(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

image
...am here to tap through the walls.


Sun Apr, 18 2004

"The Nearest Book"

Traced back through six blogs to this, over a week ago:

"1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions."
Very well:
"Hitler invented a way of hating both bourgeois and Bolsheviks by means of the Jews, having found such dual hatred within himself before transforming it into the rage of the period."
("The Passing Of An Illusion -- The Idea Of Communism In The Twentieth Century", François Furet, 1999)

No kiddin' that's the closet book, by mere inches.

23-skidoo.

Apr 18, 04 | 3:42 pm

For People Who Know

For those who go in for such things, here is an even-toned proposal of U.S./Euro relations by Michael J. Totten at TCS. It's "even-toned" because it's not extremist. For instance, Totten keeps saying "we" all the time, as in the matter of who'll fight for whom. I note this, actually, in order to interject an element of context, to wit, if that "we" were taken as those individuals who explicitly signed up for the military mission or its support in any way, Totten's thinking still works. In the essence, it's: "This is the right thing, we know what we're doing, and if you don't want to get involved, then just stay out of the way."

(link by Matt Welch)

More, even -- Catch Mark Steyn along the same lines.

Apr 18, 04 | 2:03 pm

Let The Kurds Out

I am not ordinarily in favor of making new governments but Mike Silverman has a note on the better idea for one result of this Iraqi mess. Always better to break down a state -- devolution of power is good. On the same principles of secession that some put up for American devolutions, it's sensible to call for Kurdish "autonomy", in the lingo.

Of course, it should always be held in mind that a Kurdish "state" would also be a devolution of presumption, but presumption, nonetheless. The rights of Kurdish individuals would not be subject to any moral authority of a Kurdish government, but merely its power. "Autonomy" is a matter of individualism, not statism.

Still, Silverman's got the right idea.

(Reynoldslink)

Apr 18, 04 | 11:42 am
PREV page NEXT page

AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}