http://www.chezjoel.com/ Theologically outgunned since 1985. en-us 2007-08-28T14:49:46-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2007/08/political_viole.html Well, surprise, surprise. Reuters reports today on the Small Arms Survey by Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, which found that some of the worlds most violent hot-spots have the lowest per-capita ownership of firearms. At the bottom of the list are nations like Nigeria (1 per 100 people). Totalitarian Communist regimes like China had only 3 per 100 people. But the civilized nations of Europe are packing heat (30-60 per 100). The US has 90 firearms per 100 people. Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause says, "Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of... politics joel 2007-08-28T14:49:46-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2007/07/vacation_bloggi.html "Road trip to the Grand Canyon," I declared. And I really meant it this time.... life joel 2007-07-30T07:20:52-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2007/04/another_champio.html I was moved to read about the death of Israeli Engineering professor Liviu Librescu at Virginia Tech on Monday. He was killed while attempting to block the door of his classroom, allowing his students to escape through a window. He was a good man. I only wish he had been armed.... life joel 2007-04-18T01:40:00-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2007/03/finally_a_champ.html politics joel 2007-03-20T06:53:15-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2007/03/bancroftarnesen.html The first thing to go were those little paper umbrellas that you put in Mai-Tai's. There just wasn't enough room on their sled, what with the beach gear and suntan lotion. But they never got to don wetsuits and swim through tepid seas choked with polar bear carcasses. They never got to take pictures of the melting icecap, to post them on their blog, and broadcast the bad news into children's classrooms like two astronauts high atop the world. They never got to do these things because it was too darned cold. Instead of global warming, they reported 58 degrees... politics joel 2007-03-13T10:22:59-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/10/jammin_with_cli.html Clinton called the kettle black on Thursday, claiming the Republican party has been "jammed into an ideological corner" by a sliver of the Republican Party; namely "its more right-wing and its most ideological element." Skuze me? Which party handed Howard "Yaarrrr" Dean the party chairmanship after his leftist tantrum meltdown in '04? Which party no longer resembles the party of JFK or Truman? Which party, despite a string of embarrassing defeats (which started in '94, on Clinton's watch), continues to slew further and further left? Which party's moderate candidates must walk a tightrope between supporting the troops and kow-towing to... politics joel 2006-10-14T01:02:31-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/10/oh_please_no_no.html The Canadian Press reports: "Iran's top leaders vow to continue nuclear program despite NKorea backlash." In a nearly subsequent response, and in the wake of North Korea's "successful" nuclear bomb test, a clearly shaken Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran said, "Our policy is clear: Progress, offering transparent logic and insisting on the rights of the nation without retreat." But you could tell he was really worried about the repercussions North Korea is experiencing. Privately (I just know) he worried to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (may he languish forever without press coverage) that Iran could not withstand another round of... politics joel 2006-10-11T08:21:07-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/10/one_small_gaffe.html Astronauts aren't uncoordinated. They have to be able to moonwalk and chew gum at the same time. So it bothered Neil Armstrong to think that he had flubbed the famous first line from the floodlit stage of the moon: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Why, oh why hadn't he said "one small step for a man? Fortunately for Neil, Peter Ford, a computer expert from Australia, has resolved Mr. Armstrong's angst, providing acoustically filtered evidence of a twangy "a" drawled slowly over the course of 35 milliseconds (approximatly 1/10 of the least discernable length for... life joel 2006-10-02T15:18:36-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/10/abc_journalism.html "One dude, sitting in his apartment, marshalls the vangard of the militant right, and pretty much controls all media in the world," said ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin. "And if he puts up that little blue and red siren? Forgeddaboudit. In today's media, Drudge is like Walter Cronkite, except with x-ray vision. No, wait, he's like Dan Rather. He's like a young, literate Dan Rather that nobody knows what he looks like. The Rather comparison is apt because he can force anybody anywhere believe anything he says. The Cronkite comparison is apt because they would have believed him anyway.... politics joel 2006-10-02T01:03:49-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/09/mels_bells.html Mel Gibson, commenting at an early screening of his upcoming movie Apocalypto, drew a comparison between the morally horrific decline of the Mayans and present day American culture. "What's human sacrifice," he asked, "if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?" As a writer/director who has tackled the subject of declining cultures, Mel Gibson shows surprisingly little insight on the matter. First off, the Mayans' form of human sacrifice is chiefly horrible because they sacrificed the imprisoned, the helpless, the innocent. Our military is all-volunteer, and they aren't standing in line to be slaughtered, they are highly-trained, active... politics joel 2006-09-25T11:32:05-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/09/say_shibboleth.html What do you call the gooey or dry matter that collects in the corners of your eyes, especially while you are sleeping? What do you say when you want to lay claim to the front seat of a car? What do you call paper that has already been used for something or is otherwise imperfect? Are you in the dialectic mainstream? Who says root (rhymes with put) and who says root (rhymes with shoot)? What part of the country says "chill bugs" instead of "chilly bumps?" All this and a lot more: Dialect Survey Maps and Results... culture joel 2006-09-19T08:38:14-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/09/he_said_sharia.html I am just flabbergasted at the childish melodrama coming from prominent middle-eastern Muslim voices over this Benedict thing. for example, Ahmad Khatami, a prominent cleric in the city of Qom told his students: [The] Pope should fall on his knees in front of a senior Muslim cleric and try to understand Islam. This is a childish fantasy. Anjem Choudary, a London lawyer and demonstration organizer goes further: The Muslims take their religion very seriously and non-Muslims must appreciate that and that must also understand that there may be serious consequences if you insult Islam and the prophet. Whoever insults the... politics joel 2006-09-18T16:06:34-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/09/the_malediction.html Hey, father, what's the good word? Pope Benedict XVI showed his stripes today in comments which stung and grievously wounded the hearts and souls of Muslims worldwide to the point that, with great reluctance, they whipped out their prepared effigies of the Pope and burned them. Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkey's ruling party, said, "[Benedict] has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world. It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.... politics joel 2006-09-16T00:41:45-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/06/southern_discom.html Here is a reprint of an article I wrote in May of 2002. THEY'RE GOOD KIDS. They'll get it sorted out. That's what the parents of those of us in hab-rehab are saying now. It's touching that they continue to believe in us, even as the group sessions fail to provide the level of intervention we really need. There is a downward slide here, and nobody wants to talk about it. Take last night for instance. Good company, good weather, some darned good gualsa* and, inevitably, that little baggie of dried habañeros which nobody seems to know anything about. It... life joel 2006-06-20T13:48:38-05:00 http://www.chezjoel.com/archives/2006/06/whats_this_we_s.html Radiohead's Thom Yorke, king of angst rock, is suitably conflicted about the environment and his own role in destroying it. It turns out you can't be a superstar without a most triumphant concert tour. And any most triumphant concert tour burns tons of fossil fuels. And the fans generate gobs and gobs of unrecycleable waste (for instance most concerts are a waste of time; and you'll never be able to recycle that time). Here's what Thom said: "The whole apparatus of big festivals is not cool." Ok, now here's a slogan we can use: "It's the Apparatus, Stupid!" I'm with... politics joel 2006-06-19T22:40:28-05:00