drat fink

prow voyager

Freedom Ship today exists only on paper. But some 3,000 families and businesses have already signed on to live and work on it. When it does launch, in 2006, this leviathan of comfortable living will travel a lazy circuit around the world every two years.

pot shots

Illegal or not, domestic pot cultivation has made marijuana America's No. 1 cash crop, and proof is beginning to show in Washington.
Unprecedented fund raising and increasing national support for marijuana-policy reform has led the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project to increase its full-time staff from five to 11 in just three months.
The project credits several unnamed "major donors" for doubling the project's budget from $500,000 in 2001 to more than $1 million this year. Now, organizations seeking to change state and federal marijuana laws — articulating tactics and strategies to regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol — will be eligible for first-of-a-kind grants of up to $50,000 each under a new program administered by the project.
We also see where longtime political strategist Billy Rogers, former fund-raising director for former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, has become the pot project's new director of state policies. In 1998, Mr. Rogers served as campaign manager for Texas Democratic gubernatorial nominee Garry Mauro, and prior to that helped launch and served as editor in chief of the Moscow Guardian, the first English-language magazine in Russia.

gnomenclature

gnome liberation society

youre gonna make it after all

(enough bubbly for me. those folks at canada dry have that carbonation thing down to a science.) ok. im really committed to this new year thing. ive taken everything down off the fridge that was held up by magnets. i might even get rid of some of the magnets. frayed looking magnets just wont do in 2002. you can see i mean business. so look out world, here i come! (wait? whats that? theres a gidget marathon on tv? ummm, world? ill have to get back to you. i really like that episode where shes a flying nun...)

hail hail

im really enjoying this taxi marathon on wpix. i watched a bunch last night and came across it this morning. meet the press be damned! i dont think ive seen a significant number of episodes since the eighties. they really hold up well.

no exit

wall cam

magilla guerrilla

"It is a well-known and widely accepted fact that, during wartime, news companies and governmental representatives fuse their voices together into one univocal beam of support for the national military objective. And, while, for many, this is a vital aspect of institutional patriotism, it is also a very dangerous and troubling reality. For, if the news media have abandoned their responsibility to objectively inform the population, then our concept of a democracy (which is founded on the ability for all citizens to choose their nation's destiny based on a full spectrum of information) is in desperate peril."

man bites dog

this story made me think of two things. first, slow news week. second, reminds me of bin laden. you train a dog to attack and then let it loose who knows whats going to happen.

shopportunities

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was supposed to have buried this epic narrative in its rubble. This was capitalism’s decisive victory. Ideology is dead—let’s go shopping. The end-of-history theory was understandably infuriating to those whose sweeping ideas lost the gladiatorial battles, whether it was global communism, or, in bin Laden’s case, an imperialist version of Islam. What is becoming clear post-September 11, however, is that history’s end also turned out to be a hollow victory for the U.S. cold warriors. Since 1989, many of them have missed their epic narrative as if it were a lost limb. Without ideology, shopping was just shopping.

stacked deck

the mets are reportedly on the verge of another series of player moves which on paper gives them their most potent lineup ever. this is not to say that it will instantly be their best team. historically the mets have won with pitching which suits their ballpark and their wallet. but i would like to think the mets ownership (which is a 50-50 tug of war between two wealthy old men) would want to field an exceptional lineup when they convince us of the need for a new stadium. at least it would make it seem like they might be completely committed to winning rather than just finding a way to fleece the taxpayers.

rf) roger cedeno
3b) edgardo alfonzo
2b) roberto alomar
C) mike piazza
lf) juan gonzalez
1b) mo vaughn
cf) jay payton
ss) rey ordonez

(actually an unlikely lineup)

i started this post before the vaughn deal was finished. but now thats completed and all eyes turn to acquiring gonzalez and working on the starting pitching. if everything came to pass, then they would have three future hall of fame players still in their prime in the middle of the batting order along with two all-star quality players and the best fielding shortstop in baseball and the best basestealer at the top of the lineup. enough to make any mets fan drool and enough to make steinbrenner worry about who will dominate the backpages of the tabloids. it is true, however, that the texas rangers and cleveland indians have had powerhouse lineups in recent years but have floundered because of weaker pitching staffs. whatever the outcome, i hope the season is half as exciting (it never is) as this offseason has been.