Tarpification

Good God, the WSJ has hired a liberal opinion columnist!

Matthew — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:49:18 +0000

I damn near dropped my WSJ on the train this morning on the ride in when I read Thomas Frank’s excellent column on the OpEd page, “The GOP Peddles Economic Snake Oil.” Apparently the WSJ is now running this most excellent columnist every couple of weeks (pseudo-archive here) under the title, “The Tilting Yard.”

He is highly recommended…a couple of gems from today’s column:

OK, let me get this straight: The central axiom of conservative Republicanism is that government is inherently corrupt and can’t do anything right.

Over many years of ascendancy, conservative Republicans have filled government agencies with conservative Republicans and proceeded to enact the conservative Republican policy wish list — tax cuts, deregulation, privatization, outsourcing federal work, and so on.

And as a consequence of these policies our conservative Republican government has bungled most of the big tasks that have fallen to it. The rescue and recovery of the Gulf Coast was a disaster. The reconstruction of Iraq was a disaster. The regulatory agencies became so dumb they didn’t even see the disasters they were set up to prevent. And each disaster was attributable to the conservative philosophy of government.

Yet now we are supposed to vote for more conservative Republicans because we learned from the last bunch of conservative Republicans that government just doesn’t work.

…

Conservative misrule, prompted by conservative disdain for government, proves that government cannot be trusted — and that the only answer is to elect another round of government-denouncing conservatives.

“Cynicism” seems too small a word for this circular kind of political fraud. One reaches instead for images of grosser malevolence. It’s like suggesting that the best way to recover from pneumonia is to stand in the rain for three hours. It’s like arguing that the way to solve nuclear proliferation is by handing out weapons-grade plutonium to everyone who asks for it.

I think I may heart this guy as much as I do Rachel Maddow.

Matthew’s newest favorite site: 538

Matthew — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:18:42 +0000

MMMM….political stats junkies….gaaaaargh!

FiveThirtyEight.com

Boozish bait-and-switch

Matthew — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:35:51 +0000

If you went to www.cocktailmatch.com…and you were wanted to have it be a matching service between spirits you like and cocktails to order, then you’d be wrong.

It’s a fricking dating site for lushes…no fair! I want StumbleUpon for booze!

MMMM….Hogshead Whisky

Matthew — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:35:32 +0000

A co-worker of mine visited McMenamin’s Edgefield (after I recommended it after our visit) and brought me back a bottle Hogshead Whisky…it’s so nummy!

Priority AAccess…what’s it worth? So far, absolutely nothing (say it again!)

Matthew — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:12:54 +0000

AA’s finally got it’s new Priority AAccess program out (and according to some, it’s bad! BAD!, then again, these are the same people who are raving about LV’s new elite give-aways) I’m not so sure. As all have pointed out, all you get now that you didn’t have before is a cutsy into the front of the boarding line…IF the airport is configured for that. On American Eagle flights (what I’m suffering on to/from BNA right now), there’s nothing, so it’s a wash…all you get is this nice new bold notice on your boarding pass:

Although, for a flight to say LHR, I bet this’d be a nice thing to have.

Well, that was quick…

Matthew — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:14:32 +0000

Yesterday I mentioned that I was test-driving Thunderbird. No longer, it was just too bare-bones, too slow, and just not as functional as a mail client as Outlook is, even as bloated as Outlook is.

Well, I’m back in the clutches of M$FT. If any of you out there have a suggestion for a good, modern mail client, I’m all ears.

Current outlook is for heavy thunder

Matthew — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:14:18 +0000

It finally happened…last night, I decided that I don’t really need to use Outlook for my home email as I don’t manage tasks, my calendar, or notes on my home machine (and haven’t for years), so I just need a good, solid email client.

As I love all things Firefox, I decided to give Thunderbird a chance…it’s weird, but it is truly just a simple email client…see below, Outlook: complicated; Thunderbird: super-simple.

Outlook: Busy and complicated

Thunderbird: Simple, and stripped-down

Not totally sold on the Thunderbird yet, but I’ll give it a couple weeks.

Bosco’s: The Restaurant for (crappy) Beer Lovers

Matthew — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:55:57 +0000

Back in BNA again this week (yay!). A couple weeks ago we had dinner at Bosco’s, which advertises itself as “the Restaurant for Beer Lovers.” It’s not. While the food was decent (if not good), but the beer was atrocious. It was “kraft” beer, just for the sake of being kraft. There was neither art nor artistry in the beer…in a word, their brews were uninspired.

Deciding that they perhaps deserved a second try, we went again tonight. Even worse.

Had their BBR, their “homage” (a word I use loosely) to PBR, and it was simply un-drinkable. Flat, lukewarm, and with the flavor of dead grass marinated too long in stank water. It even looks blase:

Long and short, just avoid it.

Life in Tennessee (again)

Matthew — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:47:33 +0000

I’m back in BNA, after flying into Memphis this morning (for a visit to the client’s DC). While our American Eagle CRJ-700 was one pretty bird (as seen below), 0645 wheels up makes for an early (and long) day.

Apologies to Dan for having to drive the last 100 miles from Memphis to Nashville as I cut some logs (I was just bushed).

The good news on this trip was I was finally able to get my hands on a bottle of George Dickel, or as it calls itself, the “Finest Quality Tennessee Sippin’ Whisky.” And I have to say I’m very impressed; it’s incredibly smooth, has a nice heavy almost-peat flavor to it, and it goes down real easy. I’m gonna have to get a bottle to take home for the bar.

6. 6. 6. The number of MyCokeRewards Points

Matthew — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:47:35 +0000

With apologies to Iron Maiden.