waider

When I take my last breath and they publish my obituary, the first line will say that I presided over the intelligent design trial. I can't top this, I don't think, and I'm fine with that, if this is what I'm remembered for. I'm proud of what I did. I thought I discharged my obligations and my duties well.

A fascinating interview with the judge who presided over Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2004), a case on the teaching of Intelligent Design. The interview is, I think, as interesting for his explanation of how he did (and still does) his job, as well as the specifics of the case itself.

Thanks, guys, that'll do nicely.

Now, while I'm asking for favours, I would pay cash money to see:

1. Obama using Day-Lewis' "I drink your milkshake" bit in his acceptance speech to explain to McCain where the votes went. The bowling pin is unnecessary, however.
2. SenatorChancellorEmperor Obama making some reference to Order 66 and the establishment of the American Empire. Shooting electric bolts from his fingers at this point would be cool, but optional.

And so on.

Talking Points Memo presents a glorious compendium of moronic questions asked of Joe Biden by a Florida newsanchor. Biden's response are, I think, pretty restrained given the stupidity of the questions.

Joe the Plumber?

Irish lobbyists get Obama camp (I'm highly skeptical that it's actually Obama himself) to support an inquiry into the 1989 murder of a Northern Ireland solicitor. Why on earth these guys think that statement in response to a questionnaire is likely to have any effect on the process is beyond me.

In the past week or so, it has been independantly noted that I am very bitter and I am cynical beyond repair. Sorry if you were on the receiving end of that. Also, sorry if you encountered Cranky Waider this week, as he was in pretty full effect due to some technical stuff that was going the wrong way down a one-way street, and doing so while honking its horn at people coming the other way trying to point out the error.

Having gotten that out of the way, I will note the following (we'll call it "residual crankiness")

• My Amazon Wishlist is now titled "Yes, it's up-to-date". Even though there is stuff on it from 2004 that's no longer available from Amazon themselves, and there's other stuff there that Amazon UK simply won't ship to me due to an ongoing issue with recycling laws in Ireland.
• Twitter comes with a feed. So does your blog. If I'm interested in the latter, you really shouldn't need to tell me about it on the former. Announce your blog, sure. Tell me every time you post? Not so much.
• Daylight savings time can bite me. Twice. And the alleged US energy-saving legislation from 2005 that made things even more screwy can seriously bite me.
• Livejournal posts of your twitter posts: same deal as going the other way. If I'm interested, I'll have subscribed to both. If I'm not interested, I'm not frickin' interested, ok?
• This weather has got to stop. I got snowed on last weekend. I came home yesterday with hands so cold I could barely type. And now it's blazing sunshine, after blowing a storm this morning. Maybe humans were meant to sleep through this.
• Dear local bar, please clean the taps or something. Three beers giving me a headache? That's not right.

In the immortal words of the TBSC:

Whew, that was fun. Actually, it has nothing to do with any of that. I'm just killing time until this Pat tape runs out.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the bombing did not appear to be an act of terrorism but the investigation was in its early stages. (link)

The bombing. Is not terrorism. Er. How would it have not qualified? Was it too small? Was the target insufficiently worthy? Seems to me that if I'd been in the vicinity I'd be pretty frickin' terrified, and I'd certainly think twice about hanging out next to recruiting centres in the small hours for a few days at least.

Saw a promo for this on one of the big screens at the gym tonight: "America's Most Smartest Model". Actually, from that link I get the impression that the grammatical error is intentional (the "Most" is made to look like it's a pencilled-in correction, which isn't how it was shown on the promo I saw), but it's like the kid says on the Simpsons: "are you being sarcastic, dude?" "I don't even know anymore."

I'm reading a Rolling Stone article I bookmarked a while back, The Great Iraq Swindle. Just now, on page two, I find this gem:

...Scott Custer and Mike Battles...decided to form a security company called Custer Battles and make it big in Iraq.

Now, if you said "Custer Battles" to me, I'd be thinking Little Bighorn, and, not to bend things too much for the purposes of my point, one of the best-known failures of the US Military fighting an inferior force.

And really, I don't care that this has nothing to do with anything other than coincidence. I'm just amazed at the coincidence itself.

"There are procedures in place and they kicked in and worked," the official said. Except for the bit where five nuclear warheads were flown from North Dakota to Louisiana. I'm sure that in context it was probably referring post-incident disciplinary procedures, rather than procedures to prevent the flying of plutonium through civilian airspace by accident.