Savage ducks

Sitting at our picnic table on the shores of Black Lake, watching the local gang of mallards getting fed cheesey poofs or something by one of the neighboring campsites - a seagull swooped in to take part, and the ducks mobbed him. He couldn't even take off again.  I've never seen aggressive ducks before.

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Makes you think (I hope)

Of course, we know virtually nothing about the Oslo incident yet - It'll be interesting, in fact, to see how long it takes for even an official, let alone an accurate account of motives and scope emerges.

But whatever was going on, you gotta remember: this apparent blend of extreme religion and extreme politics isn't an isolated position. It's the far end of a range along which lie gradations of the same points of view, less festered, less obscene, but still on the same road.  Think about it when you vote -- or even when you pick a news show or buy a paper.

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Heirogliphics of a sort

We did our obligatory quick run through the State Street Art Fair last night, and over by Rackham, there was a large, sparsely staffed set of tables from Applegate Farms. They were doing nothing at all that I could see except giving away free samples of their hot dogs, along with brochures and the pin shown here.

The translation they were trying for, I assume, is "I love meat," a marketing cliche in which "love" is represented by a heart shape. But by replacing it with an apple, I suppose they were trying to link it to their name, Applegate. But then, in the inevitable back and forth with the CEO, I imagine the following dialog went on.

CEO: I apple meat? What does that mean?
Marketing Creep: Well, it still means I heart meat, but the Apple is for Applegate, you know, tying it to us.
CEO: I don't get it. How much do these pins cost?
Marketing Creep: Well, maybe we need to strengthen the imagery -- what do you think, artist?
Artist: Uh, how about if there's an arrow through the apple? Like what's his name shooting an apple off somebody's head? That would strengthen the apple-ness of it.
CEO: What? Paul Revere or somebody like that?
Marketing Creep: Yeah, or Ted Nugent -- he's hot right now.
CEO: Couldn't we get Ted Nugent to do an ad for us?
Marketing Creep: You think the pins are expensive?
Artist: And there's all this feral pig thing, tied to Ted right now. We might want to hold off on that until we see who comes out on top.
CEO: On top of what? Ted Nugent is in favor of feral pigs?
CFO: (Popping in) Are you winding up? I need the conference room.
CEO: Oh, hell, I don't care. Put an arrow in and run with it.
Artist: Actually, you know, it would make a pretty good logo. We should put it on everything.
CEO: Fine, fine. Just don't go nuts with the budget.

I have long wanted to create and copyright a heiro-phrase like this myself, in which the characters would be:

I X-a-(drawing of a shipping container) (topic)

Which would be read as I execrate New York or Michelle Bachmann or something. But it would just cause traffic accidents, I suppose.

And by the way, they were terrible hot dogs.

One down

Ron Paul, the Libertarian wacko from Texas, has announced that he will leave Congress in order to focus on a run for the Presidency, Since he has less chance of being nominated, let alone elected, than I do, that means effectively one fewer incumbent jackass in Washington, giving TX an opportunity to elect a new one.

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For your entertainment, here's a classic piece of Ron Paul nonsense. The man should be institutionalized. Perhaps in the same room as Rick Perry.

Spank Newscorp while the spanking is good

2011 07 14: Yay! The FBI took my advice! Or they're operating independently. Whichever.

---

As a long time believer in the efficacy of kicking a man while he's down, this strikes me as a really great time to open investigations into any potential coziness between Rupert Murdoch's US enterprises (can you say Fox News?) and our own gummint. Whether there's anything to be found is hardly the issue -- if just a few congress critters call for hearings, the fun on Wall Street will be immense.

If he was willing to just shut down The News of the World as a sacrifice to criticism, what would he do if Roger Ailes were found to have approved something moderately despicable? Something that touched on the lives of, say, the families of US soldiers killed overseas? Ah, the schadenfreude. I can taste it now.

Quote of the day

"It is sufficient that we understand clearly the strategic lack of logic of the fundamental idea of the crusades and that we understand their genesis. The mystical-transcendental trait of mankind is capable of developing a gigantic force, but the ability to direct this force to practical, down-to-earth goals is lacking, and the force is consumed fruitlessly,"

Hans Delbruck, writing in 1923, in Germany, Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte. Dr. Delbruck died in 1929, sparing himself the irony of a first-hand view of the subject.

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He's not a jackass, he's just Type B

The Japanese official who resigned after a week for, essentially, being a jerk, claims it's his blood type that made him do it. His wife reminded him of it, he says. Incidentally, I'm a type O. See what the article says the Japanese think about that.

The revolving door keeps on rollin'

Back and forth, back and forth.

The content-industrial complex against which President Eisenhower warned us continues to trade execs in a pathetic effort to avoid obsolescence.

With the troubles at Borders ...

... one small casualty has been the video link on Bob Sparrow's web site to some Ann Arbor interviews with Anthony Bourdain. I took a few minutes this AM to poke around the net and came up with one video and a blog entry. In the first one, you'll see fleeting glimpses of Bob and also Mike Monaghan, the Fish Market king.

Bourdain eats smelt, disses Food Network

Ok ... that appears to be all Utube has. Here's a Bourdain blog entry about Grange.

Anybody have anything other than the video on Utube? The reason I ask is that it was described to me as "Bourdain interviews Bob Sparrow," and that's certainly not in the link here. Just a quick cameo of Bob, plus Mike delivering a plate of smelt.

Michigan Anti-affirmative action amendment overturned

You go, 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. In yo' face!

Some alert readers may recall that I posed this question, some time back: what's the difference between the Taliban and people who voted for Proposition 2? One group is hiding in caves in Afghanistan and the other one should be.

Among people who were pleased: the Mayor of Grand Rapids, for some reason. He said, "Wow, wow, wow!" in fact. Not what I'd expect from a West Michigan Pol, but good for him.