OK, if you're tired of the Maudlin Lonewacko, check this out.

The twinkling might also be due to the fact that I have astigmatism and I need new specs.

Allow me to also recommend the longer, less entertaining, but very worthwhile "The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today" by Ferdinand Lundberg. It's out of print, but your local library might have a copy.

Instapundit may well be a trademark of Mr. Reynolds. So sue me in Cali.

Wait, that's Federal, right?

Could it be fair use?

Maybe I should ask Volokh.

Maybe I should send Glenn the link, give him the chance to co-opt me.

It's good that a blog should have rules. Glenn is only right in posting that post.

I'll reprint the Cease And Desist email here.

While they're waiting for their sovietniki to arrive and explain this to them, enjoy the fun.

Just FYI, Sarukhan is a Turkish and not a Russian name.

Screeds like the foregoing are best said in a French accent. (Same pic here.)

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)

8 vicodins in 12 hours

Yet another wacky search referrer. I wouldn't recommend it. (Did you ever see Tawny Kitaen's shopping list? Geez Louise, she was really packing it away. My kinda broad. I just hope she got the vicodins without acetaminophen).

Posted to Miscellania at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

I scored a 3

I don't like things like this (Warning: Shockwave), but it was moderately funny. Link from Volokh.

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

Yes, but will my animal be used for "entertainment" purposes?

Wait! Let me explain the title.

See, in my attempt to expand my own blogosphere, I was looking at this entry.

One of the comments mentioned a charitable organization called heifer.org, which I'd never heard of.

To sum it up, heifer.org gives farm animals to poor starving countries around the world. And, their FAQ has lots of questions, like "Can I give animals to Heifer?" or "How can I track my gift animal?"

Now, I'm not trying to be difficult, but I'd just like to be certain that if I give them money for, say, giving a pair of goats to hungry peasants in France, that those goats won't then be used for "entertainment" purposes.

Another one of their FAQs answers "Many of the world's people, however, have little or no land and are often faced with steep terrain, rocky, acidic soil and scarce water..."

So, is the correct solution to give them animals? I mean, there aren't too many people in Siberia or the Yukon or the Gobi desert, are there? There's a reason for that, right? Maybe if you're living in an inhospitable land, the solution is not a new pair of goats but to move.

Now, of course, I realize that that's not possible in very many situations. And, giving a family a goat might help relieve their suffering for several years. However, I think it's also a bit of a band-aid. I haven't read the rest of heifer.org's material, but I certainly hope that they are thinking longer term. For instance, what are the recipients of this aid going to do if heifer.org goes away? And, isn't heifer.org making itself unnecessary the best solution of all? Hopefully heifer.org is working towards that goal.

Now, back to the main blog entry:

I spend a certain amount of money on the holidays every year. This year, as some of you already know, the plan is to give about half of that to some charities. Today, I'm feeling like maybe 75 percent of that is going to charity. There are folks in need, man.

I'm just feeling like this whole gift giving thing is like some kind of whack ass transaction.

Hmmmm... There certainly are folks in need. And, if I were sitting in a gas stations sans shoes, I'd love it if someone could come up and give me $40. I'm sure it would make the giver feel good as well.

However, what's the guy going to do when the $40 runs out? He's still going to be out on the street, perhaps the only difference being that this time he's wearing shoes. Maybe what he really needed was, say, some medication, or some rehabilitation, or the like.

There have no doubt been some form of street people in every culture. So, they aren't going to go away. The best you can do is reduce their number, and work for long-term change instead of just short-term solutions.

Posted to Miscellania at 09:25 PM | Comments (3)

Ben Stein's winning essay about losing

Instapundit links to a Ben Stein column:

As a casual observer of what makes this country work and what stops it cold, I hereby offer a few suggestions on how we can ruin American competitiveness and innovation in the course of this century. I think the reader will agree with me that we are already far down the road on many of them...

Highly recommended. Ben Stein seems to agree to a certain extent with Steve Sailer about our "suicidal immigration policy;" maybe Reynolds should clarify his position.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

Glenn Reynolds read my email!!! OMG!!!! I almost PIMPed!!!!!

Wow! If only I'd included a link to this here blog. I am the source of his reply in the "ANOTHER UPDATE" section here.

What prompted my email is it seems like Glenn (can I call him that, or should I stick to Mr. Reynolds for now?) is trying to set up his new sister-in-law as the poster child for immigration. He seems to be in effect making a highly biased generalization. And, he appears to be attempting to portray vdare.com as a fringe site, if not a haven for that racist xenophobe Steve Sailer.

The next time, perhaps my new email buddy Glenn should read a few of the articles at Sailer's site, and comment on their content instead.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 03:18 PM | Comments (1)

Not In Our Brain

Last night, I went to the anti-war protest in Hollywood at Hollywood Blvd. and Highland.

I'm not a warblogger (I swear!) but I kinda wanted to do something like this, but not like this. You can see the photos I took by clicking the pic to the right.

My reporter's skills are even worse than my photog skills, but practice makes perfect. Looking for my first interviewee, I decided to warm up with two older ladies who were carrying "War is not the Answer" signs. I asked them the logical question, "So, what is the answer?" "Peace" was the answer. They turned out to think that we shouldn't interfere in Iraq. According to them, if the U.S. was under an oppresive regime, we wouldn't want someone to come in and liberate us. Not only that, but if the Iraqis want a regime change according to them the Iraqis should protest, "just like we're doing here." At that point, I thanked them for their time and moved on.

My next interviewee suggested that Bush knew about 9/11 before it happened. Apparently, he allowed it to happen so we could go into Afghanistan and get their oil. I was referred to various web sites in order to find all of the various forms of proof.

Continuing down Hollywood Blvd., I paused briefly to shoot good ol' Saint X*nu.

Returning to the protest, I spotted an old geezer standing in front of a cardboard coffin with "Sanctions Kill" written on it. I couldn't quite figure out whether he was a protester, or a street person just hanging out. After asking him if that was his coffin, and then asking him if he knew how much money Saddam recently put on deposit in Libya, I was gifted with a 2 minute, 500 word harangue. If I could remember all his points, I would surely print it. After I finally was able to get a word in, apparently my smirking manner had struck a nerve. As he finished something like "it's all about the oil, just to make people rich," he ended with "for fucking assholes like you." Then, he grabbed his coffin and stalked off.

I took a few more photos, but due to it being night and my camera's batteries running down, most of them didn't come out too well. One of the missed shots was of a little girl whose mom had propped her up on a newsrack with her own sign, kinda like the shots of those kids here.

While the protest itself was quite entertaining, truly the highlight of the night came when a limo rolled up, and an attractive young lady inside asked me if Mr. Bush would mind if she showed her tits. Happily, Mr. Bush did not mind, but unfortunately by that time my camera's batteries had died.

Next time, I'll bring fresh batteries and a tape recorder so I can record the wisdom of the Not in Our Brain sages.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:06 PM | Comments (2)

The electrification of the rec centers

LAExaminer.com ran a story about a study that showed certain parts of LA having the highest concentration of fat kids in the state. I posted a couple comments without reading the article first. Now, after having read the article...

What's as enlightening as the study is the reaction:

Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez, D-San Fernando... noted many of today's children live in poor, urban areas with limited access to recreation, and might also have unhealthy eating habits.

I.e., more $ for rec centers.

"It has to be a very holistic approach, a community approach (to improving health and fitness)," said Montanez. "It's the only way we're going to be able to take care of our children: coming together as a community and providing a very healthy lifestyle and environment for them to grow up in."

It takes a village, or, in this case, the State.

"It's not just about individual choices. It's about the context, the environment in which those choices are made," [the study's author from the California Center for Public Health Advocacy said.]

...The center's other recommendations include holding legislative hearings to examine the effects of advertising on children and convening district forums of community leaders to identify strategies.

Yes, by all means, let's get Jack la Lanne's input. And, we'll commission several more studies to be done, perhaps through the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.

Los Angeles Unified School District board member Marlene Canter said the study validated the district's pending ban on carbonated soda -- a campaign she led.

I'm sure she is justifiably proud.

"Soda was just a giant baby step that got the conversation going, and I'm really pleased with the momentum we have built," Canter said, adding that the district also is moving toward revamping its food offerings and physical-fitness programs.

"Giant baby step?" So, the kids won't have sugar rushes during school hours. They'll just wait until after school, when they can go out into the big bad world and buy whatever is (currently) legal for them to have. Like a Jolt Cola Slurpee.

"Parents have been overwhelmingly supportive. They're the first to not want kids to drink soda, and the first to cave in to the peer pressure."

WTF? Shouldn't she have said that last part in her quiet voice?

a 16-year-old girl who was unable to run a mile in 8 to 10 minutes would be classified as unfit

OK. I'm over twice her age, the other sex, and I probably weigh around two times what she does. I'm able to gain ~3000' (vertical) per week, either hiking with a 10-50lb. pack or on my 30lb. bike. I'm sure I could run a mile in 8 minutes if I really had to. Like if I was running from killer bees or something. But, I'm sure that a better indicator of ones aerobic fitness could be found. At least with me, running seems to be mainly a lower-leg exercise; something like hiking up a hill, or biking, or best of all a cross-country ski machine would seem to provide a much better indicator of ones overall fitness level. To a certain extent, it's kind of like trying to figure out how strong someone is by how many pull-ups they can do.

Some people who try to run fast on the flat might feel a bad burn in their shins after much less than a quarter mile, if the pain in their feet from such a high-impact activity didn't get to them first.

The California Department of Education has found physically fit children perform better in school. Its study matched scores from the spring 2001 Stanford Achievement Test with results of the Fitnessgram

Mr. Cause, meet Mr. Effect. Mr. Effect, Mr. Cause.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

Lefties say the darnedest things!

Courtesy of Daily Pundit, here's a list of rather questionable comments from the left.

Posted to Politics at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

"Cannibal Devours Berliner."

The dead man apparently replied to an ad posted on the Internet, prosecutors said. One newspaper said it read: "Seeking young, well-built 18- to 30-year-old for slaughter."

More here.

In other news, Bowling for Columbine was named the Top Documentary of All Time.

Barbara Trent, and just about anyone else with critical facilities, were reported to be prematurely spinning.

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

Stipulate?

When an article starts with "Let us stipulate," I know I'll have to come back to it later.

Posted to Politics at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

Sickest referrer ever

Look, if you come here for Gina Ryder pics, that's fine. But, if you're looking for John Lee Malvo naked pics, stay away.

Posted to Bloggage at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

4th Generation warfare

The article Terrorist Tactics for the War With the West discusses Fourth Generation Warfare:

As they saw it, this type of warfare has "a goal of collapsing the enemy internally rather than physically destroying him. Targets will include such things as the population's support for the war and the enemy's culture." The authors predicted that armies of the future would "be widely dispersed and largely undefined; the distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point. It will be nonlinear, possibly to the point of having no definable battlefields or fronts."

The article includes a shot of peace protesters. That's a bit of a cheap shot; should wars not be protested for fear of giving the enemy an advantage? On the other hand, as has been pointed out many times, some groups have indirect links to communist and terrorist orgs, some anti-war protesters are simply reflexively anti-American, and some are just stupid publicity seekers. This is discussed here. Saddam shoots himself in the foot by admitting that he's counting on popular opinion to prevent a war; that statement can now be used against any anti-war protester you encounter.

Supporting the idea of fourth generation warfare is the fact that many AQ supporters have been proud of the fact that they used our own technology to destroy the WTC. The fact that most of the Muslim countries are mired several centuries back and can't even dream of producing a hang glider much less a Boeing-class aircraft is acknowledged or considered a bad thing by only a small number of those country's citizens.

Similar actions might be considered forms of 4G warfare, as I previously blogged. There are a ton of examples, such as the disrespect immigrants show for their new "country." Examples here and here.

There's also a teaser for a Vanity Fair article on the Iraq-AQ link here. Probably best to just go to the drug store and read the mag.

Posted to Warblogging at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)

FLASH: Lott owned slaves up until 1975!

Geez, get ridda the fuckin' guy already or do whatever it takes to make this go away.

In other news, Kelly Clarkson wasn't a virgin like she said.

Posted to Politics at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

Today's celebrity fake

A loyal reader sent me this picture of newsbabe Patricia del Rio. I want to stress, this is a fake picture. It is not real, the event depicted never took place, Ms. del Rio has never to the best of my knowledge modelled in such a fashion, and this picture is provided solely for your entertainment and educational purposes.

Posted to Celebrities at 01:06 PM | Comments (1)

Dear Reverend Sharpton

Letter from RNC Chairman Marc Racicot to Reverend Al Sharpton

I undersand that you called my office and expressed a desire to meet with me to discuss a recent remark made by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Although I would welcome (Tawana) the opportunity to meet with you (Tawana Brawley) about any issue of concern or matter of mutual (Tawana) interest, my travel schedule for the next three days is very challenging (Tawana Brawley)... Read the rest of the epistle here.

UPDATE: Looks like the right Reverend will have to wait in line:

Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., agreed. Thompson released a statement Wednesday calling Lott's remarks "condemnable" and saying he could make amends by pushing to raise the minimum wage, increase the stock of affordable housing and providing a prescription drug benefit for seniors.

Posted to Politics at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

You call these celebrities?

Via LGF (link right) the full text of the celeb letter of support to Saddam is here.

The cumulative number of months that these people haven't worked is probably well into the 4 figures, as they say in Hollywood. And, how did these has-beens find out about the letter? Is there a celebrity mailing list? Did they put up a poster at the unemployment office?

You might ask, who cares what some celebrities think? Well, unfortunately, celebrities do have an influence on society. So, what they think, if anything, should be somewhat paid attention to at the least to know what to watch out for.

I wonder why fellow blogger Wil Wheaton - who parenthetically looks like Phranc's brother in his blogpic - didn't sign in the Star Trek veteran section? And, why wasn't the hottest Star Trekkian ever, Roxann Biggs-Dawson, invited to sign? Enquiring minds and all that.

For your easy identification of your fav celeb, I have classified them by subspecies:

ULTRA DOABLE, PREFERABLY AFTER A BRAIN REPLACEMENT

      Janeane Garofalo

VERY DOABLE

      Melissa Gilbert

GO BACK TO YOUR JAR, ODO

      René Auberjonois

SLIGHTLY DOABLE

      Gillian Anderson
      Kim Basinger
      Téa Leoni

ENEMIES OF HUMANITY

      Edward Asner
      Ed Begley, Jr.
      Tim Robbins
      Susan Sarandon
      Martin Sheen
      Gloria Steinem

NEVER HEARD OF THEM, DON'T WANT TO

      Amy Aquino
      Jordan Baker
      David Bale
      Eugene J. Carroll, Jr. (Rear Adm. U.S. Navy (Ret.)
      Kathleen Chalfant
      David Clennon
      Jack Coleman
      Peter Crombie
      Dana Daurey
      Ambassador Jonathan Dean (U.S. Rep. to NATO-Warsaw Pact)
      Sean Patrick Flanery
      John Fugelsang
      Samaria Graham
      Robert Greenwald
      Paul Haggis
      Ethan Hawke
      Marg Helgenberger
      LaTanya Richardson Jackson
      Melina Kanakaredes
      Kevin Kilner
      Donald Logue
      Wendie Malick
      Mary McDonnell
      Janel Moloney
      Peter Onorati
      Alexandra Paul
      Ambassador Edward Peck (former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq)
      Seth Peterson
      Steve Robinson, Sgt., U.S. Army (Ret.) (National. Gulf War Resource Center)
      Mitch Ryan
      Tony Shalhoub
      Jack Shanahan, Vice Adm. U.S.N. (Ret.)
      Bradley Whitford

SUPERPONCES

      Jackson Browne
      Michael Stipe (REM)

OUR BOSS WAS DOING IT, WE HAD TO TOO

      Peter Buck (REM)
      Mike Mills (REM)

NAME SOUNDS FAMILIAR, TOO TIRED TO GO TO IMDB

      Theo Bikel
      Barbara Bosson
      Don Cheadle
      Peter Coyote
      Lindsay Crouse
      Suzanne Cryer
      Charles S. Dutton
      Hector Elizondo
      Cary Elwes
      Mimi Kennedy
      David Rabe
      Alan Rachins
      Esai Morales
      CCH Pounder
      William Schallert
      Blair Underwood
      James Whitmore, Jr.
      Alfre Woodard
      Noah Wyle
      Howard Zinn

JUST BACK FROM TAXVILLE, BRASIL

      Diahann Carroll

IS HE/SHE STILL ALIVE?

      Jill Clayburgh
      David Duchovny
      Olympia Dukakis
      Shelley Fabares
      Mike Farrell
      Mia Farrow
      Laurence Fishburne
      Larry Gelbart
      Danny Glover
      Elliott Gould
      Robert Guillaume
      Robert David Hall
      Ken Howard
      Helen Hunt
      Anjelica Huston
      Jane Kaczmarek
      Samuel L. Jackson
      Jessica Lange
      Camryn Manheim
      Marsha Mason
      Richard Masur
      Dave Mathews
      Kent McCord
      Bonnie Raitt
      Carl Reiner
      Susan Sullivan
      Eric Roberts
      Marcia Strassman
      Loretta Swit
      Studs Terkel
      Lily Tomlin
      James Whitmore
      Peter Yarrow

SLUMMING AGAIN?

      Matt Damon

USED TO THINK THEY WERE ONE OF THE GOOD ONES/HASN'T WORKED SINCE VOYAGER

      Vincent D’Onofrio
      Robert Duncan McNeill
      Ed O’Neill
      Chris Noth
      Armin Shimerman
      Dennis Weaver

DO THEY HAVE A SPECIAL LETTER FOR DINNER THEATER ARTISTS?

      Bonnie Franklin

THE BLOOPERS WHERE HE SWEARS AT THE STUDIO STAFF ARE REALLY FUNNY

      Casey Kasem

CELEBRITIES WHO WERE TOO PROUD TO SIGN
      Gary Coleman
      Dabney Coleman
      Danny Bonaduce
      Joe Piscopo
      a former Brady sibling
      Screech (Justin Diamond?)
      Ron "Welcome back, Kotter" Pallillo
      Manut Bol
      Refridgerator Perry

A VERY DOABLE CELEBRITY WHO SURPRISINGLY IS NOT A SIGNATORY

      Natalie Merchant

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)

Morally superior meta-meta-bloggers

Matt Welch links to this article which furnishes further proof that bloggers and meta-meta-bloggers take themselves far far too seriously. Even that author guy whose blog is supposedly a take-off on blogging is one of "them." I remain uncorruptable.

UPDATE: ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz. Geez, get a private chat room or somethin'.

Posted to Bloggage at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)

When is a consonant not a consonant?

When it's in a sentence like this: Strc prst skrz krk
I immediately sent in a clarification of this important phonological matter but it has not yet been printed. Stay tuned.

Posted to Miscellania at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

All park rangers, professors, and CHP officers must be fired immediately!

As this article points out:

With its huge economy stalled and state revenues plunging, California has descended into its worst budget crisis in a decade and is now facing an excruciating round of budget cuts and possible tax increases... "That's a hole so deep and so vast that even if we fired every single person on the state payroll — every park ranger, every college professor and every Highway Patrol officer — we would still be more than $6 billion short," said the Assembly speaker, Herb J. Wesson Jr., a Democrat.

I just hope and pray that Alondra is not inconvenienced in any way.

Posted to California at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)

How to impress Burger King managerettes

If you ever decide to pick up on a Burger King managerette - even if she's 40, has 4 kids and a slightly wide ass - whatever you do don't do so after having gone there and mainly ordered the cheap stuff. This might cause said managerette to utter, when first asked if she would like to engage in fun coeducational activies, "are you working?"

Splurge. Go for the higher priced items. Your Whopper will thank you.

Posted to WackyHumor at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

Meet me at Indymedia

When I need a break from watching UCLA get trounced or from typing in Java, I attempt to spread the word. Won't you join me?

Posted to Bloggage at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)

I have a sudden interest in volunteerism

Winona's gotta spend about two months worth of full-time work at various charity orgs. Of course, some of that will probably be assigned to various off-location work, but even so...

So, why wasn't Winona offered and strongly encouraged to take something like this to begin with? Why did the D.A. have to spend, I dunno, maybe a million bucks or so on a shoplifting matter? That's something we should look into with the same zeal as her prosecution.

Drudge also has a link to this article. Whether these people now count as traitors or enemy combatants is an open question. Maybe instead of serving as human shields they could serve as, say, proxy for Saddam's political prisoners. Take a jolt on the genitals for peace.

Parenthetically, why are anti-war types so gawdawful stoopid? Sure, many of those warbloggers seem like Generals Beavis and Butthead ("Shoot! Kill! Slayer, dude!"), but there are very few anti-war types whose reasoning abilities are above the Jimmy Whichard level.

Posted to Celebrities at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

Meet your victims. Or not.

This article discusses the:

State Department's "speakers program," which sends U.S. specialists abroad or arranges for them to speak to foreign audiences via digital video conference... Nine officers from the New York City Police and Fire departments were dispatched abroad to talk about their moving 9/11 experiences, but none was sent to a Muslim nation...

Many of the speakers... have either publicly minimized the threat posed by bin Ladenism or criticized the Bush administration's anti-terror or Middle East policies. Advocates of these positions -- while legitimate in a domestic political debate -- are hardly the sort of messengers the administration should want to promote in its diplomacy abroad.

The author goes on to say that the speakers shouldn't just be shills, but at the same time they shouldn't give aid to the enemy. I somewhat agree, unless somehow these people who are sent are Useful Idiots to us in some way or another.

I also think the author puts too much emphasis on policy issues. I've got a phrase for ya: Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak.

While it'd be good to convince our enemies or those on the fence using well-reasoned logical arguments, and that might be the way to reach the Muslim elites, a smart selling of America as a brand would work wonders.

Posted to Terrorism at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

The Chechen terrorists phoned home

According to this article:

Russian security officials suspect that the Chechens who seized a Moscow theatre in October had wealthy Arab sponsors in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states... Senior officials say they have traced a series of telephone calls from the gunmen to their "sponsors" in the Gulf.

During one call made to an unspecified Gulf state a financier asked for a video of scenes inside the theatre, and was told it could be made for a $1m fee.

"Several long telephone conversations were intercepted to Saudi Arabia, to the Emirates, and to Qatar.

"We can say for sure that the hostage-taking was financed from abroad, and the terrorists maintained permanent contact with their sponsors."

Further:

Russian security officials have been issuing warnings about the threat posed by Islamist extremists funded by wealthy Gulf state benefactors since the mid-90s

Well, the Russians have had a problem with Muslims for many years and with the Chechens specifically. Whether those were just conquests or not, the current methods used by the Chechens - and their fellow travellers - are certainly reprehensible.

Posted to Terrorism at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)

I'm a hit slut

Did you know I have Kiefer Sutherland photos in the gallery?

Posted to Celebrities at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

Today's Atwater Village report

Last night I attended a meeting for the Atwater Village Streetscape Study and Masterplan. Those of you who care not for such matters, please, I beg and beseech of you, skip to the next entries. They're really good.

Those who dare, click "MORE."

As previously alluded, despite not ever being a resident of Atwater Village, I am a stakeholder in any sense of the word, having single-handedly pumped literally thousands of dollars into their local economy, all of which was like getting type AB- blood out of a turnip.

The Streetscape Study seeks to determine what to do about the section of Glendale Blvd. between the bridge and the railroad overcrossing. (I told you, skip to the next entries if you aren't interested. Don't click away, just skip please.) They have three plans: keeping Glendale as 6 lanes is the first, and the other two are variants on reducing Glendale to 4 lanes.

Apparently, no traffic study has yet been done. I think that's asking for trouble. Here are my actions points:

- If you're standing on the corner of Glenfeliz and Glendale looking up at the bridge, there are actually 4 lanes of traffic heading towards you: 2 lanes coming down the bridge on Hyperion, and two lanes on Glendale coming from the direction of the freeway. Those 4 lanes are reduced to 3 lanes before Glenfeliz. That already creates a bit of a jam up during rush hour, especially for those who wish to turn left at Glenfeliz. Under two of the proposals, those 3 lanes would then be reduced to 2.

I think that's going to cause a problem. You're going to need precise traffic control to prevent the bridge or Glendale around the freeway from getting clogged. Remember that the last light before the bridge is way at the top at Rowena, and that the freeway traffic is currently basically uncontrolled. That is to say, the freeway traffic can arrive at any time, and it's only restrained by whether someone can turn right or not. Which is to a certain extent controlled by the light at Glendale and Riverside, but then again right turners headed north on Riverside can turn right at any time, likewise controlled by the traffic coming down the Glendale hill.

- A somewhat heretical proposal I might make would be to tear out or reduce the width of the center divider. That would let the traffic lanes take up the center portion of the street, allowing for more space on either side for, say, wider sidewalks or bike lanes or planters. I don't know how much that would cost however; in addition to the traffic disruption, it would probably require a lot of labor to remove the divider and then resurface the street.

- I don't know anything about traffic studies, but a cheap way to conduct such a study would be to block off one of the lanes on Glendale using traffic cones during a few rush hours. Then, observe whether people are backed up.

- If Glendale gets backed up, that might force traffic onto the already clogged Los Feliz, or onto Fletcher which isn't that clogged. But, when the Fletcher traffic gets to San Fernando, it will contribute to that highly clogged street, and might require a left turn signal at the intersection.

- As with Dennis (see, I'm even starting to know these people's names!), I agree that ads on the bus benches are a very bad idea and would detract from the hoped-for village feel.

- If they add a bike lane, what will happen to the lane going towards Silverlake after Glenfeliz? There is no space for the lane either going up the hill or going over the River. That's just a question, I'm sure the answer would be something like a "Bike Lane Ends" sign.

Thus ends today's Atwater Village report.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

Dispel your Mark of the Beast phobia, citizen!

A company named Indivos is trying to take biometrics to a new level, by replacing 100 million credit cards with fingerprint scanners.

The juicy comments are in a PDF file, which are also printed in the article above. The home page for the Biometric Consortium Conference is here.

And, as Invi Indivos' website makes clear:

[this] voluntary service authenticates consumer identity at the point of purchase... After voluntarily enrolling in the free service...

It's voluntary, so, what's the problem then?

In a trial run, there was only one unenrollment: "Lady’s husband was convinced this was the “Mark of the Beast”, and made her un-enroll." Their solution is simple: "Must continue to educate the public on how biometric technology works to dispel the “Mark of the Beast” phobia."

I think it might be a wise idea for concerned citizens - regardless of what they think of Jack van Imp - to protest any businesses that use this. But, hey, if you want to give up your fingerprint in exchange for the proferred sign-up bonus of a free hamburger, go ahead. Just make sure that you get a super-sized meal in exchange for the tattoo.

Posted to Privacy at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

"The reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis"

According to Drudge:

[the former head of the] White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives... claims all decisions are politicized by Bush's top adviser Karl Rove, and that the policy staff is afraid to confront him..."What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis"

Let's all pile on Rove! It's about damn friggin' time.

UPDATE: Dilulio now seems to be having interviewee's remorse. Apparently, some of his quotes were from a phone interview which, at the end, he asked if could be off the record and the author declined. In any case, it looks like Rove's people got to him: "in my opinion, the article is unjustly hard on Mr. Rove and over-the-top complimentary to me, thereby creating a too-pat contrast that is, I feel, most unfair to Mr. Rove..."

UPDATE 2: Drudge is now shilling for some ABC celebrity interview or other.

Posted to Politics at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)

More shocking American ignorance

Hot on the heels of our high schoolers getting a D on their geography exam, now comes this disturbing report: Only eight per cent of Americans know identity of Canada's PM, poll indicates.

As usual, a Canadian "expert" gets his digs in: "I'm not saying that Americans are geography geniuses," he said. "Virtually every survey that's ever been taken has shown that they're numbskulls when it comes to geography, even their own geography.

Yeah, well, I've got news for you bud. Only 1% of Americans care who your PM is, and we're working on them.

Posted to Politics at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)