There are thousands of chess-players around the world who knew Igor Ivanov. They opened their homes and their hearts to his brilliant mind, to his kind soul, to his hearty laugh, and to his friendship. He was always respectful of others, and I never heard him utter an unkind word to anyone.

He was a Grandmaster while most the the rest of us were patzers, but he treated us as equals. His respect for us didn't dim when we played chess with him. We almost always lost, but we always left the board feeling good. He brought out the best in everyone. It wasn't that he didn't have strong opinions he did. I often disagreed with him about politics, but it was never personal, and we agreed on all the important things in life, a love of music, of literature, of chess, and the value of good friends.

I remember that day in March when he called and told me he had cancer, and how it was inoperable. We both knew that he didn't have long, but his spirits were high. I asked him if he'd heard the Monty Python song, "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life." He hadn't but was anxious to hear it. I sent him a copy and a few days later he was back on the phone. . He didn't start with his usual hi Norm it's Igor instead he said "I love that part where they say You come into life with nothing and you leave with nothing, what have you lost nothing." and then that infectious laugh of his. That is how I'll remember Igor laughing and embracing life while facing death.

Igor is gone now, but our memories of him remain. Here are a few of mine, but first a few pictures of Igor, the background music is Chopin's Fantaisie-impromptu in C sharp minor, a piece I heard Igor play many times. (this is from a recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy)

I first met Igor in the 80's in Los Angeles, at a chess tournament of course. I was wandering about the tournament hall watching the final games of the round when I saw a familiar face. Elizabeth a duplicate bridge partner of mine in the seventies in Salt Lake. Igor stayed with Elizabeth when in California because she was bright and sweet, and because she had a Grand Piano at home, they later got married. Igor, had he not pursued chess, would I'm sure found a career in music, having studied both Cello and Piano as a young man.

Later when Igor and Elizabeth moved to Salt Lake Sundays became the day we studied Chess with Igor. We called it the Church of the 64 Squares. We studied chess and we listened to Igor play the piano. We always played a few skittles games after the lessons. The games always seemed close, for two reasons. Igor never went for cheap attacks, even though they probably would have succeeded, and he gave you an opportunity to stretch yourself. I remember after months of playing I finally won a game against him. I was thrilled and asked him to help me re-create the game which he graciously did. It was later that evening playing over the game that I realized he had allowed me to win. He was so good it was barely detectable. Later when I confronted him he wouldn't confirm my suspicions, but his smile gave him away. Sometime we skipped that skittles and played hearts instead. Igor was good at that too, but it wasn't certain who would win like it was with the chess.

Once on the return trip from a tournament in Moab we stopped at Arches National Monument. The beauty is spectacular, but Igor wasn't impressed. "It's just rocks,"he said, "boring." It may have just been Igor having a little fun at our expense, something he relished, but it reminded of a conversation we had several years earlier. I remarked that it must have been great to travel to all the capitals of Europe and the world all the wonderful cities you would visit as a Grandmaster. His response surprised me. One's just like another from inside a hotel room, he said, but Paris has the most poop, and then laughed his wonderful laugh. I think it was true of Igor and of other Grandmasters who spend a lot of time in their own heads. The lyrics from One Night in Bangkok from the Musical, Chess, capture it well.

Another time at the American Open in Los Angeles a tournament that is always held on Thanksgiving weekend, Igor was late arriving at the at the tournament and there was a real chance he would forfeit on time if he didn't arrive soon. With only a few minutes left on his clock before forfeiture he came rushing through the door, a director pointed out his opponent and Igor took his seat and played his move assuring that he wouldn't forfeit the game on time. He had been playing only about five minutes when the director returned to his board and whispered something in Igor's ear. Igor immediately stood up and left the tournament hall to the amazement of all. In his rush to make the round on time Igor had left his car in the parking garage, door open, keys in the ignition, and the car still running.

The National Open in Las Vegas was a popular tournament and one we played often. In one of the later rounds Igor was paired with Walter Browne. The game, a Nimzo-Indian, was notable, because Igor used an idea from a game Botvinnik played in a training match for one of his world championship matches. Igor won, but it was Walter's reaction that was noteworthy. His frustration at losing was only part of story, you see Walter considers himself something of an expert on Botvinnik's games having played through the three volumes of his games multiple times, but somehow he missed the training game Igor knew so well. The unfairness of it all was etched on Walter�s face, and he complained to anyone who would listen. You would see him spot someone across the tournament hall, and head in their direction. Walter had a gait you would recognize anywhere, it appeared to me he was always leaning forward when he walked, like he was stretching for the winners tape before it was even in sight. But the best part was the smile on Igor's face when he saw Walter explaining his loss to yet another player, and how unfair it all was.

Igor has played many wonderful games, one that was special to me was a game he played against Seirawan in the 1991 U.S. Championship not only was it a wonderful game but I was there when he played it. Igor and Yasser were tied after their regular games and were about to begin a series of playoff games at ever faster time controls. It was I believe between the regular games and the beginning of the playoff that I was on the same elevator as Seirawan and a couple of his friends. Yasser was talking tough, psyching himself up for the remaining games. I can beat this Russian he repeated more than once, but there was doubt evident in his voice. He eventually won but the battle was a mighty one and out of it came this game as reported by David Sands in the Washington Times

One of his most famous wins was his brilliancy-prize victory over Seattle GM and multiple U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan at the 1991 U.S. championship. The final tactic, involving two consecutive queen offers, was deemed the best combination of the year by the editors of Informant magazine. On the Black side of a Queen's Indian, Ivanov signals his aggressive intentions early with 14. Bb2 f4!?, and gives up the exchange for the initiative with the speculative 21. Bf3 Rxf3!? (a good practical decision, as White was about to take charge positionally) 22. Nxf3 Rf8. Seirawan, a superb defender, sidesteps an early snakepit with 23. Ra3, as the natural 23. Bb2? allows a second, winning exchange sac: 23...Rxf3! 24. gxf4 Qg5+ 25. Kh1 Nd2!, with an unanwerable attack on f3. After 23...e5 24. Re1 Nf6 25. Nh4 Ne5 26. Nf5 Qd7 27. Rh3 g6, it's not clear whose attack will break through first. But Black's risk-taking is justified when White can't work his way out of a tricky bind, allowing a spectacular finale: 34. Qe3 h5! 35. Nf2 (the rook can't be taken because of 36...Ne2+) exf3 36. g3? (see diagram). This move leads to disaster, as does 36. Qxf4 Ne2+ 37. Kh1 fxg2 mate. The real test comes on 36. gxf3! 37. Rxf3 (Kh1Ng5+ 38. Kg1 Nxh3+ 39. Nxh3 Rg4+ 40. Kf2 Qf5+ 41. Ke1 Qb1+ 42. Ke2 Qb2+ 43. Ke1 Qb4+ 44. Ke2 Qxc4+, and White's game collapses) Rxf3 38. Qg5 Qe6, and Black wins a pawn but there's still play in the position. Ivanov finds a strikingly original mating idea, one that Seirawan sportingly plays out to the end: 36...Ne2+ 37. Kh1 Qxh3! 38. Rg1 (Nxh3 f2+ 39. Qf3 Bxf3 mate) Qg2+!!, and the Black pawn, knight and bishop are enough to run down the White king on 39. Rxg2 fxg2 mate. White resigned.

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Can you imagine the response if these jeans were being sold here. There would be boycotts, Fox News would be going nuts. Hmm, I ought to forward the story to O'Reilly, or Hannity, or that other worst person of the year John Gibson 'Devilish' Jeans a Hot Seller in Sweden

Cheap Monday jeans are a hot commodity among young Swedes thanks to their trendy tight fit and low price, even if a few buyers are turned off by the logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead.

Logo designer Bjorn Atldax says he's not just trying for an antiestablishment vibe.

"It is an active statement against Christianity," Atldax told The Associated Press. "I'm not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion."

The label's makers say it's more of a joke, but Atldax insists his graphic designs have a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, a "force of evil" that he blames for sparking wars throughout history.

In more religious countries, that might raise a furious response, maybe even prompt retailers to drop the brand.

Not in Sweden, a secular country that cherishes its free speech and where churchgoing has been declining for decades.

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The dizzying high point of Showtime's new Masters of Horror series, the hour-long Homecoming (which premieres December 2) is easily one of the most important political films of the Bush II era. With its only slightly caricatured right-wingers, the film nails the casual fraudulence and contortionist rhetoric that are the signatures of the Bush-Cheney administration. Its dutiful hero, presidential consultant David Murch (Jon Tenney), reports to a Karl Rove–like guru named Kurt Rand (Robert Picardo) and engages in kinky power fucks with attack-bitch pundit Jane Cleaver (Thea Gill), a blonde, leggy Ann Coulter proxy with a "No Sex for All" tank top and "BSH BABE" license plates. Murch's glib, duplicitous condescension is apparently what triggers the zombie uprising: Confronting an angry mother of a dead soldier on a news talk show, he tells this Cindy Sheehan figure, "If I had one wish . . . I would wish for your son to come back," so he could assure the country of the importance of the war. The boy does return, along with legions of fallen combatants, and they all beg to differ.

Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax Set Free by Robert Scheer asks a damn good question why were Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax released.

Why is it not bigger news that those infamous Iraqi female scientists once routinely referred to in the media as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" have been quietly released from imprisonment in Iraq without any charges being brought by their US captors? Don't the newspapers and TV networks that all but pre-convicted them of crimes against humanity owe them--and us--the courtesy of an explanation for the sudden presumption of their innocence?

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Booked by you

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go to the other room and read.” — Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

2005 has been the year of the bibliophile. With a sudden revival of interest in books and bookstores, booksellers have never had it so good. Be it the tale of a ‘teenage wizard’ or an ‘argumentative economic’, book lovers have had a field day when it came to choosing a tome of their choice.

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Comedy of Terror (tip to boxcar)
Tony Blair, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld - You're My Prize Guys
by Terry Jones

Well the end of the year is as good a time as any to distribute prizes. And first is the Gary Glitter Cup for Self-Restraint, to Tony Blair. It can't have been an easy couple of years for him, and yet he has somehow managed to keep that smile on his lips and that cheerful sparkle in his eye with a degree of self-restraint that impressed the judges.

Over the past two years, Tony has seen all his Iraq policies turn into unmitigated disasters. Instead of his stated aim of bringing peace and happiness to the people of Iraq, he has brought them chaos, bloodshed, violence and misery. Instead of making Britain safer, his policies have made this country a target for terrorism for the foreseeable future.

And now there is open talk in the Senate of impeaching George Bush; the New York Times accuses him of "recklessness" and claims he "may also have violated the law". Tony must be finding it difficult to sleep. Yet he is able to get up in the morning unassisted! He is able to look at himself in the mirror, shave without damaging his throat, and go to work with every appearance of a man who imagines he's doing a good job.

This achievement richly deserves the Gary Glitter Cup. Well done, Tony!

And now we come to the Dick Cheney "Goblet of Fire" Award for Courage in the Face of Action. And for the sixth successive year, the award goes to ... the vice-president of the US ... Dick Cheney!

This year the judge (who is, once again, Dick Cheney) cites in particular Mr Cheney's fearlessness in speaking with authority on military matters despite the fact that he has never served in the military. In fact Mr Cheney received no less than five deferments rather than serve his country in uniform. Nor has he lost his nerve, despite seeing the death rate of American servicemen and women climb above the 2,000 mark. Those who have already died will be heartened by his courageous determination to risk yet more people's lives.

Well done, Dick. The "Goblet of Fire" is yours once again.

more

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SNL skit featuring Andy Samberg. One friend consoles another.

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Popularising philosophy | Question marks | Economist.com

Puzzles are all very well. But arguments have to end. When arguments themselves turn on contentious principles—majority rule, moral truth, science against faith—philosophy will not go away. Shut the door, and back it comes through the window. Philosophy, once readmitted, then turns a characteristic trick. It makes you think how you should be arguing about those principles and tries to make plain what should count as good and bad reasons. It guarantees no answers but does offer the wherewithal to recognise genuine answers when they appear.

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The logic of creationist arguments is always the same: some natural phenomenon is too specifically improbable, too complex, too beautiful, too awe-inspiring to come into existence by chance. Design is the only alternative to chance that the author can image. Therefore, a designer must have done it.

Design is not a real alternative to chance at all because it raises an even bigger problem than it solves: Who designed the designer?

Natural selection is a real solution. It is the only workable solution for the problem of improbability that has ever been suggested. And it is not only a workable solution, but it is a solution of the utmost evidence and power.

I heard a man who had been in Abu Ghraib prison say: ‘The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house.’

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The first evidence that some of the basic organic building blocks of life can exist in an Earth-like orbit around a young Sun-like star has been provided by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The tragedy of the modern West is that it exhausted its strength before being able to achieve its ideals. The spiritual life of secularist Westerners centered on hope for the realization of those ideals. As that hope diminishes, their life becomes smaller and meaner. Hope is restricted to little, private things—and is increasingly being replaced by fear.

This change is the topic of Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday, One of the characters—Theo, the eighteen-year-old son of Henry Perowne, the middle-aged neurosurgeon who is the novel’s protagonist—says to his father,

When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in—you know, a girl I’ve just met, or this song we are doing with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto—think small.

John Banville, who, in the New York Review of Books, finds the novel a distressing failure, says that this “might also be the motto of McEwan’s book.” But thinking small is not the novel’s motto; it is its subject. McEwan is not urging us to think small. He is reminding us that we are increasingly tempted to do so. Banville is off the mark yet again when he says that “the politics of the book is banal.” The book does not have a politics. It is about our inability to have one—to sketch a credible agenda for large-scale change.
[snip]
The problem for good-hearted Westerners like Henry Perowne is that they seem fated to live out their lives as idiots (in the old sense of “idiot,” in which the term refers to a merely private person, one who has no part in public affairs). They are ingrates and dilettantes—ingrates because their affluence is made possible by the suffering of the poor and dilettantes because they are no longer able to relate thought to action. They cannot imagine how things could be made better.

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A little Saturday Night Live rap goodness requested by Leftbanker

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Stephen Colbert's History of Christmas. "Take the Christmas tree for example, a tradition so deeply Christian it predates Christ."

David Sedaris provides more details on the origins of Christmas in his story Six to Eight Black Men taken from his book Dress Your Family in in Corduroy and Denim

related: Bah Humbug

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One thing is certain no matter how bad you think they are, they're worse.

The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) in today's Washington Post.

Daschle's disclosure challenges a central legal argument offered by the White House in defense of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It suggests that Congress refused explicitly to grant authority that the Bush administration now asserts is implicit in the resolution.

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TomPaine.com - Iraq: Game Over

The last hope for peace in Iraq was stomped to death this week. The victory of the Shiite religious coalition in the December 15 election hands power for the next four years to a fanatical band of fundamentalist Shiite parties backed by Iran, above all to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Quietly backed by His Malevolence, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sustained by a 20,000-strong paramilitary force called the Badr Brigade, and with both overt and covert support from Iran's intelligence service and its Revolutionary Guard corps, SCIRI will create a theocratic bastion state in its southern Iraqi fiefdom and use its power in Baghdad to rule what's left of the Iraqi state by force.

The consequences of SCIRI's victory are manifold. But there is no silver lining, no chance for peace talks among Iraq's factions, no chance for international mediation. There is no centrist force that can bridge the factional or sectarian divides. Next stop: civil war.

There isn't any point in looking for silver linings in the catastrophic Iraqi vote. The likely next prime minister, Adel Abdel Mahdi, is a smooth-talking SCIRI thug. His boss, Abdel Aziz Hakim of SCIRI, is the former commander of the Badr Brigade and a militant cleric who has issued bloodthirsty calls for a no-holds-barred military solution to the insurgency. The scores of secret torture prisons by the SCIRI-led Iraqi ministry of the interior will proliferate, and SCIRI-led death squads will start going down their lists of targets. The divisive, sectarian constitution that was rammed down Iraq's throat in October by the Shiite religious bloc will be preserved intact under the new, "permanent government" of Iraq led by SCIRI.
[snip]
The more perceptive among U.S. intelligence officials and Iraq experts know how to read the situation, and they mostly believe it is hopeless. "I hate to say, 'Game over,'" says Wayne White, who led the State Department's intelligence effort on Iraq until last spring. "But we've lost it." There is no mechanism for the Sunnis now to restore a modicum of balance in Iraq, and the Shiite religious parties have no incentive to make significant concessions either to the Sunnis or to the resistance, White says.

(Via .)

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A wonderful interview, James D. Watson and E. O. Wilson with Charlie Rose discussing Charles Darwin both Wilson and Watson view Darwin as 'the most important person ever to live'

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"Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.

Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said. Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives, he said.

"We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom," he wrote in his 139-page opinion.

Said the judge: "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."

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Stephen Colbert appeared on David Letterman to fullfill a life-long ambition to perform a stupid-human trick on the Late Show

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Washington, D.C.– U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today asked four presidential scholars for their opinion on former White House Counsel John Dean’s statement that President Bush admitted to an “impeachable offense” when he said he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge.

Boxer said, “I take very seriously Mr. Dean’s comments, as I view him to be an expert on Presidential abuse of power. I am expecting a full airing of this matter by the Senate in the very near future.”

Woody Allen has been playing himself for so many years now that one wonders if his personality might, at some stage, actually run out. He admits that when he is filming he grows tired of his image and, for the past few years, audiences have tired of it too. But when asked if he worries whether he might, one day, stop being funny he says, "Well, no. Because if I wake up, I'm going to be funny, because it's me. It's not that I put on a thing to do it; I wake up in the morning and I can write. I roll out of bed and I can write; I can write - that's what I do, that's me. So it would have to be a complete personality change for that to happen."

"Oh, clearly. Without any question I think life is tragic. There are oases of comedy within it. But, when the day is done and it's all over, the news is bad. We come to an unpleasant end."

The death of Allen's own parents was, he says, a relatively "minor" event; his father was "slightly over 100"; his mother was "95, and, you know, it had no resonance, or trauma. These were elderly people who had led long, good lives, and were in decline in their last years." This isn't to say that he has reached an accommodation with himself over the prospect of dying. "No, I haven't. And getting older has no redeeming quality. I haven't mellowed, I haven't gained any wisdom, it's a bad thing. You don't wanna get older, it has nothing going for it."

Posted by Norm at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Santa is a Dick ho ho ho.

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Bush Administration wishful thinking once again fails to make a difference, and the drum-beat for a theocracy continues. Where there was a single Iran soon there will be two, and the dumbfuck president sings, I'm 'making the world safe for capitalism'

Early Results Show Religious Groups Leading in Iraqi Vote - New York Times

Early voting results announced by Iraqi electoral officials today indicated that religious groups, particularly the main Shiite coalition, had taken a commanding lead, with nearly two-thirds of the ballots having been counted.

The secular coalition led by Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, had won only meager support in crucial provinces where it had expected to do well, including Baghdad. Another prominent secular candidate, Ahmad Chalabi, the former Pentagon favorite, won less than half a percent of the vote in Baghdad, possibly denying him a seat in the new Parliament.

[snip]

Another prominent secular candidate, Ahmad Chalabi, the former Pentagon favorite, won less than half a percent of the vote in Baghdad, possibly denying him a seat in the new Parliament.

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Stone tools found on the coast of Britain suggest early humans first colonized northern Europe much earlier than previously known.

Ancient flints discovered in cliffs at Pakefield in eastern England show humans lived in northern Europe some 700,000 years ago, according to researchers.

They say the find indicates that humans journeyed into Britain 200,000 years earlier than experts had suspected.
snip
"The Pakefield evidence for human activity is rock-solid," according to Wil Roebroeks, professor of archaeology at Leiden University in The Netherlands.

There is a consensus in the scientific community but there are some who still have questions as noted on Saturday Night Live


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Saturday Night Live

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"Ha, ha," he says. "Now you're talking! I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk. Fairytale talk. As soon as you generalise, you are in a completely different universe than that of literature, and there's no bridge between the two."

We live in an age of illusion where faith in just about anything has replaced rationalism

Touchdown was not a big blow to the space cadets. Participants in Channel 4's hoax series were obviously perplexed to learn that, far from orbiting earth in a shuttle launched from Russia, they had spent a week in a simulator three feet off the ground near Ipswich.
snip

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Our president is an asshole. He believes he is above the law. He believes he is a king, an emperor. The idea that there are no checks and balances on his power is absurd on the face of it. It's time for George to take a fall. It is time for congress and the courts to take back the power they have through inaction ceded to a megalomanic.

President Bush acknowledged on Saturday that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."

I think CNN pundit, Jack Cafferty captures the arrogance of the prick from Crawford in this short clip.

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Harold Bloom reflects on contemporary America using what he knows best, books, the authors who write them and the characters that make them real.

Huey Long, known as "the Kingfish," dominated the state of Louisiana from 1928 until his assassination in 1935, at the age of 42. Simultaneously governor and a United States senator, the canny Kingfish uttered a prophecy that haunts me in this late summer of 2005, 70 years after his violent end: "Of course we will have fascism in America but we will call it democracy!"

Contemporary America is too dangerous to be laughed away, and I turn to its most powerful writers in order to see if we remain coherent enough for imaginative comprehension. Lawrence was right; Whitman at his very best can sustain momentary comparison with Dante and Shakespeare. Most of what follows will be founded on Whitman, the most American of writers, but first I turn again to Moby-Dick, the national epic of self-destructiveness that almost rivals Leaves of Grass, which is too large and subtle to be judged in terms of self-preservation or apocalyptic destructiveness.

Our politics began to be contaminated by theocratic zealots with the Reagan revelation, when southern Baptists, Mormons, Pentecostals, and Adventists surged into the Republican party. The alliance between Wall Street and the Christian right is an old one, but has become explicit only in the past quarter century. What was called the counter-culture of the late 1960s and 70s provoked the reaction of the 80s, which is ongoing. This is all obvious enough, but becomes subtler in the context of the religiosity of the country, which truly divides us into two nations. Sometimes I find myself wondering if the south belatedly has won the civil war, more than a century after its supposed defeat. The leaders of the Republican party are southern; even the Bushes, despite their Yale and Connecticut tradition, were careful to become Texans and Floridians. Politics, in the United States, perhaps never again can be separated from religion. When so many vote against their own palpable economic interests, and choose "values" instead, then an American malaise has replaced the American dream.

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I love it when the press does its job. They point to the inconsistency of the President dicussing Delay's 'innocence' and his refusal to comment on the leak investigation. Scotty tries to spin it but nobody's buying it.

Q So the President is inconsistent?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, David, we put a policy in place regarding this investigation --

Q But it's hypocritical. You have a policy for some investigations and not others, when it's a political ally who you need to get work done?

MR. McCLELLAN: Call it presidential prerogative; he responded to that question. But the White House established a policy --

Q Doesn't it raise questions about his credibility that he's going to weigh in on some matters and not others, and we're just supposed to sit back and wait for him to decide what he wants to comment on and influence?

MR. McCLELLAN: Congressman DeLay's matter is an ongoing legal proceeding --

Q As is the Fitzgerald investigation --

MR. McCLELLAN: The Fitzgerald investigation is --

Q -- As you've told us ad nauseam from the podium.

MR. McCLELLAN: It's an ongoing investigation, as well.

Q How can you not -- how can you say there's differences between the two, and we're supposed to buy that? There's no differences. The President decided to weigh in on one, and not the other.

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Dingell’s HOLIDAY Jingle for O’Reilly and House GOP big thanks to Lauri who posted it in the comments. I thought it deserved a front page.

UPDATE: Video of Dingell on Countdown

Washington, DC - Congressman John D. Dingell (MI-15) recited the following poem on the floor of the US House of Representatives concerning House Resolution 579, which expressed the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected. “Preserving Christmas” has been a frequent topic for conservative talk show hosts, including Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly:

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the House

No bills were passed ‘bout which Fox News could grouse;

Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,

So vacations in St. Barts soon would be near;

Katrina kids were nestled all snug in motel beds,

While visions of school and home danced in their heads;

In Iraq our soldiers needed supplies and a plan,

Plus nuclear weapons were being built in Iran;

Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell;

Americans feared we were on a fast track to…well…

Wait--- we need a distraction--- something divisive and wily;

A fabrication straight from the mouth of O’Reilly

We can pretend that Christmas is under attack

Hold a vote to save it--- then pat ourselves on the back;

Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger

Wake up Congress, they’re in no danger!

This time of year we see Christmas every where we go,

From churches, to homes, to schools, and yes…even Costco;

What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy,

When this is the season to unite us with joy

At Christmas time we’re taught to unite,

We don’t need a made-up reason to fight

So on O’Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter, and those right wing blogs;

You should just sit back, relax…have a few egg nogs!

‘Tis the holiday season: enjoy it a pinch

With all our real problems, do we honestly need another Grinch?

So to my friends and my colleagues I say with delight,

A merry Christmas to all,

and to Bill O’Reilly…Happy Holidays.

Posted by Norm at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The White House will try and spin this as a compromise, but make no mistake, they simply counted votes and took the least embarrassing route, accepting the inevitable.

The White House, after weeks of resistance, agreed today to Senator John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel or inhuman treatment of terror suspects anywhere in the world.

Late Wednesday, in a rare bipartisan rebuke to the administration, the House of Representatives voted, 308 to 122, to endorse a measure by Mr. McCain to bar cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody anywhere in the world.

That vote was nonbinding. But with 107 Republican legislators joining Democrats in support of the measure - introduced by Representative John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, who recently made a high-profile call for an early withdrawal from Iraq - it doubtless added to the pressure on the White House.

Posted by Norm at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

All of the early scientists — Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton — were strong believers in God. Some historians have argued that science originated in the Christian West because of its belief that a rational creator would create rational laws to govern nature. This creator’s freedom to make any kind of world required that scientists carefully inspect the world to determine these laws. Thus was born the fertile cooperation of observation and theory that gave rise to science.

Happy RxMas & a Whole Lotta Love. rx's new song, its Dub with a RxMas greating. Download here or stream at the site.

Sam Sedar and the War on Christmas Video

Posted by Norm at 4:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Jon Stewart's appearance on Last Laugh 2005

Posted by Norm at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

This is the information revolution. We have taken it very badly so far. Information seems to be getting in the way all the time. Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so. Our most enthralling and sometimes terrifying guessers are the leading characters in our history books. I will name two of them: Aristotle and Hitler. One good guesser and one bad one.

I'm agnostic. . . . I believe in the state," Bachelet told several groups of evangelical ministers last week. "I believe the state has an important role in guaranteeing the diversity of men and women in Chile -- their different spiritualities, philosophies and ways of life

Republicans controlling the federal government practice Social Darwinism, a discredited philosophy that in economics and politics calls for survival of the fittest, according to a Democratic U.S. senator.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a fast-rising Democratic star, told Florida party members that only a philosophy among Republicans of sink or swim explains why some Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans still live in cars while Republicans in Washington prepare next week to enact $70 billion in tax breaks.

Republicans running the federal government believe, "You are on your own to buy your own health care, to buy your own retirement security ... to buy your own roads and levees," Obama said, referring to flood barriers that gave way in New Orleans during Katrina last August.

Posted by Norm at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Interview: Tony Allen-Mills talks to George Clooney - Sunday Times - Times Online

As for the future, he plainly relishes his new status as Hollywood’s leading liberal: “Yes, I’m a liberal and I’m sick of it being a bad word.

“I don’t know at what time in history liberals have stood on the wrong side of social issues. We thought that blacks should sit at the front of the bus, that women should be allowed to vote, that maybe McCarthy was a jerk, that Vietnam was wrong and strip-bombing Cambodia was probably stupid. We’ve been on the right side of all these issues.”

Posted by Norm at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I guess respect for your elders is not a right-wing value. Even if the senior Wallace had lost it and he obviously hasn't, to make such statements for publication crosses the line. I can hear it now, can you, Mike Wallace like Buford T. Justice in 'Smokey and the Bandit', "There's no way, no WAY that you came from my loins. [a brief pause] Soon as I get home, the first thing I'm gonna do is punch your momma in the mouth. " Digby has added some additional insight on the idiot son.

Chris Wallace: Mike Wallace Has 'Lost It'

"Fox News Sunday" anchorman Chris Wallace says father Mike Wallace has "lost it" - after the legendary CBS newsman told the Boston Globe last week that the fact George Bush had been elected president shows America is "[expletive]-up."

"He's lost it. The man has lost it. What can I say," the younger Wallace lamented to WRKO Boston radio host Howie Carr on Friday.

"He's 87-years old and things have set in," the Fox anchor continued. "I mean, we're going to have a competence hearing pretty soon." 

Wallace Jr. quickly dispelled any notion that he was joking. When Carr suggested that his comments were likely to be covered by NewsMax, he responded: "You know what? Fine. Go ahead. Call them. That's fine. I'll stand by that."

Returning to the topic of his father's competence, Wallace Jr. explained: "He's checked out. I don't understand it," beyond the fact that Wallace Sr. has "problems with the war."

"I don't know why he said what he said," he added.

On Thursday, the elder Wallace told the Boston Globe that if he had the chance to interview President Bush, he'd ask:

"What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?"

Still, despite his criticism, Wallace Jr. seems to have inherited some of his father's shoot-from-the-lip-style.

Asked about DNC chair Howard Dean's recent prediction that the U.S. would lose the war in Iraq, Wallace told Carr:

"We are in a war. We do have 150,000-plus American soldiers over there. I mean, it's Tokyo Rose, for God sakes, going on radio saying we can't win the war."

Posted by Norm at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Here's a clip from Saturday Night Live of Richard and Chevy 30 years ago.

Posted by Norm at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Complaints from religious campaigners have led to supermarkets withdrawing comedy DVDs from shelves. Meet the bloggers who are raising merry hell.

I believed that Sainsbury and other supermarkets followed the laws of supply and demand, rather than the demands of a small group of self-appointed guardians of morality—Peter Gasston

It is said that in the worst years of World War I, informal holiday cease-fires were observed in the trenches. Around Christmas, both sides would refrain from attack.

The culture wars observe no such niceties. This year, Christmas is officially a wedge issue. Not only is Christmas no time to be backing off from political attacks. Christmas is now a useful tool for political attack.

Ho, ho, ho, and a merry season of consumer boycotting to you, too.

Every composer of conservative fund-raising letters, every virtuecrat, professional moralist, Fox News gas bag, cable-TV finger-wagger and AM-radio common scold has discovered something they call "the war on Christmas." And they are rallying for a counter strike.

Or in the words of Ebenezer Scrooge, they think anyone who goes about with "Happy Holidays" on his lips "should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."

'Tis the season to attack the ungodly, smite the secular humanist, expel the nonbeliever and whip the faithful back into line.

Posted by Norm at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Language Log: Jackass of the Week

Language Log's Jackass of the Week award goes to principal Jennifer Watts of Kansas City, Kansas' Endeavor Alternative School for suspending student Zach Rubio for two days for speaking Spanish in school. Fortunately, as soon as superintendent Bobby Allen learned of the suspension he reversed it. The school district has no policy forbidding the use of Spanish or other languages. This evidently is, however, Ms. Watts' policy. According to the Washington Post, in a written explanation for the suspension she stated that:

(Via Language Log.)

Posted by Norm at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

In an astonishing but not completely unexpected announcement, Jesus H. Christ, vice president and CFO of All That Is Inc., appeared today on a large tortilla at a roadside taco stand in Zacatecas, Mexico, to announce that, effective immediately, the pseudo-Christian group Focus on the Family, led by Dr. James Dobson and best known for its blazing hatred of gays and its fear of glimpsing the human female nipple during nationally televised sporting events, is effectively banned from His Divine Beneficence.

Most people think that choice is good. After all, we associate choice with autonomy, control, independence and desirable outcomes. In reality, however, this is not the case. As Schwartz emphasizes, too many choices actually lead to less happiness, a lower sense of control, and even paralysis. And this is the paradox he addresses: we think we want more choices, but when we have more options we are, in general, less satisfied.

One of many studies demonstrating this paradox involves a simple decision: buying jam. Testers set up in a supermarket offered one group of shoppers six jams to sample. They offered another group 24 varieties to taste. Despite the fact that we would predict people with a larger jam selection would be more likely to find a jam they would like, the study found that those offered only six jams were much more likely to make a jam purchase, and were more likely to be happy with that purpose.

Posted by Norm at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Jam-packed with facts, placed in context, available 24 hours a day. How do we live without it?


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First a thanks to all of those who when shopping at Amazon use the link near the top of the sidebar. I get a little bit of the action when you do, and it certainly helps with the site's expenses. Although I know what you purchase I don't know who makes the purchases. Purchases that range from nail guns to a Mac Mini to adult toys, it's quite an eclectic crowd that visits onegoodmove, so thank you everyone.

Dilemmas of secularism in India and America. Parallels between the Christian right in the US and Hindu nationalists in India show how crucial it is to defend the Enlightenment idea of the secular state. While it is important to give faith its due, faith too must give reason its due. The postmodern deconstruction of science has, ironically, been very hospitable to reactionary religiosity.

As long as divine revelations or spiritual laws continue to be invoked as the basis for morality in the private sphere, it is unreasonable to expect a diminution of God-talk from the public sphere. In other words, the care and maintenance of secular states requires secularisation of culture. Without deep enough roots in secular civic cultures, secular states will remain at a risk of being hijacked by traditionalist and nationalist forces.

Posted by Norm at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

Posted by Norm at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dear Mom and Dad,

Camp Taliban is great so far and it's going to get even better soon. A few of the older guys in camp left a couple hours ago to raid the girls' camp over on the other side of the sand dune and are going to try to see them without their burkas on. The counselors say, if they're successful, when they get back, the rest of us get to burn their eyes out with a red-hot poker.

All glory to Allah, Zafir

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I cannot understand how anyone over the age of 12 can take seriously and literally the creation stories of Genesis. It is truly beyond me to fathom how someone can spend time and effort actually trying to work out the elephants' living arrangements on the Ark.

Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life is a good, basic introduction to the man and to his work. It is clearly written, it covers the major points, and it is extremely well illustrated. In line with the exhibition itself, the emphasis is on Charles Darwin, using him and his life as a way to get to the theory of evolution. It is a fascinating story and Eldredge tells it well.

After a five-month trial and 13 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a key charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas.

“Christian conservatives complain nonstop about the ‘War on Christmas,’ but there really isn’t any such war,” said Beyond Belief Media president Brian Flemming , a former fundamentalist Christian who is now an atheist activist. “So we have decided to wage one, to demonstrate what it would look like if Jesus’ birthday were truly attacked.”

Posted by Norm at 1:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Denis Leary on Christmas

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Many of those who view themselves as religious are suspicious of those who aren't. They believe you can't be moral without religion. It is a stupid view and one that I believe is false on its face. Peter Singer and Marc Hauser, have written an interesting article (pdf) on the subject that points to some empirical evidence that supports the view that religion is not necessary to live the so called 'moral life'.

Consider the following three scenarios. For each, fill in the blank with morally "obligatory," "permissible," or "forbidden."

1. A runaway trolley is about to run over five people walking on the tracks. A railroad worker is standing next to a switch that can turn the trolley onto a side track, killing one person, but allowing the five to survive. Flipping the switch is ____________.

2. You pass by a small child drowning in a shallow pond, and you are the only one around. If you pick up the child she will survive and your pants will be ruined. Picking up the child is _________.

3. Five people have just been rushed into a hospital in critical care, each requiring an organ to survive. There is not enough time to request organs from outside the hospital. There is however, a healthy person in the hospital's waiting room. If the surgeon takes this person's organs, he will die but the five in critical care will survive. Taking the healthy person's organs is _________.

I answered as expected, but after a some reflection a more interesting question occured to me. Is it really permissible to flip the switch, (the first example) and not also allow that it is permissible for the surgeon to take a person's organs (the third example) In both cases one's actions will result in the death of a healthy human. So if you believe that the third should be forbidden, shouldn't you also believe the first should be forbidden as well. What exactly, other than emotions, account for the difference in how we feel about it? Is there any rational basis for the decision?

Posted by Norm at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (95)

Denis Leary didn't, but don't you think this song should be dedicated to Bill O'Reilly



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Comedy Central

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David Rowan: Trendsurfing: "Snowclone" journalism (The Times)

Sometimes a trend comes along that is brutally painful for a self-respecting journalist to acknowledge. So it is with some embarrassment that I report on the latest obsession buzzing through the arcane fields of linguistics and lexicography, one that will resonate with any Times reader who values well-written English. We hacks, it seems, have become so enamoured of lazy, formulaic turns of phrase that we have inspired a new academic sport devoted to chronicling them. They even have their own name: snowclones. Snowclones? Darling, as journalistic clichés go, snowclones are the new black.

(Via Language Log.)

Posted by Norm at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT -- EVER? :

There are some numbers. The History News Network at George Mason University has just polled historians informally on the Bush record. Four hundred and fifteen, about a third of those contacted, answered -- maybe they were all crazed liberals -- making the project as unofficial as it was interesting. These were the results: 338 said they believed Bush was failing, while 77 said he was succeeding. Fifty said they thought he was the worst president ever. Worse than Buchanan.

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Ira Glass on This American Life takes a shot across the bow of the Bush Administration adding its voice to the many others saying the Emperor has no clothes. Thanks to The Dirty Greek for the audio

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Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake Another reason why a policy of torture is bad policy even if we think they are the worst of the worst. Sometimes they're not. You can't take back torture just as you can't take back the death penalty.

How fucking embarrassing is this both for us and the Pakistanis.

The leader

Patient and steady with all he must bear,

Ready to accept every challenge with care,

Easy in manner, yet solid as steel,

Strong in his faith, refreshingly real,

Isn't afraid to propose what is bold,

Doesn't conform to the usual mold,

Eyes that have foresight, for hindsight wont do

Never back down when he sees what is true

Tells it all straight, and means it all too

Bracing for war, but praying for peace

Using his power so evil will cease:

So much a leader and worthy of trust,

Here stands a man who will do what he must

Posted by Norm at 1:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Culture Wars: "The question, then, is how to engineer a peaceful coexistence between these worldviews, one essentially naturalist, the other supernaturalist.  Such coexistence wouldn’t be problematic were it not for the evangelical desire, so common to the human heart, to universalize one’s beliefs (we might call this the totalitarian temptation).  We are not content to have our certainties – others must share them as well, since a plurality of worldviews raises doubts about our truth.  The desire for ideological conformity is sometimes expressed in attempts to coerce belief and crush opposing views, as for instance in the international jihad of extremist Islam, for which kafirs (infidels) are deserving of death.  Secular jihads that champion decidedly unscientific, non-empirical understandings of human nature and history – racism, Nazism, the triumph of the proletariat – have been mounted as well, with horrific consequences.  Were it not for fanatics who insist that we must all share their worldview – or die – the problem of ideological coexistence wouldn’t arise.  But since they are among us, the problem is paramount. "

Posted by Norm at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

How about a change of pace. I'm a big fan of short stories. Here's one I recently read and enjoyed. I found the link at one of my favorite blogs Riley Dog a wonderful source of literary gems. Whenever I get all politicked out I'm sure to find something of interest there.

Tom Drury

Heroin Man

"We're out, Frost. We're bone-dry. We hate to bother you, but you gotta come over and give us some. I'm sorry Frost, but we're shivering. We won't make it till morning, buddy."

Sometimes Frost, for the fun of it, would mentally substitute the word heroin for the word oil during conversations with his customers.

"Say, we were wondering if we couldn't have our heroin delivered at a certain time each month, instead of having to call you in a major panic when we run out."

"Sure we can do that."

"The thing is, I'm not sure how much heroin we use. Probably quite a lot. Grandma's home all day and she really likes to crank it up."

Frost would not have been making such idle comparisons had he not been restless. October had come, so the problem was partly seasonal, but really, he had been restless all year. The contented mind does not worry about similes or finding the connection between oil and heroin. And why should it?

Posted by Norm at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else

Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season: the commercialization of Christmas. They're for it.

What is less obvious, though, is that Christmas's self-proclaimed defenders are rewriting the holiday's history. They claim that the "traditional" American Christmas is under attack by what John Gibson, another Fox anchor, calls "professional atheists" and "Christian haters." But America has a complicated history with Christmas, going back to the Puritans, who despised it. What the boycotters are doing is not defending America's Christmas traditions, but creating a new version of the holiday that fits a political agenda.

Posted by Norm at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation was Stephen's guest on the Colbert Report Thursday night. She was there to promote liberalism and her book a Dictionary of Republicanisms there is a nice article about it here.

Some examples:

• abstinence-only sex education n. Ignorance-only sex education [Wayne Martorelli, Lawrenceville, NJ].


• alternative energy sources n. New locations to drill for gas and oil [Peter Scholz, Fort Collins, Colo.].


• bankruptcy n. A punishable crime when committed by poor people but not corporations [Beth Thielen, Studio City, Calif.].


• "burning bush" n. A biblical allusion to the response of the President of the United States when asked a question by a journalist who has not been paid to inquire [Bill Moyers, New York, NY].
  
• Cheney, Dick n. The greater of two evils [Jacob McCullar, Austin, Tex.].


• China n. See Wal-Mart [Rebecca Solnit, San Francisco, Calif.].



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it's the network, stupid duh! This piece from today's New York Times -- Profusion of Rebel Groups Helps Them Survive in Iraq -- is proof positive that political strategists and policy wonks have learned absolutely zilch from the rise of the Internet. Perhaps they should have paid more attention to how Linux could put the Fear of God in Microsoft and how a ragtag bunch of Firefox hackers could seriously threaten Internet Explorer. . .

(Via all noise all the time.)

Posted by Norm at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Diebold would rather lose all of its voting machine business in North Carolina than open its source code to state election officials as required by law, the Associated Press reports. Due to irregularities in the 2004 election traced to touch screen terminals, North Carolina has taken the very reasonable precaution of requiring vendors of electronic voting gizmos to place all of the source code in escrow. Diebold has objected to the possibility of criminal sanctions if they fail to comply, and argued for an exemption before Wake County Superior Court Judge Narley Cashwell. The judge declined to issue an exemption, and Diebold has concluded that it has no choice but withdraw from the state.

According to Bloom, our “common sense” dictates that even in the face of opposing scientific facts, we feel the need to assign agency. “People are very unwilling to give up on common sense,” he tells Gelf. This belief in agency is also innate. Children—even those of atheist parents—are more likely to invoke an intentional creator in describing our origins than adults.

Interestingly, he tells Gelf that he does not expect that his scientific explanation of where religious thoughts come from will have any influence on people who are religious. “The question of where religious beliefs come from is logically separate from the question of whether such beliefs are true,” Bloom says. “So someone could entirely believe in my theory of why people believe in God, for instance, and at the same time fully believe that God is real.”

Posted by Norm at 1:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd appeared on the Late Show with Dave Letterman last night to promote her book. The discussion of the book was boring but the political discussion was entertaining. She even made Bill O'Reilly's Show tonight. See if you can guess which of her statements made O'Reilly's Most Ridiculous Statement segment. A hint, okay it wasn't that Judith Miller and Bob Woodward need more adult supervision. Torrent of the entire file.

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The technology used for decades by law enforcement agents to wiretap telephones has a security flaw that allows the person being wiretapped to stop the recorder remotely, according to research by computer security experts who studied the system. It is also possible to falsify the numbers dialed, they said.

Like Intelligent Design, the idea of the Invisible Hand stubbornly persists in the face of overwhelming evidence

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It almost makes you long for the day when there were interns named Monica and a blow-job was the talk of the town. The new crop of right-wing interns are more difficult to understand. Rocking back and forth, talking to unseen entities, marching around the room, searching for secret signs and finding them is behavior that should get you a straight jacket and some serious counseling, but label it religion and a majority of Americans find it normal. Here is the link to their website (tip to David)

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