The wipe man page

Mammoth in 2015!

Now why would an update to the Office Communicator (Microsoft Office's IM app) kill my installation of Visual Studio, making it so that I can't do any work at all ?

Damn. I wish I could get Micheal Chabon to stop by and do a guest post!

And, speaking of the n-word...

I had the idea last night to make a version of Huck Finn where every word other than "nigger" is replaced by white space.

You'd have a mostly empty book, with 200+ "nigger"s sprinkled throughout the 300-odd pages. It would be a provocative work of art, you see.

I don't know what the stereotypical garb d'artiste is these days (I assume the beret, goatee, round glasses, and black turtleneck look is 60 years out of date), but I'd have to wear whatever it is, while I claimed my creation was "a work of art intended to open a dialogue on the place of the n-word in our society and the effects of bowdlerization of classic works. By stripping the text of Huckleberry Finn of all but the parts which offend us most, I have forced us to... yadayadayada." (I think there's a website that can spit this stuff out automatically). I'd need to maintain a pose of ironic detachment, too.

I will not do this, of course. I actually hate this kind of 'art'. Plus, it's kinda dumb. But, I could see someone else doing it, and me giving it a short side-link and an eye-roll.

On January 3rd, McDonald’s introduced a new product across America: Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. It’s available all day and includes apples, raisins and cranberries. The flavor of the oatmeal comes from “natural maple flavoring.” There’s just one problem: In my home state of Vermont, lovers of all things maple syrup, “natural maple flavoring” is simply not enough. To legally use the term “maple” in the name, the product must contain actual maple syrup.

The queen of resentment and manufactured outrage, Sarah Palin, has something to say:

"But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn,

Yes, of course pundits should refrain from inciting hatred and violence. And that's why people are pissed at you, Mrs. Palin. Whether or not Jared Loughner was directly or indirectly influenced by you and your "don't retreat, reload" rhetoric, you do, in fact, incite hatred with your demagoguery and lies.

But... blood libel?

Wiki:

Blood libel (also blood accusation) refers to a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, almost always Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Historically, these claims have–alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration–been a major theme in European persecution of Jews.

The libels typically allege that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos for Passover. The accusations often assert that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically blood libel claims have often been made to account for otherwise unexplained deaths of children. In some cases, the alleged victim of human sacrifice has become venerated as a martyr, a holy figure around whom a martyr cult might arise. A few of these have been even canonized as saints.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot last weekend, is Jewish.

Lovely choice of words, there, Palin.

Or, maybe she has invented a new meaning for the phrase (ex. 'refudiate') and we just haven't caught up to her yet...)

Def Leppard Cover Band Seeks "One Arm" Drummer

This Jerri Blank impersonator has something to say!

From a Wiki article on right-wing conspiracy nut, David Miller:

Miller is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he describes himself as a "Plenipotentiary-Judge", an ambassador, banker, postmaster, King of Hawaii, and a genius.

On April 6, 1988, Miller invented what he calls the Mathematical Interface for Language or Quantum-Math-Communications and Language or Correct-Language. According to Miller, his language is "for the stopping-claims of the Theft, Cheating, Fraud, Slavery and War." Miller's language uses sentences that begin with prepositional phrases, using the word For, are at least thirteen words long, and have many more nouns than verbs. According to Miller, only nouns have legal authority. The language has an abundance of punctuation. Miller explains:

FOR THE FORMS OF OUR PUNCTUATIONS ARE WITH THE CLAIM OF THE USE: FULL-COLON=POSITION-LODIO-FACTS, HYPHEN=COMPOUND-FACTS =KNOWN, PERIOD=END-THOUGHT, COMMA-PAUSE, AND LOCATION-TILDES WITH THE MEANINGS AND USES OF THE COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE FULL-COLON OF THE POSITION-LODIAL-FACT-PHRASE WITH THE FACT/KNOWN-TERM OF THE POSITIONAL-LODIO-FACT-PHRASE AND WITH THE VOID OF THE NOM-DE-GUERRE = DEAD-PERSON.

Miller says the people who do not use Truth-Language are in Fiction = no fact.

Wiki notes the similarity between Miller's ideas and Jared Lee Loughner's interest in creating his own language/grammar in order to be closer to Truth. I don't think we know conclusively if Loughner knew of Miller (but it seems kindof obvious that he did).

Fucked up.

via BoingBoing, here's part of an essay written after 9/11, but which is equally apropos today:

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.

Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

Countries which I like seem to never suffer such tragedies, while countries which, for one reason or another, I dislike, suffer them all the time. The one common factor which seems to explain this has to do with my political views, and it suggests that my political views should be implemented as a matter of urgency, even though they are, as a matter of fact, not implemented in the countries which I like.

I'm a little turned-off by the self-righteous chest-thumping on liberal blogs these days, I guess.