David’s Journal

Auschwitz is clearly not something one finds funny. But this story, from the Washington Post, is.

Sorry. It just is.

At yesterday’s gathering of world leaders in southern Poland to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the United States was represented by Vice President Cheney. The ceremony at the Nazi death camp was outdoors, so those in attendance, such as French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were wearing dark, formal overcoats and dress shoes or boots. Because it was cold and snowing, they were also wearing gentlemen’s hats. In short, they were dressed for the inclement weather as well as the sobriety and dignity of the event.

The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower.

In short, Cheney was wearing an ugly green parka embroidered with his name “the way in which children’s clothes are inscribed with their names before they are sent away to camp.”

He was wearing a hat— “not a fedora or a Stetson or a fur hat or any kind of hat that one might wear to a memorial service” but rather, “a knit ski cap, embroidered with the words ‘Staff 2001.’ It was the kind of hat a conventioneer might find in a goodie bag.”

He also wore hiking boots. He looked, amid other properly-attired world leaders, a little out of place:

The writer of the article, Robin Givhan, goes on: “Clearly, Cheney owns a proper overcoat. The world saw it during his swearing-in as vice president. Cheney treated that ceremony with the dignity it deserved— not simply through his demeanor, but also through his attire.

“Would he have dared to take the oath of office with a ski cap on?”

PBS tried to dodge a fiery issue yesterday. Instead, now both sides are are infuriated.

Federally-funded programming for children on PBS must have, according to the outspoken Education Secretary Margaret Spellings “research-based educational objectives, content and materials.”

“Postcards from Buster” is a show about an animated bunny who explores the world with a camcorder. He is exposed to different types of people, cultures, points of view, and regions.

In the episode in question, he travels to Vermont to learn about maple syrup, among other things. It is one of these “other things” that has caused an uproar.

While in Vermont, Buster meets two (gasp!) gay couples legally sanctioned (gasp!) by the state of Vermont (heathens!).

“Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode,” declared Spellings. She goes on. “Congress’ and the Department’s purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of television.”

Did PBS stand its ground and fight Spellings on this point? Or did it agree with this increasingly unpopular point of view, and disclaim any responsibility for this episode? No. It simultaneously irked both sides of the chasm by cancelling the episode and not giving the government its money back. So the right has further proof that PBS is a liberal entity funded by overworked taxpayers and the left is faced questioning a publicly-funded entity that refuses to acknowledge a legitimate American cultural reality.

Yes, same-sex civil unions are controversial. No, they shouldn’t be. But they are. And by cancelling this episode, PBS endorses the notion that being gay is a lifestyle choice made by agenda-toting subversive members of the community whose aim is to destroy the innocence of our children.

Thankfully WGBH in Boston, the uber-public television station that produces this show and many of the other offerings on PBS, will air the episode. Also, it has made the episode available to any other public television station that will air it.

PBS is structured so that any of its affiliates can pick and choose which national show to air. Not only that, but a station affiliated with PBS can air any PBS show at any time of day, day or night, regardless of the national schedule.

PBS should not have pulled this episode. Certainly, they could have attached a warning to the episode. That way, the decision could be made locally: skip the show, air it normally, or air it late at night so a concerned parent can tape it and show it to his or her child and have a meaningful discussion.

Yes, it would have cast a dark cloud upon PBS for supposedly endorsing a controversial point of view. But in an America allegedly obsessed with “moral values,” can a national organization dare to be controversial? Isn’t controversy the cornerstone of American discourse?

We embrace controversy. Don’t we?

And if PBS won’t do it… who will?

Blogging is dangerous. It can get you fired, or even cause estrangement.

Simonetti, who writes under the nickname “Queen of the Sky,” said she was fired for posting “inappropriate” photos of herself in her online diary.

Specifically, Simonetti posted several pictures of herself aboard a Delta plane in uniform, including one with a bit of her bra showing. Others showed her lying atop seats, showing off her legs or bending over to inspect a luggage bin. Simonetti said she was just goofing around. And she said co-workers took similar photos for fun.

For the record: there are no inappropriate pictures of me editing at Looking Glass in circulation. Besides, I was laid off, not fired for my blog.

[Anderson] wrote a blunt entry lashing out at the Mormon Church, in which she was raised. Unfortunately for her, that was the same day her family stumbled onto her blog. Her father, a devout Mormon, didn’t speak to her for months.

“It was devastating,” she said.

I think it is time that we coin a new cyber-term: e-strangement.

A Wisconsin man wanted to go across the lake to visit his friend.

So he got into his car. And drove. Across the lake.

About fifty feet out, the ice gave way. The man escaped injury by climbing onto the roof of his partially-submerged vehicle, and jumping to a nearby chunk of ice.

It happens.

Apparently, this kind of “yard art” is illegal in the City of South Milwaukee. The owner of this yard finds this quite unfair.

“I don’t know what they’re trying to do with South Milwaukee,” he wonders, “if they’re trying to turn it into a [posh North Shore suburb like] River Hills or Glendale.”

He collects gas station memorabilia. And he installed this piece, purchased for $350 and then painstakingly restored, last summer. It didn’t take long for the neighbor across the street to complain.

“If he can put that up,” she declared, “I can put a Hooters sign up.”

Although the humble collector disagreed, he finally took the sign down in December.

His attorney, after collecting $1,300 for services rendered, still talks about “yard art.”

The freshly-restored sign was sold for $400 to a man in Texas.

But the spirit still remains.

This 19-year-old kid runs a website called Think Secret, a fairly unoriginal takeoff on Apple’s old advertising campaign. It’s the sort of name a 13-year-old kid obsessed with computers would pick.

In fact, he was 13 when he started a website that gained a reputation for being mostly right.

Mac users are a curious bunch. They like to know what Steve Jobs is up to next. This is likely fueled by the fact that Steve Jobs is quite the secretive innovator. There are dozens upon dozens of Apple rumor sites. When I waste my time reading Apple rumors, however, I usually only go to one place: Think Secret.

This was before I knew that Think Secret was run by some kid my little brother’s age.

At first, I was a little shocked. Then it occured to me: of course. Who else but a Harvard-bound teenager would have the time and inclination to reliably harvest and publish trade secrets on the web?

Many figure that Apple didn’t know it was a teenager they were targeting. This kid has always published under a pseudonym. As he became successful, this anonymous existence probably protected him until enough was enough.

But why did he start off as Nick DePlume? Because, the Washington Post reports, “he doubted many people would take a teenager seriously.”

DePlume, or as his mother calls him, Nick Ciarelli, broke out with his first exclusive when he was 16 years old. Sadly, I don’t think he will breaking anymore stories.

Only in Red State/Blue State America:

Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ both won big at the prestigous People’s Choice Awards… the former won for “Favorite Movie” and the latter won for “Favorite Drama.” Both Michael Moore and Mel Gibson said essentially the same thing.

Moore: “I love making movies and I’ll take this as an invitation to make more ‘Fahrenheit 9/11s.”

Gibson: “I depended on you and you were there. If it wasn’t for you guys, we would have been dead in the water.”

My opinion is worthless, but I predict that neither will win anything big at the Oscars.

Once upon a time, I vacuumed our own apartment. I also dusted, swept, scrubbed, and did all the other stuff a person who lives in a Civilized Apartment would do.

However, because many of these tasks are diffcult for Susie to do, she decided that I Cleaned Too Much. This was rather odd to me, because I grew up in my parents’ house, a place in which I Didn’t Clean Quite Enough. But she insisted that I Cleaned Too Much, and so, we contacted the local Independent Living Center, a place that helps people with disabilities. They gave us the names of Personal Assistants.

Out of the four that we interviewed, two showed up late, one didn’t show up at all, and the fourth showed up a day early. We went with the one who showed up a day early.
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You win some. And then you lose some. Thus is the way, even here, in the Great State of Wisconsin.

Effective yesterday, I am no longer the Editor at Looking Glass Productions.

But today, the fugitive Red Kangaroo was located in Iowa County, Wisconsin. You see, kangaroos are not indigenous to these parts, and the current climate could be fatal to a lost marsupial.

See? Everything balances out.