Happy mission accomplished day. May all your major combat operations in the coming year be fruitful.
*edit: oh, what terrible irony that Bush should veto a war spending bill today.
Category Archives: Politics
State of the Union
I’ve been working on some projects, at the pace my work and family obligations allow, and have found some pretty cool stuff out there. Related to the HTML Grapher I found several months ago, though only tangentially, is State of the Union an interactive index of every State of the Union address from 1790 to present. Key words (excluding particles like “a,” “the,” “in,” and so forth) are tallied laid out relative to the individual speech being viewed and relative to the entire texts of the 217 addresses. Ladies and gentlemen, the state of this index is strong.
panem et circenses
Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.
–Juvenal
Superbowl Sunday is upon us again. Millions of Americans that cannot be bothered to pay even slight attention to the activities of their government will passionately cheer for overpaid adults playing a child’s game. They will project loyalty and pride in the performance of these athletes, who nominally represent the cities of Chicago and Indianapolis. Through a complicated web of inflated rivalries, viewers that don’t hail from the midwest will root for or against one team or the other.
Or were you planning to watch it for the ads?