mushinnoshin

Few things warm my heart like seeing a half million people standing up against oppression and bigotry. The ignorant xenophobic redneck chest beating has really gotten unbearable lately, and this is a fantastic antidote. As my Aussie friends would say, “good on ya, mates”. I’m with you.

UPDATE: Just want to give props to Harry at “The Monroe Doctrine” for a well spoken piece on the subject. I know I’ve been harsh on him before, I hope he knows it’s just tough love : )

We had a little fun with some tricky SQL today, which put me in the mood to share my masterpiece, for the morbidly curious. There’s nothing particularly fancy here, just a whole lot of data coming from a lot of different places. Well anyway, enjoy:

# Days Sales Outstanding

$qry = $db->prepare(”
select
dss02_chan.description as chan,
if(master_sales.soldto like ’9%’ or
master_sales.soldto=’FSFSFS’,
‘Company1′,’Company2′) as business,
month_abbrev,
master_sales.fcyear,
round((sum(sales)/1000),0) as sales,
a_r,
((a_r / round((sum(sales)/1000),0))*100) as pct,
days,
round(((a_r / round((sum(sales)/1000),0) ) * days),0) as dso
from master_sales

inner join cmf_dss on
master_sales.soldto = cmf_dss.soldto

inner join dss02_chan on
cmf_dss.2 = dss02_chan.id

inner join tbl_monthnames on
master_sales.fcmonth = tbl_monthnames.month_id

inner join
(select fcyear,fcmonth,count(date) as days
from tbl_datetofiscal group by fcyear,fcmonth)
as monthdays
on
monthdays.fcmonth = master_sales.fcmonth and
monthdays.fcyear = master_sales.fcyear

left join
(select
round((sum(claims)+sum(future)+sum(current)
+sum(30day)+sum(60day)+sum(90day)
+sum(120day))/1000,0) as a_r,
fcmonth,
fcyear,
cmf_dss.2 as chan,
if(rpt_ar65.soldto like ’9%’ or
rpt_ar65.soldto=’FSFSFS’,
‘Company1′,’Company2′) as bsn
from rpt_ar65

inner join
(select max(rptdate) as monthenddate
from rpt_ar65 inner join tbl_datetofiscal
on rptdate=tbl_datetofiscal.date
group by fcmonth,fcyear) as monthends
on rpt_ar65.rptdate = monthends.monthenddate
inner join tbl_datetofiscal
on rpt_ar65.rptdate = tbl_datetofiscal.date

inner join cmf_dss
on rpt_ar65.soldto = cmf_dss.soldto
group by fcmonth,fcyear,chan,bsn
) as ar65plus
on
ar65plus.fcmonth = master_sales.fcmonth and
ar65plus.fcyear = master_sales.fcyear and
ar65plus.chan = cmf_dss.2 and
ar65plus.bsn = if(mp=’8′,’Company1′,’Company2′)
where
master_sales.rec_type = ‘ACT’ and
(cmf_dss.2 = ‘EXPRT’ or cmf_dss.2 = ‘SPEC’) and
(
(master_sales.fcyear = ? and
master_sales.fcmonth >= ?) or
(master_sales.fcyear = ? and
master_sales.fcmonth < = ?)
)
group by chan,business,month_abbrev,master_sales.fcyear

order by chan asc,business asc,
master_sales.fcyear asc,master_sales.fcmonth asc
“);

Reasearchers have conducted a study of particular interest to those of us in the magazine business.

Nazim Qadir. Taxi Driver. Kirkuk. 2/7/06.

Who was Nazim Qadir? Is that the sum of his life? What where his dreams? What were his plans for 2/8/06? We’ll never know.

Yes, I just got back form the march, and it was truly a moving experience. I’ve attended a number of these things, but this one really got to me. As we stood there in front of the federal building, reading alternately the names of Tennessean soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed in this gross, stupid war, there was no choice but to reflect on the depth of the tragedy.

Nazim Qadir. Taxi Driver. Kirkuk. 2/7/06.

I stepped up to the microphone and read his name, and I felt ashamed. Ashamed that this man was murdered in my name, and ashamed that all I can do for him is to read his name aloud and hope to give him a moment of dignity.

Sometimes as I traverse the blogosphere I worry that perhaps I’m too harsh in my condemnations of modern conservatives. Especially since as a Libertarian I ostensibly agree with you on at least a few things. Then I remember.

Nazim Qadir and more than 33,000 like him have been murdered. Murdered by a repugnant, stupid, STUPID man who I wouldn’t hire to run my errands, much less my country. Murderd by a Cokehead Christian Cowboy that YOU put in office — the 51 million or so of you that willingly and blindly voted for this monster are just as guilty as he. Nazim Qadir’s blood is on YOUR hands. And whether I like it or not, his blood is on my hands as well.

So if you think I get a little snarky sometimes, well you can fuck right off. Because if I have to choose a lesser evil, between higher taxes and mass murder, well I guess I’m going to have to live with higher taxes. Because I can’t afford the bad karma you folks are bringing.

Well, I’m off to the protest, perhaps I’ll see ya there.

I’ve made a pleasant recent discovery — one of those “I can’t believe I never knew about this” sort of things. It’s called the Classic Arts Showcase, and it runs commercial-free on Comcast public-service channel 9. (According the website it’s also available for Dish).

It’s sort of like a classical or high-art version of MTV. Apparently they produce 8 hours of new content each week, which they broadcast 24hrs a day, shuffling the material by 1 hour blocks. How this gets reproduced by Comcast is hard to say, they could be airing the whole feed constantly or they might be just filling certain times, I’m not sure. It has been on every time I’ve flipped to it.

Of course these are free clips provided by the labels, and a lot of the material is very dated (70′s & 80s) in terms of both recording technology and visual style, but this actually seems to give it a certain charm that kinda grows on you as you watch it.

Well, anyway, I think it’s cool, definately a nice alternative to put on every now and then, especially when I just want something on in the background. And oh how pleasant and relaxing compared to the overcompressed noise and screaming product pitches found on most other channels.

Well that was an interesting way to spend the evening. Somehow I got pegged to take part in a survey for 105.9. They spun up 600 song clips and had us rate ‘em.

So if you notice the station suddenly playing a whole lot more from Genesis, Yes, The Police, and Rush — and a lot less of “The Lynyrd Seger Band” or whatever you call that worn out crusty redneck crap they usually play — then you know who to thank/blame.

But I wouldn’t worry too much. Having looked around the room, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a < 1% outlier as usual. Seeing as neither 90.3 or 91.1 were even listed in their “what station” multi-choice questions, I don’t think I’m exactly their target demo…

Yikes! Here’s the danger with that “save draft” function, it’s way too easy to leave something hanging. So anyway Huck tagged me with this here book meme, so let’s go ahead and lay it out.

[1] Name 5 of your favorite books

• The Illuminatus Trilogy – Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
  Hoo-boy, how to describe this one? Can you imagine Hunter Thompson feeding Ayn Rand some acid and convincing her to rewrite the JFK screenplay in the style of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide”? No? Neither can I. Just read the fnording book.
• The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
  I can’t even begin to comment on this without running the risk of either sounding too dramatic or not dramatic enough. I’ll just say I’ve read it many times, but I’m glad that I haven’t in a long time.
• Progress and Poverty – Henry George
  I cannot lavish enough praise on Henry George or this book. Apparently neither can fanboys like Einstein, Tolstoy, and Huxley. Simply put George’s ideas are the missing link that completely obsoletes the economic arguments between the left and right. Communists and Captialists are both half wrong and both half right and both for the same reason, and George figured it out almost 130 years ago.

(I’m going to have to cop out on the last two… but I’ll pick ‘em back up down in “books with meaning”)

• Collected works of Hermann Hesse
  At first I was going to list Siddhartha, but I realized this was only because it was the first I read, some 16 or 17 years ago. I think however that each of Hesse’s works has become my new favorite as I’ve read them. The book I’ve most recently absorbed (last year) was The Glass Bead Game. I suppose there is some quirky humor in having found my way to Buddhism through a German novelist, but I’m certainly not the first westerner to do so, and won’t be the last.
• Collected works of Hunter S. Thompson
  Here again I can’t pick just one. In HST’s case though I think it’s more because he’s really only written one book, it just never ends. He seems to stop writing when the deadline hits, then just pick up where he left off with the next one. I’m currently in the middle of Kingdom of Fear, unfortunately his last work. I don’t know why he left us, but he is already missed.

[2] What was the last book you bought?

I made a post-Christmas trip to Davis Kidd and stocked up for a while:
Hunter Thompson – “Kindom of Fear” (reading now)
The Taoist I-Ching
Tolstoy – “War & Peace” (yup, finally gonna tackle it)
BKS Iyengar – “Light on Yoga”

[3] What was the last book you read?

“The Tibetan Book of the Dead” — the original western publication edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz and translated by Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup. It’s not supposed to necessarily be the best or most accurate version, but I wanted to see the context in which it was presented to the West. Of particular interest was one of the introductary sections, written by Carl Jung, who discussed some of the parallels between Buddhism and western psychology (or at least his school thereof).

[4] Name five books that have particular meaning for you.

• “Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” — by the time I read this, the material was not as illuminating as it might have been at an earlier point, but I give it props and insist that others should read it. Its significance to me? It was the only decent book I could get my hands on during my 45 day stint in the Hotel Broward County. Reading it 3 times in a row was still welcome relief from reading Tom Clancy trash once. (Though trashy pulp fiction was still welcome relief from the days I had nothing to read…)
• “Siddhartha” — my high school AP English teacher had me read this, as a “special” assignment. See, I was failing her class (like most others), mostly due to never being there, mostly due to the typical problems of being a rebellious 17 year old surrounded by dysfunction. She knew of course that passing her class would have been trivial for me if I showed up and tried and stuff. So she she gave me this assignment to save my hide. It worked in ways she may or may not have ever imagined…
• “Legal Daisy Spacing” — nothing to see here, just a token keepsake of the person who gave it to me
• “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” — at Lollapalooza 1, way back in 1991, I dropped some acid with a stone cold freak I met at the show, who first introduced me to HST’s work and gave me a copy of this book. Even though I was already well on the path, I like to think of that day as being at least memorial of my decision to “drop out”.
• “The Camel” (aka “Programming Perl”). OK I’m a nerd. I list this because learning perl & reading this book was integral to my returning to my nerd roots.

[5] Three books you are dying to read but just haven’t yet.

• L. Neil Smith – “The Probability Broach”. It’s just been recommended by so many people whose opinions I trust that I know I need to read it. I’ve read & enjoyed a lot of Smith’s nonfiction.
• The “Chang Tsu” – the second important work of Taoist literature after the Tao te Ching. I was actually going to buy this on my last trip to the bookstore, but I couldn’t find it (hence I picked up the Taoist I-Ching instead).
• “1984″ — well, not so much dying to read it as embarassed that I haven’t. But do I really need to read it, seeing as we’re living it?

[6] Tag five people to go through this same ordeal.

• Cory
• Mike
• Nathan
• Winston
• Brittney (nope, being hostess doesn’t let you off the hook)

Just a quick pointer to an excellent article at Freedom Democrats that hits exactly the message I’ve been trying to push:

Democrats need to realize that while some of their liberal issues may break 50%, they need to focus on a higher bar of 60% or more. Something like a slim majority of Americans being pro-choice isn’t going to be enough. They need to find issues that go beyond the liberal base. In my opinion their best bet is to reach out to libertarians. What, did you think I was going to suggest they become more authoritarian?

The reason I suggest libertarianism is my belief that social issues will trump economic issues for many voters that appear to be swing voters on paper. A pollster may find a large number of voters who are pro-life and want the government to help pay medical bills. On paper this group may appear to be a group that the Democrats could win over. But when you consider the intensity of their views it is likely that they’ll pick the party of social conservatism over whatever economic liberalism is offered by the Democrats. Or just stay home.

…

If you can craft a piece of legislation dealing with an issue like spending, taxes, corporate welfare, or even trade, that receives the support of BOTH liberals and libertarians you have found a clear “60% issue.” And that, my friends, is victory for the Democratic Party.

I pray there are some cool heads in the Democrat establishment who can see the wisdom here. I’m afraid I haven’t seen them yet but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I almost never watch award shows. I think it must have been 15 years since the last time I watched the Oscars. But last night:

• John Stewart was hosting
• Brittney was liveblogging, and
• I couldn’t find a damn thing else to watch. Fox didn’t even have the decency to give us re-runs of our Sunday cartoons — fuckers. Best alternative seemed to be “Scary Movie 3″ which is stupid even by David Zucker’s standards.

So, I watched. Of all the movies on deck, the only ones I had seen were “Pride & Predjudice” and “Good Night and Good Luck”. Since both were shut out, I guess I’m out of touch with the cool kids as usual. I mean I wouldn’t have expected either to get the big awards, but I think they should have gotten “adapated screenplay” and “original screenplay” respectively.

And I really wanted Keira Knightly to get best actress. I mean come on, I’m a heterosexual male who voluntarily saw Pride & Predjudice, and even enjoyed it. Shouldn’t I get some validation?????

Sigh, if only Clooney hadn’t cut out McCarthy’s dance number, “Hard Out Here For a Pig”…

Well, I guess Oscar will retreat to his garbage can on Sesame Street for another year. He did see his shadow, so it looks like there will be six more weeks of hype for Brokeback Mountain.