Friday, August 29, 2003

Monday, August 25, 2003

Being the diehard Fox News fanatic that I am, I was ecstatic when I saw that there was a new book about the network. I mean, there was a picture of Bill O'Reilly on the cover, and the words "fair and balanced", and everything! So I bought it, and started reading.

But this new book from Fox News only had bad things to say about Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter, and Bill O'Reilly, and Fox News itself!

Why would Fox News put out a book like that?
Paper Beats Rock (but watch out for the scissors!)
The following comes from the cached version of a Yahoo search for a joint MIT/University of Chicago study mentioned in Al Franken's recent book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.
Sendhil Mullainathan of MIT and Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago conducted a study between July 2001 and May 2002 in which they responded to 1,250 job advertisements in Boston and Chicago. They sent four applications in response to each job ad; two applications contained "black-sounding names" (derived statistically from birth records, the names included "Tamika," "Tyrone," etc.) and two applications contained "white-sounding names" (Amy, John, etc.). One each was of "high quality" (lots of qualifications) and were equivalent; the others were of average quality (fewer qualifications) and were equivalent. The names and resume contents were randomly matched up in such a way that black-sounding names appeared above resume contents that for other job applications white-sounding names were attached to (and vice versa). The black-sounding and white-sounding resumes were thus not just equivalent---they were identical

Through the study, Drs. Mullainathan and Bertrand were told by many professionals, "Oh yes, you'll see discrimination all right---reverse discrimination!" However, this is not what they found

They found that one of ten white-sounding job applicants received a callback for an interview, while only one of fifteen black-sounding job applicants did. This indicates decisively that some discrimination is going on based on the perceived race (through name) of the job applicants

Further, they found that those high-quality resumes with white-sounding names are 30% more likely to receive a callback than their average-quality counterparts. However, high-quality resumes with black-sounding names are not more likely to receive a callback than their counterparts. (There is apparently a very minute improvement for high-quality resumes with black-sounding names, but it is too small an improvement to derive reliable conclusions

This is absolutely significant. At a time when many claim that we have achieved racial equity, a time when many are arguing against affirmative action based on the fatuous presumption that it has fulfilled its mission, this study sweeps away their arguments completely. According to the authors of the study, you can pretty much pick a week of the study, and the long-term trends show themselves; thus, the date was not a factor. You can pretty much pick a business size too---from small businesses to large firms with HR staff, all sizes of business show this same dispicable racism in the application process

For more on this study, you can read the New York Times piece by Alan Krueger over on J Bradford DeLong's blog, or you can listen to the Tavis Smiley show segment [RealAudio] (which includes an interview with Dr. Bertrand) or the hour-long Connection interview with Dr. Mullainathan.



When the study is published, I will post my further thoughts on this topic, and point to any online resource that publishes it.

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Hey, you remember way back in '99, when everybody was worrying about what we were going to call the first decade of the twenty-first century? Well, it's still going on. Some idiot Australians proposed calling it the (ugh) Noughties. Other morons suggest the Hundreds, the Oughts, the Oughtas, or the Nulls.

If you must call this decade something, just call it the Zeros and be done with it.

Makes ya wish that the fucking computers had all blown up with the Y2K whatchamathingy.

Thursday, August 21, 2003

You Will Feel No Pain

On a recent trip to the mountains, one of our operatives was introduced, at the Lakeshore Resort at Plumas County's Bucks Lake, to a most remarkable beverage. It was a most pleasing summer drink, cold and refreshing, tasting of peach, orange and pineapple. And most of all, powerful. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...the Treesmacker:
  • 1 pint Peach Schnapps
  • 1 pint Apple Schnapps
  • 1 pint Rum
  • 1/2 cup Pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup Orange juice
  • 1/2 cup Sour mix
  • Grenadine
  • 1 splash 151 proof rum
Mixing instructions:
Add liquors, then add juices. Color red with grenadine. Float the 151. Serve in large Mason Jar for authenticity.
Upon reflection, the amounts listed are probably for 4 or 5 servings.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Fiesta La Ballona 2003

We are in the middle of Fiesta La Ballona, and although I haven't taken the time to go to downtown Culver City, tomorrow night, at the very least, I'm planning to go see Hot Club of Cowtown down at the City Hall.

Monday, August 18, 2003

The money never stops

From : maryam abacha
Subject : please help me and my Family
Date : Thu, 07 Aug 2003 12:10:47 +0100

ATTN;
PLS REPLY TO MY PRAVATE BOX maryambbbb@mailsurf.com
I am Hajia Maryam Abacha, widow of the Late Gen. Sani Abacha former Nigerian
Military Head of State who died as a result of cardiac arrest.

The name of you company appeared in one of our directories as one of the
companies my late husband wanted to do business withen before he died.
I therefore decided to contact you in confidence so that I can be able to move
out the sum of US$35,760,000.00 ( Thirty Five Million Seven hundred and Sixty
Thousand U. S. Dollars ) which was secretly
defaced and seal in big metal box for security reasons in your account.

I personally therefore appeal to you for your urgent assistance to move this
money into your country where I believe it will be safe since I cannot leave the
country due to the restriction of movement imposed on
me and members of my family by the Nigerian government.

You can contact me through, or my family lawyer . Upon the receipt of your
acceptance to assist me, my lawyer shall arrange with you for a face to face
meeting outside Nigeria in order to liaise with him towards the effective
completion of this transaction.

However, arrangement has been put in place to move this money out of the country
in batches in a secret vault through a diplomatic security company to any of the
European country as soon as you indicate your
interest. I also want you to be assured that all necessary arrangement for the
hitch-free of thistransaction has been concluded.

Conclusively, I have decided to offer you 25% of the total sum 5% will be for
whatever expenses that will be incurred, while 70% is to be used in buying share
in your company subsequent to our free movement by the Nigerian government.

Please reply urgently and treat with absolute confidentiality and sincerity.
PLS REPLY TO MY PRAVATE BOX maryambbbb@mailsurf.com
Best regards,

HAJIA Maryam.

ABACHAc/o Ba

Sunday, August 17, 2003

muteblog

Radosh.net

Way back in March 1992, the late, lamented Spy magazine ran an expose on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was even then widely expected to run for governor sooner or later. There were the by now well-documented allegations of infidelity ("It's just a couple of plo-jobs...", but one of the more interesting finds was a photo of the young bodybuilder, flexing, and fully nude. I can't locate my own copy of the issue just yet, but these days everything of interest can be found on somebody's blog.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Daily Kos: California Supremes expected to rule on recall

Daily Kos has a very compelling post questioning whether or not there will even be a replacement election in the recall race. It all comes down to two little words: if appropriate.

*** UPDATE ***
The California Supreme Court has declined to hear several challenges to the recall election. 500 candidates it is!

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Revolve

Are you a teenage girl who wants to keep up with the word of God, but doesn't want to look like a total loser? Now there's Revolve, a version of the New Testament in fashion magazine format. Girls agree: it's totally cool.

Bellisimo!

Fagen: You've worked with many directors, each who must present a different set of problems for the composer. I have a list here. What was it like working for Bertolucci?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Pontecorvo?

Morricone: He is my old friend, bellisimo!

Fagen: John Boorman?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Terence Malick?

Morricone: A man with bad luck but bello, bellisimo!

Fagen: Roman Polanski?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Brian De Palma?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Leone?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

(Donald Fagen interviews Ennio Morricone.)

Monday, August 04, 2003

MRJEFF update:

Senator Orrin Hatch has introduced a constitutional amendment which would allow foreign-born American citizens to hold the office of President, calling the current restriction against foreign-born candidates "an anachronism that is decidedly un-American."
In a statement Hatch gave to introduce his legislation, which is titled the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, he said many foreign-born citizens of all parties are loyal Americans who should have a legal opportunity to be considered for president.

"These include former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright; current Cabinet members Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez; as well as Jennifer Granholm, the governor of Michigan and bright young star of the Democratic Party," he said.

Also, he noted that thousands of foreign-born members of the military now never could be elected to lead the country for which they fought. "No matter how great their sacrifice, leadership or love for this country, they remain ineligible to be a candidate for president. This amendment would remove this unfounded inequity," he said.

(Hatch has always been, for me, one of the more uncategorizable politicians. He's a Republican and devout Mormon, but a friend of Teddy Kennedy. He'll support commonsense stuff like the above, and then turn around and try to blow up your computer.)

The Prior-Art-O-Matic

mrjeff3000 is a false moustache that can light cigarettes, won't make a hole in your wallet and makes virtually no noise whatsoever.

National Prayer Day

California gubernatorial candidate and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt hits the politics/pornography/prayer trifecta with his latest project, a national day of prayer -- for the death of Bill O'Reilly

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Pretty cool, eh?

HASH(0x82cc294)
You're Newfoundland. You're not a complex person,
but it's not because you're not intelligent;
you just perfer the simpler things in life. You
can work hard and bear harder misfortunes than
most. It's too bad people underestimate you
because you're one tough S.O.B. when need be.


What Canadian Province Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Those Wacky Canadians, part XXXVI...

Catch!

Friday, August 01, 2003

Newsday.com - It Could Be a Long, Quirky Ballot

I can't decide if this is really, really cool, or if we in California are soooo fucking fucked.