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 Comments, possibly informed. Tim Wilson Daytona Beach, Florida, USA timatollah@mackandtim.net Personal Homepage Professional Homepage Agenda Bender Dave Barry Bull Moose The Corner Defense Tech Matt Drudge Half Bakered Hit and Run Huffington Post Instapundit Kausfiles Mark Lane Ken Layne James Lileks Josh Marshall PaperFrog Virginia Postrel Shattered Buddha Mike Silverman Sploid Andrew Sullivan TPM Cafe Tapped Matt Welch Archives  |
Friday, November 29, 2002
Thursday, November 28, 2002
Happy Thanksgiving Day (USA) Does the fact that it's Thanksgiving Day in the USA mean that it's Columbus Day in Canada? Addendum: Here's a very cool Thanksgiving message from Jeff Soyer of Alphecca. And just below that are his very cool comments on gay marriage. Hmmmm. It seems highly likely that he's a very cool guy. Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Run, Turkey Run Daytona Beach, as many might know, is the Special Events Capital of the World. That means one week it's Bike Week, another it's Black College Reunion, etc. This week, Thanksgiving week every year, is the Turkey Run Car Show held at the Daytona International Speedway. That means lots of old cars (and their owners and owners families), from Model As to sweet early 70s machines, assemble in Daytona Beach from all over the place. It makes for a fun long weekend. Not only is there the car show and swap meet at the speedway, but also there are the Gaslight Parade and Ormond Beach Car Show, both in Ormond Beach. For most of the next few evenings, older cars will cruise Atlantic Avenue (A1A). It's fun to be in the cruise, and it's fun to park and watch. I'll try to do the photo thing, but don't hold your breath. Also, if you're cheap or lazy and don't want to do the full-blown Turkey Run trip, there's usually an informal car show and swap meet in the parking lot of the Bel-Air plaza, on Atlantic, north of the Seabreeze bridge. The NGLTF's Anti-War Stance In recent posts, both Mike Silverman and Arthur Silber (Silber via Instapundit) point out the goofiness of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's anti-war stance. But should anyone be surprised? The NGLTF wasn't born yesterday, and they have a long history of taking fairly doctrinaire leftist positions on matters political. This was fairly predictable, if you ask me. And to expect them to change their ways regarding such positions seems unmotivated by anything they've ever done. It would take a complete internal upheaval, and that would mean that people who think differently than the existing NGLTF leadership would have to join the NGLTF. That ain't gonna be me. I got mail from them last week. It went in the trash unopened. What Makes Memphis So Special? What is it that gives Memphis those special qualities. No, not that special quality. It's only the river. It's only the river. Maybe it's the long tradition of stylized celebrity violence. Think Andy Kaufman vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler. (Jerry "The King" Lawler does have a web page, but it's one of those that starts some kind of Java process that never seems to finish starting, at least on my machine. So, no linkage. This link will Google you some Jerry "The King" Lawler links.) Done thinking about Andy Kaufman and Jerry "The King" Lawler? Good. Now think Tonya Harding. Gator Bait Mr. Mark Lane of Flablog (and columnist for The News-Journal) recently posted this log entry about The Loop, a pleasurable drive along both sides of the local Halifax River. I've never completed the whole trip: In fact, I didn't even know The Loop existed until I read about it on Mark's blog. Anyway, here's my abortive Loop experience. This is a note I wrote several years ago to my brother back in Tennessee. We drove up north towards Flagler County this morning with Ursa [our chocolate lab]. Crossed the Halifax at the "Highbridge" (which is a little low draw bridge. Must be either a family name or a joke). It's kinda marshy and swampy over there, but we stopped at a clearing, and let the dog out. Fried Turkey Safety It sounds like a Zappa tune, no? Hmmm, "Fried Turkey Safety". Wasn't that on Uncle Meat next to "Electric Aunt Jamima". But seriously, I saw the commercial blurb for the teevee news last night featuring an outdoor deep-fat fryer engulfed in flames, so it must be true that there are concerns about the safety of those devices and their use for turkey. And timeliness, because it's Thanksgiving time in the USA. And now that I've read it on the local paper's web site, I know it's gotta be true. The Daytona Beach News-Journal carries this story by Jaime Hernandez about the risks of plunging not-completely-thawed poultry into a mass of hot boiling fat. Turkey fryers can go up in flames when someone tries to fry a partially thawed, wet or frozen turkey in oil that can reach temperatures higher than 400 degrees. The fryers don't have a thermostat, so a thermometer must be used to gauge the temperature.I have to add that if you eat poultry and you've never had deep-fried turkey, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. (Homer sez: "Mmmmm. Fried turkey.") But, please, make sure your turkey is completely thawed before dropping into the boiling lard. Addendum: Here's the link to the Underwriters Laboratory page. Includes photos! Includes linkage to video!! Saturday, November 23, 2002
Shuttle Endeavor Launch We just went down to the beach and watched STS-113, Shuttle Endeavor, take off. Below is some crappy 160x160 video shot with a digital camera primarily designed for still photography. (I'm new with the EMBED tag, so if it doesn't show in your browser, you can click here to bring the .mpg up in its own window.) It was so clear tonight, you could see the shuttle all the way until the horizon. Perhaps the best launch I've seen. Living two blocks from the beach has its advantages. Thursday, November 21, 2002
Not Disney [For Mark Lane.] Yesterday's New York Times had this nice piece on contemporary parts of Florida, particularly Lake County and Mt. Dora, that resemble what Florida was like before the Disney invasion. It's a nice piece. I went to prep school in the 8th and 9th grades near Mt. Dora (Florida Central Academy, not Howey), so I know the area the writer writes of fairly well. Mt. Dora is neat, so I hope she hasn't jinxed it by telling the whole world about it! Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Dharma Punx Here's a story in Salon about a punk-rock Buddhist. Right now, getting schmoozed by kids on the street, Noah Levine seems like some S.F. update of the teen preacher in the 1970 Christian flick "The Cross and the Switchblade." Call it "The Mandala and the Skateboard." With the trappings of materialism (he drives a '64 Impala Super Sport, maroon with tan interior these days -- "my dream car") and adoration, does he worry about his ego getting in the way of his message? "The trick is not taking it personally. It's not Noah inspiring people; it's the dharma inspiring people," he says. Thirteen I watched the Leonids for about fifteen minutes. Saw thirteen meteors in that time, which is pretty good. It was partly cloudy here, so the moon was partially obscured by clouds. It's Prince Mongo's World, and We Just Happen to Live In It [For Shattered Buddha.] Memphis phreak phixture and perennial mayoral candidate Robert "Prince Mongo" Hodges spent part of yesterday in jail for contempt of court. Seems he won't clean up his yard, much to the dismay of his neighbors. Story here, from the Memphis Commercial Appeal ("more commercial than appealing"). Here are a few photos by A. J. Wolfe that accompany the story, used without permission.  Prince Mongo in court.
Anti-Discrimination Ordinance in Orlando The proposed ordinance prohibiting discrimination on basis of sexual orientation in matters of employment, housing, and public accomodation in Orlando passed its first reading last night. The Orlando Sentinel's coverage is here. The measure has a second and final reading in two weeks. Meta-journalism aside: I've never seen a winning vote indicated as 3-4 as it is in the subhead on the Sentinel's home page. James Coburn James Coburn passed away. He was 74 years old. Here's an obituary from the New York Times. Monday, November 18, 2002
An Honest Man For an example of an honorable response to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" hooey, see quoted e-mail from a former USN officer at Andrew Sullivan's blog. You'll need to scroll down to the heading "Another Victory for Prejudice". Not only is the individual's response honorable, his comments also point out that the problem with people who aren't straight in the military lies as much or more with a cadre of officers and Pentagon civilians, not with the broader ranks of military personnel. I think that's parallel to the case in many institutions and in US culture as a whole: a small group of (sometimes self-appointed, sometimes legitimately determined) leaders thinks that the larger population can't deal with homos. They think it would be wrong to change the institutionalization of "homophobia" (e.g., inability to get married legally, lack of equal protection in housing and employment, inability to adopt legally, etc.) to the institutionalization of equal rights for all, regardless of just about any attribute excepting being a convicted felon, and their argument is frequently that folks just aren't ready for that. (As well as the pathetic, "What about the children?"). My reality is that by and large the people I work with on a day-to-day basis don't give a shit that I'm gay, and they largely think that everyone who hasn't done something heinous to preclude having them deserves the same rights as everyone else. My gut feeling based on some personal knowledge is that that extends to the military, too. My other gut feeling is that this situation would tend even further towards equal rights for all in most all matters if certain politicos -- some Democrats and an even larger fraction of Republicans -- would quit using scarey homosexuals to keep their voting blocs together. It would help, of course, if people interested in gay rights would reduce their involvement in the interest group game as the means of arriving to the status of equal rights and, instead, and hold politicians accountable by working hard to turn out the rascals for not getting done what needs to get done instead of sending a hundred bucks to the HRC or NLGTF or Log Cabin Republicans. The State of LBGTO High School Students Here's an AP story from Tampa that appeared in yesterday's Palm Beach Post. It describes what some gay and lesbian students and some transgendered high-school students get to deal with in trying to get an education. Five years ago, [Tampa P-FLAG president] Boles received a call from a Tampa student who wanted to start a club for gay teens at her school. The girl, who wore a rainbow ribbon on her blouse as she gathered signatures supporting the club's formation, was told by school officials that what she was doing was "wrong and immoral," Boles recalled, preferring not to name the school.The very fact that more schools have gay-straight alliances or any kind of formal or informal organization that gives kids who aren't straight some room to be themselves is a great plus, but, jeez, there's clearly lots of room for growth in building a better situation for these kids. Kids may always be cruel to other kids, but that doesn't mean that school administrators and teachers have to help. Sunday, November 17, 2002
Culture Wars There's only one culture war that needs to be fought right now, and that's the war between radical Islam and the rest of the world. If you can't put down your differences for some short run with fundamentalist Christians concerned about the future for their children or with homosexual people who demand their equal rights right now, then maybe it's not a good time for you to be alive. I know it must seem naive and trite to remind people of this, but, hey, excepting a bunch of yahoo Muslims who have decided to try to impose their views on the rest of the world through the use of mass murder, we are, largely, all in this together. And not just in the US. Worldwide. All the other issues we have different opinions about aren't going away, but they aren't worth a dime right now. The Islamicist yahoos do not care whether you're a Christian who perceives a culture in decline or whether you're a libertine who thinks the larger culture and the state are out to prevent him or her from enjoying casual sex or a big hit on the bong. Get over it. Right now, the most important thing is stopping the ones who want to kill us. If stopping them means killing them, so be it. Doing that is more important than scoring points in some long-running divisions within Western culture. Wednesday, November 13, 2002
New Brett Butler Film!!! According to Drudge ABC got it for a steal. ABC NEWS PAYS $175K FOR BRIT BUTLER FILM...Wow, a new movie from everyone's favorite reformed alcoholic Southern commediene. Wait a minute, that says "Brit Butler", not "Brett Butler". Never mind. Monday, November 11, 2002
Thank a Vet DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA. (Back home.) It's Veteran's Day. Thank a vet for having served in the military. Wednesday, November 06, 2002
Gay Republican Update Patrick Howell, the a near closet case gay Republican, who was running for the Florida state legislature, got beat yesterday. His opponent, Sheri McInvale, won, with 13,183 to Howell's 11,050. Libertarian candidate John F. Kennedy (!) received 2091 votes. Democrat McInvale had the endorsement of the dinosaur Republican incumbent who once told gay high school kids they were going to hell if they didn't change. She's for letting gay folks adopt kids. Like they say: Politics makes for strange bedfellows. "Free Tibet!" BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. I'll be blogging from Boston (if and when I blog) the next few days. After a bumpy and slow seeming flight from O-town to Logan on a Delta Express 737, I had the pleasure of arriving at the hotel here last night just as the Mitt Romney victory rally was breaking up. Happy Republicans flooding the streets, stopping traffic, hooting and hollering. Later, I went to a local watering hole in the South End. A good turnout for a bar on a Tuesday night. Many gay folks upset at the results of the election. It wasn't quite as bad as the mood during the reporting of off-year results in 1994, but it had a similar feel. Returning to the hotel at 2:00 a.m. or so, drunken Republicans were going from party to party in various rooms on various floors. A full elevator arrived at the lobby level. "Free Tibet!" several of the drunken Repulicans cried. We stop before we get to my floor. Drunken Republicans are there, waiting to go up. "Free Tibet!" some of those already on the elevator holler. "Did Mitt have a position on Tibet?" one asked another. "It's near China," someone else said. This morning, comments in a gay chat room tended to the "it's the end of life as we know it" regarding national election results, as well as what happened in Massachusetts. There is a substantial cohort within the gay community that has no sense of the true meaning of majority rule, no sense of the true meaning of loyal opposition, no sense of the true meaning of what participatory democracy is all about. One person described the President and his advisors as "a cabal that is truly evil". Like when Reagan was president, they ascribe the results to a "stupid" populace that has been "fooled and hoodwinked". It just never seems to occur to these folks to do a little self reflection. If they did so, they would find that most of their left-wing positions regarding national security and international relations have almost zero support among the broader populace. I don't really know enough about the Massachusetts governor's race to comment intelligently. In Florida, McBride got beat soundly by Jeb Bush. Do I regret that? Yes. Do I think that it's the end of life as we know it? No. Do I have a civic obligation to support the re-elected governor to the degree I can? Yes, as much as I'd rather not. Not that Jeb's gonna call me for any favors. Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Links is Links Wecome readers from Bitchpundit, who is cool, but seems to have an active imagination, seems to be a sloppy reader, and seems to like to link to this site for reasons unknown to me. One passing comment (in this post) regarding word usage doesn't put someone in the "detractor" camp, and even a casual reader of what I suggested about "internalized homophobia" wouldn't draw the conclusion that I was referring to Bitchpundit. Reading is hard; let's draw bodacious curves and talk tough! Early Turnout Report 7:00 a.m. turnout at Precinct 704 in Volusia County (Daytona Beach Shores) was solid. Every voting station was filled, and there was enough of a line and a sufficient rate of arrivals to keep it filled for a while. Given the closeness of the 2000 election here in Florida, I'm surprised more hasn't been made explicitly about the degree to which every vote counts. My gut feeling is that people may have developed a new respect for the importance of voting, but that's just intuition. Time will tell. The early voters seemed well prepared, arriving equipped with marked sample ballots. The ballot's pretty long: Ten constitutional amendments to consider. I expect Volusia County will be aware of the downside of optical-scanned paper ballots after today (even though I still think the upsides well outweigh the downsides). Saturday, November 02, 2002
Vote Early, Vote Often
Addendum, 5 Nov 2002. (i) Missed Buddy Dyer for AG in the list above. (ii) A correspondent writes that Visconti is whacked. That may be. Soil and Water Conservation District Rep seems like a good slot for someone who's whacked. Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Translate In this log entry, Mike Silverman refers to this story at the Gay Financial News that links to this press release from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Here's the entire text of the press release: Despite a shortage of qualified Arabic linguists in the intelligence and defense fields, the Army has fired a significant number of trained language specialists from the military’s Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California because they are gay. Ugh number one. This whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is stupid and counterproductive. We need translators for Arabic; we train translators of Arabic; we let go translators of Arabic because they're not heterosexual. Is that any way to run a country? An army? Ugh number two. The whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy remains the policy of the US military, and anyone, gay or straight, who enlists ought to understand that. Yes, that simple-minded way of looking at things doesn't take into account young people who discover their sexuality after they enlist. Still, it just strikes me as nuts how some LBG young people enlist, knowing full well what the policy is, then expect not to be thrown out when the fact that they're not straight becomes known somehow. Ugh number three. The military shouldn't jerk people around. I know, I know: pipe dreams, etc. Ugh number two doesn't mean that SLDN doesn't deserve some kudos for taking on a rough job: Just because young people screw up regarding military policy and their own sexual orientation doesn't mean they ought to lose their rights as citizens or not have those rights vigorously protected. Timatollah bottom line: "Don't ask, don't tell" is bad policy and is actually against the national interests and needs to be changed, but don't pretend that ignoring that policy is a demonstration of civil disobedience or personally responsibility. |
