Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I confess, I'm ready to be done with the 2012 election. I'd feel this way regardless of the outcome. Unfortunately, conservatives can't quite let go. The recriminations and finger-pointing are in full swing - amusing but eventually tiresome. Latest members of the Sore Loser Club are restauranteurs John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John's Pizza, and Zane Tankel, who owns 40 or so Applebee's Restaurants in the metro New York City area. Both are incensed that Mitt Romney's loss means ObamaCare is no longer going to be dismantled. Tankel has announced he'll start firing employees and stop building restaurants. Of course, he's a franchisee, so it remains to be seen if parent company Applebee's will fill the gap with other franchise holders. Applebee's International president, Mike Archer, said Tankel's remarks, "were not the views or opinions of either Applebee's or other franchisees, although we respect his right to speak freely as an ...

Okay, not long after my rant about Amazon dropping support for Linux in their MP3 market place, I cooled down and did a second look. I'd rather fix my problem than bitch - here's what I figured out. In case you missed it, here's what prompted my outrage: to download albums from Amazon, you download an AMZ file, which is essentially an encoded list of URLs to the MP3s in the album. After supporting this functionality for Linux for a number of years, they suddenly dropped it. If you are a Linux user, they now inform you that you will need to download your MP3s from their Cloud Player, one file at a time . Click, download, click, download (repeat ad nauseum). If you purchase much music, this is a completely unacceptable solution. First rule of computer troubleshooting: no matter how outlandish or obscure the problem, somebody has experienced it before you. I did what any self-respecting geek did: I Googled. Breaking this down, there are actually 2 problems to solve. O...

Suppose that when it was first built, the Interstate Highway System had companies built the roads (paying the companies large amounts of money to built them to their specifications) and then leased the roads from the companies. Toll roads, right? Remember - the official title for the Interstate Highway System is the  Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways .  The justification for building the Interstate system (replacing the patchwork of numbered US highways that were then in place) was national defense - how to move troops and equipment quickly in times of national emergency. Although this network of "Superhighways" had been under discussion since the 1920's, it took the Cold War to finally get this in place. The government pays large amounts of money to the  Super Toll Road  providers. The government paid for all the research on how best construct the roads, paid the cost of construction, and then pays to use...

For some years I worked in advertising. Among the many blots on my soul was the fact that I pimped Christmas and the Baby Jesus to sell worthless shit. Now I discover, thanks to Bill O'Reilly, I was doing the Lord's Work. Now that it's December, Fox News and its various reptilian talking heads are once again hard at work promoting the War On Christmas . Bill O'Reilly kicked off this holiday tradition a few years back. It's like the Right Wing's Charlie Brown Christmas -- they trot it out every year since they know it's a surefire ratings booster. It's most visible form is flogging various retailers who choose to say "Holiday Sale" instead of "Christmas Sale." This strikes me as odd. I have a hard time seeing how using the label "Christmas" as a marketing tie-in is promoting the beliefs of Christendom. If anything, it serves to further secularize a Holiday/HolyDay already weighted down with a vast collection of warmed over ...

It's just after 8 AM on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Large numbers of my fellow Americans arose in the pre-dawn hours to stand in line for bargains in the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Sorry, not me. I prefer to lounge in bed, enjoying a cup of coffee; newspaper and wife at my side. I'll let others shop. In the family room are two sleeping figures: friends of my youngest. We tend to be the place where he and his friends land for their gatherings. In the living room are two more, stretched out on the sleeper couch. At around 2:30 last night I sent a text message to youngest son informing him the party needed to wind down, else I storm out in my boxers and chase everyone out. They are techno-geeks. Unlike older brother, instead of alcohol, this crowd goes for caffeine so they can game and the like all night. Hence the 2:30 shutdown message. This is why I like Thanksgiving. Unlike Christmas, which we've allowed to devolve into...

The Daily Show and Colbert Report don't have a monopoly on fake news. This just in courtesy of The Onion . Not recommended for the workplace (as if you couldn't tell).

I was reading the Dallas Morning Snooze this morning and happened to flip to the letters to the editor, where I read the following from 'Bob' of Irving: "In your editorial that demeans large vehicles, you admit to a limited use for SUVs and pickups, e.g.: "People have to haul stuff." There are also other reasons, one of which is primary in my decision to continue to drive my Hummer. I consider the premium that I pay for its 10 to 12 mpg over that of a mini-vehicle's 35 to 40 mpg to be a part of my family's health insurance. If you in your Yaris or ForTwo try to occupy the same space that my family's H2 is occupying on Stemmons Freeway, I win. You will most likely spend your gas savings on CareFlite and in a local intensive care unit, while, on the other hand, I will look in the mirror to see just what that speed bump was." You win? As when you allow this automotive obscenity to careen into some poor innocent who made the mistake of buying a sens...

Whilst thumbing through the Academy ad flyer this morning, I happened to turn to the back page where they had the guns. Today's hot special was obviously the Taurus Millennium Pro 9 mm automatic. In addition to all of this weapon's other fine qualities, Academy (or Taurus) was offering a Free One-year membership in the NRA . I shit you not.

Saw the above at Target - suspiciously similar to something I once did for Bombay Co.

We all have events that mark the beginning of the holiday season. For Wal-Mart executives it seems to be the passing of the 4th of July. For me it is my church's annual Messiah sing -- I've been a part of it for around 16 years. This year was especially fun since my 15-year old is now in the youth choir and sat next to me. Of course his participation is not without occasional grumbling, which meant I was subjected to glares and eye-rolling from time to time, but it was worth it to hear him sing. He's good. He and I also went out and snagged a Christmas tree after church. This was relatively early in the Advent season for us. There have been years (I confess) where to save a few bucks I waited until the last minute. I come by this tradition honestly: I remember my dad and me scouring the tree lots in sub-zero weather in suburban Chicago one Christmas eve, he'd put off buying a tree so long. Maybe that's why I like to wait until the weather gets cold before buying a t...