Let's listen to some ska music

Beth's feature on the English Beat album I Just Can't Stop It reminded me how much I liked ska music, and how much I haven't been listening to it lately. I immediately got I Just Can't Stop It loaded into iTunes, and am now looking for some other old favorites like The Specials, and The Selecter.

So now it's Tuesday morning. I stayed up late, slept late, and now I get to sit here with my eldest daughter, drinking coffee and listening to ska music. ^_^

She's turned me on to a couple of bands that she likes, Mustard Plug and Streetlight Manifesto. My musical horizon shrinks, and then expands again.

Out of all those bands, though, I always liked The Specials best. So here's a video. Enjoy:

Monday morning asshole update

I read some more about Bob Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. There's some good reading on his site, Work Matters.

It must be that it's Monday, the start of the work week, that's got me thinking about assholes. Mr. Sutton explains why he calls them assholes:

To start with authenticity, when I tangle with nasty person, I don’t think “what a jerk” or “what an abusive person.” The first thing that comes to mind is “what an asshole.” That is also the word that nearly everyone I know uses to describe these creeps, even though they may later censor it. ...

We teach our Ph.D. students at Stanford in the Center for Work, Technology and Organization who do ethnographies of the workplace that using foul language is sometimes necessary for providing accurate and realistic descriptions of what people say and how they feel. I believe that – in terms of both descriptive and emotional accuracy – other words are simply inferior for describing how persistently demeaning people act and, especially, the feelings they unleash in their victims.

In other posts, Sutton offers helpful metrics to identify assholes, and perhaps measure their degree of being assholes in order to manage them.

The No Asshole Rule

In my opinion this is the book title of the year:

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World has an excellent review. According to Mr. Kawasaki

...it’s the definitive guide to understanding, counteracting, and not becoming an asshole. I am qualified to make this judgment because (a) I’ve been an asshole a few times and (b) been a victim of assholes more than a few times.

As Kawasaki says, the first step is recognizing who is an asshole. I'm going to quote him at length, and I encourage you to click on this link and read the rest of the article.

The first step is to recognize who is an asshole. Sutton’s blog cites one method. It’s called the Starbucks Test It goes like this: If you hear someone at Starbucks order a “decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n’-Low and one NutraSweet,” you’re in the presence of an asshole. It’s unlikely that this petty combination is necessary—the person ordering is trying to flex her power because she’s an asshole.

A second method is to use Suttons’s dirty-dozen list of everyday asshole actions:

1. Personal insults

2. Invading one’s personal territory

3. Uninvited personal contact

4. Threats and intimidation, both verbal and non-verbal

5. Sarcastic jokes and teasing used as insult delivery systems

6. Withering email flames

7. Status slaps intended to humiliate their victims

8. Public shaming or status degradation rituals

9. Rude interruptions

10. Two-faced attacks

11. Dirty looks

12. Treating people as if they are invisible

A third method—albeit the least reliable, scientific, and fair but the most fun—is to search Google with a person’s name (or a profession) plus “asshole.” This yields some interesting results.

Please help me with a research project

I'm doing a little informal research, and I'm hoping you can help me.

Please click on the link below, and view the short video. Ignore the hokey metal music that's been added as a soundtrack, and forget that it's a clip from the TV show Cops. Understand that this is a brief video clip taken from COPS and put on YouTube for entertainment (hence the lack of emphasis on police procedures like interviewing, and instead added emphasis on the takedown.) The added music obscures/drowns out some of the dialogue. Please assume that the subject being taken down has been identified as the offender in a fight, as described briefly in the video.

After you watch the clip, please scroll down and anser a few questions for me. You can post your answers as comments.

I have a few questions for you:

1) Is the police officer's use of force justified?

2) If not, why not?

3) If the officer had pepper spray, should he have used it?

4) The officer had a Taser. Should he have used it before putting his hands on the arrestee?

5) If the officer's use of force was not justified, what do you think he should have done?

6) Did you see any indication that the subject posed a threat to the police officer? If you did think the subject posed a threat, what did you see or hear to make you think that?

7) Did the officer's use of force offend or shock you?

Thanks for responding to this if you can. I'm doing some use-of-force training this week, and I plan on comparing your responses (you're my non-law-enforcement control group for now) to those of the cops in the class I'm teaching.

Thanks again!

Barbados faces horror of giant snail invasion

AP) BRIDGETOWN, Barbados A breed of giant, ravenous snails that first appeared in Barbados five years ago has thrived on the tropical island, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate the slimy pests.

Authorities are organizing nocturnal snail hunts to combat the menace from these crop-munching, meningitis-transmitting mollusks.

As if the threat to our (by our I mean, mine, not the United States') rum imports isn't bad enough, even the West Virginia Department of Agriculture has sounded the alarm. And if West Virginia is threatened, Kentucky can't be far behind, with its clear water, rich fields of corn and many distilleries.

First the rum is gone, and then the bourbon.

Shake for me

November 10: Friday Random Ten, Pre-Dawn Edition

See, if you stay up late enough, and drink a few Effen Sexy cocktails, you can (if you work at it hard enough) convince yourself that you're actually an early bird, getting things done. Getting important things done, that is, and early. You're not just some sleep-deprived crank who works nights and spends too much time on the computer.

And, as you post this week's random shuffle choices, you'll feel the same satisfaction as if you'd gotten up early and run 6 miles. Or milked the cows, or whatever. Last week the Mad Seamstress and I sorted our music so that this week's list more accurately reflects what I'm likely to be listening to as I stew in my juices:

London is the Place For Me – Lord Beginner

A La Carte – James Holloway

Hang Me In A Bottle – Tom Waits (Alice Original Demos)

Railroad Blues – Woody Guthrie

Mean Mean Woman – The Rockers

Banzai Washout – Dick Dale

Howlin’ For My Baby – Howlin Wolf

Call of the Wighat – The Cramps

Nobody But My Baby – Fats Waller

I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash

Now it's squirrels

I've fallen down on the job.

Between Halloween and the recent elections, I've failed in performing one of the most important tasks here at the Compound: namely, warning you all of the rising wave of animal attacks. I aim to make up for lost time.

First it was alligators, then a variety of animals including monkeys and bears. And emus.

Now it's squirrels.

It's a good thing I've got two scrappy terriers to keep those furry little nut-eating bastards away from the compound. Hopefully the dogs stay loyal.

A moment of partisan gloating.

I feel better this morning.

Operation Enduring Occupation

Please vote. No matter how awful your local candidates are, at least one of them is better than Kang or Kodos:

I said, VOTE

Don't whine

VOTE!

Halloween's last gasp

The girls threw a nice little Halloween party at the compound this weekend. The nice thing about it was, it gave us an excuse to leave the Halloween decorations up a few days longer. That, and it gave us a good reason to rent a bunch more scary movies.

Our eldest had a banner week. She got to attend an evening with Tom Savini, and met him afterward. He even signed her copy of the original Dawn of the Dead. She followed this up by attending a small zombie walk on Halloween night. What a gal.

Our youngest sewed her own rag doll costume, and even put a wig together out of yarn. Clever girl.

Enjoy the pics and say goodbye to Halloween until next year.

The children are our future

This chick rocks so hard you don't even know it yet.

Finally, back to real news

Nude Couple's Feud Ends at Waffle House - Forbes.com

No wonder my brother in law eats three meals a day there when he's on the road.

Friday Random Ten, November 3

HOLY SHIT I'VE WASTED ANOTHER WEEK OF MY LIFE.

Sorry, I meant to say:

Golly, it's Friday again, and time for this week's random ten!

1) Get Your Gun – Marilyn Manson

2) Jumble, Jumble – White Stripes

3) The Sanity Assassin – Bauhaus

4) You Made A Hit – Ray Smith

5) Pulling Teeth – Green Day

6) Oakie Boogie – Jack Guthrie

7) Goons of Hazzard – Dead Kennedys

8) Iowa – Slipknot

9) Come On Home – Franz Ferdinand

10) The Living End – Jesus and Mary Chain

Go check out American Idle, Just a Cool Cat, or Dale to see more.

ADDED AT 9:20 PM:

I got an idea from my eldest, the Mad Seamstress. We were discussing the Friday Random Ten and she commented on how many of the songs in my lists were from her, or her sister. She posted her first Random Ten here, and what she did was make a separate library of her music, so that her shuffles would more accurately reflect her own musical tastes. I've done the same thing, so that next week's shuffle should be more Bubs, less Bubs' kids.

Political Compass

Tired of the old conservative/liberal, right/left political spectrum? I know I am. Drawing political orientation on a line that runs from left to right along an x axis seems limiting. After all, Martin Luther King and Joseph Stalin might both be described as "left" but that's clearly not very descriptive.

The folks at Political Compass have a more complete system that includes the traditional left/right, as well as a y axis that goes from libertarian to authoritarian.

Guess where I landed.

Manliest day ever

Today might have been one of my manliest days ever.

Without being too indelicate, let's say it started on a very positive marital note with the phenomenally talented and lovely MizBubs. After an invigorating shower I went to the kitchen and began grinding fresh venison to cook into some chili at the shooting range later. I suppose it would've been manlier if I'd driven to Wisconsin in a big truck, but still...

I spent the entire afternoon alternately cooking chili for a group of 21 cops, and shooting a variety of firearms: two Glock handguns, an AR-15, an M-14, an MP-5 and a Remington 870 shotgun. The chili was a great success and I got lots of compliments on it. Then we shot some more, at night, which is cool because the muzzle flashes are really impressive. My team won a shooting relay so we didn't have to pick up all the brass from the range, and then I did some more shotgun shooting, which is very manly because it makes your shoulder throb. And then I shot the AK-47. Oh yeah, and I did this while smoking a big fat cigar.

Finally, we cleaned up and drank some bourbon from a flask before leaving. In the words of Teddy Roosevelt, this was "bulliest yet" since it was now in the low 30's and windy. And dark. The only disappointment of the day was the fact that the snow flurries never turned into a real snowstorm.

And here I am now, with my adoring and fabulous bride, bragging about my exploits while I suck down some more Wild Turkey. It feels good. Ahhhh.

The CTA is onto me

Ever have one of those moments? The kind when you catch a bit of dialogue from the television or radio, or hear part of a public service announcement, and at that precise moment whatever random statement you heard seems aimed directly at you? I had a moment like that this morning, on the el train headed downtown.

Just as I got on I heard this announcement:

"Soliciting and gambling are prohibited on CTA vehicles."

Damn it. Now I'll never be able to sell enough tube socks, umbrellas and incense to bankroll my floating shell game.

Here we go

This is me, about to light the fuse, and I have that same sense of fierce determination and anticipation.

One of two things is about to happen: I'll either be shot forcefully (and successfully, I hope) into the holiday season and all its activities, joys and demands...

Or I'll crash headlong over the side of a cliff, the firing Acme rocket still strapped to my carcass.

Either way, there's no turning back now, and I kind of like how that feels.

...

I work rotating shifts and change hours each month; today marks the first day of working evenings (3:30pm to midnight.) I just finished a month on days, and one of the advantages of investigations is that I no longer work midnights. Working evenings is great--you get a lot of stuff done during the day, you're not bothered with as many administrative tasks, and you meet more interesting people at work.

This month, though, is shaping up to be even more of a chaotic blur than last month was. The downside of working evenings is that you still have plenty of work-related stuff to do during the day: court and training, for instance, so that you frequently end up working 12-16 hour days, you end up being awake from 7am until 1 or 2 am, and there's always the possibility of staying late or getting called in early. In a couple of hours I'm heading down to the Daley Center to testify in a civil trial that's related to a forgery arrest I made nearly 2 years ago.

I've got to prepare for firearms training tomorrow. My department uses an outdoor range in Wisconsin about 6 times a year; the outdoor range days are great. We shoot all the long guns (MP-5, AR-15, M-14 and shotgun) as well as running a lot of handgun courses that we can't do on an indoor range. It's a whole day outdoors, and we usually grill while we're up there. It's a good time. I usually try and bring up some of the compound arsenal to keep my skills up.

Tomorrow's training will end with a night shoot after dinner, and I'm in charge of dinner-- chili for 20+. So I need to get my propane tank refilled and my turkey fryer ready to travel, since it's got enough capacity for 15 pounds of meat. One of my friends gave me a bunch of venison steaks to cut up into the chili grind, and I'm looking forward to that. Tomorrow will run from noon until 9pm, but that counts as my workday.

Friday is a normal workday. Nothing extra planned there. Yet.

Saturday I'm heading out to Mooseheart, Illinois for a police and fire honor guard competition. Not to compete, just to observe and see how other departments structure and run their drill teams. Most important, Saturday is the night of the girls' Halloween party. OH, that reminds me. Friday will be for cleaning the house before I go to work.

I took two extra days off next week so I can work a side job for a friend of mine and generate some extra lettuce for the holidays.

The weekend of the 17/18 is Crispin Glover at the Music Box. That same weekend some of MizBubs' family come up from Texas, and we all have an early Thanksgiving here. Then on Sunday morning we all get up half-hungover and run the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot. After the first time when we all did the 10k, we got wise and now run the 5k.

Then it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving, and our annual trip out to Iowa. This year's event is complicated, though. There's been some upheaval in the family there, and it's not clear how any of it's going to play out; one of the people involved hasn't really spoken to anyone else in the family about it yet. We'll see what happens.

My coffee is finished. It's time to get going.

See you next month.