dietsch

Finally

2007-03-26T12:54:48Z

I'm finally working on getting this blog ported over to WP. It's pretty much ready to go, although I have a bunch of stuff to clean up yet. I'm also toying with a redesign of the Bitters blog. That thing is so cluttered it's not funny. A three-column format seems the way to go, and I found a great WP theme. I just need to adjust it a bit.

7

2007-01-21T02:08:38Z

All seven and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect
And a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and you are mine
And together we'll love through all space and time
So don't cry
Today all seven will die.

wow

2007-01-19T04:00:43Z

I've just about abandoned this place, haven't I?

Sigh.

Banana republic?

2006-12-17T17:27:32Z

Amused to see the number-two hit for "banana republic" in Google Search. The first, not surprisingly, is the chain of clothing stores. The second?

The Council of the European Union

Must be all those Euroskeptics and right-wing bloggers.

Evolution in Ohio

2006-11-12T05:19:38Z

I know that a) I'm going with the obvious joke, and b) trivializing the issue somewhat, but I'm so tickled by this news that I can't help myself:

A modern-day warrior
Mean mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride.

My ballot, 2006

2006-10-28T20:20:59Z

As I've done the last two years, I dug up the major races on this year's Election Day ballot, for my district. I'm doing this mostly for my own benefit, as I hate to enter a polling place with no idea in advance about the less-publicized races. Here are a few thoughts.

First, there don't appear to be any ballot initiatives, unless I'm misreading the Board of Elections site.

Second, the governor's race has two interesting candidates: avuncular author Malachy McCourt (brother to Frank) and Jimmy McMillan, of the Rent Is Too (Damn) High party. You gotta go out to that link, by the way, and listen to the musical accompaniment to the RTH website.

Third, the Socialist Workers party is running a sewing-maching operator in the comptroller's race. Is it so terrible to say that's no qualification at all?

Now for the candidates. All links below go to SmartVoter.org, unless otherwise noted. Also, a party key follows, in case you don't know your SEP from your SWP.

GOVERNOR & LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR:

John Faso (Rep Con)
      & C. Scott Vanderhoef (Rep Con)
Eliot Spitzer (Dem Ind Wor)
      & David Paterson (Dem Ind Wor)
Malachy McCourt (Gre)
      & Alison Duncan (Gre)
John Clifton (Lbt)
      & Don Silberger (Lbt)
Maura DeLuca (SWP)
      & Ben O'Shaughnessy (SWP)
Jimmy McMillan (RTH)

STATE COMPTROLLER:

J. Christopher Callahan (Rep Con)
Alan Hevesi -- incumbent (Dem Ind Wor)
Julia Willebrand (Gre)
John Cain (Lbt)
Willie Cotton (SWP)

ATTORNEY GENERAL:

Jeanine Pirro (Rep Ind Con)
Andrew Cuomo (Dem Wor)
Rachel Treichler (Gre)
Chris Garvey (Lbt)
Martin Koppel (SWP)

U.S. SENATORS:

John Spencer (Rep Con)
Hillary Rodham Clinton -- incumbent (Dem Ind Wor)
Howie Hawkins (Gre)
Jeff Russell (Lbt)
Bill Van Auken (SEP)
Roger Calero (SWP)

U.S. CONGRESS
District 12:

Allan Romaguera (Rep Con)
Nydia Velazquez -- incumbent (Dem Wor)

N.Y.S. SENATE
District 17:
Victor F. Guarino (Rep Con)
Martin Malave Dilan -- incumbent (Dem Wor)

N.Y.S. ASSEMBLY
District 53:
Ameriar Feliciano (Rep Con)
Vito J. Lopez -- incumbent (Dem Wor)

There are also a bunch of Supreme Court elections, but let's be honest here. Who cares? I don't think I should be voting for supreme-court judges in the first place since I'm hardly qualified to select them.

Key:

Rep Republican
Dem Democrat
Ind Independence
Con Conservative
Wor Working Families
SWP Socialist Workers
Lbt Libertarian
Gre Green
RTH Rent Is Too High
SEP Socialist Equality

Jeeeeezussss

2006-10-25T03:30:26Z

Wow.

I had to downgrade back to MT 3.2 to get this thing going again. And good luck finding it anywhere. I had to Google mt-3.2.zip and download it off some random person's web directory.

I mean, really. I first installed MT3.3 over the top of my 3.2 install. Okay, it's no surprise that didn't work. But even a fresh install didn't work. Believe me, I tried everything I could.

It's frustrating. I can usually get a new version of MT to work. It's NEVER easy, for fuck's sake, but I can usually work it out. But 3.3 completely stymied me, and I no longer have the time or patience to fuck with it. Why spend hours and hours on every new version? Seriously? Yay for the MT nerds who live for this or have nothing better to do, and BIGGER YAY for me that I'm not among them.

I know that 6A is aiming MT at the enterprise crowd, and pointing the nontechies at LiveJournal, TypePad, and Vox. But they still don't have a solution I like for hosting something in my own space. But, Christ, with 6A, you're either a novice or a programmer. There's no room for someone like me in their plan.

Sigh.

Next step is exporting my archives and installing WordPress to run this blog. I'm finished with Movable Type.

I still like LJ and Vox, so as much as I'd love to tell 6A to piss off, I can't quite. But. Fuck MT.

On the plus side, I have some ideas how to integrate this site's design with that of adashofbitters.com, if they're both on WP, so that's cool anyway.

MT3.3????

2006-09-03T03:49:56Z

Wow. I totally fucked up the MT3.3 install. I guess I didn't really fuck it up. After all, my archives weren't nuked and I can still post. But lots and lots and lots of shit are really broken, and I don't think I can fix them. Sigh. Fuck off, Movable Type.

emm ee?

2006-08-28T03:49:39Z

So, apparently Kiefer prison-raped Chris Meloni and stabbed Denis Leary in the neck after kidnapping Frances Conroy and overthrowing the president of the United States not once but twice!

That's so hard-fucking-core, I don't know what to say.

Speaking evolution to Christians

2006-08-16T14:48:20Z

Sorry I've been absent this place for a while. I'm sure all three of you would like to see more content here from time to time.

One interesting advantage of my job is that I come across announcements and reviews of cool new books. Today, for example, I was indexing the latest issue of American Biology Teacher and saw an ad for a book called The Evolution Dialogues, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

(The AAAS publishes the journal Science, so this don't look like no Discovery Institute bullshit or anything, pushing ID in science clothing.)

According to the AAAS's press release for the book, it was written for use in adult Christian education programs. The idea seems to be, Let's explain evolution, genetics, and natural selection in layperson's terms; examine the various Christian responses to these concepts over the years; and correct common misunderstandings.

A book like this will succeed more with mainstream Protestants and Roman Catholics than with hard-core fundamentalists, but I could see how moderate evangelicals might find it useful, to better understand the issues involved, whether they accept evolution or not. (Some evangelicals, in fact, do accept that evolution is true.)

I'm going to order a copy, give it a good read, and see what bloggers and critics think of it. I think directly engaging faith communities in a proactive way is a good thing, especially when poll after poll shows that Americans have little understanding of, and patience for, evolution and genetics.

Burn Beirut Burn

2006-07-19T15:43:50Z

I'm long enough out of the fundie subculture that when I hear news reports from Israel and Lebanon, I don't think, Hey, what do the born-agains think of this? Luckily, someone at Harper's did indeed ask that question.

Hundreds are dead, hundreds more wounded, and all the fundies can say is .

And people wonder why I'm a misanthrope.

UPDATE: They yanked the thread down, owing to all the attention it's getting. You'd almost think they were ashamed to see their Lord's return!

Yay, Brooklyn, yay!

2006-07-05T03:09:33Z

Oh, yay! Brooklyn, yay! So cool you can't step outside on the Fourth of July because your hooplehead neighbors are shooting their guns into the air! I'm so sure that when Jonathan and Nicole go to see Paul and Siri and Sophie on the Fourth, they all five of them go out onto Prospect Park West to shoot their guns into the air and pop caps into their neighbors' heads! Yay Brooklyn!

(Seriously, follow my link, scroll to the bottom, read Jonathan Safran Foer's entry [it amuses me that the authors misspelled "Safran"], and see if this guy is living in anything resembling reality. And then come back and tell me that--oh!, you really like his novels!)

And that's my problem with the tone of this Brooklynites piece. The photos are great, but the project feels really false, like a Marty-approved puff piece for Brooklyn. Hey, I love living here, but in the same way that London hit the Cool Britannia PR bullshit 10 years ago, I feel like we're in the middle of Cool Brooklyn PR bullshit now.

Not all of Brooklyn meets the hype. That's all I'm sayin'.

Superskittleman

2006-06-26T20:10:59Z

C & L

2006-06-25T22:52:57Z

Whoo!

2006-06-23T17:38:46Z