it's your klassikal musik korner!

If you like choral music and you dislike Bill O'Liarly, beat a hasty path to http://www.mackrisvoreilly.com/sounds.html, where you can play extracts from the new oratorio (now available on CD) by Igor Keller -- the libretto being the sexual harassment suit brought by Fox staffer Andrea Mackris against Bullyboy Bill himself.

Gotta confess I'm moderately tempted by the CD set -- yes, folx, the ideal War on Christmas Gift! -- since I like this sort of music anyway and would especially enjoy having it play innocuously in the background whenever there were Faux News watchers in the house . . .

Fred Thompson's Physics Masterclass

"I hope that they are accurate with this assessment [the NIE re Iran's nuclear program], but right now, I don't have the confidence in our own intelligence capabilities to make that assessment[.] . . . Nowadays they can have a peaceful nuclear program and it's very, very easy once they get to that level to turn a screw or two and make it into a weapons program. It's a thin line," Thompson said.

In full at: http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/APP/712040854&template=apart

Scott Garrett -- doncha just haveta love his cute little cottonpickin sox?

Today I received an e-mail I've had several times before from one of our local Members of Congress, Rep. Scott Garrett. It read thus:

Thank you for contacting my office.  I appreciate the opportunity to hear
and understand your views and concerns.

It is an honor and a privilege to represent you in the United States House of Representatives.

Should you have any additional comments about this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact me in my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 225-4465.  Also, you can access Thomas.loc.gov from my website (www.house.gov/garrett) to obtain additional information on legislative issues.

Thank-you again for your e-mail.  It is through your comments that I am
better able to represent the people of New Jersey in Congress.

Sincerely,
Scott Garrett
Member of Congress
5th District, New Jersey

Normally I respond to Garrett's robot-written one-size-fits-all e-mails with, perhaps, an outburst of simulated vomiting or a fit of derisive laughter -- he's a man who's raised insincerity to a high artform -- but today, perhaps because filled with that sense of loving forgiveness that so epitomizes the festive season, I thought I'd give him a chance to redeem himself by entering into debate. I wrote back:

Dear Scott Garrett

 

<<I appreciate the opportunity to hear and understand your views and concerns.>>

 

Then why do you ignore everything we say?

 

Paul
www.johngrantpaulbarnett.com
Consultant Editor, AAPPL: www.aappl.com
Just published: New Writings in the Fantastic (http://tinyurl.com/2ppstk)
Just published: Corrupted Science (http://tinyurl.com/2xqu7d with sample chapter at http://tinyurl.com/3b6885)
Read my (very) new blog at http://realthog.livejournal.com/

And for answer I got what I think may be the very first piece of honesty I've ever heard from Rep. Garrett!!! Yes, folx, here it is:

This report relates to a message you sent with the following header fields:

Message-id: <016b01c841ba$148ebb40$34705543@paul1121fd5abc>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:08:02 -0500
From: Paul Barnett <>
To: "Rep. Scott Garrett" <scott.garrett@mail.house.gov>
Subject: Re: Thanks for writing

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: scott.garrett@mail.house.gov
Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address
Diagnostic code: smtp;550 5.7.1 Unable to deliver to <scott.garrett@mail.house.gov>
Remote system: dns;hydrus.house.gov (TCP|167.206.4.200|40402|143.228.150.179|25) (hydrus.house.gov ESMTP house.gov)

So, all together everyone, exactly how much does Scott Garrett appreciate the opportunity to hear and understand the views and concerns of his constituents?