Life is full of difficult choices

Lesseee . . . watch Tucker Carlson debate the wisdom of continued US engagement in Iraq with Bianca Jagger, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force?

Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Too easy.

Gotta give them more credit

An undetermined cable news channel was playing in the barbershop today. As I sat down for my haircut, the Korean woman asked me how I wanted it cut, then asked whether I preferred a flat income tax or a sales tax to replace it. Of course I proposed the FairTax. "Oh, Neal Boortz is on TV talking about FairTax!" she replied.

Get this, now: this woman, obviously a returning soldier's bride some years ago, is still improving her English and putting it to work. It was hard to carry a conversation with her, considering her accent, and the noise of her clippers right behind my ears. She mentioned how people look for shelters against income taxation, farmers seek subsidies, and so forth.

Still, it was clear she understands how taxation affects motivation to earn, save, and spend, probably better than most members of Congress.

Branching out

After realizing I had written some material that doesn't "fit" here or on the other blogs, I asked Bacchus if he'd host it over at his place. He graciously accepted.

More about sex toys. NSFW.

If you go read that, then go read my post where I appear to take sides with Cleanfilms, you'll see what you might think is a major reality disconnect.

It isn't.

Turntable turning tables

I went on a CD buying spree recently, and found a two-disc set of Fountains of Wayne material. Dutifully shoveling it into my player, I never got around to listening to it systematically---when it shuffles to the top, that's when I hear it, usually during afternoon sessions on the treadmill, when I'm not paying the best attention to it.

The song was halfway through when I realized it was their cover of Britney Spears's Baby One More Time. Likeable, clever.

Got me to thinking: another song I'd like to hear, that flat-out does not exist, is Shania Twain singing Led Zeppelin's Hot Dog. It wouldn't matter much to me whether she changed the lyrics so it would be a woman singing about being left by a man, rather than a woman abandoned by a woman; though the latter would be a hoot.

Maybe there's a term for this technique, of gender-changing the lyrics of a love song so the other sex can sing it without suggesting same-sex love? Who would know that term? David? Chaz?

And that reminds me also of a very sophisticated table-turning, where Bobby Vinton's Roses Are Red becomes Florraine Darlin's Long as the Rose is Red; definitely Chaz's territory, though to date myself, I used to have the 45's of both.

(Christina Aguilera's Will the Real Slim Shady Please Shut Up? does not count: it's satire.)

Another face I hoped to see again

She was great in Adventures of Pete and Pete.
I recognized her instantly in Buffy.

Glad to see that Michelle Trachtenberg has her own movie. I probably won't watch it, even though Kim Cattrall is in it too. But it's worth a mention.

Update: but please, Hollywood, don't make her up to be a perky-titted tart.

Road trip

How to kill a Sunday in Albuquerque? I arbitrarily pointed the rental car to Cuba, figuring that would take me up into the hills, then I could cut east to Los Alamos.

That took me through Santa Fe National Forest, and right past this place:

Just how serious are they?

IP's post caught my eye, about Amazon's venture into marital appliances. "Heh," I guffawed to myself, "they'll go only so far. The Rubicon---the mark of the aesthete of that industry---is the bright red rubber ball gag. Lacking that, their line is no better than one of those philistine gas stations off I70 in Missouri. I bet I won't find one there."

Damn. Third time I've been wrong this month.

Some things I have to rethink, as evidenced by this intemperate and ill-considered thought of mine. Why would Amazon "rep in" only part of another outfit's online catalog? And if so, on what criterion would they choose which products to admit, which to exclude? Cheaper, faster, broader appeal to just bring the whole catalog in (Frolics in this case), which is Amazon's forté in the first place.

New stuff up at the Senate campaign blog

Boy, I've neglected that one too. Sorry, Big Red, if you're still reading.

Sign the petition, I did

I encourage all to visit and sign a petition to save thousands of M14 rifles from the scrap heap, and instead market them through the Director of Civilian Marskmanship. Save a remarkable rifle, save Uncle Sugar's money, maybe even own a remarkable rifle.

Read the petition, then sign it.

A beleza mineira

Dinner last night here reminded me of my one loooong trip to rural Brazil.

Girlwatching in Latin America is one of life's finest things, and I highly recommend it.

Oddly enough, this evening while reading back issues of Reason over dinner, another experience of Brazil came whistling back at me from memory like a volleyball from the back row. A section head in the article used a lyric from the song Barbie Girl.

Years ago, I was being driven around the town of Uberlândia with the local cable techs, installing a trial phone service on their 450-MHz cable system. The song came over the radio. One tech turned around in the front seat so he could face me, with a perplexed look on his face, to asked me, "What this means, 'Bobbie gehl'?"

My Portuguese was about as good as my Polish. His English was better than my Portuguese. I shrugged my shoulders. "The girl likes to party."

so that's why I couldn't get laid in college

This cuts way too close to home:

People who want every discussion of current events to go back to first principles are tiresome and I find discussion with them is seldom profitable. Plus, people avoid them at parties.

Instapundit.

He's picked up a new trick

At 18 months, Toad now prefers to dine with a fork.