Category: Uncategorized

I had never heard of the Shepard tone.

It sounds like this.
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Looking into some family getaway destinations for next week, this phrasing caught my eye: Port Angeles Bed and Breakfasts Inn – Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce:

‘The Love Nest’ is 1200 sq feet of very private, self-contained luxury only 300 feet from the beach. Snuggle by the fire, romp in the Cal-King canopied bed or hot tub outdoors in total seclusion, surrounded by old-growth cedar and lush ferns.[…] Our secluded beach offers more opportunities for romance!

Sounds like this place has aphrodisiac qualities.

THE TROUBLE WITH LIBERTARIANS, PART 45,882. If the…:

Libertarians do seem to understand that each man should be free to go to hell in his own way. Unfortunately they never seem to catch on sometimes people are sent to hell by whims and quirks of fate — catastrophic illness, say, or a shift in the employer class’ understanding of what they can get away with. No doubt the staff of Reason is comprised of Randian supermen who will rise above all adversity, but when the rest of us schmoes observe a working world where it becomes easier to lose what few protections we have, the horror of intrusive government is very, very far from our minds.

The Washington Monthly:

I suspect the answer here is that Rove never truly had a lot of political acumen. He had campaign acumen. He was good at winning elections, but not at much else.

I can’t really attribute this to Kevin Drum: who hasn’t made this observation?

Glenn Greenwald – Political Blogs and Opinions – Salon:

Every now and then, it is worth noting that substantial portions of the right-wing political movement in the United States — the Pajamas Media/right-wing-blogosphere/Fox News/Michelle Malkin/Rush-Limbaugh-listener strain — actually believe that Islamists are going to take over the U.S. and impose sharia law on all of us. And then we will have to be Muslims and “our women” will be forced into burkas and there will be no more music or gay bars or churches or blogs.

but but but . . . . as best I can tell, the “Pajamas Media/right-wing-blogosphere/Fox News/Michelle Malkin/Rush-Limbaugh-listener strain” hates music (unless performed by pandering jingoists), all gay bars, churches that they disagree with, and blogs that don’t parrot the words of their Leader. Not sure how they feel about burqas but mob caps and bonnets would be OK substitutes, I expect.

Is there any doubt that there is an American Taliban?

It’s your list.

Now where is that “report as spam” button?

Advice of the Day for Monday, August 13, 2007:

The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade. –Benjamin Franklin

From The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Staircase Drawers: a brilliant storage idea:

August 3, 2007 Storage under staircases has been around for years. But as reported by Inhabitat this new system takes it one step further and leaves you wondering why you didn&rsquo;t think of this first. A simple yet obvious idea from Unicraft Joinery in Australia has resulted in an innovative under-the-staircase drawer solution using each step as storage drawer. The space underneath each staircase step is used as a drawer which is a great way to utilize a generally overlooked space. Step up and open the drawer which can be used for many and varied purposes with the only problem being remembering which drawer held what. ..

White House Watch — News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration – washingtonpost.com:

In a timely piece in the Atlantic Joshua Green reviews what he calls “The Rove Presidency”:
“The story of why an ambitious Republican president working with a Republican Congress failed to achieve most of what he set out to do finds Rove at center stage. A big paradox of Bush’s presidency is that Rove, who had maybe the best purely political mind in a generation and almost limitless opportunities to apply it from the very outset, managed to steer the administration toward disaster.”

I think the key to that is the phrase “purely political mind.” Politics is not policy, and being good, even masterful, at one does not confer competence in the other. Winning elections through attack ads, underhanded campaign materials, voter suppression and other means is one thing, but holding that power through good decisions that will withstand scrutiny is a different thing entirely.

John Edwards for President-Edwards Statement on the Resignation of Karl Rove:

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – John Edwards today released the following statement in reaction to President Bush’s announcement that his senior advisor, Karl Rove, will resign at the end of the month:

“Goodbye, good riddance.”