herveus

The article in the Washington Post on Sarah Palin's move to Faux Fox "News" includes a remark attributed to Todd Harris, GOP strategist. "This gives her a platform she can use to stay relevant, to stay in the public eye and to flush out some of her policy positions." I find the use of the word "flush" curious. Perhaps he meant "flesh out", but I have not been able to find any evidence that the Post has misquoted him. Frankly, I think "flush out" is an unintentionally apt way to put it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011103736.html?hpid=moreheadlines

This has been an interesting trip to Korea. That's mostly all a Good Thing.

I didn't get a chance to go silk shopping in Daegu. :( I did get a chance to walk around downtown wearing The Hat. This brought smiles to lots of faces. It also yanked the chain of one of my cohorts. Very amusing.

I saw something interesting on the Seoul subway. On line 5 betwee Yeouido and Yeouinara stations, they have a stretch of LED panels that flash up an advertisement as the train roars by. There is about 15 seconds of display that is synchronized with the train's movement so it appears more or less stationary to the riders whizzing by. Pretty cool.

Now, back in DC, everytime someone manages to jump in front of a train, the question of "What can we do?" comes up. Many of the stops in Seoul have full barriers with doors that make it more or less impossible to jump in front of a train. Of course, that means that the trains have to stop pretty precisely at the station so the train doors line up with the barrier doors. Now, every station has bronze markers in the floor marking which door of which car will stop there, so they've already made a commitment even where there is no barrier of any sort.

Another interesting thing I saw was a chart for Line 1 showing you the "best" car/door to be at to make the shortest transfer at each transfer point. It's something you can figure out for yourself, but it's a nice touch to actually point it out to the ridership.

Back to shopping, I did get over to Dongdaemun to buy some silk yardage and some more silk sewing thread. I got some nice blue, some bold yellow, and some creamy yellow.

When I returned to Seoul from Daegu, I was unable to get a reservation at my "usual" haunt in Seoul -- the Hamilton in Itaewon -- nor could I get a reservation for my full stay at another hotel some other folks on this trip are staying at. I ended up at the Courtyard at "Times Square" in Yeoungdeungpo. It only opened in September. Looking at the location in Google Maps shows a completely different picture. It's about a 45 minute trip between walking and changing subways, but it's not bad. Among the food vendors in the Times Square complex was a surprise: Auntie Anne's. Apparently there are 14 outlets in the Seoul area.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on wearing The Hat to work. That should be entertaining.

Thank you, cvirtue for mentioning this in FaceBook.

http://colfaxrecord.com/detail/91429.html presents a very interesting look at Christian history as it relates to same-sex unions. Formal named ceremonies for the unions are cited with dates ranging from 11th to 14th century, at the least. Other evidence is cited dating back farther. The article does not provide footnotes nor a bibliography, but many of the specific claims seem to provide enough information to identify the source material. To my eyes, it has the ring of being an honest report.

Taking the article at face value, the bottom line is that those who claim that the Christian concept of marriage has invariantly been one man and one woman always and ever are flat wrong. There's no way to sugar coat the conclusion. Now, that errancy is probably not willful ignorance so much as simple ignorance. I'd love to see this get wider coverage.

If you object to same-sex marriage, claiming a historical Christian basis for that objection holds no water. You need to come up with different arguments. It's not enough to simply say (as one articulate(?) witness at a hearing in DC said) "I object. I object. I object." (that following citing "If anyone has any reason why these people should not be joined in wedlock, let them speak now"). The prefatory remark implies that an actual reason will be elucidated.
(In the example above, the person actually uttered "I aject I aject I aject" -- rather inarticulate, but in character with the ranting tone of her "discourse")

• 07:29 Seat upgrade at the gate for the win! #

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Pretty low. We may not have yet found the bottom.

The Washington Redskins suck. Big time. They've given up wins to three sucky teams that they should have beaten handily. They can't score points. They have no fire in their bellies.

You'd think that the coach might get fired. That's not what's happening. Jim Zorn is under contract for at least another year, owed something like $3 million. If Dan Snyder, filthy rich owner of the most profitable and second most valuable NFL team, is so cheap that he is trying to make the working conditions so horrible that Zorn will quit, rather than fire him and pay off the contract. Not that firing the coach is going to fix what is fundamentally broken.

Dan Snyder has no idea how to *own* a football team. Neither does he know how to *run* a football operation. He has a "Vice President of Football Operations" (formerly "General Manager") who is his patsy. Vinny Cerrato shows no evidence that he knows how to pick talent, identify needs, and fill them. He enables Dan Snyder to play at owning a team. How else do you explain the persistent failure to draft players to address needs (such as an offensive line), the repeated changes of offensive system without providing the kind of personnel needed to execute same, and the apparent obsession with picking up marquis at random.

To be successful on the field, Snyder needs a Charlie Casserly. The only thing he should be doing is signing the checks. Hire someone who knows the business and let them run it. Until he buys that clue, the Foreskins will be the laughingstock of the NFL. There were 10,000 empty seats at the game Sunday. Ten thousand! That's unheard of. It's shameful.

Dan Snyder is trying to displace Peter Angelos from the pedestal of slimiest major sports team owner. It's not easy, but he's off to a roaring start. Meanwhile, the Lerners are trying for an honorable mention with their tenure owning the Washington Nationals.

We went to War of the Wings. Business was, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, disappointing. Not disastrously so, but all the same.

On the other hand, I had the opportunity to taste a potent potable that was surprisingly nummy. It was, in effect, a fairly sweet dessert wine, best consumed in small sips. I don't know if there is a specific term along the lines of perry, sizer, cider, mead, etc. It was made from maple syrup.

All intimations I've gotten are that that is a path of great folly. That the fermentation process yields nastiness. That was decidedly not the case. The maple flavor was not in-your-face obvious; it seemed almost caramel. Knowing that it was maple, I could identify the note. It lingered. It really lingered. Loooong finish. But yum.

• 16:18 And the Detroit Lions are the latest recipient of the Washington Redskins Rejuvenation Program. Come sucking; leave happy. #

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That was totally bizarre. Here I am driving down the road, approaching an intersection. The vehicle behind me suddenly pulls into the left turn lane and starts overtaking me. With further suddenness, he pulls back into my lane. I have a very good view of the side of his pickemup truck at this moment. There was a crunching noise.

I stopped and got out to survey the carnage. Pickemup truck did not stop. Well, he went a quarter mile down the road and stopped. Behind me was another car. The driver announced that she witnessed the whole thing and offered to stick around. I accepted with alacrity. While I was on the phone with the police, the local police happened on scene.

I got the license number plate of the truck; one cop went down to where he had stopped and invited him to join the party. Mr. Bowie Police Man mediated the exchange of information; I didn't have to speak to the moron. Insurance has been initiated; the car is in their hands already.

Damage is minor, I think, but it may add up. Pictures below the ( cut... )

It is unlikely that y'all are unaware of any part of the recent Trifecta of Notable "Adults" Behaving Like Ill-Mannered Children. Just to be clear, playing the roles of Moe, Larry, and Curly are (in no particular order) Mr. Wilson (R-SC), Mr. West, and Ms S. Williams.

Mr. Wilson has declined to proffer an actual apology. He may have made a faux apology in private, but his outburst was a public insult that requires a public apology. Or not, if one doesn't feel that one has done anything to apologize for. I'm inclined to believe the latter, and extrapolate from that a measure of his character. I assert that he was engaging in a calculated piece of theatrics that demonstrate contempt for civil conduct. It is asserted and not persuasively denied that Mr. Wilson felt less restrained by the virtue(?) of the complexion of the President. I've not come to any real clarity on the question in my own mind.

Mr. West appears to have proffered something resembling an apology, but I somehow doubt that it showed or contained any actual sincerity. Worse, his conduct was immediately treated as an understandable outburst by people in a position to show disapprobation and who should have known better. It has been posited that Mr. West would not have pulled such a stunt (the Hennessey speaking? I think not) were the person at the podium of a darker complexion. I'm not sufficiently familiar with Mr. West's body of work to have an informed opinion on where he might stand, but the argument does play into my own prejudices on the question.

Ms Williams offered an apology in a press release, then amended that verbally the next day. The amendment was along the lines of making a clearer statement of personal responsibility. Her actions on the court were inexcusable, but her subsequent actions to take responsibility for them are the mark of good character. In addition, her outburst came "in the heat of the moment". That doesn't excuse it, but it does set it in a context -- a context hard to find in the first two cases. Others have taken it upon themselves to rant about the line judge who was (as Ms Williams noted) Just Doing Her Job. That rantage has come perilously close to "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Mr. Wilson is wallowing in the attention he is getting, but it is important that the House formally put its disapprobation on record. Anything less would be countenancing that level of misconduct. Mr. West is probably relishing all the attention he has gotten as well. I don't see Ms Williams wallowing or relishing.

I'm glad that Serena made unambiguous, public statements taking personal responsibility for her lapse. I'm disgusted with Mr. Wilson's manner of expression. Mr. West is simply a self-serving idiot (who may have a drinking problem).
Now, I'm not closely following any of these stories in the media, so I may have missed something. However, I'm

Saturday I did something completely new. I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Yep. Never done that before.

I went to see Cercamon perform. In between, I caught the Rogues for a couple of sets as well. Cercamon did four sets; I caught them all. At the end of the day, I was chatting with Pierre-Alexandre (the lead guy) and he finally exclaimed that he remembered me. Before getting to that point, he did note that I made all four sets. I snagged the two CDs that I didn't yet have, including their brand new one.

I enjoyed the shows, although their second set started late. You see, the act that preceeded them seemed to run a bit over their allotted time. I guess when you're a "big name" act, you don't have to clear out in a timely fashion. Maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy, but I didn't thing Hack and Slash were nearly as funny as they clearly thought they were. They drew an audience, but I found their act to be a lot ... disappointing.

Cercamon did a number of familiar pieces along with stuff from the new album. Interestingly, the new album is entirely Languedoc -- songs from the south of France in Occitan.

I didn't have a whole lot of spare time to see the entire fair since I was focused on not missing any of the sets.

All in all, it was a good day.