Come on! Hang out in the comments. We're doing this!
3:32 minutes into the show — Live-stream here... as Rick Perry gets the first question and a chance to tell us about the success in Texas. "I'm proud of what we done in the state of Texas." [Yes: what we done...]
5:13 — As Perry talks, Romney looks on. He's taller. He's got those graying temples and slight sideburns. He's wearing a blue suit... and maybe they all are. Romney gets the next question: "If I'd spent all my life in politics..." That's his angle: experience in the private sector. He's asked if life in government is a "disqualification," which he brushes off, even as he wants us to think it is. Romney looks calm and Perry a tad nervous. Romney is hot! And tan! Perry looks wrinkly and pasty. Romney stresses how hard it was to succeed in Massachusetts compared to Texas.
10:41 — Great interplay between Romney and Perry and Romney clearly won it. He needed to. Let's see if Perry comes back. Now, it's Santorum and then Cain. We're less interested in these characters. Sorry.
13:08 — Asked of Huntsman: "What does Romney not get about China?" "We are the most blue-sky, optimistic people on earth." And Utah beats Texas and Massachusetts.
14:37 — Michele Bachmann's hair is getting bigger and bigger. She says Obamacare is keeping businesses from creating jobs. It's killing jobs.
18:00 — Ron Paul is stressing out about regulations. We don't need the federal government to tell us if cars are safe. The consumer is smart enough to figure it out!
21:42 — On "Day 1," Romney will grant all the states a waiver from Obamacare.
23:05 — Perry is settling in, getting comfortable. Huntsman is coming alive too.
26:54 — Bachmann presents herself as the one who understands the legislative process: An executive order is not enough. And she's the one who will (somehow) be able to lead Congress to deliver up the anti-Obamacare legislation that is needed.
27:33 — Gingrich gets testy: "I'm frankly not interested in your effort to get Republicans fighting each other." Everyone on the stage knows "Obamacare is a disaster... it can't be implemented, it's killing the economy... Every person up here agrees with that." Nicely slammed. The media is going to try to get Republicans fighting each other, and he's calling their bluff. The Republicans are united: "a team." Well done!
32:00 — Rick Santorum believes "in the dignity of every person"... and he's not talking about abortion. He's talking about getting people off welfare and into work.
32:43 — What will Rick Perry do about the fact that white people are so much richer than black people? "Create an environment" where people who risk their capital will get a return on their investment. (He shrugs off the prompt to talk about race. He's not interested in that!)
35:23 — Green jobs?! Let's have real jobs, says Romney.
37:52 — Ron Paul: "Mandates! That's what the whole society is about!" It's not just Obamacare. It's also Medicare. "We don't need the government running our lives." He can get you a gallon of gasoline for a dime! (Because a silver dime is worth $3.50... or something.)
40:28 — Hey, John Althouse Cohen is live-blogging. "Perry takes a gratuitous swipe at Ron Paul for quibbling with then-President Reagan. This is a transparent gambit on Perry's part to give more time to Paul and take time away from the stronger candidates."
47:21 — Nancy Reagan embracing Ronald Reagan's casket. Tears. It's the Reagan remembrance interlude. Ah! She's there. Hi, Nancy!
48:13 — "Karl Rove is over the top," says Rick Perry, referring to Rove's insinuation that Perry is too extreme in, for example, calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme." Perry says he's "not responsible" for Karl Rove. Everyone knows Social Security is "a lie." Does that mean if we vote for him, we're giving up our demand that government meet its promise to us, based on which it skimmed off our wages for our entire working lives? We shouldn't concede that.
51:03 — Romney is asked how we can have a "candid conversation" about Social Security without "scaring seniors." Scaring seniors! Why don't younger people have a basis for demanding that the money they paid in be paid out when they are old? The premise of the question outrages me. Romney says Social Security is "not working" but the GOP nominee must be someone who will save Social Security, not abolish it. "We gotta do that as a party."
53:51 — Ron Paul is invited to attack Rick Perry. Paul lights into Perry for an executive order — as governor — forcing HPV vaccines on 12-year-old girls. Bachmann follows on. (She's not getting much of a chance to show her stuff tonight.)
57:14 — "I will always err on the side of saving lives," Perry says emphatically, referring specifically to his order to vaccinate young girls against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus. He concedes the executive order might have been a mistake, but he's also kind of not sorry.
58:44 — After Santorum attacks Perry, Romney takes a conciliatory tone. Perry's "heart is in the right place." Let's attack Obama! He "doesn't have a clue!"
1:23:54 — Romney, are you in the Tea Party? He believes in "a lot" of it.
1:26:25 — Huntsman wants to pledge: "no pledges."
1:27:30 — Huntsman would bring the troops home from Afghanistan (and do the "nation-building" at home).
1:28:53 — Romney says we need a President who "loves America" (unlike Obama). Then Perry decides to go out of his way to give Obama some credit: He killed bin Laden... "and he's proven once and for all that government spending will not create one job.... and he kept Gitmo open."
1:35:35 — Are you Republicans a bunch of crazy cranks? Which of these people on the stage are crazy? That's the question! To Huntsman. This gets back to what riled up Gingrich, at 27:33: The moderators want to turn the Republicans on each other.
1:38:30 — Perry uses the word "monstrous" a lot!
My overall impression? The moderators tried to provoke a war amongst Republicans, and Gingrich was the hero of the evening by calling them out. I thought Huntsman did himself some good, and Bachmann for some reason didn't find a way to stand out. The main focus was on Perry and Romney — in part because the moderators made that happen. And I think Romney looked better than Perry. As they say, he seemed presidential. He had a lot of poise and he made plenty of sense. Perry seemed rough, but it was his first go round.
September 7, 2011
David Blaska asks the incendiary question: "Is Justice Ann Walsh Bradley a liar or just very troubled?"
He marshals evidence from the investigative file. His conclusions are harsh, but I don't think he misrepresents what is in the file.
He makes inferences from Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson's hypothetical question to her law clerk — right after the incident — "Hypothetically, what you would do if someone got in your space?"
Why would she ask that unless it was her perception that Justice Bradley had just gotten into Justice Prosser's personal space? Blaska's point is to bolster the credibility of the other 3 Justices who said that Bradley rushed at Prosser. The other 3, unlike the Chief, are seen as allied with Prosser, so adding her perceptions to theirs is significant.
By the way, I think a reason for posing the hypothetical is to test a theory that reasonable people retreat. But the law clerk "responded to the Chief Justice something to the effect that he was 6'4" and young, so he wouldn't have to do much to a person." The law clerk, presumably a reasonable man, assumed that one would do something physical — "an arm block... or something" — to resist or deflect.
Also at Blaska's: the investigator's diagram showing the placement of the furniture and various Justices, showing Prosser had no room to retreat.
Lots of comments over there... including Meade's.
He makes inferences from Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson's hypothetical question to her law clerk — right after the incident — "Hypothetically, what you would do if someone got in your space?"
Why would she ask that unless it was her perception that Justice Bradley had just gotten into Justice Prosser's personal space? Blaska's point is to bolster the credibility of the other 3 Justices who said that Bradley rushed at Prosser. The other 3, unlike the Chief, are seen as allied with Prosser, so adding her perceptions to theirs is significant.
By the way, I think a reason for posing the hypothetical is to test a theory that reasonable people retreat. But the law clerk "responded to the Chief Justice something to the effect that he was 6'4" and young, so he wouldn't have to do much to a person." The law clerk, presumably a reasonable man, assumed that one would do something physical — "an arm block... or something" — to resist or deflect.
Also at Blaska's: the investigator's diagram showing the placement of the furniture and various Justices, showing Prosser had no room to retreat.
Lots of comments over there... including Meade's.
"[H]e is Chris Christie without the bombasts, Paul Ryan with the executive experience..."
"... Rudy Giuliani without the operatic drama, Mitch Daniels with charm and Haley Barbour without the accent."
But he can't be the GOP nominee, because... that name.
But he can't be the GOP nominee, because... that name.
California trumps San Francisco on circumcision.
The city has a ballot initiative that would outlaw circumcision, with no exemption for religion, and the state legislature has now barred cities from adopting a such a law (assuming Gov. Brown signs on).
"President Barack Obama plans to propose sparking job growth by injecting more than $300 billion into the economy next year..."
"... mostly through tax cuts, infrastructure spending and direct aid to state and local governments."
Almost half the stimulus would come from tax cuts, which include an extension of a two-percentage-point reduction in the payroll tax paid by workers due to expire Dec. 31 and a new decrease in the portion of the tax paid by employers.It's big enough to upset Tea Party types, but not big enough to impress his lefty critics. I think the President's reelection strategy is to be really rather dull and middling... and to count on the other side looking extreme.
"Republican Debate: Five Things to Watch."
Is it: Rick Perry, Rick Perry, Rick Perry, Rick Perry, Rick Perry?
By the way, I plan to live-blog tonight's debate, so considering hanging out and commenting here.
By the way, I plan to live-blog tonight's debate, so considering hanging out and commenting here.
It's a Monday kind of Tuesday.
I know it's Wednesday, but I was just thinking about "It's a Monday Kind of Tuesday," and the question occurred to me: What day of the week is most frequently sung about?
And if you're planning to say Friday, I hope the song on your mind is "Friday On My Mind."
I'm very fond of "Gloomy Sunday," and maybe it's Sunday.
I'm guessing the answer is Friday, Monday, or Sunday. No way it's Thursday.
And if you're planning to say Friday, I hope the song on your mind is "Friday On My Mind."
I'm very fond of "Gloomy Sunday," and maybe it's Sunday.
I'm guessing the answer is Friday, Monday, or Sunday. No way it's Thursday.
What can the Wisconsin Supreme Court do to restore the public's confidence that this court is really a court?
Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson sent out a memo offering some ideas about restoring decorum (and public confidence), including opening judicial conferences to the public:
The Chief Justice also proposes:
Another proposal of the Chief's:
The Chief Justice would also like a separate "tribunal (not composed of Justices)" to make the final call on whether a Justice should recuse himself in a case and a process of replacing recused Justices with "a judge be selected at random." Obviously, you can see the potential for wresting the majority out of the hands of the 4 conservatives the people of Wisconsin have elected to the court. Imagine the endless strategic fighting over recusals!
Sorry to be so cynical. I can't help it, and I don't have a better solution to restoring the prestige of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
IN THE COMMENTS: bagoh20 said:
The presumption should be that all conferences are open.As I said when we discussed this earlier, I don't see how this could be fair to the parties or how it is consistent with the idea deciding cases according to the legal texts and precedents (rather than policy preferences and political orientation). You'd have judges looking more like legislators, which is exactly what they shouldn't do if they want to look judicial.
a. The open conference could be held in the hearing room.
b. The open conference could be held in the closed conference room and streamed to the public.
The Chief Justice also proposes:
An expert on small group dynamics could be retained at no expense to the taxpayers to work with each Justice for ways in which the Justice can work in a more constructive manner....Who would choose this expert? Would this be a variation on the demand — made by Justice Bradley after the "chokehold" incident — that Justice Prosser submit to "anger management" therapy? Yes, now all the Justices would submit, but submit to whom? What biases and preferences would this outsider bring to the project? (Sorry, I just can't picture anybody being neutrally professional anymore.)
Another proposal of the Chief's:
An internal operating procedure or rule could be adopted that 4 Justices not be considered a quorum or a binding majority that can direct action by the Chief Justice or Court staff unless all Justices have been advised of the "meeting/conference" and all Justices have had the ability to participate in the "meeting/conference" and in the decision making.That would empower the 3-justice minority to control the 4-justice majority. It's hard to picture this court in this state having that kind of trust. (I'm thinking of how hard it was for the 4 conservative justices to find and interact with the 3 liberal justices on the day of the "chokehold" incident and also the way the Democratic minority thwarted the operation of the state senate last winter by hiding out in Illinois. The "fleebagger" strategy was only feasible because of a supermajority quorum rule.)
The Chief Justice would also like a separate "tribunal (not composed of Justices)" to make the final call on whether a Justice should recuse himself in a case and a process of replacing recused Justices with "a judge be selected at random." Obviously, you can see the potential for wresting the majority out of the hands of the 4 conservatives the people of Wisconsin have elected to the court. Imagine the endless strategic fighting over recusals!
Sorry to be so cynical. I can't help it, and I don't have a better solution to restoring the prestige of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
IN THE COMMENTS: bagoh20 said:
All they can do to make it better is shut up and get to work, but there is huge toolbox of things they can do to make it worse....
Althouse, isn't your philosophy that just doing nothing is often the best course? I happen to agree, and it's part of my business philosophy too.Yes! Nothing! I recommend nothing. Think about "better than nothing" as being, in reality, a high standard.
"There's going to be a cloud hanging over" the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Says Professor Donald Downs... as the justices had to sit side by side in public again.... and nobody got choked.
So... what's a law professor to do about this website that sells outlines to our courses?
Here's the website. My ideas, off the top of my head:
1. Buy the outlines to your class, find the errors, and deliberately frame the exam around those errors.
1a. Moderate version: Just tell the students that's what you're going to do.
1b. Candyass version: Tell the students that's what crossed your mind, but of course you won't do that.
1c. Reverse twisted candyass move: Tell the students that's what Althouse emailed the law school faculty that she thought of doing and she's kind of person who would do it.
2. Buy the outline for your class, rewrite it to fix errors, make it clearer, and otherwise improve it, and send it around on the class email list — free.
2a. Lazy version: Buy the outline for your own class. Tell the students you know they are buying the outlines, so you're just going to distribute them, free, and warn them that mistakes may be in there and you haven't checked. At least screw up this website's profit model.
3. Legal approach: Bring a class action on behalf of all the lawprofs on the list for copyright infringement, etc.
1. Buy the outlines to your class, find the errors, and deliberately frame the exam around those errors.
1a. Moderate version: Just tell the students that's what you're going to do.
1b. Candyass version: Tell the students that's what crossed your mind, but of course you won't do that.
1c. Reverse twisted candyass move: Tell the students that's what Althouse emailed the law school faculty that she thought of doing and she's kind of person who would do it.
2. Buy the outline for your class, rewrite it to fix errors, make it clearer, and otherwise improve it, and send it around on the class email list — free.
2a. Lazy version: Buy the outline for your own class. Tell the students you know they are buying the outlines, so you're just going to distribute them, free, and warn them that mistakes may be in there and you haven't checked. At least screw up this website's profit model.
3. Legal approach: Bring a class action on behalf of all the lawprofs on the list for copyright infringement, etc.
September 6, 2011
Misophonia — "a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood."
A newly recognized condition... or an old irritability with a name that helps irritable people feel less irritated by their own characteristic of being terribly irritated by other people?
Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming. But sufferers of misophonia... [are believed to have something that] is hard-wired, like right- or left-handedness, and is probably not an auditory disorder but a “physiological abnormality” that resides in brain structures activated by processed sound....
Misophonia (“dislike of sound”) is sometimes confused with hyperacusis, in which sound is perceived as abnormally loud or physically painful. But Dr. Johnson says they are not the same. “These people like sound, the louder the better,” she said of misophonia patients. “The sounds they object to are soft, hardly audible sounds.” One patient is driven crazy by her beloved dog licking its paws. Another can’t bear the pop of the plosive “p” in ordinary conversation.
"People assume I’m O.K. with a young boy being murdered because I represent the defendant."
"To me, that’s pretty vicious. They have to understand, I’m not all right with people being murdered or with crime. I’m all right with defending constitutional rights. If he’s guilty, he will be convicted. And that’s it. But my God... it’s going to be legally."
Thanks to Jennifer L. McCann and all the criminal defense lawyers who perform this necessary role.
Thanks to Jennifer L. McCann and all the criminal defense lawyers who perform this necessary role.
"Tammy Baldwin enters race for open Senate seat."
All right!
ADDED: Here's Meade's video of Tammy Baldwin, with her hand held by Jesse Jackson, on February 23, in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, at the height of the protests:
Note the marionette effect at 6:53.
Baldwin is the first Democrat in the field and likely the front-runner for her party's nomination....May the issues be sharply defined!
She linked herself to the political tradition of Kohl and former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and declared, "It's time politicians looked out for seniors, working families and the middle class - instead of protecting the profits of big oil and Wall Street."...
To her opponents, particularly among Republicans, Baldwin is the definition of a tax-and-spend Madison liberal who backed "Obamacare."...
Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon), who is all but guaranteed to enter the U.S. Senate race, said, "I think Tammy is the epitome of what's wrong in Washington right now."
ADDED: Here's Meade's video of Tammy Baldwin, with her hand held by Jesse Jackson, on February 23, in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, at the height of the protests:
Note the marionette effect at 6:53.
Jimmy Hoffa's "Let’s take these sons of bitches out" speech — take 2.
I've already blogged about this speech, but I woke up this morning thinking there's something else about the speech that's worse than the murderous metaphor. Let's look at the text. I'll add some boldface to focus your attention on what I want to talk about now:
He can't even get to supersede the individuality of the members of the Teamsters Union (the union he heads). Yes, he's empowered to bargain for them, but that eradicate their individual minds and personal political preferences. Yes, they take the deal he gets for them, but that doesn't mean that they all want what he brings them or that they want only that. Some of them, obviously, support different politicians. Some may hate being in a union. Some may like the union but prefer different policies.
Right now, unions are fighting to preserve unions, and that might be best for workers. But the individuals who work — or want to work — may very well think their interests lie elsewhere. I'd like to think that the vast majority of people who work resist the assertion that there is a "war on workers." It's quite clear that every serious politician in America cares about what happens to individual citizens. They're not aligned in an army against the citizens! They have different ideas about how to improve things. Hoffa announces that there are 2 sides aligned in a fight against each other, and he would like anyone who has or wants a jobs to perceive himself or herself as a "worker" and thus a foot soldier in his army, with no independent mind.
That's quite repulsive.
And by the way, the constant use of this word "workers" reinforces the notion of the collective. You can see that for Hoffa, "workers" mean "soldiers" — and obviously, soldiers take orders. They don't think for themselves.
We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war... President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march… Everybody here’s got a vote... Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.Hoffa is a labor leader, pushing the agenda of labor unions. The interests of the actually people who work may converge or diverge with the interests of labor unions. Don't let him conflate the 2 entities. He may say "we," but that doesn't mean he embodies everyone who works (or wants to work) in America.
He can't even get to supersede the individuality of the members of the Teamsters Union (the union he heads). Yes, he's empowered to bargain for them, but that eradicate their individual minds and personal political preferences. Yes, they take the deal he gets for them, but that doesn't mean that they all want what he brings them or that they want only that. Some of them, obviously, support different politicians. Some may hate being in a union. Some may like the union but prefer different policies.
Right now, unions are fighting to preserve unions, and that might be best for workers. But the individuals who work — or want to work — may very well think their interests lie elsewhere. I'd like to think that the vast majority of people who work resist the assertion that there is a "war on workers." It's quite clear that every serious politician in America cares about what happens to individual citizens. They're not aligned in an army against the citizens! They have different ideas about how to improve things. Hoffa announces that there are 2 sides aligned in a fight against each other, and he would like anyone who has or wants a jobs to perceive himself or herself as a "worker" and thus a foot soldier in his army, with no independent mind.
That's quite repulsive.
And by the way, the constant use of this word "workers" reinforces the notion of the collective. You can see that for Hoffa, "workers" mean "soldiers" — and obviously, soldiers take orders. They don't think for themselves.
"Feminism is all about taking control away from the individual woman..."
"... and putting it into the hands of women, as determined by . . . feminists."
Says Instapundit, ceding to some feminists the power to define feminism in leftist terms. I wouldn't do that. I mean, I understand his point, but why not fight over what feminism really is or should be? We could claim that real feminism demands individual empowerment.
This reminds me of that set of essays in Slate: "Who Gets To Be a Feminist?" Perhaps I'm contradicting what I wrote there, but I don't accept "feminism" and "feminist" becoming pejoratives. I would rather say that's not good feminism than the feminists are hurting women. If they are hurting women, they are not promoting feminism as it should be. And I think they would agree with that abstract proposition: if it's hurting women, it's not what feminism should be.
Says Instapundit, ceding to some feminists the power to define feminism in leftist terms. I wouldn't do that. I mean, I understand his point, but why not fight over what feminism really is or should be? We could claim that real feminism demands individual empowerment.
This reminds me of that set of essays in Slate: "Who Gets To Be a Feminist?" Perhaps I'm contradicting what I wrote there, but I don't accept "feminism" and "feminist" becoming pejoratives. I would rather say that's not good feminism than the feminists are hurting women. If they are hurting women, they are not promoting feminism as it should be. And I think they would agree with that abstract proposition: if it's hurting women, it's not what feminism should be.
September 5, 2011
"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers."
“And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war... President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march… Everybody here’s got a vote... Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong."
Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, trying perhaps to sound feisty and combative, goes way too far. "Let's take these son of bitches out"? That connotes murder. Whatever happened to the civility Obama talked about last January? Obama took the stage after Hoffa and expressed approval!
I realize "let's take these sons of bitches out" can be interpreted to mean let's vote these terrible people out of office. But "take them out" is not an idiomatic expression that corresponds to "vote them out." Take them out? Maybe that's not the phrase he intended to use, but if it was unintended, it was still a gaffe. A revealing gaffe. Unless you're speaking in a positive way — referring to taking someone out on a date, for example — "take them out" is a violent command. With "sons of bitches" right there, it's unmistakably violent. Now, you can say it's only metaphorical, and all Hoffa really wants is to oust these people from office.
But it was only last January that Obama and many other Democrats were saying that violent metaphors, including a simple target on a map, were dangerous incitements for the unstable irrational folk out there.
UPDATE: On reflection, I'm more concerned about something else Hoffa said.
Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, trying perhaps to sound feisty and combative, goes way too far. "Let's take these son of bitches out"? That connotes murder. Whatever happened to the civility Obama talked about last January? Obama took the stage after Hoffa and expressed approval!
I realize "let's take these sons of bitches out" can be interpreted to mean let's vote these terrible people out of office. But "take them out" is not an idiomatic expression that corresponds to "vote them out." Take them out? Maybe that's not the phrase he intended to use, but if it was unintended, it was still a gaffe. A revealing gaffe. Unless you're speaking in a positive way — referring to taking someone out on a date, for example — "take them out" is a violent command. With "sons of bitches" right there, it's unmistakably violent. Now, you can say it's only metaphorical, and all Hoffa really wants is to oust these people from office.
But it was only last January that Obama and many other Democrats were saying that violent metaphors, including a simple target on a map, were dangerous incitements for the unstable irrational folk out there.
UPDATE: On reflection, I'm more concerned about something else Hoffa said.
"The End of the Jerry Lewis Telethon—It's About Time."
Says history prof Jon Wiener:
Elsewhere, in the same old lefty journal there's another Labor Day piece, "Top Ten Labor Day Songs," and there's John Lennon again, holding down the 2 position with "Working Class Hero." John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon. I wonder how he'd feel if he could know how closely American lefties would cuddle him 30 years after his death.
"Working Class Hero" is not one of the labor songs sung by the Solidarity Singers who do their singalongs every weekday at the Wisconsin Capitol. And it's not surprising. The unions that were fought for in the Great Wisconsin Protests of 2011 were public employee unions, especially teachers unions. Picture the teacher-folk singing these lyrics:
Every year it was the same. Jerry did his telethon shtick, parading little kids in wheelchairs across the Las Vegas stage, making maudlin appeals for cash, alternatively mugging and weeping, and generally claiming to be a friend to the doomed.Time passed. The "kids" kept growing up. And Jerry got more and more outmoded.
The pitch was always for “Jerry’s kids.” But two-thirds of the clients of the Muscular Dystrophy Association were adults, and they didn’t like being referred to as “Jerry’s kids.”
For me, the worst moment of the telethon came in 1972 when John and Yoko appeared. They played some good music—“Imagine,” and a reggae version of “Give Peace a Chance.” But they were there for a political reason: President Nixon had been trying to deport them for almost a year, and they were desperate to say in the USA. So to prove they were deserving of residency, they stopped hanging out with Jerry Rubin and instead embraced Jerry Lewis. That’s why Lennon told the telethon audience “Jerry is one of our favorite comedians.”Nixon! Still railing about Nixon over there in The Nation, where this article is published.
Elsewhere, in the same old lefty journal there's another Labor Day piece, "Top Ten Labor Day Songs," and there's John Lennon again, holding down the 2 position with "Working Class Hero." John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon. I wonder how he'd feel if he could know how closely American lefties would cuddle him 30 years after his death.
"Working Class Hero" is not one of the labor songs sung by the Solidarity Singers who do their singalongs every weekday at the Wisconsin Capitol. And it's not surprising. The unions that were fought for in the Great Wisconsin Protests of 2011 were public employee unions, especially teachers unions. Picture the teacher-folk singing these lyrics:
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,There's really nothing in that song stoking enthusiasm for labor unions. There's nothing about working. It's about a disabling fear of work. And it's not the boss who tortures and scares you in those first 20 years. It's the parents and the teachers.
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
If he won't run for President, will Paul Ryan at least consider Vice President?
"I'm not going to focus on that only because it's someone else's decision, so what's the point of answering that question? I'm focused on doing my job right and that's so far away and it's out of my control, so I just don't spend my time worrying about it. I spend my time worrying about my job, which is balancing the budget, getting this debt under control and creating the conditions that will get jobs created in this country."
Paul Ryan is focused on the task before him. No frivolities will distract him.
Would a truly doggedly on-task type guy make a good President? Maybe not!
Paul Ryan is focused on the task before him. No frivolities will distract him.
***
Would a truly doggedly on-task type guy make a good President? Maybe not!
"A numbing succession of meaningless games for the Yankees and Red Sox."
"Bud Selig can sing all the praises he wants about the wild card, but for the ninth time in its 17-year history, it has turned September into a numbing succession of meaningless games for the Yankees and Red Sox as they go through the motions of lopping the days off the calendar until the postseason. And this year especially, the wild card has done nothing to boost fan interest as both wild cards and five out of the six division races are virtually sewed up with nearly a month to go."
It's like baseball wants everyone to switch over to football.
It's like baseball wants everyone to switch over to football.
The end of the Post Office?
Is it unthinkable?
... of collapsing entirely... and yet they still haven't eliminated Saturday delivery?
Why not let this propped-up competitor to FedEx and UPS (and the internet) fall? There would be losers but there would also be winners.
Why are we so afraid to find out? Remember what Rahm says:
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
ADDED: My postman just delivered a 615-page catalog from Restoration Hardware. Why was that a feasible business move for Restoration Hardware? I've never mail-ordered anything from them. Why is the government subsidizing this inefficiency? If I were interested in buying something from RH, I would go to their website. Instead, I have to lug this heavy object to the garbage can/recycle bin? Think of the carbon footprint. I do! But I don't believe the government believes the climate change hype. Because they never act like they do.
IN THE COMMENTS: Paddy O said:
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.Why not close it down? Isn't it strange that it's on the brink — or really over the brink... in that Wile E. Coyote way...
... of collapsing entirely... and yet they still haven't eliminated Saturday delivery?
[D]ecades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees....My preference is always: do nothing. That's the presumption you need to overcome. It's good for government and it's good for your individual life too. (For decades, my personal motto has been: Better than nothing is a high standard.)
“The situation is dire,” said Thomas R. Carper, the Delaware Democrat who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the postal service. “If we do nothing, if we don’t react in a smart, appropriate way, the postal service could literally close later this year. That’s not the kind of development we need to inject into a weak, uneven economic recovery.”
Why not let this propped-up competitor to FedEx and UPS (and the internet) fall? There would be losers but there would also be winners.
Why are we so afraid to find out? Remember what Rahm says:
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
ADDED: My postman just delivered a 615-page catalog from Restoration Hardware. Why was that a feasible business move for Restoration Hardware? I've never mail-ordered anything from them. Why is the government subsidizing this inefficiency? If I were interested in buying something from RH, I would go to their website. Instead, I have to lug this heavy object to the garbage can/recycle bin? Think of the carbon footprint. I do! But I don't believe the government believes the climate change hype. Because they never act like they do.
IN THE COMMENTS: Paddy O said:
Ann, watch out. Don't mess with the mail. I shouldn't even be talking to you, but I'm telling you as a friend. Here's how it's going to happen: you may be walking. Maybe on a crisp, autumn day just like today. When a mail truck will slow beside you, and a door will open, and a mailman you know, maybe even trust, will offer to give you a lift. And no one will ever see you again!
"Happy Labor Day: Top 10 union thug moments of the year."
Michelle Malkin catches the holiday spirit.
Only #8 and #5 take place in Madison, Wisconsin. And #1, which takes place in Boston, is a rally "in solidarity" with the Wisconsin protesters. The Democratic congressman, Mike Capuano, tells people to "get a little bloody":
Now, let's be fair. The full quote is: "Every once in a while you gotta get out in the streets and get a little bloody when necessary." Every once in a while — not all the time. Get a little bloody... a little! Not a lot. When necessary — no gratuitous violence. That's almost surgical. Does that deserve to be labeled "thuggery"?
The word "thug" has evolved over the years. Here's the etymology:
Only #8 and #5 take place in Madison, Wisconsin. And #1, which takes place in Boston, is a rally "in solidarity" with the Wisconsin protesters. The Democratic congressman, Mike Capuano, tells people to "get a little bloody":
Now, let's be fair. The full quote is: "Every once in a while you gotta get out in the streets and get a little bloody when necessary." Every once in a while — not all the time. Get a little bloody... a little! Not a lot. When necessary — no gratuitous violence. That's almost surgical. Does that deserve to be labeled "thuggery"?
The word "thug" has evolved over the years. Here's the etymology:
thug — 1810, "member of a gang of murderers and robbers in India who strangled their victims," from Marathi thag, thak "cheat, swindler," Hindi thag, perhaps from Skt. sthaga-s "cunning, fraudulent," possibly from sthagayati "(he) covers, conceals," from PIE base *(s)teg- "cover" (see stegosaurus). Transferred sense of "ruffian, cutthroat" first recorded 1839. The more correct Indian name is phanseegur, and the activity was described in English as far back as c.1665. Rigorously prosecuted by the British from 1831, they were driven from existence, but the process extended over the rest of the 19c.Strangled?! This gives me an idea for another top 10 list: Top 10 judicial thug moments of the year! I've got your Wisconsin judicial thuggery right here. Help me fill out the list. It needn't be literal strangling. Other brutish behavior, physical or otherwise, may make the list, especially if you're fingering a cunning ruffian (or armor-plated fossil).
Sarah Palin is running for President using a visual metaphor strategy.
That's my take on the half-marathon in Iowa.
What else can she do — in Iowa and elsewhere — to run/not run for the cameras, in sly, photogenic, creative fashion?
What else can she do — in Iowa and elsewhere — to run/not run for the cameras, in sly, photogenic, creative fashion?
"We've had blow-downs before, just nothing this size."
One thunderstorm in July felled around 2 million cords of wood in Wisconsin's North Woods.
"If a tornado hits, a tornado is a half-mile to a mile wide and two to three miles long," Ericson said. "Then it lifts and it's done.
"This went on for miles."...
If you cut and stacked the logs on 40-foot logging trailers and included the trucks to haul them, they would stretch 1,700 miles,
September 4, 2011
"We use a lot of rocks in our landscaping... Every time we take a trip, I'm somehow able to take a rock home in my suitcase."
Okay... but I remember when Lucille Ball did that in "The Long, Long Trailer." It was very disturbing!
"I didn't mean to lie to you, [R]icky. But they mean so much to me! [R]icky, stop it!"
"Do you realize she could have killed the 2 of us? She and her rocks and her raspberry jam!"
(Harrowing driving scene at the second link, and if you keep watching, you'll end up with hot Lucy-and-Ricky sex symbolized by the flapping of the trailer door.)
"I didn't mean to lie to you, [R]icky. But they mean so much to me! [R]icky, stop it!"
"Do you realize she could have killed the 2 of us? She and her rocks and her raspberry jam!"
(Harrowing driving scene at the second link, and if you keep watching, you'll end up with hot Lucy-and-Ricky sex symbolized by the flapping of the trailer door.)
Obama wisecrack: "Maybe I should throw the game."
Spoken during the 2008 campaign, in the context of observing all the problems the next President would face.
Quoted by Maureen Dowd, who, naturally, wisecracks that he must now wish he had.
It's not really very funny. On the other hand, why does anyone step up to be President? It's some evidence of Obama's normality, which was one thing I always found appealing. You'd think it would only be really weird folk who'd decide they should be President and can actually handle the impossible job of dealing with all of the problems in the world and putting up with being the biggest punching bag in the world. And here was someone seemingly normal willing to do it... and perhaps as able to do the impossible as anyone else (and more able than John McCain).
More Dowd (boldface by me):
Quoted by Maureen Dowd, who, naturally, wisecracks that he must now wish he had.
It's not really very funny. On the other hand, why does anyone step up to be President? It's some evidence of Obama's normality, which was one thing I always found appealing. You'd think it would only be really weird folk who'd decide they should be President and can actually handle the impossible job of dealing with all of the problems in the world and putting up with being the biggest punching bag in the world. And here was someone seemingly normal willing to do it... and perhaps as able to do the impossible as anyone else (and more able than John McCain).
More Dowd (boldface by me):
Obama’s re-election chances depend on painting the Republicans as disrespectful. So why would the White House act disrespectful by scheduling a speech to a joint session of Congress at the exact time when the Republicans already had a debate planned?...Re-re-re-spect-spect-spect-spect. (I'm supplying the pop culture reference that I expected to pop out of Dowd, given her usual style and how clearly set up that one seems. Is it a reach to suggest that she wanted to reference the famous Aretha Franklin recording, and she or her editor fretted that it would seem racial?)
Obama is still suffering from the Speech Illusion, the idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.
The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term.
The White House team is flailing — reacting, regrouping, retrenching. It’s repugnant.
The 16,230 calorie sandwich.
Step-by-step photographs.
(I was just reading somewhere the other day — are you still allowed to say that in the Google era? — that the reason Americans are "so fat" is that our sandwiches are too big.)
(I was just reading somewhere the other day — are you still allowed to say that in the Google era? — that the reason Americans are "so fat" is that our sandwiches are too big.)
Did a 24-year-old Cincinnati man die of a toothache because he didn't have health insurance?
No. Let's be honest. It's sad that he died, but let's be clear about why he died and not demagogue it.
Amazon!
I've added the AMAZON link to this blog's banner, so you will never have to wonder, when you've got a purchase to make, how to do it so that Althouse gets a percentage (with no added cost to you). And thanks to everyone who thinks of showing some appreciation for me that way. I notice and it touches me to see that you enjoy hanging out here enough to take the extra second to use that link, when you've got something you need to buy anyway. Seriously, Amazon Associates is a great program, and everybody wins.
September 3, 2011
How did Chevrolet manage to make such an effective commercial?
We use a DVR to scroll through the commercials, and this one was effective even when sped through. It also made us go back to watch it, and then rewind and watch it again. We both nearly cried both times!
Now, I see that this was an entry in a "short film" contest that Chevrolet ran. More here.
IN THE COMMENTS: Rose said:
Now, I see that this was an entry in a "short film" contest that Chevrolet ran. More here.
IN THE COMMENTS: Rose said:
Just think how many of those got crushed during cash For Clunkers - that was sick.
"9/11 anniversary programming: Is there too much of it?"
Ken Tucker scolds you for asking:
And one other thing: After 10 years of remembering what happened on the day we sustained a great loss in a war, have we ever — as a nation — celebrated a victory? I remember when President Bush tried to do that. And he was crushed by criticism so harsh that it has served as a warning: never ever savor a victory. Now, it's: "we don't... spike the football... that's not who we are."
And who are we? Is our preferred self-image the collapsed towers?
The argument against the volume of 9/11 programming, which has cropped up on various blogs and in newspapers such as The New York Post, has been articulated most reasonably by Brian Lowry in Variety. In a piece titled “Cacophony of voices dull anniversary,” Lowry writes, “So many networks have scheduled specials, movies, even entire themed weeks centered on Sept. 11 that they risk trivializing the event, making it equivalent to... Halloween or Christmas episodes… networks with no logical connection to the story have piled on, defensively or opportunistically. Either way, it’s unnecessary.” Lowry concludes: “TV’s immersive approach to marking the anniversary unwittingly seems more reminiscent of another tower — the biblical one in Babel.”...So... if you're going to be numbed, get numbed the lofty way? I think it's fine to preempt the usual junk on TV, but the problem is trying to make something profound and, as so often happens, making junk anyway. That is the definition of profanity.
Too much? You mean, as opposed to airing Big Brother three times a week? Or the hours and hours of Bravo’s various Real Housewives franchises also coming this same week? It’s “too much,” too numbing, to replay footage of the planes going into the World Trade Center towers, but it’s not too much to air two hours of Bachelor Pad and two hours of America’s Got Talent, which combine to form four hours of entertainment that are numbing in a different way, not emotionally but intellectually numbing?
And one other thing: After 10 years of remembering what happened on the day we sustained a great loss in a war, have we ever — as a nation — celebrated a victory? I remember when President Bush tried to do that. And he was crushed by criticism so harsh that it has served as a warning: never ever savor a victory. Now, it's: "we don't... spike the football... that's not who we are."
And who are we? Is our preferred self-image the collapsed towers?
10 Principles of Modern Design...
... from Dieter Rams (who was chief of design for Braun — the German manufacturer — from 1961 to 1995).
Oddly, I came away feeling that the 10 principles were all the same, and if that principle was simple functionality, the make that one thing into 10 is a violation of the principle itself. But then Rams wasn't purporting to dictate the principles of website content, so there really is no paradox.
Oddly, I came away feeling that the 10 principles were all the same, and if that principle was simple functionality, the make that one thing into 10 is a violation of the principle itself. But then Rams wasn't purporting to dictate the principles of website content, so there really is no paradox.
"Don't You Fret."
Hey! I feel like I made this video...
But it's from jenzeppelin, who says: "Don't You Fret" is "a beautiful song, often overlooked." I wasn't overlooking it. I was scanning the songs in my computer picking out a Kinks song I was in the mood to hear, and that was the song I picked. And the driving-around-the-city-to-music video is just the sort of thing I'd been doing.
"Don't You Fret" was originally on the album "Kinkdom." I have the CD set "Remastered," but if you want a CD available these days, I recommend "Well Respected Kinks." 10 songs, all richly playable after — gasp! — almost half a century.
And here's jenzeppelin's channel. She's got a driving-around-video for "I Am Free" and a bunch of other Kinks songs. She specializes in The Kinks and... who would go with The Kinks if you had exactly one other musical passion?
But it's from jenzeppelin, who says: "Don't You Fret" is "a beautiful song, often overlooked." I wasn't overlooking it. I was scanning the songs in my computer picking out a Kinks song I was in the mood to hear, and that was the song I picked. And the driving-around-the-city-to-music video is just the sort of thing I'd been doing.
"Don't You Fret" was originally on the album "Kinkdom." I have the CD set "Remastered," but if you want a CD available these days, I recommend "Well Respected Kinks." 10 songs, all richly playable after — gasp! — almost half a century.
And here's jenzeppelin's channel. She's got a driving-around-video for "I Am Free" and a bunch of other Kinks songs. She specializes in The Kinks and... who would go with The Kinks if you had exactly one other musical passion?
"Tripoli Zoo: Libyan Lions Left Behind."
A HuffPo headline suggests the notion of a Rapture for animals.
If there were a Rapture for animals, which animals would be left behind? I'd say hummingbirds and butterflies. They are jerks.
And, sorry, I don't mean to seem unsympathetic to the zoo animals who are suffering in Libya. Who thinks of the zoo animals when there is a war? Here's a book: "The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo."
And a truly cool novel about zoo animals at the mercy of a human-made disaster is "Life of Pi." It's not a war, but a ship wreck after a zoo in India is dismantled and some of the animals are packed on board en route to Canadian.
If there were a Rapture for animals, which animals would be left behind? I'd say hummingbirds and butterflies. They are jerks.
And, sorry, I don't mean to seem unsympathetic to the zoo animals who are suffering in Libya. Who thinks of the zoo animals when there is a war? Here's a book: "The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo."
And a truly cool novel about zoo animals at the mercy of a human-made disaster is "Life of Pi." It's not a war, but a ship wreck after a zoo in India is dismantled and some of the animals are packed on board en route to Canadian.
"Bush was flayed for Enron. Where does that put Obama and his green-energy pet?"
Rich Lowry on Solyndra.
Via Hot Air.
Via Hot Air.
The White House insists it didn’t intervene with DOE on Solyndra’s behalf, but — go figure — the company’s key investor was a foundation headed by George Kaiser, a billionaire known for raising boatloads of money for Barack Obama.Via Instapundit.
"Dark brown and shiny worm-like pieces of batter, soft to the touch, piled in a biodegradable cup."
"It comes topped with cola syrup, more icing sugar, whipped cream, and two cherries."
Fried Coke!
What are you deep frying these days?
Fried Coke!
What are you deep frying these days?
"Tripoli Files Show CIA Working With Libya."
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The Central Intelligence Agency and Libyan intelligence services developed such a tight relationship during the George W. Bush administration that the U.S. shipped terror suspects to Libya for interrogation and suggested the questions they should be asked, according to documents found in Libya's External Security agency headquarters...
The files provide an extraordinary window into the highly secretive and controversial practice of rendition, whereby the agency would send detainees to other countries for interrogation, including ones known for harsh treatment of detainees. The program was ramped up for terror detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks.
When taking over the CIA at the outset of the Obama administration, then-director Leon Panetta said the agency would continue to use rendition, but would seek assurances that the detainee wouldn't be tortured—which has been the standing U.S. policy...
September 2, 2011
The anguish of coffee.
ADDED: Oh, [expletive deleted] I meant to put up the non-remix:
It's like... do you want caffeinated or decaffeinated.
BONUS: A poll:
An Isthmus writer finds it "startling" to see an attack ad against Tommy Thompson so long before the primaries for the Herb Kohl Senate seat.
Here's the ad:
Judith Davidoff writes:
The 2012 GOP primaries are about defining conservatism, and the Club for Growth ad has its idea of what the conservative message should be, and it's not Tommy Thompson. Let Thompson present a crisp version of his definition.
On the other side of the equation, the Democrats have to define liberalism, and if Isthmus is genuinely worried about candidates swinging too far to the extreme and losing the moderate voters in our passionately purple state, they ought to handwring about Tammy Baldwin. (But they won't.)
Judith Davidoff writes:
[T]he ultraconservative Club for Growth... has made it a habit in recent years to oppose moderate Republicans.... [but] Thompson has not officially entered the race and the Republican primary is still a year away.I remember back in 2010, when people thought Thompson would challenge Russ Feingold. I video-recorded the speech he made to the Tea Party crowd, when he said he would not. He said "I told my family... that it's time for new voices and new faces." He declined the hard work of unseating the longtime incumbent, and Ron Johnson stepped up to that task. Now, it's a year later and nobody's gotten any younger, yet Thompson sees himself as the man for the Senate. What happened to the need for "new voices and new faces"? Why are old faces good? Because now it's a shot at a vacant seat?
"I think it is pretty remarkable," says Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison. "It tells me something is at stake here. Conservatives in the party are really concerned about Tommy winning the election. They are trying to head off his really owning the nomination at this point, and I think that's why they're in so early."
The 2012 GOP primaries are about defining conservatism, and the Club for Growth ad has its idea of what the conservative message should be, and it's not Tommy Thompson. Let Thompson present a crisp version of his definition.
On the other side of the equation, the Democrats have to define liberalism, and if Isthmus is genuinely worried about candidates swinging too far to the extreme and losing the moderate voters in our passionately purple state, they ought to handwring about Tammy Baldwin. (But they won't.)
Who's this baby?
Hint:
When I was born my granddad wanted to send a telegram to the president. Both sides of my family were staunch New Deal Democrats, and Granddad was sure that FDR would want to know about the “little stranger” with whom he now had a birthday in common.After you've answered, click here.
ADDED: Page 29:
I traveled from job to job with one large suitcase, driving a 1949 Chevy for a while. When it had to be junked, I hitched a ride or caught a bus until I managed to buy a ’58 Ford. Living accommodations were never fancy, usually a room in an old hotel or roadside motel....
After work, the guys on the crew would spend considerable time in one of the local bars, ideally a place that would cash our checks or carry a tab until we made our first payday. We consumed vast quantities of beer. If something stronger was called for, we’d drink shots of bourbon with beer chasers—a combination that helps explain how I managed to get arrested twice within a year for driving while under the influence....
And I was sleeping off a hangover in the Rock Springs jail. It had taken a lot to drive the message home, but I realized the morning I woke up in that jail that if I didn’t fundamentally change my ways, I was going to come to a bad end.
"Large numbers of Parisians could not see the point of placing an enormous functionless derrick in the middle of the city."
Writes Bill Bryson, in "At Home: A Short History of Private Life":
ADDED: If you're wondering what got me to post about the Eiffel Tower, it was this.
The Eiffel Tower wasn’t just the largest thing that anyone had ever proposed to build, it was the largest completely useless thing. It wasn’t a palace or burial chamber or place of worship. It didn’t even commemorate a fallen hero. Eiffel gamely insisted that his tower would have many practical applications—that it would make a terrific military lookout and that one could do useful aeronautical and meteorological experiments from its upper reaches—but eventually even he admitted that mostly he wished to build it simply for the slightly strange pleasure of making something really quite enormous. Many people loathed it, especially artists and intellectuals. A group of notables that included Alexandre Dumas, Émile Zola, Paul Verlaine, and Guy de Maupassant submitted a long, rather overexcited letter protesting at “the deflowering of Paris” and arguing that “when foreigners come to see our exhibition they will cry out in astonishment, ‘What! This is the atrocity which the French have created to give us an idea of their boasted taste!’ ” The Eiffel Tower, they continued, was “the grotesque, mercenary invention of a machine builder.” Eiffel accepted the insults with cheerful equanimity and merely pointed out that one of the outraged signatories of the petition, the architect Charles Garnier, was in fact a member of the commission that had approved the tower in the first place.Do large useless things bother you?
ADDED: If you're wondering what got me to post about the Eiffel Tower, it was this.
Do you remember Obama and Honduras?
It was back in July 2009:
As military "coups" go, the one this weekend in Honduras was strangely, well, democratic. The military didn't oust President Manuel Zelaya on its own but instead followed an order of the Supreme Court. It also quickly turned power over to the president of the Honduran Congress, a man from the same party as Mr. Zelaya. The legislature and legal authorities all remain intact.Please compare Obama 2009 to this year's Obama, reacting to events in Arab countries.
We mention these not so small details because they are being overlooked as the world, including the U.S. President, denounces tiny Honduras in a way that it never has, say, Iran. President Obama is joining the U.N., Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and other model democrats in demanding that Mr. Zelaya be allowed to return from exile and restored to power. Maybe it's time to sort the real from the phony Latin American democrats.
"Working in the Coal Mine."
At Meadhouse this morning, we're talking about the song "Working In The Coal Mine," not because of the abysmal jobs situation these days, but because... well, because there was a little too much milk in my coffee. (This stream of consciousness has nothing to do with the suffering of unemployment and working in coal mines, so please forgive me.)
Meade decided to make me a double-shot, and I — helpful in my usual abstracted way — started playing "Double Shot of My Baby's Love" (by the Swingin' Medallions) — a song about a woman who "loved [her man] so hard" that he woke up with... "the worst hangover [he] ever had."
That got me talking about the frat rock
cassette recording that I bought when my kids were very young. It had "Double Shot" along with stuff like "Hang On Sloopy" and "Louie Louie." It was one of a series of tapes that I bought to play in the car after I realized that rock and roll oldies were good children's music. (Well, not "Double Shot.") I first had this realization back in the 1980s when, for some reason — maybe a toddler said "ya ya" — I started singing "Sitting in Ya Ya Waiting for my La La." Baby talk!
"Who sang that?" I ask, playing it on YouTube. Meade says "Sam Cooke." No! It's Lee Dorsey! Do you know any other Lee Dorsey songs? There's only one other that you might remember. It's this. "Working in the Coal Mine." (Not to be confused with this Sam Cooke song, which is, frankly, much better... as a recording. I will not compare the degree of workplace suffering described in the 2 songs.)
But check out these 2 other recordings of "Working in the Coal Mine" — this and this. I can't picture any of those people actually working in a coal mine, but in a pinch, if I had to say, I'd pick The Judds.
Have you had enough coffee this morning? I have.
ADDED: "Get your ya-yas out." Remember when Barack Obama said it? Back in June 2008, when he was thanking his campaign workers for "submerging their egos." The "Ya-yas" remark comes at 10:45. But start here:
Based on that part — before the "ya-yas," I think he didn't expect to win in Iowa. "If I'd lost Iowa, it would have been okay." But: "Because we won, we now have no choice." It seems as though he'd intended to make his mark, then reemerge in 2012 or 2016 as the frontrunner. But he won. It came too soon. Yet he had to plunge forward. It was all a crazy miscalculation. He just didn't expect to be that loved in Iowa.
And now, it's 2011, primary time once again, and our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Iowa, ya ya ya.
Meade decided to make me a double-shot, and I — helpful in my usual abstracted way — started playing "Double Shot of My Baby's Love" (by the Swingin' Medallions) — a song about a woman who "loved [her man] so hard" that he woke up with... "the worst hangover [he] ever had."
That got me talking about the frat rock
cassette recording that I bought when my kids were very young. It had "Double Shot" along with stuff like "Hang On Sloopy" and "Louie Louie." It was one of a series of tapes that I bought to play in the car after I realized that rock and roll oldies were good children's music. (Well, not "Double Shot.") I first had this realization back in the 1980s when, for some reason — maybe a toddler said "ya ya" — I started singing "Sitting in Ya Ya Waiting for my La La." Baby talk! "Who sang that?" I ask, playing it on YouTube. Meade says "Sam Cooke." No! It's Lee Dorsey! Do you know any other Lee Dorsey songs? There's only one other that you might remember. It's this. "Working in the Coal Mine." (Not to be confused with this Sam Cooke song, which is, frankly, much better... as a recording. I will not compare the degree of workplace suffering described in the 2 songs.)
But check out these 2 other recordings of "Working in the Coal Mine" — this and this. I can't picture any of those people actually working in a coal mine, but in a pinch, if I had to say, I'd pick The Judds.
Have you had enough coffee this morning? I have.
ADDED: "Get your ya-yas out." Remember when Barack Obama said it? Back in June 2008, when he was thanking his campaign workers for "submerging their egos." The "Ya-yas" remark comes at 10:45. But start here:
Based on that part — before the "ya-yas," I think he didn't expect to win in Iowa. "If I'd lost Iowa, it would have been okay." But: "Because we won, we now have no choice." It seems as though he'd intended to make his mark, then reemerge in 2012 or 2016 as the frontrunner. But he won. It came too soon. Yet he had to plunge forward. It was all a crazy miscalculation. He just didn't expect to be that loved in Iowa.
And now, it's 2011, primary time once again, and our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Iowa, ya ya ya.
0 and O — Zero and Obama — visual harmony, at least, as the new job numbers for August are announced.
"The U.S. says the economy added no jobs in August, the worst number since September 2010. The jobless rate was unchanged at 9.1%."
Email alert from CNN. Here's the article:
Email alert from CNN. Here's the article:
"We expected a weak report, and what we got was even weaker," said Patrick O'Keefe, director of economic research at J.H. Cohn.Ah, but wait. The President is about to give a speech about to a Joint Session of Congress. Perhaps he has an idea for a better and stronger after-dinner mint for the skunk!
The report was partially distorted by 22,000 state workers in Minnesota returning to work after a temporary government shutdown in July, as well as 45,000 Verizon workers on strike in August.
Those effects made it hard to compare the August jobs number to the 85,000 jobs gained in July.
Still though, the overall figure is considered dismal in comparison to job gains of about 200,000-a-month earlier this year.
"When our attention is drawn to the Verizon strike and the Minnesota situation, it's akin to saying that a skunk had bad breath, and then it took a dinner mint. That doesn't suddenly change the fact that it's still a skunk and it still stinks," O'Keefe said.
September 1, 2011
Don't cry for me Qaddafi/Obama...
Look at what Drudge has going on right now.
First you've got the 2 leaders — Qaddafi and Obama — both frowning.
Qaddafi says "No surrender!" And Obama says — Drudge is paraphrasing — "OK, let's do it before the game." That is, he's surrendering to pressure and doing his speech before the Packers/Saints game.
Next, we get a symphony of hands: the painting behind Berlusconi (who's got a good rhyme for Italy — in English, anyway), Madonna (whose movie about the wife of a former king of England is apparently shitty), Hillary (who's happy in Paris), Margaret Thatcher (presumably in England), Venus Williams (like Thatcher, she's ill), and Cher (gripping the shoulder of her soon-to-be-dancing, former-daughter Chaz):
Now let's interpret this symphony. One clue is the link under Madonna, after the reference to "Death in Venice": "BOOK SHOCK: Evita 'kept Nazi treasure taken from Jews'...." Of course, Madonna played Evita in the movie "Evita," and if there's one thing we think about when we think about the musical "Evita," it's the hands in the air gesture that goes with the song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina."
Evita, of course, was the wife of President, and, of course, so was Hillary. Now, clearly, Drudge is picturing Hillary that way for a reason.
The hands make a graceful composition, guiding our eyes from left to right. The woman in the painting appears to hold a glowing globe in her hand. Madonna, her hand in a similar upcurved position, blows the kiss that symbolically had been place on her fingertips, and Hillary opens her arms to receive, receive, receive.
A step down, we see the elderly, elegant Thatcher reaching out, palm toward us, grasping nothing, and perhaps there is nothing left in her head as she drifts into oblivion. She is dappled with jewelry: earrings, necklace, brooch. The missing item of jewelry is a ring, and we shift our eyes slightly to right and see a ring. It's on the hand of Venus Williams, whose fingers are curved inward, grasping not a glowing globe, but a neon-colored ball. Venus is sick! She has Sjögren's syndrome. Take one more step and it's Cher, her fingers delicately curved over the shoulder of the offspring she's fiercely defending with Tweets.
First you've got the 2 leaders — Qaddafi and Obama — both frowning.
Qaddafi says "No surrender!" And Obama says — Drudge is paraphrasing — "OK, let's do it before the game." That is, he's surrendering to pressure and doing his speech before the Packers/Saints game.
Next, we get a symphony of hands: the painting behind Berlusconi (who's got a good rhyme for Italy — in English, anyway), Madonna (whose movie about the wife of a former king of England is apparently shitty), Hillary (who's happy in Paris), Margaret Thatcher (presumably in England), Venus Williams (like Thatcher, she's ill), and Cher (gripping the shoulder of her soon-to-be-dancing, former-daughter Chaz):
Now let's interpret this symphony. One clue is the link under Madonna, after the reference to "Death in Venice": "BOOK SHOCK: Evita 'kept Nazi treasure taken from Jews'...." Of course, Madonna played Evita in the movie "Evita," and if there's one thing we think about when we think about the musical "Evita," it's the hands in the air gesture that goes with the song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina."
Evita, of course, was the wife of President, and, of course, so was Hillary. Now, clearly, Drudge is picturing Hillary that way for a reason.
The hands make a graceful composition, guiding our eyes from left to right. The woman in the painting appears to hold a glowing globe in her hand. Madonna, her hand in a similar upcurved position, blows the kiss that symbolically had been place on her fingertips, and Hillary opens her arms to receive, receive, receive.
A step down, we see the elderly, elegant Thatcher reaching out, palm toward us, grasping nothing, and perhaps there is nothing left in her head as she drifts into oblivion. She is dappled with jewelry: earrings, necklace, brooch. The missing item of jewelry is a ring, and we shift our eyes slightly to right and see a ring. It's on the hand of Venus Williams, whose fingers are curved inward, grasping not a glowing globe, but a neon-colored ball. Venus is sick! She has Sjögren's syndrome. Take one more step and it's Cher, her fingers delicately curved over the shoulder of the offspring she's fiercely defending with Tweets.
Ryan Braun: "I think I got excited, and I tried to run faster than I needed to and lost my form...."
"... I felt it coming. There's not much you can do at that point.... I've gotten a lot of trash talk today from every one of my friends who plays another sport... All of my basketball and football friends are texting me about my lack of athleticism. I take a pride in my athleticism, so I've been taking a lot of trash talk."
The video of the inside-the-park-home-run-that-wasn't is genuinely funny, and we need some laughs after the Cardinals' sweep of the Brewers. Scroll ahead to 1:00 if you're impatient.
The police-style "chalk" outlines on the field today were funny too, in the 2 spots between 3d and home where Braun fell.
The video of the inside-the-park-home-run-that-wasn't is genuinely funny, and we need some laughs after the Cardinals' sweep of the Brewers. Scroll ahead to 1:00 if you're impatient.
The police-style "chalk" outlines on the field today were funny too, in the 2 spots between 3d and home where Braun fell.
"I just want regular jeans. You know, the kind that used to be the only kind.”
This is the anecdote that begins Barry Schwartz's book "The Paradox of Choice." He "spluttered" that after a Gap salesgirl asked him if he wanted "slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy, or extra baggy... stonewashed, acid-washed, or distressed... button-fly or zipper-fly?" His anguish was supposed to exemplify a big problem we have these days.
That was linked to in the comments — by bagoh20 — over on the Obama and the Packers post:
They were so cool at the time, but now? I'm seeing Randy.
By creating all these options, the store undoubtedly had done a favor for customers with varied tastes and body types. However, by vastly expanding the range of choices, they had also created a new problem that needed to be solved. Before these options were available, a buyer like myself had to settle for an imperfect fit, but at least purchasing jeans was a five-minute affair. Now it was a complex decision in which I was forced to invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, anxiety, and dread.Get a grip, Barry! I feel like Barry I-just-want-normal-jeans Schwartz was the guy who inspired one of my favorite songs:
Buying jeans is a trivial matter, but it suggests a much larger theme we will pursue throughout this book, which is this: When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable. As the number of available choices increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.
That was linked to in the comments — by bagoh20 — over on the Obama and the Packers post:
When I think of Obama and sports I always am reminded of this video that Althouse showed quite a while back. I watch it ever now and then, and I don't know why.Why you watch it... or why Obama and sports reminds you of it? You watch it because it's so infectious. And comforting. And infectiously comforting, like friendly jeans. It reminds you of Obama and sports, I think, because you've had this picture in your head for so long: "Obama Celebrates Win By Riding Bike." He was a winner, about to coast downhill, and the regrettable jeans were the first foreshadowing of a failed presidency. He was not, as we'd thought, the hero. He was the man in Randy Normal Jeans. And then there are the dance moves:
They were so cool at the time, but now? I'm seeing Randy.
"Twenty Iconic Male Movie Roles In Which Helen Mirren Would Have Ruled."
Adam points to that list, and that causes Isaac Spaceman to list "five iconic male roles in which Helen Mirren would have been terrible."
Heh. Love that, Isaac. Can I call you Isaac Personal Space Bubbleman?
Heh. Love that, Isaac. Can I call you Isaac Personal Space Bubbleman?
"If Mitt Romney doesn't 'know' global warming is mostly caused by humans, is he 'against science'?"
John Althouse Cohen challenges Krugman... and quotes Richard Feynman, who wrote:
There are way too many political speakers embarrassing themselves these days by preening about how scientific they are, when all they mean is that they defer to authority. And there are way too many scientists who step up and pose as authorities to be deferred to (and given grants to).
It is necessary and true that all of the things we say in science, all of the conclusions, are uncertain, because they are only conclusions. They are guesses as to what is going to happen, and you cannot know what will happen, because you have not made the most complete experiments....John says:
Scientists, therefore, are used to dealing with doubt and uncertainty. All scientific knowledge is uncertain....
So what we call scientific knowledge today is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty....
If Krugman is terrified at the idea of not 'knowing,' maybe he's the one who's against science.I was going to challenge that "maybe," but that would be unscientific.
There are way too many political speakers embarrassing themselves these days by preening about how scientific they are, when all they mean is that they defer to authority. And there are way too many scientists who step up and pose as authorities to be deferred to (and given grants to).
"If this was an attempt to make Republicans look unreasonable, then, in almost every conceivable way, it failed spectacularly."
"And scheduling the speech during the GOP debate, even if Boehner had immediately acceded, is the one way the White House could guarantee a) that fewer voters would be watching and that b) viewers and pundits would pay less attention to the speech’s content and more to the theatrics around it. In other words, it’s the easiest way to lessen the speech’s chances at success. If this is a preview of Obama’s re-election campaign, Democrats should be very worried."
WaPo's James Downie.
But wait. It occurs to me that Obama may want to divert attention from the speech's content. What do you think the content is? For a month, he's been saying the big speech is coming — he's got a plan to restore jobs. If he really had an answer to the chronic problem, why didn't he reveal it right away? He's been working on something that would sound like he's got an answer, and, in all likelihood, he knew it wouldn't go through Congress, so the point was simply to be able to say: It's Congress's fault. I had a plan, but they wouldn't pass it. But he couldn't say that unless he really had a plan that would impress people. My guess is: He didn't even have that. That's why he reverted to the theatrics, lame as they were.
We'll see. It's my hypothesis. He went for theatrics because the actual content of the speech will be an embarrassing fizzle after the big build-up. His bluff was called, so the theatrics look particularly lame, but he may even prefer our gabbing about the lameness of the failed theatrics to our scrutiny of the actual substance of the plan.
WaPo's James Downie.
But wait. It occurs to me that Obama may want to divert attention from the speech's content. What do you think the content is? For a month, he's been saying the big speech is coming — he's got a plan to restore jobs. If he really had an answer to the chronic problem, why didn't he reveal it right away? He's been working on something that would sound like he's got an answer, and, in all likelihood, he knew it wouldn't go through Congress, so the point was simply to be able to say: It's Congress's fault. I had a plan, but they wouldn't pass it. But he couldn't say that unless he really had a plan that would impress people. My guess is: He didn't even have that. That's why he reverted to the theatrics, lame as they were.
We'll see. It's my hypothesis. He went for theatrics because the actual content of the speech will be an embarrassing fizzle after the big build-up. His bluff was called, so the theatrics look particularly lame, but he may even prefer our gabbing about the lameness of the failed theatrics to our scrutiny of the actual substance of the plan.
"Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress."
According to The Atlantic:
[Yesterday], Obama took a now-familiar path in adopting a program — this time a jobs and infrastructure effort--that can happen entirely within his domain. Obama directed several federal agencies to identify "high-impact, job-creating infrastructure projects" that can be expedited now, without congressional approval.Do your work or we'll do it for you.... Is that the tone Obama actually wants to take?
One week before he will make a major address to Congress on jobs, Obama is making sure they know he plans to move forward without them. The president has also directed the Education Department to come up with a "Plan B" updating the 2001 No Child Left Behind law in the absence of congressional action. The message to Congress is clear: Do your work or we'll do it for you....
If there's a conflict between Obama's speech and the Packer game, WTMJ wants to show the football game.
"Steve Wexler, vice president of radio and TV operations for Journal Broadcast Group, said Thursday that WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) had asked that both Obama's speech and the football game be made available to NBC affiliates across the country. That way, each station can make a decision on which event to broadcast. In the case of the Milwaukee market, Wexler said WTMJ would show the game. The president's speech would be carried on a secondary digital channel, he said."
It's an NBC game, and NBC is interacting with the White House, but here in Wisconsin, we want to watch the game.
I don't know about New Orleans, but Packer fans want the game. At least give us the choice! Does the leader have to take over all the channels? What kind of message is that, in America? Give us choice. And give us football.
You know, a football game merits watching, play by play, in real time. A speech... we can read it quickly later. Like during half time.
From a blogger's perspective, I prefer the text because I can cut and paste and do commentary. Now, that's a reason why Obama should prefer to impose the real-time experience on us. We have to wait to pull it apart. Except we don't really. We live-blog. We tweet. This urge to control, by claiming all the channels, making us sit through the whole thing... it doesn't really work anymore. It doesn't work for the people who want to jump all over the President's words and critique them, and it doesn't work for people who would prefer different entertainments. There are always other channels on cable. There's the internet. Video games. Video on Demand. You can't really commandeer our attention.
But you can mess with a football game we're excited about seeing at a particular time.
IN THE COMMENTS: Meade said:
More Meade:
It's an NBC game, and NBC is interacting with the White House, but here in Wisconsin, we want to watch the game.
I don't know about New Orleans, but Packer fans want the game. At least give us the choice! Does the leader have to take over all the channels? What kind of message is that, in America? Give us choice. And give us football.
You know, a football game merits watching, play by play, in real time. A speech... we can read it quickly later. Like during half time.
From a blogger's perspective, I prefer the text because I can cut and paste and do commentary. Now, that's a reason why Obama should prefer to impose the real-time experience on us. We have to wait to pull it apart. Except we don't really. We live-blog. We tweet. This urge to control, by claiming all the channels, making us sit through the whole thing... it doesn't really work anymore. It doesn't work for the people who want to jump all over the President's words and critique them, and it doesn't work for people who would prefer different entertainments. There are always other channels on cable. There's the internet. Video games. Video on Demand. You can't really commandeer our attention.
But you can mess with a football game we're excited about seeing at a particular time.
IN THE COMMENTS: Meade said:
Obama is a Bears fan (purportedly).Hey! And remember when he had the Packers to the White House — because they won the Super Bowl — and he kind of snubbed them?
More Meade:
If Obama succeeds in his Packers/Saints blackout, I propose we take direct action.UPDATE: "White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told The Associated Press the speech would be completed in time. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m." New controversy: What about the "pregame festivities"? "The NFL and NBC are planning a kickoff concert and other pregame activities to mark the opening of the NFL season."
TO THE ROTUNDA!
Obama "will still be able to cut off some of the free media oxygen of whatever narrative emerges from the debate..."
"... by speaking to the nation the next day, which was almost certainly the goal of choosing the night of the face-off in the first place."
Cut off some of the free media oxygen? Ack! Chokehold!!
Cut off some of the free media oxygen? Ack! Chokehold!!
"'I cannot imagine [Justice Bradley] hitting [Justice Gableman] in anger because he called Justice Abrahamson 'Shirley' — because everybody calls her Shirley'... even the custodial staff."
So said former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, quoted in a Capital Times article called "Justices dispute Gableman account of second altercation involving Bradley."
Is that so? Everyone calls her "Shirley" — not "Chief"? Even the custodians?
ADDED: But I do not want to impugn Geske's credibility. She said it. I presume it's true. Court personnel of all kinds: Have no qualms about calling the Chief Justice "Shirley." Like you always do.
UPDATE: Justice Michael Gableman issues a statement relating to the date of the alleged hitting:
Is that so? Everyone calls her "Shirley" — not "Chief"? Even the custodians?
ADDED: But I do not want to impugn Geske's credibility. She said it. I presume it's true. Court personnel of all kinds: Have no qualms about calling the Chief Justice "Shirley." Like you always do.
UPDATE: Justice Michael Gableman issues a statement relating to the date of the alleged hitting:
During my interview with the officers, I was uncertain as to whether Justice Bradley struck me on September 18, 2008, or September 18, 2009. I knew it was September 18 because that happens to be my birthday. Court records indicate that the seven Justices did, in fact, meet in closed conference on September 18, 2009. In any event, the incident happened exactly as I related it to the officers and as it was set forth in the report. While Justice Bradley might not be able to recall it, I certainly do.Does anyone else who was there remember it?
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