tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58519873260675103082012-01-28T11:54:02.849-06:00eternal hostilityHHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.comBlogger4451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-9655948769139663172011-08-01T09:13:00.001-06:002011-08-01T09:17:04.678-06:00

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-20153634117227810482010-08-03T20:31:00.002-06:002010-08-03T20:33:52.597-06:00

Can't not link to this. Bloomberg completely destroys anti-Muslim assholes' un-American "arguments" against mosque.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-34427796746720492722010-05-27T10:03:00.003-06:002010-05-27T10:27:16.677-06:00

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. media, while dutifully reporting the ongoing street violence in Jamaica, has been rather lax in reporting the true cause of these events: The War On Drugs.The real story is that the USDOJ has for months been exerting pressure on the Jamaican prime minister to arrest and extradite a Jamaican "drug lord" wanted in New York on drugs and weapons charges. The prime minister,

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-87056819685710939492010-05-25T23:24:00.004-06:002010-05-25T23:38:26.624-06:00

Noted apartheid advocate governor Jan Brewer has written a letter to President Obama requesting that he dispatch military drones to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border. She is "aware of how effective these assets have become in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom". Yes, so, so effective. Any doubt that this will happen sooner or later? Why not just skip the half-measures and deploy B-52s

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-46802331568234667822010-05-25T16:32:00.002-06:002010-05-25T16:43:34.531-06:00

In an escalation of the drug war, and to "blunt" attacks by xenophobic and racist assholes in Arizona, Obama is sending 1,200 troops and half a billion dollars to Mexican border:President Barack Obama is ordering up to 1,200 additional National Guard troops to the border area and requesting an additional $500 million from Congress to slow the flow of migrants. In addition to the troops, the

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-38160064001348816382010-05-23T22:50:00.003-06:002010-05-24T05:13:30.116-06:00

I think "they all died in the plane crash" is a pretty good ending. And the finale was a well-executed, crowd-pleasing tear-jerker. The final 4 seasons never measured up to the first two, but I'm glad I watched to the end. Solid A- as far as these things go (not every series can end as brilliantly as The Sopranos, after all).

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-75170402978550900062010-05-23T10:00:00.002-06:002010-05-23T10:16:11.110-06:00

Obama announces a commission to investigate the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Quote: "I want to know what worked and what didn't work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down."Two points here: (1) You're going to find out "what worked"? That will be a very short list indeed. (2) The "oversight of the oil and gas industry", if there

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-84258230280988861322010-05-20T23:08:00.002-06:002010-05-20T23:14:43.340-06:00

Another $33.5 Billion for our various wars. Add that to the money already appropriated by our Nobel Peace Price winner and our Democratic congress, and that oughta get us through the next coupla months. Great country we have here.WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate committee on Thursday approved another $33.5 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq this year, although some members said they

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-70982326259894477672010-05-20T20:32:00.004-06:002010-05-20T20:38:28.761-06:00

Armstrong implicated in cheating scandalDisgraced fellow cyclist alleges Armstrong cheated death through the use of scientifically advanced techniques such as drug injections, irradiation of body parts, blood transfusions, other cutting edge medical technology.Armstrong denies charges; says: "I beat cancer through hard work and determination alone."

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-15811726088751374862010-05-17T22:05:00.004-06:002010-05-20T23:15:42.187-06:00

Greatest episode of 24 ever? The beady shit-scared Nixon Face of President Charles Logan as Jack Bauer dramatically closes in.Ok, maybe not the greatest episode ever. But definitely the best 24 scene ever. (The one in the auto-tunnel (obviously).)By the way: Blog Note: I'm thinking I'm going to post some stuff here from time to time. Probably not any long form commentary, just links and

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-89875828862870626802009-12-30T12:14:00.002-06:002009-12-30T12:28:29.769-06:00

Really? Because he banished an entitled, malcontented slacker to a dark room for a couple of hours? How fucking stupid. He is simply the best football coach the school has ever had -- or ever will have.Bobby Knight did for the Texas Tech basketball program maybe a tenth of what Leach has done for its football program. And yet Knight was allowed to get away with all manner of chicanery while

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-53542894419609565692009-12-14T22:22:00.000-06:002009-12-14T22:23:11.333-06:00

Genius!

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-81146271748471429762009-11-10T15:50:00.003-06:002009-11-10T17:14:03.410-06:00

1. Went to Las Vegas and came back with more money than I took with me. This is due to a roulette strategy known as "progressive betting". In a nutshell:(1) bet a certain amount X on a 50/50 proposition (red/black, odd/even);(2) if you win, pocket your winnings and go back to step (1);(3) if you lose, bet amount X again;(4) if you win, you're back even and can go back to step (1);(5) if you

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-43031317451311780532009-09-11T10:30:00.003-06:002009-09-11T10:51:25.345-06:00

Reading about what was done to Alan Turing is enough to make you sick to your stomach. Gordon Brown has now apologized (though of course he had nothing to do with it, personally).Turing (also a character in one of my favorite books) was the inventor of computer science and played a crucial role in breaking the Nazi Enigma codes during WWII. A genius and a war hero. England repaid Turing by

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-11132225881694709852009-08-27T13:30:00.002-06:002009-08-27T14:27:54.749-06:00

When a local "drug task force" dresses up in black military gear, arms up with assault rifles, breaks down someone's door, forces the occupants to the ground at gunpoint, shoots their dogs, and vandalizes their residence, this is not about drugs. It is about projecting the power of the state into someone's home and terrorizing that person, along with anyone else who might be visiting or looking

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-65852831561689765242009-08-18T14:40:00.003-06:002009-08-18T15:46:43.168-06:00

A faithful reader suggests it might be productive for me to offer my thoughts on this story:PHOENIX – About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.As you can see

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-37749479706548700062009-08-18T14:13:00.002-06:002009-08-18T14:39:29.096-06:00

From SCOTUSBLOG:The Supreme Court, over two Justices’ dissents, on Monday ordered a federal judge in Georgia to consider and rule on the claim of innocence in the murder case against Troy Anthony Davis (In re Davis, 08-1443) The Court told the District Court to “receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could have been obtained at the time of trial clearly

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-14867863270254475042009-08-13T13:13:00.005-06:002009-08-13T15:58:57.818-06:00

I've often argued against anti-corporate regulations and general government interventionism in many contexts on the libertarian theory that corporations hate bad publicity, and if they do something wrong they will usually be punished by the resulting consumer backlash. For example, you don't need laws against tuna company fishing practices which snare a bunch of dolphins, because more often than

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-38977090579389398962009-08-11T12:31:00.000-06:002009-08-11T12:32:18.986-06:00

1. It's been a while since I was in law school, but from what I remember from my first year torts class, there's a name that lawyers have for this type of thing: false imprisonment.2. Though I find Judd Apatow movies generally amusing, I'm not a huge fan and am on the verge of being an anti-fan simply because the guy gets so much hype nowadays. But aside from that, I guess I never realized that

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-5648637316367022582009-08-05T16:32:00.003-06:002009-08-05T22:34:10.765-06:00

I think it's wise to be skeptical about the value of the health care reform law that will end up emerging from the sausage factory and being signed by Obama. First, given that giant health care companies have been for some months bombarding members of congress with hordes of lobbyists and massive amounts of money, it stands to reason that the most likely effect of any new health care legislation

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-14805708594214450042009-07-28T21:20:00.003-06:002009-07-28T23:34:04.112-06:00

I was excited to hear that Guy Richie was going to direct a Sherlock Holmes movie. Even better, Robert Downey, Jr. would play Holmes, and the movie would have a big budget and a great cast.I am a fan of Guy Ritchie. I haven't seen everything he's done, but I liked Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Snatch was hilarious. And I highly recommend the recent RocknRolla. This movie is awesome in

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-32714036117917156432009-07-08T19:42:00.002-06:002009-07-08T22:09:55.504-06:00

So says the Texas Tech University mission statement. The university has made great strides in accomplishing "high standards of excellence" with its most recent hire: Professor Alberto "Judge" Gonzales.I received multiple reader emails requesting a comment/post on this topic. I'm not sure I have a lot to say about the subject that wouldn't immediately come to the mind of anyone who: (1) isn't

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-7339664390411312512009-07-05T16:05:00.005-06:002009-07-06T09:45:38.363-06:00

Besides getting some sun, drinking margaritas, watching fireworks, the pool, and all the rest, I've spent a good deal of my holiday weekend watching Sarah Palin's latest train wreck. I've seen a ton of great snark, though I've neglected to bookmark or collect any of it, so you'll have to find it for yourself. My recommendation is to watch her speech ("unbalanced" doesn't even begin to describe

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-48813917865920260572009-07-03T14:07:00.002-06:002009-07-03T14:23:02.161-06:00

For most Americans, Independence Day is mostly just a good excuse to put on a good drunk and get a sunburn. Which is pretty great. I'm no different, but I've gotten into a habit of re-reading the Declaration of Independence around this time of year.It's a still a good read, and it's fun to try and put yourself into the mindset of the guy who wrote it and the people who signed it. I think of

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-83709512146793265302009-07-01T21:40:00.003-06:002009-07-02T07:20:39.005-06:00

Some stuff I've found during the extended hiatus (stuff which, I'm hoping, works well with minimum effort, in terms of addition commentary (i.e., thinking, effort, etc.), on the part of your humble blogger):1. Eschaton nails the anti-abortion crowd:The broad anti-abortion movement isn't just anti-abortion, it's anti-sex generally and most importantly anti-women having agency over their bodies

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com266tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-55892081827716814812009-06-24T14:59:00.002-06:002009-06-24T15:09:25.177-06:00

Here's what's your business: using your little scanner thing to add up all the prices on the items I purchase and determine the total and then charge me accordingly.Here's what not your goddamn business: making inane and borderline-derogatory comments about the nature of those items and the quantities in which I am purchasing them. STFU, asshole.I am well aware that I am purchasing what might

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-33915565415600707162009-06-15T09:34:00.003-06:002009-06-15T11:08:01.132-06:00

I like books, and own many of them and have recently run completely out of shelf space. (And though Gleemonex has invited me to do this this summer, and though it seems like a fun thing, one of my shelves is filled with books I've been planning to read, so I don't think I'll be able to fit it in.)Because I'm a book reader and not a book collector, most of my books are cheap paperback editions.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-60322200988794976542009-06-10T08:21:00.003-06:002009-06-10T08:52:28.403-06:00

Did I forget to mention the blog was going on hiatus? Probably because I didn't realize it was on hiatus until a few minutes ago. Anyway. Here is some stuff:1. An example of the interesting things one might find on a wingnut blog: "Video of Black Panther: "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker." (No need to click though, btw, just wanted to quote the lede. and also, btw,

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-61358345369464340292009-05-23T11:16:00.003-06:002009-05-23T12:16:05.621-06:00

President Obama continues down the Cheneyite path with a new proposal for "preventive detention" of people he deems dangerous or threatening. This man used to be a Con Law professor. I went to law school too, and one of the things they taught me there -- though they didn't have to, because I had already learned it in middle school civics class -- is that the bedrock of our country's criminal

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-54754114237193408062009-05-19T16:25:00.002-06:002009-05-19T16:34:51.811-06:00

As a follow-up to the post below, check out the Wall Street Journal's uber-right-wing editorial page praising Obama's anti-terrorism policies. First graf:President Obama's endorsements of Bush-Cheney antiterror policies are by now routine: for example, opposing the release of prisoner abuse photographs and support for indefinite detention for some detainees, and that's just this week. More

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-72271989660602453072009-05-19T15:11:00.002-06:002009-05-19T16:24:38.149-06:00

The New York Times has an article today describing the Obama administration's "new" rules governing the military commissions which will try Guantanamo detainees. As the article makes clear, these New and Improved Military Commissions (TM) will be very much like the old Bush Military Commissions, but with a genuinely new marketing spin. You see, these rules governing military commissions are

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-30249713961631692612009-05-18T17:20:00.004-06:002009-05-18T17:25:43.110-06:00

I apologize in advance for basically cutting and pasting this guy's entire blog post (sorry!), but he shoulda written a longer post by putting in some less-good filler so that I could "excerpt" it without stealing the entire thing. But maybe you could click through the link just to make me feel better? Huh...? Ok, well anyway:It’s funny that when torture was all the fault of poor, ugly

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-81392500398333906382009-05-18T15:39:00.003-06:002009-05-18T16:57:15.427-06:00

UPDATED: now enhanced with actual link to the shit I was complaining about...Whatever one might say about Obama (see below, for example), we can be reasonably certain we won't see any of this type of shit. (make sure to click through and see the slideshow -- prepare to be horrified, nauseous, and exultant, all at the same time.)I think we were all pretty sure that, at some level, the Bushies

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-76816387512501382872009-05-13T21:44:00.003-06:002009-05-14T00:05:44.227-06:00

Obama is losing me. It's been building for a while, and today I think might have been the last straw.As a candidate, Obama said most of the right things about most of the right issues. In his candidacy there was the promise of something different. Different from most politicians. Different from all recent presidential candidates. Different, in any event, from Bush and Cheney.But it is

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-21367713425986635392009-04-29T23:16:00.004-06:002009-04-29T23:39:27.603-06:00

Let's take a moment to ponder the wisdom of this:Fort Worth ISD Out For Swine FluThe entire Fort Worth Independent School District and several other schools have closed as swine flu cases spread across North Texas.The Fort Worth ISD is closing all of its campuses beginning Thursday until May 11. "This is a time

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-53462434555443632102009-04-29T14:06:00.004-06:002009-04-29T16:18:36.555-06:00

This is like an absurdist parody of imperialism gone crazily, irredeemably off the tracks.The New York Times tells me that the U.S. military is sending 20,000 soldiers on a mission to violently obstruct Afghans from planting and harvesting their crops.This is exactly the role our founders imagined for our federal government: sending thousands of soldiers to the other side of the planet to engage

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-19341807389529091002009-04-23T09:54:00.003-06:002009-04-23T10:33:16.236-06:00

... thinking that, you know, I've gone insane, let me clarify:1. I didn't intentionally set out to obtain a pet mouse; and2. That's the first and (likely) last haiku of my blogging career.______________Update: for further clarity:The original plan for the mouse was that it would be a fun, temporary playtoy for the other pet (a cat). The cat, after all, likes to play around with little fake

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-84839068723474808262009-04-23T09:46:00.006-06:002009-04-23T09:54:14.722-06:00

mouse on wheel is dumbhe thinks he's going somewherebut he never will

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-71621716170294577702009-04-18T11:34:00.004-06:002009-04-19T15:28:52.376-06:00

Meet Thomas Tamm. Mr. Tamm was also a lawyer in the Bush Justice Department. But confronted with direct and undeniable knowledge of egregious lawbreaking by elements of the administration, Mr. Tamm, in diametric counterpoint to Mr. Bybee, didn't look the other way and didn't sacrifice his ethics by dishonestly inventing specious rationales to conceal the illegal conduct and ensure that it

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-49595163756244314462009-04-18T11:05:00.002-06:002009-04-18T11:10:39.693-06:00

After exchanging a friendly greeting with Obama at a Latin American summit, we get this:"I think it was a good moment," Chavez said about their initial encounter. "I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president.I'm still a bit surprised that the Bushies didn't black-bag this guy and send him off to rot in one of their secret gulags.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-60427728995209519062009-04-16T21:45:00.003-06:002009-04-16T22:23:50.424-06:00

It's late, and I've had a long day, so I don't feel like getting too deep into the torture memos right now. But I'm up for a quick comment.Meet Jay Bybee. Mr. Bybee worked hard to become a top flight attorney. He was magna cum laude at BYU, cum laude at BYU law school, made the school's law review, gained a sought-after clerkship with a federal judge, worked as a law professor for 10 years,

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-16897912907999778452009-04-16T20:11:00.004-06:002009-04-16T21:10:42.353-06:00

Robert takes me to task in the comments. In the service of cleverness, I implied that all the tea party participants were incipient klan members.This is not true, of course, and my apologies for lumping all the protesters together in this manner. In a more general sense, I do get the idea that a lot of the people (mostly poor, and white) who are most upset by the government's recent policies

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-14409156111767564292009-04-15T11:25:00.002-06:002009-04-15T11:45:37.494-06:00

Apparently Fox News has organized some folks around the country to go out and protest today. What are they protesting? Your guess is as good as mine.Since it's April 15, we can assume it might have something to do with taxes. The problem with this theory, however, is that taxes haven't gone up. Taxes for most people have gone down. Or have been offset by government checks being sent out to

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-36077832377015555272009-04-09T14:29:00.003-06:002009-04-09T15:01:29.578-06:00

Tom Hicks, owner of local sports teams, can't make interest payments on his credit facility. I don't know the man personally, but he shows up in the media a lot, and my impression is that he's an arrogant dick. He did very well with his investment company during bubble years. Not so well during the bust years. If I were a bit better at convincing people of stuff I wasn't very sure about

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-35668060550940141942009-04-08T11:43:00.002-06:002009-04-08T12:02:40.906-06:00

I am a believer in the Teddy Roosevelt maxim "walk softly and carry a big stick." Having a strong military that can defend our country from any conceivable threat is important.But what we have right now is a bloated military which is structured for things like invasions, long-term occupations, and nation-building operations on the other side of the planet. While invasions and (short-term)

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-70650646354424194512009-04-03T11:50:00.004-06:002009-04-03T12:11:18.694-06:00

Irony. Uh...Irony.It's a noun...It's when something is... ironic. It's, uh, well I can't really define irony... but I know it when I see it!And then the elevator doors close.I am reminded of this scene by a chain email which was just forwarded to me. Below all the various headers picked up through the multitude of forwardings this email had undergone, I read the actual content. Which was a

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-79954972428054481572009-04-02T10:58:00.004-06:002009-04-02T19:04:31.801-06:00

I recently re-read this book. Ok, actually I'm not quite to the end yet. But a number of things have become clear to me this time around that didn't quite sink in the first time.First, while the philosophy laid out in the book will stand or fall on its own merits (I've not formed an opinion on this quite yet), I think the book loses a lot of power once you realize that the entire narrative is

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-27160743335699850372009-03-27T22:52:00.003-06:002009-03-27T22:57:32.915-06:00

Heh. Turns out the cwalken twitter feed was not actually Christopher Walken. Which is kind of disappointing. But more disappointing is that twitter has suspended the account. I probably would have kept checking it out anyway. Here's an "interview" with the guy who was writing it.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-60027577783800681142009-03-26T13:25:00.002-06:002009-03-26T14:34:34.194-06:00

Barry O apparently believes that marijuana legalization/decriminalization is a funny joke. Har har har. I doubt it is very amusing to people who are put in prison for possession. College students being denied financial aid because they got caught with a bag of pot aren't laughing. And as for terminal cancer and AIDS patients who are prevented from smoking some weed to make the last part of

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-9095327301944037102009-03-24T20:28:00.002-06:002009-03-24T21:03:45.217-06:00

A few items to fill up the space while I'm not feeling like coming up with any original thoughts:1. Brother IOZ had his car towed. Somewhat predictably (if you are a regular IOZ reader), he writes a post with the following tags: GLOBAL GULAG; POLICE STATE; TOTALITARIANISM. Worth a read, and, yes, he actually does manage to make the story of his car being towed into a plausible and astute

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-72039599367284715362009-03-23T19:12:00.003-06:002009-03-23T19:25:06.939-06:00

Here I was thinking that no good could come from the irritating item of technology known as "Twitter" (the last thing I need is another mechanism for propelling my thoughts out into the world), but then I'm directed over to the greatness of the Christoper Walken Twitter feed. Samples:A friend from out west mailed me a "Snuggie." A joke apparently. I don't get it. I look like a derelict Gumby in

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-65266695849985952822009-03-19T11:53:00.002-06:002009-03-19T12:13:02.147-06:00

It has been brought to my attention that the Pope -- due to his age at the time -- was not actually, technically a "Nazi", but rather a member of the Hitler Youth. So, obviously, I feel compelled to issue this correction. Therefore, when reading the post below, please substitute the term "Hitler Youth" in the place of each appearance of the word "Nazi".Readers will, of course, be left to draw

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-9392786486322044342009-03-18T22:36:00.002-06:002009-03-18T23:07:31.105-06:00

In our continuing series describing a few small anecdotes which, though unimportant in themselves, when taken together, demonstrate how religion is destroying humanity, we must mention the Pope's recent trip to Africa. I don't intend to belabor this point, or to spend a lot of words on it, but rather, in one sentence, to boil it down to its essence, which is this:The Pope, a former Nazi (yes,

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-79564480810684671432009-03-17T17:47:00.003-06:002009-03-17T21:46:01.351-06:00

In the midst of a nice Citi-led run up in bank stocks these last couple of days, there's been a big uproar over these AIG bonuses.Let's first note that I'm not one to go all class-war-rich-v-poor on you. I've got no beef with people making ridiculous amounts of money: entrepreneurs, innovators, entertainers, athletes, capitalists, or even bankers. In fact, I'm all for it. The idea that

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-70170982887380544752009-03-12T18:54:00.003-06:002009-03-12T20:11:25.155-06:00

I have to say this in favor of my new(ish) computer: I can keep tons and tons of tabs open in multiple Firefox windows without noticeable sluggishness or crashing. Also, though I still have some non-trivial complaints about Vista, I've noticed I can go weeks without rebooting and don't encounter any problems.But I really need to get rid of some of these open tabs:1. A near-must-read absurdist

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-29699604147816705812009-03-12T15:43:00.006-06:002009-03-12T16:08:12.359-06:00

I watched W. last night. It had its moments. It was less ham-fisted than you might expect from an Oliver Stone political subject, and in spots I thought was actually showed some deep psychological insights. Overall, however, it was far from great, and I got bored during about the final 1/3 of the movie.But the point of this post is to say this:is toasis to

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-5394962155674399082009-03-10T21:07:00.005-06:002009-03-10T22:09:57.983-06:00

The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price of a paper clip? We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you."Bernie Madoff will reportedly plead guilty this week to at least 11 felony counts in connection with his Ponzi scheme which defrauded victims of $50B+. Prosecutors say there has

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-78925399585625672722009-03-10T20:19:00.002-06:002009-03-10T21:07:43.676-06:00

Two brief examples of how religion is destroying humanity:1. Catholic Church excommunicates doctors and mother for performing/authorizing a life-saving abortion on a 9 year old who became pregnant after being raped by her stepfather. "Life must always be protected" sez the archbishop. Right. And the stepfather? Well, he had been molesting the girl since she was six, and "he is also suspected

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-72244173157654250942009-03-06T18:11:00.005-06:002009-03-07T10:15:16.115-06:00

It takes a lot to get me to a movie theater these days. I don't like watching movies with a crowd of people. But I couldn't wait for Watchmen to come out on home video, so I went to an afternoon showing yesterday.I've found that I'm not very good at writing movie reviews except with respect to movies that I really hate (e.g., Marie Antoinette, Inland Empire), so I'll just say: This movie kicks

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-4523532689595314272009-03-04T09:10:00.003-06:002009-03-04T09:28:22.875-06:00

But I need a post to get that stupid Pandit's picture off the top of my blog. What an asshole.Some very brief (and no doubt poorly considered) Barry-Green-style observations:1. When was the last time there was any good economic news?2. Mexico appears to be headed toward civil war -- yay, prohibition!3. The recent Lost episodes are pretty good.4. I've been watching Dollhouse (new Joss Whedon

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-4772839483658932162009-02-27T15:20:00.002-06:002009-02-27T15:30:48.991-06:00

The market obviously had a very negative view of what kind of deal might be struck with the government, but Vikram Pandit managed to make a deal that was even worse than expected. Thus the absolute beating taken by the stock today.Considering how all of Geithner's other pals appear to eat the government's lunch in broad daylight on every deal, this quote from Wall Street comes to mind:"Guess

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-55710051182743992692009-02-26T11:52:00.002-06:002009-02-26T12:11:16.046-06:00

1. A buddy of mine, who first put in my mind the idea of buying depressed bank stocks, bought some of these bank stocks himself a couple of days ago. Several times a day I get text messages or emails from him which consist of, for example, a dollar sign ("$") repeated like one hundred times, or a series of stock symbols in capital letters along with several dozen exclamation points. And yet

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-68820186437716784652009-02-23T20:37:00.002-06:002009-02-23T21:47:34.842-06:00

So, yeah, I've been railing about the government giving free money to poorly-run banks in order to prop them up so that their shareholders don't lose their investments. Now, I'm thinking it is time to quit swimming against the tide and just, well, become one of those shareholders.Especially now that Citigroup is trading around $2.00. It closed today at $2.15. On Friday it was as low as $1.68.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-65714136868716864042009-02-21T17:33:00.007-06:002009-02-22T00:50:07.790-06:00

I got lunch from Wingstop today. Mixed in with my order of the "Original Hot" flavor, I got some that were the "Atomic" flavor. These are awful. I can't imagine why anyone would eat them except under some type of extreme coercion.I like hot spicy foods. I enjoy eating jalapenos, and I put Tabasco sauce on everything it remotely goes with. So I'm not a pussy about this stuff.But after three

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-72730059085436222732009-02-18T12:00:00.002-06:002009-02-18T12:50:13.118-06:00

It means what it says. So... while I'll surely give due approbation to Obama when he does good, I'm not going to stop being hostile to doing bad just because he's the one doing it. Let's just hope there's more of the former than of the latter.Case in point: "In his first troop deployment to a war zone as commander in chief, President Barack Obama on Tuesday authorized sending as many as 17,500

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-19094779142521870562009-02-14T08:38:00.008-06:002009-02-15T20:36:52.784-06:00

I'm a bit late to this story, mostly because its lessons seem too obvious: (1) Michael Phelps is a 23 year old who makes his living by swimming in a pool, a set of facts which makes it barely credible that anyone could be surprised that he would take the occasional bong hit, (2) responsible marijuana use is not harmful -- and certainly not debilitating -- as evidenced by the fact that a user can

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-88370666145078142302009-02-11T14:37:00.003-06:002009-02-11T15:08:54.174-06:00

In Why Tom Zarek Was Right, a blogger at Lawyers, Guns, and Money writes "a Letter to the Editor from "Concerned Colonial Citizen", regarding the prospects of a permanent alliance between the Colonial government and the rebel Cylon."*Spoilers follow*Clearly there are some aspects of the rebellion initiated by Gaeta and Zarek that I cannot support -- most particularly the cold-blooded murder of

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-56942106236899320042009-02-10T12:32:00.002-06:002009-02-10T12:46:06.560-06:00

I highly recommend this book. It's a book that David Foster Wallace might have written had he not been an insane person. It's been a while since I read Anna Karenina, but aside from the modernist style (or is it post-modern), that's what it reminded me of. Or maybe War and Peace with 400 less pages, if the 400 pages you cut were the ones dealing with peasants and Napoleon.Wikipedia tells me

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-24261103296669117972009-02-05T01:51:00.004-06:002009-02-05T12:50:58.807-06:00

Please stop pouring taxpayer money into failing banks.Thanks,HHLp.s. : Is it a good idea to take money from taxpayers and use it to prop up insolvent banks so that shareholders of these horribly mismanaged companies don't lose their investments? Isn't this an insult to these investors? Can't we afford them a measure of respect by refusing to question their knowledge, sophistication, and

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-49568429781605435732009-01-25T09:32:00.002-06:002009-01-25T09:54:51.248-06:00

A while back I had an item on Dr. Don McLeroy, the fundie dentist and Chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. Dr. McLeroy (again, a dentist) believes that the earth is 6,000 years old. In his ongoing crusade to keep Texas children ignorant by infusing their science textbooks with Christianist mythology, Dr. McLeroy has again garnered national headlines in the NYT and elsewhere.The

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-27858775738325975052009-01-24T21:55:00.000-06:002009-01-25T10:03:39.030-06:00

It goes like this:On Friday, eat a mid-morning meal consisting of 4 cupcakes. Eat nothing else the rest of the day.Friday evening, around 6PM, begin drinking beer (consume at least 7 beers in this step, which should last approximately 1.5 hours).Next, proceed to a bar or tavern. Drink at least 9 beers over the next 2 hours.Mix in two shots of tequila and one Jaeger Bomb.Proceed home and drink 2

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-84290588779474765592009-01-22T09:38:00.004-06:002009-01-22T10:15:11.335-06:00

The Agitator has a good summary of some of the things Obama did on his first full day in office. Apparently reversing Bush policies on excessive government secrecy was a high priority. It should go without saying, but after 8 years of Bushism it bears repeating: openness and transparency is essential to a well-functioning democracy. There is a direct correlation between the amount of

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-41913697315207882112009-01-20T11:15:00.001-06:002009-01-20T11:16:29.917-06:00

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-83755627396939930032009-01-16T14:21:00.004-06:002009-01-16T14:52:17.545-06:00

My local police department has been busy.This door hanger was found -- not hanging on my door -- but on the floor of my laundry room. There's a door in that room that leads to the garage. As you can see from the notes on the flier, my garage door was left open during the night.The flier couldn't have been slipped underneath the door -- I checked. Which means that this extremely officious

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-70129445781439505692009-01-15T12:48:00.002-06:002009-01-15T13:14:09.997-06:00

1. Trammel Crow, dead at 94. Legendary Dallas real estate developer who I have just learned got his start -- as did some other local moguls I could name -- as a seller of livestock feed.2. The Top 50 Most Loathsome People in America for the year 2008. Pretty much everyone comes in for some derision in this, the most cleverly written year-end summary I've seen. I can't say I was surprised

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-68402084010584791972009-01-15T12:22:00.003-06:002009-01-15T13:15:43.054-06:00

If there are many more incidents of the Israelis shelling U.N. facilities in Gaza, it may start to appear, um, intentional rather than accidental. In the latest episode, a UN compound, which housed a hospital, a relief supply warehouse, and at least 700 Palestinian refugees, suffered direct hits from Israeli shelling.As reported here (and also on NPR), the Israeli government response took the

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-7160170838747458352009-01-08T17:33:00.002-06:002009-01-08T18:03:27.072-06:00

I need to clean out my tabs, and, oh look, all of them happen to be stories about Israel/Gaza from the last few days.Here's an article from the Washington Post: Near sundown, Israel dropped leaflets on northern Gaza warning residents to evacuate their homes, as witnesses reported heavy movement of troops and tanks massed on the border. The leaflets read: "Area resident, as a result of the acts

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-76425419311219823912009-01-06T12:33:00.002-06:002009-01-06T12:48:39.150-06:00

Obama announced appointments for CIA Director and the Office of Legal Counsel. Both nominees have taken hard stances against Bushism, rejecting outright the Bush penchant for lawlessness and secrecy in policies regarding warrantless surveillance, torture, and indefinite detention. Amen.Not all are happy, however. Witness poor Diane Feinstein. After considering the nomination for CIA director

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-19187317710420033882009-01-02T14:22:00.004-06:002009-01-02T17:34:01.119-06:00

Daniel Larison has a post up explicating the "debate" taking place in America among our political and media class regarding the Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip. He notes that the debate is rather one-sided, or, in point of fact, has two sides: on one side, consisting of most all participants, you have those who support Israel's actions and policies (the "mainstream" "conventional wisdom" side

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-85876671404693767772008-12-31T16:51:00.003-06:002008-12-31T17:25:47.579-06:00

1. Here's a 3500sqft 5 bedroom brick house in a tree-lined neighborhood. Nice yard, hardwood floors, full basement. Yours for only $8,925. The catch? It's in Detroit.2. At the above link you'll also note that realtor.com lists over 200 houses in metro Detroit for less than $1,000. The average house in Detroit is now valued at less than $20,000.3. This blog documents how Detroit is now one

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-84186433502255729012008-12-30T11:36:00.009-06:002008-12-30T15:28:53.452-06:00

You may have seen on the news that the Israelis have been active recently in bombing the shit out of the Gaza Strip. This is the Israeli response to Palestinian militants continually firing rudimentary rockets over the border into Israel, which has caused injuries, a few deaths, and some terror.For me, the Gaza Strip is something I always heard about, but never really conceptualized in any

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-79133908105778530302008-12-30T00:42:00.004-06:002008-12-30T00:46:35.479-06:00

Did you ever notice that in any contest or dispute -- be it a tennis game, a boxing match, an election, a war, whatever -- a person calling themselves "conservative" or a "Republican" will, without regard to any other existing circumstances, context, facts, or logic, almost always support the party with the lightest skin color?Why is that?

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-2692176638433602892008-12-29T15:03:00.002-06:002008-12-29T15:25:26.686-06:00

Some British asshat has determined that the internet contains some of teh bad stuff and it is high time that Something Must Be Done. Unfortunately, this British asshat happens to be the UK "Culture Secretary", which appears to be somewhat akin to the American FCC.He proposes that the British government, along with the Obama administration, take steps to... er, do something or other to, well, uh.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-46839818358490550502008-12-16T22:10:00.003-06:002008-12-16T22:51:02.673-06:00

I neglected to post anything about the Blagojkevachgq scandal. It was interesting to read Fitzgerald's complaint. Kind of like the enjoyment I used to get from watching Cops. You know, here's a really dumb criminal, let's stick a camera in his face while he's being arrested and listen to all of the moronic things he has to say.Funny? Yes. But on the scale of nefariousness, Blagokjavqghic &

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-14466467141574634012008-12-15T11:00:00.002-06:002008-12-15T11:25:48.716-06:00

But that guy is phenomenally good at ducking them.As I have noted several previous times, back when Bush and Paulson first proposed looting the treasury of several hundred billion dollars for the benefit of their Wall Street cronies, our illustrious congress would have none of it. "No, sir!" they said. "We must have oversight and accountability!"One prominent feature of this accountability was

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-21459739762136964712008-12-11T21:20:00.002-06:002008-12-11T22:02:00.462-06:00

But even that is no reason for this. Dear Congress,Thank you for your efforts in leading our great nation. But please, stick to what you do best: supporting torture and warrantless spying, bowing to the demands of the least popular president in history, and -- of course -- spending the nation into utter penury so that inept financiers don't have to go without their poached salmon and liveried

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-39775454042082775432008-12-09T12:03:00.001-06:002008-12-09T12:05:36.664-06:00

Courtesy, at least in part, of my supermarket "rewards" card:

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-40771535600629322442008-12-03T00:55:00.002-06:002008-12-03T01:00:47.292-06:00

On Proposition 8.Money:Everyone remembers Martin Luther King for his campaign of non-violence, but what they forget, what they choose to forget because his real radicalism terrifies most Americans, was that he was the man who stood before America and called in a debt, told the nation that the check was due. The power of his nonviolence was in the dramatic role he cast himself: this one man

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-21571093577994857522008-11-26T12:05:00.004-06:002008-11-26T12:42:12.659-06:00

I'm a business lawyer. The company which is my client is essentially a deal machine -- with many different and differently structured revenue streams flowing in and out. I see a lot of contracts cross my desk, and they vary extensively in terms of form, function, structure, content, purpose, etc. And I've been doing this a while.So there aren't a lot of contract provisions that surprise me.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-45775686906268352452008-11-25T22:03:00.004-06:002008-11-25T22:19:40.724-06:00

I missed a call on my cell phone the other day. Judging from the area code that it was someone at the, uh, corporate office, I hit the "call back" button a while later and found myself talking to an ex-co-worker who had moved away several months ago.So this guy is in his car with his wife, and makes small talk until she gets out to go inside a store or something. And then he tells me why he

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-77013183516935353312008-11-25T19:27:00.003-06:002008-11-25T21:58:10.848-06:00

Doesn't that mean it is too big to be allowed to exist? That is what Matt Yglesias argues in a very smart (and short!) post on banking regulation. I agree with the whole thing.Meanwhile, according to this article, the Treasury's bailout of Citi (which puts taxpayers on the hook for $300 Billion in potential losses, not just the $20 Billion often mentioned) was announced "five days after

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-50925633824949972502008-11-20T16:01:00.003-06:002008-11-20T17:20:25.970-06:00

1. I guess maybe I should wait until Obama takes office before I really start criticizing him. It just seems like Bush/Cheney is/are so incredibly bad, that with Obama we ought to be seeing immediate, dramatic, and widespread changes in governing behavior. My fear is that he will be the anti-Bush only in matters of government giveaways (which I'm not necessarily against) that are, politically

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-36284090873880308652008-11-18T12:37:00.002-06:002008-11-18T13:16:55.684-06:00

I'm not an idealist. Haven't been for quite a while now. So I wasn't exactly surprised to read today that the cowardly Senate Democrats rewarded Republican shill Joe Lieberman with a plum committee chairmanship. Lieberman, a warmongerer and recent purveyor of Obama-as-terrorist/Marxist slurs, repeatedly spat in the face of Democrats over the last year and has supported the Bush/Cheney cabal in

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-16437376965152108722008-11-13T22:09:00.003-06:002008-11-14T13:38:14.401-06:00

Remember back when we were being sold on the bailout? Bush, Paulson, their minions, and their lackeys in the media ramped up the fear level, talked a lot about The Coming Depression, threw around words like "dire" and "catastrophe", and in general just basically put a rhetorical gun to our heads and said "your money or your life".And then the valiant keepers of the public trust -- those

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-33815831072017766162008-11-13T17:02:00.002-06:002008-11-13T17:08:14.258-06:00

no, i've not quit blogging. (Nor have I been abducted by the newly formed Obama negro-communist-baby-killing death squads we've all been hearing about.) I guess I sorted of defaulted to taking a break after the run-up to the election. Plus, I just switched to a new computer, and have sort of been in Vista Hell these last few days.Regular blogging to resume soon, I hope.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-79963665578953148352008-11-04T10:26:00.004-06:002008-11-04T11:04:37.152-06:00

It is hard to believe it's almost over. This election has been going on seemingly my entire life.I voted last week. The experience was not in any way extraordinary. In my lily-white suburban district there was a significant line at around 10am, but the line moved quickly and -- apart from an overly officious person chastising voters about their cell phones and their cups of Starbucks -- there

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-91257409871437344792008-10-29T09:21:00.002-06:002008-10-29T09:50:46.568-06:00

1. Looks like the face-carving bitch story died an early death (though TPM, in its typically dogged fashion, is trying to Schiavo-ize it). I'm surprised. What doesn't surprise me is that Fox News VP John Moody has still not followed up on this statement on his blog: "If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."2.

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-44253656036086969412008-10-26T08:24:00.004-06:002008-10-26T22:21:52.734-06:00

"The dog did nothing in the night-time.""That was the curious incident."It appears that I may have overestimated the integrity of our leading national media organizations. Or maybe I've just underestimated their complicity in the GOP's latest and most egregious episode of Desperate Dirty Tricks(TM), represented by the crazy face-carving bitch from College Station, Texas and the McCain campaign's

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-24001490871755197352008-10-25T11:26:00.002-06:002008-10-25T11:39:49.036-06:00

Reports yesterday suggested that Isiah Thomas had been taken unconscious from his by an ambulance to a hospital to be treated for a drug overdose. Thomas is now most famous not for winning championships with the Pistons but for stealing money for half a decade as GM and sometime-coach of the New York Knicks during a tenure in which the Knicks, despite the league's highest payroll, won very few

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851987326067510308.post-68849157674660202662008-10-24T22:32:00.005-06:002008-10-25T11:10:59.294-06:00

Ashley Todd, College Republican from College Station, Texas, has made a hell of a mess. She was volunteering for the McCain campaign, and faked an attack by a 6'4" "dark skinned" black man who... wait for it... just happened to be a crazy violent Obama supporter. A likely story, that was quickly and easily debunked.BUT not before the McCain campaign was all over the story, amplifying it out to

HHLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330950146383835814noreply@blogger.com2