strangerslog

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/twins

It's no secret that The Seattle Times and the PI are joined at the hip — literally and figuratively &mdash but today's front pages just screamed out for comparison.

Like here. The PI: "Court nixes county's land use limits. The Times: "Court says rural-land restrictions go too far."

Yes, they are on opposite sides of the paper, but they are actually about the same ruling.

Both papers also feature housing costs as their big issue — no surprise, considering that they cater to a solid middle-class readership. But it really is too much when they both cite Windermere in their battling coverage.

Combined, the two papers ran 27 articles referencing "mortgage"—just today.

Guys, why delay the inevitable? Just merge them already.

strangerslog

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/liveslogging_the_disposable_bag_hearing

I'll be live-Slogging the public-comment meeting on the proposed 20-cent fee for disposable plastic and paper bags (and proposed ban on Styrofoam food containers). Read along with me as enraged citizens yell at the council about their God-given right to free plastic bags, and environmentalists dressed up in silly costumes wave their hands and sing songs out in favor of the measure.

So far, the testimony has all been in favor of the fee and ban. First up: Shoreline City Council member Janet Way, who was accompanied by someone dressed up in an uncomfortable-looking costume made of plastic bags—the "Bag Monster." The council member and her monster were followed by the (also pro-fee) Raging Grannies, about a dozen senior citizens in funny hats who waved canvas bags in the air while singing a version of "This Land is Your Land" repurposed as a pro-recycling anthem. (Sample lyrics: "This can is your can/ this can is my can/ we use it once and we’ll use it again/ it might come back as a bicycle handlebar/ this can was made for you and me").

The grocery industry is speaking now. Jim Fenton, a representative for the QFC grocery chain, and Joe Gilliam, a spokesman for the Northwest Grocery Association, argued that a bag tax represents an undue burden on low-income people, and would consume too much time at the checkstand. A one-time transaction fee at checkout, Fenton argued, would "avoid delay at our checkstands so that our customers have time to get home to their families." Gilliam added, "We’re concerned about our customers who can’t afford [the fee], who are low income. There’s no one at our checkstand who should be singled out because of their income. … our concern for the fixed and low-income folks who can’t afford the per-bag tax." The first "concern" is absurd (if they're that worried about slow lines, why not get rid of cigarette sales and ID checks?), and the second is just disingenuous, particularly the second. As I've said before, anyone who can afford groceries--in other words, just about everyone--can afford to buy a 73-cent reusable bag.

strangerslog

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/obama_and_reproductive_rights

Apropos of yesterday's posts about Obama's stated support of a ban on abortions after 22 weeks (and his stated opposition to a "mental distress" exemption to such a ban), here are some reactions from the excellent reproductive rights blog RHReality Check.

First up: A woman who actually had a late-term abortion has this to say about why women actually get such abortions (hint: It isn't, to use Obama's words, because she was "just feeling blue"):

I sat in my obstetrician's office and listened without fully understanding as the doctor repeated the medical term "anencephaly" over and over in reference to the child I carried.

More than a month later I sat in a university hospital with obstetrician number five as he patiently and painstakingly presented ultrasound scans from "normal" pregnancies and then scans from my own pregnancy. Each of the multiple anomalies present -- omphalocele, spina bifida, anencephaly and others -- were explained and, for the first time I fully understood why the child I already deeply loved and wanted would never survive outside of my womb.

Several days after that appointment my husband and I, in consultation with the doctor, made the decision that we would not attempt to carry to term and would terminate.

Because there were only potential and no immediate threats to my physical health, there are many who would stand in judgment of our family's decision. To be honest, there are many who have and still do. One thing that has stood out, however, is the fact that other families who have faced similar choices -- even those who made the opposite decision -- have never wagged an accusatory finger in our direction. There's something about the process of deciding between Option A and your child's death, Option B and your child's death or Option C and your child's death that tends to put things in perspective. A perspective, it seems, of which Senator Obama has absolutely no understanding.

strangerslog

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/they_forgot_about_the_thinking_part

In case you hadn't heard, there's a bit of a blow-up over two editors at the Gawker-owned feminist web site Jezebel.com, Moe Tcakik and Tracie Egan, who appeared, representing Jezebel, an event called "Thinking and Drinking" last week. The host of the show, Lizz Winstead, says she asked them to do the onstage interview because "their work on Jezebel has made them role models for young women everywhere." She wanted to talk to them about Hillary and sexism, women's magazines and whether they "feel any obligation to write about responsibility and safety when they write graphically about their sex lives." But things quickly went off the rails, as you'll see when you watch the video.

On safe-sex choices:

Moe: Withdrawal has always worked for me.

Tracie: One hundred percent.

On rape:

Tracie: People are always saying it's not safe to go home with strange men, blah, blah blah, like Mr. Goodbar whatever.

Moe: What's gonna happen??

Lizz: You could get raped.

Moe: That's happening too, but you live through that, you know?

Lizz: Sometimes you don't.

Moe: That's true, if they have weapons.

Tracie: I'm not going to bring someone home and be like, not tonight.

Lizz... But that's just not how rape works! If you bring a guy home and you want to fuck him and he's like guess what, I'm a psycho, and when I look in your face I want to kill you...

Tracie: I live in Williamsburg, there aren't very, um, assertive men there.

Moe: The thing about the rapists of our generation, is that they're not very assertive men, but they all use drugs, they all have some sort of drug they use on you, so it's good to feel, and I don't know if this has happened to me or if I just drink too much but there are times when... It's really hard to prosecute them (rapists), so you should try to avoid them at all costs. But you know, I don't know, it's a very strange line.

Tracie: I moved to New York when I was 18 and you think you would encounter more rapists in this big city , but, I don't know, I haven't. I always, I don't know if I attract, like, dudes that want to be dominated or something?

Moe: I attract rapists.

Tracie: I once paid someone to rape me once.

Lizz: Well, first of all, you cannot pay someone to rape you. You are a willing accomplice. You have said, rape me now, it's not rape. ..

Tracie: I think even though I'm a feminist I just have this issue where I naturally dominate everybody and so I had this like fantasy where I like wanted to be dominated so I paid someone--well, I didn't pay someone, I had a magazine pay for it—

Lizz: That is two steps removed from rape.

On date rape:

Moe: I've totally been like victimized, and I think that I kind of must broadcast something. But the point is that, like, I think you were saying what do you regret in terms of sexual experiences and I guess I regret like being date raped.

But, you know, it seems like in terms of kind of bad sexual experiences that you've had the worst ones always seem to be in countries where sex is not accepted. I mean, that is the good thing about New York, it's like, I've never has any problems with anyone here

I guess third guy, I ever had sex with, date raped me, and I got very mad at him, but I wasn't gonna fucking like turn him in to the police and fucking go through shit.

Lizz: Why not, you see that's the problem, why not, I am just curious?

Moe: Because it was a load of trouble and I had better things to do, like drinking more.

On how to not get yourself raped:

Tracie: I have to honestly say that like, I know that it happens to girls who are smart, who know what they're doing, and blah blah blah, but like, I've never ever been in that situation and I've had lots and lots and lots of sex with a lot of people in my life. Maybe it's about education or something.

Lizz: Maybe you're lucky.

Tracie: I think it has to do with the fact that I am like, smart. Don't hiss! When I see myself in a situation that's not cool--I get wasted and stuff but like when I see myself in a situation I'm out. I've never hung around with frat guys. I took self-defense classes.

Moe: Yeah but it's like that Holocaust poem, you know...

Tracie: I'm just saying I've never been in that situation.

Moe: I always felt very like, safe around this guy even after he date raped me.

Lizz: You're digging yourself a huge hole, darlin'. You were not safe with him, he raped you!

Moe: All I'm saying is that he didn't seem like a guy who was like a date rapist.

Lizz: You can't identify where latent rage and anger and all that is. It doesn't have a look, it doesn't have a style, it doesn't have any of that.

Moe: But it's also, like, ridiculous to be like, you can never know, you have to be on guard at all times, it's like, the war on terror.

On being role models:

Tracie: Anybody that would emulate someone else is not with it completely.

Lizz: Hello? We have a, like, 75 bazillion dollar television budget that is based on emulation! What are you talking about? Your whole blog is based on people emulating you. Regardless of whether you think they should! That's like when football players say I am not a role model. You're a de facto role model.

Tracie: That's like undermining their intelligence to make their own decisions.

Now, it's not like I've never said dumb shit when I'm drunk. But you know what? I've also never gone onstage, wasted, representing the Stranger, and made a complete ass of myself in front of a bunch of people who paid to see me speak. If I was their employer--hell, if I was their friend— I'd be sad as hell to watch these two smart, funny ladies make themselves look and sound like complete fucking assholes. If you're gonna be a public person, you've got to take responsibility for your public actions. And tossing up a whiny post about how bad your hangover is ain't gonna cut it.

strangerslog

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/let_freedom_reign_2

Sigh.

I shy away from posting items to Slog about the war since, you know, I was one of those clueless liberal hawks who thought it might be a good idea to invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity. (For the record: I was never in favor of converting them to Christianity. And, hey, we're coming up on the three-year anniversary of my call for us to get the hell out—wow, times flies when you're feeling mortified and complicit.) So when I see a news item about Iraq and think, "Hey, that might be Slog worthy," I hang back, hoping that one of my colleagues—the ones without blood all over their hands, keyboards, laptops, etc.—will post the Iraq news while I provide wall-to-wall coverage of the pit bull, youth pastor, and sex toys beats.

But none of my less conflicted coworkers seem all that interested in posting items about Iraq. What's up with that? Anyway, this news item seems relevant and Slog-worthy, and I waited all day to see it go up on Slog, and so far it hasn't... so I guess I'll have to post it.

Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq's prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.

This is big news, of course, because George W. Bush has been running around describing any timetable for withdrawal as tantamount to treason. He's also currently trying to ram a deal down the throats of the Iraqis that would allow us to build 50 or more permanent military bases in their "sovereign" country, a deal that would allow US troops to stay in Iraq for ever and ever and ever, just like John McCain wants. But McCain, way back in 2004, said we'd have to pull out of Iraq if the sovereign Iraqi government we installed asked us to get out. Americablog has the transcript:

Question: "What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there?"

McCain: "Well, if that scenario evolves than I think it's obvious that we would have to leave because—if it was an elected government of Iraq, and we've been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government then I think we would have other challenges, but I don't see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people."

And now the elected Iraqi government wants a timetable for withdrawal. They're gearing up to ask us to get out. And an overwhelming majority of the American public now regards the war as a mistake and wants to get out. But McCain, like Bush, has rejected any and all timetables and thinks we should stay in Iraq for 10,000 years. Unless, of course, the Iraqis ask us to leave—a request that McCain believes that we would obviously have to honor, seeing as Iraq has an elected government accountable to the Iraqi people.

So... there's been a lot of shouting in the media lately about Obama's supposedly evolving position on the war. Perhaps the shouters can now turn their attentions to McCain's increasingly problematic stance on the war. Because if you've already agreed to leave if asked but you've also rejected a timetable for withdrawal, um, what's left? What's McCain got? "Okay, okay, we'll withdraw—but not on your damn timetable, Iraq. We'll leave but it's gonna be a surprise. When you least expect it—pffft!—we'll be gone!"

memeorandumtech

http://www.techmeme.com/080708/p122#a080708p122

J. Nicholas Hoover / InformationWeek:
Microsoft Admits Windows Vista Mistakes, Criticizes Apple Ads  —  The company will work to reverse the widely held belief, informed by early troubles upon the operating system's launch, that Vista isn't compatible with many applications and devices.  —  Microsoft is now acknowledging …

memeorandumtech

http://www.techmeme.com/080708/p152#a080708p152

Ashlee Vance / The Register:
EMC CEO's ego has cost investors billions  —  Whacks Greene when VMware needed her most  —  Comment By firing VMware chief Diane Greene, EMC's top dog Joe Tucci has sent a message to investors that his personal likes and dislikes come before their broader interests.

infocorn
lomography

...and absent any further ado--

My name's Jeff.  I use an ActionSampler to confound my local photo-finishing lab and to take pictures of cars passing me on the freeway.

I'd really love to downgrade to a Lomo LCA or similar and...to that end...

I have the following I'd be willing to trade for for a LCA/LCA+ and goodies.  It is a gently-used Fuji (well, Fujica, but Fujifilm made it) 35 MM SLR.  It comes with three lenses: a multi-purpose regular old lens (well, that's what I use it for; the number stuff on it says "1:2.2, f=55mm), a telefoto (telephoto? 1:2.8, f=135mm), and a wide-angle (1:3.5, f=28mm, this one techincally "has" a lens cap, but it's really too big for the lens, but the WA/normal use the same size for when the WA"s equipped).  It also comes with a bracket that I am uncertain of the use for.  I'm also not real sure just how to tell the...range?  Like how some listings on Ebay have #/# or 70-300 on them.  Yeah, I have no idea.  I can upload pics later if someone can help me "read" my lens.

To sweeten the deal, I'll throw in a four-pack of 400 color film (new stuff, though, none of Lomo dot com's fun stuff).  

The camera itself should undergo a professional cleaning (and the cases for the lenses might need a quick rubdown too) for the simple reason that the bag this particular camera was stored in has foam rubber stuff that's disintegrating.  Ew.  Other than that, it works great (just replaced its light-meter/brain battery within the last two years).  The lenses haven't really been used by me other than to make sure they were compatible and, you know, not busted.  The TF/WA lenses have their own case/bag and lens cap. 

The camera body has settings for 25-3200 shutter speed, a self-timer with a most-satisfying warning beep, focus finder, standard hotshoe/screw-lens opening.  You can do long-exposure stuff with it too.

Poking around Ebay, I saw the body for a very wishful-thinking 100 US or so, but like I said, I would much rather do a straight swap.  Similar lenses are going for, approximately:
-- WIDE: $5-100 
-- TELEFOTO: about $20
-- "NORMAL" no listings!  Bad ebay!  Bad!

Wishlist for the swap is pretty basic:
-- LCA/LCA+ camera or even a Holga
-- some kind of flash
-- any other goodies for the LCA/+ you might have and be willing to part with.

So, if you're reading this, and it sounds like a fantastic step-up for your shooting, comment, LJ message, or email me (see the fake link on my page at the left, linked thusly)

Thanks!

christopher575

Tonight's plan, originally uploaded by christopher575.

Defrost this motha.

strangerslog

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/art_cats_mice_and_sex_in_space

It's all here (and then here).