The Agitated Mutterings of a Budding Maniac

Friday, January 26, 2001

CNN.com - McCain, Lott agree 'in principle' on campaign finance reform schedule - January 26, 2001 Read the fine print and you'll see that Senate Republicans have been able to keep this from even getting to open debate, much less a vote.

For all the carping people have done this year about the electoral college, I think the incredibly stupid rules of procedure that govern the Congress are far more problematic. A committee can bury a bill before it ever gets discussed, or it can add on additional clauses and amendments that will scuttle the bill when it does get to a vote.

And the best part is, the media, being basically ignorant and convinced that the audience is more so, won't ever pin the blame. Imagine a hypothetical bill that has the support of 67% of the American people and commands an even better majority in the House and Senate. Imagine that the relevant committee opposes the bill, and attaches an amendment that's obviously stupid- say, a clause banning distribution of federal highway funds to states that don't have 50MPH highway speed limits. The bill gets reported out of committee and loses by a landslide. This example suffers from just a wee bit of exaggeration, of course.

What does the media say? Do they name the committee members who pulled this stunt? Do they issue editorials suggesting that these people's constituents get them the hell out of our capital? No, they just mention that it failed to make it through the House.

Folks, it's never going to stop going to hell if we all don't start paying just a little bit more attention.
posted by Jason Larke 5:47 PM

CNN.com - New U.S.-Sino power diplomacy - January 25, 2001 Sigh. My hatred of the Chinese government is well known, and I'm not sure if rapprochement with them will do any good. Personally I'd like to see Israel smuggle some nukes to Taiwan- then we'd see some real fun. And maybe have Bush and Powell start insisting on a two-China policy. Or better yet, a one China policy, with Taiwan as the one. Will of the people be damned, no Communist government can be considered legitimate. Any form of political control that doesn't respect fundamental human rights is just armed banditry on a large scale.
posted by Jason Larke 1:59 PM

Thursday, January 25, 2001

BBC News | SCI/TECH | 'Blast sank Kursk, not collision' As if we didn't know.
posted by Jason Larke 11:44 AM

CNN.com - Russia pledges to assist Mideast peace process - January 23, 2001 I wonder how much earlier we might have had peace if the Evil Empire hadn't been busy arming that genocidal gang that has Israel surrounded? For that matter, if the USA and USSR had been united in support of Israel, would the '48 war have been prevented, and the entire Palestinian problem neatly ducked?

Thanks to the forces of totalitarianism and general barbarity, we'll never know.
posted by Jason Larke 2:32 AM

Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Martin Sheen Calls For End to Military Use of Vieques. Sigh. Morons. Aside from the issue of the need for weapons testing- we have to do it somewhere, and so on, and so forth- the public hysteria about depleted uranium is a joke.

Sure, DU is nasty. It's poisonous as all get out. Of course, so are lots of other things people deal with in the military. As long as you don't walk up to a freshly-killed target and take a big unfiltered whiff of the dust, you're fine. And in naval uses, the DU ends up in the water, where it's rapidly diluted to completely harmless quantities.

For those of you who wonder, this is *depleted* uranium. Depleted because the radioactivity is largely gone. It's not a nuclear or chemical weapon.

It's a great thing to make bullets out of (not bombs, Dar Williams, you liberal pawn, bullets). It's great because it's dense, and thus penetrates armor well. But better yet, it burns on impact. So it doesn't just go through a tank, the way a tungsten bullet might, it sets the entire interior of the tank aflame.

If we're going to have an Army and send Americans out to fight people in tanks, I want them to have that sort of firepower on their side.
posted by Jason Larke 4:34 PM

Liralyn was very mad at the hairdryer last night. She took me upstairs to show me "the orange thing", pointed at it, and began yelling, "Kill it! Kill it!"

I'm not sure where she got that. I'm not sure if it's cute or very disturbing. So I compromised and asked her not to yell it anymore. She can say it, just not yell it.
posted by Jason Larke 2:46 PM

Oh, I almost forgot, but this pathetic. My dad finally got his pistol back from the state police this week. It's a family heirloom of sorts- it came to him from his great-uncle- but the police have had it for a while, because my great-great uncle thoughtfully had it chrome-plated in a way that removed the serial number.

Now, a pistol with no serial number is a seriously illegal item, and the police had to stamp a serial number back on it before my dad could legally have the pistol. All fine, right?

Except that they put it in the wrong place. They stamped the mainspring housing. Which is not a serialized or controlled part. He could go to a show or one of a hundred stores and walk our with a new housing, and boom! Back to having an unserialized pistol. They should have serialized the frame. Even unassembled frames (ie, just big chunks of metal) have serial numbers and are sold as if they were firearms, with all the background checks and stuff.

This is why gun control is bad: Guns are too serious a matter to leave to the government.
posted by Jason Larke 2:23 AM

CNN.com - Space - Fleet of new moons discovered around Jupiter - January 9, 2001. Wow. Some planets will capture anything.
posted by Jason Larke 2:19 AM

Mer referred to Steph as "her Shelley" last week. I'm glad I have mine.
posted by Jason Larke 1:15 AM

Tuesday, January 23, 2001

CNN.com - Falun Gong members set selves on fire; 1 dies - January 23, 2001

5 set themselves on fire and only one died? Nobody does quality work anymore.
posted by Jason Larke 12:11 PM

How could you possibly go wrong with a movie called Reborn from Hell: Samurai Armageddon?
posted by Jason Larke 11:27 AM

I was just making a tape for Joe, and when the tape finished rewinding, North suddenly started playing. I began worrying about voodoo until I realized that I had relay play enabled on the tape deck, and the other well held Joe's demo tape. Groovy.
posted by Jason Larke 1:27 AM

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