Posted 2:04 PM by Floyd

Yesterday I learned something. The thing I learned was, do not assume that the driver you follow is on the same planet as you.

I was driving to downtown Mountain View to have lunch with my wife at Fu Lam Mum, a Cantonese restaurant that has yummy chow fun and salty fish fried rice. I was about to turn into a parking lot and was behind a Buick. The Buick turned in and caught a space right at the entrance. I turned in after it. The Buick then started to reverse. No problem, I thought; the driver wants to wiggle around for a better fit in the parking space. The Buick kept coming toward me. I reached for the horn, and got hit just as I let off a blast.

Now I backed up. (I have reflexes like Ozzie Smith, five minutes after his death.) The Buick pulled out and kept driving. I parked in the space it had vacated, and saw that the Buick had not stopped, and continued to drive in the parking lot.

When I got out of the car two men on the sidewalk shouted to me and told me they would be witnesses. I spent a few minutes talking to them and getting their names. They work for Paypal, whose offices are next to the parking lot. They told me the Buick had parked at the end of the next row.

I went over to the Buick. It was empty! At this point I got mad. I had been hit-and-run! Actually that was not accurate. I had been hit-and-walked. I called the Mountain View police from a pay phone near the restaurant, and saw my wife. We waited for awhile till a motorcycle cop showed up.

The cop had a pretty good idea of what was going on. He asked if I had seen the driver; if the driver was perhaps elderly. I had not seen the driver. I went back to my car to get my insurance and registration. I realized quickly that I had not transferred my new insurance card to my car; my insurance is renewed every six months and the latest renewal was last Sunday. Then I started to look for my registration. As I did this I realized that it was just a few weeks ago that I had taken my car in for a smog check. After which I sent in my registration and a check. For my 2004 registration. Which was due on June 14. Which I have not received yet.

Meanwhile the cop had gone into the Asian market nearby, and came out a few minutes later with a little old Asian lady. She was as nice and apologetic as could be. Though it took her awhile to realize she had anything to apologize for; she said that when she hit me, she thought it was the curb! All in a day's work for this lady.

I told the cop I didn't need to make any trouble and we could exchange insurance information. Fortunately when I said I couldn't find my information he let it pass. This little lesson cost me a half hour of my life, and a little cracking in the paint of my front bumper. Now I plan to stay well behind cars in parking lots, and keep my finger on the horn.

Posted 5:43 PM by Floyd

Speaking of Gillmor, his latest blog post is a nasty bit of work:

Maybe the political press has simply lost its courage. Or maybe shallowness, callowness and a short attention span are the order of the day in political reporting. Who know? But it's amazing, and kind of depressing, to watch.

Some of the media's current uncritical worship of Bush stems from the nearly total lack of spine in the political "opposition," a Democratic party that has few interesting idea and fewer real leaders. The media can spot a leader, and Bush, however awful his policies may be, is one.

But leadership morphs to pure arrogance when the press fails to challenge political deceptions. It was not a coincidence that more than half of the American people came to believe that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were from Iraq. They were gulled into this utterly wrong notion by an administration that is brilliant in its propaganda. Where was the press?

Too bad. Now that we need the political reporters and editors to stand up for the truth, they're hiding. Why, indeed?

The sentences I boldfaced imply that the Bush administration asserted that the 9/11 hijackers came from Iraq. Of course neither Bush nor his advisors have ever said such a thing. And of course Gillmor never claimed they did. Technically.

If large numbers of Americans think the hijackers were Iraqi -- and that's a pretty big if, given that one poll many months ago claimed this result -- it's a tribute to the American educational system. I'll remember that the next time the Mercury News campaigns to raise my taxes for benefit of local schools.

Posted 5:32 PM by Floyd

Today, Dan Gillmor, business columnist extraordinaire for the San Jose Mercury News, approved of mass mailings:

Chip maker Intel overreached when it sued a former employee who was sending e-mail to his ex-colleagues to complain about the company's actions, the California Supreme Court said this week, in a decision that may ultimately have important free speech implications.

The court said Ken Hamidi wasn't legally ``trespassing'' on Intel's computers by sending unsolicited e-mail because there was no harm to the company's systems. The ruling meant that Intel couldn't use inappropriate laws to keep out Hamidi's speech.

Predictably, Intel and its supporters are raising the specter of massive spamming as they denounce the ruling.

Does Gillmor approve of spam? Of course he does, when the target is a nasty big company. Of course not, when the target is him. Here's a Gillmor weblog post from June 20th:

June 20, 2003
"More Spam" Bill Makes Progress

Washington Post: Anti-Spam Bill Gains In Senate. The bill was quickly endorsed by major providers of e-mail accounts, including Microsoft Corp., America Online, Yahoo Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Internet auctioneer eBay Inc.

That tells you much of what you need to know. The biggest Internet companies want to block only some spam, but not their own.

This bill, which would make modest progress only at the margins, is otherwise a travesty. It would require you and me to opt out from every company that spammed us. Since there are, oh, a few million companies out there, we'll be innundated with new spam.

The bill blocks us from suing the spammers with class actions, even though it allows ISPs to sue. It pre-empts state laws.

But you know who Congress works for, right? It's not us. Big companies are winning this battle, and the rest of us will lose.

It's amazing to me that someone can be a prominent tech business columnist and blogger -- Gillmor is on the blogrolls of Instapundit, Ken Laye, Jeff Jarvis, and many others -- and yet have no idea that legislation must apply equally to all citizens and to all similar actions. If it's legal to blast emails at Intel employees criticizing Andy Grove, doesn't it also have to be legal for Dick Morris to blast emails at San Jose Mercury News employees criticizing Bill Clinton?

Posted 7:16 PM by Floyd

A few years back Florence King wrote a wonderful essay on Strom Thurmond, and when he died I googled for it. The search came up empty, but I happened upon the essay when I visited The American Prowler. Here it is. A few choice quotes:

Strom's father ... missed out on a political career of his own because, as Strom explains, "One time he had to kill a man." It happened in 1897 when a drunken political enemy confronted him on the street and called him a "low, dirty scoundrel." In reply, young Will Thurmond pulled out a pistol and shot him through the heart. At his trial, which was attended by his fiancée Gertrude Strom, he pleaded self-defense and was acquitted by twelve white male Edgefieldians who did not doubt that self-defense included defending one's honor. Some years later, when Will Thurmond ran for Congress and lost badly (though carrying Edgefield), he used the occasion to instruct his eldest son. "Never kill anybody," he told Strom. "It will hurt you all your life."

...

The shady reputation entered the realm of galactic legend in 1940 when the still-unmarried Strom, by now a circuit court judge, was romantically linked with Sue Logue, the only woman ever sent to the electric chair in South Carolina.

...

They say Strom accompanied Sue when she was taken from the women's prison to the state pen, and according to the driver, the two of them were in the back seat "a-huggin' and a-kissin' the whole way."

The case that began with a stomped calf ended with nine people dead and Strom Thurmond enshrined in good ol' boy hearts as the only man to make love to a woman while she was being transferred to Death Row.

And here's something I haven't seen mentioned in the news articles on Thurmond's death: He was a World War II hero:

WHEN AMERICA ENTERED WORLD WAR II the 39-year-old judge announced he would "rather be airborne than chairborne" and pulled political strings to get assigned to combat duty. He got his wish when he took part in the D-Day invasion and landed behind the German lines in a towed glider that broke up on contact. He sustained several deep cuts and a sprained knee but refused hospitalization and rejoined his unit under fire. He captured four Germans, saw action in the Battle of the Bulge, rose to the rank of colonel, and won the Bronze Star, the Belgian Order of the Crown, and the Croix de Guerre.

Posted 7:52 PM by Floyd

I have time for one more rock thrown in the Merc's window before dinner. Orr is a smirking twerp, and Kirk is merely an addled byproduct of the 60's. Neither comes close to the level of poisonous self-regard evidenced by one "Arab-Jewish Dialogue Group of Santa Clara County":

Declaration on Mideast peace by Arab-Jewish Dialogue Group of Santa Clara County

June 25, 2003

I can't believe I have to wait until 2078 before this work is in the public domain.

Committed as we are to a peaceful settlement to the Israeli Palestinian conflict and in recognition of the national aspirations of both communities, we, members of the Arab-Jewish Dialogue Group in Santa Clara County, California, would like to issue the following statements regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

We call upon:

1. Israel to immediately declare its intent to withdraw, in a period not to exceed 2 years, from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip areas, to approximately its 1967 borders. Upon cessation of the violence by both sides, Israel shall withdraw to the pre-September 2000 positions and freeze activities on all new settlements and all expansions on existing settlements, including ``natural growth'' expansions.

1a. Everyone to notice how concerned we are. We're furrowing our brows with seriousness!

2. The Palestinian leadership and public, and the Israeli government and public to stop all acts of violence against any and all people and property, and to stop all actions that may hinder the ability of all people to continue their everyday lives in peace.

2a. The Israeli and Palestinian governments to cease all activity and take orders from a bunch of people 7,000 miles away who don't have to deal with the consequences of any decisions that Isreal and Palestine made in the past or will make in the future.

3. An international ``Peacekeeping Force,'' acceptable to both parties, to be put into place to help prevent violence and to help all residents to live in peace. Both Israel and Palestine shall actively cooperate with this ``Peacekeeping Force'' that will mediate local disputes. At a mutually agreed time, these activities will transition to local policing authorities.

3a. Remark on how much thought we gave this issue. A ``Peacekeeping Force'' is what will bring peace to the Middle East, and you know why it will work? Because we put two single backquotes at the start of our quotations, and two single forward quotes at the end.

They aren't done -- there's still Impractical Demand 4, then "We Support" followed by seven (!) statements. (For instance: "Jerusalem is the Holy City for three faiths and is important historically, nationally, and culturally for the Israelis and Palestinians. It can and should be the City of Peace." When you put it like that it's just so clear!) But I'm sure you've had enough, unless you need an emetic.

Better cover your mouth though: The "Declaration" of self-regard was augmented with another article in the Merc in which Frank Cohen of the Dialogue Group congratulates himself and his pals on how difficult it was for them to get their names in the paper. I quote:

Both Jewish and Arab participants have stuck their necks out in their respective communities...

A recent issue of The Atlantic had a cover photo of an Israeli who had stuck his own neck out. In Israel "sticking your neck out" means going outside; this Israeli did so, and was in the vicinity of a suicide bombing. The Atlantic cover was not, strictly speaking, a photo; it was an X-ray, and it showed where nails had embedded themselves in this individual's head.

Were any members of the "Dialogue Group" at risk of getting filled up with high-velocity metal fragments? Go fuck yourself, Frank.

Posted 7:30 PM by Floyd

The usual, from the San Jose Mercury News letters page:

Why no outrage over Iraqi war?

Cheers for Ellen Goodman (Opinion, June 26). Where are the people who insisted that it was an impeachable offense to lie about sex near the Oval Office? Do they think it's OK to kill nearly 200 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis using a lie as justification? Is that more moral?

This generation must be very puzzled about why there was such a big fuss over Watergate. Or why anyone was upset about President Johnson starting the Vietnam War with a lie.

We had better wake up, or America just might go the way of the Weimar Republic. I believe there are people in this administration who are trying to make that happen.

Frank Kirk
San Jose

Frank Kirk, genius of historical allegory, is on the prowl. Back in those prisons, kids.

Posted 7:21 PM by Floyd

Today's the Mercury News contains an article by John Orr that almost, but does not quite, review the new Harry Potter book. Orr starts off by making sure that everyone knows how much he dislikes racism:

Parents can take comfort in knowing that if their children embrace the values of this delightful series, they will be less likely to grow up to be racists, ageists or sexists, or to blindly trust government or other bureaucracies.

Whenever someone says "racists, ageists or sexists", or some similar construct, they are not really concerned about age or sex-based discrimination. They want to say "racism" a lot, maybe twenty times, but then their editor cuts them down to three repetitions and makes them change two of the words.

Orr then writes a few hundred words giving an overview of the book, sans spoilers. Then he realizes how lucky he is. If not for the grace of God he could have been born as Severus Snape or, even worse, a Republican. He expresses his gratitude by writing these lines congratulating himself, and all those like him, on his enlightened politics:

These books are really about us, about real life, told in the clever parables of Rowling's magical world. In a time when our own, non-magical world is tottering on the edge of conflagration; when our own government, in a panic, creates the Patriot Act, which threatens constitutional rights and civil liberties that had existed for 230 years, this book couldn't be more apt.

I was going to give Orr credit for not saying "Ashcroft." But then I realized that the liberal intelligentsia have whipped themselves into such hysteria over Mr. Beat-by-a-Corpse, for Orr to say his name would be akin to the effect of a Harry Potter character saying "Voldemort."

Posted 7:06 PM by Floyd

More weather blogging: Saturday was the fourth consecutive day of 90-degree temperatures, so my wife and I planned a trip to the beach. We packed up a blanket and our Helly Kitty and Spongebob Squarepants towels(*), and filled a cooler with ice, water, bottled water and beer. Then we left our house, where the temperature was 92 degrees, for the coast.

By the time we reached the coast 15 miles away, the temperature had dropped to 68 or less and there was a great deal of fog. North looked hopeless; I assumed the "marine layer" of fog and clouds would stretch north to Half Moon Bay and beyond. We turned south and hoped for the fog to break. It did, kind of, about 20 miles south; we found a stretch of coast that was clear, though the temperature was only 66 and the cloud layer loomed a half mile away. We got out, and found there was a lot of wind. When sweltering in heat you may think that nothing is better than a cool breezy environment. Maybe that's true, for five minutes.

It's possible that the beaches south of Santa Cruz were clear. But we didn't have time to go that far. So we went back to our house, to sweat some more.

* Sherry cried for fifteen minutes when I told her she had to use the Spongebob towel.