9/19/00 - NASA considers the feasibility of a space elevator by 2050 (courtesy of Kestrel's Nest and Cluttered.)

Post-Columbine law enforcement: Shoot first, ask questions later.

As the sidebar attests, I picked up the new Madonna and Bjork CD's today during a very rainy lunch. I can already tell after the first listen that the former is a quality production that's going to have me grooving around the apartment in short order, much as did Bedtime Stories and Ray of Light. It appears Madonna has been listening to a lot of Air.

Bjork's Selmasongs sounds quite a bit like outtakes from Homogenic (and even more like "Amphibian" from the Being John Malkovich soundtrack): a classic showtune sound coupled with clanging train noises a la Depeche Mode's Construction Time Again. The standout track on that one so far seems to be "I've Seen It All," the duet with Thom Yorke.

Nat Hentoff of the Voice surveys the sad state of constitutional rights under either Bush or Gore.

Two more fanboy films make the fasttrack: Iron Man and Conan the King.

The Olympic rowing has started, which is pretty much the only event I'm really jazzed for. The Olympics is the only time I get to see the sport I devoted my college years to get some love on national television. In fact, I know one of this year's Olympians - Greg Ruckman - rather well, although since he's a year older than me and left the crew team early to focus on sculling, I don't believe we ever officially raced in the same eight.

Forget RATS. Stooping to new lows, a new right-wing issue ad openly racebaits. Says White mother of young son "Ralph,": "We didn't want him in a place where drugs and violence were fashionable," she says. "That was a bit more diversity than he could handle." The ad was put out by some no-name cover organization, the Republican Ideas Political Committee, and the phantom menace behind the spot is still unknown to operatives of either party.

In a related story, there he goes again. Pat Buchanan declares Cultural War (again) at Bob Jones University.

Michael Kinsley blasts Republican senators for the Wen Ho Lee nightmare.

Meanwhile, Gore's dog v. mother-in-law exaggerations pick up political steam, at least at the Moonie Times.

9/18/00 - In a prelude to next week's 3-0 Jets-Bucs matchup, Keyshawn rips Chrebet: You're trying to compare a flashlight to a star. Flashlights only last so long, a star is in the sky forever. He's not even close to me and anyone who knows football knows that. Well, all I know right now, Keyshawn, is ever since they stopped "giving you the damn ball" the Jets haven't lost a game.

An interview with Hunter S. Thompson, courtesy of Pith and Vinegar. Turns out the Great Gonzo has caught the same terminal apathy afflicting everyone else this election year, and that he too will be going Nader. And while I'm ganking links from the inimitable Pith, she also points out this stick figure theater production of Fight Club.

Phish makes it official? Aw, man, I was hoping JB would fall back into the rhythm. See you in the real world, pardner.

What do you do when you don't feel like drafting a speech on Thailand's telecom sector? Make buttons!

James Fallows ruminates on the new Gore Vidal tome, The Golden Age.

But did they leave a mint on the pillow? The Atlantis undocks from the ISS and heads for home.

The first pic of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft appears on the web. It mist be hard to make someone as attractive as Mrs. Jolie look so utterly goofy. Why do they ever greenlight movies for video games in the first place? By the time they actually get something on celluloid, the game is invariably outdated.

Village Voice on Nader.

The voice of reason? John McCain argues against federal sanctions of the entertainment industry.

According to Entertainment Weekly and Dark Horizons, Duchovny's eleven episodes of X-Files this season will be the first two, the final six and three in-between.

End of an era: The Boston T's fares rise from $0.85 to $1 tomorrow. I wonder how much that extra 30 cents for a round trip would have curtailed my college excursions. Given my pitiful cash flow back then, the difference might have been dramatic.

Republican Senate candidate Tom Campbell supports Prop 36 and attacks the War on Drugs in a Hail Mary attempt to bypass Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

While pandering to the elderly, Gore mangles the facts on a fictionalized family anecdote. "For Gore, who has a history of embellishing facts about himself and his family, the remarks he made in Florida are a blend of erroneous family detail and questionable statistics on an election issue of growing significance."

9/16/00 - The all-new Grinch trailer. This film has now been downgraded from a Possible See to a Probably Avoid...this much saccharine kills lab rats dead.

Anthony Lewis excoriates the Feds for their neo-McCarthyite behavior regarding Wen Ho Lee. But Slate pins the blame on Lewis' paper.

Sample the lyrical stylings of MC Stephen Hawking (via Kestrel's Nest and Metascene.) On Creationists: They want to have their bulls**t, taught in public class, Stephen J. Gould should put his foot right up their ass...

As you can see, something of a redesign around here - including the addition of a sidebar a la Other Side, /usr/bin/girl, Rebecca's Pocket, and basically every other weblog out there. Last time I changed the white text on black background, there was a general outcry from readers...so I've kept that facet of GitM even though some find it hard to read. At any rate, design in flux as always.

9/15/00 - Gore-Lieberman approach 270.

Cruel and unusual? An Arkansas mother must write her (living) daughter's obituary for driving her around without a car seat. Hey, it beats the Big House.

The newest casualty of the Drug War: Alberto Sepulveda of Modesto, CA, Age 11. He was shot in the back by a SWAT team member when they broke in to his home to arrest his father, apparently a crystal meth trafficker. Predictably, the same news outlets that made Elian Gonzalez poster child of Spring 2000 have very little to say about this young boy's death.

Sex in Space, and no, Jane Fonda is not involved. You know it's a slow news day when this bit of fluff makes the front page of the Post.

Lieberman does it his...way.In related news, Gore's Top Ten Rejected Slogans (from Letterman last night): "I gave you the Internet, and I can take it away." Update: It appears Gore jacked this particular joke from the good folks at Modern Humorist. Figures.

Spiderman gets pushed back to Summer 2002, forsaking the competition from Christmas 2001's Fellowship of the Ring for that of Summer's Episode 2 and The Matrix 2.

Speaking of Episode 2, Jango/Boba Fett is steppin' out.

Privacy advocates drop Amazon.

My freelance piece for Experience Magazine sees the light of day. It's definitely not the best thing I've ever written, and I was never too happy about the "But we really do care!" angle foisted upon the piece, but hey, it's copy - and paid copy at that.

9/14/00 - It seems that Al Gore's favorite book - Stendhal's The Red and the Black - wouldn't pass his (and Lieberman's) own cultural family values test. Then again hypocrisy has always been Gore's strong suit.

On the other side of the aisle, clearly it's only a matter of time before the GOP tries to rename the capital Reagan, DC. After all, s/he who controls the past controls the future, and s/he who controls the present controls the past. Trying to recast Reagan from an avuncular bumbler and ridiculously profligate spender into Franklin D. Roosevelt redux is just another way for Conservatives to prolong their war on the New Deal.

R.I.P. Shelagh Fraser 1922-2000, a.k.a Aunt Beru. It's been a bad year for the New Hope old guard.

Watergate redux?

More excellent Vanity Fair pictures of the Fellowship (and Arwen.)

As if I need another reason to dislike the Pacers. Knight needs counseling and/or a good, swift kick in the ass, not a cushy assistant coaching position and an NBA salary.

I can't believe I missed last night's Lazio-Clinton debate...sounds like a real barnburner.

Oh, so that's what's wrong with America...Eminem. If we could just shut him up, our children would all be joyous bundles of love. Why didn't I notice it before?

Hmmm...looking back on today's entry, I do seem a tad punchy today, don't I? Well, blame it on overwork, or more to the point blame it on watching everybody in government fall over themselves trying to blame Hollywood and TV for complex social problems without easy answers. It's pathetic.

9/13/00 - Maureen Dowd of the Times forages through George W. Bush's storied subliminal ad with the typically inquisitive and sardonic style she brings to her columns every day. Elsewhere, Michael Kelly drudges up the contents of the Gore hole.

Archaeologists find evidence of the biblical flood at the bottom of the Black Sea. I find this particularly fascinating, given that I'm currently deep into the Sumerian myth and Babel/Infocalypse speculation of Snow Crash.

Greenberg on famous Presidential debates through history.

Lewinskygate revisited (again). According to Peter Baker of the Post, Clinton came a lot closer to leaving office than is widely known.

Miss Waldron, we hardly knew ye.

George Will on the Colombia drug money fiasco, a policy that "seems barren of historical sense."

Ugh. I'm feeling that this week's entries have been pretty rote, due to the volume of speechwork crossing my desk at the moment. Sorry about that...I'll try to improve soon.

9/12/00 - Destination Mir is happening! I think I had best be getting in shape... Elsewhere in space, the ISS opens its cabins.

Mithrandir walks among us, and he looks just as I had always imagined him. I know it's just a rinky-dink posed photo in Vanity Fair (a la Episode 1 three-four months before release), but if you'd permit me to geek out for a moment, I think this bodes very well for Fellowship. I hate to make this comparison, but he also kinda looks like major league asshole Bobby Knight down there in yesterday's entry.

Nader 1, Mastercard 0. A judge throws out the lawsuit.

Please, Layden, let it die.

Will the Coen brothers get out from behind the camera? Could be interesting.

The Times looks at the all new state-of-the-art airlocked cases for America's founding documents.

Overall, I'd say the trip to VON 2000 was a rousing success. The IP Telephony speech seemed to go over well, and the almost unbelievably idiotic Dubya RATS subliminal advertising snafu made for no lack of stimulating conversation. How could DUMB the Republicans be so mindbogglingly stupid? It's just DUMB bizarre. In fact, the DUMB move was so stupid that I think DUMB there's probably no way it could have been DUMB intentional. Then again, the guy who composed the DUMB ad, Alex Castellanos, did some pretty ill-concealed racist stuff for Jesse Helms a couple DUMB of times.

9/11/00 - I'm off to Atlanta...see y'all tomorrow.

Good riddance. Bobby Knight was an embarrassment to basketball. Why's he gotten a free ride for so long - particularly considering the treatment Spree got after the PJ incident - is beyond me.

Gore talks tough on violence in entertainment. This is the Democratic candidate for President? Violence on TV is a scapegoat for problems caused by a panoply of social factors, including poor education, access to guns, and an economy that basically forces both parents to work outside the home all the time. Trust Gore to blame it on the Power Rangers, though.

And, while I'm on my soapbox, these Firestone hearings are really beginning to irk me. As the Times notes (my emphasis), "Why are all of the deaths in sport utility vehicles, mostly Ford Explorers, when some of the tires were installed on pickup trucks?" Bum tires and blowouts, barring the unforeseen, don't usually result in fatalities. To my mind, the problem lies not with the tires but with the SUV industry, who inflate the tires at a less-than-optimum rate and continue to market sporty, gas-guzzling deathtraps to cell-phone-toting yuppies. Right now, a "vehicle's tendency to roll over is not regulated by the government, though rollovers accounted for 62 percent of deaths in sport utility vehicles." And they'll continue to get a free pass, so long as Congress can blame the death rate on less-well-funded and lobbyist-dense tire companies rather than automakers.

"I will need an old priest and a really, really old priest." At least he didn't go out like Max Von Sydow.

The Jurassic Park 3 teaser is now available for download. Not much to see here, folks, unless you like watching peals of lightning.

And to think Republicans want to get rid of sex-ed. Bush Sr. neglects to tell Dubya about condoms.

Who's who in Episode 2 [SPOILERS].

9/9/00 - A very Happy Birthday to Matt!

By the power invested in me as minor deity of Simworld, I now hereby declare that the rest of the evening will be devoted solely to The Sims: Living Large. Electronic Boutique had it for 18 bones and I just couldn't resist.

Is Bobby Knight finally finished?

Troops, the Star Wars COPS parody, is now available free on DVD (with purchase of Total Movie Magazine.)

Nader comes out for marijuana legalization.

Bedfellows don't get any stranger: Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) team up to defeat the China trade bill.

The teaser for Traffic, the Stephen Soderbergh-directed US version of the acclaimed British mini-series. It's all about the money... Speaking of which, the House is currently considering flushing more federal money down the toilet.

Ugh. Just when I thought the big fella was in, they keep pulling him back out. Ewing-for-Rice straight up? No, No, a thousand times No!

Well, it looks to be a busy next few days - the Chairman has a speech every day next week, and I'll be in Atlanta Monday and Tuesday for the Voice Over Net (Internet Telephony) Conference - so updates may be shorter than usual. My apologies in advance.

There was much fun had last night by DC-area bloggers - Thanks to WOIFM, Dineen and their pooch Tucker for their hospitality, and Medley, Now This, Genehack (and Lor), and Metascene for their company. We should do it again some time.