Raison d’etre
Posted on July 4, 2008 by andrew
What Is The Washington Post Op-Ed Page For?
It isn’t to inform, so it must serve some other purpose. What exactly is it?
Discuss.
A good question, but (somewhat surprisingly) I do have an answer: A home for Tom Toles.
No, I don’t understand why two full pages of crap are necessary for one little corner of genius to exist, but surely there’s an answer for that question, as well.
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Happy Fourth Of Fucking July
Posted on July 3, 2008 by andrew
Sit down, stand up
Sit down, stand up
We can wipe you out anytime
» Filed Under holidays, intellectual property, privacy rights | Leave a Comment
I’m Such An Elitist
Posted on July 3, 2008 by andrew
Do six in ten Americans actually wear flag pins themselves? Like, ever?
“As the Fourth of July approaches, six in 10 of those surveyed in a USA Today/Gallup Poll say sporting an American flag pin indicates that a person is patriotic, one of a half-dozen actions that most say reflect a love of country.”
I mean, I live and work in Washington, DC. Most of the blowhards who spend all day talking about the good people in middle America who want to see their leaders wear flag pins also work here, as do the leaders in question, the countless minions of both of the above, and the even more countless non-minions who nonetheless work for the government in some capacity. The only times I have ever seen any of these people wear a flag pin were on the first and fifth anniversaries of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Even then, I only saw a handful of people wearing flag pins; many people were wearing ribbons instead of flags and most were wearing nothing at all to mark the occasion.
So either 6 in ten Americans believe that the incredibly vast majority of their fellow citizens (including themselves) hate America, or I really do live in a bubble of East Coast elitism completely unlike the rest of the country and the rest of the country would be ashamed and horrified to see the nation’s capital.
It’s probably the latter.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under flag pins, patriotism | 3 Comments
Stuff I Simply Don’t Understand
Posted on July 3, 2008 by andrew
Why does The New Republic employ someone whose job description is to spit on liberals?
Perhaps someone a bit older than myself can pinpoint the precise date when the magazine became a right-wing crap factory.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under James Kirchick, The New Republic, the media | Leave a Comment
Carol’s Critter Corner: Long Weekend Edition
Posted on July 3, 2008 by Carol
Hooray! Tomorrow’s animal news today!
Look out! More bees have gone wild!
An important reminder: please leave animal rescue to the experts.
Another reminder, even more important (sad story warning): please stop contributing to climate change. Baby penguins are freezing to death.
In much happier news, two loggerhead turtles stranded far from home are now back where they belong. (Confidential to Hollywood executives: I think Turtle Diary: Return to the Wild would be a huge hit.)
Luckily, a lonely beetle has a new friend. Unluckily, THE BEETLES ARE THE SIZE OF HAMSTERS!
Don’t have plans for the Fourth? Consider a moose safari. As for the dolphins and me, we’ll be enjoying the fireworks. Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
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CNN Is So Beyond Broken
Posted on July 2, 2008 by andrew
Remember how I bitched last night ’cause some douchetards at CNN bothered to report on Barack Obama failing to return the attempted terrorist fist jab of a child and therefore must hate all children while denying his jihadi impulses?
The report wasn’t even true! The kid just wanted an autograph and Obama preferred to sign paper rather than human flesh.
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“And none of those issues were ever a problem again.”
Posted on July 2, 2008 by andrew
The only thing Hollywood can’t do is cure cancer.
Dennis Haysbert likes to believe his portrayal as the first African-American U.S. president on Fox’s “24″ may have helped pave the way for Barack Obama.
“If anything, my portrayal of David Palmer, I think, may have helped open the eyes of the American people,” said the actor, who has contributed $2,300 to the Illinois Democrat’s presidential campaign.
“And I mean the American people from across the board — from the poorest to the richest, every color and creed, every religious base — to prove the possibility there could be an African-American president, a female president, any type of president that puts the people first,” he said Tuesday.
Hey, I love President David Palmer as much as anyone. Let’s not sell ouselves short, Mr. Haysbert. Not only did you make Obama possible, you also convinced terrorists not to attempt to detonate a nuclear warhead in America when they saw how harshly you dealt with the fictional terrorists who did the same in season 2.
(Thanks to Liam for the link.)
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, 24, Barack Obama, Dennis Haysbert, television | Leave a Comment
Parody Or Not Parody?
Posted on July 2, 2008 by andrew
Either way, why did Hax publish it? She can’t possibly agree with it, so is she that desperate for the ensuing firestorm?
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under gender | 1 Comment
Quick Review: WALL-E
Posted on July 2, 2008 by andrew
I don’t know how they manage it, but Pixar is so many light years beyond anyone else making “family” movies that they must be somehow cheating. WALL-E is thoroughly enjoyable and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
The animation, as we expect from Pixar, is nearly perfect given the technology available. The robots all move more fluidly- and display more emotion- than would have been imaginable ten years ago. (The sound design, highly noticeable in a film featuring two leads with minimal vocal abilities, is superb.) The extremely stylized human characters look just as good as the focal characters from The Incredibles while maintaining a bit of distinctiveness pertinent to this particular movie. And a few of the dramatic shots in the film just plain blew me away.
Of course, the thing that really separates a Pixar movie from any other “family” or “kiddie” movie is the plotting and characterization. These characters are fully formed and the story in which they are placed is intelligent and well-considered. The humor appeals to a broad audience without ever resorting to fart jokes, and the drama is moving without ever going over anyone’s head. Sure, the message is delivered a bit heavy-handedly at times, but given the importance of the message, I’d hardly criticize the movie for this minor flaw.
By the end of the movie, I wanted to see WALL-E win over EVE, I wanted to see the humans overcome their many failings, and I wanted to see more, more, and more of the delightful and fantastical world created by the filmmakers. Doesn’t all of that cover all of the reasons I would ever go to a movie in the first place?
(Alright, fine, there weren’t any gigantic robots fighting each other and producing lots of explosions, which is a bit of a disappointment for me given that the movie was about robots, but I suppose you can’t have everything.)
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under WALL-E, movies | 1 Comment
I Hate The Media
Posted on July 1, 2008 by andrew
UPDATE: Link fixed.
» Filed Under CNN, the media | 1 Comment
Hey Jealousy
Posted on July 1, 2008 by andrew
Kos:
So many of you are upset that I pulled back my credit card last night, making a last minute decision to hold back on a $2,300 contribution to Obama…
Holy crap, who knew Kos was a gazillionaire? I mean, I knew he wrote a book and whatnot, but whipping out the credit card (or not) to donate $2,300 here and there based on the mood of the day? That’s some high roller territory.
For the record, I made a similar decision yesterday (although mine was about the $30 that would have gotten the campaign to throw in a free t-shirt, PBS pledge week style, as opposed to a $2,300 max donation; not only am I not a high roller like Kos, I had to unexpectedly buy a new MacBook two weeks ago). I obviously like Barack Obama quite a bit, but I’m still pissed he sold us out on telecom immunity. I’m sure I’ll donate to him again before November, but he’ll have to make due without my cash for the June filing deadline.
» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, blogosphere, campaign fundraising, telecom immunity | Leave a Comment
Heckuva Job, Bushie
Posted on July 1, 2008 by andrew
I think the entirety of George W. Bush’s time in office can be summed up in one simple headline:
World Trade Center construction faces more delays
Seven years and four months to the day after this president promised to rebuild the site of the worst terrorist attack in American history, which occurred on his watch, he will leave office having achieved essentially no progress towards that goal. It is now known with near certainty that ten years after the attack (and more than three years from today), the ground will still a lack a completed replacement for the buildings lost.
This is not entirely Bush’s fault, but it sure does stand as a striking symbol for his countless failures.
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But What About Snails?
Posted on July 1, 2008 by andrew
Disgusting yet fascinating: Worms in your intestines could help to suppress allergies.
» Filed Under medicine, science | Leave a Comment
Random Thought
Posted on June 30, 2008 by andrew
I’m quite pleased to know that we’re witnessing the death of the “Senators can’t win presidential elections” claim (assuming nothing extremely outside the realm of likely outcomes occurs between now and November). The claim was always a stupid one, based as it was on a whopping sample size of 11 presidential elections1. Now, with the election of either Senator Obama or Senator McCain, hackish analysts will have to come up with some new bogus theory with which to annoy me.
- In 1960, then-Senator John F. Kennedy was elected. The next eleven elections were won by, in order, a sitting president (LBJ), a former vice president (Nixon), a sitting president (Nixon), a governor (Carter), a governor (Reagan), a president (Reagan), a vice president (Bush I), a governor (Clinton), a president (Clinton), a governor (Bush II), and a president (Bush II). ↩
» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Aaron Boone, Hillary Clinton, presidential elections, stupid memes | Leave a Comment
No One Speaks About My Maverick That Way
Posted on June 30, 2008 by andrew
The media will fight to the death to protect its beloved and sainted hero.
Rick Klein, blogging at ABC News:
Clark’s comments seem to miss a vital point about the McCain campaign: Yes, his military service is part of his stock campaign biography, but McCain is not running on that record nearly as much as he’s running on his service in Congress.
Clark is right that “getting shot down” isn’t a qualification to be president, but McCain isn’t saying that it is. …
John McCain, in an official campaign statement released on May 22:
Unlike Senator Obama, my admiration, respect and deep gratitude for America’s veterans is something more than a convenient campaign pledge. I think I have earned the right to make that claim.
“When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years. My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. I grew up in the Navy; served for twenty-two years as a naval officer; and, like Senator Webb, personally experienced the terrible costs war imposes on the veteran. The friendships I formed in war remain among the closest relationships in my life. The Navy is still the world I know best and love most. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well. …
And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did.
But John McCain does not run on his military service. Never.
Plus, he’s just so dreamy.
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Connecting The Day’s News
Posted on June 30, 2008 by andrew
Dear Women,
Stop running businesses if you don’t like being abused.
Sincerely,
A seriously deranged Southern Baptist (of course!) “scholar”
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under Southern Baptists, domestic violence, gender, religion | Leave a Comment
Why Does Wes Clark Hate America?!?
Posted on June 30, 2008 by andrew
Someone needs to stop this Wes Clark character from running around spitting on our troops. I don’t know who he thinks he is1, but he has absolutely no standing to impugn the experience of St. John McCain. The man was a prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton, for chrissakes!
What is “General” Clark really a general of, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard?
- Other than a four-star general who spent his entire career in the military, starting out as valedictorian at West Point and lasting until he retired after serving as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander- Europe (which I believe President Bartlett called “the most impressive title in the world short of President of the United States” in an episode of The West Wing) and earning buckets of medals and other honors along the way. ↩
» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, John McCain, Wesley Clark | Leave a Comment
Poster Boy For The Politics Of Fear
Posted on June 30, 2008 by andrew
The worst part is that Lieberman’s comments don’t even make any sense. The terrorists will want to “test” our new president, so they’ll attack us shortly after his term begins, and John McCain is better equipped to handle that attack than Barack Obama because… John McCain has years of disaster management training? I don’t get it.
Still, I do know that Joe Lieberman is a giant douche.
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Obama Was Hanging Out In My Neighborhood!
Posted on June 27, 2008 by andrew
I was originally just going to share this feed, but then I realized that doing so might imply endorsement of DCist’s position.
The Hill has the idiot local news scoop of the day with this gem from the Columbia Heights location of the Washington Sports Club. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama stopped by earlier on Friday to check out the new facility (he usually goes to the one in Gallery Place), and the woman who works behind the counter didn’t recognize him and made him show her his ID. Now, the tone of the article suggests the embarrassing part of the story is that no one at the gym recognized Obama, one of the most recognizable faces in the country. But we’ll submit that it’s somewhat rather more embarrassing that Obama felt he didn’t need to swipe his membership card at the front desk. We all have to face the shame and doubt that comes along with wondering whether the front desk person can tell how long it’s been since we’ve been to the gym, senator. Next time, swipe that card.
No. No, no, no.
a) It’s fucking awesome that Barack Obama knows the city well enough to go check out a new branch of his gym in Columbia Heights.
b) The gym employees should be mildly embarrassed (and appear to be, judging by the original Hill article; DCist fails to note that they almost immediately caught their own mistake and responded with appropriate self-deprecating humor).
c) There’s nothing remotely embarrassing about being six months away from being sworn in as President of the United States, going to a different part of the city with a necessary massive security entourage, and accidentally forgetting a gym ID card.
d) Barack Obama was hanging out in my neighborhood! How much cooler could he be? The FISA sell-out is totally forgiven.
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A Bit More Fairness, Perhaps
Posted on June 27, 2008 by andrew
I’m obviously no McCain supporter in this election (other than the part where I’m constantly propagandizing for him), but this attack strikes me as a bit over the top.
Well, here’s what McCain said (about Nixon and Watergate) at the time, according to the book that I’m currently reading entitled Man of the People: The Life of John McCain by Paul Alexander, pp. 81-82:
Finally, in the article, McCain discussed the major political story that had unfolded since he had returned: the controversy that had surrounded President Nixon as a result of the Watergate scandal. “It has certainly made me sad that this situation should have arisen,” McCain said about the man who had welcomed him home only a few months earlier. “However, I feel that, in the context of history, Watergate will be a very minor item as compared with the other achievements of this Administration, particularly in the area of foreign affairs. I do hope that this country will get over Watergate and get going again on the very serious problems that we’re facing today.” Clearly, McCain had misjudged the impact that would come from Watergate and how it would define, for at least the remainder of the twentieth century, Nixon’s presidency.
Cliff Schecter (whose blog is where I saw this originally) goes so far as to call the above, “[T]he quote that crystallizes the whole McCain belief system.”
I’m not buying it. The excerpt suggests McCain had only been home for “a few months” when he made the statement, placing it roughly around Summer or Fall of 1973. Two points follow:
Firstly, we can’t exactly expect a man who was imprisoned and tortured for nearly six years to be fully up to speed on current events within a few months of returning home. Without some more detailed information pertaining to McCain’s condition and exposure to the situation at home (which any of the bloggers I followed may have done but failed to share in their posts), it just isn’t fair to make such huge assumptions based on a single statement that sounds bad with 20/20 hindsight.
Secondly, without a firm date, it’s hard to pinpoint precisely how “correct” we could have expected McCain- even ignoring his personal situation- to have been in assessing Watergate in 1973. Again, all we know is that he made the statement in question “a few months” after returning to the US in March of 1973. The Watergate tapes weren’t even know to exist until July of 1973 and the content of the tapes didn’t become known for several months more; the Saturday Night Massacre was in October. So, really, plenty of reasonably intelligent and ethically-minded citizens were unaware of the extent of Nixon’s wrongdoing at the time we must guess McCain made his statement.
If anyone has more context in which to put McCain’s statement, that would be quite welcome. But for now, I’m not going to assume anything too drastic based on what we know and my own knowledge of the history of the Watergate scandal.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, John McCain, Richard Nixon, Uncategorized, Watergate | 1 Comment
