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"Did anyone lose a note wrapped around a rock?" --Theo, on Between the Lions |
Monday, January 22, 2001 Politics and Assorted Errors Channel Nine has been running frequent commercials for Sister, Sister. These commercials herald the fact that the show is on at 11:30 AM on Saturdays, and for two full hours on Sundays, from 11 AM to 1 PM. Channel Nine has also been running commercials for Moesha, noting that it's on for two full hours on Sundays, from 11 AM to 1 PM. This past Sunday, just moments before 11 AM, one of the aforementioned commercials for Sister, Sister aired. Followed by an hour of Moesha, followed by a basketball game. Either somebody at Channel Nine is messing with our heads, or somebody needs to pay better attention.
I ran across a new political epithet recently, seeing it for the first time on the Web a couple of days ago, and the second time immediately afterwards, in an e-mail forward. The "religious reich." This is surpassed only by "feminazi" for the title of Most Outrageously Offensive (And Wildly Misplaced) Political Epithet I Can Imagine. Do people think about what they're really saying when they throw around terms like this? If not, they ought to; they really ought to. Sheesh.
On a related note, I've said this before, but it apparently bears repeating: Jeez, people, President Bush is not the devil, and he's not going to wreck the country beyond repair. Lighten up. How efficient do you think our government is, anyway? (This is, of course, directed at those of my readers who have been complaining about Bush. Those who are fans of his may have to regretfully note that he's not likely to be able to accomplish much. Them's the breaks.) Nor can I view the sudden groundswell of nostalgia for Clinton without some amazement. The best thing that can be said about him is that he may have held the line against the conservatives just slightly better than a Republican president would have. Which is damning with faint praise.
'Course, this in no way alters the fact that the Prez's new policy reversal in denying funding to organizations whose clinics in other countries even provide advice about abortion is astoundingly, boneheadedly wrong... but let's face it, if Gore had won, we'd all be complaining about whatever he did first. (To say nothing about what would have happened had Nader somehow won. ...well, in a sense, he probably did, but I'm thinking in terms of getting into office, rather than indirectly influencing public policy.)
We're also due for an assassination attempt pretty soon, based on the 20-year cycle. Consider:
So I finally downloaded Opera. It's not bad. I like the multiple-window control, and I love the fact that it uses all the Netscape plugins I have, so it handles RealVideo and Shockwave and so on without requiring any downloads beyond the basic 2-meg browser. (But not Java, apparently. I was hoping to avoid the additional 7 meg or so. Oh, well.) I also like the "zoom" feature, the full-screen display, and the keyboard shortcuts, although I'm still getting used to the last of those. The ad window in the free version is pretty unobtrusive, too. My primary browser is still Lynx, but this just might end up replacing Netscape as my primary graphical browser. Especially as I couldn't get Netscape 6 to install, and the word on the street (even among Netscape partisans) is that it sucks anyway.
Hmm. No sooner did I type that than I managed to crash Opera for the first time. Figures. Well, even Lynx crashes occasionally...
Where did the "tattooed people can't be buried in a Jewish cemetary" myth start, anyway? I mean, sure, getting a tattoo is against Jewish law, but if everybody who did anything wrong was excluded from a Jewish cemetary, not too many people would end up being allowed inside. (I suppose this could be one area in which the other denominations are stricter than the Orthodox, but that seems wildly unlikely.) This hasn't stopped me from seeing this claimed here and there, though, even having the statement attributed to me the other day. I don't get it.
My sleeping cycle got thrown for a loop again over Shabbos. I'm not sure just how it's currently working, but I don't like it. Especially as... meep. I've gotta be up by 8 PM. There are new episodes of Buffy and Angel this week!
Postscript: I can't use Opera to upload these entries, apparently. Well, back to Netscape...
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