Doug-at-large

From Simon:

Tao and Hao-chan finally meet, thanks to the miracle of PhotoShop.

doug

Hao-chan likes chirping along (a bit) with Julie Andrews during his favorite song, “Feed the Birds.”

Hao-chan is a very connected Java Sparrow. (Click image to see full-size)

Hao-chan often hangs out with me in the computer room and helps out.  Very often he breaks into song and hops up and down on my hand. It really is very funny, but I’ve never been able to record him doing it. 

doug

View from my bedroom in Katsuhika, Tokyo on the morning and evening of New Year’s Day, 2009. Click to see full size.

doug

Michael Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican Party said this:

“It’s time for something completely different and we’re going to bring it to them,” Mr. Steele said. “We’re going to bring this party to every corner, to every boardroom, to every neighborhood, to every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike, ‘we want you to be a part of us, we want you to be with us and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ “

What on earth kind of a statement is that? It sounds like a statement the Gestapo would issue.

doug

I was just listing to some live concert recordings (this one from a Joan Baez concert) and there was the usual cheering, applauding, hooping and hollering.

It occurred to me that I have never cheered at a concert or rally. I always just politely applaud.

What about you?

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doug

Well, I’m not going to stay awake while they all have lunch, so I guess I’ll have to see a recap of the parade on the news tomorrow. Maybe I’ll be up in time for the inaugural balls.

I can’t believe Chief Justice Roberts messed up the oath of office!

I thought Obama’s speech was “ok”. Typical Obama rhetoric. A little disjointed. If *I* were the speechwriter I would have book-ended his statement at the beginning about there being a nagging doubt that America is in decline with a declaration that he has no doubts that America is on the rise. But nobody asked me.

I watched some MSNBC live streaming before going into the next room to watch the main event live on CNN on a regular TV. I really haven’t watched MSNBC much before and was surprised to see how it is true what people say about them being “in the tank” for Obama. They don’t even pretend to be unbiased.

For example, one person commented that, “it must be a bittersweet moment for Bush considering all the calls for change” and the anchor said, “Bittersweet? The Bushes must feel like the Romanoffs today. ”

After he repeated the Romanoff comment the other co-anchors tried to get him to back off of that. Apparently that was a bit much even for MSNBC.

But they were basically completely in the tank for Obama. The anchor was even saying Bush probably would not be revisited in history as an interesting president. I don’t think history will treat Bush well, but I doubt he will be ignored. He made so many disastrous decisions it would be hard to ignore him.

Andrea Mitchell was trying to get NY Governor Paterson to say who he selected to replace Clinton. He was saying he didn’t want to distract from today to say who he decided on and Mitchell basically ignored him and asked, “so do you think Caroline Kennedy will be a good senator for NY?”

MSNBC did pause from demonizing Bush and promoting Caroline Kennedy to say the park department doesn’t make crowd estimates anymore because of controversies about them.

The only good commentator on MSNBC was the historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin, who always is a reservoir of presidential information and comparisons between Lincoln and Obama.

I switched to CNN a bit after that to get a better view on a regular TV, but also it seemed CNN at least tried to be balanced in describing what was going on.

doug

To the lost woman on a bicycle to whom, with supreme confidence in my voice, I accidentally sent off in the wrong direction… wherever you are… Sorry.

doug