Fluff piece on 60 Minutes about Texas Tech.
Also, Steelers v. Chargers, almost fourteen years since the “Three More Yards” heartbreak. Loved that team.
by John Cole| 26 Comments
This post is in: Sports
Fluff piece on 60 Minutes about Texas Tech.
Also, Steelers v. Chargers, almost fourteen years since the “Three More Yards” heartbreak. Loved that team.
by Tim F| 119 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
You may talk about John’s cat.
by John Cole| 73 Comments
This post is in: Sports
Personally, I will be rooting for the Eagles and the Dolphins.
And this is a football thread. Keep that in mind, as you will have to find another thread to attack the weight of my cat.
by John Cole| 69 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
The other day, I passed along a particularly offensive post by Michael Goldfarb to Glenn Greenwald. The comment by Goldfarb was disgusting even by his low standards, and I am glad that Glenn took some time to take the Weekly Standard’s OD Original Dungeonmaster to task. What is so disturbing about it is that Goldfarb is just glibly contemplating the possible positive outcome of killing a bunch of civilians. Those are not the thoughts of a healthy mind, notwithstanding the fact that we know from past experience that their deaths will serve as a rallying cry to inspire more martyrs. In other words, vile and counter-productive- a genuine twofer.
If twisted folks like Goldfarb are an example of the next generation of conservatives, then the Republican party has more to worry about than a disparity in conservative media.
by John Cole| 48 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®, Assholes
You don’t have anything to hide:
The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored — and labeled as terrorists — activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.
Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.
One of the possible “crimes” in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: “civil rights.”
According to hundreds of pages of newly obtained police documents, the groups were swept into a broad surveillance operation that started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row.
The operation has been called a “waste of resources” by the current police superintendent and “undemocratic” by the governor.
People need to be fired, people need to go to jail, and those spied on illegally deserve redress.
(via)
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
Voting for Comments of the Year is still active. The entries are:
You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.
And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a fucking astronaut now, does it?
Ahmmm, I’m a ghey, and I wouldn’t do anything with the words “Cruise” and “Hugh Hewitt” in it.
Of course, with all those social conservatives in one place, it’ll probably sound like Riverdance in the bathrooms.
JasonF, with the Auto Industry as a Play. A sample (and really, read the whole thing):
ACT THREE
UAW: I have fulfilled my end of the deal by building the automobiles that you have asked me to build.
BIG THREE: Oh no! I am undone! My automobiles are no longer competitive due to my years of poor planning and poor judgment!
MITT ROMNEY: This is all UAW’s fault!
And, our final entry, Tbone with Hillary Clinton’s Tuzla War Journal, a fictionalized version of the sniper fire incident (and again, click the link for the whole comment):
[poll id = 6]It was a simple mission, they had told me – get in, shake a few hands and mouth a few platitudes, get out. Simple. Yeah.
Things had started going wrong while we were still in the air, and only gotten worse from there. So here we were, pinned down, choking on the acrid tang of cordite and the heady scent of human blood. The mission was even simpler now: survive. Whatever the cost, survive.
There was a grunt and a clatter of equipment as Sinbad threw himself down at my side. Sweat glistened on his bare arms, and I could see tendons contracting and relaxing as he squeezed off bursts from his M14. The motion was hypnotic, like a snake about to strike. Perhaps, when all this was over-
No. Concentrate. Focus on the mission. Survive.
A shout from my left drew my head around. Sheryl Crow, guitar still strapped to her back, had taken cover behind a pile of decaying corpses. Her once-lustrous hair, now limp and stringy, was held back from her eyes by a dirty red headband, and her slim nostrils flared, seeking air free of the funeral taint permeating the airfield. Still, I saw a fierce exultation in her expression that I knew mirrored my own.
Vote while you can.
by John Cole| 67 Comments
This post is in: Clown Shoes
Via memeorandum, this:
RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, are complaining that it is falling apart.
Fairway Oaks was built on northern Florida wasteland by 10,000 volunteers, including Carter, in a record 17-day “blitz” organised by the charity Habitat for Humanity.
Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes.
A forthcoming legal battle over Fairway Oaks threatens the reputation of a charity envied for the calibre of its celebrity supporters, who range from Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to Colin Firth, Christian Bale and Helena Bonham Carter.
The case could challenge the bedrock philosophy behind Habitat for Humanity, claiming that using volunteers, rather than professional builders, is causing as many problems as it solves.
April Charney, a lawyer representing many of the 85 homeowners in Fairway Oaks, said she had no problems taking on Habitat for Humanity, despite its status as a “darling of liberal social activists”.
While at memeorandum, I saw that Malkin had linked to this, and I was curious: who will get the hate? Will it be the “darling of liberal social activists,” or will it be the poor, shiftless, lazy SOB’s who get the house for free, sponging up the hard work of others?
It really is a tough call. Answer after the flip.
C’mon, folks, you knew the answer- BOTH:
The road to hell is paved with good intentions — and, apparently, the homes in the neighborhoods along that hellish path are built by Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity.
***All Jimmy Carter-bashing and schadenfreude aside, do the residents have a bona fide case or are these professional moochers trying to pin blame on others for their own lack of personal responsibility?
Probably a bit of both. A few of the houses seem to have been clearly uninhabitable. In 2005, the cracks in one foundation reportedly “became so severe that the house had to be lifted and settled on piers. Engineers hired by HabiJax found six feet of debris buried under the soil,” reports the NYT.
But was the entire project tainted?
***I’ve watched enough of these “environmental justice” activists to know that they coach their clients to complain about vague ailments (”mysterious skin rashes”) that have no relation in reality to the environmental conditions they claim are the cause. These professional grievance-mongers have blocked countless private redevelopment and remediation projects — and milked tens of millions in settlements — based on bogus scientific and medical claims.
So much hate, so little time.