January 2009
111 posts
IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE FACTS, POUND THE TIMES: The International Republican Insititute has reportedly made utter balls out of its stated mission of supporting democracy in Kenya, but it would like you to know that, ‘Once again a New York Times “investigative” story, written like a sloppy high school term paper, has slipped by any editors worthy of the newspaper’s former...
OMINOUS: Google broke this morning.
WatchThe wife fell asleep with MTV and this preview for ‘How’s Your News’ came on. My Tivo is broke, but I’m going out and buying a new one so I can watch every episode of this.
WatchI’m watching the Daily Show watching this big geek talk about robotics culture. And then I realize it’s P.W. Singer, who wrote two excellently dense, downbeat books about mercenaries and child soldiers. If anyone’s deserved their time to focus on a dorkier, easier going subject (along with the opportunity to bask in a Stewart interview) it’s Singer.
Finally, Our Younger Brother Starts a Blog →
hellofriend:
jamiemottram:
What’s that? It’s not Beef? It’s just some guy calling himself the third Mottram brother — the “Bad Mottram” — and starting a blog dedicated to critiquing our work? Oh, okay. Cool. Nothing strange about that at all.
I give it about three days. Remember “Your Blog Blows?” Yeah. Like I said. Three days.
I think it’s because a) people quickly realize that...
Los Angeles Times kills local news section
MAX CANNON OF THE EXCELLENT ‘RED MEAT’ ALT-COMIC: ‘The stark reality is that, very soon, there won’t be any of your current favorite alternative comic strips for you to read at all — not even online. Here’s why: none of us make our living from our web sites. Let me repeat that for emphasis: WE DON’T MAKE A LIVING FROM OUR WEB SITES.’
Brooklyn: the Drunkest Borough | NBC New York
The Post Officially Ends ‘Book World’: ‘Nevertheless, some Very Important writers — ones who have never looked at the Post’s balance sheet, or really any balance sheet, ever — will not stand idly and watch as the Post wages war on Erudition.’
Get Wrapped Up in the Snuggie Revolution
Nigerian Vigilantes Turn Goat Into Police, Accuse It Of Car Theft, Shape-Shifting Witchcraft
HE’S A GHANDI OF THE ROAD: All hail Trucking Duck.
JOSH ALPER, EVERYONE!
‘If Torre’s book had him licking toads and drinking his own urine, people would believe it and taunt Rodriguez about it.
…
He’s an easy target and he’s a big target, that’s why he’s one of the centerpieces of Torre’s book. Everyone wants to see the richest and most talented guy taken down a peg, especially when he isn’t...
JIM NEWELL, EVERYBODY! ‘Today marks the beginning of the latest installment of Washington D.C.’s favorite pastime: watching the District’s fake Congressional delegate lady try to force “real American” members of Congress to grant her full House voting rights.
…
The legislation being introduced today is nearly identical to the last unsuccessful bill from 2007,...
CHANGE: ‘Today marks the beginning of the latest installment of Washington D.C.’s favorite pastime: watching the District’s fake Congressional delegate lady try to force “real American” members of Congress to grant her full House voting rights. Legislation of this nature has made inconsequential runs through the bowels of Congress every two or three years,...
“So, the New York Times. The Times is a junk-rated company with an op-ed page...”
– Wonkette’s Jim Newell (via cajunboy) (via hellofriend)
More Pride for Local Democratic Politicians: Hartford mayor turns himself in.
“What does the contemporary self want? The camera has created a culture of...”
– William Deresiewicz (via)(via cajunboy) (via beekeeperssociety)
Looks like they found another Cobain suicide note.
Virginia’s Episcopals Might Let Gays Get Pretend-Married! | NBC Washington: ‘This breakthrough resolution helpfully defined “relationships” — a word not previously found in the dictionary — as “characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see...
“318”
– Hotel for Dogs: 318 Animals Found Dead | NBC San Diego
WatchSenior Citizen Claymation Sex Tape | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
MONITORING COMMENTS IN GAZA MUST BE A DREAM: ‘The audiences have utterly distinct and contrasting sets of assumptions. Every time I fail to tell the story each side tells itself, I have failed in its eyes to do my job. That adds up to a lot of failure.’
IT WAS HIP EVEN THEN: ‘“Cincinnati was settled by good, solid German folk,” said Mr. Nager, who wrote the text on the King marker. “To them, honest work was making soap and killing pigs, not making music or cutting records. To them, the Jews, blacks and hillbillies working at King Records were gypsies, outsiders.” King Records, he said, “remains Cincinnati’s single most important cultural...
Watch“I thought about Mandela, Dr. King and Gandhi and tried to put some perspective to all this and that is what I am doing now.”
— Rod Blagojevich doubles down on the hyperbole after realizing his Pearl Harbor analogy fell on deaf ears. (Via E via langer)
PER USUAL, RUSSIAN HISTORIANS TAKE NOTES IN HOPES THAT THEY CAN SOMEDAY PUBLISH THEM: ‘None of this could have been achieved without the brave and honest work of Russian archivists and scholars in the Soviet period and after. He relates one haunting anecdote of a respected and elderly historian who just two years ago published a straightforward study that included the historically true...
THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF MODERN TEXAS: ‘Borrowing on a grand scale was a rule of the game: “If you’re gonna owe money, owe more than you can pay,” Murchison advised. “Then the people can’t afford to foreclose.”’
“SO MUCH WRITING ABOUT AFRICA IS LIKE PORNOGRAPHY, PORTRAYING ONLY VIOLENCE,” says playwright who has a show going up in midtown about Congolese women driven ‘from their homes, communities, marriages and families by the rape, mutilation, torture and other forms of violence employed as weapons in a blatantly senseless war,’ in the words of the NYT’s description.
‘AUTHOR TRIES TO DESCRIBE THE NEW ORGANIZATIONS MAN, REALIZES THE DADS ARE SUPERMOMS NOW: “The successful professional parents,” he boldly predicts, “will be the ones who manage to blend their child-rearing duties with their professional ones, making their children comfortable in high-pressure, high-status work environments.” Follow the citation to some intriguing research conducted in the...
SoCal Man Finds Jesus in Rock: This is what we call our ‘Harry Potter video,fi’ after the moving images in the newspapers in said films. And I find this one transfixing in a the-schooner-in-Mallrats kinda way.
BLOGGER JOINS OBAMA LEGAL TEAM: I assume this is also a “a risky but potentially brilliant plan. Risky in that one blogger gone haywire can put a station’s POTUS’s reputation (and defamation insurance policy) in peril.”
