Thursday, September 29, 2005- - -
Me too..
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle on major league baseball's new comeback-player-of-the-year award, sponsored by Viagra: "I can't wait to see the trophy."
[Originally spotted at the Denver Post]
@7:46 AM
Wednesday, September 28, 2005- - -
Mr. Enlightenment
A fascinating debate — Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business — at Reason.com. John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods strongly disagrees with Milton Friedman's notion that 'the responsibility of business is to increase its profits':
"While Friedman believes that taking care of customers, employees, and business philanthropy are means to the end of increasing investor profits, I take the exact opposite view: Making high profits is the means to the end of fulfilling Whole Foods' core business mission. We want to improve the health and well-being of everyone on the planet through higher-quality foods and better nutrition, and we can't fulfill this mission unless we are highly profitable." Mr. Mackey — a self-described enlightened businessman — haughtily informs us that "Corporations can exist for purposes other than simply maximizing profits." In Mackey's view it simply isn't enough that we think of our customers, take care of our employees, and give back to the community because it makes good business sense. No, no! We must do these things out of a pure sense of altruism as he does. Otherwise we run the risk of feeding the stereotype of capitalism and corporations as greedy, selfish, and uncaring.
Unfortunately, nowhere does Mr. Mackey tell us how to distinguish between one of those greedy and uncaring corporations that does good deeds because of purely selfish motives, and a corporation such as his that does good deeds out of the purest selfless altruism. Nor does he explain why we should care what the motive is behind a corporation's philanthropy.
There's an old story about soon-to-be president Lincoln and Douglas debating the existence of altruism while traveling on a train to give a campaign speech. Lincoln maintained that there was no such thing as altruism and then, at a water stop, left the train to capture an escaped piglet and return it to its pen. Douglas pounced on this, pointing out that Lincoln didn't know the pig's owner and would get no credit for his good deed as the piglet's owner didn't even know it had escaped. How could this deed be anything other than altruistic? To which Lincoln replied that it wasn't altruistic at all. Rather, if he hadn't recaptured the piglet he'd have worried about it the rest of the day. One gets the impression that if Mr. Mackey had been in Lincoln's place he'd have left a note so the farmer could be appropriately grateful.
@4:54 PM
Sunday, September 18, 2005- - -
 It was only a matter of time
In the Letters to the Casper Star:
"... I believe the levee was deliberately broken because crooks and liars don't like to leave things to chance, just like they didn't leave anything to chance on 9/11. Even before the flood had claimed most of its victims, Halliburton, Brown and Root and the rest of the Bush crime family were making deals for reconstruction and land acquisition."
@8:20 PM
Thursday, September 15, 2005- - -
Harrumph
Governor LePetomaine: "Quick, gentlemen, we have to do something to save our phony baloney jobs!"
Attendees (in unison):"Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!"
Governor: "I didn't get a harrumph out of you."
Ed: "Harrumph A while back Donald Sensing discussed the tendency of government and bureaucracies to expand their roles, searching for 'new worlds to conquer', in order to protect their otherwise obsolete jobs. This is, I think, an excellent model of bureaucratic behavior in most instances.
It's interesting to contrast this norm to the meltdown of New Orleans' and Louisiana's governments in the face of the past hurricane. Here's a situation in which the state and local governments didn't do something to protect their phony baloney jobs. Faced with a crisis, they didn't implement the plans they had so laboriously created to deal with such crises. Had they themselves become so convinced that their jobs were phony baloney that they never even considered actually doing them?
Bureaucracies are generally good at 'going through the motions', at creating elaborate plans -- no matter how boneheaded -- and then implementing those plans -- no matter what the real world consequences -- redoubling their efforts long after losing sight of their goals. This is so common as to have become cliche'. I would have expected that, had the New Orleans disaster plan called for driving 250 buses to X location, picking up passengers and depositing them at Y location, and making six trips, that those buses would have made six trips even if all the passengers were transported in the first four trips. When it comes to bureaucratic CYA maneuvers, 'implementing the approved plan' and 'sticking to the plan' are Rules #1 & #2 for obvious reasons: That's how you protect your phony baloney job.
So what the hell happened? Somehow the system totally dissolved. We desperately need to know why this happened so that it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately, rather than assessing the situation and finding the problems, most energy seems to be devoted to finger pointing and buck-passing. I suppose that's cliche' too..
@7:31 AM
Wednesday, September 14, 2005- - -
 On a more entertaining note..
We received our copy of Hanna-McEuen a couple of weeks ago and we've about worn it out listening to it. I'll admit that my immediate reaction was that this strays dangerously close to the sort of tears in your beers country-western music that played constantly on every radio station out here while I was growing up, and had me twiddling the tuner in search of something, anything else. Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McKuen have put out a very retro album. The sound is very reminiscent of 1950's and 1960's country-western music. But the sentiment isn't. Instead of the whiny, depressing crap we got back then, it's up-beat and quite entertaining. I highly recommend it, especially if you don't like whiny country music. Give this one a chance, it will grow on you.
I discussed my dislike for whiny country-western music with my wife and she pointed out that I listen to plenty of bluegrass music, which can also be pretty darn depressing. I guess the difference is that, in bluegrass music, 'the mine caved in and killed daddy and big brother Bill, and then the mining company put momma and us two little ones out on the street with nothing but the clothes on our backs and daddy's old guitar. But, momma's keeping the family together and making a little money playing that old guitar down at the corner bar. We'll all make out okay, somehow'. In classic tears in your beers country western, 'the wife took off with the pickup truck, the dog, and the welfare check, and there's nothing to be done but sit here on this bar stool and cry in my beer'. It isn't so much the subject matter I dislike, it's the defeatist attitude.
Hanna and McEuen deal with some pretty depressing subject matter, it is country-western after all, but the attitude is anything but defeatist and displays an entertaining sense of humor. The first cut is about a guy who's lost his lover, but not given up hope: "I'm a perfect fool, a fool for you, any time you want to fool around!" Indeed. It's good stuff.
@8:14 AM
The problems of the poor..
Okay, perhaps my last post was a bit flip. Megan McArdle has a very interesting post regarding the root causes of poverty [one of several, keep reading!].
The comments are particularly enlightening. On one hand we have folks saying 'Get an education. Get a job. Work hard. Don't have children out of wedlock. Don't drink or drug yourself into oblivion. You'll do okay.' On the other we have folks saying 'Shit happens. There aren't any good jobs. Besides, only 2% of the population is successful, so what's the point? We're doomed to poverty.'
I think I can guess, based on attitude alone, which of these contingents is more successful. I don't have any sweeping prescription for solving the problems of the poor, but I think that Bill Cosby's ideas of a change of attitude and self-help are probably a darn good start. No amount of money and government programs will help those who won't help themselves and don't even respect themselves.
And I'll add that a lot of poor whites should be listening to Cosby's message too. Yes, shit happens, but when you get knocked down you've got a choice: You can lay there and snivel, or pick yourself up and get back in the fight. And yes again, some folks are too debilitated, physically and/or mentally, to get back up. They need and deserve our help, but I think we need to distinguish between the debilitated and the snivelers of the world.
@7:17 AM
Perhaps debit cards aren't such a bad idea..
"Government gave us three thousand dollars, You should have seen it fly away"
From the WaPo (September 9th):
In Houston and other cities, word spread quickly via radio and television that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would dole out debit cards worth $2,000 starting Thursday -- emergency grants to help increasingly tired and desperate evacuees buy food and gas, and pay mounting hotel bills and other expenses.
...
... the FEMA cards, part of a pilot program limited to Houston shelter residents, will not be ready until Friday at the earliest, federal officials said.
...
The cards, which bear the MasterCard logo, can be used at ATMs and at any commercial outlet that accepts MasterCard. There are no restrictions on what they can be used for. [boldface added]
The debit card program has since been dropped in favor of direct deposits to evacuee's bank accounts, but one wonders whether that was such a good idea. Here's what one of those Houston shelter residents had to say about the program, as quoted at Best of the Web Today:
Acuna: The FEMA cards were supposed to be $2,000 apiece--
Man: Two thousand dollars.
Acuna: --and you received a FEMA card?
Man: I only received $700. Seven hundred dollars, and they cut my card off.
Acuna: And when you asked them why that was, what were you told?
Man: They don't know. Nobody knows. [boldface added]
Perhaps it was that '57 Biscayne...
@6:21 AM
Tuesday, September 13, 2005- - -
Oh, Fine!
Now I have to worry about being accosted by cranksters out hunting arrowheads. I think I'll just shoot first and ask questions later...
@1:37 PM
Un-canned Spam
From the "it pays to read your spam because sometimes it isn't" department, a note from a reader. I've made the corrections/additions to the original post, but it took me awhile, so here it is:
"Dear Mild Mannered Archaeologist Blogger,
"I have read many of your recent blogs, and have decided that I need to delve deeper into the past, since I enjoy them more than I have a right to.
I am writing to ask a favor of you, since it involves one of your recent blogs and details. Jimmy Ibbotson. Ibbiots, as we and he are commonly referred to at times, or rather the site ibbiots.com itself, has been moved. Currently, anyone clicking on the link you have will be automatically transported to the updated site, which is www.jimmyibbotson.com. Would you mind changing the link within your paragraph to take people to the new and improved pages?
"Also, we noticed that you send people to the MSN groups site for info on the new release 'Daylight'. If you also send them to www.jimmyibbotson.com/music.htm, they can then hear a sample of every song on the CD, FREE! No charge to listen at all !!! AND, they can also learn how they, too, can own their very own copy, sent by Ibby complete with the usual autograph and sometimes hand-drawn artwork of the new UNAMI logo.
"I thank you kindly, in advance, for whatever changes you see fit to make with the links.
"Sincerely, and most certainly half-insane for even attempting to convince Ibby that the site 10 out of 10 people prefer is www.jimmyibbotson.com,"
Kit O'Carra
Webwhatever of The Unparalleled Universe of Jimmy Ibbotson,and others...
www.pier27.net
Glad to oblige, and sorry it's taken me so long. We haven't made it home yet, so we haven't heard the new Daylight CD. We'll have to check out the on-line music, as I can't wait to find out if it has a live version of the Skunk Song* ;)
*Somehow I think not, although my wife thinks it's funny as hell.
@12:36 PM
Monday, September 12, 2005- - -
That's staying 'on message'..
The InstaPundit links to Ian Schwartz, who links to a very interesting FoxNews video interview of Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu (D) and David Vitter (R), in which Landrieu says something to the effect that 'Mayor Nagin and mayors across this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, much less getting them out of town in front of a hurricane'. The InstantMan suggests that if a Republican had said this people would think it racist.
This sent me over to view the clip, suspecting that the comment would be, not racist, but a slip of the lip in which a Senator admits that bureaucracy, and bureaucrats, don't work. However, on viewing the clip, it seems that what Landrieu is saying is that mayors can't transport people to work because the federal government doesn't support mass transit, quite a different thing than saying people won't work because they're too lazy.
Of course, the original question posed to Landrieu was 'what about all those flooded buses?' Apparently Landrieu believes that if they'd only had more federal funding for mass transit things would have been much better. Um, yes, they could have had 1000 flooded buses instead of 500.
@8:04 AM
Sunday, September 11, 2005- - -
Clear eyes watching from afar
I'm probably the last person on earth to get around to reading Newton Emerson's biting observations on the MSM's Bush-walloping in the wake of Katrina, as republished by Slugger O'Toole. I find this bit, published in the comments by Newton Emerson, to be particularly amusing:
"... I had the good fortune to be in America for the last election on a truly superb junket whose itinerary included spending time in TV, radio and newspaper newsrooms as well as attending Bush and Kerry rallies and meeting party officers, congressmen, lobbyists, pollsters and academics in Boston and Kentucky. They were all kicking Bush in the head with both size nines - even the nice lady from Fox who interviewed us in Louiseville [sic] whispered afterwards: "I don't really believe in this stuff you know, it's just a job"." Yes, and it helps to remember that "Fair & Balanced" is just a motto, not newsroom policy.
It's hard to articulate what it is I dislike about Fox News, but the feeling of oozing insincerity I get from watching Bill O'Reilly is high on the list. In that vein, it's amusing to see the world's Second Phoniest Man -- Bill O'Reilly -- coming to the defense of the World's Phoniest Man -- Geraldo. Perhaps Geraldo didn't stage the whole 'rescuing little old ladies' thing, but it's certainly easy to believe it of him, isn't it?
@7:41 AM
Thursday, September 08, 2005- - -
"And then there's Geraldo ...
"Remember media coverage during the [first] Gulf War? Reporters live and on-the-spot, outside in the dark while tracers and rockets lit up the sky behind them? Very dramatic stuff. I turned on Fox one morning while I was preparing the caffeine drip. There’s Geraldo. Live, outside in the dark, hair ruffled, collar turned-up, half crouching and glancing nervously over his shoulder, breathlessly telling us that he’d just arrived in Pakistan. Pakistan! There was nothing out there but dark. He wasn’t on-the-spot. Not even close. The setting was all for dramatic effect. He’d might as well been reporting from a studio in Burbank. I was expecting Jerry Springer to be the next ‘war correspondent on the scene’."
Yes, I wrote that way back in January, 2002, while Geraldo was covering the Afghan campaign. It looks like nothing much has changed. Geraldo is, and probably always will be, stuck in 'opening Al Capone's safe' mode. No molehill too high to climb. One wonders if he could play it straight at his own hanging. But at long last the Main Stream Blogosphere is taking notice of this fool. Even better, others are noticing the alarming frequency of folks who are gleefully climbing to the top of a pile of bodies to plant the flag of their personal political and/or ideological agendas while they mug for the cameras. [And yes, this is very much central to my fool-whacking agenda, so I suppose I'm not immune.] Says Max Boot:
"The callowness now on display goes a long way toward explaining why politicians and the media are held in public esteem somewhere above child molesters and below bankers."
Above child molesters? Whatever.
Ps. Re-thinking the Geraldo business, I suspect that he learned a lesson when he opened that safe. If he ever opens another there will be something in it, even if he has to put it there himself.
@7:00 AM
Wednesday, September 07, 2005- - -
Sounds like a blast
I couldn't help myself. I followed the link at the Aspen Daily News website [motto: "If you don't want it printed, don't let it happen."]. How could I resist a title like HST Canonized? Of course, it's about Hunter Thompson's last blast. I think this says it all:
"It's a fantastic crowd," said Thompson's longtime friend and neighbor Don Dixon. "Half of the people here look like Keith Richards."
One would hope that the other half looked better, but I wonder. Among the guests were John Kerry, George McGovern, and Bill Murray. Luckily, Ralph Steadman was also there. He's surely the only person who could possibly illustrate the gathering. Personally, I have no problem seeing the resemblance between John Kerry and Keith Richards. Fear and loathing indeed.
@5:51 AM
Coyotes save alien baby!
Painfully tired of reading all that made-up shit in the NYTimes? Well, there's always the Weekly World News. Checking out at the grocery store yesterday I noted that their headline this week is "Coyotes Protect Alien Baby From Cops!" It must be true, the baby bears a distinct resemblance to Wyoming's Senator Alan Simpson, who is universally agreed to be from somewhere in outer space (he admitted that Wyoming 'was like nowhere on earth', how else could he know that, hmm?). This photo of Simpson was taken sometime before the last ice age, or perhaps just shortly after he crashed at Area 51. His middle name is "Kooi," is that a dead give away, or what? Probably Ferengi on his mother's side.
Elsewhere on the cover of this week's WWN, we learn that Bigfoot has crashed a wine tasting (that wasn't Bigfoot, it was me, but I can understand the mistake); a handyman has repaired the hole in the ozone layer (about time someone took a practical approach to the problem. Two words: Duct Tape, there's nothing it can't fix); and finally, Dick Cheney's "undisclosed location" is found to be Ft. Knox. That last is just plain silly. Everyone who reads the Pravda on the Platte -- they're a paragon of fairness and accuracy, as they tell us at every opportunity -- knows that he's off pheasant hunting, and I happen to know there's no pheasants at Ft. Knox. Better look in South Dakota.
Perusing the archives we learn that an Incredible New Study Proves...GALS WHO GO TOPLESS LIVE LONGER. Just what the world needs, topless Grannies. I can't believe they didn't throw in a "consult with your physician" disclaimer.
The WWN isn't exactly all breaking news though. A little farther along we learn about the NEW BOOZE SCANDAL ON CAMPUSES: DRUNK PROFESSORS. This is only news if you've never been around a university after lunch. Where did you think the students learn this, eh? "It's a national scandal," fumes Boston-based anti-booze activist Dorothy Kenney, whose 4-year-old daughter Tina was cut down in her sandbox by a brandy-addled sociology professor driving a stolen Volvo in January, 1999." That's certainly got the ring of truth to it: Only a sociology professor would steal a Volvo. Anthropology professors buy theirs.
And if you need any further proof of the superiority of the WWN, you can buy it in Craig, Colorado. Don't even bother trying to find a copy of the NYTimes.
@4:11 AM
Thursday, September 01, 2005- - -
 Now back to historic trivia!
Earlier, I discussed hole-and-cap cans and solder dot cans, the two most common sorts of historic trash we find rusting in the desert. These two cans illustrate the range of variation in the size of filler caps that are found in hole-and-cap cans. First, we have one with a very large filler cap, probably indicating that the contents were "chunky."
Canned tomatoes were a popular item out here in the high desert where you can't grow them without extreme measures (we've tried*), and cans with such large filler caps are often guessed to have contained tomatoes. How accurate this surmise may be I have no idea.
Note also that the solder on this can is very sloppy, which is generally assumed to be an indication of relative age; older cans having sloppier, hand-applied solder while more recent ones were increasingly machine-made, with more neatly and sparingly applied solder.
 Here's the other extreme of hole-and-cap cans: A condensed milk can with a filler cap. I mentioned these earlier in discussing solder dot cans. As the condensed or evaporated milk could be injected through the central vent hole, the filler cap would seem to be superfluous, and they were quickly abandoned.
It's interesting that the solder dot can I pictured earlier has an embossed ring that gives the appearance of a tiny filler cap. I don't know, but I can speculate that this embossed ring may have served as an indication of the can's contents. If so, it was also pretty much superfluous because, as far as I know, only condensed milk came in solder dot cans.
Note also the much more neatly applied solder on this second can. They were starting to get the hang of making these things just about the time that technology did away with them entirely.
*I'll mention that you can grow tomatoes quite nicely in Worland, at the more reasonable elevation of 4200 feet. The wind doesn't blow there either (really!). We honestly do have the best climate in Wyoming.
@5:52 AM
The last hurricane post
I sounds like a real mess, but I haven't much to add other than my sympathies. The InstaPundit has a roundup of charities and aid organizations that need donations, please give generously.
One thing I haven't seen emphasized we learned during the recent tsunami relief efforts. We donated to Doctors Without Borders and they made an interesting request: That we donate to their general fund rather than give a donation earmarked for tsunami relief. It seems that they had more money than they could spend on this high-profile event, while the rest of their efforts around the world were going under-funded. Just a thought you might want to consider.
@5:31 AM
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