Saturday, May 30, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The dorks of perception
Great post by Charles Hill. Reporting used to be a blue collar job, it's been a downhill slide since it became a "profession."
>>Back in the day, to use an idiom that would never have been tolerated back in the day, we had reporters: scrappy fellows who knew every trick in the book, every source in the back alley, every button to push to get past the predilections of that one particular editor.
There are still a few such out there — I’ve seen some locally, even — but the national scene is dominated, not by reporters, but by journalists, who, says Stacy McCain, are a different breed entirely:
To be a journalist in Washington is to live one’s life surrounded by men who have never driven 110 mph, never spent a night in jail, and never won a fight in their lives.
The upper echelons of American journalism have become the exclusive monopoly of former teacher’s pets, who as children were never sent to the principal’s office, who as teenagers were never suspended for showing up drunk for chemistry class, who as college students never woke up at 6:30 a.m. on the porch of the ATO house, who never played in a rock band or sold a pound of weed or dove from a 50-foot cliff into an abandoned rock quarry.
Washington journalism is like some kind of perverse alternative reality where the Beta males are dominant.
[more at the link]
>>Back in the day, to use an idiom that would never have been tolerated back in the day, we had reporters: scrappy fellows who knew every trick in the book, every source in the back alley, every button to push to get past the predilections of that one particular editor.
There are still a few such out there — I’ve seen some locally, even — but the national scene is dominated, not by reporters, but by journalists, who, says Stacy McCain, are a different breed entirely:
To be a journalist in Washington is to live one’s life surrounded by men who have never driven 110 mph, never spent a night in jail, and never won a fight in their lives.
The upper echelons of American journalism have become the exclusive monopoly of former teacher’s pets, who as children were never sent to the principal’s office, who as teenagers were never suspended for showing up drunk for chemistry class, who as college students never woke up at 6:30 a.m. on the porch of the ATO house, who never played in a rock band or sold a pound of weed or dove from a 50-foot cliff into an abandoned rock quarry.
Washington journalism is like some kind of perverse alternative reality where the Beta males are dominant.
[more at the link]
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tagged By Eric With The Dreaded Blog Pox
I guess this should have been a post, not left in the comments. I'll never entirely get my head around this internets thing. Eric's list is a little more illustrious, he was always the smart one. :)
1. I think we were at the same concert in 74. Was it the one where Aerosmith played backup to Deep Purple? Deep Purple sucked after hearing Aerosmith, Deep Purple's stupid smoke and light show notwithstanding. Aerosmith had Dillon Stadium shakin!
I remember the crowd hollering "Bring back those Boston guys!" Nobody had heard of them before.
2. I rode a camel at age 4 and dug up skulls at age 11. Fun being a military brat. :)
3. Candace Bergen patted me on the head once and told me what a cute boy I was. I was 5, she was 11, it never would have worked out.
3. Was a supernumerary with Connecticut Opera for 5 years, they are now defunct after 67 years in operation. Stoopid bastages....
4. Had a used bookshop for 3 years pre-internet. Most fun employment I ever had that didn't make money.
5. Made drinks for Frank Sinatra Jr. and Professor Peter Schieckle aka PDQ Bach when I tended bar at a hotel. I used to bring in my own CDs to play in the bar, played Stump the Band with Frank and his entourage. They guessed most everything, except when I played Arthur Prysock. No one in the band got it. Frank guessed Billy Eckstine first, then he got it the second try. Frank Jr. is a very generous tipper. :)
6. Came back from Oklahoma after 7 years with only 5 adopted dogs to show for it. One was so mean I had to have a fence installed that cost $9,000. Now my nice rolling property resembles a compound.
7. I weigh the same and have the same waist size now as when I was in high school. Thanks mom!
8. I once worked as a drug and alcohol counselor. I think I was more effective when I tended bar.
1. I think we were at the same concert in 74. Was it the one where Aerosmith played backup to Deep Purple? Deep Purple sucked after hearing Aerosmith, Deep Purple's stupid smoke and light show notwithstanding. Aerosmith had Dillon Stadium shakin!
I remember the crowd hollering "Bring back those Boston guys!" Nobody had heard of them before.
2. I rode a camel at age 4 and dug up skulls at age 11. Fun being a military brat. :)
3. Candace Bergen patted me on the head once and told me what a cute boy I was. I was 5, she was 11, it never would have worked out.
3. Was a supernumerary with Connecticut Opera for 5 years, they are now defunct after 67 years in operation. Stoopid bastages....
4. Had a used bookshop for 3 years pre-internet. Most fun employment I ever had that didn't make money.
5. Made drinks for Frank Sinatra Jr. and Professor Peter Schieckle aka PDQ Bach when I tended bar at a hotel. I used to bring in my own CDs to play in the bar, played Stump the Band with Frank and his entourage. They guessed most everything, except when I played Arthur Prysock. No one in the band got it. Frank guessed Billy Eckstine first, then he got it the second try. Frank Jr. is a very generous tipper. :)
6. Came back from Oklahoma after 7 years with only 5 adopted dogs to show for it. One was so mean I had to have a fence installed that cost $9,000. Now my nice rolling property resembles a compound.
7. I weigh the same and have the same waist size now as when I was in high school. Thanks mom!
8. I once worked as a drug and alcohol counselor. I think I was more effective when I tended bar.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Hoyer Throws Pelosi Under The Bus
From Jules Crittenden
>>Steny Hoyer, the guy Pelosi didn’t want for number two when she was pushing that libelmongering pork-enthusiast Murtha, on the House floor re Pelosi’s current woes. Politico:
Rep. Cantor: “I share with the gentleman the notion we need to follow the law. But if there is somehow a belief, and I’d ask the gentleman whether he shares this belief, that somehow the CIA or others have intentionally misled this body, because that seems to be some concern that has been raised today? And I yield.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: “I have no idea of that, don’t have a belief of that nature because I have no basis on which to base such a belief. And I certainly hope that’s not the case. I don’t draw that conclusion.
So Hoyer has no basis on which to base a belief that the CIA has misled Congress. He certainly hopes that’s not the case. He doesn’t draw that conclusion.
That sounds a lot like the sound you hear when a House Speaker gets thrown under a bus.
>>Steny Hoyer, the guy Pelosi didn’t want for number two when she was pushing that libelmongering pork-enthusiast Murtha, on the House floor re Pelosi’s current woes. Politico:
Rep. Cantor: “I share with the gentleman the notion we need to follow the law. But if there is somehow a belief, and I’d ask the gentleman whether he shares this belief, that somehow the CIA or others have intentionally misled this body, because that seems to be some concern that has been raised today? And I yield.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: “I have no idea of that, don’t have a belief of that nature because I have no basis on which to base such a belief. And I certainly hope that’s not the case. I don’t draw that conclusion.
So Hoyer has no basis on which to base a belief that the CIA has misled Congress. He certainly hopes that’s not the case. He doesn’t draw that conclusion.
That sounds a lot like the sound you hear when a House Speaker gets thrown under a bus.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
crazy jay blue
crazy jay blue)
demon laughshriek
ing at me
your scorn of easily
hatred of timid
& loathing for(dull all
regular righteous
comfortable)unworlds
thief crook cynic
(swimfloatdrifting
fragment of heaven)
trickstervillain
raucous rogue &
vivid voltaire
you beautiful anarchist
(i salute thee
--ee cummings
Painting by Paul Brigham
demon laughshriek
ing at me
your scorn of easily
hatred of timid
& loathing for(dull all
regular righteous
comfortable)unworlds
thief crook cynic
(swimfloatdrifting
fragment of heaven)
trickstervillain
raucous rogue &
vivid voltaire
you beautiful anarchist
(i salute thee
--ee cummings
Painting by Paul Brigham
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
FDA Says Cheerios Is a Drug
"Based on claims made on your product's label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug," the FDA said in a letter to General Mills which was posted on the federal agency's website Tuesday.
Alternet
The FDA's letter is a riot. They're claiming General Mills is making an "unauthorized health claim" on its website by saying, "Heart-healthy diets rich in whole grain foods, can reduce the risk of heart disease."
The letter concludes with "Please send your reply to the attention of Tyra S. Wisecup, Compliance Officer, at the address in the letterhead. If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Ms. Wisecup at (612) 758-7114."
I can see General Mills having some fun with this, they couldn't have asked for a better ad.
Added:
An observation by D. Long
"What's next? An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so apples are drugs?"
Alternet
The FDA's letter is a riot. They're claiming General Mills is making an "unauthorized health claim" on its website by saying, "Heart-healthy diets rich in whole grain foods, can reduce the risk of heart disease."
The letter concludes with "Please send your reply to the attention of Tyra S. Wisecup, Compliance Officer, at the address in the letterhead. If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Ms. Wisecup at (612) 758-7114."
I can see General Mills having some fun with this, they couldn't have asked for a better ad.
Added:
An observation by D. Long
"What's next? An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so apples are drugs?"
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Is it time to throw Pelosi under the bus?
From Betsy's Page:
IBD says it's the biggest public lie from a politician since Bill Clinton wagged his finger at us. I don't know if it falls in that category, but it's clear that Nancy Pelosi has been lying about what she was briefed on concerning enhanced interrogation techniques. She has been lying to her caucus and to the public while calling for the heads of all the Republican officials involved. It sounds like Representative Pete Hoekstra, who has seen the CIA memos concerning what congressmen were told, sounds like he knows that he has Pelosi in his sights and is ready to pull the trigger that will expose her lies even more publicly.
h/t
LindyBill
IBD says it's the biggest public lie from a politician since Bill Clinton wagged his finger at us. I don't know if it falls in that category, but it's clear that Nancy Pelosi has been lying about what she was briefed on concerning enhanced interrogation techniques. She has been lying to her caucus and to the public while calling for the heads of all the Republican officials involved. It sounds like Representative Pete Hoekstra, who has seen the CIA memos concerning what congressmen were told, sounds like he knows that he has Pelosi in his sights and is ready to pull the trigger that will expose her lies even more publicly.
h/t
LindyBill
Tiocfaidh ár lá
A UNITED IRELAND - HOW DO WE GET THERE?
Gerry Adams will host an open forum in New York at the Hilton Hotel, 6th Ave. & 53rd St. from noon til 3:30 on June 13. All interested are encouraged to attend and participate. No charge.
Gerry Adams will host an open forum in New York at the Hilton Hotel, 6th Ave. & 53rd St. from noon til 3:30 on June 13. All interested are encouraged to attend and participate. No charge.
The story of the men who voted against the first Mother’s Day
By a margin of 33-14, the Senate contemptuously returned this first Mother’s Day resolution to committee. But a few constitutionalist pettifoggers were not going to stop Anna Jarvis. She enlisted the potent support of the World’s Sunday School Association. By 1914, members of Congress were falling all over each other in praise of a federally sanctioned day of maternal homage. Mother’s Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of May, was here to stay.
(The logical companion to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, took decades to catch on, despite assiduous propagandizing by the necktie industry.)
But a funny thing happened on the way to the florist. Anna Jarvis, the mother of Mother’s Day, became its harshest critic.
Jarvis denounced the greeting card and gift and candy manufacturers who battened on her day. In vain, she urged sons and daughters to buy buttons instead of flowers for mom; she called greeting cards “a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write.” The embittered Jarvis concluded that “charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites” had corrupted “with their greed one of the finest, noblest, truest Movements and celebrations known.”
The rest of Bill Kauffman's takedown of Mother's Day
(The logical companion to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, took decades to catch on, despite assiduous propagandizing by the necktie industry.)
But a funny thing happened on the way to the florist. Anna Jarvis, the mother of Mother’s Day, became its harshest critic.
Jarvis denounced the greeting card and gift and candy manufacturers who battened on her day. In vain, she urged sons and daughters to buy buttons instead of flowers for mom; she called greeting cards “a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write.” The embittered Jarvis concluded that “charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites” had corrupted “with their greed one of the finest, noblest, truest Movements and celebrations known.”
The rest of Bill Kauffman's takedown of Mother's Day
Saturday, May 9, 2009
How many blues harmonica players does it take to change a light bulb?
4 - one to change the bulb, 3 to stand there and say "Little Walter didn't do it like that."
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Great Joe Williams
Early in his career, Frank Sinatra used to go to Count Basie's club to hear Joe Williams sing. Sinatra picked up a lot of his stage mannerisms from him. Until Sinatra came along white singers would stand there like a post, Sinatra was the first who moved. He got those moves from Joe Williams. He's a little past his prime here, in his prime there wasn't a better jazz voice.
An Explanation for the NYC Flyover that Actually Makes Sense
Commenter Mustang0302 at Tom McGuire's blog has an interesting theory on the flyover.
>>At least one of the escorting F-16s was from the Alabama ANG, Red Tail and all.
Could this photo op mission have any particular connection to a new movie due out this year?
Could that connection explain the WHMO's eagerness to get some current glamour shots of BHO's A/C, escorted by the descendants of the Tuskegee Airmen, while flathatting over "the target formerly known as Ground Zero"?
Just imagine the powerful, beautiful imagery of these aircraft during this mission, accompanied by a stirring soundtrack, playing over the closing credits, or released as publicity stills or fundraising fodder - "Yes, America, sleep well...BHO's got you covered."
Well, minus the terrified, fleeing citizens on the ground, of course. Ooops. Caldera, you take this one.
"Mission Accomplished", indeed.
Naw, I'll bet I'm wrong. Coincidences, all...surely.
h/t
Brumar89
So they were putting together some footage which would be useful to George Lucas' upcoming film about the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, known as the Red Tails. Best explanation so far.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Great Light Bulb Revolt
Holdouts for Humble Bulb Defy a Government Phase-Out
Jonathan Wright’s shop sells lighting fixtures in Tunbridge Wells, where residents are resisting the switch to compact fluorescent bulbs.
Wonderful essay by Ron Rosenbaum on Congress' ban of beauty.
Jonathan Wright’s shop sells lighting fixtures in Tunbridge Wells, where residents are resisting the switch to compact fluorescent bulbs.
Wonderful essay by Ron Rosenbaum on Congress' ban of beauty.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Mexican Officials Eye Smithfield Facility for Swine Flu
According to the New York Times, health officials in Mexico have toured a million-pig hog farm in Perote, in Veracruz State searching for the original source of the swine flue outbreak . The plant is half-owned by Smithfield Foods, an American company and the world’s largest pork producer.
“Last year the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production warned that hog farms could become breeding grounds for new strains of the flu,” said a report on last night’s CBS Evening News. Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission, told CBS, “The warm conditions and the close proximity of animals being able to pass viruses back and forth and to the human workers is the situation ripe for the development of a novel virus.”
This morning, the death toll from the outbreak was raised to 152, and the World Health Organization voted to raise its global pandemic flu alert level. More information on the swine flu can be found on the Livable Future Blog.
“Last year the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production warned that hog farms could become breeding grounds for new strains of the flu,” said a report on last night’s CBS Evening News. Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission, told CBS, “The warm conditions and the close proximity of animals being able to pass viruses back and forth and to the human workers is the situation ripe for the development of a novel virus.”
This morning, the death toll from the outbreak was raised to 152, and the World Health Organization voted to raise its global pandemic flu alert level. More information on the swine flu can be found on the Livable Future Blog.
Feds Terrorize New York City
Update:
FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic
Threatened Federal Sanctions Against NYPD, Secret Service, FBI & Mayor's Office If Secret Ever Got Out
Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration's James Johnston said the agency was aware of "the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes" in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor's office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.
[...]
The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.
[...]
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