Unqualified Offerings

Looking Sideways at Your World Since October 2001

Archive for September, 2003

Monday, September 29th, 2003

Parse of a Hole

Fun with English Grammar. Compare this sentence

Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this.

with this one:

Nobody in the Bush administration leaked this to me.

Different, huh? Naturally, the first is what Matt Drudge reports Robert Novak as saying. (Hat tip to Atrios.)
The Drudge link will decay. The text attributed to Novak runs

Nobody in the [...]

Monday, September 29th, 2003

Fair and Balanced

Bits of news this antiwar, pro-market weblog briefly acknowledges with the intention of coming back to later:
US poverty rate increases over last year.
Polls show most Iraqis think the invasion was worth it to get rid of Saddam.
(Re the latter, Newsday’s analysis will also be worth going into.)

Monday, September 29th, 2003

Cry Me a River

From Middle East Newsline:

LONDON [MENL] — Al Qaida has warned its agents that the Islamic insurgency movement has been infiltrated by the United States.
An unidentified Al Qaida spokesman has warned that Al Qaida forces in Iraq appear to have been infiltrated by the United States in cooperation with unspecified Arab intelligence services. The spokesman, [...]

Sunday, September 28th, 2003

Plame On

Hey, what’s that wine-dark cloud roiling the political waters? Why – I do believe it’s blood.
I also believe that, when this story initially surfaced during the summer, among the few hawks that acknowledged it, one explanation advanced was that Plame probably wasn’t really a CIA officer, a low-level asset at best, if that.
This isn’t a [...]

Sunday, September 28th, 2003

Liberty and Union! And – Outfits!

As mentioned in the fitness blog item below, I have been inveigled into “experimenting” with civil war reenactment. As I am not quite 43 yet, I will later claim this for a youthful indiscretion. My big day is October 18 at Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, when I join the Brady Sharpshooters (of some [...]

Sunday, September 28th, 2003

Weekly Fitness Blog Item

Weight 165 pounds, waist just over 33″. Stalled, basically. I’d love to lose five more pounds of fat, but they ain’t coming off so far. This was Bad Boy Week too – I skipped all my aerobics sessions except one, imagining to make it all up with
The Andersonville Diet – Actually, this overstates the privation [...]

Sunday, September 28th, 2003

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Bruce Baugh, I’m now a paid-up member of Rock Scissors Blog – at least, I assume the others paid the same as I did (nothin’). Bruce has invited me and unspecified others to help liven the place up, so if it’s hot abstruse RPG theory you’re looking for, stop [...]

Sunday, September 28th, 2003

We’re Here, We’re Queer Marriage Bloggers, Get Used to It

Joining the discussion are actual gay guy Alan Sullivan of Fresh Bilge and straight married woman Sappho of Nole Irritare Leones – also a disquisition on gender roles and bullying by Camassia. Every one of them is worth reading. Brief responses:
I’ll pretty much sign on to every word of Camassia’s item (which does not address [...]

Saturday, September 27th, 2003

It Never Hurts to Ask

I’d like to join a group RPG-oriented blog, one with an emphasis on theory. (Not computer RPGs but the tabletop kind.) Alas, the only one I know of has a membership of high-powered professionals and is dormant. If you run one I can join, please let me know.
Also, if you’d like to bankroll the nationwide [...]

Saturday, September 27th, 2003

For the Troops

Via Gjovaag and others: Operation Comix Relief aims to donate comics to wounded and ill US soldiers in Iraq. No fair dumping all your copies of 1602 and Batman: Hush on our fighting men and women, though – they’ve got enough problems.
I can not personally vouch for this particular charity, so donate at your own [...]