Patterico's Pontifications

6/12/2005

You Are Invited

Filed under: Bear Flag League,Blogging Matters,Politics — Patterico @ 10:35 pm



Come meet Dan Weintraub, Bob Hertzberg, and Ted Costa. Oh, heck — who cares about those guys? Come meet Patterico!!

What am I talking about? The Bear Flag League Conference on July 17. Details are here and here.

Bottom line: it’s $50 for a great lunch, the chance to hear some real movers and shakers speak, and the chance to meet some of your favorite Southern California bloggers (and me). And the invitation is open to anyone — even including you!

For details or confirmation, e-mail Justene Adamec at justenea AT yahoo DOT com.

I hope to see you there.

Beldar Snarks

Filed under: Judiciary,Morons — Patterico @ 6:41 pm



Beldar is in rare snark mode, as evidenced by the title of his most recent post: U 2 can B smart if U read The New York Times Magazine. It’s a takedown of a piece by a clueless professor who claims that the “polls” show that unelected Supreme Court justices are carrying out the will of the people better than their elected representatives.

Beldar just destroys the guy.

Earthquake

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:43 am



Did you feel it? Here in Marina del Rey it was pretty mild and lasted about 5-10 seconds.

UPDATE: Kevin Murphy provides a link to details: it was a 5.6 centered near Anza, CA, at 8:41:46 a.m.

See-Dubya: You Know What I Don’t Get?

Filed under: General — See Dubya @ 4:56 am



Online gambling. How has this industry lasted more than a month?
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So you answer some spam or a popup ad or some such and there you are, no booze, no Paul Anka, no silicone shills, just you and your computer and you give this server based in the Netherlands Antilles your Mastercard Number and they approve it.

And then you commence a playin’. Following Wesley Snipes’ advice in Passenger 57, you bet ten dollars on black in roulette.

Whirr, clickety click, sorry, Red fifteen, you lost. Care to play again?

Sure. Ten on black. Whirr, clickety click, red fifteen, sorry, you lost. Care to play again?

Let’s try red. Whirr, clickety click. Black nine. Care to play again?

No. It’s a good thing this website says it’s certified by the Internet Gaming Board of the Netherlands Antilles; otherwise, I’d begin to suspect that table was somehow rigged. Oh well. Let’s try draw poker.

All righty. Here I am playing against some real international high rollers. We have “Slim from: California”, “Worthington from: England”, and the dealer, “Trump from: Panama”. Hmm…I’ll try to fill this outside straight and…woah! Lookie there! A king-high straight flush! I bet a hundred dollars! Slim and Worthington fold, but the dealer raises me a hundred? Ha! Sucker! I’ll raise you two hundred!

A royal flush? What are the odds? The one hand in the world that can beat my king-high straight flush, and the electronic casino’s dealer had it? Wow! Am I going to have an amazing story at work tomorrow! And I was this close to winning some big money! I’ll have to come back here tomorrow!
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I just don’t get it.

“Some” Raise Their Ugly Heads Again

Filed under: Dog Trainer,International,War — Patterico @ 1:52 am



The L.A. Times reports: The Time Seems Ripe to Tie the Knot in Iraq. The sub-head makes this sound like a negative, as though Iraqis are simply trying to make the best of an Iraq ruined by an unjust U.S. war: “The number of nuptials surges after years of repression. Some see the trend as an embrace of life in the face of death.

Yes, and as the article makes clear, “some” disagree — including anyone quoted in the article who is actually getting married. No matter. The pessimistic point of view is the one emphasized in the headline, and gets the first quote of the story:

Some say a better living standard is driving Iraqis to the altar. Others speculate that many weddings were postponed because of the war, and couples are catching up. And there are those with a more existential bent, who see wedding celebrations as a retort to death itself.

People tend to compensate for their losses,” said Nagham Azzawi, whose sister is planning a big wedding this year. “This is the natural response to all the deaths we’re facing.

An Iraqi professor agrees with this pessimistic outlook:

In relatively quiet areas such as the Shiite south and Kurdish north, the wedding boom may signal a belief in the future, sociology professor Qassim Hussein Salih said. “But not in Baghdad, where mornings are flavored with explosive powders, where people are meeting death every day.”

Desperation can propel people into marriage, said Salih, who teaches at Baghdad University.

“This should not necessarily be seen as a sign of optimism,” he said. “Iraqis see no end to the current situation, so they have adapted themselves psychologically.”

Funny thing, though: the people who are actually getting married have a different story. They are all marrying because life is better nowadays. For example:

[Adil] Kamil had waited a long time for this moment — the official announcement of their marriage.

“She was always on my mind,” said Kamil, 29. “I liked her for years. But the financial situation, and the general security situation, hindered me from proposing.”

A steady job as a clerk in the Ministry of Oil had allowed him to build a little nest egg, and the outlook was better, he said. Six of his seven close friends were also engaged or had wed recently.

The environment has become much more suitable for young men to get married,” Kamil said.

Others echo the sentiment:

At the courthouse, Thair Hamad, 24, was among those waiting for his papers. “I was ready to marry after my economic situation improved,” he said. “Since we are no more threatened by endless military service, I came to the conclusion that now I have to get socially settled down.”

During Hussein’s reign, men needed the government’s permission to wed.

Now they are financially more capable and the inner fear of Saddam has vanished,” said Sheik Abaas Zubaidi, an imam in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood. “We are very optimistic about the future, and this also encourages people to start a family.

But forget this optimism garbage. The trend is clearly all about trying to find happiness in the face of all the deaths caused by our unjust war.

At least that’s what some say.

Edith Jones: A Personal Story

Filed under: Judiciary,Real Life — Patterico @ 1:20 am



The Supreme Court Nomination Blog says that, of the most commonly discussed candidates for the Supreme Court, the most divisive would be Janice Rogers Brown and Edith Jones.

With upcoming Supreme Court nomination battles looming on the horizon, I thought this might be an opportune time to discuss the time I met Edith Jones.

(more…)


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