I thought my Atom comment feed reader was hosed last night, after all the comments on this post. It is OK now, though. The referenced piece is alone at the top of my “most commented on” leaderboard.
And, as someone near the part of the long tail that’s still dragging the ground, I’m happy with all the responses.
-k-
I guess all the post-election goings-on are getting everyone whipped into a lather. This includes ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was in New Hampshire speaking over the weekend.
His comments included such pearls as this, in reference to the Muslim clerics put off a plane in Minneapolis a week or two ago:
“Those six people should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists,” Gingrich said.
Pretending to be terrorists? This makes zero sense to me. And while the particulars of that case aren’t that fresh in my mind, it struck me that people were frightened by these guys’ behavior. If the Muslims did anything wrong, it was “disobeying a flight attendant”, not that they had a group prayer on the plane. Oh, and people were scared, meaning that all these imam’s actions therefore were “suspicious.” Talk about the terrorists’ winning.
But what really got me was the last paragraph of the article; I don’t know how I missed hearing about this:
Gingrich said last month the United States might have to accept new curbs of First Amendment rights to fight terrorism.
Looks like Newty has gone from the “Contract with America” to the “Contract on America.”
-k-
Technorati Tags: newtgingrich
I’d previously bemoaned the fact that my brother-in-law’s CableCo doesn’t carry the NFL Network, resulting in our not watching the Kansas City Chieves on Thanksgiving night. Scott, aka The Fat Guy, suffered through listening to his Cowpokes on the radio, since he couldn’t get NFLnet.
Only yesterday, I wrote about NASCAR’s HotPass package for 2007.
Let’s compare and contrast the two plans:
Neither the NFL nor NASCAR is ashamed to squeeze the last nickel out of fans, but the NFL’s network is in the position of browbeating CableCos, SatelliteCos, et.al., into carrying it. And the NFL wants the carriers to pay them up front, and oh by the way, please put NFLnet in your base package lineup. The result is spotty coverage for the network at best, and the ones who lose are the fans, who are deprived of the chance to see their team play. To say nothing of market penetration and such.
Now, look at NASCAR. Fox Sports has paid dearly to carry NASCAR events next year; on their own, Fox developed the HotPass idea, ran it by NASCAR, who loved it. Presumably, NASCAR got paid again for HotPass. Fox is providing the additional cameras, equipment, and announcers to make it a reality. Now, Fox has subscriptions to sell, with making a profit in mind. In the meantime, conventional race coverage is not affected; fans won’t miss out on what they’ve had for years. Those who opt-in can have a real value add in HotPass.
So let’s sum up: NFLNet tries to squeeze out more money, by providing just another means to distribute an existing product. It can hardly be argued that Bryant Gumbel and Chris Collinsworth bring much to the microphone to make the telecasts sizzle.
NASCAR, having already been paid, probably twice, provides another way for the fans to enjoy the sport, without taking away what anyone already has.
-k-
I was trolling the DirecTV channels earlier this AM, when I happened upon an Early Bird Offer for DirecTV’s exclusive HotPass, which will broadcast all 36 of next season’s NASCAR Nextel Cup races from an in-car, driver perspective. I’d blogged about it briefly here.
From DirecTV:
NASCAR HotPass uses five channels to focus on five of NASCAR’s top drivers each week of the NEXTEL Cup Series. 25 dedicated cameras will cover only these five drivers for that race. Cameras will include an in-car camera, two overhead corner cameras in turns 1 and 3, a pit box overhead camera and a pit crew shoulder camera giving you unique access to the drivers during the race. Real time data tracks the speed, RPMs and other stats. HotPass will also change the way you listen to NASCAR: each HotPass channel has two NASCAR announcers describing the action of that particular driver, and youll also hear communications between the driver, his spotter and team
The FAQ also says:
HotPass also includes network coverage of the race in a smaller window on your screen so you will not miss out on their great coverage of the bigger race developments of that race.
And, best of all worlds, the Early Bird offer consists of two payments of $39.50, or $79, as opposed to the regular price of $99. I’m in. As I wait out the 64 days until the Daytona 500, I can lobby SWMBO for a bigger screen teevee.
-k-
The Bill of Rights turns 215 years old today. It’s served us well, let’s hope that its RIP won’t be written before it turns 216.
H/T: The Agitator.
-k-
Technorati Tags: billofrights
Periodically, and thankfully, not too frequently, SWMBO and I stay up far too late listening to music, dancing, laughing, and crying.
Last night was such a night. We listened to music, George Strait, the Siderunners, and a host of others. It was a real iTunes Roulette night that lasted frighteningly close to sun up. Such shenanigans should kill old folks on the spot, but we’re survivors.
Notwithstanding how much I love her, and what fun we had, I wouldn’t give a nickel to do it again. Until the next time, that is.
-k-
Dave Slusher writes of his struggles with GTD. He provides pointage to a David Allen/Merlin Mann podcast that said:
it takes two years to really get the GTD system internalized.
After reading Dave’s post, I see that he and I are in approximately the same GTD status: we both have Hipster PAA cards out the wazoo, an we’ve both been dutifully adding more day by day. In both our cases, we’ve not progressed steadily on the processing of that information.
I’m using the PAA as input into my Palm PDA, and to do information has been flowing smoothly. I look through the balance of my cards, and find that what needs to be handled is the reference type information (the command to initiate a Linux kickstart from an Open Firmware prompt, stuff like that). The plan is to transfer this info from cards, to properly categorized Palm memos. The Missing Synch for Palm OS does a wonderful job in synching everything from the Palm to a Mac-based desktop. Contact info goes to the Mac’s address book, calendar info to the calendar, etc. Plus, and this is a big plus, categories are created on the fly; for example, if you see a need for another to-do category, create it on the Palm, add the to-do, and Missing Sync will create the item and the category on the desktop at the next sync. Prior versions had a catchall category to lump items, and it was a real pain to have to edit items after a sync, just to get them properly categorized.
So, I’ve got all the tools, I know what needs to be done, and like Dave, I just need to do it. Once caught up, I think the daily portion will be easily maintained. And Dave has it right; pick a time for daily review (with the AM java is a great time), and weekly review (weekends are a great time), and then just do it, dammit.
If it takes two years to get this process internalized, there’s no time like the present to start.
-k-
1 – GID = Get It Done, not the gid in the Unix sense. And not GED, in the Larry the Cable Guy Sense.
As I reported here last year, the state of Connecticut had banned a Holiday beer called Seriously Bad Elf, because it depicted Santa Claus on the label.
Not to be outdone, Maine has banned another offering from the same company. This one is called Santa’s Butt. The bottle, pictured here, depicts a Santa quaffing a beer while making his list and checking it twice.
The reason given by both states in banning the potables was that “the labels might be attractive to children.” OK, that’s good enough for me. I guess the inflatable NASCAR Budweiser cars, and stand-up cardboard cutouts of Dale Jr, that grace displays are not similarly attractive. News flash to Maine and Connecticut: children are attracted to lots of things, both good and bad. It’s the parent’s place to parent and provide guidance, not yours.
The brews are all imported by The Shelton Brothers, of Belchertown MA. They also have a blog, which unfortunately doesn’t support any kind of syndicated feed that I could find. The blog entry about the Maine case is here. The Maine Civil Liberties Union is representing the Sheltons, and the contention is that the labels have expressive value over and beyond identifying the contents of the bottle. It seems obvious to me that that’s the case; if they sold posters of either or both of the labels, I’d buy one. And if I see the beer for sale around here, I’ll buy a six-pack, at least.
-k-
Technorati Tags: mainecivillibertiesunion, MCLU, sheltonbrothers
The Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau has established a website to extol the Big-D’s virtues as a destination for visitors of the gay and lesbian persuasion.
From the website, emphasis added:
Dallas continues to propel itself forward, now a richly diverse American city with a melting pot of cultures, religions and lifestyles. It has left behind stereotypes of big-haired women and rowdy cowboys — that is, unless you count sassy drag queens and strapping gay rodeo champs.
I didn’t realize Dallas was such a haven. From this article:
“It’s not about being politically correct, it’s about being economically correct,” said Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the tourism bureau. He said gay travelers spend an average of $100 more per day than other travelers and plan four to six trips a year.
The greenness of the money has no gender or gender preferences. A market has developed, and it’s being served. I just thought it queer that Dallas aspires to prominence in it.
-k-
Technorati Tags: Dallas, glbtdallas
Via The Agitator, linkage to Kegs for Kids. This is a charity wherein $25.00 buys you all the Budweiser you can hold, with proceeds going to Toys for Tots. Anheuser-Busch donates the kegs.
From the article:
I don’t know how they managed to register the name as a non-profit, but it’s fantastic that they did. I wish them nothing but success. It’d be a hoot to watch the the neoprohibitionist, “for the children” crowd try to take down a whimsically-named charity group
And, though in its infancy, the group is raising some funds:
The group raised $7,500 last year between its St. Louis and D.C. chapters.
Charity rewards the giver as well as the recipient.
Indeed.
-k-
Technorati Tags: kegsforkids, theagitator