About two and a half years ago, when I was running my own little one-man consulting operation, Microsoft killed my computer. They did it remotely via a routine update. If you use PCs, you get these updates all the time, and usually they install automatically and there’s no real issue.

But this time something went horribly wrong. It wasted my ability to use the machine for anything other than a paperweight, and in a stunning display of destructive innovation, the software misfire actually wiped out my USB ports. I’d have been thoroughly impressed if I hadn’t been so mad. Full Story »

- Carolina’s got no culture ’til the mushrooms kick in…

Doco burned the house down last night. Unfortunately, nobody was in it at the time.

The house, in this case, was the Little Bear in Evergreen, CO, a well-respected venue that hosts everything from local mainstays to up-and-comers to significant national acts. And Doco is a band we’ve mentioned before here: Trevor (guitar, vox) and Josh (bass) Booth are the sons of our colleague Jim Booth, and they’re one of the most talented young acts you’re likely to run across.

But any young band trying to put a dent in the market knows nights like last night. Full Story »

In case you missed it, Eldrick Tont Woods, the world’s greatest golfer, has been up against some pressing PR issues of late. Pretty much nobody is arguing that he’s handled it well. Begin with the official record. While it’s not yet 100% clear what touched off the fateful events of November 27, 2009, everybody is denying that Elin was trying to neuter him with a long iron.

But think about the story we’re being sold: The National Enquirer pubs a story saying Tiger is stepping out on his wife. A couple nights later, at two or three in the morning, Tiger decides to leave the house for no apparent reason. While trying to back out of the driveway – stone sober, the reports insist – he manages to wrap the Escalade around a tree. With me so far? Good. Then his wife comes out and tries to “rescue” him by bashing out the windows with a club.

If none of this smells a tad overripe to you, call me. Full Story »

Man, the wannabe auteurs behind Carly Failorina’s campaign are evidently as crazy as she hopes California voters are. Check this latest. What do you think – can we get Pink Floyd reunited for Animals II?

Full Story »

Part 2 of 2. (Read part 1…)

It’s Time to Separate Church and State, Once and for All

If you recall, anti-Catholic prejudice was once a problem for Catholic politicians in the US. John F. Kennedy went so far as to address the issue head-on in his 1960 campaign – probably because he didn’t feel he had much choice. Here’s what he told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12 of that year:

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.

He went on to assert his respect for the separation of church and state and vowed that Catholic officials would not dictate policy to him. As noted in part 1, the times, they have a-changed. Full Story »

Part 1 of 2.

I tripped across a provocative headline in the Wall Street Journal the other day: “They Need to be Liberated from Their God.” Turns out the story was about Mosab Hassan Yousef and his spying on Hamas. Which was a little disappointing. There’s no doubt that Palestinian Muslims need to be liberated from their god, but given the recent explosion in documented attacks by US Christians on their fellow Americans (as well as on reason and basic common sense), I thought perhaps the WSJ was going to be the first mainstream “news” outlet to do a story on Jesus Gone Wild!

I keep a running tab of stories that strike my interest. Full Story »

If you’re a Firefox user, you’ve probably upgraded to v3.6 by now. If not, you should – it has some great new features, especially in the arena of privacy. 3.6 also has a cool new personalization feature called “Personas”; this one lets you import all kinds of cool design into the look and feel of your browser. There are thousands of options, including everything from Web sites to cartoon characters to cars to sports teams to, well, vampires. Of course. It is 2010, after all.

Oh, and now there’s a Scholars & Rogues persona. Because you just can’t be one of the hip kids without it, I suppose. Here’s the how-to:

• Get Firefox 3.6
• Add Personas
• Get your scrogue on with the S&R persona

Y’all have a nice day.

When teaching writing and communications, you always stress a basic lesson: show, don’t tell. In the spirit of showing, not telling, what I mean by show, don’t tell, I offer the following two examples.

First, from TPM: Full Story »

CNN reported last week on a new study showing that liberalism, atheism and sexual exclusivity in males are linked to higher IQ scores. The findings are intriguing, for all the obvious reasons.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

Reactions have been all over the place, but there’s been strong suspicion of the findings from both “liberal” and “conservative” corners (especially conservative, as you’d expect). Which is good. Full Story »

In case you missed it, Toyota seems to have developed a little public relations problem. And, like most PR issues, this one ultimately has very little to do with PR. Instead, the company, which was once famed for quality, seems to have fallen into one of the most common traps in the book – it grew too fast. At least, that’s what its president, Akio Toyoda, thinks.

Scheduled to testify before a congressional committee overnight, Toyoda linked his company’s problems to its expansion in the past few years.

“We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organisation, and we should sincerely be mindful of that,” he said in a transcript of his testimony. “I regret that this has resulted in the safety issues described in the recalls we face today, and I am deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced.” Full Story »

Complete this sentence: “When opportunity knocks, ___________________________.”

I was pretty hard on Bode Miller after his no-show in Torino four years ago, about as hard as I’ve ever been on anyone who wasn’t in a position of political authority. Looking back, I don’t regret a word of it. He established himself as the archetype of American sports marketing, and his all-hype no-results performance was about as embarrassing as anything in the history of the US Olympic team.

And while I didn’t write about her, my friends certainly heard some choice words on the subject Lindsey Jacobellis, who decided that showing her ass was more important than winning. Full Story »

One of our original scrogue colleagues has passed away. Martin Bosworth, who helped us found Scholars & Rogues in April of 2007, was a central member of our community for our first year. He wrote frequently and energetically about progressive political issues of all sorts, and had a particular expertise in Internet policy issues. His death is a significant loss for progressive causes across the country.

I believe we’ll all remember Martin as committed and passionate, and his many followers and friends have set up a Facebook page where everyone can pay their respects. Full Story »

And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

In Saturday’s tribute to Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili I noted the heartwrenching beauty of kd lang’s rendition of “Hallelujah” at the Olympic opening ceremonies in Vancouver on Friday night. I’ve long thought Leonard Cohen’s masterpiece, which binds together untold depths of hope, joy, sadness and loss, was as perfect a song as it is possible to write. It seems to bring out the absolute best in every singer who covers it. Full Story »

Okay, help me out here.

Last night I was watching the Men’s Moguls competition from Vancouver. Absolutely fantastic fun, lots of drama, the thrill of victory, apeshit Canadians, etc. But this particular event, probably moreso than anything this side of parkour, drives me bonkers. (No, figure skating and synchronized swimming aren’t sports. Anytime you can trigger controversy because your tutu is trimmed in fur, whatever you’re doing isn’t a sport. Period. Let’s move along.)

Here’s the problem.

What part of hurtling a zillion miles an hour down a double-black mogul field isn’t good enough for you? I mean, powder, skis, a steep mountain and a stopwatch – that sounds like a pretty good sport to me. Full Story »

There’s a train rolling to a stop just outside of town. It’s a long train, and each flatbed carries 20 dumpsters. Each dumpster is filled to overflowing with nuclear waste and flaming grease. As the copter shot pulls away the final credits roll over the first few bars of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” We can all breathe a sigh of relief – all is well now, but just a few moments ago this train was hurtling at top speed toward the city center, its murdered conductor’s body holding the throttle in full-steam position.

This isn’t some wholesome, Focus on the Family-friendly Thomas the Train, folks. No, sir. This is the toxic, Viagra-addled nuclear dumpster grease fire Johnny the Train from Hell, and it came that close to plowing headlong into the unshielded nards of American democracy. Full Story »

Welcome to a special Valentine’s Day edition of TunesDay. Today, let’s celebrate the glory of love (although, if it’s all the same to you, we’ll do it without celebrating “The Glory of Love”).

First, The Fabs remind us what really matters.

Full Story »

There is no good way to die, especially when you’re only 21. Full Story »

We rarely do link-throughs, but I came across an interesting conversation yesterday. It began with Don Peck’s Atlantic essay on “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America,” and then quickly moved on to our friend Ian Welsh’s thought-provoking reply. A snippet:

Because any economic growth right now increases the prices of oil, which then strangles the economy, you must reduce dependence on oil, or you can’t fix your problems.

Because banks aren’t lending, and because they are a net drag on the economy having destroyed more wealth than they created, you must break up the major banks or take other similar actions to the same ends, or you don’t fix your problems. Full Story »

Some months back, I attended a convention on behalf of my employer. One of the honored guest speakers was former Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson. Wilson, whose story was Hollywoodized in Charlie Wilson’s War, died today at the age of 76.

Wilson was primarily famous for two things: fucking anything he could catch, and funneling arms to the Afghani mujahedeen during the country’s war against the Soviet Union. Those of us unfortunate enough to be stuck in the room during Wilson’s speech were regaled by tales of how he ignored the law, bullied, end-ran, lied and cheated to get what he wanted, and I mean all this literally. Wilson was as proud of flaunting the law as he was of his lifelong pursuit of women with obvious esteem issues. Full Story »

File under “T” for “thanks for clearing that up”:

Despite reports to the contrary, Scott McCarron would like to clear up his thoughts on Phil Mickelson: He never called his fellow player a “cheater.”

In a statement released Monday, McCarron discussed his original comments to the San Francisco Chronicle regarding Mickelson and other players using Ping-Eye 2 clubs that have grooves which no longer conform to USGA and PGA Tour standards, but are still considered legal because they were grandfathered in two decades ago.

“I responded, ‘It’s cheating and I am appalled Phil has put it in play,’” McCarron stated. “I never called Phil Mickelson a cheater. That being said, I want my fans, sponsors, and most importantly, my fellow players, to know that I will not be silenced and I will continue my efforts to get the groove issue resolved.” Full Story »