The Facts Machine

"And I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide"

Thursday, August 26, 2004

"I'M NOT OLD ENOUGH FOR THIS SHIT"
and
A TOUCHING SEND-OFF


Ok, I suppose I'm back to some extent from my mini-hiatus.

Just a quick story where my family and the news vaguely intersect.

My sister (about to be a senior at a major university) was exercising at the Claremont in Berkeley on Sunday, using one of the elliptical machines. A tall black man who looked 55-60 years of age began to use the machine next to her, and worked up a considerable sweat, so much so that residual bits of said sweat found their way on to her.

It wasn't until my father, who was also there, pointed it out to her afterwards that she realized she was exercising right next to Danny Glover.

That was Sunday. A few days later, now we know what he was training for:
U.S. actor Danny Glover was arrested on Wednesday on the steps of Sudan's embassy in Washington during a protest against the humanitarian crisis in the country's Darfur region.

Before he was led away in handcuffs by the uniformed division of the U.S. Secret Service, Glover addressed a small crowd of protesters, calling for a peacekeeping force to stop the violence in western Sudan.

"We want an end to the hostility," declared Glover, a star of the "Lethal Weapon" films. He was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Secret Service said.
(Full disclosure: Myself, my sister, my father and his wife have membership at the Claremont. Ahh, yuppiedom.)

Speaking of fathers, TBogg -- one of the smarter, funnier and snarkier voices of left blogtopia -- has written a touching farewell to his dad, who died yesterday after having a large stroke last year. Do read it.
MID-HIATUS MUSIC

Just a couple of quick plugs for my music:

--A new song of mine, "Sunset", is available for download at my very-old webpage. Go there, right-click the link and save.

--An older song of mine, 2002's "Re-entry", is now available for download at my Download.com site.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

I'm still on hiatus, but real quick: Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan skewers the "Kerry wasn't in Cambodia" attack by, you know, looking into the issue in a less selective way than John O'Neill did.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

NEOCON OLYMPIC UPDATE
&
PASSIVE HIATUS


Let's do another "Coalition Vs." medal count update. Once again, we're using the official Olympic site for medals, and the White House page for coalition members. Up up and away!
THE IRAQ COALITION:
United States - 57
Japan - 26
Australia - 32
Italy - 20
Romania - 11
Ukraine - 13
South Korea - 20
Great Britain - 19
Netherlands - 17
Hungary - 8
Turkey - 4
Poland - 7
Slovakia - 5
Georgia - 3
Bulgaria - 7
Ethiopia - 2
Denmark - 6
Spain - 7
Czech Republic - 6
Portugal - 2
Estonia - 2
Lithuania - 1
Azerbaijan - 2
Colombia - 1
Eritrea - 1
Mongolia - 1
TOTAL: 280

EVERYONE ELSE:
China - 46
Germany - 31
France - 23
Russia - 36
Greece - 8
Sweden - 4
Thailand - 4
Chile - 3
New Zealand - 2
Norway - 2
Canada - 4
Indonesia - 4
South Africa - 4
Zimbabwe - 3
Belgium - 3
Brazil - 3
Switzerland - 2
United Arab Emirates - 1
Austria - 5
North Korea - 4
Cuba - 8
Croatia - 4
Slovenia - 3
Chinese Taipei - 2
Finland - 1
Hong Kong - 1
India - 1
Kazakhstan - 1
Kenya - 1
Serbia - 1
Argentina - 1
Jamaica - 1
Trinidad/Tobago - 1
TOTAL: 218
Percentage-wise the field is gaining on the coalition, though the coalition has extended its lead in sheer number of medals. Also China, a non-member, is alone in the lead for total gold medals.

NOTE: Israel has one medal in this Olympiad, yet is not listed on the White House's coalition roster. I didn't think adding them to "everyone else" was exactly right, so add one medal where you think it is appropriate.

I'm going on a bit of a hiatus. I am in a transitional phase in my life (let's keep Dr Phil out of this), and I'm a tad too introspective to be throwing myself into the news cycle right now. I'm guessing the Republican National Convention will re-energize me, but I wouldn't expect anything here this week. For those who like a diary-esque online element, I started a LiveJournal (passively "dragged" into it by a friend, hehe), and I will be updating that.

Have a good week, enjoy the fine blogs linked on the left of this site, and I'll see you all soon.

UPDATE: It appears that Jack liked my idea so much he bought the company! I suppose he can take it from here.