"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
I feel much better (thanks to everyone saying kind words), but I’m tired. Must sleep; use these threads to talk amongst yourselves. (UPDATE) Fixed shouting problem.
Giblets of the Fafblog provides the definitive review of Mel Gibson‘s “The Passion of Christ”: The supporting cast was very underdeveloped. . . . . there was Mary Magdalene, who was hot, but didn’t get nearly as much screen time. Put the hot chick up front, Gibson! Of all the supporting characters, I would have … Read more
There’s an old line about protesting (can’t remember the source) that goes something like: Q: Why are all the protesters you see on TV always liberals? A: Because all the conservatives have jobs! I like to think it’s also because none of them can make puppets…but I digress… If extreme rightists were to suddenly take … Read more
Matthew Stinson (righteously) reminded me in comments below that he’s blogging from China, no less. This is his latest China-related entry: he’s a good blogger and posting from a fairly complicated place, so I heartily recommend that you check him out. Err. Assuming that you don’t already. Moe PS: We’re raising the bar after this: … Read more
Well, seeing as all the cool kids over at Tacitus.org are posting from the road* (Tac’s in the Middle East and Mac’s in Prague), I thought that I’d do the same. ‘Course, in my case it’s a bit less glamourous, as I’m posting from my girlfriend‘s grandmother’s house… just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. An added … Read more
… I’m still going to note that James Joyner of Outside The Beltway has been laid off. He’s looking for work, so if you happen to know of a think tank / defense / natsec job in the DC area give him a head’s-up. (pause) Yeah, those sorts of jobs do sound pretty interesting. Academic, … Read more
…I’m just not going to be around much this weekend: I’ve going to a SCA event that’s being run by my NJ friends, and to be blunt I intend to be too busy drinking lots and lots of extremely good homebrewed beer to get anywhere near a computer. Fortunately, my cobloggers will be more than adequate to fill all your blogging needs.
Don’t burn down the place and I’ll see all y’all Sunday.
Moe
…looks less funny and/or profound at 12:56 AM. There’s a moral there, I’m sure. In other news, go see the new blogroll entries. A couple there that I should’ve thought of on my own.
CNN reports that the WB has is cancelling Angel — you know, Buffy-spin off, ’bout the vampire with a soul — after five seasons. Having been a closet, then open, then BUFFY IS THE BEST SHOW ON TV AND I WILL TELL YOU WHY fan, I’ll say it: The end of an era (of good writing, wrapped up with a giant warm-to-the-nerd-soul bow).
Never was a huge fan of Angel, though; something to do with killing off my wife’s favorite character early on.* After that, I never heard the dialog — all I heard was the gal sitting next to me, fulminating (“this would be soooo much better, if only ______ was still around.”)
Consider this a commemorative open thread, to the extent one is needed.
…well, that’s the impression I get from this post, at least. David (not Steven) is apparently especially exercised over this plan (registration required): Tom Overby is a man with a big idea. His idea is so big, in fact, that it would dwarf the skyline of his hometown — Kansas City, Kan. — edge out … Read more
This will be my last post or comment for several months. I thought of trying to restrict it to once a week, but since I proved last week that I’ll only yammer on in comments if I do that….I had my immigration law clinic training yesterday. Starting this Wednesday, I will have a lot of … Read more
… you know, the Sorry For the Light Blogging posts. However, in this case I’m semi-indifferent, what with the several beers, half a bottle of wine and – most importantly – the sheer sense of blinding relief that’s been present ever since we found out that my girlfriend’s biopsy came back negative for liver cancer. … Read more
As some of you may know, I do a fair bit of work on actual-, near- and quasi- white collar criminal matters. (Hmm, that didn’t come out right. Perhaps I’d better say that I do a fair bit of work as an attorney representing persons and companies facing potential actual-, near- and quasi- white collar … Read more
Armed Liberal over at Winds of Change is getting married. He’s also trying to raise enough cash to get one of his cobloggers to his wedding, which is at least a switch from the standard “I need a laptop” craze. For that matter, Gary Farber could probably still use a shout-out or two, too – … Read more
Right, that’s going on today. I predict that, no matter who wins, there will be at least ten bloggers who will attempt to somehow tie the final score to Kerry vs Edwards, by any means necessary. That’s pretty much the beginning and end of it all for me, although the commercials are usually good. UPDATE: … Read more
Katherine’s Maher Arar posts are being linked to by the Christian Science Monitor’s Terrorism & Security daily update. (pause) I’m sorry if this is actually prosaic or something, but I’m new at this, so I at least am going to continue to think that it’s really, really cool that this happened. Katherine rules…
In honor of Martin Luther King day, I am posting two long excerpts are from “My Soul is Rested,” an oral history of the civil rights movement edited by Howell Raines. Neither pertains to Dr. King directly. They are from two interviews with the leaders of “Freedom Summer”, the voter registration drive in Mississippi, in … Read more
We were able to catch an early flight, so we’re back and ignoring laundry until tomorrow. I am proud to say that I was successfully able to ignore all sources of news during that time, with the exception of this blog. I’ll have resumed playing Righty counterpoint by tomorrow, just as soon as I catch … Read more
… that Derbyshire is going to catch sixteen kinds of hell for this National Review article: The Irish of the World. I mean, the title alone is going to piss a lot of people off, simply because there’s a little voice in the back of the head of every Irish-American who’s made his or her … Read more
I contemplated posting on the increasing chaos in Southern Iraq, but thought better of it. I mean, really, Iraq is sooo November 2003. Onward to the things that really matter: From Slashdot (which cites Reuters): “the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien won a cybersquatting case against Alberta Hot Rods, a Canadian-based operator which registered jrrtolkien.com and linked it to its commercial celebrity Web site[,] before an ICANN arbitration panel.”
The Slashdotters, of course, don’t link to the panel’s actual decision. We Obwingers, however, revel in pointless detail. So here it is, in all its ICANNy goodness.
Now, for the meaningless digression: The Tolkein arbitration was handled under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which has quasi-sorta-jurisdiction over many domain name disputes. WIPO’s rules allow the holder of a valid trademark to seek relief against a cybersquatter through a quick-and-dirty arbitration proceeding.*
Doesn’t always work as planned, though. Because WIPO is an international organization, an arbitration panel can consist of people from around the world. Many of these people don’t speak English as a first language (shocking!). This can lead to some, well, unusual decisions. Such as: Tata Sons Limited v. D&V Enterprises.
Tata Sons, Ltd. is a large Indian utility company. D&V Enterprises owned a website named “bodacious-tatas.com,” which provided (one presumes) all manner of bodacious tatas for one’s viewing enjoyment. Tata Sons, Ltd. claimed that a person seeking out its utility may confuse D&V’s bodacious tatas with its utilities. It sought to take control of D&V’s “bodacious tatas.com” domain name.
At this point, you may be thinking that one would have to be pretty damn drunk to confuse a utility with a purveyor of bodacious tatas. That thought, however, did not enter the mind of the WIPO arbitration panel. Its ruling reads, in part:
TATA, without any vestige of doubt, constitutes a famous (or, in international parlance, well known) mark . . . . As to goodwill, the Panel accepts the Complainant’s submission to the effect that the name “TATA” has consistently been associated with the goods and services of, the “House of Tata”. . . . the name “TATA” has acquired considerable goodwill.
. . . .
The Complainant contended that the use by the Respondent of the impugned Domain Name is aimed at taking a ‘cash-ride’ on the Complainant’s image and status. Thus, the unauthorized adoption of the Domain Name has resulted in the Respondent deriving, or attempting to derive, monetary benefit by trading on the reputation and goodwill held by the Complainant. The Panel accepts this contention . . . . [and awarded the domain name to the House of Tatas]
Erm, yes: when I think of Tatas, I think of the “House of Tatas,” an Indian utility company.
You can’t make this stuff up.
…are waxing philosophical about blogging: Accordingly, we suspect that news and commentary alike, whether in the newspapers, on television or on blogs, can never be as objective, or as rational, as we all like to pretend they can be. We’re not saying that trying to be objective and rational is a waste of time; just … Read more
That smooth cat von was talking and jiving, funning and sunning, smiling and nodding himself down a suave path of song and dance about the music that established his zone of jive, so I’m gonna lay down the rap on my new pride and joy. I want to talk to you about my man, my most righteous of brothers, my guy rolling a spliff right now from the Nazz’s own personal crop and showing the Werewolf and the Man in Black just how you jive and scat to Gabby when she’s feeling like making that trumpet she totes howl, oh yes, my cats and kitties, howling all the way to Judgement Mother Day.
Yes. His Lordship himself. I found him out in the wilderness (shown the way by the righteous stud Lincoln Cat, who will be grooving down in my own righteous blogstash with the rest of the mad, lyrical cats as soon as I can mixel the pixel with the trixel, connect the dot on the screen free and clean, Jean) and he’s gonna talk to us about my boy. The biggest mother cat of the Gee Oh Mother Pee. The one that brought it all in and made it sing. But my gums can stop flapping any time now.
Oh, if you were worrying about the length of the quote – the righteous cats and kitties in the know, Joe, have declared the square:
All cats and kitties who are blown away by this material are encouraged to perform it, share it, download it, post it, make it known to the not-yet-hip, but hungry, masses.
Dig.
Moe
Via Atrios, here is a National Review article on the law of rape.: Pre-feminist common sense suggested that a woman who comes alone to a man’s hotel room late at night has already consented to sex with him, but on the all-or-nothing principle so dear to ideologues everywhere, feminist orthodoxy insists that the adoption of … Read more
. . . . stop by the Fafblog. Fafnir’s got some new stuff up, and some of it’s pretty good. A taste: SUCKS TO BE MUSHARRAF. Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf who[,] as regular Fafblog readers know[,] is my favorite Pakistani military dictator ever – check out my Musharraf fansites, “Whassup, Musharraf!” and “Pervez n … Read more
Relax, partisans and neopartisans: it’s the weekend, and time to chill out, crack open a Pabst, and listen to some music, new and old. What am I listening to? Well, shucks, I thought you’d never ask. A little Norwegian electronica from Flunk‘s recent debut. It’s a deeply flawed album, but I’m a sucker for Norwegians. … Read more
Well, two denizens of it, at least: Dan Drezner and Brad DeLong, over – who else? – Dan’s comments about Paul Krugman. Great, now I’m going to have to separate the two: I should have never have put them right next to each other on the blogroll… (pause) What, you want a substantive comment? Sorry, … Read more
Sad news in the world of sports: Tug McGraw, a relief pitcher for the Mets and Phillies, died yesterday of brain cancer. He was only 59. McGraw was before my time–I started watching in ’86, so I only know him from interviews and one of the Mets history videos I own (yes, I am a … Read more
While we’re on the subject of food, I thought I would mention that this is the world’s best cookbook. Cambodian food has a lot of similarities to Thai and Vietnamese but I think it’s better than either. The recipes are surprisingly easy, and surprisingly similar to the ones at the Boston restaurant that publishes the cookbook. I’ve bought three copies so far–one for myself, two as gifts–and 1/3 to 1/4 of the meals my husband and I cook regularly are now Cambodian. (Our friends make fun of us for this, but they like eating the results. And the Irish and Jewish traditions aren’t exactly known for their food.)
The main problem is finding some of the more obscure ingredients–you can substitute ginger for galangal, and regular soy sauce for mushroom soy sauce, easily enough, but it’s hard to get started if you can’t find lemongrass and impossible if you can’t find fish sauce. I’ve located almost everything in Boston and found the rest in New York, but if you live in a more suburban or rural place it might be harder. (And in some cases we just got lucky–the local ice cream parlor, of all places, stocks kaffir lime leaves. Bizarre.)
…but better late than never. Non-satirical, but (as always) when Scott’s good, he’s good.
As Moe suspected, I’ve been too busy with Hanukkah celebration/Christmas preparation to post. I have limited computer access, especially if I don’t want to reveal my secret identity to my extended family. Also, I’ve paid almost no attention to politics for the past few days so I don’t have all that much to write about. … Read more
…which sounds kind of weird, but there you go. I’ll be running around a lot tomorrow and I’m about to go to sleep, so I’ll take the time now to wish everyone a happy holiday of the appropriate type, religious or secular; I’ll post in from time to time, but you know how it is. … Read more
I was pretty sure I had cobloggers: guess that they’re in the middle of prepping for Christmas, or something. (pause) Slow day today, huh? There was that earthquake in California, but other than that it was a pretty quiet Monday. I like quiet days, tell you the truth: they seem rarer than they used to … Read more
OK, in deference to the author (who apparently liked being a Flappy Bird in the Ecosystem), you can check out Letters of Marque via the Volokh entry that references it. The linked-to post is funny even to non-lawyers; the site likewise, especially the USB Menorah. I’d blogroll, but she’d probably hunt me down and throw … Read more
Hanukkah began tonight, it’s less than a week till Christmas, and President Bush sent out his traditional Kwanzaa press release this morning. So in the spirit of the season, rather than tear into this National Review article on gay marriage–as others have done very effectively–I will instead post the heartwarming story of two penguins who … Read more
Well, this started as a note that dKos is having a contest for a new logo. Some of you are – whatever the name is these days for people to the Left of me – and for all I know a couple of you are graphic artists who wouldn’t mind participating. I would’ve been fine … Read more