September 2008
32 posts
“Paul Newman reminded us—with a smile, a twinkle, a total economy of gesture—how...”
– Stephen Metcalf in “The Paul Newman scene I keep replaying in my head.” Click through to read the rest of the paragraph. It makes me want to stay home and watch movie classics all day.
FiveThirtyEight.com: Memo to Joe Biden: Let Palin... →
I said pretty much this exact thing last week. Biden solves his foot-in-mouth problem if he keeps his mouth shut. Biden solves his looking-condescending problem (largely) if he keeps his mouth shut. Biden solves his beating-up-on-a-girl problem by keeping his mouth shut.
He has nothing to gain by showing he knows his stuff, and so the debate’s his to lose — by showing his stuff....
“It’s very important for people to realize that the McCain-Palin ticket is...”
– Andrew Sullivan: The McCain-Palin Project: War With Iran
Only a tiny chance? Wow. Now I know to invest in the military-industrial complex when the market crash brings the price down to pennies a share.
“Why is Obama so vapid and hesitant and gutless? Why, to put it another way, does...”
– Christopher Hitchens: Why is Obama so vapid, hesitant, and gutless?
Another take on the BO campaign. As always, one wonders whether Hitchens writes merely to annoy rather than to analyze. Perhaps most of his writing is merely a reflex expulsion of vituperation and bile.
And the question has to...
"Embarrassing"? No, bloggers, you're embarrassing...
I am far, far, far from a McCain fan or a GOP apologist. But I have to say, the quality and the nature of the coverage lately on some of the blogs I read is just dismal. The two that I read the most often are Talking Points Memo and Andrew Sullivan.
TPM I considered left-leaning but fair-minded and thorough in its reporting. Sullivan I considered vocal and opinionated in his arguments, but also...
How to get Firefox to prompt you to save tabs when...
Enter about:config in the Location bar
Type browser.sessionstore.enabled in the “Filter”
Make sure the browser.sessionstore.enabled preference is true.
Repeat for:
browser.warnOnQuit : true
browser.warnOnRestart : true
browser.startup.page : 1 or 2
Source: user Bo in this mozilla support forum.
Update: That support forum link is kaputt. But...
“Jones has since returned to [REDACTED], as well as becoming a well-known writer...”
– From the Wikipedia article on Ben L. Jones. The word I REDACTED is “acting.” Because, you see, if you watched TV in the 70s and 80s, you’ll know him by the character (caricature, really) he played. A real “where are they now?” moment.
A Pox on Republicans
dAndy: this stock shit is getting expensive
oroboros: only if you bail
dAndy: right
dAndy: I lost $100 today :(
dAndy: in my piddly ass portfolio
oroboros: think of it as a tax on everyone for letting repubicans hold office
dAndy: yeah
-- IRC
“Getting Things Done — Well, I’m pretty good at “Getting...”
– Me.
“The very name Pakistan inscribes the nature of the problem. It is not a real...”
– Christopher Hitchens, in a Slate article: Pakistan is the problem. And Barack Obama seems to be the only candidate willing to face it.
I believe I may have been happier when I was pondering the idea of President Palin and thinking about a second Great Depression, than when I was considering a...
A Menagerie of Links
From “The Secret Benefits of Fandom”:
The new work suggests that this kind of success on the field can shape a positive mind-set that affects the rest of our lives. Studies have shown, for example, that fans are not only happier when their team wins, they feel smarter, more athletic, luckier, and even more attractive. Other research shows that happy, self-confident people tend to...
How Culture Trumps "The Economy, Stupid"
Alex Massie makes a very interesting argument about why “the ‘Culture Wars’ aren’t just a Republican confidence trick.” I might be able to scratch together more commentary on his article, but it’s 0200, so I’m going to throw in the towel preemptively and just quote a honkin’ chunk o’ brilliance:
One reason, I think, that cultural issues...
“Critics of no-knock raids say they not only result in too many errors, sometimes...”
– SWAT Fever: It’s Epidemic (Sorry About The Dogs). I wish the answer were to shoot armed intruders who broke down your door unannounced. Unfortunately, they’d escalate their tactics to carpet bombing. So I guess we’ll have to work with these militarist idiots to find a better way of...
Time Out for a Little Home-town Pride
A group of Anchorage women decided, over coffee, to hold an anti-Palin rally on Saturday, the day she left Anchorage to return to campaigning in the Lower 48. They were something of a success. According to Mudflats’ blog, ‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!:
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally...
You know what sucks?
Cleaning out old files out of old filing folders in an old drawer of an old filing cabinet sucks. Because you just end up feeling, I dunno, old. (Channeling this guy perhaps?!)
Or lost in refinding yourself.
“To someone who thinks “glamour” means movie stars and designer...”
– Virginia Postrel, “Terror Is Glamour”. Scary. True-sounding to my ear.
“What’s striking about Pollan’s argument is how fundamentally conservative it is....”
– What Would Burke Eat?
Pissed about Palin? But She's for Real
So I just read this intensely angry article by Cintra Wilson on Salon (“Why aren’t women furious about Sarah Palin?”). And I have to say, it was stunning to me, how much the author seems to miss through the fog of her own anger:
I did not think that women being downgraded to second-class, three-holed chattel would be a pressing concern in my lifetime. I thought it was like...
Sarah Palin's Alaskonomics →
This may be the beginning of the dragging of Alaska through the mud. And maybe they deserve it. Really, Americans should be asking: she was a governor for 20 months, but can we trust the judgment of an electorate that put Ted Stevens and Don Young in office for decades upon decades? The claim that Palin has any kind of ability to fill a spot on a national ticket (let alone national office) rests...
20 Year Archive on Google Groups →
Usenet is “a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system” that was conceived in 1979 and is the precursor to web forums and discussion groups as we know them today.
I was an occasional reader of Usenet from about 1993 - 1998. I didn’t read any of the influential computer geek groups (e.g., “Tim Berners-Lee’s announcement of the World Wide Web project
”...
An Inventory
List 1:
One mug of medium-strong coffee, approximately 12 oz., with half-and-half to taste
One mediocre chocolate chip scone, slightly dry and crumbly
Approximately 3 pep-o-mint lifesavers
The bottom of a bag of cheese-flavored Gardetto’s snack bits, approximately 1 oz.
8-12 oz. tap water
10 oz. lime-flavored Crystal Geyser mineral water
12 oz. Rolling Rock Extra Pale beer
List 2:
...
Okay, I pick the citizens of the United States and... →
Does that count as “reform”? It’s surely God’s plan, in any event. Seeing as how it’s all about love, and everything.
“I can feel your fingers
feeling my face
There are some lines you put there...”
– Joni Mitchell
“Another reason why so many conservatives seem to react to the phrase “community...”
– Daniel Larison, “Continuity”. It’s articles like this that make me think that the foundation of my political philosophy is indeed small-c conservative. In our current environment, true conservatives are probably left with a choice: cling to fear (and religion and guns) and be a...
“They are a religious and cultural identity party, primed to rally to anything...”
– “The Pavlov Party” — Andrew Sullivan
