go down, and media are hard to
get, these bloggers and site runners and independent Internetters of
all sorts will find a way to file, and get their word out, and it will
be part of the saving of our country.
While I don't believe a word of it, or, at best, think it's a wee bit
exaggerated, I've never been more flattered to be a blogger. And, of
course, I'm currently writing this, a steaming cup of coffee resting
beside the laptop...in my pajamas.
Posted by: Kathy at
10:14 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 279 words, total size 2 kb.
Did you see that Iowa
Did you see that Iowa State beat Nebraska on Saturday?
Ahem
WOO-FRICKIN'-HOO! GO CLONES!Surprisingly
enough, this win puts them at the top of the Big 12 North. Hmmmph.
Not to diss the boys in Ames, but the Big 12 North must really suck
this year if that's the case.
Ahem
WOO-FRICKIN'-HOO! GO CLONES!Surprisingly
enough, this win puts them at the top of the Big 12 North. Hmmmph.
Not to diss the boys in Ames, but the Big 12 North must really suck
this year if that's the case.
Posted by: Kathy at
09:18 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 59 words, total size 1 kb.
"In time of war, if
"In time of war, if you go through a bad neighborhood, I don't want a little French poodle, I want a rottweiler on my hands."
--- Gene Simmons, on why he voted for Bush, rather than Kerry.
God, I love it when he opens that oversized mouth of his.
--- Gene Simmons, on why he voted for Bush, rather than Kerry.
God, I love it when he opens that oversized mouth of his.
Posted by: Kathy at
09:10 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 59 words, total size 1 kb.
To: The Washington Post From:
To: The Washington Post
From: Me
Re: Arafat's Death
I hate to tell y'all this, but Arafat was a Muslim, hence he can't ever go up for canonization. I'm no imam, but I'm pretty sure they don't have saints in Islam.
Which means, on the whole, you might want to leave off with publishing sentences like,
Or this
Or this
Or this
Or this
Or this
Or this
I could go on, but I think you get the gist. The reverential tones you
have employed for the obituary of a terrorist are entirely unpalatable
and would be making me gag, provided I'd eaten breakfast this morning.I
haven't yet.But after reading that piece of crap, I don't believe I
will be for fear of losing it.
From: Me
Re: Arafat's Death
I hate to tell y'all this, but Arafat was a Muslim, hence he can't ever go up for canonization. I'm no imam, but I'm pretty sure they don't have saints in Islam.
Which means, on the whole, you might want to leave off with publishing sentences like,
For virtually his entire adult life, Yasser Arafat had one
dream, and he pursued it with such energy and zeal -- some would say
fanaticism -- that he came to personify the dream itself.
Or this
By dint of ruthless violence often directed at civilians,
artful manipulation and the sheer theatrical force of his personality,
he managed almost single-handedly to elevate the grievances of a few
million disenfranchised Palestinians to a prominent place on the
world's political agenda.
Or this
He was reviled by many Israelis, who saw in him a
modern-day Hitler, revered by many Arabs, who loved him for restoring
their shattered sense of honor, and lionized by the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, which awarded him the Peace Prize in 1994.
Or this
His trademark black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh headdress,
folded and draped meticulously to describe the shape of Palestine,
became a sartorial symbol not only for the Palestinian cause but for
Third World revolutions in the Cold War era. The fascination with his
persona was so great that dozens of Western interlocutors felt
compelled to ask him why he kept his scruffy salt-and-pepper beard (he
liked it) and why he didn't marry (he finally did, at 61).
Or this
Still, few doubted his knack for survival, the product of astonishing talent, luck or intuition.
Or this
He was a born activist, obsessed with Arab politics and the
fate of Palestine by the time he was a teenager, and he was endowed
with a knack for ingratiating himself with his peers and leading them.
While a college student, he plunged further into the cause, and before
he was 19, he was helping to buy and ship arms to Arabs in Palestine in
the twilight of the British Mandate.
Or this
He seemed an odd choice to lead them; his family lived in
Cairo, and unlike the men he commanded, he had not been driven from his
home by Zionists. Yet none was as dedicated as Arafat. He neither
smoked nor drank, cared little for restaurants or European travel, had
no family and made little time for women. The Palestinian cause was his
life.
I could go on, but I think you get the gist. The reverential tones you
have employed for the obituary of a terrorist are entirely unpalatable
and would be making me gag, provided I'd eaten breakfast this morning.I
haven't yet.But after reading that piece of crap, I don't believe I
will be for fear of losing it.
Posted by: Kathy at
08:31 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 476 words, total size 3 kb.
Most of the networks have
Most of the networks have called MN for Kerry.
Ummm, the husband begs to differ.
And I quote:
As of 12:47 am CST on this site,
there are 2,265,433 voters reported, and so far 76% of the precincts
have reported. That leaves approximately 543,000 votes left to report.
The margin for Kerry at this time is 91,381 votes. If the remaining
votes split 60/40 for Bush, the totals would be: Bush - 1,366,221 and
Kerry - 1,348,862. Judging by the other results of the outlying MN
counties, a 60/40 split in favor of Bush is very likely.
UPDATE: I don't think it's going anywhere, and I'm going to bed because I'm freaking tired.
The networks are pussies. They could have called Iowa an hour ago.
Shitheads.
Also, Teddy Kennedy is an asshole.
Ummm, the husband begs to differ.
And I quote:
As of 12:47 am CST on this site,
there are 2,265,433 voters reported, and so far 76% of the precincts
have reported. That leaves approximately 543,000 votes left to report.
The margin for Kerry at this time is 91,381 votes. If the remaining
votes split 60/40 for Bush, the totals would be: Bush - 1,366,221 and
Kerry - 1,348,862. Judging by the other results of the outlying MN
counties, a 60/40 split in favor of Bush is very likely.
UPDATE: I don't think it's going anywhere, and I'm going to bed because I'm freaking tired.
The networks are pussies. They could have called Iowa an hour ago.
Shitheads.
Also, Teddy Kennedy is an asshole.
Posted by: Kathy at
01:59 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 142 words, total size 1 kb.
This woman needs to stop
This woman needs to stop driving in circles.
Somehow, this woman who apparently is intelligent enough to win the
frickin' Peace Prize , yet isn't smart enough to realize that Shari'a
isn't ever going to allow her to publish her seminal work...ever.
Yet, somehow, she believes she's entitled to publish her work here,
even though there's a law against doing just that, because Iran is a
repressive country that sponsors terrorism worldwide and the United
States has said we shouldn't do business with them.
Hmmmm. To be clear about it, Ebadi, has gone on record claiming that
Shari'a---particularly the Iranian version of it---is a valid form of
law. Even though she was a judge and the mullahs don't think she's
qualified to be one anymore because she's a woman.
Even though the people she defends have generally been shafted one way
or another by the government because they've run afoul of Islamic law.
She still thinks this system works; she's just advocating her clients
and perhaps striking a blow here or there.
Ahem. Bitch, if you want to publish your work here, move here. Only
then you will be entitled to conduct commerce on our shores. If you
want to publish your work in Iran, well then maybe you should stop
supporting repressive legal systems and work toward a free society.
One, in particular, that respects women and treats them as equals. I,
for one, don't want to read a book about a "{..}a woman, a mother and a
lawyer living and working in a country that confronts many human rights
problems." And I really don't want to read a book written by a woman
who supports a country she claims "confronts human rights problems"
when it's obvious even to Stevie Wonder that Iran is all about doing
precisely the opposite. To quote John McClane: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Stop being part of the problem.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi
has sued the United States because its economic embargo on Iran is
blocking publication of her memoirs in America, a literary agency said
on Wednesday. Iranian human rights lawyer Ebadi said she wanted to
write a book for a U.S. and international audience about her life and
career "as a woman, a mother and a lawyer living and working in a
country that confronts many human rights problems." The suit filed by
Ebadi and the Strothman Agency seeks to strike down U.S. Treasury
Department regulations requiring a license to publish authors from
embargoed countries such as Iran -- a nation dubbed in 2002 as part of
the "axis of evil" by President Bush along with Iraq and North Korea.
"The ... regulations seem to defy the values the United States promotes
throughout the world, which always include free expression and the free
exchange of ideas," Ebadi, who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, said in
a filing to the court. She has completed a draft of the book in Farsi
but needs the help of an agent and editor in America to translate and
re-write the book for international readers, she said. But Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) rules are blocking her from signing a
contract with the Boston-based Strothman Agency, which wants to
represent her and negotiate with publishers on her behalf.
Somehow, this woman who apparently is intelligent enough to win the
frickin' Peace Prize , yet isn't smart enough to realize that Shari'a
isn't ever going to allow her to publish her seminal work...ever.
Yet, somehow, she believes she's entitled to publish her work here,
even though there's a law against doing just that, because Iran is a
repressive country that sponsors terrorism worldwide and the United
States has said we shouldn't do business with them.
Hmmmm. To be clear about it, Ebadi, has gone on record claiming that
Shari'a---particularly the Iranian version of it---is a valid form of
law. Even though she was a judge and the mullahs don't think she's
qualified to be one anymore because she's a woman.
Even though the people she defends have generally been shafted one way
or another by the government because they've run afoul of Islamic law.
She still thinks this system works; she's just advocating her clients
and perhaps striking a blow here or there.
Ahem. Bitch, if you want to publish your work here, move here. Only
then you will be entitled to conduct commerce on our shores. If you
want to publish your work in Iran, well then maybe you should stop
supporting repressive legal systems and work toward a free society.
One, in particular, that respects women and treats them as equals. I,
for one, don't want to read a book about a "{..}a woman, a mother and a
lawyer living and working in a country that confronts many human rights
problems." And I really don't want to read a book written by a woman
who supports a country she claims "confronts human rights problems"
when it's obvious even to Stevie Wonder that Iran is all about doing
precisely the opposite. To quote John McClane: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Stop being part of the problem.
Posted by: Kathy at
01:26 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 567 words, total size 3 kb.
(Ha Ha. Get it?) Lileks:
(Ha Ha. Get it?)
Lileks:
Oh, please. He's getting it all wrong.
First off, Caribou is trying to sell you a lifestyle.
I know. I used to sell the lifestyle. Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but
they do have CD's for sale. They've also got neato travel mugs, too.
And little stuffed Caribous. They've even got a drink called The Campfire Mocha
which, as Mr. H. made me taste the other day, is a combination of
chocoate, coffee and marshmallow flavoring, designed to make you
remember the smores you concocted over the campfire when you were a wee
cub scout. The one organic blend they have is Rainforest---which I will
fully admit is garbage---but the minute you mention "organic" people
are all over it like white on an albino. They're trying to sell you the
Caribou lifestyle, which is something like "stop by the Bou on
your way up to the North Woods! We won't care if you're decked out in a
thousand dollars worth of Patagonia fleece and look absolutely
ridiculous, we don't care!" Second, of course, there are also
pretentious backstories for the coffee. You just won't get the story
unless you sidle up to the counter to buy a pound of beans, or the
employee behind the counter has time to blow. The La Minita Peaberry, for example, is a special kind of coffee, or so I told my customers. It's
exclusive to Caribou. A peaberry is a rare coffee bean, only one out of
every twenty beans that are picked are peaberries: they look like a
little football and have a denser flavor to them. La Minita is our
plantation in Costa Rica, and we purchase all of the peaberry. No one
else has it, and we only have it for a limited time. Oh, well, it is
expensive, but I can tell you because it's what I keep on hand at
home---when I'm able to get it---that you won't run through it as
quickly as you would a normal coffee bean. Because of its denseness you
get more ground coffee from one peaberry than you'll get from ... I
think you get the picture: part bargain (which, to this day, I will
stand by because it's true), part yuppy buying incentive because of the
exclusiveness, and part romantic ideal that this is coming to them
straight from the mountains of Costa Rica. He misses all that, but then
when it's time to get down to brass tacks, he says the coffee "{...}it
has a burnt and oily quality that reminds me of . . . well, Starbucks."
Oh, my. Where to start?
1. While Caribou is more than pretentious in many aspects, what they
are not pretentious about is how they care for their beans. They do
care. While it sounds pretentious in itself, Carbiou tailors the roast
of the beans to the natural flavor of the varietals (i.e. Costa Rica,
Kenya, Ethiopia) and blends (Daybreak, French Roast, Espresso). In
other words, since Kenya has a lot of flavor naturally, you wouldn't
want to lose that flavor by burning
it. Conversely, the beans that comprised the French Roast blend were
ones that were best served by being roasted in the flames of hell for a
long period of time. I explained this to, literally, thousands of
customers over the three years I worked for Caribou, and you wouldn't
believe how many of them simply refused to believe that Caribou's Kenya
is what Kenya should taste like. The story would go something like
this: I had a great Kenyan AA at (insert some random store name
here)in (insert random city name here) and it was the best thing I ever
had. That's what Kenya should taste like. It tasted nothing like your version.
Taste is a peculiar thing; when you're commodotizing something that's
already been commodotized a thousand times over, by a thousand
different people, you're never going to win.
I have no idea what kind of coffee Lileks has set in his mind as the
coffee standard, but Caribou's coffees, unless you're specifically
drinking the dark roasts, aren't going to taste burnt. They just don't.
2. I never thought Lileks would fall prey to an urban myth, but he has.
Contrary to what Melita tells you when it sells its filters---ahem---there is supposed to be oil in the coffee when it is brewed because that's where the flavor comes from. Like, duh.
There should be an oily residue on your tongue when you take a sip
because, again, that's where the flavor comes from. This is a texture
issue not one of taste. There's a difference. A cup of brewed coffee
without oil on the top is sludge. I can't tell you how many people I've
had to disabuse of this stupid myth over years of selling coffee. If
you want coffee without oil swirling around the top, well, start
drinking Folgers brewed through a filter thicker than your average
dishcloth. 3. When I worked for the Bou, the worst thing anyone could
ever say to us was that our coffee tasted like Starbucks. Not only did
we have to deal with people coming in and ordering a "Vente
Frappacino," we were being held to the standards of a chain that
honestly couldn't have given a rat's ass about its coffee. It was an
uphill slog and it still is for the people who work at Caribou. I still
won't spend money at Starbucks. I refuse to. There was a reason why we
gave them the nickname "Charbucks." They roast the hell out of their
beans, (because, cough, cough, they buy cheapo wholesale beans!) and
all that fabulous flavor that's naturally imbued into the bean is lost
because they're tailoring their product toward a customer who sincerely
believes that the darker the roast, the higher the caffeine content.
(Another myth: the lighter roasts on Caribou's scale,
like Kenya have a higher caffeine content.) I would recommend that
Lileks try the lighter roasts, like Daybreak or even the LaMinita if
the store has it brewed that day. That's what coffee is
supposed to taste like. Honestly, some days it was like being a
sommelier at a five star restaurant and having to convince people that
no, Night Train is not what wine is supposed to taste like.
I totally realize this throws me completely into the geek department, but I don't go off and critique Star Trek
episodes, do I? Nope. I don't. I don't touch them with a ten foot
cattle prod. Mainly because you couldn't pay me to, but also because I
don't know anything about it. I do, however, know a lot about Caribou
and I honestly believed in the product when I was selling it for a
living, and I still believe in it because that's where all my coffee
comes from when we can afford it. They put out a good product. If
you're looking for me to slag off on them, well bring up their
management compensation/promotion plan and I'll go to town!
Lileks:
{...}What matters is the quality of coffee. I don̢۪t like
Caribou Coffee very much; it has a burnt and oily quality that reminds
me of . . . well, Starbucks. But at least Caribou isn̢۪t trying to
sell me a Lifestyle, and Starbucks always tries to flatter me with CDs
and bookstore tie-ins and pretentious backstories for the various
blends. {...}
Oh, please. He's getting it all wrong.
First off, Caribou is trying to sell you a lifestyle.
I know. I used to sell the lifestyle. Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but
they do have CD's for sale. They've also got neato travel mugs, too.
And little stuffed Caribous. They've even got a drink called The Campfire Mocha
which, as Mr. H. made me taste the other day, is a combination of
chocoate, coffee and marshmallow flavoring, designed to make you
remember the smores you concocted over the campfire when you were a wee
cub scout. The one organic blend they have is Rainforest---which I will
fully admit is garbage---but the minute you mention "organic" people
are all over it like white on an albino. They're trying to sell you the
Caribou lifestyle, which is something like "stop by the Bou on
your way up to the North Woods! We won't care if you're decked out in a
thousand dollars worth of Patagonia fleece and look absolutely
ridiculous, we don't care!" Second, of course, there are also
pretentious backstories for the coffee. You just won't get the story
unless you sidle up to the counter to buy a pound of beans, or the
employee behind the counter has time to blow. The La Minita Peaberry, for example, is a special kind of coffee, or so I told my customers. It's
exclusive to Caribou. A peaberry is a rare coffee bean, only one out of
every twenty beans that are picked are peaberries: they look like a
little football and have a denser flavor to them. La Minita is our
plantation in Costa Rica, and we purchase all of the peaberry. No one
else has it, and we only have it for a limited time. Oh, well, it is
expensive, but I can tell you because it's what I keep on hand at
home---when I'm able to get it---that you won't run through it as
quickly as you would a normal coffee bean. Because of its denseness you
get more ground coffee from one peaberry than you'll get from ... I
think you get the picture: part bargain (which, to this day, I will
stand by because it's true), part yuppy buying incentive because of the
exclusiveness, and part romantic ideal that this is coming to them
straight from the mountains of Costa Rica. He misses all that, but then
when it's time to get down to brass tacks, he says the coffee "{...}it
has a burnt and oily quality that reminds me of . . . well, Starbucks."
Oh, my. Where to start?
1. While Caribou is more than pretentious in many aspects, what they
are not pretentious about is how they care for their beans. They do
care. While it sounds pretentious in itself, Carbiou tailors the roast
of the beans to the natural flavor of the varietals (i.e. Costa Rica,
Kenya, Ethiopia) and blends (Daybreak, French Roast, Espresso). In
other words, since Kenya has a lot of flavor naturally, you wouldn't
want to lose that flavor by burning
it. Conversely, the beans that comprised the French Roast blend were
ones that were best served by being roasted in the flames of hell for a
long period of time. I explained this to, literally, thousands of
customers over the three years I worked for Caribou, and you wouldn't
believe how many of them simply refused to believe that Caribou's Kenya
is what Kenya should taste like. The story would go something like
this: I had a great Kenyan AA at (insert some random store name
here)in (insert random city name here) and it was the best thing I ever
had. That's what Kenya should taste like. It tasted nothing like your version.
Taste is a peculiar thing; when you're commodotizing something that's
already been commodotized a thousand times over, by a thousand
different people, you're never going to win.
I have no idea what kind of coffee Lileks has set in his mind as the
coffee standard, but Caribou's coffees, unless you're specifically
drinking the dark roasts, aren't going to taste burnt. They just don't.
2. I never thought Lileks would fall prey to an urban myth, but he has.
Contrary to what Melita tells you when it sells its filters---ahem---there is supposed to be oil in the coffee when it is brewed because that's where the flavor comes from. Like, duh.
There should be an oily residue on your tongue when you take a sip
because, again, that's where the flavor comes from. This is a texture
issue not one of taste. There's a difference. A cup of brewed coffee
without oil on the top is sludge. I can't tell you how many people I've
had to disabuse of this stupid myth over years of selling coffee. If
you want coffee without oil swirling around the top, well, start
drinking Folgers brewed through a filter thicker than your average
dishcloth. 3. When I worked for the Bou, the worst thing anyone could
ever say to us was that our coffee tasted like Starbucks. Not only did
we have to deal with people coming in and ordering a "Vente
Frappacino," we were being held to the standards of a chain that
honestly couldn't have given a rat's ass about its coffee. It was an
uphill slog and it still is for the people who work at Caribou. I still
won't spend money at Starbucks. I refuse to. There was a reason why we
gave them the nickname "Charbucks." They roast the hell out of their
beans, (because, cough, cough, they buy cheapo wholesale beans!) and
all that fabulous flavor that's naturally imbued into the bean is lost
because they're tailoring their product toward a customer who sincerely
believes that the darker the roast, the higher the caffeine content.
(Another myth: the lighter roasts on Caribou's scale,
like Kenya have a higher caffeine content.) I would recommend that
Lileks try the lighter roasts, like Daybreak or even the LaMinita if
the store has it brewed that day. That's what coffee is
supposed to taste like. Honestly, some days it was like being a
sommelier at a five star restaurant and having to convince people that
no, Night Train is not what wine is supposed to taste like.
I totally realize this throws me completely into the geek department, but I don't go off and critique Star Trek
episodes, do I? Nope. I don't. I don't touch them with a ten foot
cattle prod. Mainly because you couldn't pay me to, but also because I
don't know anything about it. I do, however, know a lot about Caribou
and I honestly believed in the product when I was selling it for a
living, and I still believe in it because that's where all my coffee
comes from when we can afford it. They put out a good product. If
you're looking for me to slag off on them, well bring up their
management compensation/promotion plan and I'll go to town!
Posted by: Kathy at
01:01 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1243 words, total size 7 kb.
So, sometime this week is
So, sometime this week is my birthday. My brother, Tim, sent me a card,
like he usually does. Accompanying the card was a CD of pics from his
recent trip to Kauai. Bastard. Does he send me a present? Nope. Does he
send me a gift certificate for a facial? Nope. Does he send me cash?
Nope. He sends me none of these things. Instead, for my
birthday he chooses to send me pictures of his and his wife's 15th
anniversary trip to Hawaii. And this after I downloaded a batch of
music and fried a CD for him, especially for his trip. So, you know,
he'd have something to listen to on the long flight over. Since I have
nothing better to do, I thought I'd share with you all. Because I'm
generous like that. Unlike my brother*.
*And Timmy, should you be making one of your infrequent
stops here, realize that this is a JOKE and that I really do like the
pictures very much. But you still could have forked out for a facial.
Really.
Of course, should you be of the opinion that bigger really is better, click on the photo for, er, enlargement.
That's Darlene, Tim's Wife. She's totally innocent in all of this.
I could spend a few hours there. Wouldn't hurt me at all.
Apparently, they took a cruise around the island.
More hot boat action.
Kauai is beautiful. Who knew?
Check out the whale!
Smooooke on the mountain....
Of course, you must have a little romantic sunset action. It is their 15th wedding anniversary, after all.
Speaking
of which, today is their anniversary. So....
Happy Anniversary, Tim and Dar!
like he usually does. Accompanying the card was a CD of pics from his
recent trip to Kauai. Bastard. Does he send me a present? Nope. Does he
send me a gift certificate for a facial? Nope. Does he send me cash?
Nope. He sends me none of these things. Instead, for my
birthday he chooses to send me pictures of his and his wife's 15th
anniversary trip to Hawaii. And this after I downloaded a batch of
music and fried a CD for him, especially for his trip. So, you know,
he'd have something to listen to on the long flight over. Since I have
nothing better to do, I thought I'd share with you all. Because I'm
generous like that. Unlike my brother*.
*And Timmy, should you be making one of your infrequent
stops here, realize that this is a JOKE and that I really do like the
pictures very much. But you still could have forked out for a facial.
Really.
Of course, should you be of the opinion that bigger really is better, click on the photo for, er, enlargement.
That's Darlene, Tim's Wife. She's totally innocent in all of this.
I could spend a few hours there. Wouldn't hurt me at all.
Apparently, they took a cruise around the island.
More hot boat action.
Kauai is beautiful. Who knew?
Check out the whale!
Smooooke on the mountain....
Of course, you must have a little romantic sunset action. It is their 15th wedding anniversary, after all.
Speaking
of which, today is their anniversary. So....
Happy Anniversary, Tim and Dar!
Posted by: Kathy at
12:29 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 287 words, total size 4 kb.
91kb generated in CPU 0.0244, elapsed 0.0998 seconds.
48 queries taking 0.0899 seconds, 177 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
48 queries taking 0.0899 seconds, 177 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
