Not hiking

right. next time i won’t bring two times the food and clothes i need and a 15-year-old pair of hiking boots with planed soles.

great region though. and pretty much abandoned except for towns with more atvs than people and the natural gas concerns.

Hiking!

Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz

Apparently JB has forsworn posting links, and is now devoting himself to the development of original content. While we wait for his masterpiece, I’ll mulch some culture for y’all.

I saw these at an opening years ago (I think it was years ago, anyway) in Chelsea. Check them out. When you see them, they look like paintings. But they’re actually photos of snowglobes. I think the images are wonderful — and the craft demonstrates an awesome marriage of sculpture and photography.

BTW, rumor has it they make great gifts for law school graduations.

Listen to this

The second story in last week’s This American Life is fantastic. Made me laugh out loud on the subway. Guessing that none of this blog’s three readers will listen to it, I’ll summarize. Basically, it discusses William Carlos Williams’ famous poem This is Just to Say and the many variations it’s inspired. Compare the original and some variations, which were presented on the show. Or just shell out a buck and listen to the 6-minute segment. It’s worth it.

Getting the spikes in the chalk

I heard Jack Goldsmith speak today. He’s the former director of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the legal advisors to the executive branch. If you don’t know anything about OLC, it’s a subdivision of the DOJ, the agency that prosecutes federal crimes. When executives want to pursue some action, but are worried about its legality, they seek OLC’s advice. If OLC green lights them, they’re immunized from future prosecution; the theory is that it’d be fundamentally inconsistent for DOJ to give them the go ahead and then prosecute them. For example, Cheney wants to drag some dude from a truck because he believes the person is an enemy of the United States. After someone reminds him that he’s not in Wyoming, Cheney seeks OLC. Since OLC is loaded up with hard-line conservatives, they give him a satisfactory answer: you can’t drag the dude from the truck, Dick, but you can stick him under water, and interrogate him for 20 hours, if you want. Now Dick is immune and the games can begin.

Goldsmith is a right-winger, and a true believer in the war on terror. And he’s sharp as hell. You’d think he would have been a natural fit in this administration – especially in early 2004. But he wasn’t. Goldsmith didn’t like what he saw going on at OLC or in Bush’s inner circle – bottom line: too much secrecy. Consequently, he resigned within a year, abandoning one of the most high-powered and sought-after legal positions in the country.

Goldsmith said a lot of provocative stuff today. I didn’t agree with everything, but I definitely respected it. I found this particularly interesting. Despite his many and repeated criticisms of the Bush administration, Goldsmith saved them one compliment. He’s certain that the administration has seriously disrupted terrorist activities. I’ve always doubted such claims, since they can’t be proven. But Goldsmith was convincing. He kept returning to the threat matrix, the terror alert that the president and other top administration officials receive each morning. According to Goldsmith, if the American public read this report just once – let alone every morning before work – they’d realize that this administration has been understating the threat from terrorism, not overstating it. Perhaps the most interesting thing Goldsmith said – and a good point for debate – came in response to a ridiculously ambiguous question about the interplay of civil liberties and the war on terror, which was asked by a trembling first-year student. Goldsmith’s response: Imagine a terrorist attack bigger than 9-11, one that kills 20, 30 or 50 thousand people. If you think your civil liberties are being seriously infringed, you’re wrong; the ecroachment we’re currently seeing is a trifle compared to what might happen in the wake of a nuclear or biological attack. (Remember the Suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, the internment of Japanese-Americans in WW II, etc?) So Bush’s minor encroachment on our civil liberties might be preventing their outright suspension? Could be. Trouble is, we’ll never know.

Gmail Revisionism II

This is too funny to relegate to comment status.   Bring up Google’s search page, enter “french military victories,” and hit the I’m feeling lucky button.  Wasn’t that great?

I can’t wait to flex my administrative muscles.

I haven’t even made it to DC, and already my mind turns to the possibilities of regulatory abuse. I just hope I can think of something this good.

Gmail Revisionism

One of the many things I like about Google is the fact that they have $10 billion in revenue a year AND a sense of humor. See the latest gmail feature for proof:

gmail.doc

The funny is in the details.

Music!

Muxtape may be more fun than useful, but it is fun. At least until the RIAA shuts it down and hauls me off to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

Currently featured on mine:

“Let me ask you a question, how do you feel about frilly toothpicks?”

“I’m for ‘em!”

Where all great writing begins…

In a bar. Honoring that indisputable fact, Esquire launched The Napkin Fiction Project. Cool idea and a pretty fun way to pass the time.  There’s even one by a college professor of mine. Considering I had him for a class called “The Age of Milton,” a story scribbled on a cocktail napkin about a guy who teaches his genitals to talk was not what I was expecting to read this morning…