Nothing Else Fit

Hope in Bishkek (part 3): Bittersweet Progress

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As the unofficial US-Kyrgyzstan Tourism Director / Diplomacy Chief, I wanted to share this account (via Argus) of how much more attractive Krygyzstan is becoming as a tourist destination. Of course, with progress comes the loss of tradition, but Even Kyrgyzstan is a lot more modern than it was just a few years ago, especially … Read more

For the record, I don’t disapprove, either.

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Short Hope Unfiltered has an interesting anecdote up that might illuminate some hithero overlooked connections between Social Security, immigration and outsourcing one’s retirement. Or not. It may just be an anecdote about a guy with a pretty clever idea on how to stretch out his retirement income. I find that I am especially tired tonight, … Read more

I saw a cicada today.

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On our way back from IKEA (too hot and muggy for my dad to do the tourist thing; he decided to stay home and watch 3,000 Miles to Graceland in a nice, dark, air-conditioned room). It was on the sidewark to our house; it had the weird eyes and wings, so it was definitely a … Read more

Should post something, huh?

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What with me home sick and everything. OTOH, I am actually home sick (though feeling much better), so I’m behind on the post-it notes. And Edward Underscore (guess we’ve got his superhero name, huh) just cut n’pasted that interesting hilzoy comment, so that’s out. (pause) Look! Monkeys! Moe

Sorry, it’s too nice a day out to blog.

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Especially on Mother’s Day (my good wishes to everybody who is one, which would include Constant Reader Harley’s wife – it’s her first one, I believe). If you need something to talk about, talk about what really good new musicians I should be listening to. I favor musical aptitude, lyrics that can be understood and … Read more

Creature of the Night? Pshaw.

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I can barely keep my eyes open. I’m telling you, this nosferatu thing is strictly for the younger generations. I remember when staying up all night was an achievement… these days, it’s a disaster. And let’s not even think about going out and baying at the moon; howling is many things, but beautiful music ain’t … Read more

Other Weekend Thread

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Apropos of nothing… Jeebus, but am I getting sick of getting into a car and driving for multiple hours. I think that it’s time that family members started visiting us for a change. (pause) Right. I’m collecting Laws of the Blogosphere. So far I’ve got Gary Farber’s* “Sometimes blogging response is inverse to blogging effort.” … Read more

I’m uncertain…

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…about just what would be the proper reaction to this particular group: Operation Take One For The Country. Amused? Appalled? Apprehensive? Approving? And that’s just the As. Not that what consenting adults do is any of my business, mind you, but this is definitely one of the… shoot, the censor circuits just kicked it up … Read more

“Still Blogging?” Open thread.

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Sort of the equivalent of banging on somebody’s door, just to make sure that they’re still alive and kicking and stuff. Frex, it’s been a month since Constant Reader Catsy’s blog Slouching Donkey, Lying Elephant got updated; it never hurts to doublecheck, eh? Add your own “Um… hello? Anybody home?” below.

Things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.

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Paul Cella has an interesting article in the American Spectator Online, which concerns (broadly) the difficulties of interpretation. It appears to be a slightly-condensed version of a recent entry Paul’s outstanding blog.

Paul isn’t the first, of course, to touch on how difficult it can be to read a certain text “correctly” (or, indeed, whether any reading can be termed “correct”).* But I can’t help but relate his piece to my work. I’m a patent litigator, mostly, and a lot of what I do requires me to construe and apply frightening-vague patent claims. I know the limitations of the written word all too well. An old case, AutoGiro, put it best:

An invention exists most importantly as a tangible structure or a series of drawings. A verbal portrayal is usually an afterthought written to satisfy the requirements of patent law. This conversion of machine to words allows for unintended idea gaps which cannot be satisfactorily filled. Often the invention is novel and words do not exist to describe it. The dictionary does not always keep abreast of the inventor. It cannot. Things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.

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An Easter post. Not the Easter post.

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Short version: I suddenly have to be the one to prepare a ham for Easter dinner. It’s going into the oven in about a half hour to an hour from now; it’s precooked, honey glazed and just under 10 lb, so it defaults to being relatively straightforward. Dinner’s somewhere around 5:30 PM, subject of course … Read more

You know, I don’t even like Rush…

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…but this Salon article (Dr. Dittohead*) could serve as the Platonic Ideal for that patronizing You’re Not So Bad-Looking For A Fat Chick insult-meme that we’ve all had to encounter, now and again. Well worth sitting through an ad for, if only to watch the poor woman have to emulate a pretzel so that she could even approximate a stance where she was able to fake tolerating somebody with such bad taste as to like Rush Limbaugh. Mind you, I’ve got no beef about somebody despising the man; I don’t like him myself. But as Andy said, self-parodying, much? Heck, there’s a part of me that suspects that this was an April Fool’s story (in which case, it’s the best one I saw this year). If not… well, I’m no psychologist, so we’ll just delete the advice I was going to give.

Moe

PS: BTW, Ms. Mifflin, on the off chance that you ever read this… I’ll bet you a dollar that your therapist already knew all about the stuff you said about Rush: she just didn’t feel like losing a patient with your level of issues.

Call it a hunch.

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So that’s what a social life looks like.

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Otherwise known as Why Moe Isn’t Blogging: I’ve got opinions on stuff, I just don’t think that I’m particularly coherent right now. I think I shall listen again to my new Johnny Cash CD (The Essential Johnny Cash*) and call it a night. Moe *Purchased as a result of the advice given in this discussion. … Read more

Rational Thought

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Been slammed at work too much to do much of anything, but in the 10 pages of the Reppert book I’m reading I found a quote which sheds light on quite a bit of the way we engage in political discussions” If you were to meet a person, call him Steve, who could argue with … Read more

For the record . . . .

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I am a GRAMMAR GOD! If your mission in life is not already topreserve the English tongue, it should be.Congratulations and thank you! How grammatically sound are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Something a bit lighter . . . .

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While persuing the Conspiracy of Volokhs, I was directed to this ranking of law firm prestige. (Favorite entry: #4 Skadden: “uppers’ — “Great training opportunities and informal mentoring . . . .”; “downers” — “screamers.” Pretty accurate description, from what I know.) This is all mostly meaningless stuff, of course. Still, entry #25, Clifford Chance, … Read more

Gulp.

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More seriously, Macallan over at the soon-to-go-away version of Tacitus has brought news that Meteor Blades, blogger over at dKos, nearly died last week. I’ve had the odd disagreement with the man, but I’m extremely distressed by what happened and profoundly relieved that he’s being taken care of. Get well soon, MB. Moe

Got a Lot of Post-it notes today

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It’s probably indicative of something that I skipped past oodles of good War Liberal posts to note this one about the Little Old Lady with the 100 Vultures camped out in her yard, but I shall indulge myself none the less. It’s been that sort of day.

Birthdays.

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I was just told that I should mention that today is my 34th birthday. It feels a bit hubristic, not to say self-congratulatory, so instead I’ll make this the Funny Birthday Story Thread; if you’ve got one which isn’t umpteen pages long, let’s hear it.

I’m surprised that it’s still up, frankly.

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Unless, of course, I’ve seriously underestimated the maturity level of my own side’s frothing partisans when shown the vision of Noam Chomsky’s blog. I do notice that Chomsky has already prudently removed comments from his site. Wicked, evil naughty frothing partisans! Bad! No biscuit! (via Pejmanesque, who’s being a blogging purist about the whole thing.)

Well, I’m back.

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And, upon looking at the umpteen million comments to a a zillion different posts*, I’m not gonna even try to catch up; I’m sure that I’ll be suitably apprised of anything absolutely vital for me to see. As usual, some excellent posts.

Expect to hear the solitary call of the right-winged, pink-nosed** blogger to start up again tomorrow. I’ve got a ton of mail to sort through, not to mention roughly half a week’s worth of various and sundry Internet comics.

Moe

UPDATE: OK, I understand that one of the advantages of a group blog is that people can take little breaks and everything without it affecting content, but this is just slapping me in the face with a halibut. 3,000+? Great googley moogley.

If I had a policy of using emoticons in my main posts, there’d be a smiley after the paragraph above.

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Greetings from scenic Duck, NC…

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…because travelblogging is the thing to do these days, it seems. It’s been very relaxing: I turn on the television, establish that the planet hasn’t blown up yet, turn it off and go look at another tourist attraction, of which North Carolina has a remarkable number. So far on this trip we’ve seen Yorktown (on … Read more

For those not into poetry.

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I have another topic for all y’all. An aphorism, even – one that I came up with while on the trip home. To wit:

“If the media actually were a bunch of lapdogs, they would be those little psychotic yapping ratdogs that you would never quite be comfortable around, because you never know what event might cause them to snap like an old rubber band. You can’t tell me that they’re happy about not being wolves anymore, that’s all I’m saying. Look at the resentment, man! Look at the rage in their eyes! They could lose it at any moment!”

(pause)

OK, OK, I read too much Terry Pratchett* and John D MacDonald**, but you get the point. Discuss?

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Gravity-defying Good for You

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It’s supposed to snow in New York tonight, so we’re looking forward to that old-fashioned tradition we all love and know so well: A White St. Patrick’s Day! Er….yeah. Anyway, it would’t be St. Paddy’s if I didn’t find a good pint of Guinness to celebrate, but this year, when I’m watching those tiny bubbles … Read more

Same here.

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…you’ll understand the title once you click through. It’s another referral log special, so I dunno if it’s for real or not. And now, to sleep. No, I won’t wax poetical this time. Moe

Oof.

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To excerpt would not do it justice. All I can say is, thank goodness for referral logs. Via Crossing the Rubicon2. Moe

Are you lookin’ for a soft place to lie down??!! Or do you want to play??!!

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. . . . Is what a certain hyperventilating football coach* used to say to his charges, way back in the way back (when I used to play).

Perhaps it’s just the weekend and Monday that I’ve had, but, yes, Coach, I am. Some soft grass in the sun. A dirty Sycamore for a little shade. Down by the river, in the hollow. Maybe you could get me a pillow?

The truth is that we’re all just looking for a soft place to lie down. People want food, they want shelter, they want family near, and they want good friends and cheer. If you give them the option to have half of it, they will take it — ninety-nine times out of a hundred. And that’s true (to paraphrase Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove) “regardless of race, color, or creed.”

Remember that the next time you hear hyperventilating about “Moslem this, terrorist that.” It is undoubtably true that many people — regardless of race, color, or creed — are evil. (We all sin in our hearts at least, as the naive peanut-farmin’ former president will confirm.) The rough nut of active evil, though, is not more than a glorified legume. Most people just want that soft place in the sun.

You’ll never know it, if all you’ll spare is an LGF minute. My discussion of the war on terror will wait another day. Consider this an open thread.

von

UPDATE: I promise to bring this back to theme.

Apparently, Spalding Gray is dead. By whose hand — his own or another — we’ll soon find out (undoubtably). This, though, rings painfully true:

“Everyone that looks like him from behind, I go up and check to make sure it’s not him,” Russo said in a phone interview with The Associated Press about a week ago. “If someone calls and hangs up, I always do star-69. You’re always thinking, ‘maybe.”‘

It’s thoughts like these that pulled me back; when I needed to pull back. And don’t lie — not here, not in anonymous cyberspace** — and say you never needed to pull back too. That soft patch of grass in the half-shade of the dirty Sycamore is worth more. It’s worth more to all of us.

In my teens and twenties, I had more than enough conversations with post-punks and artists and singers and writers and crazies and earnest football players-turned-hopeful-Kerouacs (such as myself, who never could write that crappy (or well)***). Every conversation was about the worthlessness of it all.

But life is worthy. It’s that perfect moment on a seventy-two degree October day. The moment you find heaven in a glass of mid-day gin and a GPC cigarette. It’s worth it. And sleep only refreshes when you wake up.

Sorry for the melodrama. News triggers thoughts, which triggers memories and musings, you know, which makes one forget one’s carefully-studied cynacisms. You may now return to your open thead.

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Yeah, stick a fork in him.

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Drudge is definitely started up on the downward arc of his trajectory. I’m sure that some of you folks are muttering either ‘it’s about time’ or ‘Whaddya mean, started?’, but let that pass; this profanity-in-Kerry’s-website ‘exclusive’ is lame-o. So lame-o, in fact, that it doesn’t deserve the teeny-tiny traffic that a link from me would send it. If you really want to see, go read QandO* and/or Wonkette, both of whom were not precisely kind in their commentary (although the latter was just a tad more foul-mouthed about it).

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Well founded fear

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The central requirement for political asylum in the U.S. is to show that you cannot return to your country because of

“persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Does anyone notice anything missing from that list? Anyone? Bueller?

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SOx: A Shout-out to the Law-nerds.

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Only for the lawyer-nerds: Professor Bainbridge has written what seems to be an interesting law review article on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (popularly referred to as “SOx”). Basically, SOx is a response to the recent rash of corporate governance scandals, and resulted in the imposition of a series of (very boring) duties on certain lawyers intended to protect the public from corporate fraud.

I pass the article along for two reasons: First, having sat through innumerable boring SOx lectures, it’s great to see something on the subject that’s actually somewhat provocative. Second, as a practicing lawyer, I must say that I find most law review articles written by law professors to be somewhere between boring and useless (those written by practicioners tend to be better, ’cause they usually focus on real-world results*). Professor Bainbridge’s article looks to be neither. So, here’s a shout-out to the good Professor: keep doin’ what you’re doin’.

von

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