As a concept it is not overly theoretical and its utility is suspect. Or so we thought. My debate coach did his PhD work with Whalen and we knew not to fuck with him because he controlled escalation dominance. That’s probably all I need to say about the story. Poking the bear and all.

Nicodemus and I opened a can of mustard sauced sardines and put it in the driver’s seat of Whalen’s rental car. It was not supposed to be a joke that went as far as it did. In any case, Whalen did not see the can and he sat down on it and then reached down and stuck his fingers inside it. This is the problem with escalation dominance as a deterrence strategy. Sometimes people know they do not own that terminus and yet they act, thinking that there will not be escalation. Israel could attack Iranian nuclear facilities thinking they have political cover (treaties, unilateral guarantees, etc.) and the aggrieved party then feels a need to respond (internal politics, illegitimacy of treaties and unilateral guarantees, etc.).

We knew we were in for some trouble. What we had thought would be funny and not invoke Whalen’s ire had backfired. It is even possible that Whalen did exactly what we expected (saw the opened can) and decided he would make our innocent prank not-so-innocent by playing it up. Regardless of how we ended up where we were, we knew Whalen would escalate and that it would outpace any retaliation we could conceive.

Whalen convinced our roommate to give him the room key. When we opened the door to our hotel room it smelled like Fisherman’s Wharf. There were oysters in our shoes. A live goldfish was swimming in the toilet. A mackerel was tucked into my bed, so its head was on the pillow. One eye looking up at me.

It was a long trip and after a few days there was still the smell of fish. Whalen took pity on my roommates, especially the one that loaned him the room key and told us that he had upper decked us. The real upper deck is when you have access to someone’s toilet and you take a shit in the tank and not in the bowl. There was another mackerel in the tank and that is what had been stinking up the place.

I never again fucked with Whalen. Escalation dominance was established, but only after a test.

via washingtonexaminer.com

Last night I met a guy at the bar who was vehement about the need for public funds for the new Vikings stadium. Why? I asked him and he said because an NFL team brings in revenue.

“Let’s bracket that for later and assume it is correct? Does it then matter if the stadium is funded publicly or completely with private funds?”

“They won’t build it on their own.”

“So, that’s a no it doesn’t matter, but you are correct, the real debate is about will the Vikings relocate for a cheaper and better stadium.” Then we had a discussion he was unprepared to have.

To win the debate that public funds are needed, the supporters MUST win that the Vikings will leave Minnesota otherwise. If they will not leave, then there is no loss of tax base or tourism especially since the stadium will just be built and financed without public funds.

NFL Commissioner Goodell and the owner of The Pittsburgh Steelers, Art Rooney, came to town last week to convince the Minnesota legislature to publicly finance the new Vikings’ stadium. However, they overplayed their hand and this move actually proves why the state ought not provide public funds for the new stadium.

If Goodell had come on his own, then maybe it was conceivable that he was here on behalf of an owner. But Rooney’s tagging along means the NFL is seriously concerned and that the NFL either wants the increased revenue of a new stadium or wants to keep the Vikings in Minnesota.

The first explanation fails when it is realized that the NFL gains the same bump in revenue if the stadium is funded privately or publicly. That then leaves the second explanation, the NFL has a stake in seeing the Vikings remain in Minnesota.

What is at stake are franchise fees. If the NFL expands, then the new LA franchise will need to pay a fee close to $1billion. The Houston texans paid $700m in 2002. A franchise in LA in 2013 will cost much more than the Houston team had to pay. If the Vikings relocate, then there is a payment close to $200million coming to the NFL.

We need to accept that the NFL is coming to LA. Relocation will bring it sooner than an expansion, but it is coming. It is that franchise fee which betrays Wilf’s plan. The NFL will veto relocation because there is too much money to be made by expanding into LA. Money which is lost by a simple relocation into LA.

Rooney coming to town only gives us yet another reason to see the public financing option for what it is: another million dollar company looking for a handout.

Update: there are actually several reasons why the Vikings will not qualify for relocation according to the NFL’s by-laws. Even if they did qualify, there are numerous teams that do easily qualify (San Diego) and some that are closer to qualifying (St. Louis and Jacksonville), so the threat of a Vikings’ relocation is even further mitigated. Here is a website that breaks down the NFL by-laws governing relocation: http://www.footballphds.com/2011/12/19/nfl-in-la-relocation-fees-for-los-angeles-currently-at-275-million/

Megan is unhappy. Don is unhappy, but that’s par for the course. Pete, Roger, Layne, Joan. Everyone is unhappy except for Trudy, but she barely made any face-time for us to know. Let’s just link of omission her into it as well: she only complained of being tired, she’s married to a Pete Campbell that is looking his age, and she is pregnant again. But they all consented.

Who did not consent to the world is how the show opens: among a civil rights protest. Young & Rubicam, a competing Madison Avenue firm, is shown to be bigots. In a joke of triumph the good folk at SCDP poke fun at the firm and then are stuck having to dress as non-bigots. SCDP will probably end up having to break the apartheid in their offices to save face and not out of any sense of justice.

I will say that I am much more interested in the Don-Megan storyline than I thought I would be. I am surprised to see him enjoying domestic living with her so much. Of course, how much fun would it be if there were children constantly around? Maybe he and Betty are perfect for each other, just sans ankle-biters.

I am also enjoying seeing Pete deal with his issues at the office. He is the workhorse behind accounts. He makes the rain and Roger acts like the senior partner, showing up for the wine and dine but letting Pete do the work. It sounds accurate to me. Of course Pete shouldn’t be content with it. He is forced to ride the train into work so he has met up with other middle managers who are the workhorses and not the show horses. Nothing like a little organization and agitation to make a show about changing cultural norms take root. I worry once Roger’s insecurity about lost prowess is revealed that Weiner et al will try to make us feel sympathetic towards him. Fuck him. Roger’s a dick and he gets what’s coming to him.

Overall it was an okay episode. I suspect Weiner was catering to a different sort of wants than I had. For that I can forgive him. Even if the episode had been a dude I would still be tuning in, the show was that good in previous years.

image via guardian.co.uk

According to the Genreality folks this week is theme week: reading habits.

I know I am not alone, but the plague does seem limited to those who practice wordcraft (yes, you academics can dance in this ball as well). Netflix did not invent the queue, but that is the closest most people come to experiencing our problem. My queue runneth over.

At the end of the day my browser has so many open tabs that the computer groans. My library is filled with books that have some marginalia, some dog-eared pages and a bookmark around the halfway point. There are books on the floor, on the shelves, next to the beds. I found a stack of books when cleaning out the garage. If the question is, what are Travis’ reading habits? Most people would answer that I don’t read. Sometimes I feel like I don’t.

The reality is that I do not and cannot read enough. Life gets in the way but the main impediment is writing. Writing and reading are hard. They need to be done serially.

Every morning after I leave the gym I go to a coffee shop where I force myself to read an essay and a short story. The only reason I can accomplish this is because I do not have the computer with me. After the readings I force myself to write the first sentence of the short story and then expanding out to 100 words, no fewer no less, I complete the story. It’s a good exercise that primes for me for the day of writing ahead.

Afterwards I go home, pick up the computer and find a coffee shop or a library and write. I have daily assignments and I have a larger project I am developing. The remainder of the day is an endless juggling match between those projects and the necessities of life in the US these days. At 9 I force myself to stop whatever I am doing and just read. This is the source of all the half read books. I’m fickle. Life is too short to slog through something I’m not feeling. Books being good are more about my ability to receive them and less about the author’s artifice. I give myself that luxury.

The Swede is a high school librarian and she allows herself to read what she wants all the time. It’s all research and enrichment for her vocation. She comes home and reads. Saturdays she reads. She feels no compulsion to read, which is precisely why she can read. I feel compelled and concomitantly rebel. I feel a need to read richly to improve my writing, whereas she can read for the pure joy of it.

The honest answer to the question is that she has the reading habit. For her it is an unthought necessity. As a writer it is labor and that makes me sad. Every now and then I will pick up what I consider fluff and then find that it has so much more to offer me than the masterpiece, if only because I am ready to receive it.

People always talk about humane slaughter, but there are very few good ways to die. All of our meat at Joe Beef is humanely raised and killed. In Paris, I hear they strangle the ducks to keep the blood in, but here we kill by autoerotic asphyxiation. We used to take lambs into a room one by one, play each his favorite movie, give him a light dinner and a little bit of smack, and then stop his heart. Tenderest and happiest lamb you’ve ever had. But that’s in the past now. Due to the high price of heroin, we can no longer afford our preferred way of preparing animals to die. (Morin 2012, 30)

Morin, Fred. (2012, Spring). Canard au sang AKA a la presse. Lucky Peach, 3, 30-33.

image via collider.com

synopsis here

I don’t get this episode. It’s as if the question about the value of intelligence gleaned from torture has been settled in the affirmative. Maybe the average person would torture for information, but the writers of the show should be smarter than us. I, for one, look to this show as an instruction manual for what to do when the zombiepocalypse comes. Nobody in the group even raises the question about the accuracy of what is learned. Maybe Randall (Michael Zegen: Adventureland) is lying because he thinks the scary version will save his life? Maybe a real threat would know not to tell the bad things they have done, leaving Randall to be an exception? There is not even a whiff of doubt in the camp, not even from Dale.

Randall knew about the farm before being taken to it. Odds are that he had already told them about it and even if not, the group of 30 will tour and try to find other people. That’s entirely consistent with the encounter with the guys in town. It’s consistent with the story Randall tells when being tortured. I hope we come to find out that the torture only produced what Randall thought they wanted to hear.

And then the debate about what to do with Randall…. Debate? There are political debates more filled with clash.

Now Carl (Chandler Riggs: The Wronged Man) is going to be racked with guilt for having brought the walker that killed Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn: The Shawshank Redemption) to the camp. I guess guilt is a powerful motivator for us, but as a trope in a TV show it’s tired. I cannot not roll my eyes. Is it a joke that Gary inadvertently saved Randall’s life and also inadvertently killed Dale? We saw a side of gary in this episode. Before now he had been a naive kid and now he is almost like an adult filled with an existential crisis. This latest turn will only accelerate his fall into cynicism and nihilism.

All in all this episode was about the characters turning dark. They were about to execute Randall in the coldest imaginable way possible. They only briefly delayed the execution instead of coming to terms with humanity. As of the end of the show Randall’s situation is similar to Wesley and the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride — sleep well, I’m likely to kill you in the morning. And then Dale, the single voice of reason in the whole Randall affair is killed off. The writers are making a ham and this episode was the glaze before the oven.

It was one of the weaker episodes of the series. It’s still a good series though and I will not hesitate to watch more of it. This episode was not weak enough to put it on probation.

Cohen does not do sentimentality well. He’s a great lyricist, but he cannot play or compose music worthy of the occasion. His hedonist tracks, however…. He’s most persuasive as a psychoanalyst prescribing us to enjoy our symptoms. “Don’t go home with your hard-on” is the epitome. The tune works and it stands as good advice.

It is not advice to seek out and fulfill your desires. Rather, only your most immediate desires. After all, if you have a hard-on then you are sufficiently proximate to the object of desire to do something about it. We’ve learned how to suppress our wants as functioning creatures in a society. The hard-on is somatic consciousness. Biologists will talk about diminishing blood to deliver oxygen to the brain. Even metaphorically, however, it represents a loss of will and control. It demands to be taken care of and home (read: locked up and private and not necessarily in a home) is not the place to do so. The hard-on remind us of our sociality and our need to be sociable. In a way, Cohen is telling us to just work it out.

Even in Minnesota there are seven Mexican joints for each person. There aren’t but that’s what I see when swimming around the cities. Many I have tried. Few I have returned to. I will return to Rusty Taco.

There is a parking situation. You have been warned. Many people spend a lot of review space on this issue. It is an issue, but the food fan will deal. Rusty Taco is worth the hassle.

Foursquare tips are nearly useless and this place demonstrates that lesson. There are 12 taco options and I saw a recommendation for each of them. I rolled with 7, 8 and 9. The Swede took down a 2 and a 9. Neither of us liked the 9. The pork was bland and the pineapple was too sweet. Carnitas tacos are a hard sell for us, because the pork needs to be crisped and then cooked instead of just cooked. Barrio has ruined our ability to appreciate carnitas from any other place, and sometimes even from Barrio.

I really enjoyed the 7. The fish was well seasoned. It could use some heat. The Crazy Hot Habanero Sauce was neither crazy nor hot. It does have some heat, but if the metaphor is calling 911, then this rates a take the flaming pan off the stove. For the fish the salsa verde is a better fit than the Crazy Hot and it too needs more heat. Regardless, the 7 is my pick for the best and that is with green sauce on it. I am willing to pay for it again.

The 8, crispy shrimp, was good. That’s about all I can say. Fried shrimp with some sauce on it is easy to do and hard to muck. It struck me as average. I plan on returning to try out some other options and it will be hard to not order the 7 just to guarantee that I have something I really enjoy.

Being able to have a tapped Dos Equis is always a plus. Having it with tacos is gravy. Chips and salsa are a staple, but most places disappoint. The chips are average but the salsa is actually good. It could be hotter, but the usual failings (too much tomato, too little cilantro, too much sweetness) were not there. Grab a seat at the bar and watch the rough guy (hickeys, bruises from a fight, lots of ink) make the tacos. Your mouth will water, hence the chips and salsa. It’s a fun place.

The decor is not special. The place is much cleaner than expected, not at all the dive I expect from the menu with the name Rusty Taco. Because of its location I expected it to be more suburban, but it could easily fit into a south Minneapolis neighborhood without making you fear for your health or safety.

Compared to other taco joints I would rather visit Barrio, but I don’t see them in competition. Barrio will have better carnitas and sangria (no sangria at Rusty) and will cost me more money. Barrio also lets me hob-knob with new money whereas Rusty lets me enjoy my tacos without fear of being judged for not wearing Bruno Maglis (hyperbole yes, but it’s still instructive).

image via hervotes.us

Virginia’s “Personhood Bill” has made it through the Senate committee and is now on the floor of the Senate for a vote. The House has already approved the measure. Gov. McDonnell, Republican, has not said if he would sign it or not. While Virginia is causing a dust-up with its Ultrasound Bill, also to be opposed, this is not the same legislation. This is only part of Virginia’s assault on reproductive rights. The Ultrasound Bill is designed to make those rights harder to invoke, whereas this legislation arguably allows infringement on those rights.

Here is the section, and the key to the bill, that is drawing the most fire, “unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the commonwealth, subject only to the laws and constitutions of Virginia and the United States, precedents of the United States Supreme Court, and provisions to the contrary in the statutes of the commonwealth”.

I really enjoy the part, the last phrase, that allows for the rights which are granted by laws which run contrary to Supreme Court jurisprudence. So what if the USSC holds that a woman in her first trimester can abort the fetus? That ruling runs contrary to laws on the books and hence the fetus now has a right to not be aborted.

Much of the uproar is about its effect on birth control and in vitro fertilization. Proponents say it will not effect birth control and that seems like a true caveat in the realm of contraceptions, which prevent an unborn child at any stage of development, but to say it will be neutral on abortions and the morning after pill is risible. If not for those acts, then what is this bill supposed to do? Proponents say it is to allow parents to sue for wrongful death in a case where there is an accidental death, such as an auto accident. Seriously? Probably not. That justification is a smokescreen.

The Senate committee attached language to the bill, language that has not been passed through the House, which limits the bill from limiting birth control and in vitro fertilization. Even if that language passes, it is an empty palliative. The language is there to ensure passage, but then in a year or two when the furor has died down people can begin acting, using the law to challenge precisely those acts.

Even if all the above concerns are unfounded there is a good practice this bill does hurt. Embryonic stem cell collection. The act is not protected by the most liberal interpretations of the IVF and birth control allowance. Embryonic stem cells are clearly a stage of development. To defend collection because it is not yet an unborn child is probably not a defense that will withstand judicial scrutiny.

This is enough reason alone to oppose this law. I will only provide a cursory sketch of why embryonic stem cell research is good, it’s all part of a larger debate that the Virginia legislators have not yet begun to scratch. Collection is voluntary. The cells are put to productive use, whereas they would be lost without collection. Embryonic stem cell research is more productive than non-embryonic stem cell collection. In a world where there are few intrinsic goods I will defend stem cell research as one of them. There are concerns about collection methods and that is fine. There ought to be. But those concerns are better addressed by other protections and proscriptions than an outright prohibition which overreaches.

The real proof of this law as a joke is its precedents. Colorado, not exactly a progressive voting state, rejected the measure twice and Mississippi has also rejected the proposal. If it does not pass muster in those bastions of conservatism, then that should signify something.

This is footage of the original time “Purple Rain” was played for the public. It happened at First Avenue, which was the name of the club in the movie Purple Rain. It’s changed and doesn’t quite the same anymore. On Sunday night there was a reunion of The Revolution and speculation about prince showing up and accompanying. His gear did make it to the show and then at the last minute Prince bailed on the performance citing disclosure agreements and cameras as the reason. What a dick.

Texts from a crazy..er…confused woman

It happens. Schadenfreude, that’s all there is to say.

Street views Google didn’t want you to see

What more is there to say? Ugh, I’m saying that all too much these days. There is more, but to what end? My favorites are the ones from Mexico and Ireland.