This week’s Permanent Damage asks the questions I’ve been wondering about: why aren’t (and haven’t) the Democrats acting like they stand for something? Scroll down in this week’s column until you reach the With Democrats Like These header: Since losing the election and seats in both the Senate and the House, the Democrats have been on the defensive, facing a… Read more →
Month: March 2005
Eostre Traditions
We have a new Easter (or Eostre if you prefer) tradition in the McLaren household. Since we’re mostly areligious (i.e. I’m a die hard athiest and Trish is agnostic) the traditions have nothing to do with chocolate jesus or egg-laying bunnies or anything. Our new tradition for this weekend is Sunday Brunch with the traditional Easter French Toast accompanied by… Read more →
End of an era
I mentioned in my maudlin St. Patrick’s Day post that I had reason to believe that things would be very different next year. Well, the cat is out of the bag. Read more →
Hey kids: Science!
Let’s do a little mini-roundup on the theme of science. Let’s start with something that I want to see on CSI (and mean real CSI–not CSI:Orange Filter or CSI:Blue Filter): Researchers develop fingerprint detection technology … MXRF actually detects the sodium, potassium and chlorine elements present in those salts, as well as many other elements, if they are present. The… Read more →
What’s even more retro-focussed than Conservative?
I know I said I wasn’t going to say anything about this, but damn… Canada’s Conservatives Show Deep Cracks On Gay Marriage … Going into the weekend convention in Montreal Harper tried to show a unified party for a national TV audience. It was not to be. Former Alliance members forced public debate on issues that Harper wanted to gloss… Read more →
Possibly not worth dying for…
Note to self: bring own beer supply on next flight. Death of airline passenger subdued by other passengers probed – Mar 21, 2005 NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors are investigating the death of a man who was subdued by several fellow airline passengers after he became disruptive on a New York-bound flight, a spokesman said Sunday. William Lee was pronounced… Read more →
Deus vult?
Well, time for me to blow off some steam that has been building up at the increasing tide of ridiculous religiously-motivated tomfoolery. I’m not going to write anything about Terri Schiavo and Bush’s religio-pandering, except to note the potentially pleasing fact that apparently the Administration has actually pissed the people off. (Well, maybe one thing–if you really believe in an… Read more →
Danger High Voltage Slacks
I love Tom Waits. Old hipster Beat Waits, and new batshit-building-instruments-out-of-farm-equipment Waits–I love it all. I can have my heart ripped out by San Diego Serenade just as easily as by The House Where Nobody Lives. I think I’d title my autobiography “You Don’t Meet Nice Girls In Coffee Shops”–or at least in my mental world my life is interesting… Read more →
We live in science fiction
I keep seeing little things that remind me that we are in fact living in the future (despite the best attempts by the Republicans and Stephen Harper, et. al., to drag us kicking and screaming back into the Dark Ages–but more on that later). For example, we can now apparently make concrete that sucks the carbon dioxide out of the… Read more →
London Characters And Crooks
I spent some time this weekend rereading Henry Mayhew’s London Characters And Crooks. Mayhew was a reporter in the 19th century who had something of a specialization in writing about the seedier parts of London life. London Characters And Crooks is a work that covers Mayhew’s time among the criminal and entertaining. Googling Mayew will find you lots of information,… Read more →
Pointing to CommonBits
So, let’s take a moment to talk about CommonBits. What, you may be asking yourself, is CommonBits? Well, let’s pinch the answer straight from the site: What is CommonBits? CommonBits is a free community directory of progressive political media that anyone can contribute to. Search for audio, video, photos, reports, transcripts and other files in the directory. Submit links and… Read more →
The Parting Glass
One last St. Patrick’s Day themed post: The Parting Glass The Parting Glass is a resource page for fans interested in the literary, historical, political, and personal references found in the lyrics of the Pogues and of the related projects of the band’s members. It’s also got some other goodies connected to the Pogues. Read more →
“I never bin lost..”
So, while I’m talking about my Minneapolis friends, let’s shine the spotlight on Adam Stemple. (Those of you not reading this in an RSS aggregator will notice I’ve added a link to Adam’s new web site to the link list on the right–head over there and give him some love.) In addition to his myriad musical talents, Adam has started… Read more →
St. Patrick’s Day
So, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m not in Minneapolis. This is the second year in a row that’s happened, after more than a decade of seeing the Boiled In Lead show at First Avenue every year. And, for reasons which I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention, I suspect that things may be very different next year. Of… Read more →
Wine Tasting (Part I)
Last weekend I lead a wine tasting for people from Trish’s work. 18 people, and 8 different wines. We’ve done this before with people from her office, and most of the people this time were repeats. Since we’ve done this before we decided to get away from the more common varieties and try to illustrate some interesting stuff that’s a… Read more →
