The baseball page has been revamped, especially the search function. I always wanted to be able to make custom searches of a historical baseball database, but I never could. So I wrote it myself, and now I can, and so can you.
Oct 052002
Oct 052002
Google’s new page-ranking algorithm may have hurt better blogs than mine, but who cares? I’m now the #1 Haspel, ahead of my mother and sister, who write (about food) for actual money, some camera service in the Netherlands, and the summer-suit purveyors who own the eponymous domain.
In a related story, I’m on page 14 of the Aarons, behind Hank Aaron, Aaron Copland, Aaron Burr, Aaron Carter, Aaron’s Tracheostomy Page, and the notice that Aaron’s Tracheostomy Page has moved.
Oct 052002
Canadian Customs seems to believe that pamphlets entitled “A Moral Defense of Israel” may constitute “obscenity or hate-propaganda.” These were to be distributed for a lecture by the noted obscene hate-speakers at the Ayn Rand Institute.
Of course it is impossibly stupid to confiscate this particular pamphlet, even according to the Customs guidelines, which say, according to the National Post story, “that ‘full recognition should be given to freedom of expression’ and goods that may constitute hate propaganda will not be classified, for example, if they express a religious opinion in good faith or are discussing a matter of public interest.” Surely Israel’s right to exist constitutes a matter of public interest. The Customs officials finally released the pamphlets, after three days. But the real evil is the guidelines — the idea that someone can decide what constitutes “hate speech” in the first place — not the particular stupidity.
Silver Lining Dept.: I wouldn’t be surprised if this incident prompts a public reconsideration of “hate speech” statutes, simply because of its monumental idiocy. Hard cases often make bad law, and easy cases sometimes make good law, for similar reasons.
(Thanks to Arthur Silber for pointing out this horror.)
Oct 042002
Blogging will be light for the next couple of days. I’m gussying up the baseball part of this site. Those of you who are interested in baseball statistics will have something to look forward to; the rest of you, well, won’t.
Oct 032002
Being Time Warner means never having to say you’re sorry. They yanked my cable service at 8:30 this morning, and restored it at 3:30 this afternoon, offering no explanation in either case. And no apology either. They did, however, offer me the opportunity to purchase premium channels, which was nice.
Oct 022002
Get your BS in BS Studies here. Then your Master’s. And your Ph.D. Quick, before the link rots (another permalink busted on Blogspot).
I wrote once about how Marx (and Freud) are behind the death of rational discourse, but this guy is better. Much better.
Oct 012002
Mark Wickens catches the Toronto Star saying silly things about the Kyoto treaty, and makes them admit it.
Sep 302002
Technical difficulties put this site off-line for several hours late this afternoon and early this evening. Alles jetzt in Ordnung. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Sep 302002
Readers who have followed this closely can finally exhale: Mickey Kaus fixed his back button! Only three months after I told him how to do it. What company bought KausFiles again?
Sep 302002
To a Dead Journalist
Behind that white brow
now the mind simply sleeps —
the eyes, closed, the
lips, the mouth,
the chin, no longer useful,
the prow of the nose.
But rumors of the news,
unrealizable,
cling still among those
silent, butted features, a
sort of wonder at
this scoop
come now, too late:
beneath the lucid ripples
to have found so monstrous
an obscurity.
–William Carlos Williams