Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Get Over It
Posted by Bruce Barry on Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 1:38 PM
Metro Council tries again tonight with a proposed ethics ordinance, slated for a vote on second reading after it was deferred last month. And in press accounts previewing tonight's vote we see once again a few council members who just don't get it. South Nashville's Parker Toler, for instance, likens it to an electronic bracelet used to monitor ex-felons: ""What would be satisfying to folks is if we had one of those devices like Martha Stewart had." Donelson's J.B. Loring said, "I'm not for this ethics policy because it delves too much into your private life, such as your wife's holdings."
Financial disclosure rules for ethics purposes in the public and private sector commonly include one's immediate family. Given how easily and frequently married couples intermingle their financial lives, this makes perfectly good sense. It is entirely reasonable and hardly draconian to expect elected officials to disclose their own and their family's sources of income, major investment interests, and debt. This kind of transparency is critical to good, open government, and places an excessive burden only on representatives who have no business seeking public office. The argument that this will seriously deter good candidates from seeking council positions is laughable. Anyone who runs for public office should be not only willing, but eager to disclose potential conflicts of interest. If a bill like this makes the J.B. Lorings want to find something else to do with their (and our) Tuesday evenings, then city government will be all the better for it.
UPDATE (9:20 pm): The council on Tuesday night again delayed action on the ethics bill. On a voice vote it passed a motion to (1) accept the substitute version of the bill offered by at-large council member David Briley (it incorporates some amendments that were originally offered last month), and (2) defer consideration of the substitute until after an informational session scheduled by the council's executive committee for November 1 on this measure and a related state law. When the bill comes up again it will still be on second reading, which means still open to amendment.
Financial disclosure rules for ethics purposes in the public and private sector commonly include one's immediate family. Given how easily and frequently married couples intermingle their financial lives, this makes perfectly good sense. It is entirely reasonable and hardly draconian to expect elected officials to disclose their own and their family's sources of income, major investment interests, and debt. This kind of transparency is critical to good, open government, and places an excessive burden only on representatives who have no business seeking public office. The argument that this will seriously deter good candidates from seeking council positions is laughable. Anyone who runs for public office should be not only willing, but eager to disclose potential conflicts of interest. If a bill like this makes the J.B. Lorings want to find something else to do with their (and our) Tuesday evenings, then city government will be all the better for it.
UPDATE (9:20 pm): The council on Tuesday night again delayed action on the ethics bill. On a voice vote it passed a motion to (1) accept the substitute version of the bill offered by at-large council member David Briley (it incorporates some amendments that were originally offered last month), and (2) defer consideration of the substitute until after an informational session scheduled by the council's executive committee for November 1 on this measure and a related state law. When the bill comes up again it will still be on second reading, which means still open to amendment.
Getting Desperate
Posted by Roger Abramson on Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 9:05 AM
Monday, October 17, 2005
What 5-0 Gets You
Posted by Roger Abramson on Mon, Oct 17, 2005 at 12:48 PM
Twelfth in the Sagarin ratings (as of Monday the 17th). What's a team got to do to impress people?
I'm a Barbie Girl
Posted by Claire Suddath on Mon, Oct 17, 2005 at 11:34 AM
Chris Slack alerted me to this article about Mattel's attempt to market a Barbie-inspired line of clothing for adult women.
This is the answer to my prayers. For too long have I lived in a society that criticized my decision to wear pink and blue eye shadow painted up to my eyebrows. Check out the American Idol Barbie. Do I want a pair of bright peach satin pants that are 2/3rds the length of my body? The answer, of course, is yes.
Or I could go the more subdued route and look like the host of one of those Trading Spaces/While You Were Out shows.
From the article:
Somehow, I just don't envision an entire nation of women carrying around Barbie purses. I also refuse to buy Barbie shoes. I mean, why pay money when I knew they're just going to get lost?
Yep. When I was 6, I wanted to own a Ferrari that was barely longer than my body, marry a man with painted on underwear, live in a "dreamhouse" with only one bathroom, cut my hair and have it never grow back, and do gymnastics on the apple tree in my backyard for a living until my leg popped off and I reattached it with duct tape. That was totally what I wanted.
Also, torpedo boobs.
This is the answer to my prayers. For too long have I lived in a society that criticized my decision to wear pink and blue eye shadow painted up to my eyebrows. Check out the American Idol Barbie. Do I want a pair of bright peach satin pants that are 2/3rds the length of my body? The answer, of course, is yes.
Or I could go the more subdued route and look like the host of one of those Trading Spaces/While You Were Out shows.
From the article:
"When a teen or 20-something is carrying an Anya Hindmarch, Barbie bag it'll reinforce Barbie as relevant, cool brand for little girls," said Dickson. "Little girls are growing up faster than ever and looking to adults and teens for inspiration, and Barbie is their aspiration."
Somehow, I just don't envision an entire nation of women carrying around Barbie purses. I also refuse to buy Barbie shoes. I mean, why pay money when I knew they're just going to get lost?
"Barbie has a special relationship with women," said Dickson. "It takes them back to being a little girl and fantasizing about what they're going to be in the future."
Yep. When I was 6, I wanted to own a Ferrari that was barely longer than my body, marry a man with painted on underwear, live in a "dreamhouse" with only one bathroom, cut my hair and have it never grow back, and do gymnastics on the apple tree in my backyard for a living until my leg popped off and I reattached it with duct tape. That was totally what I wanted.
Also, torpedo boobs.
Pith Blogroll
Posted by Pithmaster on Mon, Oct 17, 2005 at 9:04 AM
We made some blogroll changes over the weekend, more than we usually do at one time - some adds, some drops. The goal is not comprehensiveness: We link to area blogs that are well done, done well, nicely designed, entertaining, or otherwise strike our fancy. We drop 'em when they go inactive or just somehow go south on us. Suggestions can be made via the 'contact' link on the right.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Checking in on Phil
Posted by Bruce Barry on Sat, Oct 15, 2005 at 6:56 AM
Hey kids, remember Phil Blog, the forum for the online first-person musings of our intrepid Demopublican governor? He snuck a stealth post past us in mid-September on the occasion of a ceremonial signing for something called the Heritage Conservation Trust:
The reason that I will remember this small ceremony is that it helps to mark a change that is taking place in my time as governor. The first 2 1/2 + years have been marked by a lot of fixing: getting the budget straightened out, the agony--there's no other word for it--of bringing TennCare under control, playing catchup in teacher salaries and higher education capital projects. These are important parts of the job, but by themselves leave you unsatisfied. This summer has marked a transition for me, beginning to move beyond the fixing and starting to do the forward-looking things that were the motivation for seeking this office in the first place.
Friday, October 14, 2005
your weekend movie planner 10-14
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 3:48 PM
Here are four films worth seeing if you're going to the movies this weekend.
El Crimen Perfecto A very funny, very sick black comedy about a smarmy department-store women's-wear manager (Guillermo Toledo) who accidentally kills a co-worker, only to become the hapless pawn of the only witness: a voracious wallflower (Monica Cervera) starved for sex and affection. (Here's a full review.) I watched it a second time to see if it was as funny as I thought: some scenes (the photo booth, the body disposal) made me laugh even harder when I knew to expect them. I suppose I should warn you that this is in Spanish with English subtitles, but the hell of shopping transcends all boundaries. (Belcourt)
Grizzly Man You watch March of the Penguins and think, "Gosh, penguins and humans aren't so different." You watch Werner Herzog's astonishing documentary and think, "Anyone who thinks animals and humans are anything alike is an idiot." That includes his subject, Timothy Treadwell, the activist who believed he could live among bears and be treated as an equal, until a marauding grizzly proved him fatally mistaken. Treadwell comes off as a fascinating, borderline insufferable character: in a biopic, he'd be played ideally by Andy Dick. But as viewed through Herzog's dour, skeptical narration, his footage of grizzlies in the wild has a foolhardy intimacy that takes away your breath. Rivaled only by A History of Violence and the upcoming Brokeback Mountain, this has the year's most haunting final shot. Check out the trailer. (Belcourt)
Serenity You've seen the modern-day Western (A History of Violence); now see the futuristic Western, adapted by Joss Whedon from his beloved one-season wonder Firefly. I didn't watch the show, and I had no more trouble keeping up than a non-Trekker watching The Wrath of Khan. Plus the show didn't have Chiwetel Ejiofor's terrific villain, an evilly amused bounty hunter who kept reminding me of Orson Welles in The Third Man. (Everywhere)
The Memory of a Killer Haven't seen it, but advance word is good about this Belgian thriller in which a detective (Koen De Boew) pursues a hitman (Jan Decleir) who's in the early stages of Alzheimer's, uncertain whether to trust his memory or his mission. (Green Hills)
SKIP: Domino. Some friends are currently running an online poll to determine the worst movie Tony Scott ever made. This makes it about a seven-way tie for first place. This visual migraine "inspired by" the life of the late model-turned-bounty-hunter Domino Harvey is the most AVID-damaged movie since—what was Scott's last movie? As for Keira Knightley naked, the movie's big selling point—well, bring back the soccer uniform.
Eat My Sirwal
Posted by Claire Suddath on Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 2:54 PM
Homer Simpson - or Omar Shamshoon ֠is set to take over the Arab world.
The Arabic Homer Simpson will make some dietary changes in his life, but the important things remains the same. "The family remains, as the producers describe them, 'dysfunctional.'"
So why exactly do Arabs need a translated version of The Simpsons?
Really? I mean, I know that Kuwait has Starbucks and all, but let's face it, the terrorists and suicide bombers don't really paint a general pro-West picture for me. Unless the insurgents are really insurgents of tenderness fighting our armies of compassion. Maybe all we need in Iraq is one big group hug. Who knows.
So how have people reacted to the revised version of iconic American family? Arabic bloggers are upset about the corruption of their beloved Simpsons program. With their fingers clenching the pulse of what really matters, bloggers are calling the new Omar Shamshoon character "unfunny" and "painful."
The upside? Mohamed Heneidy, who is called "the Robert De Niro of the Middle East," will do some of the voiceovers.
The Arabic Homer Simpson will make some dietary changes in his life, but the important things remains the same. "The family remains, as the producers describe them, 'dysfunctional.'"
So why exactly do Arabs need a translated version of The Simpsons?
Arabization is going to boom in these next few years," says Ms. El-Hakim. "We're such an impressionable people and we aspire so much to be like the West, that we take on anything that we believe is a symbol or a manifestation of Western culture."
Really? I mean, I know that Kuwait has Starbucks and all, but let's face it, the terrorists and suicide bombers don't really paint a general pro-West picture for me. Unless the insurgents are really insurgents of tenderness fighting our armies of compassion. Maybe all we need in Iraq is one big group hug. Who knows.
So how have people reacted to the revised version of iconic American family? Arabic bloggers are upset about the corruption of their beloved Simpsons program. With their fingers clenching the pulse of what really matters, bloggers are calling the new Omar Shamshoon character "unfunny" and "painful."
The upside? Mohamed Heneidy, who is called "the Robert De Niro of the Middle East," will do some of the voiceovers.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Something to Chew
Posted by Claire Suddath on Thu, Oct 13, 2005 at 3:25 PM
According to Wired, an MIT grad student in the Counter Intelligence Group has designed a machine that makes dishes on demand and recycles them when the consumer is finished with his or her meal.
There are a few kinks ֠the machine can't remove grease from the plates and the cup design "makes drinking difficult" ֠but it's still a pretty interesting accomplishment.
There are a few kinks ֠the machine can't remove grease from the plates and the cup design "makes drinking difficult" ֠but it's still a pretty interesting accomplishment.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Why Parenting is Hard: Reason Number 3,629
Posted by Roger Abramson on Wed, Oct 12, 2005 at 3:35 PM
You just can't keep up with the terminology.
