Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This post is in: Media
I watched K Street last night, and I thought it was a pretty interesting piece of work. I will be tuning in again.
*** Update ***
Here is Tom Shale’s review:
“K Street” is highly unlikely to become a national sensation, but in big cities of the East it ought to be quite the conversation piece — for a little while anyway. In a sense, the show comes off like a marvelous party, but one to which many of us are bound to feel profoundly uninvited.
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Thankfully, someone is coming to their senses:
Israel’s vice prime minister said today that killing the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat was one of several options now under government consideration. Meanwhile, a beaming Mr. Arafat soaked up the cheers of supporters who descended on his compound for a fourth successive day.
“Arafat can no longer be a factor in what happens here,” Ehud Olmert, Israel’s vice prime minister, told Israel radio.
Killing Arafat is one option I am willing to immediately explore.
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
The other day, I took Kevin Drum to task for his remarks about Sylvio Berlusconi. I don’t really care for the man (Berlusconi, that is) but I do appreciate his support on the international stage. However, I am rapidly developing a less charitable view of the man:
“Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying.
The premier clarified his remark to reporters later Thursday.
“I didn’t accept his comparison, or the comparison of my country to another dictator or another dictatorship, that of Saddam Hussein, which provoked millions of deaths,” Berlusconi said at a news conference.
Amos Luzzatto, the president of the Italian Jewish community, expressed “sadness” over the published remarks.
“The Fascist regime did not make extermination camps for the Jews, but certainly it contributed to creating them,” he told the AGI news agency. “If killing someone only means hitting an adversary and killing him, then not even Hitler killed anyone. But in that way, we can say that there are no murderers in the world.”
Groan.
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: Sports
Nothing worse than waiting all week for your team to play, and then have them just suck up the joint. Man, the Steelers were wretched today.
by John Cole| 5 Comments
This post is in: Sports
There is absolutely no reason to ever watch boxing anymore, as the fight is utterly irrelevant to the outcome. Three crooked judges just threw the De La Hoya/Mosley fight for Shane Mosley, who was beaten for 8 of the 12 rounds and outpunched for the entire twelve. Absolutely unbelievable. I have never seen a worse decision.
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Two years ago today, a close friend called me and told me to turn on the television. I was horrified by what I saw- I remember going numb, and I immediately called a very special friend in Brooklyn and told her to turn on the tv and to stay home. The day went downhill from there. I know this is a political season, but I simply do not care- there will be time for politics tomorrow. Today, I am going to think about all the mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, and children who lost people they love. We will never see those we lost again, we will never know what they may have done with their lives, and my world and your world will never be the same again. That is worth some reflection and remembrance, and I don’t care to talk about anything else. I just hope that those we lost are in a better place.
With that in mind, Andrew has some words that we should take to heart:
On this anniversary, the tritest thing to feel is mere grief. Not that grief isn’t justified. But grief is a natural response to unforeseen tragedy, to random events, to things beyond human control. And what happened two years ago today wasn’t merely tragedy. It was a conscious atrocity, an act of war. The free West was attacked by a pathological ideology that still holds a whole region of the world in its grip. And the very forces that tried to destroy us then are still trying to destroy us – as that grotesque videotape yesterday only underlined. Any attempt to hide that fact, minimize it, gloss over it, or complicate it into vagueness is an insult to memory.
For me the rage is still there- not an unjustified, lashing out at anything rage, but a well placed, purposeful, deserved, rage. Trite as it may be, I still feel a profound loss, a heavy sense of grief.
by John Cole| 7 Comments
This post is in: Site Maintenance
I have added the VRWC, Inc to the blogroll. He is a friend of my blogson’s, Misha (and I know many of you hate him, but I am standing by him- I am a firm believer in letting all ideas out here, and Misha has been nothing but a DECENT and KIND human being to me), so hopefully, if you have time, you will stop by and give both Misha nd the VRWC a read.
BTW- I bet you if you ask Misha, he doesn’t agree with damn near anything I say- probably thinks I am too moderate or something. You know what, though? We give each other the latitude to be wrong and to have our own opinions. That is what the blogosphere is all about, isn’t it? Sure beats the hell out of car bombs, IMHO.