Tag: The Stars Hollow Gazette

You can listen to it here.

Because I just can’t get enough statistics.

It being the 6 month anniversary and all and having just passed our 5,000th essay and 100,000th comment I thought I’d take a look at the stats for our Admin board.  

Just as an aside Front Pagers, and you know who you are, you really should register and check out Scheduling Dharma before you post or promote to the Front Page.

4093 entries.

budhy surprisingly enough is in the lead with 784 posts followed closely by me at 773.  Others in the triple digits are Turkana at 411, pfiore8 with 399, On The Bus at 278, Nightprowlkitty with 205, and Robyn at 118.

And this amazingly slight essay will be my 229th, 4.5%.

Well, since sex sells.

Here’s why I don’t go to nudie bars.

One night my Republican friend and another friend of ours (don’t know his political affiliation) decided that we (that’s all of us including me) should go out to a local bar where a girl we all knew from having attended several parties with her was “performing”.

It was a horrible place, barely bigger than a walk-in closet and dead empty.

The 400 pound owner was crammed behind the bar his fat factually filling the space between the counter and the bottles.  He was screaming obscenities at our mutual acquaintance, calling her a lazy slut who couldn’t make money.

So when we sat down next to the stage with our $5 Budweisers, I took what I had in my wallet and just dumped it out.

I didn’t even drink my beer, just kind of clutched it in both hands and stared at it.

An eternity later, after my “friends” decided I was sufficiently embarrassed we finally left and as we did my non-affiliated bud said to me-

“You know, she makes more in one night than you do in a week.”

Somehow that did not console me.

Feeling guilty about blogging yet?

Second Life avatars and Brazilians: the same carbon footprint

by Aurelia End, AFP

Thu Mar 6, 2:23 PM ET

HANOVER, Germany (AFP) – What do an avatar on Second Life and the average inhabitant of Brazil in the real world have in common? Incredibly, they both use the same amount of electricity.

It is perhaps not a fair example as the average virtual being in the online community is not active all the time, but the statistic does show that all that time the rich world spends online has an impact on the environment.

And how. Providing energy to work the Internet needs the equivalent of 14 power stations, which in turn cough out the same amount of harmful carbon dioxide emissions as the airline industry, research has estimated.

Sonic the Hedgehog, climate killer?

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

Fri Mar 7, 12:15 PM ET

HANOVER, Germany (AFP) – “I don’t care, we’re all going to die anyway,” says 17-year-old Christian, to laughs from his friends as they play video games at the CeBIT IT fair in Germany.

What he does not care about is the environmental impact of the games console he and his mates are playing in a giant exhibition hall crammed full of other teenagers playing the latest shoot-em-ups, driving games and the like.

Whereas many of the 5,500 exhibitors at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany like IBM and Deutsche Telekom have been at pains to trumpet their green credentials, in Hall 22 there is not a tree-hugger in sight.

Well, the Charlotte Allen piece does not quite die.  Laura Rozen got a link on Atrios’ Wankers of the Day–

The Post Hides Behind Allen’s Knickers

In all honesty, I’m torn. Partly I’m tired of this jihad, and was tired of it two days ago. Partly, I feel a smidgen of compassion for Pomfret not knowing what to do, who did express regrets if the piece offended (in an email), and for whom I never had anything but respect until I deduced he was responsible for the Allen piece Sunday. But mostly, I am still fuming that the Post as an institution is now hiding behind Charlotte Allen’s knickers, and stubbornly continues to refuse to answer tremendous reader demand (more than a thousand comments, several hundred blog posts) for an explanation and an apology for running the piece. It’s cowardly. It makes their and my profession look bad. It’s unnecessary.

Instead, comically, truly, they’re hauling out Charlotte Allen (who can be faulted for writing the tripe — but not for publishing it!) to take the first bullets during a chat today which I honestly don’t see why anyone should dignify, except possibly to interrogate her about how the interactions with the Post went down exactly as her essay thesis got clarified.

And consider that these fully moderated comments were the only ones Charlotte deigned to answer (read the moderation policy)-

Editor’s Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.

Alex Leo at HuffPo says-

Charlotte Allen Is a Bigot

So I’m watching the Washington Post live chat with Charlotte Allen unfurl and the “writer” is defending what is arguably the worst OpEd piece published in this century. I am not here to dissect the details or ramifications.

… they lost me because they gave a bigot a platform, defended her, tried to make it seem like she was kidding (she’s not, by the way and makes that clear in this forum), and then gave her another THREE HOURS on their website to purport her hatred and inanity. They do not realize that if she had said these things about African Americans or Hispanics or any other group, they would never have published it.

I remember a picnic, on a beach in a cove in Maine.  It was the kind of place you write kids books about, and as a matter of fact someone had and I read it as a child.

You know the thing about people who rail against “political correctness” is what they really desire is the ability to be as sexist, racist, and bigoted in public as they want without having to suffer your scorn and derision making them feel like the small shabby mean spirited twits that they are.

How else do you explain this?

Why Is Obama’s Middle Name Taboo?

By NATHAN THORNBURGH, Time Magazine

Fri Feb 29, 1:50 PM ET

…

So who gets to say Hussein? At the Oscars, host Jon Stewart took innuendo about as far as it can go, saying that Barack Hussein Obama running today is like a 1940’s candidate named Gaydolph Titler. But that reference, served up to a crowd that presumably swoons for Obama, got laughs. So maybe the H-word is more like the N-word: you can say it, but only if you are an initiate. Blacks can use the N-word; Obama supporters can use the H-word.

We Scream, We Swoon.  How Dumb Can We Get?

By Charlotte Allen, The Washington Post

Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B01

…

I can’t help it, but reading about such episodes of screaming, gushing and swooning makes me wonder whether women — I should say, “we women,” of course — aren’t the weaker sex after all. Or even the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial. Women “are only children of a larger growth,” wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right?

For Hillary’s Campaign, It’s Been a Class Struggle

By Linda Hirshman, The Washington Post

Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B01

…

For the Clinton campaign, this is devastating. A year ago, chief strategist Mark Penn proclaimed that the double-X factor was going to catapult his candidate all the way to the White House. Instead, the women’s vote has fragmented. The only conclusion: American women still aren’t strategic enough to form a meaningful political movement directed at taking power. Will they ever be?

Penn was right about the importance of the women’s vote. About 57 percent of the voters in the Democratic primaries so far have been women. As of Feb. 12, Clinton had a lead of about seven percentage points over Obama among them (24 points among white women). But the Obama campaign reached out to the fair sex, following Clinton’s announcement of women-oriented programs with similar ones within a matter of weeks. I can imagine the strategists for the senator from Illinois thinking, “What’s that song in Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’?” Women are fickle.

Turns out it’s true.

…

Ominously for Clinton, the feminist movement split, generating a large number of “scribbling women” all over the blogosphere describing the gender-trumping call of the Obama candidacy. …

…

Or maybe it has to do with what Pollitt expressed in a recent blog posting: “On foreign policy Obama seems more enlightened, as in less bellicose.” Educated women focusing more on foreign policy fits with what we know about women and politics. Although at every class level, women know less than men do about politics in general, they know more as their education level goes up. So it may be that foreign policy issues are more salient to women with a college degree.

So tomorrow we celebrate Frederic’s 38th birthday.  He has long since passed his pirate apprenticeship (1940) and must surely by now be actively contributing to the reduction of global warming.

By the time I was a senior in High School pretty much the only reason I was there was to pick up my gym credit and stay out of trouble.

Stay out of trouble, heh.

Since I had by that time made it clear I was going to be entirely obnoxious during morning exercises I was no longer welcome in homeroom and mostly marked absent the entire year.  If that dodge failed I also had my magical permanent pass as an editor of the alternative school newspaper that made attendence after second period pretty much optional anyway.  Still there were those more Cameron-like that my editor buddies and I tried to help out.  Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

One of our more successful projects was a production of H.M.S. Pinafore that was ostensibly a History project, but it had a cast of thousands and rehersals lasted for months.

I was Ralph Rackstraw, Able Seaman and I can still hit all the notes in the National Anthem depending on the key.  It was not my first choice, because I had none of the really funny songs; but I did get a duet with Josephine- the girl I thought was the hottest one in school (alas, my love to scorn, she didn’t feel the same way about me).

Sometimes success is it’s own punishment.  Four matinees (one for the History class and then once for each class), two gala nights for the ‘rents, and then a road show for the rest of the system.  Oh, and we all got As.

Hey, Cameron. You realize if we played by the rules right now we’d be in gym?

Obama shows that dismissing slimy right-wing attacks is not difficult

Glenn Geenwald, Salon.com

Monday February 25, 2008 10:08 EST

…

“A party that presided over a war in which our troops did not get the body armor they needed, or were sending troops over who were untrained because of poor planning, or are not fulfilling the veterans’ benefits that these troops need when they come home, or are undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary? “That is a debate I am very happy to have. We’ll see what the American people think is the true definition of patriotism.”  (Barack Obama, emphasis Greenwald’s -ek)

…

Most Democrats have yet to learn that lesson. Obama’s response here strongly suggests that he has. Although there is still a significant chance that Democrats will ultimately give the President most if not all of what he wants on the FISA bill, perhaps their ongoing refusal to capitulate quickly even in the face of all-out GOP fear-mongering — along with Obama’s refusal to do the same with regard to these patriotism attacks — will demonstrate that (regardless of their “real beliefs” on war and surveillance) such capitulation is not only unnecessary but completely contrary to their own political interests.

Remember that this particular controversy has happened once already- zenbowl was doing Breaking! at dK on 10/4/07.

Maybe I was the only one who noticed.

This round of events was touched off by Nedra Pickler’s horrible piece of trash on the Associated Press wire, Obama may face grilling on patriotism, which I drew to your attention to Saturday in Weekend News Digest (story #8) when it was 4 hours old.  See how plugged in you are?

So it’s going to be an ugly day here in Stars Hollow tomorrow.  Snow, snow, snow, and then some more snow for good measure.

Good thing too, because it will cover up the mud.

Today is kind of a Dave & Craig retro day for me where I get to contemplate the wreck my life has become since the holidays and how really hopelessly behind on all my important projects I am.

On the other hand not every good idea went undone so there are accomplishments to point to too.  I’m going to decide to be grateful for the break- a snow day if you will.  I shall sleep late and play and get wet and chilled and then dry off and drink hot beverages and play bored games with my friends and family.

If I get ambitious I might try to clean up some of the clutter, but that seems a foolish goal.

Well, just a personal reminiscence from a couple of hours ago.

I do try to pay attention to ‘once in a lifetime’ or maybe every few year events.  I’m a big fan of the America’s Cup for instance and never fail to watch the coverage.  I am also a big sucker for astronomy and as a matter of fact my homebrewing friend has keys to an observatory with a real live jive telescope.

They even have a dome.

Of course you can’t heat an observatory (warps the optics, creates heat waves out the observation slit, and who wants to pay the bill even if you were willing to be that environmentally incorrect?) and it’s inconvenient to hook up sometimes, so most of my observations are by eye.

If you know where to look there’s a lot to see.

It’s hard to miss something obvious like a lunar eclipse unless you’re busy blogging.  Even the pollution from the driveway lights can’t hide it.  Planets like Saturn and bright stars like Regulus are pretty visible too if you know where they are (planets are noticeably non-blinking and look… rounder than stars).

Meteors are a little tougher to convince yourself you’re seeing.  They’re mostly not streaky at all.  Instead they look like stars, maybe just a little redder.  What you notice is that they seem to wander, and at first you’re saying- nah, just my eyes.  You need to frame them against a fixed object (like the side of a house or a tree branch, although real stars will do) and then you find that they really dart around quite a bit.

The tell tale is that they’ll get fuzzy every once in a while, like really fizzling bad fireworks.

Not much else to see, so once you have it’s always the same.  That can be a disappointment like so much astronomy, NASA pictures really are much better than real life in part because they capture hours worth of photons and your eyes are instantaneous.

Still, saw me a shot down spy satellite tonight.  No telling when that will happen again.

Well you can certainly rest assured that I’m in no danger of falling into this trap-

Say What You Will (Requiem for a TV News Career)

Chez Pazienza, Huffington Post

Posted February 18, 2008 | 07:22 PM (EST)

…

During my last couple of years as a television news producer, I watched the networks try to recover from a six year failure to bring truth to power (the political party in power being irrelevant incidentally; the job of the press is to maintain an adversarial relationship with the government at all times) and what’s worse, to pretend that they had a backbone all along.

I watched my bosses literally stand in the middle of the newsroom and ask, “What can we do to not lead with Iraq?” — the reason being that Iraq, although an important story, wasn’t always a surefire ratings draw.

I was asked to complete self-evaluations which pressed me to describe the ways in which I’d “increased shareholder value.” (For the record, if you’re a rank-and-file member of a newsroom, you should never under any circumstances even hear the word “shareholders,” let alone be reminded that you’re beholden to them.)

I watched the media in general do anything within reason to scare the hell out of the American public — to convince people that they were about to be infected by the bird flu, poisoned by the food supply, or eaten by sharks.

I marveled at our elevation of the death of Anna Nicole Smith to near-mythic status and our willingness to let the airwaves be taken hostage by every permutation of opportunistic degenerate from a crying judge to a Hollywood hanger-on with an emo haircut.

I watched qualified, passionate people worked nearly to death while mindless talking heads were coddled.

I listened to Lou Dobbs play the loud-mouthed fascist demagogue, Nancy Grace fake ratings-baiting indignation, and Glenn Beck essentially do nightly stand-up — and that’s not even taking into account the 24/7 Vaudeville act over at Fox News.

I watched The Daily Show laugh not at our mistakes but at our intentional absurdity.

I’m nobody important.