The Skeptical Optimist

Bill O'Reilly won't answer this...

...I predict with confidence. In any case, here's a letter I sent to him at Fox News, just for fun.

subject:
Far-left loons, and far-right _____?

Bill,

As a political independent, I prefer fair-and-balanced commentary as an aid in making my own informed decisions. I need some help to decide whether I should start recording your show.

By my rough estimate, the small percentage of people at the far left of the political spectrum is about the same size as that on the far right; both of those factions already have their minds made up on every issue. New information bounces off them like bullets off Superman. Pathetic, isn't it?

In any case, I've heard you refer frequently to those on the left as "far-left loons"; that's okay with me, because name-calling can sometimes make a valid point, and I enjoy a person with a fair-and-balanced sense of humor.

But I was wondering what you call their counterparts on the right -- "far right [what?]." I haven't yet heard the nickname you've picked for them. No doubt you have one, and no doubt you've used it just as frequently as "far-left loons" on your fair-and-balanced show.

Just curious. I have a strong preference for fairness and balance in reporting and commentary, and look forward to being able to add your show to my DVR list after I get your answer.

Best wishes,
Steve

FYI

Posting will be lighter than normal for a while, due to an emergency. I'll keep the comments up to date.

Steve

Huge url

Here's a useful site.  Try typing in a short url.

(Hey, I thought it was funny.)

Free electoral college map: one square equals one vote

I hope I never see another red-blue map of the USA depicting how many square miles each presidential candidate won in the election. It's inevitable, though; I bet we'll see a thousand versions of it again after tomorrow, depicting the vast stretches of barren, unpopulated wasteland conquered by McCain. [To my Republican friends: Try to picture a smiley-face right here at this spot.]

Here's a better map, in case you want to download it. One square equals one electoral vote. Several of us gathering at my house will be keeping track of election-night progress by coloring in each state as it's called. I think I'll use yellow and green, instead of red and blue.

Click to enlarge. Feel free to download it and send it to friends.

I assembled it in MS Excel, then turned it into a graphic file, based on a similar (interactive) map I saw at this page on the New York Times website. (Click the button that says "Electoral Votes" to switch views).

Does it taste like chicken?

Here's one government's new idea for feeding its people.  I wonder if it tastes like chicken; someone should try it and let me know.

Domain transfer problems

FYI: I am currently trying to fix all the broken links caused by my attempt to increase this site's "security" by moving to a different domain name service.  What a mistake that was.  I am now moving to yet another service, easyDNS, to see if that will fix my problem. I will never, ever use NetworkSolutions again.

If it's not fixable, it's three years' worth of image links down the drain -- and I have zero time to go back and fix them all.  In short, that would mean the end of this blog. 

Primary reason all the links are broken: If TypePad could just issue a static ip address for the domains to point to, none of this would be a problem -- but they can't, because they use dynamic ip addressing, which is less-expensive (for TypePad) than issuing static ones. (Now I know more than I care to about TCP/IP technical issues, by the way.) 

If this doesn't fix the links, it's doubtful I'll continue this blog.  But I'll probably leave it up for a while until I figure out what's next.

Where did my images go?

Did you notice that my banner image is gone?  I did, too.  Also, images on older posts are missing.  TypePad has not responded to my questions yet. 

Just in case you were wondering what was going on.  I have zero time for technical maintenance, so I'm depending on TypePad to get this fixed.

On a more positive note, right out of left field: Anyone who can listen to this song by Buddy Guy (through good speakers), and not feel like getting up and dancing, has some faulty wiring upstairs -- in my expert judgment, of course.  Being a baby boomer might be a requirement, though.

Best movie ending ever

Until yesterday, I ranked the ending of The Shawshank Redemption as the best ever.  Now that one's in second place. 

I'm no movie critic; that's why I hardly ever talk about them here.  But this one, The Lives of Others, now ranks at the top with me.  My son told me not to miss it, and he was right. 

All I'll say about the plot is this: it takes place in communist East Germany in the mid-1980s, and it's a movie about character.  For the first half of the movie, I was wondering where it was going.  Then... what a finish.

Here's the link.  Rent it or buy it; just don't miss it.

Sorry the site was down

I transferred this site to a different domain name server, and it was down for a day as a result.  By the way, now you have to put a "www" in front of "optimist123.com" to get here.  I'm trying to fix that; we'll see. 

Full disclosure

For whatever it's worth: I don't wear ties much anymore, plus I've added a few more wrinkles in the last seven years -- so it was time to update the photo.