infinite improbability

I'm a Black Republican

Well, I'm obviously not a black republican. But I did join the SaraMana Black Republican Club. I'm not generally the sort of person to join clubs associated with political parties--too much rah-rah-we-love-the-party stuff, which I am way too cynical to go along with. The black republican club, however, has more substance than the other republican clubs--they're actually wanting to do something to make people's lives better, rather than just getting together and talking about how much they like the republican party. One of their major goals (in addition to getting more black republicans elected), is to support faith-based community development initiatives. Their big frustration with the democratic party is that they have been talking about the same issues--housing, jobs--for the last 50 years, but they haven't delivered. So, instead of listening to the same tired old promises from the democrats and voting democratic, they've given up on the democratic party. The democrats have taken the black vote for granted (which is actually the point that Al Sharpton made in the democratic presidential debate, where he said something to the effect of "we brought them to the party, but they left with someone else," meaning that the democrats couldn't get elected without the black vote, but after the election, they don't do anything).

At this point, the republican party is falling all over themselves to get the black vote. I think that Florida in 2000 was a wakeup call for republican leadership--they would have lost Florida if they hadn't managed to get even the tiny percentage of the black vote that they got. One upshot of this increased effort to get the support of black voters is that the local republican legislative delegation has offered to do anything that the black republican club needs. This is a good thing, because the black republican club has decided to either start their own faith-based community development initiative, or to help support an existing faith-based initiative, and have formed a steering committee to investigate the possibilities (I am the white face on the committee). There is a lot of state and federal dollars available for funding faith-based programs, and the republican politicans are offering to do everything they can to help get some of those funds for an initiative in Manatee county.

My brother, the world traveller

My brother does linguistic research in South Asia, and his computer, most unfortunately decided to kick the bucket while he was in Bangladesh (it alreadu kicked the bucket once while he was in Thailand, but he sent it back here to get fixed, but this time he's decided it's not worth fixing), so he needs to buy a new computer. He looked for one in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but prices are rather high there (plus a lot of computers are sold black-market). He's going to be in Calcutta, India in a few weeks, but computers are still kind of pricy in India, so he's figured out that it's cheaper to fly from Calcutta to Singapore to buy a computer, because they are cheap there, and even with the cost of the plane ticket, it's still better than his other options. Time to queue that old Disney song, everybody sing along: "It's a small world after all, it's a small, small world" la, la, la...

Football, Science, Blogging, and other stuff

Mesh beat me to blogging about Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column. TMQ is great--where else can you find a breakdown of all the stupid things that football teams do, with opinions on everything from the 2000 election, to Star Trek, to astronomy mixed in? And, to top it off, he now has a blog

the amish

First we have Amish drug rings, and now this. What is the world coming to?

Movie Stereotypes

I saw a commercial for Denzel Washington's new movie Out of Time, which I'm kind of interested in seeing because it was filmed in my part of Florida. Anyway, my brother pointed out that in the clips on the commercial, everyone was wearing Hawiian shirts, as is general operating proceedure for movies set in Florida. Apparently folks out in Hollywood think that Floridians run around all the time in bermuda shorts and hawiian shirts, when in reality, the only people in Florida who actually wear hawiian shirts are tourists. Perhaps Hollywood types get that idea in their heads that everyone dresses like that because their only experience with the Sunshine State is from visiting tourist trap places. So, for all of you folk who get your impression of Florida from movies, let it be known that we dress just like everyone else, and we don't all speak with southern accents.

The Definitive Middle-Earth Test

From: http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/test.htm

I thought this was pretty interesting and am curious as to what people's answers to the questions are.

Beginning Questions

1. Just exactly what was the nature of the friendship between Gimli and Legolas?

2. If Aragorn had the option, would he have ditched the Fellowship for a date with Pamela Anderson?

3. Why didn't Gandalf just blow up the armies that got in his way, if he was so powerful?

4. How many times is the word "passed" used in LotR? (No peeking!)

5. What exactly was in lembas? (Hint: in Letters #210, JRRT says quite explicitly that lembas is not a "food concentrate".)

6. Why didn't the hobbits in the Shire rise against Sharkey and his men sooner? (Were Frodo, Sam and the lads a cut above hobbitdom and thus extraordinary?)

7. If Aragorn truly spent uncounted years as a lone Ranger, then where the hell is Tonto? And why doesn't he wear that mask?

8. If Frodo hung the Ring on a chain, why didn't the chain turn invisible?

9. When Isildur had control of the One Ring, why didn't he use it to command the Ringwraiths? Or the Elven-rings? Or the Dwarven-rings? He could have ruled the whole of Middle-earth with that Ring, yet he decided instead to just write a couple of letters and then go for an unfortunate swim. What's his problem, anyway? Was he stupid?

10. When Legolas introduces Gimli to Treebeard, Gimli bows low and his axe falls to the ground. Treebeard notices this, but merely comments "Hoom! A Dwarf and an axe-bearer!" rather than smash Gimli to Play-Doh™. Doubtless you've heard of the poem, "Woodsman, Spare That Tree!"; did Tolkien have plans to write another version, titled "Tree, Spare That Woodsman!"?

11. Why is the tale of Beren and Luthien subtitled "Release from Bondage", when we never even once get to see her tied up? (And I was really hoping, too.)

12. And if, as is likely, a bacterium had landed on the inner surface of the Ring, would the Ring corrupt it into an evil bacterium? Would it be invisible to other bacteria? Would its' life stretch out and become an unending weariness? Would it use its' increased strength and stature to rule over other bacteria? Would it fight to keep other bacteria from adhering to the Ring? Would it still evolve genetically, or would it instead become a Bacteria-wraith?

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Advanced Questions

13. When the Dwarves of beautiful Khazad-Dum built their Western door, why did they allow it to be inscribed with the insulting name of "Moria" ("Black Pit"), a name that would only be earned long years afterwards?

14. Reconcile Tom Bombadil's statement that he is "Eldest" with Gandalf's statement that Fangorn is "the oldest of all living things". Extra Credit: suggest a valid date of birth for each of them. Document your answers.

15. Aragorn states (Two Towers, p. 18 hardback) that Sauron never uses the name "Sauron", nor does he "permit it to be spelt or spoken". Reconcile this text with the text of Return of the King, p. 164 hardback, where the Lieutenant of Barad-Dur clearly states, "I am the Mouth of Sauron".

16. Though Moria is, by rightful ownership, Dain's, Balin nonetheless referred to himself as "Lord of Moria". Helm's Deep is clearly the property of the Rohirrim, being part of lands granted to them by Gondor long years ago, yet in Return of the King p. 360 hardback Gimli declares himself "Lord of the Glittering Caves". Explain the laws and history pertaining to Dwarven property rights, and how those differed from the customs of Elves and Men. For full credit your answer must also reconcile Dwarven property laws with the generous nature of Aule, the Dwarves' creator.

17. How would the history of Middle-earth have differed if Sauron had returned to Aman and received the judgement of Manwe at the end of the First Age, rather than remaining in Middle-Earth (Silmarillion p. 285 hardback)? Describe resultant cultural differences which would have taken place in the Second, Third and Fourth Ages. Special emphasis should be given to the cultures of the Grey Havens, Numenor (including the Dunedain and the Black Numenoreans), the Rohirrim, the Dunlendings and others descending from the peoples of the White Mountains, the Ents, the peoples of Khand, the Orcs (particularly those tribes living in the Grey, Misty and Ash Mountains and the Mountains of Shadow), the Elven peoples of Gil-Galad (include Elrond and the likelihood of Rivendell's being constructed), the Hobbits (beginning from when they were living in the Vales of Anduin), and the Haradrim (both Near and Far Harad must be covered for full credit). Also speculate on the differences in culture which would take place in Aman as Sauron describes his experience with evil to the Valar, Maiar, and Eldar living there. On Silmarillion p. 65, it states that "Manwe was free from evil and could not comprehend it"; would he gain an understanding of evil from the experiences of Sauron? Be prepared to defend your answer.

RIAA going after little girls in public housing

The RIAA(site currently appears to be under a DOS attack), just settled their lawsuit against a 12 year old girl living in a public housing project in NY City. Brianna LaHara's mother, Sylvia Torres (a single mother), agreed to pay the RIAA $2000 to settle the case.

While I believe that downloading songs is piracy, there is something wrong when a bunch of big fat-cats in pinstriped designer suits goes after a family who is already in poverty, living in a public housing project. For a poor family, $2000 can be the difference between feast and famine, but does the RIAA care? No. A family that is already living in poverty cannot afford a lawyer to defend themselves against a lawsuit by a wealthy corporation, and for a wealthy corporation to sue someone like that is the equivalent of highway robbery. How in the world the RIAA expects to garner sympathy and get good public relations when they go after people like Brianna and her mother is beyond me.

Democratic Debate, Two words: "Broken Record"

The debate between the Democratic presidential candidates was like listening to a broken record. Instead of dealing with substantive issues and answering the questions that were posed, they turned every answer into variations on the "Bush is bad" theme. I watched the debate trying to get a better picture of what the candidates stood for, but I wasn't more informed than I was before because the candidates didn't say anything other than the same old Democratic party buzz words. The main talking points were nationalized healthcare, education, and the war.

As for performance in the debate, I would have to say that Al Sharpton won the night. He did the best job of actually attempting to answer questions, and his performance in denouncing the many hecklers was impressive. Also, I think his involvement in the debate was important because he kept trying to force the other candidates to do more than just pay lip service to racial issues. Despite their claims to the contrary, all the other candidates (with the exception of Mosley-Braun) did nothing more than pay lip service. No matter what he says, Dean's claim that rural (and mostly white states) need fewer gun control laws than states with large urban (mostly black) areas does not have anything to do with race, he wasn't particularly convincing on that count.

The candidate who really needed to do well was John Kerry, who's performance was lackluster. His closing statement was disjointed and was coming from way out in left field. He did not look the least bit presidential. Joe Liberman's broken record on Florida in 2000 made him look like a whining sore loser who is incapable of moving on.

Overall, I don't see how, based on this debate, any of the current candidates are electable. Howard Dean did not make any big mistakes in the debate, but he didn't do anything of note either. Unless something changes, he'll probably win the nomination, but he's so far to the left that I doubt that he could actually get a broad enough base of support to actually become president.

Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football, Buccaneers at the Eagles is about to start. Should be a good game. And, being biased, I have to say, GO BUCS!

Update 9-9-03 12:12am

We totally cleaned the Eagle's clocks! 17-0. The Bucs got off to a slow start, but really turned things on in the second half. No team has ever won a Super Bowl after getting shut out in their season opener, so I guess everyone should write Philly out of their predictions.

I shall destroy you

Holy Voltron rip-off, you're Megazord!

You own being huge. You are the hugest guy around, without a doubt. Even really huge people whimper at your hugeness. And you are made of really huge robot dinosaurs. Huge. You are so huge it takes five power rangers to control you. And you can mash anything. Even mounds of foam rubber the size of cities. Because you're huge. Sorted.

Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?

IBM making Linux push

I was watching Cavuto on Fox News this afternoon and caught the story about IBM's new Linux ad which will start running this weekend during NFL football and the US Open men's final. The ad is pretty slick, and ends with "Linux. The Future is Open."

no really, stop raining!

It's still raining, and I'm getting sick of it. It's not going to stop anytime soon, because tropical storm Henri is still sitting off in the Gulf kicking up rain. Worst thing is, we get all of the rain, but it's hitting north, so we won't even get any good wind. So, it's just dreary and I know I should be doing something productive, but weather like this is just not conducive to productivity.

rain rain, go away. No, really, GO AWAY

So, we've got Tropical Depression #12, soon to become Tropical Storm Henri, bearing down on Florida. The good news is, the low pressure area is keeping Hurricane Fabian away from the US of A, which is good, because Fabian is a category 4 storm and getting hit by a cat. 4 hurricane is not a fun thing. It isn't so good for Bermuda though, because they are right in the path of Fabian. The bad news about Tropical Depression #12 is that even if it isn't going to have the winds to do any damage that way, Florida has had so much rain that the predicted 10-15 inches of rain could be disasterous. Back a few months ago, we had so much rain that a jammed spillgate on Lake Manatee Dam caused all sorts of flooding, and the last thing we really need right now is to have even more rain when almost every river in the Tampa Bay area is close to flood stage.

Despite the fact that we've been having rain all day long, my brother and the other crazy Ultimate frisbee players he knows are still having their pickup game as planned tonight. None of them have enough sense to come in out of the rain.

Latest image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, GOES satelite

thoughts on paul hill's execution

Paul Hill died today. He wants to be made a martyr, and to spur on others to follow in his path, but my hope is that his death will bring an end to one of the worst chapters in the history of the prolife movement. Paul Hill said he was prolife, but anyone who takes lives cannot be prolife. Murder is murder, whether it was John Britton murdering unborn children or Paul Hill murdering Britton. Two wrongs do not make a right. The end does not justify the means.

What cannot be forgotten though, is that Paul Hill was just one of the many people who were scheduled to die today. Paul Hill was one guilty man who recieved the punishment for that guilt. The 4,400 babies who are scheduled to die each and every day are guilty of no crime, they are victims of inconvenience, and they are the ones whose deaths we need to mourn.

lynching?

I don't know how much of a story this was in other parts of the country, but several months ago, an African American man was found hanging from a tree in his front yard in Belle Glade, Florida. The police ruled it a suicide, but there was sufficient suspicion amoung the African American community in Belle Glade that an inquest was held to try to determine the cause of the man's death because many people suspected that it was a lynching and not a suicide. It was, and is, a highly suspicious case--the man was dating the daughter of the white police chief, much of the evidence at the scene was destroyed by the inept handling of the case by the officers called to the scene (no attempt was made to preserve the crime scene, the ground around where the body was hanging was trampled by officers destroying any potential evidence on the ground), and there are conflicting reports as to whether the man's hands were bound (the squad car video showed his hands hanging free, but the family member who found him said that his hands were bound but the officers untied them).

I don't know whether it was a lynching or not, but I certainly understand why people in the community are suspicious. The Associated Press, on the other hand, seems to be trying to convince people that the lynching rumors are nothing more than an irrational urban legend. An AP story which ran in papers all over the country, including my local paper, implied that African Americans are more inclined than white people to believe urban legends, that lynchings have reached the status of urban legends because they reached their peak over a hundred years ago, and thus any modern-day lynching rumors are just urban legends that have no basis in reason or reality. You can read the article here .

My sister Rebekah wrote an excellent response to the AP article, and her response was published as a letter to the editor in Sunday's paper. You can read it on the Bradenton Herald website, or continue reading the extended entry.

Lynching fear has a legitimate basis

An Aug. 24 Associated Press article on the suspicious death of an African-American man in Belle Glade very incorrectly implies that the lynching of African-Americans is an urban legend. Although the reporter correctly states that the peak in lynching was more than a century ago, she fails to acknowledge that it still happened, although with a lesser frequency, even into the 1960s, and was used as an ever-present threat by whites to keep ambitious African-Americans in a subservient place in society. The ultimate punishment for African-American crime, real or imagined, and/or the subordination of white dominance was death by lynching. African-Americans, usually males, were violently killed by mobs, most often by hanging, when they violated color barriers by even looking at a white person the "wrong way," but especially when a white woman was involved. Pictures of lynchings abound because attendees chronicled the event with pictures and post cards that they sent to family and friends. Women and children even attended lynchings, and smiles are plastered on the faces of those attending these celebrated social events.

Lynching is no urban myth. With a horribly sordid past history like this plaguing our nation, it is ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the African-American community in Belle Glade should not look upon the death of this young African-American man, who "violated" the color barriers in an interracial relationship, with suspicion.

Rebekah G. Brightbill
Bradenton