Big Wheel

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/07/D8CFNMPG0.html ← What total garbage. Those remarks of Dean's were made today, AFTER the NY Daily News's resident asshole wrote his article. And here is the best version of the Dean quote that I could find: Who here doubts that this is true?

Total hackery. Just because New Orleans was always poor and high-crime doesn't mean that the feds were not responsible for maintaining order post-disaster. The whole point of a federal response is that local authorities are not equipped to handle natural disasters, regardless of how professional or competent they are to start with. ← Hardly "total hackery." There's more than enough blame to go around on the federal, state, local, and even (in some cases) individual levels. Lots of people and organizations they trusted fucked up on this one. ← Of course there's plenty of blame to go around. That, however, is not what this shitbag is saying. He's arguing that: 1) The NO local police is first and foremost to blame, and that those who disagree are just "Bush-bashing"; 2) That Howard Dean is charging racism--without so much as providing a quote, instead choosing to put Jesse Jackson's words in Dean's mouth; 3) That Ray Nagin, who was a REPUBLICAN until running for mayor, is representative of the Democratic party as a whole; and 4) That it's something extraordinary that the poorest city in America can't magically come up with a better police force. It's a cynical attempt at a whitewash of the Bush administration's actions in New Orleans, laced with spin from top to bottom. Feebly attempting to excuse the inexcusable? That's my definition of hackery.

Total hackery. Just because New Orleans was always poor and high-crime doesn't mean that the feds were not responsible for maintaining order post-disaster. The whole point of a federal response is that local authorities are not equipped to handle natural disasters, regardless of how professional or competent they are to start with.

I dunno if you've ever seen an evacuation-related traffic jam, Guy, but I sure as hell have (going in the other direction before Andrew, no less, talk about surreal), and believe me, sitting in 100+ miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic can seem just as scary as staying home when the hurricane is only hours away. ← I sympathize, but when the government tells you to evacuate and you have the means to evacuate, you should probably evacuate. Guy ← Of course you should. I guess I was taking issue with calling all people who fall into this category "idiots." Some of us have done the hurricane thing a whole bunch of times and we know how crazy things get in the 24 hours beforehand and how often the worst-case scenario fails to materialize.

I dunno if you've ever seen an evacuation-related traffic jam, Guy, but I sure as hell have (going in the other direction before Andrew, no less, talk about surreal), and believe me, sitting in 100+ miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic can seem just as scary as staying home when the hurricane is only hours away.

That's what I've been saying as well. New Orleans is TOTALLED! Take the insurance money and rebuild up the river. I'm being serious. I would think the insurance companies and taxpayers would be serious too. Why recover a whole city at the expense of $20 billioin+ (hell we could fight another war for that much)only to have it happen again. It will happen again, just as it was inevitable this time. A city on the gulf coast, below sea level WILL have catastrophic floods. Rebuild Biloxi, rebuild Gulf Port but think hard before rebuilding New Orleans. And this from a native of Louisiana who understands what New Orleans means to the region economically. ← After today's events and my own experiences during Andrew, I have to wonder how many insurance claims are going to be actually paid and by whom. These kinds of events seem to stretch insurance companies to the breaking point. In the end, it sounds like things worked out for the most part after Andrew, but there was definitely speculation at the time that companies were going to refuse to pay out.

No Boston? Only about 4hrs from NYC...

My uncle gave me a tape of this record years ago (misplaced it but haven't replaced it with the CD yet due to laziness). But I can still hear in my head those crazy half-steps (or are they quarter-tones?) on the horn entrance to "Turkish Bath"--awesome!

D'oh, I forgot about the cable/broadcast FCC distinction. Still, I think the problem wasn't the question so much as Smith's snotty tone in asking it. Smith sounded like he was less interested in hearing a real answer to his question and more interested in pointing out an idiot. And if that was his point all along, he shouldn't have thrust a microphone in the guy's face (why would you turn the mike over to someone you think is an idiot?) Of course the yahoo comes off as stupid. That doesn't mean that Smith can't also come off as stupid. The whole disaster porn thing is stupid, period.

....but then it wouldn't have been the Complete Coltrane/Davis, it would have been the Complete Coltrane/Davis + a few random other tunes with Mobley. It makes sense to me. I like the packaging, too. Much better than that Herbie Hancock box, the clear cube ← By this logic, they should also have left off the trio version of Billy Boy. But you can imagine the outrage that would have followed.

So some angry yahoo says fuck during a 10 second interview and that's supposed to make Smith look bad? ← Sure. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. (Not to mention that Smith or his producer is technically responsible for an FCC rules violation. If it were a different network Smith might have gotten suspended or even fired over this.)

Blame the Weather Channel my friend! BTW, that Jim Cantore dude has got some cojones and even he kept his ass out of NO! ← Now, we can only hope Anderson Cooper gets blown away. ← Can we get a package deal and have Shepherd Smith of Fox News get the Dorothy treatment? ← Speaking of Smith, here's some actual Fox News Video in which he gets his just deserts on live TV.

That's annoying, but more annoying is that you have to buy another copy of Someday My Prince Will Come if you want the tracks without Coltrane. I bet those tracks would easily have fit, too.

I agree with just about all of this. (Although I zoned out a bit during Wright's bit and didn't follow it as closely as I should have). The Gottfried, though not living up to the high expectations that the film gives it, provides a good window into Gottfried's genius at using rhythm in his delivery. The Saget I think is funnier if you previously only knew Saget from Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos--thus the shock value is greatly amplified. Saget did a show at my college in 2001 in which he cracked jokes about banging the Olsen twins, so I pretty much knew what to expect.

Try doing a search for "OJC" instead and see which Prestige titles come up on top. I think searching for "Prestige" may only bring up non-OJC series titles, like the 20 bit K2 remasterings...

Well, except for a few years, the Sox and Yankees have pretty much dominated the AL East. So that in itself could be the source of some resentment for people (with their big payroll, the Sox were considered as a junior Evil Empire to the Yankees). And some people probably felt like the other teams in the division/league didn't get any recognition in the press even when they had good years, because all the focus was always on the Sox-Yankees drama.

I think Mark and Al are referring to a fairly widespread perception that Sox fans were insufferable whiners before the big win. And perhaps also that non-Northeasterners considered the Sox and Yankees to be equally evil, for a variety of reasons.

You can regulate humidity somewhat by purchasing a special dehumidifier. It's basically a long rod that sits above the soundboard and plugs into a nearby wall outlet.

If you must go the electric route, get a digital piano with weighted keys (although any keyboard with stand won't take up THAT much less space than a spinet). Getting a workstation-type keyboard with a powerful built-in synth will be mostly useless for a little kid. I haven't been in the market for quite awhile so I don't know which models to recommend. Kurzweil, Yamaha, and Roland all have decent reputations in terms of digital pianos.

I just signed up and put about 30 things in my queue. Next up: Kurt Rosenwinkel's Heartcore.

I have the Zen Touch, used in combination with earphones similar to Alexander's model. It is definitely worth it for the lower price. The Zen Touch has no fancy recording/radio functions like the Micro, but it's great for loading lots of mp3s. Only real drawback is that the player will crash every month or two, requiring me to poke the reset button with a pin/paper clip. (No data is lost when I do this.)

Exactly. I currently have no system, only a non-iPod mp3 player. I was planning on picking up the Jamal and Shaw reissues...not gonna happen now.

Sounds like some calls to Sony BMG HQ may be in order. Anyone want to ask them why they seem determined to make our CDs impossible to play? Phone number: 212-833-8000 Chief Marketing Officer: Tim Prescott Senior VP, Global Marketing: George Levendis VPs of Global Marketing: Daniel Levy, Jim Wright VP, Marketing, Legacy Jazz: Seth Rothstein (x4052)

I don't see what the costumer's expectations as to temperature have to do with this case. She wasn't intentionally bathing in the coffee, she accidentally spilled it on herself through her own negligence. It just so happened that it did more damage than it would have otherwise because it was as hot as advertized rather than being tepid. I'd be far more ready to blame McD's for serving hot product in a flimsy cup to people in moving vehicles. That seems like it could be negligence. Refusing to play down to customers expectation of mediocrity shouldn't be negligence. Who'd have thought McD's would be holding the line against enforced mediocrity? --eric ← Nobody who died in a Ford Pinto explosion intentionally crashed their car. Some of them were involved in accidents that were entirely their fault, they just did more damage than they would have otherwise. Should Ford have been entirely absolved of responsibility in these cases? I think expectations matter because they play an important role in how the consumer assesses risk, regardless of how they are using the product. No other car I've driven has been known to explode when rear-ended--why should I exercise particular caution when driving a Pinto, if Ford didn't inform me of the risk? (And how hot was the coffee advertised? I don't recall any ads saying "DELICIOUS MCDONALD'S 185 DEGREE COFFEE." Ad copy like "piping hot" is open to interpretation--if you consider the coffee you make in your house piping hot, why should it occur to you that McDonald's definition is different?)

I'm not necessarily endorsing the reasoning of the jury, but that was their reasoning. The jury seemed to think that fault was well established, and threw in the punitive damages for what McD's did afterward--for instance, testifying that they refused to lower brewing/holding temperatures even after all these complaints had been filed. It wasn't just the lowball offer. The coffee was being held at at least 180 degrees, I believe. Now, that may be how "coffee is supposed to be made," but most Americans still don't make coffee at this temperature, nor do they know that this is the recommended temperature for best taste. It's not unreasonable to think that a McDonald's customer expects the coffee to be roughly the same temperature as a home-brewed cup, instead of about 50 degrees hotter. Some info on the case: link