Shorter House Republicans

George Bush taxed the rich too much.

No wonder they believe Obama's a socialist. They apparently believe that George W. Bush demanded too much of billionaires.

Rockbox Again. And Better

Rockbox is coming along well (I've long been a fan). I'm eagerly anticipating when they have software ready for the amazing Sansa Clip -- soon I hope!

Also, it appears that Apple keeps pilfering ideas from Rockbox and implementing them -- partially -- in their fantastically overpriced and partially crippled players.

Rockbox has had speech - support for years. It's a heartening thing about the software. I've been choked up more than once due to blind users writing to express their pleasure in being able to use an MP3 player.

I'm glad the blind will have an off-the-shelf player now. But I'm pretty sure Rockbox implements it better, cheaper, and with much more leeway to do what the user actually wants (rather than what Steve Jobs likes).

Since I last wrote about it, in the link above, the Rockboxers have done some amazing things. A much more flexible and robust installation program. Best of all, a fully usable USB stack. Video in almost all players. Even more sound formats. Rockbox does nearly everything better now.

It's a thing of beauty. Rockbox: now more than ever.

How Fey can Wes Anderson get?

I enjoyed Rushmore. The soundtrack helped greatly.

I just saw about 15 minutes of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It was awful.

Wes Anderson repeatedly tries to make something as naive and evocative as the novel The Young Visiters [sic] and fails.

From what I've seen, Wes Anderson can get infinitely fey. He probably will, though his credit card commercial isn't totally fey.

Wes Anderson is five+ years gone bad, and I just noticed. I'm almost as bad as Wes Anderson--except I'm not infinitely fey.

Talk Radio Party

Tomasky::

"One presidential mention has exposed to public scrutiny something that only political insiders have known for a long time. Limbaugh is the emotional leader of the GOP. We – we Beltway intellectual types – have talked up figures who give conservatism a face that is, to one degree or another, respectable. It's David Brooks, or it was Irving Kristol, or Norman Podhoretz, or Leo Strauss.

We have done this because, well, because at various points it may have been sort of true. But we also did it because we want to think that we've been engaged in a war of ideas conducted on a high intellectual plane.

That notion, unfortunately, is fatuous."

He's not just a propagandist-- he is emotionally in line with the Republican base. Resentment, ridicule, hatred, and bigotry (especially against blacks and women) are his prime tools, and they really are the emotional heart of Republicanism.

The fact that he's an oxycontin junkie and thrice-divorced are somehow not relevant.