"We are not as holy as you are,
But we are not as cruel."
- - - Tom Rapp (Pearls Before Swine)

Some stuff I've read lately:

Penny Arcade:
"Of course, you needn't concern yourself overmuch with Victory. My probability algorithm, made with Science, calculates your chances of victory to be very, very near Zero."

Fragments From Floyd:
"Know the difference between a large pizza and a writer?"
"A large pizza can feed a family of four."

And a couple more until I get around to expanding my links section at left:

Shadow Of The Hegemon
"A liberal response to the dominance of conservative rhetoric online." If that's what floats yer boat.

Sweat Flavored Gummi
Rebecca is an amusing and profane young writer. Not a Guaranteed Interesting Read but an often amusing slice of somebody else's life for when you feel like you don't have one of your own...

I'm having some second thoughts about this Toogood nonsense, having read a little about the Irish Traveller Drift, Grift, Scam & Scram lifestyle. But my disdain for the mother and the suspicion that the kid was maybe hit because she somehow blew the "return stolen merchandise for cash" scam doesn't really impact on what I wrote below very much. For the record, I suspect that she loves her kids and is raising them to a life of petty theft and small time fraud. I doubt that sentencing her to Counseling would improve matters much, but I anticipate considerable Outrage that she's not Locked Up when all is said and done.

So at the moment I'm reading Nick Hornby's new novel, How To Be Good. It's pretty enjoyable, though in contrast to High Fidelity and About A Boy, the main character is female and I'm not sure how convincing his female first-person voice is. I'll have to get Lora's opinion when I finish the book. I'd compare it to the way many female cartoonists don't draw men convincingly. Not that Mort Walker captures female attributes in a realistic manner, but somehow the guys in Cathy (and several other strips I can't think of at the moment) always come off looking effeminate. They probably spend too much time drawing their hair and eyes and stuff.

But, getting back to the book, it's a trifle disturbing because the main character is a Doctor and she's been married to her glum, crabby and overweight husband David for 20 years and they're bored and dissatisfied with their lives and stuff. If I thought this was a Birthday Present With A Message, I'd be worried. But now I'm getting towards the middle of the book and bizarre and funny stuff is starting to happen. I don't see John Cusack or Hugh Grant in this movie, though. Maybe James Lileks. Or Sid Smith. Heck, if there was more physical comedy in it, maybe I could play David. But it'll probably star Meg Ryan (unless there's another actress who can play early 40's attractively...), which means Tom Hanks or Michael Keaton would play my role. Heh heh.

Yesterday I came across a slightly interesting article Nick Hornby wrote last year about the state of popular music as reflected in the best seller chart. "I decided ... that my own lack of familiarity with what people are actually buying in bulk was far too shaming, and so I sat down and listened to the ten best-selling albums in the United States according to the July 28, 2001, issue of Billboard." Yow, talk about suffering for your art...

This woman in Indiana who got caught on security camera hitting her child? I think I'm more sympathetic to her case than anyone I've read or heard so far...

I'll start with a modified Sam Kinison line: I don't condone child abuse. I understand it...

Okay, if you think that's Not Funny you might as well skip the rest of this. To start with, the girl was not injured. Period. No bruises. No blood. No concussion, Some white bread young doctor watching a video in front of TV news cameras saying "Oh my God, we need to get that little girl to an emergency room," is not sufficient cause to demonize a mother of three.

Okay, so I'm a troglodyte who doesn't believe that Spanking Equals Abuse. I also don't think that video shows very much of what I've heard described. "She was grabbed by her hair and punched in the face more than 12 times" is not supported by the view I've seen of the mother leaning into the back of the vehicle, her white trash blond ponytail bouncing up and down as she lays down the law to her kid. She was clearly angry, but to say she was Out Of Control overstates the case.

Part of getting a kid's attention sometimes involves exaggerating parental response. The Child Rearing Specialists nowadays say that you shouldn't even Yell at your kids, much less Strike them. Mrs. Toogood is even parroting the party line (on the advice of her attorney, I have no doubt). "Nobody has a right to strike their child. I shouldn't have did it." Hard to disagree with the second statement, in retrospect (we even get to feel smugly superior to her uneducated way with the English language), but does she really believe the first? Do you? I don't.

Most of us were raised with the concept that parents did indeed have that right and it would be exercised if behavior strayed excessively from accepted norms. We're not talking about wife beaters here, okay? We're talking about normal American families. I've seen loud angry parents manhandling children in stores before. It's not pretty, but I know why it happens. Changing a whiny defiant kid into a scared crying kid isn't necessarily a big improvement, but maybe it's just a step in an ongoing educational process. Any honest parent will admit that they've had moments that they're glad were not captured on videotape. There's no potential "Caught On Tape: Woman Assaults Child - Police Searching For Mother" moment in your past? Are you sure? How about your Mother's?

"A doctor who viewed the tape said the girl needs treatment." Hmmm, now that they've examined her, what kind of "treatment" have they prescribed? Separation from her family, that's what. Well, at least it makes the TV news audience feel better.

Today would have been my dad's 88th birthday. Clarence was born in 1914 and died in 1980. He was called "Bob" by everybody, a nickname that evidently came from being called "baby" with a German accent. (I don't know why his brother Albert was called Kelly.) The youngest of 17 children. One of his siblings, my Aunt Margaret, is still alive.

Mike Myers and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were on Letterman last night, but I couldn't get interested in staying awake to watch it. I must be getting old. OTOH, I couldn't get interested in finding a relatively blank VHS to tape it on, either, so perhaps it's merely apathy unrelated to my advancing years. And I've been getting out of the house at 6:30 all week to get Sarah to marching band practice at school. Oh well, a shortage of sleep is not a particular problem right now anyway. I don't actually have any problems right now apart from a lack of important things to complain about. Maybe I should pretend to work a little harder. Well, as rabbitblog points out, "...starting a blog is about as clear a cry for help as there is, huh?"

For $15,000, these guys will make any car go 140 mph

The "future plans" paragraph at the end is thought provoking... "We want to drop a Greyhound bus from a C5A," says Gasson. "We'll fill the bus with 40 or so skydivers, and they'll climb out on the way down." This sounds like a lawyer joke waiting to happen. Or perhaps a Palestinian mass-transit plan to be considered?
- - - Thanks to Murphy C. Overdot

Why did the baby cross the road?
It was stapled to the chicken.
- - - Thanks, Sarah!

29 years ago, Gram Parsons died at the age of 26... Meter your dosage carefully, folks!

Paul Z reminds us, "If you can't be good, be careful." I think my dad used to say that.

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

So, my birthday was almost a week ago and I've been wasting time elsewhere and not getting around to blogging since who cares anyway.

This year's gala Birthday weekend included a nice dinner, a little cake and some thoughtful gifts. Nick Hornby's new novel, How To Be Good, The First 28 Years of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Jorma Kaukonen's new CD and a big box of old time radio cassettes from the in-laws. Oh, and a nice sweater thing from Lora's aunt which won't be worn until the weather gets quite a bit colder. I was born in 1955, if you're wondering. "If I'd known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself."

We also emptied and cleaned the "bag of water" pool in the back yard Sunday while the Packers put in their usual lackluster dome performance down in New Orleans. One of those 16 foot by 30" deep vinyl pools with the inflated rim. We made pretty good use of it this summer, but the algae took over when somebody turned off the filter for 10 days while we were in California, so it's been kinda icky the last month or so.

There's another big lack of links today, but one news item seem worth mentioning. Warren Zevon has terminal lung cancer. Bummer. What I've heard of his recent CD's is real good. "My Shit's Fucked Up" is as close to a Theme Song as I've adopted this year...

Some people say, "The glass is half empty."
Some people say, "The glass is half full."
Some people say "Why is my glass half empty, while his is half full?"
- - - Thanks to Haym Hirsh via http://volokh.blogspot.com

Paraphrasing Herbert Kornfeld: "Keepin' it real, representin' to tha fullest in tha cube crib 40/5.."