T-Mac: #Komenfail
Articleman as Particleman: The Science of Newt/RINOs
Newt Sees Shadow, Crawls Back Into Hole: Six More Weeks of Primaries On Way
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Hits of the Day
I am thankful for bloodless inquisitions ....
Genghis wins: Full questions in comment section ...
1) I am thankful for pleasant memories?
2) I am thankful my mom knew she couldn't cook and we mostly went out to eat?
3) I am thankful for innocent childhood diversions?
4) I am thankful for innocent adult diversions?
5) I am thankful for working at home (and for the fairer, less hirsute sex)?
6) I am thankful for moral consistency?
7) I am thankful that I won't be seeing any more new banks in my neighborhood?
8) I am thankful for free but fair trade?
9) I am thankful for good wine, not that I really know what good wine is?
10) I am thankful for being thankful and recognizing my blessings?
And i am thankful for dagblog ... Happy Thanksgiving all!
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In the News
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Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private...
Huffington Post - A. Terkel/R. Grim begins report with:
WASHINGTON -- At a private three-day retreat in California last weekend, conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch and about 250 to 300 other individuals pledged approximately $100 million to defeat President Obama in the 2012 elections.
and report includes:
The source told The Huffington Post that they lamented the direction the conference has taken over the years. They said it used to be about "conservative strategy" and building a movement, but now it was mostly an "alpha male" spectacle focused on fundraising to beat Obama.
This is downright frightening.
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Brooks Goes All Revolutionary
If I could offer advice to a young rebel, it would be to rummage the past for a body of thought that helps you understand and address the shortcomings you see. Give yourself a label.
Effective rebellion isn’t just expressing your personal feelings. It means replacing one set of authorities and institutions with a better set of authorities and institutions. Authorities and institutions don’t repress the passions of the heart, the way some young people now suppose. They give them focus and a means to turn passion into change.
As if the socio-political change is a matter of removing one set and plugging in the other set.
In the end, all Brooks once wants to do is point to the kids of today and say "aren't they being silly."
What Brooks wants to avoid is the messiness that comes from delving into the change where the outcome is not known before one set out ahead of time. It wraps this up by saying those who see it in a different way are merely motivated by personal feelings, which is about as asinine as it gets.
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Komen caves, kinda, but still refusing to approve Planned...
As they say, you read, you decide. Preview:
They'll still turn down Planned Parenthood again next time because of the supposed pass-through grant. Unless of course, Nancy Brinker was lying last night. So which is it?
“This represents nothing new. We have known and have reported that they are continuing five grants through 2012. This is a reference to that. The second clause about eligibility is certainly true. Any group can apply for anything. It does not mean they are going to get anything,” Ruse told LifeNews.
Geez, is the 'surrender' a trojan horse? Or in fact, not even a surrender, since ongoing current funding was not being stopped. According to this, it's all about the future funding processes, which is still not committed. Hmmm.
Read the article at http://www.americablog.com/2012/02/komen-caves-kinda-but-still-refuses-to.html -
Senate Votes To Ban Its Members Insider Trading Not Really
Once again, as ever, this bill (as many legislative actions) provides only the facade that our Nation's leaders are legislating what the country needs and holding themselves to the same standards as their constituents.
In truth, the proposed legislation does not provide the same oversight and consequences for Congressional insider trading malfeasance, as the rest of our nation's citizens are subject to under current insider trading laws.
We need to stand up and speak out that this is not good enough! Please, blog - send emails - call - communicate the facts to the WH, media and your own local governmental body, asking them to pass a resolution to be forwarded to your state's congressional members as well as the WH. Don't attack either party as all are culpable. A bi-partisan coalition none should support.
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Komen Reverses Course
Well it took longer than I thought, but just a day longer. KOMEN has reversed course.
We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.
Nancy Komen Brinker goes on to deny what happened and continues to say they were misunderstood, but the backlash has been enormous, and they have reversed course and apologize.
The thing is, I think this will continue to hurt them, as they've been found out, they support policies that that hurt women.
Yep, sorry Nancy, your days in the spotlight are probably over.
I will update this with some video soon.
Read the article at http://blog.komen.org/?p=994
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1) Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Focus on the sound of my typing. OK, now we’re going to go back, way back in time, all the way to your teenage years. That’s right. Relax. Don’t be scared. They can’t hurt you now. OK, now that we’re a teenager again, I’m going to give you a pop culture medium and I want you to tell me the first thing that pops into your mind, perhaps the example that best defines that period in your life or perhaps just something you remember vividly for whatever reason. OK, ready? (Please, just ignore the acne for a moment)
(My choices in parentheses)
TV show? (Seinfeld) …
Movie? (Field of Dreams) …
Album? (Rattle and Hum) …
Video game? Toy? (Super Mario Bros.) …
Book? (The Great Gatsby) …
Ok, great. Next week, we’ll go back even further.
TV show: Facts of Life
Movie: The Breakfast Club
Album: Go-Gos "Vacation"
Video game: I'm a girl
Book: Mists of Avalon
TV show? A Different World
Movie? Dirty Dancing
Album? Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers / What's the 411 Mary J. Blige …
Video game? Intelligent Cube -no one remembers it but I was obsessed … Book? Flowers in the Attic series (stop judging me)
TV Show: McNeil-Lehrer News Hour
Movie: The Bounty
Album: Depeche Mode, Some Great Reward
Book: I'll edit in a book later. Hmm.
mcneil-lehrer???
did you really go back to your teenage years???? i don't mean to make fun (well, of course i do, but only good-naturedly), i'm trying to think of a eggheadier answer and I don't think I can ... congrats!!
I did current events speaking in school.
Donal's answer below reminded me how much I liked Star Trek: The Next Generation, but that started at the end of my teen years. I didn't like network TV, even then. I wrote and performed comedy, but hated anything with a laugh track.
TNG started slow, but we (my sibs are all trek fans, too) grew to enjoy it. I liked all the others from the get-go.
I thought Voyager was, at its best, as good as TNG. Early Star Trek is kind of on its own, the era and the special effects make them hard to compare, but I used to like it almost as much as TNG. DS9, which my brother loved, was for me not nearly there. I used to call it Star Trek, the Stationary Years. Enterprise just irritated me.
I recall when TNG started I thought there was too much backtalk by bridge crew. Kirk would have thrown them in the brig. And a ship's counselor on the bridge? That never made sense to me. Those three chairs looked like a talk show set. But Picard eventually asserted himself, and Data found Spot.
DS9 was essentially a frontier town, had a lot of interesting enemies, like Garak and Weyoun, and enabled us to get to know and even like them. I found the Bajoran themes rather dull, though. Odo was a delightfully sardonic counterpoint to Federation idealism.
If TOS was "Hornblower in Space" then Voyager was "Magellan in Space". Janeway & crew were on their own, too far out to expect help from the Federation. The year of hell was probably what really would happen if it wasn't a TV show. Loved the holodoctor.
Enterprise was OK until they went all military after 911. I stopped watching when Archer started torturing people.
tv show: gossip girl!
yay!!!!
movie: TWILIGHT!!!!!
album: justin - futuresex
video game: guitar hero
book: mean girls
2) Wait, before we bring you back to the present, one more question: What homemade dish did your mom or dad make that you remember the best??
Enchiladas.
My dad's burgers and my mom's Thanksgiving turkey were the best. My mom's heinous, chronically charred pork chops, which we derisively called pork chips, were more memorable.
3) Speaking of childhood pleasures, do you still play with bubble wrap and are you as pissed as I am that most packages now come with this way un-fun air-filled bag wrapping or even worse, imposter bubble wrap whose bubbles you can’t pop?? What the Ef is that?
Yes. It's especially fun to walk on. I don't mind the imposter bubble wrap. But I fucking hate the peanuts.
I can get all the bubble wrap I want. Plastic peanuts are the worst. When they blow into the desert, you have to pick them off the cactus. If there's anything more irritating to do, I haven't done it.
4) Crossword puzzles or Sudoku? Assuming you’re cool like me and say crosswords, what day for NYT puzzles can you normally complete without Googling? Despite years of practice, I’m sadly just a Wed. guy myself, tho I can usually do 80-plus percent of Thursday’s and actually usually get close on the Sunday magazine one, which is easily my favorite …
Crosswords, although I have gotten out of the habit. I never did the NYT's, but I could usually get through Friday in the Chicago Tribune and sometimes half of Saturday.
P.S. Sudoku is pointless.
Jumble
5) As you can tell from my pic, I don’t like shaving and avoid it whenever possible. I also find the razor blade arms race to be annoying; I believe the innovation worked for a while, but then it just became overkill. I stopped at the battery-powered three-blade gizmo. What do you use: b) two-blades c) three blades d) four blades e) five blades f) electric razor g) cheap disposable razor h) other (please describe)?
For our female daggers, from which body parts do you wax/bleach/trim hair on a regular basis (choose all that apply): a) Arms b) armpits c) legs d) upper lip e) butt f) genital region??
Butt? Really? For me, it depends on the season and the level of company, but in general, legs and underarms and, unfortunately, chin (just tweezing, no shaving).
Oh yes, sadly, butt hair isn't just a man problem (and yes, i am calling it a problem) ... you'd be surprised at what you find when you look real close and (ahem) deep ... i really blame constant exposure to Playboy at a young age for my hair mortification issue
I blame Top Gun for mine. Specifically, the beach volleyball scene. Even more specifically, Val Kilmer in the beach volleyball scene.
Swiss Army Knife
Butt & genitals. Oh wait, was that question for me?
I'm a Norelco man--three blades. As for innovations, I did notice a big improvement when they introduced flexible blades that conform to your face.
6) Do you think that somebody who has sex or gets involved with someone who they know is in another relationship and having an illicit affair has a right to expect fidelity from their own partners? I believe that even if you aren’t the cheating one, by enabling an affair, you are on some level condoning the behavior.
Well, everybody makes mistakes, right? So, if a single someone has sex with a non-single someone, but then stops the illicit affair and gets non-single and doesn't cheat, then yes, they have the right to expect fidelity.
7) I believe I’ve found the key to spotting market bubbles: Track which industries are suddenly able to afford outrageous rent costs. When I was in San Francisco in the late nineties, every new office space was being gobbled up by dot-coms. In New York, every time a store or restaurant closed in my neighborhood the last couple of years, a bank took its place. By that measure, what do you think the next bubble will be? (I say either pawn shops or sushi joints.)
I don't know what it will be, but I can tell you what I want it to be: Day spas. Then, when the bubble bursts, their prices will fall and I will be able to afford regular massages and pedicures.
oooh, good one o. i love me some massages. never had a pedicure, tho i surely need one.
Easy one: wine bars.
PS Pawn shops? What's going on in your hood? Besides, with the recession, pawn shops have a lot of growth ahead of them.
Alcohol big box stores are booming in the recession in Arizona.
Fancy meals are out! Mickey's Malt Liquor is in!
I used to drink Mickey's wide mouth. They make great candleholders.
My freshman year in college, we used to drink Mickey's all the time in the TV lounge when the week ended. My second semester I took 18 hours, but from Monday 210 pm to Thursday morning. So I had a four day weekend, during which we would drink Mickey's, and played tons of poker and backgammon. Ah, college.
8) I love to play a couple of Facebook games, like Who Has the Biggest Brain or Geo Challenge, which keep track of everybody’s scores. Yet while I can beat many if not all of my friends (mostly because i get obsessive), it seems like ALL of the top scores are filled by foreign users (many with Middle Eastern/Israeli-sounding names), and the scores are not even close to the ones I’m getting. Many in the message boards accuse the foreigners of cheating … Are foreigners less honest than Americans or just way smarter?
Sometimes both.
I played Geo Tracker today, because I have always loved geography. Now I'm hooked. And just when I was shopping around for another way to procrastinate. Thanks.
You must try Geo Challenge, by playfish, on facebook. It is seriously addictive (like all of playfish's other games). but it's also seriously effective in imparting geographic information - I now think I can recgonize the flag of almost every single country in this nation, which is admittedly a skill of limited use.
but still, after my experiences with who has the biggest brain and now geo challenge, i am utterly convinced that games are the best way to teach children things, at least with certain types of knowledge (tho i think the potential subjects where games could be helpful probably is quite large).
I meant Geo Challenge. I just got the name wrong. The flag thing is cool. Those are hard to remember. Now I know forever that Lebanon has a tree!
9) I enjoy wine, but the whole wine fetish crowd tends to annoy me. The seemingly arbitrary pricing, the detailed etiquette of choosing which wine with what food, of using the right glass with the right wine, the elaborate process of tasting the wine and holding the glass correctly, the goofy adjectives they use to describe the wine. Do you believe there’s a real science to wine connoisseurship or it’s just a bunch of pretentious hokum?
Again, both. I've never taken the time to learn much about wine, but when I've had the opportunity to taste a really good one, I can tell. That said, all that sniffing and swirling and spitting seems a bit much. Just drink the damn stuff.
I subscribe to Wine Spectator. Working from your skeptical points with which I most to least agree:
The adjectives are often insane. Holding the glass is meaningless. The right glass thing is marginal, but can be helpful, it's not entirely stupid or wrong. The pricing is entirely market driven, that's an odd complaint.
But the ratings in Wine Spectator are generally reliable, way better than serviceable. And if you were shopping with me, and told me what you liked, I could find you a cheap wine and an expensive wine you'd really like that would speak to your preferences.
So unless you simply dislike wine, which I used to, I was a microbrewery guy until my thirties, the answer is, there is a lot of value to learn about wine, and it's not all useless bullshit. And the more you learn, the more genuine fun you can have with it.
nice reply. truthfully, I don't believe it's all bullshit. i find i can tell the difference between wines to a certain degree (and as a side note, i loved sideways) but I just find wine snobs to be so pretentious (maybe cuz i find it all to be rather intimidating).
pricing may be market driven (tho i doubt it's a market with perfect information, which will lead to notable inconsistencies) but i meant more that I've had eighty-plus dollar bottles of wine that i liked less than ten dollar ones, and that restaurants markup their wine at outrageous (and wildly varying) levels.
One of the best things one can do, and it's on the net and Wine Spectator helps the most with this, is to simply try all of the varietals, meaning major types of grapes, to recognize what they are, and then see what you like or don't about them. For example, I really don't like Merlot or Cabernet. (Yawn.) From there, the reviews are instantly less stupid and unhelpful. They guide you within the range of what you know you like better.
It is easy to find good white wine and even red in the 10-20 range, and easy to find crappy wine that's 80 and up. However, the really great stuff does tend to be 75 or above, not that price is proof.
You've got me going on this enough, I may have to start a weekly wine blog in here. Wineblogging is actually quite big, since it's such a popular hobby, and so easy to share and discuss.
Can anyone explain to me why restaurants mark up their wine at multiples of the cost? I can see paying $25 for a $10 wine, but $125 or even $150 for a $50 wine? How are their overhead costs any different for expensive vs. cheap wines?
Consistent with your point, a lot of good restaurants use lower multipliers the higher up the underlying wine price -- 2.5x below 50, 1.8-2x above 75. Restaurants in the bigger cities tend to be more abusive in scaling the multiplier uniformly, unless they have a really thoughtful chef or sommelier.
I usually choose the quirkiest label.
Ha! I've definitely done that. I also tend to choose the wine (at restaurants, especially) that's one above the lowest-cost one.
10) What are you most thankful for this year?
BARACK OBAMA! (That was easy.)
Orlando swinging Indiana.
Just as long as it's not Orlando swinging in Indiana.
Don't they have lethal injection?
That is so easily the comment of the thread.
I am not a crook.
TV show? (Star Trek)
Movie? (The Graduate)
Album? (Switched-On Bach)
Video game? (Too early)
Book? (Tom Jones)
switched on bach. that's an interesting one.
so the graduate was in the sixities, so i guess arcade game wouldn't work either? I'm trying to think a better subject - how about toy? you know what, i'm going to change the question to say toy - its more inclusive for women and our more experienced readers!
Nice Geico reference. We had arcade games, but they generally had little steel balls bouncing off flippers and bumpers, and pictures of cowboys, pool hustlers and saloon girls. Lego is all the rage now, but I enjoyed Tinkertoy.
My wife
TV show? (Leave It To Beaver)
Movie? (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)
Album? (Sgt Pepper)
Game? (Pickup Sticks)
Book? (Nancy Drew)
Tom Jones? How old are you?
PS One of my favs, but I didn't read it until college.
I was a fan of Tom Jones (the Welsh Elvis), but I'm not sure if that's why I started the book. In any case, I couldn't put it down.
TV show: Cosby Show
Movie: The Breakfast Club
Album: Talking Heads - Little Creatures
Video game: Leisure Suit Larry
Book: John Irving - The World According To Garp
Hah, I used to play LSL with my stepson - the one where he takes the cruise and gets smushed by Big Mama.
I loved leisure suit larry (it was the grand theft auto of the day) with that explorable universe and M-rated content. i loved all the sierra quest games - king's quest, police quest, i think there were one or two more im forgetting ... but LSL was great because it was raunchy!!
Try Garp again. It's easily his best imo. Its treatment of militant feminism is also interesting, if dated and highly critical.
I had a girlfriend in the 90s who made me read Son of the Circus, which sucked.
I don't like Irving that much, never read Prayer for Owen Meany, which adapted well to film, but his best work for me is The Hotel New Hampshire. I've also stayed in that hotel (not really called that). It's in Tadoussac, Quebec, a couple hours northeast of Quebec City on the St. Lawrence, and gorgeous.
Cider House Rules is a good film, though characteristically overcharged in the manner of a Jim Steinman song.
Another thing I don't like about Irving is that he's basically writing the screenplay in his head as he's writing the novel. Maybe he just really likes movies, but in my mind, he's just cashing in and it cheapens the story. He should pick one.
I felt the same about Peter Benchley when I read Jaws, and Martin Cruz Smith, when I read Polar Star - though I really enjoyed Gorky Park.
Hang on, you've only read one Irving book all the way through. In Widow for Year, the one you've read, only the first part was filmed. Hotel New Hampshire was a weirdass film, good but still weird and a strange choice for a movie. Garp was a great film but the book was heavily edited to get it there. To my mind, the only Irving book that seemed made for film was Cider House rules, which was adapted with minimal edits.
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that Irving writes all the screenplays and I believe that every single one of his books up to and including Widow for One Year has been adapted to film. I expect the most recent one to be coming to a theater near you soon. That tells me, while he is writing the novel, he is also thinking about how it can be adapted. I know that the books don't often match the movies. (Wasn't The Door in the Floor a prequel to Widow?) It just seems kind of crass to me.