3/8/01 - If for some odd reason you just can't get enough Ghost, you might want to consult a physician. But, if that doesn't help, feel free to drop by Mike Wasylik's renowned haven for the Right-minded and wrong-headed, What's On It For Me? (Hopefully, you already visit there anyway.) I'll be guest-blogging as the progressive-in-residence there for the remainder of the month, while he and Dineen enjoy the hospitality of Austin, Texas and the Republic of Ireland.

I don't agree with everything he has to say (for one, I don't share his philosophical issues with progressive taxation.) Nevertheless, Andrew Sullivan has an interesting Tocquevillian take on why we should raise the estate tax (and stop calling it a "death tax.")

When Memes Collide - Am I All Your Base or Not? (Via Metafilter.)

Ok, this is pretty cool. Martial arts are added to the Marine curriculum. The Corps, recognizing that Marines are more likely to be deployed for peacekeeping missions than traditional warfare, expects the martial arts to develop skills needed to restrain civilians and to build confidence in Marines, so that they don't overreact in hostile situations. I wonder if they'll equip them with lightsabers, too.

On the day Dubya's tax plan comes to a vote in the House, eleven moderate Senators - 6 D's, 5 R's - try to impose a debt reduction trigger on the plan. At current tally, a presently stonewalling Dubya would appear to be one vote short of passage in the Senate. Meanwhile, the Globe adds up the numbers and determines that the vast majority of taxpayers - 71% - will see only about $600 a year from the fully implemented tax plan, far less than the $1600 promised the typical family by Dubya.

Garth of Dark Horizons finds an alternate LOTR teaser poster. It's striking how relatively minor differences (movie tag line instead of Tolkien's text, Frodo staring at the ring rather than at the viewer) can so utterly diminish the effect. Hopefully, they'll go with the one I posted on 3/4.

MeFi gets mad props in Slate.

The Globe offers what will undoubtedly be the first of many paeans to the Irish this St. Patrick's Month. "Science says that 99.99 percent of everyone's DNA is the same. The Irish make the most of the other .01 percent."

3/7/01 - Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in full Episode II regalia. Historians of the Old Republic have labelled this the future Emperor's "Gary Oldman/Montgomery Burns" period.

Attorney-General Ashcroft announces a federal voting rights initiative to partially address the Florida fiasco. Apparently, he was also heard murmuring under his breath, "Furthermore...all votes for DEAD CANDIDATES will from now herein be thrown out, and that candidate's headstone will be seized by federal authorities..." Meanwhile, the Congressional voting review has only just begun.

In the race to succeed Strom Thurmond in 2002, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham (a McCain supporter in 2000) gets his hands on a big gun, Bob Dole. (He's already locked up the nods of the past two GOP governors, Carroll Campbell and David Beasley.) Possible contenders on the Democratic side include former Governor and Clinton Secretary of Education Richard Riley, Charleston mayor Joe Riley (an unrelated Bradley supporter in 2000), and former Congressional Black Caucus chairman Jim Clyburn (my hometown rep.) But who knows who'll pop out of the woodwork? The South Carolina political establishment has been waiting for this moment for decades.

Advance reviews of R.E.M.'s Reveal make it to the web, meaning that, like DM's Exciter, the full album could show up on Napster any day now. (Murmurs site via April.) Live versions of "She Just Wants to Be," "The Lifting," and "I've Been So High" have been available for some time now at your local P2P pitstop.

Looks like I spoke too soon yesterday about Dubya's Mars money. Turns out the increase there might mean a scaling back of the ISS. (Via Stuffed Dog.)

At a crossroads fraught with peril for campaign finance advocates, the Times tries to shore up support for McCain-Feingold.

Carpal tunnel, schmarpal tunnel. The Senate guts OSHA's ergonomic requirements for the workplace, prompting House Minority Leader Gephardt to declare the "end of bipartisanship."

The FBI looks to break up a plot to kidnap Russell Crowe. No word if irate ex-husbands Dennis Quaid or Tom Cruise are involved.

Dr. Jack Ramsey sizes up the suddenly stagnant Knickerbockers.

Looks like I have a big decision to make. I've discovered since returning from UVa that I've been offered an equivalent amount of money to study American History at Columbia U, home of the venerable Alan Brinkley. Of course, given the disparity in standards of living in Charlottesville and New York City, the two sums aren't equivalent at all. So, I have to do some thinking on which environment I'd want to spend the next few years - at the moment I have to say that I'm leaning towards returning to Gotham City in the fall. Of course, Berk will probably hate it, and I'm not relishing another NYC apartment search, particularly with canine in tow. We'll see...I still have a month to think it over.

3/6/01 - I am a Jedi, like my father before me. (Via Metafilter.)

Tragedy strikes the set of Spiderman.

Movies that never needed to be made, part 37: Scooby Doo. Warner Brothers releases this pic of the cast to counteract the extremely negative reports circulating the web about the project. Somehow, I don't think this'll stop the bleeding. Could Fred be any more miscast?

As it turns out, Dubya's budget bolsters Mars exploration funding. Bully for him...I'm pretty much always for more money thrown at the space program. No word if this loot includes funding for a remedial engineering course on converting standard to metric.

Two intriguing links from my fellow Ghost today: All Your Brands are Belong to Us and Leonard Nimoy Should Eat More Salsa. (Well, he should.)

The possible relocation of the Vancouver Grizzlies comes down to two cities: New Orleans (former home of the Utah Jazz) and Anaheim. Like Cali needs another basketball team.

Berkeley is the seventy-eighth canine to be featured on Dogblog. Thanks, Michael!

What the Hell? How did the Greeks infiltrate Harvard in just the past four years? That's a shame. Back in my day we didn't need any fancy-schmancy letters on our chest to get deliriously drunk...

Garth at Dark Horizons (and Harry at AICN) posts the Tomb Raider teaser poster, which should at least partially satisfy whomever it was who found this site searching for "Lara+Croft+snuff."

Tom Oliphant examines the "magic asterisk" in the Bush tax plan.

But, all partisanship aside, Mr. Vice-President, think about your grandchildren. When you're nearing your fifth heart attack and CNN starts reporting pieces like this, you gotta think that perhaps your health should come first. There are plenty of other Republicans to take up the slack for Dubya. (Donald Rumsfeld, for example.)

All of the new Depeche Mode album (to be released May 15) is now available on Napster. (Well, at least for the next 72 hours. Don't worry, copyright hounds, I'll still buy it when it comes out.) At first listen it's definitely better than the last two albums, Songs of Faith and Devotion ("We're Rock Gods, honest!") and Ultra ("We're still the DM you remember, honest!"). Definitely the closest approximation to their late-eighties heyday since then...the Mark Bell production helps a lot, too.

3/5/01 - Reading Dan Simmons' The Rise of Endymion has introduced me to the fascinating story of biologist Tom Ray and his study of computer evolution. Interesting stuff here.

No more huge slow-loading graphic atop the page. It's been moved to the sidebar.

Grrr... This happened during my sojourn to Charlottesville, but I'm still not very happy about it.

Dubya tries to hard sell some Dems on his tax plan. In fact, word is he's even giving a select few legislators two nicknames.

In semi-related news, the Post suggests that some Democrats are losing their nerve on campaign finance reform. Bleah. If McCain-Feingold falls through because some Dems don't bite the bullet on soft money, you can go ahead and give Nader his 5% and Bush his second term right now.

Bjork talks Vespertine.

Universal premieres a new trailer for The Mummy Returns. I remember being disappointed with the first one, but in retrospect and in comparison to the rest of the crop I suppose it wasn't all that bad a summer movie.

Atari nostalgia. It wasn't a staple of the 2600 (although I did have it for the 5200), but I've been looking around the bargain racks lately for a PS version of Joust. Love that game. As for the 2600, for me it was all about Combat, Outlaw, Adventure, and that really sad Superman cartridge.

What a nimrod. Better go back to naming bridges and highways after yourself, bud.

3/4/01 -

3/1/01 - Out of town the rest of this week - I was accepted to the UVA History Ph.D. program a few weeks ago, and now I'm off to Charlottesville to check out the environs. So no update tomorrow. See ya on the flipside.

Supporting roles fill out in some highly anticipated films - Levar "Jordi 'Roots/Reading Rainbow' LaForge" Burton will play Dr. King in Michael Mann's Ali, while Stanley Tucci joins the considerable cast of Road to Perdition.

King Conan: Crown of Iron...booyah. Hopefully Milius will run a draft by Oliver Stone so we can get some of that Barbarian flavor ("A few years ago, they were just another snake cult.") As for Arnie, I'd have no clue why he'd hold out on making this film given the garbage he's been putting out lately.

On the second day of the big speech news cycle, the Commentariat isn't as kind to Dubya as the initial press reports. E.J. Dionne faults his presumed mandate, Bob Herbert brings up voodoo economics, and even Bill Safire calls out the Bush plan as trying to have your cake and eat it too. Every cloud has its silver lining, though. Turns out the Bush plan also targets some corporate welfare.

Rod Strickland gets kicked to the curb by GM MJ. I wonder if he'll end up in Miami...

Blackouts make for strange bedfellows (or is it, when the lights go out all men/women/causes are beautiful?) - The California GOP goes Green.

Hmmmm...the Secret Service sounds like they're taking a page from University cops, whose main function the nation over is to keep their employer's students away from "real" police officers.

The long-awaited Harry Potter trailer is now available at the official site. I can't decide if I like it yet or not...it's definitely not as catchy as yesterday's Apes teaser. Perhaps I'm just saturated with negativity, bit it kinda screams "A FILM BY CHRIS COLUMBUS" at me, not to mention "...And Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid!" We'll see.

SPEEDO MAN! The story behind the legend.

2/28/01 - Fox posts the official version of the Planet of the Apes trailer in multiple sizes. Also, Dark Horizons reports that Apes will be filming right here in DC on the night of March 13, at the Lincoln Memorial. Will Honest Abe take the place of Lady Liberty in the classic climax? Possibly...although I think it's more likely they're just filming a "Godspeed, young Astronaut Marky-Mark" type scene for the beginning of the film.

Wow. GlobeXplorer is off the hook. I can almost see myself walking Berkeley in the front yard. (Via Q, WOIFM, and The Other Side.)

Where are all the Democratic Think Tanks?, asks Kenny Baer (one of my predecessors in the FCC speechwriting department.)

Bad news, Trinity. Italian bombshell Monica Bellucci may enter the Matrix sequels. Grrrrrr...baby, very Grrrr.

The Phantom Menace? While the recording studios try to maintain their status as middlemen by crippling Napster, they may be facing a more damaging rear-guard action from Courtney Love.

Irvine R. Levine examines the use of middle initials from FDR to Dubya. I chose to go by Kevin C. Murphy in college mainly because this planet is already teeming with Kevin Murphy's, and with two others at Harvard (and fourteen others in the Boston phone book) I added the middle init to my moniker to alleviate confusion. I was thinking about dropping it recently, until Kevin B. Murphy came to the FCC to work for Commissioner Furtchgott-Roth, and our e-mail traffic got snarled as per usual. So Kevin C. it is.

Speaking of our middle-initialed master, Dubya gets very high marks for his speech to Congress last night...which I must admit I didn't see. I was busy printing guitar tabs, burning CD's, and watching the return of Patrick to MSG, so the Dubya speech completely slipped my mind. Ah, well...I'm sure he'll recite again sometime in the next four years.