Budget got the problem with Amex resolved, Ron says.

Your name is your destiny

You know those stickers people put on their cars--or, more likely, minivans or SUVs--that give the name of a high school and below it the first name of their kid? (Like "Hutto Hippos/CRAIG".) Well, today I noticed a Tivy Antler named Faylon.

I sure hope Faylon's doing well in school. But I don't s'pose he is.

One more cat entry

Before I forget, today is my cat Toby's birthday. (His third, to be exact.)

We're celebrating with special cat food and a new fake bird thingy for the kitty-fishing pole.

I hate to blog about the cats, but...

...all three of them are sitting on my desk. Awwwwwww....

I believe that's some kind of record.

Pastry chef considers new run for Arizona governorship

The governorship of my former home state of Arizona doesn't go up for grabs until next year, but potential candidates are already preparing to toss their assorted hats into the ring. Or not.

Anyway, Republican U.S. Rep J.D. Hayworth has announced that he will remain in Congress rather than run for governor in 2006, and the Arizona Republic's report includes a tidbit buried way down in the story:

Former Republican Gov. Fife Symington, 59, is considering another run for governor in 2006. Symington, who served as governor from 1991 to 1997, resigned from office immediately after being convicted by a federal jury of bank and wire fraud on Sept. 3, 1997. His conviction was overturned on appeal in June 1999, and President Clinton pardoned him in January 2001. Symington runs a consulting firm and has been working as a pastry chef at a Phoenix restaurant. He will make a decision by June.

Gosh, you'd think the guy would give up eventually. The conviction was overturned because a problem with the jury was mishandled, not because of any flaws in the case, and, to quote the Phoenix New Times, "The same Ninth Circuit panel that tossed out the case because of [a juror's] removal also stated that it found sufficient evidence to support Symington's conviction on at least three counts." Clinton's last-minute pardon, here as elsewhere, is a black spot on his presidency.

As for Hayworth, he's probably doing himself more good by remaining in Congress, especially considering Napolitano's considerable (19 point) lead over him in early polls. It's arguable that winning the governorship wouldn't exactly be a step up for him, and not winning it would be, at best, pointless. And I wouldn't be surprised if Hayworth thinks he can do the state more good in Congress than as governor.

Back up to speed

I finally figured out what's been slowing my computer down so drastically since I installed the most recent security update for the Mac last week: a trial version of a WYSIWYG font menu utility. Killing it ended my troubles, for the most part--though there's still a slight problem with FontAgent Pro which I'll drop Insider Software a note about in a day or two, if reinstalling the app and/or repairing preferences doesn't resolve it.

[Later note: it didn't. Drat.]

I feel better. No way could I live without font management--and in my experience FAP's way easier to use and less aggravating than any competing app I've tried.

Fun with charge cards.

Ron called me this afternoon from the airport in Phoenix, in obvious distress. Budget had declined both of his American Express cards--had I somehow not paid them?

I assured him I had and gave him dates and check numbers; somewhat mollified, he hung up to call American Express.

Twenty minutes later he called me back. Turns out that somehow Amex and Budget have gotten all crosswise and Budget isn't taking American Express.

The Budget counter people were completely unaware of this; apparently Ron was the first person to walk up to them with a valid American Express card since it happened. Needless to say, no one at Budget or Amex that Ron talked to could shed any light on who'd done this or whether it's even intentional.

Dan Goodman's gonna like this story

From Reuters, via CNN.com:

Music can be a mouth-watering experience for one Swiss musician who 'tastes' combinations of notes as distinct flavors, according to a report in the science journal Nature.

Goodman's been exploring synesthesia (as I spell it in my quaint American way) in his blog and elsewhere. This story's of interest to me, too, because I've occasionally experienced synesthesia, especially as a child, and my mother has too. I mentioned a synesthetic experience to her when I was about 9 and she responded that she'd once heard a note or chord on the piano that she thought sounded purple.

Another damn same-sex marriage post

On National Review Online, David Frum goes into panic mode:

Same-sex marriage is a revolution in the definition of marriage for everyone - a revolution not just in law, but in consciousnessness.

And one effect of this revolution - and for many proponents, one of the revolution's aims - is to make forever unthinkable the idea that husbands and wives each have special duties to one another, and that a husband's duties to his wife - while equally binding and equally supreme - are not the same as a wife's duties to her husband.

Hey, I saw you palm that card! Exactly what, about same-sex marriage, could make unthinkable the idea that husbands and wives have special duties to one another?

As for the idea that the duties husbands have to their wives are not the same as the duties wives have to their husbands--if there's one thing I've learned in ten-plus years of happy nonmarriage to Ron, it's that no two couples support and care for each other in quite the same way, and over time their roles in their relationship can and must change as circumstances do.

Frum's entitled to his ideal of marriage, and if his wife shares that ideal, so much the better, but I truly don't think I'm trying to legislate his type of marriage out of existence and I'd appreciate it if he and others like him would return the favor.

A note in passing...

The NYTimes (registration required) reports that Harry Simeone, best known for his choral arrangement of "Little Drummer Boy," has died.

I had always supposed "Harry Simeone" was a transparently obvious pseudonym and now I learn, too late, he was a real person.

A bomber is a bomber is a bomber, right?

Wonkette on a Media Matters report that Fox News insists on substituting the term "homicide bomber" for "suicide bomber" in wire stories:

Media watchdogs are all foamed up over Fox News making changes to AP stories and story subjects' quotes. Oh c'mon, everyone's got a house style -- just because Fox changes 'suicide bomber' to 'homicide bomber,' no matter what Hillary Clinton or anyone else might have actually said, doesn't mean they're influencing the news or anything.

This isn't exactly news--Fox has been using the term for some time now and it's only to be expected that Fox edits wire reports to suit their own style. Changing quotes is clearly wrong, though.

Of course, Fox deserves the term "homicide bomber," which is obscure, redundant, and misleading--not to mention that Fox's hasty adoption of the term after Ari Fleischer and other White House officials started using it a few years ago makes them look like administration stooges. Which they probably also deserve.

Fox HD blocking fast forwards?

PVRblog reports here that some users of Comcast's HD DVRs have been unable to fast-forward through commercials on "American Idol" or "24" on Fox's HD channel.

This might be just a glitch that can be resolved by resetting the DVR, but it's weird that there aren't comparable reports of problems with HD feeds from other networks.

(Via Reality Blurred)

Belated "Wife Swap" post

Ron and I like to watch ABC's "Wife Swap," in which participants trade places with counterparts from what are generally radically different backgrounds. Usually the show is exploitive but harmless: we see super-permissive parents get switched into excessively strict, structured households, that kind of thing.

Last week's episode was less benign than usual, placing lesbian mom Kristine in the home of strait-laced, conservative Christian mom Kris, and vice versa.

Kristine appeared to get on reasonably well with Kris's husband Brian, but the same couldn't be said of Kris's relationship with Kristine's partner Nicki. In an early segment of the program, Kris disparaged Kristine and Nicki's partnership, impugned their motivation for wanting to be legally married, and asked Nicki why she couldn't just pretend not to be lesbian. Really. No kidding.

Things went further downhill during the couples' meeting at the end of the show. Kris said that she feared Kristine would molest her daughter--I wonder if she'd have suggested that a straight woman might molest her teenaged sons?--and that Kristine and Nicki were depraved. This reduced Kristine to tears, as you might expect. (I can respect a polite expression of religious objections, but Kris's inflammatory, outrageous statements only deserve an indignant "How DARE you?!" )

But while I'm angry at the exploitation of both couples, I can't understand why anyone ever participates in these shows. Really, I'm totally baffled. Can anyone possibly expect any good to come from reality TV, especially if there's no compensation for the participants?

Oh, my dear god in heaven.

So to speak: FaithConverter 1.8

Does Not Compute

Aha, I should have been more suspicious; the purported home computer I linked to yesterday is a fake. Snopes.com is everybody's friend.

Forward, into the Past!

What "fifty years from now" looked like fifty years ago, via Anton Sherwood.

I'm impressed by the wildly optimistic statement in the caption, "With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use."

Wonkette Defends Dick Cheney

Wonkette is amusingly snide on Dick Cheney's malfunctioning wardrobe: "We don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about Cheney's attire at the holocaust memorial. He is an old man with a bad heart. Wearing whatever's comfortable is one of the benefits of still being alive. There are many: early bird buffets, discount theater tickets, and, of course, invading the country of your choice, as long you show your AARP card." Ooh, ooh, I'm eligible for AARP now.

Oklahoma considers cockfights with tiny gloves

Comment would be superfluous; from a Reuters story on the Houston Chronicle web site: "An Oklahoma senator hopes to revive cockfighting in the state by putting tiny boxing gloves on the roosters instead of razors."

It's not easy, being green

Andrew Sullivan wonders why conservatives aren't very green:

I've never understood why conservatives in principle oppose tougher fuel standards or conservation measures. Conserving energy is conservative, no? And increasing energy independence is a useful foreign policy tool, no? Where's the catch?

Two thoughts leap to mind: First, conservation keeps money out of the hands of various large businesses. Can't have that happen. Second, ideology is getting in the way. God forbid conservatives should intentionally associate themselves with positions commonly held by non-conservatives.

Religious figure calls for peace in holiday sermon--is this news?

From Andrew Sullivan's blog:

The chief Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, gives an annual sermon decrying extremism and terror. Money quote:
'Islam is the religion of moderation. There is no room for extremism in Islam,' he said. He called on Muslims to 'protect non-Muslims in the Kingdom and not to attack them in the country or anywhere. Islam is a religion of peace that abhors attack on innocents.' Militants were using misguided interpretations of Islam to justify violence, he added. 'Because Muslims have strayed from moderation, we are now suffering from this dangerous phenomenon of branding people infidels and inciting Muslims to rise against their leaders to cause instability,' Al-Sudais said. 'The reason for this is a delinquent and void interpretation of Islam based on ignorance ... faith does not mean killing Muslims or non-Muslims who live among us, it does not mean shedding blood, terrorizing or sending body parts flying.'
Is there some reason this didn't get more play? It strikes me as important.

Damn right it's important. And it should sure as heck get more play, especially when lightweights like James Dobson get a whole weekend's worth of play out of SpongeBob SquarePants.

But should we be surprised that the media don't give it much play? On some level, we should naturally expect that the chief imam of the Grand Mosque is a good and reasonable man, and that he'll make this sort of pronouncement from time to time, just as we expect that prominent figures in other religions will make comparable statements on comparable occasions.