Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
annika.mu.nu [1]
It is a semi well-known fact that the number of Elvis impersonators in the world has increased exponentially since the singer's death in 1977. But how many of you know just how pronounced and dangerous the trend is?
According to the San Francisco Chronicle: "When Elvis Presley died in 1977, there were an estimated 37 Elvis impersonators in the world. By 1993, there were 48,000 Elvis impersonators, an exponential increase. Extrapolating from this, by 2010 there will be 2.5 billion Elvis impersonators. The population of the world will be 7.5 billion by 2010. Every 3rd person will be an Elvis impersonator by 2010."
That's one-third of the Earth's total population, or 22,500,000,000 people. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I want to be an Elvis impersonator.
To be sure, not all of the finest workings of global population science is yet fully understood to the finest grain. However, all of the basics are absolutely clear. The Elvis impersonator crisis is real, humans are causing the problem, and the solutions are available to us now. It is not too late to avoid the worst. All that is needed is the political will to act.
Predictions!
uneasyrhetoric.net [2]
[H]ere is my look ahead to 2007 in Sacramento ... :
• Five new coffee shops will open in the grid. Six of them will be Starbucks.
• The governor will buy a condo somewhere in downtown but will constantly complain that it isn't nearly as large as his Hummer.
• Mayor (Heather) Fargo will announce that a new Kings arena will be financed by buying the team and selling it to Stockton. Assemblymember Dave Jones will bust a vein.
• Gavin Maloof will slip during a major news conference and say "the San Jos... uh, I mean, the Sacramento Kings."
• Landlords will begin referring to all of their units as "lofts." • R15 will be shut down for three months, renamed "Redux," and reopened with Wii's instead of XBOX 360s. ...
• Ten new restaurants will open in Sacramento. Randy Paragary will own 12 of them. His former employees will own the rest. ...
• The city will court a grocery store for downtown, until a survey reveals that loft dwellers don't know what a grocery store is. ...
• The owner of Tower Theater will finally admit that it never really planned to do any renovating.
• The levees will hold.
Iraq nonsense
www.mikeantonucci.com [3]
Apparently hanging a war criminal is acceptable, but taunting him is beyond the pale. Sheesh.
But an even more ridiculous moment came from historian Joseph J. Ellis, who compares the war in Iraq to the American war for independence. In Ellis' analogy, 21st century America is akin to 18th century Great Britain, which means the roles of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, et al., are played by those guys in Baghdad blowing up Iraqi women and children with roadside bombs.
To paraphrase Santayana: Those who write history are doomed to repeat it in inappropriate and inexact ways.
From father to son
floatingfoam.com [4]
This is one of those stories that just shakes you so hard, you cannot immediately bounce back. It's been all over the Internet this morning, so you may have seen it.
First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, killed in Iraq this past October, wrote a 200-page book to his son, Jordan, just in case he wouldn't survive to see his son grow up.
From an article in the New York Times written by King's fiancé, Dana Canedy:
"Charles tried to anticipate questions in the years to come. Favorite team? I am a diehard Cleveland Browns fan. Favorite meal? Chicken, fried or baked, candied yams, collard greens and cornbread. Childhood chores? Shoveling snow and cutting grass. First kiss? Eighth grade."