It pissed me off when Harry woke up at the end and realized he was a chubby punter from Leeds.
Chat about whatever.
by Tim F| 14 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
It pissed me off when Harry woke up at the end and realized he was a chubby punter from Leeds.
Chat about whatever.
by Tim F| 39 Comments
This post is in: Popular Culture
I’m man enough to admit that I teared up a bit at the end*. In my view all the magical froofaraw matters less than the author’s real gift for engaging characters. Although J.K. Rowling wrapped up the contours of the leading triangle by book three or so, leaving a chunk of the book focused on them feeling dramatically thin, the fun when she sets loose the huge supporting cast is more than worth it.
On the whole it grabbed me as a reader more than most recent fiction. Take that with a grain of salt since I don’t read much fiction these days.
***
NOTE: I can’t police the comments all night, so you can count on spoilers.
(*) This has nothing to do with who did or didn’t die, Rowling just sets a couple of very touching scenes)
This post is in: Popular Culture
This is actually kind of sad- Tammy Faye Bakker is dead:
Tammy Faye Bakker, the diminutive and elaborately coiffed gospel singer who, with her first husband, Jim Bakker, built a commercial empire around television evangelism only to see it collapse in sex and money scandals, died Friday at her home near Kansas City, Mo. She was 65.
Her death was reported on her Web site and by her booking agent, Joe Spotts, The Associated Press said. She had been suffering from colon cancer, which had spread to her lungs.
On May 8, Ms. Messner, as she had been known since her 1993 marriage to Roe Messner, posted a letter on her Web site, saying that her weight had dwindled to 65 pounds and that doctors had stopped treatment. “Now it’s up to God and my faith,” she wrote.
I grew up watching Tammy Faye, but not in the way you are thinking. PTL was on the channel that hosted the “snowbird” reports when I was a kid, so every morning, when there was the slightest bit of snow on the ground, all four of us kids would gather round the television watching the Praise the Lord Network waiting for those magical words:
“Brooke County Schools have been cancelled.”
Praise the Lord INDEED!
At any rate, I get nostalgic whenever some cultural icon from my youth passes- Tammy Faye is one of them. And, I guess I must add, compared to the religious leaders from the Christian right today, an assortment of bigots, loudmouths, and lunatics, my memory of Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker makes them seem pretty harmless by comparison.
Pharyngula is less charitable, and probably more accurate.
by Tim F| 50 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity, War
Greenwald has a good catch that deserves to be teased out just a bit more. Sen. Kit Bond:
While I agree that we had the wrong plan for three years, we now have the right one, and the right man to lead it.
Whoa. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds to me like Bond just said that for four years he and all of the other elected, media and online war boosters were completely wrong when they argued that everything was under control, we had a great plan. By Bond’s own admission the warhawks had no real basis for telling folks like me to just stop all the damn complaining and let the misunderstood geniuses on top do their job. The war critics had it right. By any normal measure that would mean that war critics, having correctly perceived the situation four years before he did, have credibility on the issue and the war boosters do not.
Good to know. So why does Kit Bond think that we should listen to him now?
This post is in: Military, Politics, War on Terror aka GSAVE®, General Stupidity
Madison Avenue charged the Pentagon close to half a million to tell them that people are less likely to assist you if you shoot them. Seriously:
In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its “show of force” brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military.
The key to boosting the image and effectiveness of U.S. military operations around the world involves “shaping” both the product and the marketplace, and then establishing a brand identity that places what you are selling in a positive light, said clinical psychologist Todd C. Helmus, the author of “Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation.” The 211-page study, for which the U.S. Joint Forces Command paid the Rand Corp. $400,000, was released this week.
***In an urban insurgency, for example, civilians can help identify enemy infiltrators and otherwise assist U.S. forces. They are less likely to help, the study says, when they become “collateral damage” in U.S. attacks, have their doors broken down or are shot at checkpoints because they do not speak English. Cultural connections — seeking out the local head man when entering a neighborhood, looking someone in the eye when offering a friendly wave — are key.
Money well spent, no doubt. Just one question- where the hell is Karen Hughes? Wasn’t she supposed to have figured this shit out a couple years ago?
by John Cole| 63 Comments
This post is in: Politics, Republican Stupidity
Or you wouldn’t be able to be obstructionists:
This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.
The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority.
Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 “cloture” votes aimed at shutting off extended debate — filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one — and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority’s right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate.
Democrats have trouble mustering 60 votes; they’ve fallen short 22 times so far this year. That’s largely why they haven’t been able to deliver on their campaign promises.
By sinking a cloture vote this week, Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic bid to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April, even though a 52-49 Senate majority voted to end debate.
This year Republicans also have blocked votes on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs.
When you read this story, remember all the hysterical foot-stomping and wailing and gnashing and beating of breasts that took place in late 2004 and early 2005. It is merely more evidence of what I think that the most breathtaking thing about the pigheadedness of the GOP the past few years- how exceptionally short-sighted they are on everything. And I mean everything. Former proponents of the nuclear option will lamely attempt to claim that it only would have applied to the filibustering of judges- you and I know better. Regardless, over and over and over again, the Republicans have acted in a manner that may provide some sort of marginal electoral or political gain in the short-term (Schiavo, anyone?), but damages them and the country in the long term.
If you don’t think the next Democratic President is going to love the Imperial Presidency Bush and Cheney are trying to construct, aided and abetted by a subservient and supine minority (formerly a majority- think that is a coincidence) in Congress, you need your head examined.
by John Cole| 17 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, War, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Michael Totten is a good guy, and he has traveled to Baghdad to see things for himself. His first installation is here.
I hope he comes home in one piece.