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Elections USA

October 3, 2002
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“If New Jersey had better beaches it would almost be Florida.”

Senator Robert Torricelli (D) decided to end his reelection bid on September 29th, because he was in a horrendous hole of his own making; namely, his ethical lapses came to light and he slipped behind in the polls. Certainly you can’t make people run for office. On the other hand, it’s clearly not legal to replace Torricelli with an alternate Democratic candidate; New Jersey law says if someone ends his bid within 51 days of the election, his party can’t put someone else in his slot. (Or her slot.) So in theory the Republican candidate is going to be elected no matter what.

Except that the state Democratic Party petitioned the New Jersey Supreme Court to allow a replacement, and won. The decision was unanimous: 7-0, and 6 of those judges were appointed by a Republican, just to get that on the record.

Very sloppy, and the same sort of “we’ll do what’s right regardless of the law” thinking I often condemn. The fact that it benefits the Democrats is immaterial. The fact that it came from Republicans amuses and does not surprise me, but it’s really only an ironic tidbit. If the problems with this are at all unclear, Eugene Volokh makes some excellent points.

My brain hurts, Brian!

October 3, 2002
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Spirited Away rocked my jammies all night long. The sheer visual imagination contained therein would have been enough on its own, but the plot was fairly interesting. I mean, sure, it was aimed at a younger audience but it was more of a plot than your average summer blockbuster. So good plot, amazing animation, insanely rich style — think of it as The Wall for kids, and you won’t go far wrong. See it today.

Side note: I caught the dubbed version; normally I’m not a big fan of the dub but in this case it worked very well. John Lasseter, director of Toy Story and all around Pixar genius, supervised the dubbing and did an excellent job.

Your mother dresses you funny

October 2, 2002
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Background, just in case: three Democratic congressmen recently spoke out against the President’s policy vis a vis Iraq in an interview with CNN. At the time, they were in Baghdad. Quite a few people have equated this with treason. Today, two of them (McDermott and Bonior) defended their actions.

I don’t want to rehash the definition of treason. What interests me is that today was the first time I’ve seen anyone mention that McDermott and Bonior are Vietnam-era veterans. They didn’t serve in Vietnam, but I’m pretty sure “peacenik” is not a word you should casually apply to someone who was in active military service at the time. Certainly they weren’t fighting to end the war.

This kind of ad hominem attack is very discouraging. Piling on the derogatory verbiage is no way to conduct debate.

Resolution at hand

October 2, 2002
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Here’s the text of the resolution Bush is sending to Congress regarding Iraq. It looks pretty fair at first glance, although I think bringing up the 1993 assassination attempt on Bush smacks of revenge. I care that Iraq tried to kill Bush Sr., but I do not care more about that than I care about any single attempt to kill a US soldier. I also have not yet seen proof that Iraq is being harbored by al Qaida. However, this is in essence the bill that Congress needs to pass before we invade Iraq. I’m glad he’s acknowledging that Congress gets to decide.

Thwart? Who talks like that?

October 1, 2002
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Hey, wait a second. When Bush spoke to the UN, he said “The Security Council resolutions will be enforced.” That implies that there are Security Council resolutions in effect, right? So what’s all this about “We feel the inspectors should not go in until there is a resolution that gives them the authority and instructions of the Security Council”? I mean, if we want new resolutions, that’s good; I’m pretty confident that Saddam would be willing to hide stuff inside his palaces, so I can understand wanting access. But that’s no reason to thwart (the State Department’s word) inspections under the current rules, is it? Let’s be clear on this: that’s a direct threat from the United States State Department to obstruct the work of the authorized and appointed UN weapons inspection teams.

Maybe Bush didn’t want the existing Security Council resolutions enforced after all. Perhaps he should have said so. Alas, he’s now allowed himself to be manuvered into a sticky position — it’s not Iraq standing in the way of the UN any longer, it’s the US who appears to be “a threat to the authority of the United Nations…” Again, Bush’s words.

Yeah, that was just a really, really smart bit of strategy.

Day too late

October 1, 2002
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I really wish I’d found this CLI for the Linksys WAP11 a few days ago; I could have skipped digging out cables for my Windows box. Alas alack. Still, worth flagging for later experimentation, especially since it allows one to up the base station’s power output.

For the curious, I’m using the WAP11 and the Linksys WET11 Wireless Ethernet Bridge to bridge between my apartment and my brother’s place. I could have used two WAP11s, or I suppose two WET11s, but either of those approaches wouldn’t have gotten me a wireless network — just a bridge. As is I can use my iBook while sitting on my front steps.

Take me down

September 30, 2002
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I saw Igby Goes Down last week, and came out in a morosely sad mood. Some reviewers were not entirely thrilled by the New York upper class milieu in which the story plays out, so fair warning: if you don’t particular care about rich kids with problems, it’s not the movie for you.

That said, Kieran Culkin is absolutely great as the lead character, and the rest of the cast is solid. The director, Burr Steers, got Ryan Phillippe to play the role he knows how to play; he’s the same spoiled brat we saw in Cruel Intentions. Amanda Peet gets a similar boost from good casting. Igby’s parents, played by Susan Sarandon and Bill Pullman, are just solid. And the best of all is Jeff Goldblum, playing an emotionless affable friend of the family, breaking beautifully away from the roles he’s been doing in summer blockbusters for the last few years.

The movie is set in a bit of a fantasy New York (see comments above). I don’t think I ever saw anyone wearing anything less than elegant; the one shot of a bus ride is cleverly handled from outside the bus so as to avoid boring us with the passengers. Steers comes from the same background as young Igby, and he really gets the glossy perfection of it down pat. I think this is intentional; it’s not that Steers doesn’t know poverty exists, but we’re seeing the world through Igby’s eyes, and Igby has no concept of real suffering.

In other words, the movie works on two levels. There’s the relatively straight-forward story of Igby’s coming of age — you may insert the obligatory Holden Caulfield reference here if you like — but there’s also the bitter satire of the world in which he lives. I think, in the end, it’s the latter that left me feeling moody and sad.