Some short questions, observations, etc.

China has been buying up our debt and the government wants them to continue to keep buying up our debt. So if they buy up enough of our debt, do they own us? Does the United States become a wholly owned subsidiary of China, Inc.?

*****

The new DVD of Pinocchio has an interactive bonus that takes children to Pleasure Island. I heard the commercials enthusing about the fun of playing on Pleasure Island.

Spoiler alert.

Pleasure Island was the place that bad, lazy little boys who didn't want to go to school were lured to. Once there, they became stupider and lazier until they turned into donkeys and were sold as beasts of burden. I find it disturbing that the new DVD has a game which seems to have reworked the whole concept into a Disneyesque fun-time theme park with no bad consequences. It was supposed to be a lesson, Mickey!

*****

A couple of years ago, Matthew Pearl came out with a fiction book (The Poe Shadow) in which Edgar Allen Poe was a main character.

Right around the same time, Louis Bayard's The Pale Blue Eye was published. Also a fiction with EAP as a main character.

Now Matthew Pearl's novel The Last Dickens has just been issued, a fictional mystery about Dickens' final, incomplete novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

It follows upon the publication last month of Drood: A Novel by Dan Simmons.

It's just a coincidence, but Pearl must be getting pretty annoyed by now.

*****

Speaking of Louis Bayard, I ought to give the man credit publically. I read and enjoyed his novel The Black Tower, in spite of the fact that it was written in present tense.

Usually anything written in present tense affects me like fingernails down a blackboard. It's not so much the choose-your-own-adventure-ness of it. I've never been able to work out in my mind exactly why it irks me, so I can't articulate it here.

But anyway, Black Tower was a terrific book. The way he wrote present tense wasn't as intrusive somehow.

*****

Google's smartened up on their phony, idiot stunt from last year's Earth Hour.

We won’t be turning out the lights on our homepage again this year. Our users come first, and while we received lots of enthusiastic feedback last year, some found an all-black Google.com to be a little confusing. (Also, darkened screens don’t actually save energy — modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.)

They haven't smartened up that the thing's an idiot stunt to make people feel that they're making an impact about something that isn't the problem Gore et al have inflated it to be. But yesterday they celebrated it in a less stupid way.

National Anthem Day (United States)

In honor of the day, the full lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner:

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Website

I was going to title this "Website of the Week" but I doubt I'd have the discipline -- or find a recommendable website every single week -- so plain old Website it is.

Before you click on the link, language alert. Which, if you hovered over the link to see the name of the website pop up, you already can figure out.

But, if you enjoy unhinged rants about pictures of cute little animals that are trying to steal our souls and kill us with cuteness, this is the site for you. For me, it actually became funnier as I continued looking at previous posts. But that may just be me.

Ah, well. Enjoy. Or not. It's up to you.

Amazon Mailings

I realize when you shop for stuff on Amazon, you get sent emails based on your past purchases. "As someone who has bought the collected works of Rufus T. Firefly, you might enjoy these other books by crooked lawyers..."

They also appear to send email based on stuff you've just looked at, casually. "As someone who has shown an interest in Bavarian flugal horns..."

But I can't understand the one I got this morning: "As someone who has shown an interest in woodworking tools..." I swear I have never looked at a woodworking tool on Amazon or anywhere else. Oh, well, maybe I looked at some music which featured a song about awls.

Happy New Years

Have a happy and safe New Years everyone.

According to Chinese soothsayers, 2009 will be calm and peaceful.

I believe we make our own luck, good fortune, whatever you want to call it. 2009 can be a good year if we make up our minds to it.

And, in the interest of fairness, here's a clip of a soothsayer I can believe in:

Merry Feast of the Pig

Destroyer fans will understand this.

And I heard him exclaim, as heads parted from necks,
"Merry Feast Day to all, and remember: no checks!"

Merry Feast of the Pig day to my fellow Destroyer fans. More pork for the villagers of Sinanju; less pork in the US government.

My Destroyer wish for 2009 is a new book contract for the series.

My Christmas wish: a happy and healthy New Year for all my friends, online and off.

What Bush should have said to the reporter:

At least Bush ducked better.

Look at the joke I played on Chamberlain!

They've used this one clip in so many ways.



And, since I can't embed it, a link to Leave it to Barry.

A Day Which Will Live in Infamy

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

Herbie the dirty elf (and Santa's not too clean either)

As you get set to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a bit (those of you with children or have remained children in your hearts -- or emotionally immature, depending on your view of things), did you ever notice the characters' hands?

All the characters' hands (those who have hands) are very dirty.

Trust my super clean freak friend to point this out to me a couple of years ago. I've watched this show every Christmas since it first aired in 1964, so that's about forty years until Deb mentioned it and up till then I never noticed.

There's a simple explanation of course. The artists had to move the figurines many, many times to get the stop-motion animation effect. Long days of minute movements, of course the clay was going to get soiled. And even if they noticed it, they weren't going to stop and refashion new appendages, or stop to clean the hands, if that was possible.

No big insights or musing on dirty clay characters symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. I just thought it was interesting and interesting that I'd never noticed the dirt.

If you're not watching, a few songs courtesy of You Tube. I think I've heard Holly Jolly Christmas 1000 times already on the radio, and of course the title song, but these two never get any play. In fact, the second one was cut out for years so they could cram more commercials in. It only was put back a few years ago. I'd have said there were complaints, but the song doesn't seem very popular even on You Tube; this was the only straight version I could find.