Month: September 2010

Diary, Doc3 Comments

“A tattoo with her name right through my soul…”

On Tuesday, The Missus and I will celebrate our wedding anniversary. It’s been eight years, although it feels like a lifetime. Someone once explained to me that when you have kids, you think about how your life is going to change. Once you get there, you can’t remember what life was like without them. It’s been similar for us in our marriage. Life without each other would be too much to bear. I’m the first person to admit that I am not the easiest person on Earth to get along with. I can count on one hand my really good … Continue reading “A tattoo with her name right through my soul…”

Athenae5 Comments

And Then, McMegan?

Megan McArdle thinks your choices were stupid: The woman highlighted in the article, after all, is not going to be saved by Social Security; she’s 57. Without massive changes in spending, she’s headed for bankruptcy long before she’s eligible to collect benefits. That’s not to say that she’s a profligate spendthrift who deserves the pain she’s suffering; rather, the errors she’s made are incredibly common. That’s why it’s worth running through some of the most common mistakes that land people in these kinds of messes … I still can’t think too hard about 2007 without a shudder: Both wage-earners in … Continue reading And Then, McMegan?

Athenae, Political Crack7 Comments

Sweeping the Nation

Why the hell don’t we stand up like that? I have heard this question a hundred times and all the answers for it are silly and wrong: That we’re just too inherently disorganized, that we’re busy doing other stuff, that my generation or the one after it or the one after that one are just too dumb/lazy/entraced by iPods/shallow to actually rally in support of anything other than American Idol, etc. We look at the teawads and people ask: Why the hell don’t we stand up like that? Well, it’s not about us standing up, because it’s not a fair … Continue reading Sweeping the Nation

Adrastos, Film1 Comment

Nollywood

Peter Adrastos Athas

One of things I love about the internets is discovering things I wouldn’t have otherwise heard of. The Guardian is often my go to source for odds and sods (or is that bits and bobs?) of info. For example, I had no idea thatNigeria has a flourishing film industry that’s come to be called Nollywood: Die-hard fans have known for some time that the Nigerianfilm industry is truly unique, but even they may be surprised to discover just how big – and lucrative – it has become. A new festival, Nollywood Now, takes place in London from 6-12 October and … Continue reading Nollywood

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media1 Comment

Rip ‘n Read Creates Zombie Lies

THIS. Christ on sale, this: 2. Compare and contrast. The originalTribune story: “Plans for a Muslim cultural center in southeast DuPage County were sent back to square one today as the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals chose to restart the public hearing process.” The CBS2 rip-and-read: “Plans to build a Muslim center in southeastern DuPage County are back at square one. The DuPage Zoning Board of Appeals has voted to restart the public hearing process.” And some folks think Google steals content. * This is one of the ways in which the public becomes so misinformed. For example, if theTribune … Continue reading Rip ‘n Read Creates Zombie Lies

Adrastos, Congress, Political Crack, Stupid Blue Dog Tricks7 Comments

Spineless

Peter Adrastos Athas

I’m not surprised by the fact thatCongressional Democrats won’t be voting to rescind the Bush tax cuts for people with polo ponies BUT I’m still horrified. They’ve raised spinelessness to dizzying new heights: they refuse to do something popular out of fear of the Tea Party. There are some times that you should bring something to a vote on the floor knowing that you’ll lose that vote but gain politically. Instead, the House has allowed its fear and loathing of the Senate to trump political common sense. Yes, the House does the heavy-lifting on many bills that the Senate either … Continue reading Spineless

Athenae, Congress20 Comments

Pledge for America to Pledge America’s American Pledges

And stuff. It’s the Big Font, Small Ideas plan to take America back to the glorious days of the first Bush administration, with the fearmongering of the second thrown in just, you know, for fun. Not surprisingly, written by total aholes. The Democrats, natch, have absorbed the dominant narrative (Time magazine, which arrives at my house despite my best efforts to convince Mr. A it is trash, features a big cover headline: IT’S TEA PARTY TIME) that Republicans are going to sweep and there’s nothing to be doneso fuck it, let’s barricade the doors and drink because that meteorite is … Continue reading Pledge for America to Pledge America’s American Pledges

Athenae, Economy3 Comments

A Long Cold Winter

This was from candles for electricity. How many stories are we going to see about fires from space heaters, etc, this winter? A paper I used to work at would cover a few of these every November/December, when it began to get really cold, and this was during the Glorious Clinton Economic Boom of the late 90s when we were all rich and happy from the dot-com economy. What’s annoyed the hell out of me during a lot of the discussion of the economy lately is that for large swaths of the population, there never was any real up to … Continue reading A Long Cold Winter

Adrastos, Congress, Law/Justice, Political Crack1 Comment

Al Franken Is A Mensch

Peter Adrastos Athas

TPM posted a clip yesterday from a very powerful speech by Senator Franken about DADT that was rooted in his experience as a USO dude entertaining the troops. p align=”center” class=”asset asset-video” style=”display: block; margin: 0pt auto;”> p>This is one of the few times that Al Franken has referred to his show biz days since he “serioused himself up” to run for the Senate. It illustrates a truly weird difference between the GOP and Democrats. Goopers with show biz or sports background revel in their past. Ronald Reagan was notorious for telling long, dull stories about his days at Warner … Continue reading Al Franken Is A Mensch

BP Oil Spill, VirgoTex4 Comments

Can you dig it? Uhhh…no, actually

God knows BP hasn’t had many victories lately. Sure, theycapped the well and all but, while it could hardly be called an afterthought, it certainly belonged in “more of a whimper than a bang” category. Much as they wanted to savor the triumph, BP didn’t want anyone to really dwell on that whole awkward IT TOOK US FIVE MONTHS part of the story. So maybe this is one last attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of death that the British are so well known for. Personally, I’m willing to give it to them because goddamn it, I think they’ve … Continue reading Can you dig it? Uhhh…no, actually

Adrastos, Music, Television7 Comments

Mad Men Thread: Sally Can’t Dance

Peter Adrastos Athas

Actually, I have no idea whether or not Sally Draper can dance but how could I resist the Lou Reed reference? All the good Mrs. Blankenship jokes were already taken, after all. Sally did, however, have a post temper tantrum pratfall or is that face plant? Ouch, kiddo. Anyway, I love young Kiernan Shipkpa who plays Sally: she has the potential to become one of the great child actresses; she just might be a Margaret O’Brien or Tatum O’Neill in the making. She not only looks eerily like Betty but has her mannerisms and vocal inflections down pat. Kids often … Continue reading Mad Men Thread: Sally Can’t Dance

Athenae, Congress, Stupid Blue Dog Tricks, Stupid Republican Tricks7 Comments

Don’t Tell Me

Assholes: Don’t believe the hype. The failure of cloture in orderto repeal don’t ask, don’t tell cannot be fully laid at the feet of the Republican party. The Democrats – and not just the ones who voted bigot like Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor – have a lot of blame in this failure too. If someone in the Senate threatens a filibuster, they need to be forced to filibuster. When southern racists opposed civil rights, they were forced to actually filibuster on the floor of the senate. If you are so bigoted that you oppose allowing a vote (that has … Continue reading Don’t Tell Me

Athenae, Economy, Stupid Republican Tricks6 Comments

99 Problems and Sharia Ain’t One

GOD, just calm down. This is like flag-burning. None of this is EVER going to be enough of a thing that anybody has to worry about it. As compared to, say, the economy melting down. At least the immigration crazies make an attempt to connect their fear of the coming brown menace with the fact that your factory owner told you to fuck yourself, you’re not getting your pension. They don’t succeed if you’re paying attention, but at least they give it a whack. What on earth … I just do not understand the fear of Islamic domination, I guess. … Continue reading 99 Problems and Sharia Ain’t One

Adrastos, BP Oil Spill3 Comments

BP’s Theatre Of The Absurd

Peter Adrastos Athas

The Macondo oil gusher has finally been sealed but BP continues to play mind/word games with all concerned.The Picayune’s Bob Marshall published a surreal account of a conversation with a BP flack about the oil that is still fouling the waters and marshes in these parts: For a while Tuesday, I felt like I was caught in the old Abbott and Costello routine “Who’s on first?” Whether the oil that washed ashore this week is ‘new,’ meaning never-before seen, or ‘old’ oil recycled by the ecosystem, it will probably be showing up for at least a year. Only this one … Continue reading BP’s Theatre Of The Absurd

Athenae, Economy5 Comments

Going Galt

I really can’t wait until people start: Oak Lawn and Target originally approved their incentive agreement in 2005 while Target was preparing to build a store at 95th Street and Keeler Avenue. The agreement called for the village to take out a $4 million loan to buy a parking lot at Target’s new store and use it as a municipal lot. That loan was to be paid back through a special half-cent tax on the new store’s sales. But although Oak Lawn took out the loan three years ago, Target’s special sales tax payments were never collected after its Oak … Continue reading Going Galt

Athenae, Economy, Immoral Values13 Comments

Captains of Industry

Screw you, you petulant bitches: “No offense to Middle America, but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco out of a huge, shiny truck?” e-mails an irate Citigroup executive to a colleague. “I’m not giving to charity this year!” one hedge-fund analyst shouts into the phone, when I ask about Obama’s planned tax increases. “When people ask me for money, I tell them, ‘If you want me to … Continue reading Captains of Industry

Adrastos, Music2 Comments

Fly Iron Maiden?

Peter Adrastos Athas

I’ve never cared for heavy metal but this story really tickled my funny bone: After decades as the frontman ofIron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson has a new second job – in middle management. The English singer has been named marketing director of Astraeus, a Gatwick-based charter airline, where he has worked as a pilot for several years. The announcement at the bottom of theAstraeus website makes it sound like just another corporate position. “With the rapid growth in the business we have increased our commercial team,” the statement reads. “Bruce Dickinson as our marketing director, [and] Claire Ronson has now moved … Continue reading Fly Iron Maiden?

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media4 Comments

Apologizing for Your Ramadan Story Won’t Get You Into Heaven

Via Atrios: This idiot. Some things are so stupid I just cannot, okay, and this apology was one of them. It was nothing more than cowardly knuckling-under to the loudest, most racist, riled-up mouthbreathers in the paper’s coverage area. To continually justify that apology, and talk about how maybe you did something else — the paper’s editor going on and on about how they didn’t cover 9/11 on 9/11 and that he wasn’t apologizing for covering Muslims but fornot covering The Most Heroic Anniversary Evar — just compounds the stupidity. Really, you’re a professional newspaperman, you’re going to pull the … Continue reading Apologizing for Your Ramadan Story Won’t Get You Into Heaven

Stupid Republican Tricks, Tommy T5 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Palin and pals, Edition IV

Good morning everyone! We’ve been neglecting Our Sarah lately for theWicked Witch Of The East, so let’s suit up, start the blowers, and see how the Sage Of Wasilla is faring on Free Republic these days.

Here we go!

Anyone rememberthis?

This photo of U.S. President Barrack Obama’s daughter Malia, wearing a peace-symbol t-shirt touched off a storm of epithet-laced comments on the conservative ‘Free Republic’ blog

“A typical street whore.” “A bunch of ghetto thugs.” “Ghetto street trash.” “Wonder when she will get her first abortion.”

These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative ‘Free Republic’ blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama’s 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.

The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, “To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds.”

Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing – and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators.

Well, I guess that this kind of thing only applies if it’s Obama’s kids.

Bristol Palin in Dancing with the Stars

This thread has been pulled.
Pulled on 08/26/2010 6:23:16 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:

Leave the kids alone.

Diddums.

I applaud the Moderator’s newfound moral relativism.

But you can’t keep a good thread down…

Bristol Palin to compete on “Dancing with the Stars”
Fox News ^ | 08-31-10 | Associated Press

Posted onTuesday, August 31, 2010 10:14:02 AM byRedPriest73

The mother of “The Brady Bunch,” a former NFL quarterback, one of the self-proclaimed “guidos” from “Jersey Shore” and the daughter of Sarah Palin are among the celebrities who will cha-cha-cha on the 11th season of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Not sure how I feel about this…
1 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:14:05 AM byRedPriest73

Maybe since FOX snooze talked about it the onus is off?

To: RedPriest73

When are the gay activists going to target “Dancing With The Stars” so that we see same sex couples dancing? Don’t they have a rule that all couples must be boy/girl?

The gay activists successfully pressured “The Today Show” to include same-sex couples in a wedding contest. So I would expect that they will eventually target a show such as this, which has an “irrational, archaic” assumption that couples are opposite sex.

2 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:16:13 AM byDilbert San Diego
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Wtf3
To: RedPriest73

Ugh! Sorry folks, this is a bad idea!

6 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:18:26 AM bypoobear (“The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes.” — Thomas Paine)
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To: RedPriest73

Living off her mom’s fame…shouldn’t she be signing up for classes at a junior college at this point in her life?

And who’s going to take care of her baby while she’s doing all the practice needed for this show?

Nice priorities…

12 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:20:04 AM byteg_76
NicePriorities
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To: TexasCajun

You know, I watched this show for one season, and found it moderately entertaining.

Now I think it is inane.

So is the idea of Ms. Palin appearing on the show.

Really stupid and bad idea.

Sorry.

14 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:23:02 AM byRexBeach
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To: teg_76
Living off her mom’s fame…

She wouldn’t have been considered at all had she not also, quite publicly, had a child out of wedlock.

18 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:27:38 AM byr9etb
At least she didn’t conceive it on a “Satanic Altar”.
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To: TexasCajun

My concern is that she (and her family by extension) may be seen as publicity mongers…

20 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:29:48 AM byRedPriest73
Heaven forbid.
To: RED SOUTH
You folks need to leave the girl alone. She is not Sarah and has the right to live her own life.

And we have a right to note that this is a show based on the idea of watching celebrities dance, and to wonder what makes Bristol Palin a “celebrity.”

Well, that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? It’s because she’s the unwed mother of Sarah Palin’s grandchild. Being Sarah Palin’s kid is not sufficient. Being an unwed mother is not sufficient. But both…? It’s the combination makes her a celebrity.

A girl with any sense of propriety might wish to avoid that sort of attention.

34 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:42:42 AM byr9etb
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JennaBushDrunk
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To: RedPriest73
I know how I feel about it…how can Sarah ask for privacy of her children when this one is such an opportunist on her Mother’s coattails?

If she were any other unwed mother, cheated on by her live-in boyfriend, she would be working at the 7-11 and her Mother would be at home watching the baby!

I guess this is what a Mama Grizzlie does for her cubs?

37 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:47:01 AM bynot2worry (WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND)
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To: RED SOUTH
Atleast she’s not blogging for the left living off of her daddie’s failed run for the Presidency.

No, she’s making a living off her mommy’s failed run for the vice-presidency.

44 posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:53:49 AM byNon-Sequitur
Ouchie.
More Palin-y goodness after the jumpsilla

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Palin and pals, Edition IV”

Adrastos, Music2 Comments

Two Of Us In Three Parts

Peter Adrastos Athas

Joshua Wolf Shenk is doing a really swellseries on creative pairs at Slate. He’s just published a terrific three-parter on theLennon-McCartney partnership, Two Of Us.Lennon and Macca’s weird relationship proved that there is indeed a thin line between love and hate. Creative tension, thy name is the Beatles. p align=”center” class=”asset asset-video” style=”display: block; margin: 0pt auto;”> Continue reading Two Of Us In Three Parts