BobHarris.com - GOP values on parade

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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GOP values on parade

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Monday, 19 September 2005

This is a picture I took last year of downtown Ketchikan, Alaska:

That's really the downtown. You're looking at the throbbing heart of the metropolis.

And here is a map of the $223 million "Bridge To Nowhere" (which will probably cost over $300 million) pet project of Alaska Republican Don Young (R-Pure Evil), overlord of the GOP transportation committee, who insists that no, the money would not be better spent helping Hurricane Katrina victims:

Notice that the bridge is, in fact, larger than the ENTIRE TOWN.

Look at the giant city, above. And imagine that 8000-resident community getting something the size of a Golden Gate bridge. Instead of hundreds of millions of dollars going to help hurricane victims.

The ferry ride the bridge would replace, incidentally, takes exactly seven minutes.

This is the single most wasteful transportation project in American history. No exaggeration.

And the GOP values this over the well-being of American citizens.

No exaggeration.

UPDATE: I've been informed by several emailers that my memory was mistaken; the above photo is not of downtown Ketchikan but of a thriving section sometimes more frequented by passers-by like myself.

My mistake, and I apologize.

Two emails accused me outright of lying, which is kinda funny. Because, um, Ketchikan is so utterly memorable that no one could possibly have made this honest mistake. Well, obviously.

Whatever. My apologies for the confusion. If you'd like to see downtown Ketchikan, there's a lovely view of it here, and another one would be here (scroll down), except in this shot the town seems to be completely obscured by the cruise ships.

Yes, I chose this picture to buttress my point. But if anyone thinks there's any deception, by all means, Google image search "downtown Ketchikan" and let your breath be taken by the throbbing metropolis which surely deserves hundreds of millions of dollars to build a bridge roughly the size of the Golden Gate.

Given that the proposed is explicitly designed to tower high enough that the cruise ships can pass below, I think this also should explain what I meant by the perhaps hyperbolic phrase "bigger than the entire town." If "big" means "up" it pretty much has to be. And if you look at the map, the proposed new roadway sure looks like it's of greater length than the town itself. So that's two dimensions covered. No, it's not wider. In that sense, yes. I am humbled.

If anyone wants to push the discussion into further dimensions of string theory, they're welcome to do so.