This isn't going to be so true anymore...

...at least I don't think so:

You, too, will reach a point when a new gizmo seems impossible to use.

 I could be wrong, but I don't think I am, considering the technological innovations we've seen in the last century. It's probably safe to say that previous generations either didn't really know what their progeny would be capable of or didn't think new inventions would make that much sense, and Froma Harrop tacitly acknowledges as much here. But with the newer technology comes a different mindset. Consider this:

This is the best way I could think to illustrate what I'm about to talk about here. (It's not a perfect illustration, I know, but I think it gets the job done.) The x-axis is the horizontal axis, while the y-axis is the vertical. Let's say the horizontal axis here represents a timeline, and the vertical axis represents technological perfection (defined as the most gadgets that do the most stuff, maybe). The y-values on the graph represent the number of new whizbang gadgets. The red line that denotes the function represents society's march towards technological perfection. As the years go on, you see us getting ever closer to technological perfection, but never actually getting there. I don't know where we'd be on the curve here, but I think it's safe to say we're at least very close to the point at which the red line starts going vertical as opposed to earlier generations when the line was still horizontal (that is, when there weren't all those new and exciting widgets). With the curve in the middle comes the realization of what this generation and the succeeding generations will be capable of.

Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this: We know what we're capable of. And I think it's safe to say that there won't be as many things that we won't be able to figure out as we think there might be. Back in the Depression a robotic car that drove itself seemed like a fantasy, but then the same could be said for laptop computers, the Internet and mp3 players. I really don't think we'll believe as our forebears did, that *fill-in-the-blank* is technologically infeasible. We know what we're capable of. And I think we'll adjust our mindsets accordingly to be able to take advantage of it. Thoughts? Borepatch? I was  channeling you here somewhat...

No, this blog will not be turning into a Failbook rip-off...

...but this was just too good not to post...

I see what he's getting at...

...but this was a really ham-handed way of saying it:

Our world has changed and we need to change the way we educate our kids. They really don't care about George Washington crossing the Delaware. They do care about having to survive and make money. So let's give them what they need.

Surviving and making money is good, but I don't understand why history and critical thinking should be given the short shrift in any kid's education. Learning that should be as important as learning math and science in high school at least. I thought the whole point of trade schools was to teach trades exclusively anyway, no? I don't see why we should do the same in middle and high schools. But maybe that's just me...

Your oh-so-tolerant left on display...

...right here:

Pretty much speaks for itself, don't you think?

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Maybe they should bring those refineries home.

Valero and Tesoro, that is:

The two San Antonio refining companies have spent millions backing the measure (Proposition 23), which would put California's law reducing greenhouse-gas emissions on hold until the Golden State's present 12.4 percent unemployment level falls to 5.5 percent for a full year.
...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has referred to Valero and Tesoro as “greedy Texas oil companies” and some of the biggest polluters in California.

In a speech in late September, Schwarzenegger kicked it up a notch, saying, “Does anyone really believe that these companies, out of the goodness of their black-oil hearts, are really spending millions and millions of dollars to protect jobs? This is like Eva Braun writing a kosher cookbook. ... It's about their ability to pollute and thus protect their profits.”

Greedy Texas oil companies. How special. If Ah-nuld really feels that way, then Valero and Tesoro executives need to take a long, hard look at the costs of moving those refineries to a more business-friendly state (such as the state in which those two companies are headquartered). I'm sure Texas would welcome with open arms those 4,000 jobs, that $259 million payroll and $100 million in taxes, and it would make for great press in the state too: "Texas companies bringing jobs home." No doubt Jan Jarboe Russell, Rick Casey and other Texas media pundits would spin it as Valero and Tesoro moving jobs to where the laws are more lax, but that's okay. I'd think those Texans who took those jobs and the people running the places where said Texans spend their money care a hell of a lot more about providing for their families than they do about the opinions of lamebrained journalists.

Tuesday Music Musings: Sugarland and Carrie Underwood

Jennifer Nettles really said this about Sugarland's new album?

I think it’s inspired a lot of conversation about ‘what is country music today?’ That makes me feel very proud to be a part of that kind of cultural moment.

I wouldn't be surprised if most replies to that question, in the context of the new Sugarland album, go something like, "Whatever country music is, it sure as hell ain't this shit." I sat down and listened to "Stuck Like Glue," the album's first single, so as to make an informed decision; and the only thing I can say that as bad as Sugarland had sounded before, this was a thousand times worse. I don't necessarily think that blending genres is a bad thing, but that only works if the two genres share some stylistic elements. (How else could Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings have pulled off "Midnight Rider"? It wouldn't have sounded nearly as good if the Allman Brothers had been part of, say, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.) Like CMW said, have they even been reading their own reviews? Good Christ, and people think DREAM THEATER is pretentious? I don't think James LaBrie or John Petrucci ever talked about their music the way Sugarland talked about themselves. Of course, they knew what they wanted to do and didn't go about shitting on a treasured genre the way Sugarland does either. But then I suppose Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush are catering to the people who didn't like country music to begin with, as evidenced by this comment to the CMT story:

FYI, I've been to a great deal of concerts, and when artists do covers, generally the covers AREN'T country songs. Tim McGraw sang an Elton John song for crying out loud, so you can't use Sugarland's covers as a strike against them.

I don't even know where to begin with this. Most of the country concerts I've been to have involved the artists doing covers of country songs. For every Jo Dee Messina covering Huey Lewis and the News, I have seen six or seven George Straits covering Bob Wills and Merle Haggard. And yes I CAN use Sugarland's covers as a strike against them. I have done the same with other artists and I don't understand why it can't be used as a valid yardstick to measure just how "country" an artist is. You wouldn't see me covering Metallica or Iron Maiden if I considered myself a country artist. I wouldn't do the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers or Bad Company either.

And what to make of Carrie Underwood?

I’m glad people can find some happy by telling people what they had for lunch.

Find some happy. This is a mass communication major with an emphasis in journalism saying this, friend -- not just a mass comm major, but one who graduated magna cum laude. I must say, that doesn't speak well of her alma mater's communications programs.

(h/t Country California)

Back to bed for me...

Feeling like hammered dogshit, been that way since last night. A nasty stomach bug got me. More later.

Delusions of grandeur?

Sure seems that way to me:

In Oxford (Miss. -- ed.) the mayor Patterson says his opposition to Sunday alcohol sales isn't out of fear of fire and brimstone.
"The majority of the people who live here don't want it to be another Beale Street or Bourbon Street," Patterson said, referring to tourist destinations in Memphis, Tenn., and New Orleans, respectively. "It's about the direction your town is heading."

Oh yes, Oxford, Mississippi is SO CLOSE to getting to be one of the hottest tourist destinations in the country that all it would take to get them there is legalizing alcohol sales on Sunday....

How utterly ridiculous. It's been years since I've been to Oxford, but from what I remember, pretty much its only attraction is the University of Mississippi. And even if Oxford got to be a tourist destination like Memphis or New Orleans, well...so? I'd think that was a good thing in times like these.

Maybe they should declare...

...a War On Alcohol:

Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.

I don't know why they needed a study to do something like that, because it's already very well known how much damage legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco cause. Interesting how they said we couldn't go back to the days of prohibition because alcohol was too embedded in the culture. That certainly didn't stop Carrie Nation and her band of thugs, did it? And what's so different about this as opposed to the outlawing of other substances and campaigning unsuccessfully to keep them out of society?

Bleg: I wouldn't normally do this, but...

...I need help. I got a money order for $250 to cover the last part of the rent, and I lost it. I have the receipt for the MO, but it's going to take a little bit to get the money back. I would be more than happy to pay each one of you back who hits up the PayPal link at the right; I'll keep track of your donations and pay you back as soon as I can. Those of you who have blogs of your own, spread the word if you like. I truly appreciate your help.

"Shall we play a game?"

(Let me say before I go any further that Clint McCance is a reprehensible creature and if there was any justice in the world he'd be wandering the countryside in sackcloth and ashes for the rest of his days. I'd like for that to go without saying, but I don't want there to be any misconceptions about what I think. Now, with that said...)

"How about a nice game of word substitution?"

It had previously been possible for gun control proponents to wrap their cause in dry euphemism. They framed themselves as defenders of constitutional principle — "states' rights." They argued that requiring businesses to serve Americans exercising their right to bear arms violated private property rights.

Why WOULD Leonard Pitts think that was so much different from this?

It had previously been possible for segregationists to wrap their cause in dry euphemism. They framed themselves as defenders of constitutional principle — "states' rights." They argued that requiring businesses to serve African-Americans violated private property rights.

 Is there anything really different? I know that being black isn't a choice, but one could say the same about wanting the best self-defense tools at one's disposal. One could very well say that not wanting to carry a gun is choosing to suppress your human instinct, no?

Somehow it does not surprise me...

...that Jan Jarboe Russell was an acolyte of Molly Ivins:

The columnist Molly Ivins had it right: Perry is in fact Governor Good Hair, and that's what Texans want. We want the caricature who tells us how exceptional we Texans are — not the realist who tells us that just because the Texas economy has fared better than most states, thanks largely to the high price of oil, the fact that, according to CNBC, we rank 30th in the U.S. in educating our workforce should wake us from our stupor of false superiority.

No doubt Russell thinks merely throwing more money at the schools and "not teaching to the TAKS test" is going to fix everything, just like Bill White does. Never mind, of course, that the TAKS test is a test of basic skills the students should be learning anyway. And never mind that Texas school districts have been shown to prefer to hire education majors (who don't know basic grammar and who took Creative Writing but don't have favorite authors because they don't like to read) as teachers as opposed to those who go through the alternate teacher certification. And never mind that the districts make such decisions on the local level, as opposed to following some sort of edict from the governor. Oh, no, it's all that EVIL BASTERD RICK PERRYS FAULT ZOMG!!!111one!!! (And yes, that misspelling and lack of apostrophe was completely intentional.) Why doesn't JJR just go ahead and blame George W. Bush while she's at it?

Not just the books that are cheap...

...but the music, too.

Last Sunday after we went to the Longhorn Cafe, my lovely wife and I took a ride up to Half Price Books on Loop 410 to see what they had. What fun THAT was. I could've spent next month's rent in there, and not just on the books; they had a pretty good selection of used music, on cd AND vinyl! Would that I had a record player; I could've gotten out of there with this on vinyl for two bucks. (Not the remaster, of course, but the original.) I did manage to get out of there with a copy of Rush's Moving Pictures cd for $5.98, where the cheapest I could've gotten it new was $7.99 at Best Buy. I've heard most of the songs on it and really like them; the only ones I haven't heard yet are "Witch Hunt" and "The Camera Eye." And I'm sure you know by now which song I bought that cd for, though I do like the ones I've heard...

Oh, and did you know Steve Earle wrote a book? I got that one too.


(this post brought to you by Tam)

More views from the ivory tower...

...inhabited by David Brooks:

...Obama needs to redefine his identity. Bill Clinton gave himself a New Democrat label. Obama has never categorized himself so clearly. This ambiguity was useful in 2008 when people could project whatever they wanted onto him. But it has been harmful since.. Obama has never categorized himself so clearly. This ambiguity was useful in 2008 when people could project whatever they wanted onto him. But it has been harmful since.
...
Over the next two years, Obama will have to show that he is a traditionalist on social matters and a center-left pragmatist on political ones. Culturally, he will have to demonstrate that even though he comes from an unusual background, he is a fervent believer in the old-fashioned bourgeois virtues: order, self-discipline, punctuality and personal responsibility.

I fail to see how Barack Obama is going to redefine his identity without completely reversing himself and in the process lose what little credibility he has left with the American people (as determined by the projected Republican landslide next week). And I don't see where any sort of ambiguity comes in here either. It ought to be clear to anyone with even a single working brain cell what Barack Obama is by now: a big-government ideologue who does things the Chicago Way. And how that whole projection thing worked I still don't know, because his voting record should have put the lie to  the contention that Obama was a "blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." You know, I didn't think much of Bill Clinton, but I'd certainly give him his due as a politician with razor-sharp instincts. Barack Obama? Not so much. It's going to be impossible for him to make the public believe he is "a fervent believer" in things like personal responsibility when he isn't. Of course, he still has the coastal media in his pocket, and I'm sure they'll be pulling out all the stops to salvage what's left of Obama's presidency. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out.

It IS consolation...

...albeit just a little bit, to know that if the food supply and distribution network ever got seriously disrupted, Josh Briggs of the Covington News and those like him would be among the first to starve. Maybe in some alternate universe I'd worry about deer hunting humans, but I'd prefer to live in the real world where humans are at the top of the food chain. "Taking a life should be done only out of necessity." Uh-huh. Well, it's sorta necessary for us to eat if we want to survive.

Yes, we eat meat. Chicken. Beef. Fish. Most of it is raised. Some of it (fish) is hunted. But let's stick to sport hunting for the sake of this argument.

"No, Sparky, you don't get to define the rules of the game. Dead animal is dead animal. If you're going to question how we get one kind of meat, you have to question how we get them ALL. If you question hunting, you have to question slaughterhouses, fish farms and everything else. But you like meat so you're not gonna do that, are you? Chickenshit."

Is there any such thing...

...as a low-powered rifle?

A man already facing theft charges was captured Thursday as a suspect in a series of fatal central Missouri shootings that had prompted police to warn anyone associated with him to flee the area.
...

Police said the killings were not random but have declined to say why the victims may have been targeted. Bruchsaler has said the gunman used a high-powered rifle and a handgun, and that authorities believed he acted alone.

Sabra and I heard this story discussed on the radio the other day, and the newscaster reported that authorities were telling people to stay in their homes and not go anywhere. I mused aloud, "That's in Missouri; don't they have guns there?"

Of course, if the killer was using a rifle I could understand that, especially if he WAS taking out people from the distances of which most hunting rifles are capable of being used. And THAT, of course, leads to the question: Is a bolt-action rifle any less of a danger in capable hands than a semiautomatic? After the hunters throw the semiauto rifle owners under the bus, how long WOULD it take for situations just like this to start the anti clamoring for a "sniper weapon ban"? Not long, I bet.

One down, and how many to go?

My email to Ken Hoffman re: this column:

Hi Ken, longtime reader here. You might want to rethink one of your arguments for including Neil Diamond in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

"ABBA, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins, Leonard Cohen, Nat King Cole, Woody Guthrie, the Ink Spots and Brenda Lee are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they have nothing to do with rock ' n' roll."

This is true, but you know what? It is precisely for that reason many people (including myself) think the RRHOF has gotten to be a complete joke, to the point that it would almost be a compliment NOT to be inducted into the Hall. Consider this list of who has not been inducted, from the comments to a Chron.com story from July 2009:

Not Inducted (meeting all criteria): Deep Purple, Bad Company, Cheap Trick, Supertramp, ELP, The Hollies, Badfinger, Blind Faith, The Moody Blues, Squeeze, Peter Frampton, Humble Pie, Little Feat, Kansas, ELO, The Scorpions, Sweet, Boston, The Cars, Nazareth. REO Speedwagon, Sammy Hagar, Steve Winwood, Joan Armatrading, Thin Lizzy, Yes & Judas Priest.

And then, of course, there's the glaring example of Rush, which has been a huge influence on several subgenres of rock and which has made some of the most thought-provoking and timeless music of ANY genre. "Red Barchetta" all by itself should have been enough to get them in. But you know why they're not? Because Jann Wenner doesn't like progressive rock.

So...yeah. The RRHOF is a joke. If Diamond doesn't get in you shouldn't consider it that big of an insult.

His response:

The Hollies are in.

Hokay, so I guess my whole point was negated with that.

/sarcasm

As an old friend said once upon a time...

...an unloaded gun isn't anything but an expensive club, and you have to replenish the ammunition supply from time to time. (Come on, you do practice regularly, don't you? I am shamefully out of it...) And the prices are better if you buy a lot at one time, so check Sportsman's Guide out if you'd like some bulk ammo. A bonus to shopping online is that you avoid idiocy such as what Ambulance Driver encountered recently at one big-box store. (I'm all for upselling, but when the customer knows exactly what he wants, you should go find it for him, eh?)

Another fun meme!

I stole this from Facebook, since I am a bit short on blogfodder today...
1) Turn on your music player on your computer.

(2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.

(3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.

(4) Choose some people to be tagged. It is generally considered to be in good taste to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I'm betting that your musical selection is entertaining, or at least amusing.

To do this, go to "NOTES" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, enter your 15 Shuffle Songs, Tag people (under the post) then click Publish.

1. Grand Funk Railroad, "Some Kind of Wonderful"
2. Alan Jackson, "A Little Bluer Than That"
3. Brian Burns and Larry Joe Taylor, "Third Coast"
4. Van Halen, "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
5. Waylon Jennings, "Rainy Day Woman"
6. Iron Maiden, "Flash of the Blade"
7. Queensryche, "Take Hold of the Flame" (recorded live in LaCrosse, WI, 1991)
8. Merle Haggard, "Mama Tried"
9. Megadeth, "Rust in Peace (Polaris)"
10. Rush, "Red Barchetta"
11. Queensryche, "Another Rainy Night"
12. Evanescence, "Lithium"
13. Pantera, "Cowboys From Hell"
14. Lefty Frizzell, "Long Black Veil"
15. Steve Earle, "Hillbilly Highway"

That's a pretty good snapshot of my tastes these days. Anyone who wants to play, go ahead...

And once again...

...the words of Mike Vanderboegh come to mind:

You may believe weather, lifestyle and attitude are what set San Antonio apart from other large American cities, but a popular New York-based news blog has a different idea.
This city, the Daily Beast says, is dumb.

"Being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

Seriously, a publication that employs airheads like Chris Buckley and Meghan McCain is calling San Antonio dumb? I'd take that as a compliment.