attagirl, Molly

Worth reading: Molly Ivins' column about Ann Richards, published today.

My favorite? The story ending with "I am Mrs. Miles." Priceless.

goodbye, Ann

I suspect what I'll remember most about Ann Richards is her oratory; one of the few things I've liked about living here is the occasional gust of creative Texas twang, and Ann was a master of it.


The classic Texas Iron photo of Ann Richards on a motorcycle.

I admire any woman who rides a Harley. Perhaps that's why I found Texas mildly acceptable when I moved here in 1993, when Ann Richards was governor. With that in mind, I was saddened when I Got The Memo soon after 10pm last night:

Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards died after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73.

Ann Richards was the last competent, decent human to be Texas Governor*. Since I was living in California at the time, I don't recall whether I knew of Ann Richards before July 1988, when she delivered her great keynote at the Democrat National Convention, but she struck me as a straight-shootin' person who would sometimes get herself into a wee bit of trouble; I can surely relate to that. Her demeanor is surely why I find Kinky Friedman's current campaign so refreshing, compared to the Career Politician (Rick Perry) who's there now.

*Texas Governors haven't always been useless twits like President Quagmire and (current) Rick "Pretty Hair" Perry, both brought to power by Karl Rove (the Turd Blossom). For an example of the slime this pond scum is able to create, look at the commentary at the bottom half of "Bush's war over gay marriage", where Dubya's election to Texas governor is documented.

Texas would do well with more Ann Richards. The best politicians are those who don't monitor their every breath for saying something that won't get them re-elected. There's a magnet on my refrigerator with a quote from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich:

Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History.

Ann Richards wasn't well behaved. I, for one, will miss her.

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Additional commentary may be found on the right-wing Dallas Blog, and elsewhere.

my spam filter can beat up your spam filter

I have emails accounts on both Yahoo and Google (Gmail) and it's interesting to note how much better the Gmail Spam Filter is. It appears to be nearly 100% accurate in separating the Spam from the Ham, while Yahoo's filter is getting worse by the day - lots of stuff is seeping through lately.

Easily 75% of my email is now spam (on one mostly-dormant account, it's more like 99%), so it's important to trap as much of this stuff as possible. I've been training the Spamato extension to Thunderbird for a few weeks, and it's only moderately successful so far (remember that it's a second line of defense, since either Gmail or Yahoo has already tried to identify the stuff).

One of the puzzling things is that email from several large companies is consistently marked as Spam, when it's not. I gave them my address. Since some of the filters depend on how many other users "vote" if a certain message is spam-or-ham, that means there are a LOT of incredibly stupid users out there, who proclaimed an email to be Spam when it clearly is not. All they have to do is [unsubscribe]* and it goes away.

* yes, I know there are some hairball companies out there who don't tell you how to unsubscribe, or tell you that you're off their list when you're really not. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the large B&M (brick and mortar) operations that are reputable. When their messages are marked as Spam, something's wrong.

Spamato's interesting in that it has six (6) filters in this open source product: Bayesianato; Comha; Domainator; Earlgrey; Razor; Ruleminator. The product has a nice bar-chart which shows the effectiveness of these filters; in my case the "Ruleminator" is the most effective and the "Bayesianato" is the least effective. That said, there's a nice ability to add additional rules - if the spam that wasn't already trapped fits certain patterns. I haven't tweaked it yet, but that's coming Real Soon Now.

Today's mandatory read: Molly Ivins' latest column. As always, she's dead on.

Moyers declared "Texan of the Year 2005"*

There are a few Texans for whom I have a lot of respect. Bill Moyers is one of them; he shoots straighter than most anyone I've ever heard, and his May 2005 speech to the National Conference for Media Reform is an absolute must-read (if you didn't TiVo it, as I did). If you look carefully on the freepress.net site, you'll find a link to the 45-minute downloadable video of the speech, which is better since Moyers' subtleties don't always come through in the printed transcript.


Bill Moyers

One of the nice things about TiVo is the ability to flag stuff for deletion "only when I'm good and ready" and this is indeed a keeper. The now-retired Moyers is not afraid to name names, and offers a refreshing confirmation of what I've grown to understand to be the CFRP's attack on our free press, not to mention their imminent takeover of the Public Broadcasting System.

On this Memorial Day 2005, I find it only fitting to suggest that every American read what Moyers had to say earlier this month. If what he says makes you uncomfortable in your steadfast belief that the CFRP's control of all branches of government (including the Justice branch) is a good thing, then maybe he's succeeded in getting his message across.

This country needs a lot more Bill Moyers. I only hope his message to the 2500 journalists assembled in St. Louis isn't quashed by the Bush Regime's spending cuts. With Karl Rove at the helm (Everybody Knows™ that President Quagmire is merely a puppet), we can only hope He doesn't lead us into further isolationism, the us-versus-them mantra.

* okay, okay .. so Moyers was born in Oklahoma. But he got to Texas as fast as he could.

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Everybody Knows is a trademark of Fox "News"; Rush Limbaugh Productions; and the Christian Fascist Republican Party.

the downside of B&M

After meeting Robert-Bob for lunch at Chuck's Hamburgers, I moseyed over to the Barnes & Noble (acceptable because they're blue) bookstore to look around. To be honest, I don't buy much from any B&M (brick and mortar) bookstore other than Half Price Books lately.

Aside: there's a new restaurant next to Barnes & Noble (SW quad of Preston/Beltline) called Tall Boys Deli which could be worth a look-see. It's in the place where two prior restaurants have failed, so I'd better go quickly before this one goes under, too.

When going to a B&M bookstore, I gravitate to the LOCAL section. Today .. in the Texana section .. I spotted titles by Molly Ivins (doesn't care for the Bush Regime) and Kinky Friedman (now candidate for Texas Governator).

recent Molly Ivins quote: "I must confess, I have sadly underestimated the Bush administration's sense of humor. Appointing John Bolton ambassador to the United Nations: boffo!"

Back when I was traveling the world, the guidebooks I consistently liked the best - by far - were the Lonely Planet Travel Guide Books. There are lots of travel books, and I suspect there's a certain personal taste at work when choosing one. So there, in B&N's Texas section, was a shiny copy of Lonely Planet: Texas; I thumbed through it but didn't buy it. Texas is such a huge place that the concept of a "day trip" is usually futile, since it can take a full day to reach your one-way destination (think Dallas to El Paso).

Deep Thought # 62: I wonder if that's how the LBJ Freeway got the number I-635 .. it's 635 miles to El Paso from Dallas!

While online, I spotted a Lonely Planet guide that I must have: the Lonely Planet - USA phrasebook. I suspect it contains many phrases I've never used, but must learn in order to fully appreciate this Land Of Milk And Honey. Perhaps there are regional sections: How To Speak Texan, How To Speak Boston, How To Speak Californican, etc. Hmm .. times for a trip to Half Price Books to see if they have a copy. Guess I'll have to wait for them to open at 10am or so. Hmm .. the downside to brick and mortar are Store Hours.

Cover of the Rolling Stone .. sorta

I don't know whether the story about Dan Rather, or Kinky Friedman makes me wanna head down to the Barnes & Noble and git me a copy of Texas Monthly .. but either way, I mo'go-gitme one. 

light the blue paper and retire immediately

I've thought Game Theory is a useful tool for most of Life's Situations, and will surely blog on that Real Soon Now. There appear to be a sizable group who believe that what happened in Abu Ghraib (Iraqi prison) was little more than a college hazing prank, to which I would reply: would it bother anyone if those were American prisoners being held naked, made to pose in front of enemy troops while performing lewd acts, now played on TV for their families back home?

Once again, I suggest reading the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Have we decided those rules (about torture) don't apply to us? This Turn The Tables thought process is also useful when talking about anyone's rights, whether it be a domestic minority, or foreign insurgents.

GoogL'ost #39: Republican Unity Coalition (found this while looking for a recent Ann Richards quote about same-sex marriage). For those who don't know: Ann Richards was the governor of Texas until she lost to Karl Rove and George W. Bush. Personally, I admire any woman on a Harley, especially if she has white hair.