The smart hit the two thousand mile mark today, after roughly ten-and-a-half weeks.
Pinning the Democrats
Former Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart suggests that all supporters of Barack Obama could now “prove” that they are “just as patriotic as anyone on the right” by starting to wear flag pins. It’s got to be his best idea since deciding to take a trip on the Hanky Panky during the 1988 presidential campaign.
A number of the commenters at his blog entry on The Huffington Post rightly take offense at the suggestion. After all, who is it supposed to convince? And since when does flag-waging (or flag-sticking) prove anyone’s actual patriotism? Wouldn’t it just play into the idea that you weren’t patriotic if, say, your flag pin fell off that day?
Perhaps Hart has some investments in a flag pin factory or something….
Tim Russert Dies At 58
Now MSNBC has someplace for Tucker Carlson to land.
Working At the Car Wash
The New York Times Wheels blog notes the Canadian take on the standard SUV ad:
Tempest In A Typepot
Blue Oregon’s Kari Chisholm really ought to leave questions about design and copyright issues to the professionals, because his “a-ha” about the Gordon Smith campaign using the same typeface as the University of Oregon athletic department is mind-blowingly mis-informed.
Not only is it untrue that a typeface can be copyrighted, but the font the athletic department uses appears to be derived from Handel, a font that’s been around for a while. It substitutes modified lower-case versions of the characters for some of the upper-case characters, despite claims from Duck Sports News that it’s a closely-held super-secret font.
I spent many hours matching fonts in the early ’90s, in order to build electronic versions of traditionally-developed logos, but Nate Currie — one of the commenters at Blue Oregon — already did that. So let me focus on the actual build of the logo. Here’s the progression.
The original version of Gordon Smith’s logo:
A digital sample of ITC Handel Gothic Heavy from Fonts.com:
Three stages of the bitmapped characters:
- Direct screen capture from the Fonts.com page.
- Moving the “m” so that the crossbar matches the height of the capitals and extending the stems.
- Widening the space in the “m”, and replacing the “N” with a modified “m”.
Each of the names anamorphically stretched to fit over the logo.
Not an exact fit, because I didn’t want to take more than a few minutes to do it — I’m not about to spend any time defending Gordon Smith — but this is truly a non-story.
Hopefully, Jeff Merkley’s web guy has some better material to work with than this.
Really?
An email from Amazon.com that I have a hard time believing (despite Robert Greenwald having directed both films):
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated “Outfoxed – Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” or other films in the ( G ) > Greenwald, Robert category have also purchased “Xanadu – Magical Musical Edition (With Complete Soundtrack CD)” on DVD.
What about Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers?
Separated At…Whatever
Maybe it’s because I saw a broadcast repeat of Hellboy last night, but when when the page for the RNCthulhu RNC’s YouTube contest (win a trip to the convention!) hit my eye, it reminded of something much older than the republic. Maybe it was just the cropping of the logo….
Cats and Politics
Marc Maron figures out how to get his political message across to uninterested voters: cats.
Multiples
An odd but mildly entertaining fact: Though the vote was largely split along party lines, several of the 24 Republicans who voted to refer Representative Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush to the House Judiciary committee had the same last name as Democratic representatives who voted for the motion!
There’s
- Robert Brady (D-PA) and Kevin Brady (R-TX).
- John Hall (D-NY) and Ralph Hall (R-TX).
- Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Tim Johnson (R-IL).
- Stephanie Jones (D-OH) and Walter Jones (R-NC).
- Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Tim Murphy (R-PA).
- Charles Wilson (D-OH) and Heather Wilson (R-NM).
That’s a quarter of the Republicans who voted for the motion. That doesn’t even take into consideration the two Florida Republican Diaz-Balarts.
Seven Years Ago Today
A word from my cousin Roxana about our grandmother:
I have spent many years in a volunteer capacity working against domestic violence, so I was shocked when my grandmother was shot and killed June 11 in the White Salmon area. My grandmother was bedridden, blind, and has suffered many strokes over the years. I did not expect her to die in this manner.
She died because her caregiver, Toni Stencil, was the target of an angry man.
There is not room to write all the details Toni has given me, and Toni has her own story to tell. I am not a legal expert, or an expert in domestic violence. I am simply a granddaughter asking questions and looking for answers on why my grandmother had to die so violently.
Through my questions, I have found out that the state of Washington has a Mandatory Arrest Law, as does Wisconsin, where I now live. This law does vary from state to state, and I’m not clear on the stipulations in your law. What I have been told by Toni is that she called 9-1-1 on the Thursday evening prior to the (Monday) shooting because this man had bound her and held her against her will for over three hours. She talked her way out of this dangerous situation and did call 9-1-1.
I wonder why he was not arrested on that evening. Certainly this will be determined, and police in White Salmon have declined to answer my questions concerning this issue at present.
Why should you care about this law? Remember that my grandmother was an innocent victim of a dispute between two people that she had absolutely nothing to do with. This was a dangerous man. Are the laws you have in place working for you? If not, why?
These are the questions running through my head that keep me up at night. There is another state law that interests me as well that I’m checking into concerning self-help information that is to be given to victims of domestic 9-1-1 calls. Three days passed between Toni’s initial call for help and the shooting; she needed professional help. I have found out that you have the Programs For Peaceful Living. This program could have offered Toni some very needed support in a number of ways.
I pose these questions and tell this story because it is my way of helping and healing. On my own, I cannot look into your laws and check into the rapport between your police force and your programs in place to help people. You need to be concerned because you care about the health of your community. I believe domestic violence issues are so important, because the health of a whole community starts in the home.
Please support your local law enforcement and program such as Programs For Peaceful Living in working together against domestic violence.