Month: April 2003 (Page 4 of 7)

I’m in a technological bind. Today, my trusty Mitsubishi VCR I’ve had for, well I don’t know, but maybe 15 years, finally gave up the ghost. It doesn’t rewind, fast-forward or play. I’m going to call repair places tomorrow, but I have a strong suspicion it will cost more to fix it than it would to buy a new, cheap, planned-obsolescence VCR. But just about the only thing I do with my VCR is record a program here and there, so I don’t even particularly want to buy a new one. Still, there are times when you want to record something.

(That Mitsubishi was a workhorse. It was expensive when I bought it, but look how long it lasted! It weighs about four times the Sony VCR I saw at Best Buy tonight. That puppy was made to last.)

If I wanted to strain my credit card even further, I could go all high-tech. But recordable DVDs are still way too expensive, and the TiVo/Replay market is still in flux (ReplayTV’s parent just went bankrupt). Plus there’s the monthly fee, the phone/internet connection, etc. – hassle and expense. It’s a weird market right now, because VCRs are already almost extinct, but without a mature, affordable product to replace them.

Ideas? Advice?

Shell game

Wired: The Iraq war is about liberating the oppressed Iraqi people.
Tired: The Iraq war is about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Expired: The Iraq war is about Iraqi links to al Qaeda.
Try to stay up on the current trends, will ya?
-from a comment on Scott Rosenberg’s Salon blog

As the fighting dies down in Iraq, I’ve been continually floored/amazed/impressed by the right’s ability to change the focus constantly. Andrew Sullivan’s latest on child prisons and how lefties marched to keep Saddam in power was a great example of the new “aren’t we great because we brought democracy to those wonderful Iraqis” focus. Well, here’s a news flash, Andy: we didn’t bring democracy to the Iraqis. The most we brought them was the brief opportunity to loot before we turned the lights back on. The rest comes later – remember Afghanistan?

Another triumph was the endless footage of tearing down the Saddam statue. Impressive symbolism. How wonderful that we can watch, over and over and over, the jubilation of thousands of free Iraqis celebrating their liberation. The truth was a little different: a couple dozen Iraqis, painfully aware of the western TV cameras, cheering while American troops used a large chain and a tank to pull down the statue.

Then there’s the “where’s the WMD” question. My favorite response to this is, hey, give us some time! This is a big country! I’m sure we’ll find tons of bad stuff eventually! Which is hilarious, considering that these are the same people who didn’t want to give U.N. inspectors more time. But mostly they just ignore it, change the focus, and crow about those happy scrappy liberated Iraqis (see above). Which again is brilliant. We just spent $75 billion, and killed 7,500 Iraqis. In our own minds, we are willing to help the administration put a good face on this, because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

The other stock answer to “where’s the WMD” is the most brilliant of all: they’re in Syria! Yeah, that’s the ticket! It’s a masterstroke because it’s not only just as unverifiable as the claims that led to this war, it provides a perfect staging ground for the next one.

Unlike most of us, Winston Smith worked at the Ministry of Truth. We just get to watch it in action.

Quote of the week

“I’m not crabby. I’m pensive.”

-Fred Tate, “Little Man Tate”

My dear friend Becky paid me the best compliment the other day, and I wanted to share it with everyone. I was telling her that I was trying to stay away from the war coverage, since it made me crazy, but I kept coming back to it. I said something like, there should be a support group for people like me. She responded:

“I think the support group is your weblog — a really fine bunch of web & other friends you have — for their political views and their humor and their intelligence.”

Thanks, Becky.

Saw the “Matrix Reloaded” preview on Entertainment Tonight yesterday. Ever since the “Matrix” sequels have been announced, I’ve been worried that nothing could possibly surpass (or even equal) the original, and that these movies would go down the “Star Wars” route – giant messes that everyone would go to see anyway, no matter how bad they were. But I was impressed by the preview, unlike my reaction to the, say, “Attack of the Clones” trailer, which filled me with (as it turns out, understandable) dread.

“Reloaded” is just a month away. I’m cautiously excited.

Is it unseemly to talk about your web statistics, like revealing your salary to co-workers? I don’t know. But that doesn’t stop me from being curious about what other people’s traffic is like. Last week I hit an all-time high of just under 3,600 visits/sessions that week. Is that high or low for an average, non-A-list weblog? I know, I should just do this for my own sake blah blah blah. But who among us wouldn’t like more readers?

Latest pop-up ad

Billy Graham’s son Franklin, who called Islam “a very evil and very wicked religion,” is planning to bring his group Samaritan’s Purse into Iraq “to provide for the population?s post-war physical and spiritual needs,” according to a story on Beliefnet. Franklin Graham says his group isn’t there to preach or convert, but…

?I believe as we work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about his Son,” he told BeliefNet. “We are there to reach out to love them and to save them, and as a Christian I do this in the name of Jesus Christ.?

Some Muslims aren’t so thrilled with the plan. And seriously, is this the face of America we want to present to Iraq?

On Excite TV listings for tonight

60 Minutes II (New): A psychological profile of Saddam Hussein by those who knew him.

Jumping the gun? Wishful thinking? Or do they *know something* over at 60 Minutes? Interesting too because of the current “Saddam? We don’t care about Saddam. He’s dead or hiding somewhere or something. It doesn’t matter” attitude in the administration.

Quote of the Day

“While people have a right to free speech, they do not have a right to a free arrest.”

-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who wants to charge arrested anti-war protestors with the cost of their own prosecution.

Sometimes I wonder if the world can just continue to get crazier and crazier with no letup. Aren’t we going to reach a point where things just have to veer back toward sanity? Isn’t that some sort of physics principle? Help me out here.