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Filing-cabinet Zero?

<p> Well, my experiment with <a href="http://tendentious.org/2009/01/handling-email-differently.html">Inbox Zero</a> is going swimmingly (even if I am only five days in).</p> <p> I was spurred by comments to look at ways to try and use the same strategies for paper–which, I have to say, is an even more oppressive burden than email. We have a big filing cabinet full of stuff that&#39;s organized in rather idiosyncratic ways, and Anne&#39;s and my idiosyncracies don&#39;t always match up exactly to boot.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Web server software on Linux

<p> So there has always been a multiplicity of web server software for Unix/Linux.</p> <p> It certainly feels like I have, at some point or another, played with all of them. And I keep coming back to apache, which I&#39;ve been using since 1995, when I first became responsible for running a web server (<a href="http://www.med.miami.edu/">this site</a>, if you care).</p> <p> Incidentally: Holy crap, 14 years.</p> <p> Anyway, as I stare around the unix landscape, I see four general-purpose web servers with some mind-share: apache, lighttpd, cherokee and nginx. Yes, there are others, but they are niche players, or they are not general purpose. So here&#39;s my issues:</p>
3 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

It's nice to know The Daily Show isn't in the tank for Obama

<p> It would be easy for people of a certain mindset to assume, given the last 8 years, that <em>The Daily Show</em> is simply a liberal outlet, happy to roll over and play dead now that there&#39;s a Democrat in the White House.</p> <p> The very evening of the Inauguration, they went to work to dispel that, neatly skewering Obama&#39;s speech and it&#39;s use of language that sounds, in many instances, reminiscent of Bush&#39;s speeches:</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Handling email differently

<p> I&#39;ve started experimenting with <a href="http://www.43folders.com/izero">Inbox Zero</a> as a way to handle the email I get.</p> <p> The idea is simple enough–when you get an email, you deal with it in whatever way it needs to be dealt with–read and reply, delete, otherwise act upon it–and you get it out of your inbox.</p> <p> Oh, and all those emails currently in your inbox? Well, you can do what I did–browse through them and guess that they were all archiveable–or you can do the &#34;DMZ&#34; folder that they talk about above, or whatever.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I'm actually waiting to be able to watch it all in retrospect.

<p> Yeah, so the new BSG episode maybe didn&#39;t have the impact on me that it was intended to because it&#39;s been so goddamned long since the last episode.</p> <p> In fact, I&#39;m looking forward to BSG being over so I can go back and start at the beginning and watch it all start to finish–to date, I&#39;ve watched each episode as it came out, and I while discussion with Chet suggests that this makes some of the less-wonderful episodes from Season 3 a little less glaringly bad, it means that after each break, I don&#39;t remember all the nuances of the story so far.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Surely Chet knows about this…

<p> And yet, the fact that he hasn&#39;t yet mentioned <a href="http://bacolicio.us/">Bacolicious</a> to me suggests that maybe he hasn&#39;t.</p> <p> Mmmmmm, bacon.</p> <p> Now, it&#39;s 11pm, I need some fooking sleep.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Is we incapable of learning our lesson?

<p> I mean, am I the only person who, upon hearing about <a href="http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=19405">Cantor Fitzgerald&#39;s application to create an exchange for speculation on the financial performance of movies</a> thought, &#34;My, that sounds a lot like the idea of getting CDOs on bonds you don&#39;t hold?&#34;, which, of course, is a feature of our recent financial meltdown.</p> <p> Oh, and regarding the latter, unrelated half of that story, about a site called WeSeed whose co-founder suggests:</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Avoiding reverse lookups in dojo 1.2's dijit.FilteringSelect

<p> Sorry, geeky post ahead, but I&#39;ve been having one of those headache-y times with a piece of code I&#39;ve started to play with, and in Googling, I found enough others who were having the same problems to want to have a concise note of a (possibly hacky) solution.</p> <p> If you are using dojo, specifically a dijit.FilteringSelect, and are frustrated that, upon selecting an item, your FilteringSelect tries to do a reverse lookup on your label (which may or may not have an easily reversible relationship to the value it represents), then let me point you to <a href="http://dojotoolkit.org/2007/12/12/dojo-grid-1-1#comment-10358">the genesis of a solution</a> (mostly to establish credit, since I did have to refine what was presented there for dojo 1.2)</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I suspect dancing will never be my thing

<p> Anne and I, and several other of our friends from yoga, went to salsa lessons last night.</p> <p> The good news is that many things were easier than when we did swing lessons, since I already had some good habits from that experience.</p> <p> Still, I really wanted to, I dunno, so some silly backbend as it to prove that while I may be absurdly incompetent as a dancer, I am able to do plenty of other impressive stuff. Somehow I resisted.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Ejacs

<p> OK, so the thing about today&#39;s hackers is that they&#39;re often strikingly funny.</p> <p> So even if you don&#39;t care about javascript or emacs, much less javascript <strong>and</strong> emacs, you should go read <a href="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/11/ejacs-javascript-interpreter-for-emacs.html">Steve Yegge&#39;s discussion of implementing javascript in emacs lisp</a> because all of the digressions and other silliness are sure to make you laugh.</p> <p> I mean, here&#39;s Steve discussing the name:</p> <blockquote> <p>In that blog I mentioned I was working nights part-time (among other things) on a JavaScript interpreter for Emacs, written entirely in Emacs Lisp. I also said I didn&#39;t have a name for it. A commenter named Andrew Barry suggested that I should not call it Ejacs, and the name stuck.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I guess a nation of millions wasn't enough…

<p> Sorry, with all of the &#34;Fear of teh Negro&#34; crap that have been let fly of late, making a Public Enemy reference seems my patriotic duty.</p> <p> I am still hopeful that North Carolina will break for Obama–I don&#39;t want there to be any question that Obama has a mandate to do what needs doing. Every electoral vote will make the message that much less deniable.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Dogs-n-vomit

<p> bq.. Note: This is an old article from 2005 that I never got around to finishing. Considering it recounts my experiences working for the Democratic National Committee on Election Day 2004, I figured it was time to fill out what I remembered, edit it a bit and publish it.</p> <p> Most of it was written in <a href="http://www.murkycoffee.com/">Murky Coffee</a>, exactly one year after the ignominious end to three months of my life I&#39;m not necessarily hankering to repeat.</p>
6 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Oh, the weird coincidences

<p> Over on the <a href="http://washingtonmonthly.com/">Washington Monthly</a> site, Hilzoy, <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_10/015094.php">in talking about some crazy conspiracy theorist stuff about Obama over at The National Review</a> made a reference to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails">When Prophecy Fails</a>.</p> <p> So, when you consider that the the name of this blog comes from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_%C3%96yster_Cult">Blue Oyster Cult</a> song, it should be no surprise (to those who know their catalog as well as I, at least) that I immediately assumed that he was making a reference to their song <a href="http://www.blueoystercult.com/Studio/lyrics/5-ETI.html">Extra Terrestrial Intelligence</a>.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

100 Bullets

<p> Brian Azarello and Eduardo Risso have created something pretty amazing–a distnictly noir-influenced comic that I like <strong>despite</strong> the rampant, generally brutal and often graphic violence.</p> <p> I picked up the first collection about a year ago, and read all the collections to that point over the course of about a month–picking up the next collection or two each week. The twelfth (and, I suspect, given the significance of 13 in the story, penultimate) collection just came out last week, so over the last couple of days I re-read the whole story–I thought about waiting until the last collection was going to be out, when I realized it was going to be another year. I sure wasn&#39;t gonna wait that long.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

2008 Elections Survey

<p> So, I&#39;m not sure I buy it just being a 15-minute survey, but NYU is doing a <a href="https://www.psychsurveys.org/brietruesdell/2008elections">comprehensive survey</a> concerning the election. I think the survey itself was pretty well balanced, though shoehorning my positions into a number was, as always, a bitch.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.discourse.net/archives/2008/10/in_the_interests_of_social_science_repeat.html">Via</a></p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Anathem

<figure> <img src="../anathem.jpg" alt="../anathem.jpg" title="../anathem.jpg" /><figcaption> The cover to Neal Stephenson&#39;s Anathem </figcaption> </figure> <p> I&#39;m sure I&#39;ll get around to reading it eventually. But I got about 100 pages into it and just kind of lost the thread. I&#39;ve read, I think, three books in the interim, so it&#39;s not like I&#39;ve not been reading.</p> <p> I have read comments from some people that I respect saying that it&#39;s a great book, but what inspired me to mention my problems with it was <a href="http://xkcd.com/483/">recognizing a pertinent reference to it in the newest xkcd</a>.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

An Evil Guest

<figure> <img src="../guest.jpg" alt="../guest.jpg" title="../guest.jpg" /><figcaption> The cover for Gene Wolfe&#39;s An Evil Guest </figcaption> </figure> <p> Gene Wolfe makes me feel…dense.</p> <p> Not stupid, per se. I find that his prose is always clear, if sometimes antiquarian, and eminently readable. This is in contrast to, say, Pynchon, who often seems to revel in obscurity.</p> <p> No, I just end up feeling like I am not smart enough to ferret out the subtext in his writing. I know it&#39;s in there, but I&#39;ll be damned if I can see it clearly.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

There's something about the day today

<p> It started out brisk–almost too brisk for my bike ride to the coffee shop (since the Gaggia&#39;s on the fritz)–but it has warmed up to merely pleasant with lots of sun.</p> <p> I am suddenly pining for the Bay Area. Badly. It&#39;s been nearly two years since our last trip out there–it&#39;s feeling like it might be time for some travel.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Axis

<p> I ran across Robert Charles Wilson&#39;s <em>Spin</em> right about the time I ran across Charlie Stross&#39; <em>Accelerando</em>–in thinking about it, I suspect I heard about both of them at <a href="http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/">Making Light</a>. I know that&#39;s where I heard about <a href="http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007262.html">Spin</a>.</p> <p> Having read the first book, I picked up its sequel, <em>Axis</em>, though not before it was in paperback.</p> <p> On the one hand, it&#39;s not badly done, but on the other…I just can&#39;t recommend it.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

The Republican I find myself unable to dislike…

<p> is Mike Huckabee.</p> <p> I know that on certain issues we stand diametrically opposed–I would never vote for him, and I wouldn&#39;t expect him to vote for me if I were running for President. But at the same time, he strikes me as being most truly thoughtful and compassionate. Maybe that&#39;s why the press seemed to paint him as a rube during the Republican primaries. He also has a pretty good sense of humor. He seems like someone you could actually work with, even if you did disagree on certain things.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Glasshouse

<figure> <img src="../glasshouse.jpg" alt="../glasshouse.jpg" title="../glasshouse.jpg" /><figcaption> Charlie Stross&#39; Glasshouse&#34; </figcaption> </figure> <p> I &#34;discovered&#34; <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/index.html">Charlie Stross</a> about, oh, 2 years ago. The first book I picked up was <a href="http://www.accelerando.org/book/"><em>Accelerando</em></a>. I judged it to be well-written, but not entirely to my taste.</p> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sunrise"><em>Iron Sunrise</em></a> I liked somewhat better. Not one of my favorite books of all time or anything, but a solid story, actual characters, you know, all the stuff that a good book should have.</p> <p> Then I found <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atrocity_Archives"><em>The Atrocity Achives</em></a>, which amused me greatly. Lovecraft meets computer geek, complete with Linux, Palm Pilots and bureaucracy. Ah, joy.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I can't remember the last PowerPoint presentation I saw

<p> Nor have I worked in an office for years. This is why I probably hadn&#39;t heard of <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/02/slide_show/">PowerPoint Karaoke</a>. I would have to have an awful lot to drink beforehand. Still, sounds a hell of a lot more fun than the regular sort.</p> <p> <a href="http://infotrope.net/blog/2008/09/05/powerpoint-karaoke-or-the-most-fun-you-can-have-with-a-meeting-room-and-a-projector/">Via</a></p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

These are the things that yogis think are crazy…

<p> We were in class earlier, and several people were talking about this clip.</p> <p> <div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" loading="eager" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xgpVYDLPKno?autoplay=0&amp;controls=1&amp;end=0&amp;loop=0&amp;mute=0&amp;start=0" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" title="YouTube video"></iframe> </div> </p> <p> Mind you, the way she&#39;s doing it, she&#39;s only able to do most of that stuff because she&#39;s really young. It takes skill to do it (and I can do most of it except for the bits involving the actual bow) when you&#39;re twice her age. :)</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

What Sarah Palin wants

<p> Sarah Palin wants your daughter to be given abstinence-only education about sex–which seems to have not been very effective with her unmarried five-month-pregnant daughter.</p> <p> Sarah Palin wants to make sure every woman or girl who becomes pregnant is legally bound to deliver her child no matter whether she was raped or a victim of incest.</p> <p> I will piss and moan about FISA and the bankruptcy bill and whatever, but, in the end, I will vote Obama/Biden for these reasons.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I'm sad to hear Middleman isn't doing well

<p> So, on the recommendation of a <a href="http://comicsworthreading.com/2008/07/12/the-middleman/">total stranger</a>, and, honestly, because it is so easy and free of downsides to try stuff this way, I started TiVOing <a href="http://abcfamily.go.com/middleman">The Middleman</a>.</p> <p> I have a vague memory of actually seeing ads for it, but seriously, &#34;ABC Family&#34; isn&#39;t generally targetting me as their demographic.</p> <p> Except, apparently, when they are.</p> <p> The show is funny and smart–some of the jokes <strong>really</strong> make me reach to catch them. That puts it in a league with Thomas Pynchon. How the hell did something like that end up on television?</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Obscure comic-book note

<p> So, I watched <em>Superman Returns</em>. Oh, Bryan Singer, how did you fall so far?</p> <p> But rather than dwelling on its many issues–starting, I think, with its desire to reference the 1970s movies to a fault, and ending with it&#39;s conveniently fluid take on the effects of kryptonite on Superman–I will take the time to note that James Marsden has played a comic-book character on screen (Cyclops) who, in an issue of the comic book (X-Men ​#176) has also ended up in a bad situation in an amphibious plane.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

OK, it's a clever idea, I wonder if it'll find developers…

<p> The <a href="http://www.openstomp.com/index.html">OpenStomp Coyote-1</a> is now shipping.</p> <p> It&#39;s a clever idea–most guitar pedals are just software these days, why not have one where you can blow new programs onto it when you want. Especially when it&#39;s heart is an 8-core processor targeted at the application in question.</p> <p> The question is, will the community that it needs in order thrive come into existence. Since the software for managing it is currently Windows-only, I don&#39;t expect to find out any time soon.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

An excellent choice for children!

<p> From <a href="http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&amp;id=58850">Sci-Fi Wire</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Vin Diesel told reporters that it&#39;s still his ultimate goal to produce and star in a live-action film based on the life of Hannibal, but that in the meantime he&#39;s producing and directing <em>Hannibal the Conqueror</em>, a children&#39;s animated series about the third-century B.C. Carthaginian general who rode an elephant across the Alps in order to attack the Roman empire.</p> </blockquote> <p> This sounds cuddly as all hell. I&#39;m sure there will be lots of funny elephants, and probably a second-in-command who&#39;s just a little bit dumb, but is always amusingly abashed when he figures out he&#39;s gotten things wrong. And a moral for each story. And probably lots of stabbing and trampling and people falling off the sides of mountains.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Are You Somebody?

<figure> <img src="../areyousomebody.jpg" alt="../areyousomebody.jpg" title="../areyousomebody.jpg" /><figcaption> Nuala O&#39;Faolain&#39;s Are You Somebody? </figcaption> </figure> <p> When she died earlier this year, <a href="http://npr.org/freshair/">Fresh Air</a> rebroadcast an interview they had done several years earlier with Nuala O&#39;Faolain. I caught part of it on the way home from, if I remember correctly, a yoga class.</p> <p> I think the thing that struck me most about the interview was about how she spoke about the problem of finding a meaning and a center to your life if you reject the things that traditionally define women&#39;s lives–marriage and children. Effectively, she said, you have to go it alone, figuring out the meaning for yourself, because the answer is going to be different for everyone.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Surely, surely, surely this is blasphemy?

<p> I pass along the <a href="http://www.apostropher.com/blog/archives/004237.html">Balloon Jesus pictures</a>. <a href="http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/2008/08/jesus-christ.html">Via</a></p> <p> <em>Incidentally</em>, as a consequence of this post, <a href="http://catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1474">The Catholic League wants Bitch, Ph.D. to be de-credentialed at the Democratic National Convention</a>.</p> <p> No, I&#39;m not kidding.</p> <p> Of course, the Catholic League are apparently not smart enough to figure out that Bitch, Ph.D. was actually commenting <strong>negatively</strong> on the pictures, suggesting that it is so bad for presumably-practicing Christians to show such a trivializing attitude attitude toward their savior–in this case making balloon figures of Jesus being crucified–that <strong>professed non-believers</strong> find it offensive.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Because what everyone needs is a stuffed Kali

<p> <a href="http://www.gheehappy.com/">Sanjay Patel</a>&#39;s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Hindu-Deities-Goddess/dp/0452287758/ref=pd_sim_b_1">Little Book of Hindu Dieties</a> has been passed around amongst our friends a lot over the last couple of years.</p> <p> I was, thus, amused to see someone had created a <a href="http://leeannasthread.blogspot.com/2008/07/kali-goddess-of-death.html">plush toy of Kali</a> based on his design.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/12/plushie-kali-goddess.html">Via</a></p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Whoa, that's weird

<p> So, there&#39;s an Anusara Yoga Teacher Training I just applied to that&#39;s going to be held in Cambridge, MA. I figured I&#39;d apply to it because I know the area well; in fact, I might even be able to crash with people in the area, thereby making the overall experience much cheaper.</p> <p> So I got the address for the place the event is going to be held and brought it up on Google Maps. Turns out it&#39;s right next to the Porter Square station on the Red Line, which is convenient. I know many great places to eat not but a couple of stops away from there.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Bike geeks

<p> I do believe bike geeks can be even more withering towards the novice bicyclist than computer geeks are towards the novice computer user.</p> <p> Just sayin&#39;.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Stumbling on Happiness

<figure> <img src="../stumbling.jpg" alt="../stumbling.jpg" title="../stumbling.jpg" /><figcaption> Daniel Gilbert&#39;s Stumbling on Happiness </figcaption> </figure> <p> No doubt I&#39;m late to the party.</p> <p> Nevertheless, I just finished <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1218560330&amp;sr=8-1">Stumbling on Happiness</a> by Daniel Gilbert. I&#39;d certainly recommend it to people, though, like Daniel Pound, my late, admired Professor of Political Science, I doubt it&#39;ll really change your mind, but it&#39;ll give you a better vocabulary with which to articulate your assumptions.</p> <p> It has many compelling things to say about the wild divergence between reality and how we, as humans, deal with the prospect of the future, and how our focus on the future influences our ability to be happy in the present.</p>
3 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

The easy way to set up postfix and mlmmj

<p> I needed a mailing list manager for a new project, and, honestly, I&#39;m a little sick of Mailman–it has tons of features I don&#39;t use, but one fundamental feature I&#39;d like, archive indexing and searching, is grossly deficient (the only option, which has been maintained <strong>as a patch</strong> for the last 7 or 8 years, only really supports ht://Dig, which has been moribund for about that whole time)–so I decided to try something that might be no better, but at least was lightweight. So I installed mlmmj.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

How did I miss that?

<p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Chabon">Michael Chabon</a> wrote the story that became the screenplay for <em>Spiderman 2</em>? I mean, it&#39;s not entirely surprising to me in retrospect, but I apparently was asleep for the credits.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Watchmen is either going to rock…

<p> or it&#39;s going to suck so badly no one will be able to escape its event horizon.</p> <p> In the &#34;hope for the former&#34; arena, we have <a href="http://scavgraphics.livejournal.com/247613.html">side-by-side versions of the original ads and movie posters</a> that show that there&#39;s a fair bit of attention being paid to the source material. It&#39;s almost slavish, except, honestly, I like it better than Dave Gibbons&#39; art, which was always the low point of book for me.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

A demo painting of Hellboy, at high-speed.

<p> <a href="http://tor.com/">Tor.com</a> has a high-speed rendition of <a href="http://tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=blog&amp;id=2734">Greg Manchess doing a demo painting of Hellboy at ComicCon.</a></p> <p> Interesting to watch the painting come together over the course of 10 minutes. I do tend to laugh at the painting hanging on the wall behind the easel that is very visibly shifting–I&#39;m sure it wasn&#39;t really perceptible at regular speed, but at high-speed it&#39;s pretty distracting.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Rockwood Filling Station

<p> On a lark last night, Anne and I went to the Rockwood Filling Station, a new pizza place in Durham.</p> <p> The pizza was very good. I do think you have to think a little differently when you&#39;re talking about wood-fired ovens–don&#39;t expect to get a pizza with lots of vegetation on it, because they&#39;re a pain to par-cook, but pizza is in the oven for such a short time, they&#39;d still be crunchy if you tried to cook them using its heat.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

CD Purchases

<p> <img src="../lawoman.jpg" alt="../lawoman.jpg" title="../lawoman.jpg" /> <img src="../tompetty.jpg" alt="../tompetty.jpg" title="../tompetty.jpg" /></p> <p> I&#39;ve been dividing my purchases of late between new material by artists I enjoy (Nine Inch Nails, Daniel Lanios, others) and old material that I used to be able to borrow from <a href="http://mischeathen.com/">Chet</a> and <a href="http://missourilovescompany.blogspot.com/">Patrick</a>, and thus have had no real contact with for the last 16 years or so.</p> <p> With that in mind, I picked up Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers&#39; <em>Greatest Hits</em> and the Doors <em>L.A. Woman</em>. It&#39;s funny, because I picked up the Doors disc in order to be able to, eventually, get rid of the <em>Greatest Hits</em> collection I have for the Doors–I still need <em>Soft Parade</em> and <em>Strange Days</em>–while I picked up the Heartbreakers disc because I didn&#39;t want to embark on the task of working through their catalog.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

A fascinating video concerning abortion protesters

<p> Someone interviewed anti-abortion protesters. The inverviewer asked them, politely, for the most part, the logical question: &#34;If abortion were to be made illegal, what should the punishment be for those women who would have them anyway?&#34;</p> <p> Admittedly, there may have been people who had coherent, affirmative answer to the question and weren&#39;t included in the video, but the only person who ended up in this edit that was willing to actually say yes was obviously conflicted and unhappy about saying so.<br> Cognitive dissonance like that is, in my experience, a sign that you&#39;re on the wrong track–if you&#39;re driven by your conscience to do something, but your conscience also tells you that the logical outcome of your actions is wrong, you <strong>must</strong> step back and reasses what you really want to achieve.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I guess it's just as well I've been throwing away the Emily's List solicitations

<p> I mean, if <a href="http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/nasty_attack_ad_hits_jewish_de.php">they&#39;re going to support candidates that indulge in race-baiting</a> I just don&#39;t think they need my money. And I&#39;m happy to make sure that people know what they&#39;re involved in.</p> <p> The funny thing is, I actually hold those with whom I have more in common to a higher standard than I do those with whom I disagree. It pisses me off a lot more when people that I am (generally) ideologically aligned with sell out than when people who I am in opposition to do. I guess it&#39;s a soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations thing.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Also, "Stranglehold"

<p> How is it that I end up watching two things (Season 3, Pt 1 of <em>Entourage</em> and <em>Superbad</em>) inside a couple of weeks that have Ted Nugent&#39;s <em>Stranglehold</em> in the soundtracks?</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman
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