November, 2001

  1. Ann Coulter Mocks Clinton

    As much as I disagree with pretty much everything she’s ever written, I laughed out loud at Ann Coulter mocking Bill Clinton’s recent speech at Georgetown. According to Coulter, Initial reports from National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration officials investigating the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 are now ruling out slavery or…

  2. Let My Pizza Go!

    Believe it or not, there is actually a federal standard that defines a pizza — and, ironically, the main effect of the standard has been to prevent pizza makers from lowering fat content and making other changes to pizzas that consumers might like. The rules apply to apply to frozen pizzas that are labeled as…

  3. Taliban Jokes

    On an e-mail list I read, somebody posted a long list of Taliban-related jokes from talk show hosts. This one, attributed to Jay Leno, was the best of the bunch, There are reports on the news tonight that members of the Taliban feel persecuted and fear their own safety. So now they know what it…

  4. Moore’s Law and the Economy(?)

    Dave Winer writes, John, imho, the reason our economy is not in synch with Moore’s Law is the selfishness, even destructiveness, of the people of technology. The Boy Kills Boy syndrome. Everything from patents to browser wars, a very small number of people form the brakes on the advance of technology. Right, because the continuing…

  5. Conspiracy Theories and Flight 585

    I’m really surprised at the number of people who think that American Airlines Flight 585 was the victim of terrorism and that the U.S. government is covering up that fact for any number of reasons. This particular conspiracy theory provides interesting insight into the peculiar ambivalence that people in developed countries have with technology. Specifically,…

  6. Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Step Back on The Train

    Yesterday, I wrote about Amtrak’s ongoing difficulties and its lame attempt to use the 9/11 terrorist attacks to bolster support for its 30 years of failure. But I forgot to mention a $200 million lawsuit recently filed by the French-Canadian consortium, Bombardier Inc, which alleges that Amtrak’s indecision and failure to abide by its terms…

  7. Religious Wackos Living in Glass Houses…

    Jerry Falwell is suing the state of Virginia and the city of Lynchburg, Virginia, claiming that laws limiting the amount of land that churches can own is a violation of the separation of church and state. Isn’t this the same Jerry Falwell who has repeatedly said that he doesn’t believe in the separation of church…

  8. Amtrak: Save Us from Success!

    Before their demise, many dot.com companies were ridiculed for their bizarre revenue structure — specifically, the more customers they signed up, the more money they lost. For awhile, anti-Amazon.Com folks joked that the way to put the company out of business was to buy as many books as possible, since the company lost money on…