People want to know: Mrs. Haley chose her words carefully in talking about the causes of the Civil War. “You had one side of the Civil War that was fighting for tradition, and I think you had another side of the Civil War that was fighting for change,” she said. She did not use the word “slavery” but hinted at it, saying that “everyone is supposed to be free.” Well, I think it’s fair to say she’s at least hit the “McDonnell Standard.” But, is South Carolina too racist for Nikki Haley? When Mrs. Haley first ran...
Continue reading...June 2010
Why the hell are these games on at the same time?
So, it’s been a nice couple of weeks watching World Cup action: three games a day, one at a time. That all changed today. As the group stage enters the half-way point, the schedule abruptly changes. Now, there are two times and four games, requiring all games to be on at the same time as another. The reason? You guessed it: a German non-aggression pact. In 1982, an odd set of circumstances led into the final game of the group stage between West Germany and Austria. Turns out, a German win with a score of 1-0 or...
Continue reading...New York Time Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from David \”Yawny-Pants\” Brooks, who in his column \”Fastus...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Good morning, folks. Did Toy Story 3 make you cry? Well, there\’s always your morning constitutional: Gen. Stanley McCrystal, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, was called back to Washington after making critical remarks in an interview about administration officials including the president and vice president. Former federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich on Monday took over as director the agency that oversees offshore drilling. The agency was formerly known as the Minerals Management Service, but was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement in a shakeup by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Peter Orszag,...
Continue reading...Doctor Who, "Cold Blood"
Doctor, to Ambrose: \”You are so much less than the best of humanity!\” While I enjoyed \”Cold Blood\” much more than part one, \”The Hungry Earth,\” I don\’t have much to say about it save for the final scene. After Ambrose kills Alaya, negotiations between the Silurians and the humans fall apart. The Doctor forces the Silurians to go back into hibernation for another 1,000 years and hopes that when they wake, the humans will be ready to make peace. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory rush back to the surface to escape in the TARDIS, but when...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Ross \”Do That Thing\” Douthat, who in his...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Monday, 21 June 2010
Good morning, everybody. As I write this, Portugal just creamed PRK by a whopping 7-0. Sweet Jesus. Anyways, here\’s your morning constitutional: A worker on the Deepwater Horizon rig claims to have told BP that he found a leak on the rig just weeks before the explosion. Russia has begun to cut off natural gas to its neighbor Belarus, saying Belarus owes it over $200m. Poland\’s presidential election is heading into a runoff, after no candidate was able to win enough votes to win outright. In Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos easily won the presidency yesterday with 69...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
You Reading This, Be Ready Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air? Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now? Are you waiting for time to show you some better thoughts? When you turn around, starting here, lift this new glimpse that you found; carry into evening all that you want from this day. This interval you spent reading this or...
Continue reading...Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs
If you’ve got some SpaghettiOs in your pantry, you may want to take a look at this: Campbell Soup Co. is recalling nearly 15 million pounds of canned SpaghettiOs with meatballs because of possible under-processing, the U.S. agriculture department said. The recall includes 14.75-ounce cans with a use-by date between June 2010 and December 2011 of three varieties of the product: “SpaghettiOs with Meatballs,” “SpaghettiOs A to Z with Meatballs” and “SpaghettiOs Fun Shapes with Meatballs (Cars).” Consumers who have purchased those products with a plant code of “EST4K” should not eat them and should return them...
Continue reading...Ron Artest wants to the thank some people
Sure, game seven last night between the Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Finals was probably a good game. The five seconds I managed to watch at the bar sure looked like it. But, what was really phenomenal is Ron Artest’s post-game interview. Seriously, in less than a minute, he’s capable of thanking: everybody in his hood, the World Wide Warriors, his wife, his family, his kids, everybody, and, of course, his psychiatrist (she really helped him relax). And, on top of that, gets to plug his new single. Because, really, what’s a shout-out if you can’t...
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