Archive for September 2006

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Paris Hilton’s Margarita

7th September 2006, 10:33 am

I am neutral in the Culture Wars. I view this war as a surrogate for real war – namely the war against Islamic Fascism. However I recognize that when people are bored with reality, they will satisfy their boredom by turning to the Surreality provided by Hollywood and the stars that pepper its universe.

Paris Hilton is one of those stars. I doubt I have ever written about her for the same reason I don’t write about rich kids who are famous for being beautiful and cutting their own porn. However Paris crossed into familiar territory with her misdemeanor arrest for DUI last night in Hollywood.

Several points should be mentioned:
1. DUI is a misdemeanor in Hollywood?
2. Her PR firm leapt to her defense:


“She’s absolutely fine,” Mintz said. “She didn’t appear in the least bit to be intoxicated.”

That conflicts with the LAPD’s Officer Isabella: “Police stopped Hilton because she was “driving erraticly,” he said.”

Mintz also said:

At the time of her arrest, Hilton was driving home in her Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren from a charity event where she had one drink, a margarita…

Let’s see how big that “single marguerita was:

Paris Hilton is 5’8” or 68 inches. At her height, according to the BMI index she would weigh 122 lbs if we considered her to be just at the beginning range of “normal” BMI - which is 18.5 at 122 lbs for someone her height.

According to this website, Paris would have had to consume 3 ounces of Tequila one hour before her arrest in order for her to have a BAC of .08.

Moving on to Wikipedia, we find that Margaritas are made with 4 different ratiosof ingredients:
2:1:1 = 6:3:3 (50% tequila, 25% Triple Sec, 25% fresh lime juice).
3:2:1 = 6:4:2 (50% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 17% fresh lime juice).
3:1:1 = 6:2:2 (60% tequila, 20% Triple Sec, 20% fresh lime juice).
1:1:1 = 6:6:6 (33% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 33% fresh lime juice).

Using the the first ratio, we find that the Margarita Paris drank was 6 oz – having 3 oz of tequila, 1.5 oz of Triple Sec and 1.5 oz of fresh lime juice.

This assumes that her PR flack is correct and that Ms. Hilton threw the drink back a few minutes before leaving an event and driving away.

However the accuracy of her flack is called into question by this statement:

The driving under the influence symptoms were “probably the result of an empty stomach and working all day and being fatigued,” Mintz said.

Um… No. The “driving under the influence symptoms” (there’s an odd term for drinking and driving: “symptoms”) can only be the result of knocking back a 6 oz Margarita then getting behind the wheel. One does not blow a .08 for being tired after making a music video. Granted, an empty stomach will speed the uptake of alcohol into her system, but beyond that it will not have any impact on her blood-alcohol level.

Finally, the law really doesn’t differentiate between lightweights like Paris Hilton who can knock back a single (albeit potent) drink and blow a .08 – and those of more hefty stature who might have to consume half a case of Chivas in order to catch a buzz (Tubby Reifenstahl anyone)? If you have a BAC of .08, you get arrested no matter how many drinks it took to get to that level. Unfortunately in California, a .08 nets a misdemeanor whereas in other states it can cost you a lot more.

This is my first post about Paris Hilton and drinking, but given the nature of alcoholism, I doubt it will be my last.

Category: Alcoholism and Addiction, America  |  3 Comments

Venezuelan Rookie Throws No-Hitter

7th September 2006, 07:57 am

His 13th start no less…

Category: America  |  Comment

Weasels and Dinosaurs

5th September 2006, 10:11 am

Beating up bloggers is almost an online sport these days. I recently submitted a Wikipedia entry on “Windows Rot” and one of the reasons it got thrown in the can was due to my referral to a blog entry.

However John Dvorak gets the medium and bitch-slaps fellow PC Mag writer Lance Ulanoff for blaming bloggers for the failure of Snakes on a Plane. What Ulanoff doesn’t understand was the very fact that he was expending column inches on the subject shows the power of bloggers. After all, would anyone be even thinking about that movie had it not been for bloggers?

We all wake up somedays feeling like we should ride the “short bus” to school or work (today is one of those days for your’s truly). Ulanoff must have his own seat with his name on his helmet after writing this.

Category: America  |  Comment

Steve Irwin – RIP

4th September 2006, 08:30 am

Steve Irwin died today, killed by a stingray’s blow to the heart while filming on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. While alot will be said about his having died the way he lived, there is something that will be forgotten in his obituary that I believe needs to be said.

Steve Irwin’s interaction with wild animals may have been comical and educational, and was predicated on the assumption that Irwin was a professional who “knew” how to handle the animals. However, we call the animals “wild” for a reason. They are not domesticated and completely predicatable. They may be familiar and that sense of familiarity may lull us into a belief that they are in fact benign, but as so many animal tamers and trainers have found, that belief can be fatal.

I am saddened by Steve Irwin’s death. He helped bring out the child-like joy of animals that many people have forgotten about. He has helped the cause of wildlife conservation with his humor and wit much more than Greenpeace’s heavy-handed guilt trips.

However his death should stand as a warning that the ultimate wildlife conservation will not include our poking them with microphones and videotaping their every move: it will entail our leaving them alone to live – and die – as animals in the wild.

Category: Heroes  |  Comment

An End to An Affair

1st September 2006, 01:22 pm

I never wrote about the Plame Affair because it really never interested me much. Outing Plame always seemed so obvious – like outing Liberace – that the Democrats and Kossacks gunning for Rove seemed to be of the same mindset as the Black Helicopter/Tinfoil Hat crowd.

However, today’s Washington Post editorial is worth noting – if only to put this beast to rest once and for all:

Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame’s CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming—falsely, as it turned out—that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush’s closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It’s unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.

Unfortunately, Wapo fails to take responsibility for its own breathless reporting of the scandal. Going through its own archives, I found this editorial by Mike Kinsley’s A Farce in Two Canvases:

The White House was furious at Plame’s husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for publicly dissing President Bush’s State of the Union assertion that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium ore in Africa. Wilson had led the investigation of the uranium question. The Bushies apparently thought it would be clever revenge to reveal that Plame had helped Wilson to get this assignment. (What kind of man lets his wife send him out for uranium?) Whoever talked to Novak either didn’t consider or didn’t care that revealing the name of a covert intelligence agent is against the law.

Wapo’s casual dismissal of a case it so breathlessly reported for nearly three years is a bit disingenuous – if not typical of the MSM.

Category: Bush, Democrats  |  Comment
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