Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by DougJ| 86 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Television
Not sure if any of you are following Californication, but I just spotted Stephen Root (aka Jimmy James), a guy who I think makes every scene he is in funnier, in a role as Kathleen Turner’s husband. And my goodness, Kathleen Turner…
by Tim F| 337 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Another bleg to our music nerd readers: please suggest the best, relaxing music that you can think of. Life and work is a little hectic at the moment. Left to my own devices I would listen to an infinite loop of Yo Yo Ma playing prelude to Cello Suite #1, but no doubt equally inspiring stuff exists that I haven’t heard yet.
Jazz, Funk, R&B, space and electronic are all welcome as long as it puts one in the right mood. I will hit up iTunes tonight for my favorite suggestions.
***Update***
And celtic, of course. 9 out of 10 Enyas agree that celtic might be the most inherently relaxing genre short of shakuhachi.
I just bought a shakuhachi album BTW, thanks very much to whoever recommended it.
This post is in: Clown Shoes, General Stupidity
Look, just because Obama won and Michelle is putting in a garden at the White House does not mean there is any excuse for the NY Times publishing this nonsense:
I BOUNDED off the Q train in Brooklyn one night last winter and headed to Union Street, past the yogurt shop and the firehouse, to do some grocery shopping. But my plans soon went awry.
“You’re suspended,” the entrance worker at the Park Slope Food Coop announced as I swiped my membership card. Some entrance workers speak softly, but not this one. Worse, there were a dozen other shoppers within earshot.
Flushed, defeated and taken aback — I knew I owed the co-op some work, but I didn’t know I had been blacklisted — I slunk around the corner for a takeout burrito. But no amount of mushrooms and spinach could diminish my shame and guilt.
Established in 1973, the co-op, with about 15,000 members who enjoy savings of up to 40 percent on environmentally friendly groceries, is one of the oldest, largest and most successful institutions of its kind in the country. Unlike many co-ops — including the Flatbush Food Coop in Brooklyn, where guests are allowed to shop without joining and members who don’t want to serve work hours can pay a slight markup for items — Park Slope has one of the stiffest work requirements: 2.75 hours every four weeks for each adult member of a household.
It also has some of the best bargains. The organic spinach that costs $2.97 at the co-op fetches $3.99 at the Whole Foods in Union Square; 17 ounces of Bionaturae Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil costs co-op members $7.80 and Whole Foods shoppers $13.99.
It goes on like that for three pages, and I want that five minutes of my life back. I seriously can not tell if that is a real person or a right-wing spoof/caricature of a NY lefty.
And by the way, they ask for less than three hours a month in volunteering. Is s/he really unable to find LESS THAN THREE HOURS A MONTH? Here is a hint- go volunteer instead of writing crap like this.
This is One Reason Red America Hates “Coastal Elites,” and They’re RightPost + Comments (182)
by DougJ| 98 Comments
This post is in: Assholes
Atrios writes of the neocons:
When the American empire crumbles, future historians will point to the fact that anyone took any of these people seriously as the main reason…
The thing I always wonder is: how did the neocons amass so much influence? Everything they attempt fails and, when you consider how unpersuasive their arguments are, this failure isn’t surprising. How did it come to pass that a naive-sounding theory with no supporting body of empirical evidence became so influential? Yes, part of it is that our media elites are hacks and morons, part of it is that the so-called think tanks are staffed by hacks and morons, but give that there are an infinitude of dumb-sounding, empirically unsupportable theories, why did this particular one become so popular?
I don’t know the answer, but I think there is an answer and that this (from Ezra Klein) has something to do with it:
Speaking of bizarrely counterintuitive articles, and with the ostentatious contrarianism of Super Freakonomics still on everybody’s mind, it’s worth saying that there’s nothing contrarian about being contrarian in elite intellectual circles. Indeed, the really contrarian move would be to try to make your way as a thinker without taking aim at somebody’s sacred cows, or at least making it seem like you’re taking aim at somebody’s sacred cows. There’s a reason the book “Everything You Know Is Wrong” is not titled “Most of The Things You Know Are Right.”
There’s no doubt that some of the appeal of neoconservatism is the contrarian reasoning: you think that by negotiating with countries and bribing them with relatively small amounts of money you can make them do what you want, but if you look more closely….filler…HITLER! It’s powerful because it combines the contrarian impulse to arrive a conclusion no one else would arrive at with with the undeniable pleasure of talking about Nazis. It’s a rare chance to play at being Winston Churchill and Mickey Kaus at the same time.
But there’s got to be something more, because there’s all kinds of theories you could come up with that would be both contrarian and Hitler-related.
Maybe it’s just this: contrarianism is fun, talking about Nazis is fun, watching smart bombs drop is fun, various industries make a lot of money from wars, CNN’s ratings go up when there is a war. So it’s a simple marriage of a fun ideology and corporate interest. Do you think that’s right?
This post is in: Sports
This should be a good game. I have a fresh batch of homemade salsa, some taco meat simmering, and a 12 pack of diet root beer. Hampton jersey is on, Lily is rocking her Steelers collar, Tunch is perched on the couch in his game day spot.
It’s business time. GO STEELERS!
by John Cole| 38 Comments
This post is in: Humorous
For those of you at work, one f-bomb, so easy on the sound.