Archive for August 30th, 2008
Getting a shaving (or Megs) feed only
A commenter asked me whether he could get an RSS feed of just the shaving posts. I told him I would check, and on looking at the WordPress FAQs, I see:
Just go to any tag page, like this one, and add /feed/ to the end of it. To get an Atom feed just add /feed/atom/ to the end of it.
So https://leisureguy.wordpress.com/category/shaving/feed/ should get you only the shaving posts, https://leisureguy.wordpress.com/category/megs/feed/ only the Megs posts, and so on.
I just tried it in Google Reader, and it works.
Rove on vice-presidential pick and what it tells us
Rove is right on target, no?
Republican strategist Karl Rove said on Face The Nation Sunday that he expects presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama to choose a running mate based on political calculations, not the person’s readiness for the job.
“I think he’s going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice,” Rove said. “He’s going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he’s going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He’s not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president.”
Rove singled out Virginia governor Tim Kaine, also a Face The Nation guest, as an example of such a pick.
“With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished,” Rove said. “I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America.” [i.e., Richmond, VA, with a metropolitan area population of 1.1 million ; Palin has been governor of Alaska for a few months, Alaska pop. 683,478. – LG]
Rove continued: “So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States.”
The secret life of paper
Via Inhabitat (and do read at the link), this interesting video:
Thinking over the Palin pick
I won’t say much more about this: the press and indeed her own state are busily toting up the drawbacks of her being Vice President. But this post by Joe Klein and this post by Steve Benen made me realize what’s up: McCain was a fighter pilot, not a bomber pilot. Bombers are crew-operated airplanes (I’m thinking WWII here, when the studies were done), and bombers fly in formation as part of a group. A bomber pilot was in those days a methodical, systematic, careful man: he was selected for those attributes. He also was a good manager—works well with others, has a crew that is loyal and respects him, and plays his part in the overall bombing mission.
A fighter pilot, OTOH, had just a wingman and was generally a daredevil sort of personality, willing to take chances to get the kill. In dogfights, there was not formation flying, and the willingness to take chances increased one’s survival odds. The last thing a pilot should be in a dogfight is predictable.
For a fighter pilot, the best defense is a good offense. For a bomber pilot, the best defense is to stay in formation so that the other bombers could provide supporting fire (and your own bomber’s gunners could support them) and provide a steady firing platform for the bomber’s gunners, who were responsible for the defense. The pilot left the combat to the gunners and focused on getting his bomb load to the target and then getting back.
For a president, one would want a bomber pilot, not a fighter pilot. For an entrepreneur, the fighter pilot might represent the better mindset.
Vetiver lovers, take note
This morning, following the vetiver theme of one previous post, I used QED Vetiver shaving soap—intense! Any true vetiver fan will want to have this one. The Rooney Style 1 Size 1 Super made a great lather, and the shave, with a Hoffritz Slant Bar and an Astra Superior Platinum blade at the end of its life, was okay: the blade really should have been replaced, but with three passes and a jojoba oil polishing pass, the shave was acceptable. Stetson Sierra aftershave.
Late start today: started The Wire Season Five last night.
Later On 