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Archives for December 2003
Check out the new [Howard Dean Tax Calculator][1] that we created for the Club for Growth. [1]: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/taxsavings2004.php
Better than Cock-Fighting
I received a Lobster-Gram today from a client. It arrived in a white styrofoam cooler, and my cats don’t really seem to know what to make of it. They are, however, acutely aware that there is something alive moving around inside of it.
I’ve been contemplating a variation on bear-baiting, in which I pit two lobsters against one cat. The smart money is on the cat–although I wouldn’t be surprised if the lobsters could put up a good fight.
My cousin Paul is siding with the lobsters. I’m trying to decide what kind of odds to offer.
Speedy Delivery
An actual conversion from this morning:
Me: Jack, a package came for you yesterday. It’s from your uncle.
Jack: Guilt in a box… (shakes head)
We Come from the Land of the Ice and Snow
Pictures from our trip to Iceland are finally up for your viewing pleasure.
Monkeys Stand for Honesty
Erin and I saw Simon and Garfunkel at the MCI Center last night.
It seems that in order to keep the tour chugging along, Art Garfunkel is required to publicly stroke Paul Simon’s ego once for every thirty minutes of stage time.
Tearing Down the ‘Wall of Sound’
The Beatles’ Let It Be has always been the textbook example of a potentially brilliant rock album nearly ruined by an overzealous producer. I think it’s clear that Phil Spector has done more damage over the years with schmaltzy string arrangements than with the gun he used to (allegedly) kill Lana Clarkson.
Today I was at Melody Records in Dupont and I picked up a copy of the newly released Let It Be…Naked. It’s wonderful to finally hear the album stripped of Spector’s “wall of sound.” I was particularly impressed by the sparer renditions of “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road,” which seem much more emotionally sincere on this release. Buy this album.
Is Environmentalism a New Religion?
I’ve never really cared for Michael Crichton’s writing, but this speech on environmentalism is fantastic. Crichton dissects the movement, which he believes has become “the religion of choice for urban atheists.”
Of particular interest is this passage on DDT:
So I can tell you some facts. I know you haven’t read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don’t report them. I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn’t carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn’t give a damn.
Iceland Was Just a Threat
Ten notes and observations from last week’s trip to Reykjavik:
- For a red meat, whale tastes surprisingly like fish.
- Despite the fact that Icelanders consume an alarming amount of soda, my request for a “root beer” was greeted with the same kind of puzzled look I might have expected had I ordered a “moon rock.”
- We were informed that prostitution is currently legal in Iceland. However, prostitution may not be your primary source of income. It’s apparently illegal to be a “professional,” but legal to be a “semi-professional.”
- Iceland spends nothing on national defense. Can someone please explain why the United States is footing the bill to defend a people descended from vikings? Don’t you think they can probably take care of themselves?
- If you scan the dial on an Icelandic radio, the Fred Durst cover of “Behind Blue Eyes” is always playing on at least one station–usually two.
- While drinking at Kaffi Sólon last Friday night, we were lucky enough to meet some members of what the bartender casually referred to as “the left-wing idiot youth.” They were distributing their newspaper, which featured a drawing of Tintin on the cover. When did poor Titntin get pulled into the seedy underbelly of socialist activism?
- Candy is taken very seriously in Iceland. I returned with about 2 pounds of the best black licorice I’ve ever had.
- It’s a bit odd that Iceland has over a thousand years of detailed genealogical records, but practically no buildings that predate 1904.
- I am now the first foreign member of the Libertarian Society of Iceland.
- The locals are surprisingly friendly. They don’t seem to get angry or frustrated when they get stuck behind you in traffic as your sub-compact rental car becomes stuck in the snow on a back road. Rather, they just get out of their monster truck and attach cables to your vehicle so they can pull you out. The cultural exchange concludes when they smile and ask, “What were you thinking?” just before pulling out a digital camera to preserve proof of American idiocy for all of posterity.
