Ultimate Success!

This weekend was Sectionals, the first round of pre-qualifiers for the 2006 national club ultimate frisbee tournament (organized by the UPA). You can see a chart of the regions (and their sections) here. We're in the "Metro New York" section which is part of the "Northeast" region.

The team I am on is called Crafty, most of the players are based in Brooklyn (around Prospect Park). As you might be able to tell from the above link, we did pretty well last weekend. Here are the results for our section.

Taking second place behind Puppet Regime (a really powerful and well-put-together team that's bound for Nationals) is an impressive result for us. And I think everyone on the team is pretty elated to be heading into Regionals second in our section.

As of right now they haven't posted the seedings for Regionals; they just have a list of the teams that made it).

There's a ton of quality on that list, we've got a lot of work to do if we want to make an impression there.

But in the meantime, I think we'll bask in the glow of our performance this weekend. Second place is the first loser, indeed!

Nobody Mourns the Wicked!

Last night, Nelly and I took in a broadway musical. Namely, Wicked. It was a really fun show. Tickets are rather expensive; it's not something I would spring for every week, but the experience of a broadway show makes it worth the occasional indulgence. Nelly and I had a wonderful time. It's a great show.

Wicked is a lively look at the background to the "Wizard of Oz": the motivations, histories and connections between the people that were in Oz before Dorothy arrived and who remained after she left. The imagination involved in the story, the knowing winks to the audience, and the revisitation (now that we're older) of a hallowed childrens' tale all combine to make a fantastic experience.

However, by comitting to cover such a large scope, the show end up running like a race. No scene gets the full amount of attention it deserves (although the actors will occasionally wrestle a memorable scene out of the grips of the musical's frantic direction). And I constantly felt like they'd skipped over the part I was waiting to see.

The cast is incredibly talented (especially the two leading ladies) and the writing is witty and incredibly enjoyable. The music is modern and fits the mood and bracing speed of the story. But the songs don't stick with you and, except for the lines the chorus sings over and over again, I don't really remember any of them.

While the musical has its short-comings, the strength of the story and the talented cast ensure that Wicked's frantic pace is a dizzying, breathtaking romp.

Agh! Child Pornography!

The Attorney General anounced yesterday that child pornographers are overrunning the internet. Indeed this menace is growing! So he's asking Congress to pass legislation which will require ISPs (the companies which provide internet access) to store records of their users online behavior possibly 2 years maybe more (the quote is "for a period of time").

He makes it sound so reasonable. And yet...

Would a government regulation that all cars record the detailed behavior (where they go, how fast they drive, how many passengers) of the driver be acceptable? After all, child molesters use cars to get access to children who are further away than they can reasonably walk! It would be so much easier for the government to prosecute these cases if they had a record of where every car in the country has been in the last two years.

The executive branch is trying to set up a huge database of personal information about every person in the country. Since the answer can't be Terrorism, I guess it has to be Child Pornography (An even more fictional threat).

Gonzalez sees a desperate need for new weaponry to fight the thousands of people online (out of an estimated 1.08 billion) right now browsing "child pornography". This is terrible because as we're told, those who consume this stuff are just bound to act on it. There's no actual evidence of that, but it's just, you know, that's what they said on Law & Order that one time.

Child abuse is terrible. A civilized society cannot accept such behavior and must do everything in its power to stop it. We're all in agreement on that point.

Which is why making a big show of "cracking down" on people who access this stuff online makes such a good smoke screen. These people are being tempted by the things they see on the screen and if we don't act now they'll soon be gangs of molesters wandering our streets.

The implication is that the majority of cases of child abuse are committed by strangers; unknown pervs who stalk our children! See here take a look at the statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services! They made a chart, so you can really understand the numbers they're talking about. And if that's not specific enough, they made a table where the numbers are even further broken down.

Well look at that. 90% of child abuse cases are perpetrated by parents/legal guardians. Dang. Well, that doesn't really support the argument. Better to not mention any numbers at all. Better to just say the threat is growing.

Child pornography is the straw man here. What Gonzalez is after is an online record of everyone's behavior. It's hard to really imagine what the federal government could reasonably want with this information.

The paranoid response is that they want it so they can weed out the political dissidents and intimidate the people who might try to stop them (You spent how many hours on what website? Well Congressman, you wouldn't want that to become public now would you?). I'm not going to say that the current administration is really that evil and corrupt, but the paranoids are not too far from the truth.

Gonzalez slyly lets the cat out of the bag: "We need information. Information helps us makes cases."

Information is power. I don't think they know specifically what they want to do with it. But if they had it, then they would use it. And they would use it however they liked.

You Know What Sept 19th Is, Dontcha?

It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Wooohoo! So don't be afraid to bust out with a "scallywag" or "dubloons". Maybe toss in a "lubber" or a "me hardies" while you're at it. If you're concerned that your pirate lexicon is a little lacking, there are some helpful How-To videos.

Also, apparently last night there was a pirate-themed Wife Swap. Yikes!

Keep in mind also, that this is not International Act Like A Pirate Day. So no skewering, raping, pillaging, mindlessly attacking innocents, cutting out tongues etc... It's okay to threaten to do such things, though, because you are talking like a pirate. Just try not to get carried away.

Y'arrrr!

Popes Will Be Popes

I assume that by now everyone's heard about the Pope's inflamatory statements. In truth, I don't know how to refer to it. It would seem that the muslim world is in an uproar. They're angry that the pope quoted a 14th century emporer stating, essentially, that Islam is a religion of violence. Here's the quote:

‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached’

The Pope says he was trying to start a dialog and that he was merely quoting this obscure source to get people to think about the importance of reason. And certainly, that's what the body of his speech is about. He only spent three paragraphs talking about Islam. And of that mostly he was saying that the concept of "Jihad" was against God's will. Which, on the face of it, doesn't seem that inflamatory.

Now the Pope has officially apologized. Considering how long it took the Pope to apologize for the inaction of Catholic Church during the Holocaust, it's a pretty impressive about-face.

So far, the majority of the protest (and there's been a lot of it) has been peaceful, if heavily political. But the Times is reporting threats against the Catholic Church and christians in general, as well as attacks on churches in Palestine and the drive-by shooting of a nun in Somalia. All of this linked to the Pope's statement.

It seems almost hard to believe, but some small part of the reaction to the Pope's statement seems to have been a rash of violent attacks against christian and Catholic churches. I mean, how's that for a rebuttal? How much irony is too much?

I really can't believe the Pope apologized. It seems like the Pope is always saying the most crazy things. Not just because he's Catholic. People think he's the Voice Of God On Earth (his security team calls him "VOGOE"). People seriously believe that (I think). And he's the (not-just-figurative) leader of a gigantic (and seriously old) religion. His house has it's own TLD! I think it's fair to say that this guy is not operating on the same mental plane as the rest of us. It's amazing he can speak in full sentences.

But as we've seen before, the Islamic world does not play around with this stuff. If you say "Muhammed" you better follow it up with "...was one awesome dude!" Otherwise, you know, people will die. No excuses.

New Fake Tooth

Yesterday the dentist removed my fake fake tooth and replaced it with a nice new fake tooth. Instead of plastic, this one is crafted out of ceramic and metal. It's much stronger.

Also, the cement used to hold it in place is much more permanent. It feels, for the most part, exactly like any of my other teeth. It actually fits together in my mouth quite a bit better than my filed-down post-root-canal tooth. So it's pretty much an all-around improvement.

It looks just like the fake fake tooth, though. It's completely unbling-a-blinged.

Sigh.

The Six Hour Practice

Yesterday, my new frisbee team (aka Crafty) had a practice out on Long Island. Somewhere on the island. Honestly, it was pretty far away. But Nelly and I are committed people and we got out on the road early, and despite getting lost for about an hour, we managed to make it to practice on time.

What a practice! Practice started at 11:30 and didn't end until 5pm. Plenty of stuff: running, stretching, drilling, practicing, and scrimaging. We crammed a good deal of practice into that one session.

It's a good thing we did too as Sectionals is coming up this weekend (Sept 16-17). Hopefully, we'll play up to our ability and get a bid into Regionals. At which point, I expect, we'll all be pretty satisfied.

I am officially a big fan of the long practice. I'm definately hoping that in the layover between Sectionals and Regionals, maybe we can get another one in.

Surprise Surprise

El Presidente made waves yesterday by officially admitting that the CIA is running secret prisons around the world. He admitted this because he's having the CIA transfer some high-level prisoners from those "detention centers" to the one everyone knows about.

And he's transfering these formerly invisible prisoners there so that they can be tried and found guilty and probably killed. (Revenge is a dish best served cold.)

All of this has gotten a lot of people talking. Mostly they're talking about the proposed legislation for wackadoo military tribunals (we could call them something else, but we reserve that kind of label for things other countries do).

Quickly:
- hearsay evidence (I wonder if Bush has read the Crucible)
- evidence garnered through torture
- not allowing the defense to see the evidence against it.
in sum, completely ludicrous. But of course, the man's very serious.

I would like, for just a moment, to take you back to your 9th grade civics class and the Three Branches of Government. The executive branch does not get to make up its own laws. This is very basic. They have to work inside the bounds of the laws set up by Congress. If the executive branch acts outside of those bounds, then what should happen? What is the Congress' check on over-reaching executive power?

Hmmmm...

Oh. Right.

Now, you could make an argument that the executive branch, in times of great crisis, should not be handcuffed from performing vital and neccesary (and heretofore unseen) services. And there's certainly some validity in that.

But what is the current crisis? We're approaching the five-year anniversary of 9/11. And something like 3 years in Iraq. So it's hard to see what impending crisis prevented the current administration from going to Congress and asking for new laws... to legalize wiretapping without a warrant... to legalize extraordinary rendition... to legalize Bush's cockamamie tribunal scheme.

They've had years to ask Congress to make new laws, but they didn't. Instead they ignored the law (both federal and international), ignored Congress, ignored the president's duties to the country and the consitution. Because they didn't want to take the chance that Congress might not give them everything they wanted (though it's hard to believe they wouldn't have -- spineless cowards).

They impeached and censured Clinton for lying about an extra-marital affair. Why wont they consider impeaching Bush for usurping the power of the legislative and judicial branches? For undermining the very foundations of our government?

Do Music Videos Suck Now?

With my thoughts turning to bling, I read with interest an article in the Times about the MTV Video Music Awards. Because why have bling if you can't show it to all the kids on MTV?

Sadly, though, according to the article, the music video as I remember it is going the way of the Dodo. It would appear that the epic, multi-million dollar mini-movie is fading into oblivion. Replacing it, apparently, are home-made movies.

It makes sense, considering that seeing a music video on television is increasingly rare. The majority of videos, so I hear, are viewed on the web. So what? That doesn't mean they have to suck... right? Right?

But wait. Look at this heinous piece of crap (L'il John -- you dissapoint me in so many ways). It almost makes me want to despair.

And just when I've lost all hope, something amazing happens. Like this. And then, you know, to top that, the same band (OK Go) does this. Crazy!

But the best thing about the offloading of video playing responsibilities onto the internet, is that you can pick what you watch.