:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Saturday, April 03, 2004 ::

Look what I found...

Abbott and Costello, Who's on first? audio and text:

"WHO'S ON FIRST?
Abbott & Costello's classic routine."

:: Jim Nichols 4/03/2004 09:30:00 PM [+] ::
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Modern History Sourcebook: Wallerstein on World Systems:

"THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WORLD ECONOMIC SYSTEM

A Summary of Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press, 1974) "

:: Jim Nichols 4/03/2004 09:13:00 PM [+] ::
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Immanuel Wallerstein: America and the World: The Twin Towers as Metaphor:

"Today, we live in the shadow of an event that has shaken most of us, the destruction of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001 by a group of individuals so dedicated to their ideology and their moral fury at the United States that they conspired for years to find ways to deal a deadly geopolitical blow to America and those they deemed its supporters around the world, and they did this in a way that required sacrificing their own lives. Most Americans have reacted to the events with deep anger, with patriotic resolve, and yet with considerable and persistent puzzlement. Puzzlement about two things: why did this happen? and how could it happen? And the puzzlement has been laced with a good deal of uncertainty: what must be done, what can be done in order that such an event will not, could not happen again?"

:: Jim Nichols 4/03/2004 09:10:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Papers on 1964 Brazil Coup Declassified:

" Newly declassified U.S. documents show the extent of American willingness to provide aid to Brazil's generals during the 1964 coup that ushered in 21 years of often bloody military rule. "

:: Jim Nichols 4/03/2004 05:30:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - AP: Developers Get Farmers' Tax Breaks:

"Millions of dollars in property tax breaks intended to preserve farmland are going instead to companies that bulldoze farms to build housing subdivisions, malls and industrial parks, an Associated Press investigation has found. "

:: Jim Nichols 4/03/2004 03:57:00 PM [+] ::
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LRB | Sara Roy : Short Cuts:

"September 2002 saw the establishment of Campus Watch, a website whose primary purpose is to monitor Middle Eastern studies faculty in departments across the US for signs of anti-American and anti-Israel bias. Campus Watch is the invention of Daniel Pipes, a colleague of Kramer's, and director of the Middle East Forum, a think-tank devoted to promoting American interests in the Middle East.

'I want Noam Chomsky to be taught at universities about as much as I want Hitler's writing or Stalin's writing,' Pipes said to an interviewer. 'These are wild and extremist ideas that I believe have no place in a university.' Not only does Campus Watch monitor universities for signs of 'sedition', i.e. views on US foreign policy, Islam, Israeli policy and Palestinian rights that Pipes considers unacceptable; it encourages students to inform on professors whose ideas they find offensive. Recently, Bush appointed Pipes to the board of directors of the US Institute of Peace, 'an independent, non-partisan federal institution created by Congress to promote the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts'."

I was really disappointed when I got to University and found out it wasn't a hotbed for crazy radical leftist politics. Maybe its just UC Davis but the right is loud and visible...

:: Jim Nichols 4/01/2004 04:18:00 PM [+] ::
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News Analysis: U.S. Optimism Is Tested Again After Ambush Kills 4 in Iraq:

"Nearly a year into the insurgency, the command, in lock step with the civilian administration headed by L. Paul Bremer III, remains relentlessly positive.

But along with the publicly expressed confidence, there are hints that American generals are not as sure as they were only weeks ago that they have turned a corner in the conflict. Nor do the scenes from Falluja on Wednesday — Iraqis mutilating American bodies, and crowds cheering at the sight — appear to fit the theory put forward by the American military that Islamic militants, including foreigners, rather than Iraqi supporters of Saddam Hussein, are increasingly behind terrorist attacks. Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, has been the volatile center of support for the toppled dictator, and a bellwether of the wider war."

:: Jim Nichols 4/01/2004 04:08:00 PM [+] ::
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All 128 of them!!:

"Nearly three in four residents of Portugal, or 71 percent, want the country's 128-strong contingent of national guards in Iraq to be withdrawn from the war-ravaged country, a poll published on Monday found."

The coalition of the willing; not so willing anymore?

:: Jim Nichols 4/01/2004 04:00:00 PM [+] ::
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Rules for Philosophy

Today my Professor put up nine rules for doing philosophy well. They're good food for thought even though I don't do many of these very well.

1. Identify the philosophical issues and focus on them
2. Read early (obviously this only applies to a philosophy class)
3. Be clear
4. Organize your thoughts and present them systematically
5. Keep an open mind
6. Follow your intuitions, but dig deeper
7. Respect the views of others
8. Be rigourous and logical
9. Talk with others

:: Jim Nichols 4/01/2004 03:54:00 PM [+] ::
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Boost in California minimum wage gains initial approval - 2004-04-01 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal:

"California businesses would have to pay their workers a minimum of $7.25 an hour starting next January under a bill authored by Mountain View Assemblywoman Sally Lieber which was approved Wednesday by the Assembly's Committee on Labor and Employment. "

:: Jim Nichols 4/01/2004 03:37:00 PM [+] ::
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Survey finds benefits more important than pay for many - 2004-03-31 - Sacramento Business Journal:

"Thirty-nine percent of newly hired employees in the Sacramento area are more concerned with the benefit package than the pay, according to a recent survey. "

Seems to me that if you put a single payer health care system in place of the semi privatized mess we got now; you would increase the productive dynamics of the workforce as a whole, people would go for the job and not the power of socialized benifits which a job could aquire. Small businesses and new ventures would be able to better compete for the workforce against the standard bearers.

:: Jim Nichols 3/31/2004 07:49:00 PM [+] ::
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Study: California's tech lead threatened - 2004-03-31 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal:

"Investments in a state's science and technology assets -- from higher education to access to venture capital -- are crucial in determining a region's future economic success, says a new report by the Milken Institute, a Los Angeles think tank. But California's budget problems and its slipping education systems could endanger the state's rank as a magnet for high tech companies, the report says. "

:: Jim Nichols 3/31/2004 07:41:00 PM [+] ::
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"Query: How to combine belief that the world is to a great extent illusory with belief that it is none the less essential to improve the illusion? How to be simultaneously dispassionate and not indifferent, serene like an old man and active like a young one?"


--Aldous Huxley
Eyeless in Gaza

:: Jim Nichols 3/31/2004 05:22:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Jobless Rates Rise in Key Election States:

"Unemployment rates increased in nine of the 17 battleground states that could decide the 2004 presidential election, with Missouri and Arkansas showing the biggest increases last month, the Labor Department (news - web sites) said Wednesday.

The department's state-by-state survey showed weak job growth in many parts of the country. Jobless rates fell in six of the most contested states and held steady in two others, the report said."

:: Jim Nichols 3/31/2004 04:26:00 PM [+] ::
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The Ratings Mirage:

"Reporting on the ratings rivalry between the Fox News Channel (FNC) and CNN is often misleading--and almost always over-hyped. "

:: Jim Nichols 3/31/2004 04:13:00 PM [+] ::
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Is it just me???

Or does it strike anyone else as strange that Bush and Cheney are going to testify together? Why would you do that? The point of keeping people seperate is to get the different stories, so as to better understand what happend. If they testify together it is because they want to be sure to give the same story.

:: Jim Nichols 3/31/2004 11:07:00 AM [+] ::
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Something to ponder....

Nietzsche said that "most thinkers write badly because they tell us not only their thoughts, but also the thinking of the thoughts." Could it be that most bloggers blog poorly because they spend too little time thinking their own thoughts, and too much time showing us the thoughts of others, thoughts which they would like us to think and see?

:: Jim Nichols 3/29/2004 06:08:00 PM [+] ::
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And in the 'this guy needs another hobby' category we have...
'Wichita Eagle' Gets Letter From Serial Killer: "WICHITA, Kan. (AP)

After 25 years of silence, police have apparently heard again from the BTK Strangler, a serial killer who terrorized the city during the 1970s.

A letter sent last week to The Wichita Eagle contained information on a 1986 killing and included photos that appeared to be of the victim's body. Police are examining the letter for DNA and other evidence.

'The photographs appear to be authentic,' said Lt. Ken Landwehr, who has been working the BTK case for 20 years. 'I'm 100% sure it's BTK.'"

:: Jim Nichols 3/29/2004 05:43:00 PM [+] ::
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So much for that "free press" idea...
U.S.-Led Coalition Shuts Down Iraq Paper:

"The U.S.-led coalition on Sunday shut down a weekly newspaper run by followers of a hardline Shiite Muslim cleric, saying its articles were increasing the threat of violence against occupation forces."

:: Jim Nichols 3/29/2004 05:36:00 PM [+] ::
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This guy is probably too honest to ever make a career in the media...

Reporter Apologizes for Iraq Coverage:

"In the wake of Richard Clarke's dramatic personal apology to the families of 9/11 victims last week -- on behalf of himself and his government -- for failing to prevent the terrorist attacks, one might expect at least a few mea culpas related to the release of false information on the Iraq threat before and after the war.

This has not happened so far, with President Bush on Wednesday going so far as to joke about the missing weapons of mass destruction at a correspondents dinner in Washington.

While the major media, from The New York Times on down, has largely remained silent about their own failings in this area, a young columnist for a small paper in Fredericksburg, Va., has stepped forward.

'The media are finished with their big blowouts on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and there is one thing they forgot to say: We're sorry,' Rick Mercier wrote, in a column published Sunday in The Free Lance-Star. "

...which is a sad thing.

:: Jim Nichols 3/29/2004 05:34:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Nader, Kerry to Discuss Defeating Bush:

"Ralph Nader said he will meet with John Kerry next month to discuss the effort to defeat President Bush in the November election. "

Ever since Nader announced my gut feeling has been that he won't try to challenge Kerry in swing states--which is why he isn't running on the Green ticket, the green ticket would mean he could get on the ballot in most of the states, without the greens he has an excuse to stick to uncontested states using the campaign as a bullypulpit for progessive/populist issues.

:: Jim Nichols 3/29/2004 12:23:00 PM [+] ::
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CalPERS plan would regionalize pricing:

"The largest healthcare purchasing pool in the state is getting serious about paying for healthcare based on local costs instead of a statewide average. "

:: Jim Nichols 3/29/2004 05:11:00 AM [+] ::
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