Who knew Dubya had a sense of humor?
What is the president looking for in a new Fed chairman?
”The nominees will be people that, one, obviously can do the job and, secondly, will be independent,” Bush said. ”It’s important that whomever I pick is viewed as an independent person from politics.
‘Cuz, as we all know, Bush values competence and independence above all else…
October 4th, 2005 at 07:09pm
Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under:
Bush,
Corruption/Cronyism,
Politics
Two Columbus Circle to be transformed into the world’s largest PC!
(Allied Works Architecture, Inc.)
As a regular New York Times reader, I have been casually following the sad saga of the “Lollipop Building” at Two Columbus Circle, which has been deemed an eyesore and is slated for a complete renovation. Maybe I just have an inordinate fondness for the bizarre, but I rather like the Lollipop Building just the way it is.
What’s not to love? If it’s the architectural equivalent of plaid, so much the better.
October 4th, 2005 at 06:55pm
Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under:
Art/Architecture
Alrighty then…
The MTA has a new plan to add a little polish to its police force: hiring a “verbal judo” teacher who calls himself “Rhino,” refers to cops as “dawgs” and wants officers to walk around saying “Woosha!”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority inked a $40,500 contract with George Thompson’s upstate Verbal Judo Institute to instruct officers on the “martial arts of the mind and the mouth.”
The goal is to help cops use language to get cooperation from drunks, dueling spouses and crazed civilians in a bid to stop confrontations from turning violent.
“It’s all about how to operate in the special forces of words, how to be elite,” Thompson said. “…We are the last thin blue line between order and disorder, peace and violence.”
(snip)
He developed “maxims” for his “dawgs,” his lingo for cops who take a bite out of crime.
Some are innocuous – such as, “If it makes you feel good, it’s no good,” a reminder that hurling insults may feel good in the moment but will cause problems.
Others are a bit unorthodox. Take the one that casts lawyers as the enemy: “He’s that three-piece, shark-skinned, tassel-shoed, alligator-belted, four-eyed, Gray Poupon sucking S.O.B.”
(snip)
“It’s a very effective communications tool,” said James O’Keefe, a former director of the NYPD Police Academy, now a criminal justice professor at St. John’s University.
In other words, a “Woosha!”
That’s what cops are taught to exclaim after sweet-talking a vexing or volatile civilian.
It’s a toned-down version of a martial arts scream that involves the “natural expulsion of breath … and represents a win,” said Mike Manley, an ex-cop and Thompson protégé who will be teaching the MTA officers.
Not really sure what to make of this, other than that “Rhino” appears to have attended the Rudy Ray Moore School Of Bizarre Insults…
October 4th, 2005 at 06:45pm
Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under:
Weirdness
The spam-filtering at work is pretty good (plus I never give out my work e-mail), so the stuff that manages to penetrate the deflector shields is almost always of the highest quality. Observe today’s specimen, from “Riss Yseult”:
Subject: New offr Medsications
Message:
wordplay wedding dizziness pasteuri zer raised Hello, Fast Total Home Best Easy ShiConDeliPricOrd ppingfidentialityveryseringAnd more LAXCVV evimbanialiagali traienaxs ra um Get detailed infformation. watch over his movements. But when the W…
(The good stuff is only visible in the message preview – the actual e-mail text is completely different and invariably uninteresting)
Evimbanialiagali???
And do I really want to watch over W’s movements?
October 4th, 2005 at 02:18pm
Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under:
Spamoptikon
