If you, like NewMexiKen, are a fan of HBO’s Deadwood in this its second season, but you find yourself just a little uneasy about why you continue to enjoy it — I mean, let’s face it, it can be perverse — you should read the recaps at Television Without Pity.
“Honestly, the supporting cast of this show is just above and beyond anything happening anywhere else.”
From the recap of Episode 16.
It appeared to be junk email, but I have to admit the subject line — buttermilk Save on your Comhist LA — gave it a certain credence.
Charles P. Pierce writing at American Prospect Online:
There are mice in my attic. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the mice seem to be a lot smarter than I am, and self-sacrificing, too. I have laid traps up there like I was Jacques Marquette around the Great Lakes, for pity’s sake, and I only ever catch one of them. One of them always gives himself up, and then the rest of them go back to kicking the stupid human’s ass for another month.
I can hear them, late at night, toasting their fallen comrades. I think they’re building a monument to them out of some old bowling shirts I’ve got lying around up there. At this very moment, there’s probably a famous anchormouse scribbling away at a lengthy tome, explaining how these mice are the greatest mice who ever lived.
I admire these mice for a number of their fine qualities, but I want them gone and, frankly, I’m obviously not up to the task. I need an expert. Somebody who’s got some experience ridding people of pests.
I need Tom DeLay.
You see, I like our new full-service congressional majority. Going to the halls of Congress is like going to Wal-Mart these days. Steroids making you feel bad about baseball? Sporting Goods in Aisle 7. Tough medical decisions bothering you? Try Housewares. Other people’s business? Throughout the store.
Continue the column at American Prospect Online.
From the Library of Congress:
On April 12, 1818, a new flag flew over the U.S. Capitol for the first time. The flag’s thirteen stripes represented the original colonies, and its twenty stars symbolized the number of states in the Union.
The first national flag, emblazoned with thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, was modified in 1795 when Kentucky and Vermont entered the Union. A flag with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes was used during the war of 1812. It was the fifteen star and fifteen stripe flag which flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Continued expansion of the Union meant Congress soon again faced the prospect of adding to the number of the flag’s stars and stripes. Thus, in 1818, Congress settled on the expediency of altering the flag according to its present formula whereby stripes represent the original thirteen colonies, and stars are coincident with the number of states in the Union. The Independence Day following the admission of a State was set as the occasion for adding new stars to the flag. With the admission of Hawaii, the fiftieth star was added to the flag on July 4, 1960.
Photo is of the Star Spangled Banner.
From BBC News:
A law letting people in Florida kill in self-defence on the street without first trying to flee an attacker has been passed by Florida politicians.
Florida law already allows people to shoot a potential attacker in their home, place of work or car.
But until now, courts insisted that anyone confronted in a public place should first try to run away.
To which NewMexiKen says, seal the state borders and arm them all.
Link via the always resourceful dangerousmeta!
From Time Magazine — The 2005 Time 100:
Leaders & Revolutionaires
George Bush
Condoleezza Rice
Bill Clinton
Barack Obama
Bill Frist
Donald Rumsfeld
Mark Malloch Brown
Gordon Brown
Ali Husaini Sistani
Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi
Hu Jintao
Kim Jong Il
Manmohan Singh
Thabo Mbeki
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Mahmoud Abbas
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ariel Sharon
Javier Solana
John Howard
Chen Shui-bian
Hugo Chavez
Artists & Entertainers
Clint Eastwood
Michael Moore
Hilary Swank
Quentin Tarantino
Dan Brown
Dave Eggers
Marc Cherry
John Elderfield
Kanye West
Jon Stewart
Alicia Keys
Jamie Foxx
Johnny Depp
Art Spiegelman
The Halo Team
Ann Coulter
Hayao Miyazaki
Ziyi Zhang
Juanes
Miuccia Prada
Marc Newson
Santiago Calatrava
Alice Munro
Cornelia Funke
Builders & Titans
Steve Jobs
The Google Guys
Lee Scott
Meg Whitman
Martha Stewart
Craig Newmark
Jay-Z
Amy Domini
Reed Hastings
Bram Cohen
Martin Sorrell
John Bond
Howard Stringer
Katsuaki Watanabe
Noél Forgeard
Anne Lauvergeon
Ren Zhengfei
Lee Kun Hee
Roman Abramovich
The BlackBerry Guys
Rupert Murdoch
Scientists & Thinkers
Jeffrey Sachs
Malcolm Gladwell
Robert Klein
Andrew Weil
Burt Rutan
Karl Rove
Rick Warren
Brian Atwater
Mitchell Baker
Timothy Garton Ash
Natan Sharansky
Abdolkarim Soroush
Peter Singer
Richard Pound
Lee Kuan Yew
Larry Summers
Heroes & Icons
Bill Gates
Oprah Winfrey
LeBron James
Eliot Spitzer
Melissa Etheridge
The Dalai Lama
Nelson Mandela
Viktor Yushchenko
Dina Astita
Hania Mufti
Wangari Maathai
Mary Robinson
Lubna Olayan
Ellen MacArthur
John Stott
Michael Schumacher
Stephen Lewis
Once upon a time, there was a town in Utah called Moab, a red-rock desert hamlet known for just one thing: uranium mines. Then somebody noticed all those old mining roads and the way a set of knobby tires could grip that red rock, and pretty soon Moab was mecca for mountain bikes.
Copper Canyon, says Chuck Nichols, “is another Moab waiting to happen.” And Nichols, 55, has seen a lot of both places. He and his wife, Judy, opened the Poison Spider bike shop in Moab 15 years ago and watched as mountain bikers took to their red-rock town like ants to flan. Since 2001, through their company Nichols Expeditions, the two have been bringing a U.S. group to Copper Canyon every year.
Until now, if you’ve heard of Copper Canyon at all, it’s probably because of the railroad — a 400-plus-mile trip from Los Mochis to Chihuahua full of tunnels, twists, track-side vendors in native garb and hints of the territory’s history as a gold- and silver-mining region in the 18th and 19th centuries.
But more and more Mexican and American bikers are turning up these days, drawn by some of the deepest downhill runs in the world and a trail network blazed by generations of Tarahumara. The result is a landscape full of lethal vistas, backcountry characters and ancient ways.
Excerpt from an article in Los Angeles Times
NewMexiKen’s auto insurance premium for the next six months is 17% less than it has been.
I suppose they figure, what with $2.50-a-gallon for gasoline, I won’t be driving as much.
Here’s The Shot seen ’round the world (60-second WMV).
From Jaffe Juice via Ed Bott.
It was poignant that nearly every time CBS cut to the defending champion Phil Mickelson, he was far less than what he was last year. “Wow!” Lundquist said, as Mickelson double-bogeyed the 16th. “The defending champion with a four-putt.”
From that moment until Mickelson wrapped up, the Amazon.com ranking of his book, “One Magical Sunday,” fell to 372nd from 329th.
Joel Achenbach explains Tiger’s miracle shot:
What few people realize is that this is all done with powerful magnets. Augusta National has the most advanced electronics underneath its greens of any golf course in America. There’s essentially an entire city down there, with technicians in jump suits, hallways as long as a Par 5, enough computing power to track a fleet of satellites. In fact they use GPS to guide the ball into the hole. Basically all Tiger had to do was get the ball somewhere on the green — anywhere. Although he hit a terrible shot and came nowhere close to the hole, the folks in the bunker took over and guided the ball home.
Achenbach goes on to explain that this was because Tiger’s success is more critical to the television networks and corporate sponsors than Chris DiMarco’s.
George Will writes about One Man’s Way to Better Schools:
The idea, which will face its first referendum in Arizona, is to require that 65 percent of every school district’s education operational budget be spent on classroom instruction. On, that is, teachers and pupils, not bureaucracy.
Nationally, 61.5 percent of education operational budgets reach the classrooms. Why make a fuss about 3.5 percent? Because it amounts to $13 billion. Only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in classrooms. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent. The worst jurisdiction — Washington, D.C., of course — spends less than 50 percent.
From InformationWeek:
By a landslide, air travelers don’t want to add cell phone chatter to their already-long list of in-flight complaints, a survey says.
The poll, conducted on behalf of the National Consumer League and a flight attendants’ association, found that 69 percent of those surveyed wanted to keep cell phone restrictions in place on planes, while just 21 percent thought it was fine to gab once off the ground.
One suspects the 21 percent will prevail.
From the Financial Times:
All of this suggests that tipping exists for psychological rather than economic reasons. The display of wealth, status and power, the seeking of social approval, conformity, a (forlorn) hope for future, better service, and guilt over inequitable relationships are all theories put forward to explain why we tip.
Some findings:
[T]he research again finds that regular customers do not vary tips in accordance with service quality. Also, diners themselves admit that how much they tip is not affected by whether they visit an establishment often or never again. …
In one study, waitresses’ tips increased by 17 per cent if they wore flowers in their hair. …
Another of Lynn’s studies involved the server drawing a happy face on the bill. On average this increased a waitress’s tip by 18 per cent, but decreased a waiter’s by 9 per cent.
Link via Marginal Revolution via Kottke.
NewMexiKen isn’t sure why the commentators keep making such a deal out of Tiger Woods’ shot on 16 during the final round of the Masters yesterday. I’ve made that uphill, curve around and drop back into the hole shot dozens of times.
And I usually have to hit it through a minature windmill, too.
Interesting that after the high of seven birdies in a row, Tiger bogeyed two holes. Then after the high of making an impossible shot on 16, he also bogeyed the next two holes. Coincidence, or does Tiger let up a notch after reaching some emotional height?
Chris DiMarco showed more game than all the rest of the golfers out there. And a short game to die for.
The old guys who run the Masters should be ashamed of their biases and all, but they sure know how to keep the romance in a golf tournament. Limited TV coverage; better yet, limited commercial time away. Without the barrage of disconnected messages, the viewer can actually get caught up in the drama. Good commentary from CBS too, primarily focused on the play in front of them.
Reality TV at its best.
From the Los Angeles Times:
In all his school years, Skokomish tribe member Denny Hurtado heard almost nothing about the history of his own people, aside from cursory mentions of Indians on Thanksgiving and Columbus Day.
“From the eyes of history,” Hurtado said, “we were mostly invisible.”
That could change if state legislators pass a bill that would require all public schools to teach Native American history. It would affect every grade in which Washington state or U.S. history was taught.
The measure, proposed by a Native American lawmaker, has received overwhelming support in the state Legislature. Its passage would make Washington one of a handful of states — including Montana, New Mexico and Wisconsin — with such a law.
…
But in recent weeks, the bill has run into opposition, and the most vocal criticisms have come from an unexpected source: Native Americans.
Several prominent but federally unrecognized local tribes — among them the Duwamish, Snohomish and Chinook — say the measure would exclude them from school curricula and would, in time, result in erasing them from history.
A dusting of snow this April morning at Casa NewMexiKen. Almost enough to be pretty. A good day to stay inside and read Washington’s Crossing and watch the Masters on TV.
According to AAA, regular gasoline is averaging $2.59 a gallon in California; $2.80 for premium (and as much as $3.11 in some places).
Nationally the average for regular is $2.265.
According to news reports, prices are likely to increase for another week, but then should level off and remain consistent through summer.
As The Daily Show has noted, did you realize that right now while we are between popes, no one on earth is infallible?
One man pays a visit to every unit in the national park system.
All 388. See his travel website.
Clearly this is a man who is a bit obsessive. His personal website tracks each of his 366 travel-related goals, from visiting all 131 North American telephone area codes designated by AT&T, to visiting some point worldwide whose name begins with each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, and consuming a McDonald’s menu item in every country in which it operates. Hogenauer even made a pilgrimage to the offices of R. R. Donnelley, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, company that prints maps and pamphlets for each park, just to let them know he appreciated their efforts.
NewMexiKen had its 100,000th visit of 2005 a few days ago.
And last week we surpassed 5,000 entries since we began in August 2003.
A motorboat visits the Cathedral in the Desert, a slot canyon in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area that until recently was underwater in Lake Powell. A long drought has lowered the water level.
Read the article from The New York Times.
Thanks to Jennifer for the pointer.
According to an item in Morning Briefing, pro-wrestling legend Hulk Hogan is opposed to cockfighting, saying: “It’s not a real sport.”
“Some mathematicians say the lottery is the state’s tax on the mathematically slow.”
Dave Thomas, president of New Mexicans for Science and Reason, commenting on likely changes to Powerball, which will make the chance of winning 146-million to one, up from 120.5-million to one.
Medal of Honor – Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith. See his photo; read the citation.
Thanks to the superb Functional Ambivalent for the pointer and link.
