Althouse: The Natural Look Café.

September 12, 2008

The Natural Look Café.

Oh, look! There's a second coffeehouse, where everybody wants to talk about anything but Sarah Palin.

59 comments:

veni vidi vici said...: Ok; just watched the new Obama ad criticizing McCain for... not using email??? Nice to see that he's finally getting to that "debate about the important issues" he's been itching to have, isn't it?

I wonder about this ad's effectiveness, though. The content and tone suggest he's targeting the youth vote. The "ironic" tone, etc... So, does that mean the internal polls show his support cratering among the yoot vote? That's unlikely.

Or, more troublingly, does it show that his team really has hit a wall and doesn't have any more game to bring? I mean, why on earth is he targeting a demographic that he's got sewn up, and that never turns out to vote anyway, with a weightless puff-piece advertisement, with less than 60 days before e-day?

Someone at Obama HQ needed to get fired two weeks ago; now it's going beyond ridiculous if this is where their heads are at over there right now.

But I do applaud the attempt to (a) ignore Palin, and (b) seek to get back on the horse of tying McCain to Bush. However, after the last two weeks of McCain's public appearances, it remains to be seen whether that's a meme anyone outside his existing supporters will buy. It doesn't look like Obama anymore has the luxury of assuming McCain won't rapidly respond to any and everything.

It's kind of funny, the way that McCain's team allowed Obama to get cocky over the summer and up to the Palin announcement, leaving team Obama with its pants around its ankles for the past few weeks.

Given the way Obama's guys have run their game until a few weeks ago, though, it's equally funny to see many on the right already getting cocky themselves. This fight's still got many rounds before the final bell.

And now it looks to be getting good again, if Obama's picking himself up off the mat.; 9/12/08, 6:00 AM
veni vidi vici said...: Incidentally, I'm strictly in this one for sport. After watching the mind-numbing asininity of how the haters and supporters switched roles so effortlessly between the Clinton and Bush 43 years, I'm way beyond letting myself be manipulated by the bullshit-mongers.

I'll admit to being more sympatico with what I expect McCain to comport himself as, foreign policywise, than Obama's foreign policy positions as he's danced around them. On the other hand, aside from the tax hikes which are likely to arrive regardless of who's in the White House, I'm not sensing this is going to be a transformational administration over the next 4 years. Something tells me it'll be more of an "administration" administration, which is why I'm indifferent but for foreign policy, where I'd like to see the next president finish some projects started by Bush, rather than abandon them. We shall see.

Fortunately, I like Obama and McCain about equally; they both seem equally personable (or not - they've certainly both got annoying quirks), so no matter which one wins I won't be terribly upset unless he reveals himself to be a complete incompetent in office. That goes for either one, and the art of living up to promises made on the trail, etc.; 9/12/08, 6:09 AM
Meade said...: I'll have a large cup of coffee. Black.

Hey Joe, who's the lady over in the corner doing the NYTimes crossword? No makeup. No pretentious airs. Hmm... no bra. She's cute. Obviously smart. I'll bet she's funny. I wonder if she has a boyfriend.

Here, tell her the blueberry muffin is from me.; 9/12/08, 6:32 AM
ron st.amant said...: I'm on vacation in the States, enjoying lovely weather in Virginia...but I'm oh so worried about the people in the path of Ike.; 9/12/08, 6:38 AM
rhhardin said...: Very nice line by Malkin on Obama tossing a flower at ground zero

He doesn't know what he's doing

via instapundit; 9/12/08, 6:42 AM
Meade said...: Thanks for pointing that out, RH. That small symbol is huge.; 9/12/08, 7:07 AM
rhhardin said...: I'd be with Obama, though unlike Obama I wouldn't go in the first place.

Ceremony leaves me cold. I see trappings and self-entertainment.; 9/12/08, 7:21 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/12/08, 7:25 AM
bearing said...: I am kind of with rhhardin on this one. Some people simply don't feel comfortable with ceremony, ritual, etc., especially ceremonies that are uncommon ones. Haven't you ever met a perfectly normal person who hates funerals, for example? It can feel weird and unnatural to go through motions someone else has planned. I wouldn't call it a character flaw to have trouble moving gracefully through someone else's ceremonies.

Of course, being able to do so is kind of a major section of the job description of Head of State.; 9/12/08, 7:28 AM
paul a'barge said...: veni vidi vici: ...Fortunately, I like Obama and McCain about equally; they both seem equally personable...

Actually, I'm completely detached from just about everything. In fact I'm not connected to anything at all. If you must ask (please ask!), I'm not even in a body. I just hover about every situation, snarking and throwing comments out about anything and everything. In fact, I can in one sentence say something good about both sides of every issue and event and in the next sentence take exactly the opposite position. And, I like to argue that I'm a feature not a bug. I really don't care about anything in the universe and that includes myself. My greatest skills are boring people around me, none of whom will spend much more than 3 minutes tolerating me before they run screaming from my presence, gasping at my ability to fundamentally say anything of substance.

I am muffle. Hear me mumble.; 9/12/08, 7:44 AM
DaLawGiver said...: It's your fault Althouse. I'm now a full-blown political junkie. Thanks for nothing. When I first stumbled upon your website I was a casual user who visited once a week to look at the pretty pictures and to see if you had recently fisked anyone. Now I start everyday with a visit to your site to get my fix of national stupidity. Wackos from both the right and the left expose their ignorance and I am transfixed. Like a junkie staring at a spoonful of cooking smack I know it's wrong but I just can't help myself. Thanks.; 9/12/08, 7:47 AM
Meade said...: RHHardin (no "g"): an enigma wrapped in a mystery trapped in the body of a caninefowlophile who never was much of one for the girls. No pom pom pompous ceremony for his short-panted ass, no siree. So a vote for RH for president is a non starter from the get go.

But hand him a bicycle, keyboard, calculator, and scythe and, oh brother, jump back, Jack!; 9/12/08, 7:52 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Interesting article in the Oct. Esquire about BCI, the brain-computer interface and research that is being done by Neural Signals Inc and Cyberkinetics. Ya know, moving cursors with your thoughts.

Goal? All of Google in the brain. Do Wii without a hand-held. We're talking invasive and non-invasive biomedical devices. Funding is coming from NIH and DARPA.

Total BCI Market: 6,301,363,435 Brains in the World (or so goes the slogan). Remember...A computer on every desk? How strange that sounded. How about...An implant in every head....

Cyberkinetics is at 0.06 cents, down from a high of $7 in 2005. Imagine investing in that company, and we all get caps. All very natural looking, to be sure.

Who among us would go to the White Mountains?; 9/12/08, 7:55 AM
Bissage said...: (1) Sir Archy alert!

(2) B. Kliban alert!

(3) Ann Hathaway alert!; 9/12/08, 7:56 AM
Cedarford said...: Drop a flower into the Pit? Maybe a cartridge casing from a round that dispatched an Islamoid in Afghanistan or Iraq.

====================

On another subject, Dershowitz had an excellent WSJ column on criminalizing past Administrations, as Biden promised Dems will do with the Bushies "if investigations warrant they can be prosecuted for something.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122117524229925725.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Prof Deshowitz relates that an ambitious prosecutor could find something to nail every past President going back to FDR on. Citing Chomsky and his followers noting war crimes and other criminal acts on more evidence than Fitzgerald got Scooter Libby on.

He closes with a chilling, noted quote to Stalin from Lavrenti Beria on how law can be cleverly used to nail anyone...."Show me the person (you want jailed liquidated, Comrade Stalin) and I will...find the crime."; 9/12/08, 7:59 AM
MadisonMan said...: Godspeed to all those in Ike's way. The warnings are very dire: ALL NEIGHBORHOODS...AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES...
WILL BE INUNDATED DURING THE PERIOD OF PEAK STORM TIDE. PERSONS
NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY
HOMES MAY FACE CERTAIN DEATH.; 9/12/08, 8:00 AM
Meade said...: That last one demonstrates your signature meanness, Bissage. You bathtard. May you decompose in heck.; 9/12/08, 8:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks, Madison Man, I am sure they can see your warning all the way in Houston without an internet connection.; 9/12/08, 8:02 AM
Anonymous said...: (musingly) "May face certain death."
"May face certain death."; 9/12/08, 8:12 AM
MadisonMan said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/12/08, 8:17 AM
MadisonMan said...: The may face death with certainty?; 9/12/08, 8:18 AM
MadisonMan said...: I hope to see more comments in this thread than in the Lipstick thread. But now I have to swim through the humid morning to get coffee.; 9/12/08, 8:19 AM
Meade said...: Swim through it with certainty, MadMan.; 9/12/08, 8:23 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: He closes with a chilling, noted quote to Stalin from Lavrenti Beria on how law can be cleverly used to nail anyone...."Show me the person (you want jailed liquidated, Comrade Stalin) and I will...find the crime."

That has always been the so called progressive method.; 9/12/08, 8:25 AM
MadisonMan said...: Oh no! 20 short minutes later and Lipstick is smearing this thread lengthwise!; 9/12/08, 9:06 AM
EnigmatiCore said...: Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away...

I wonder what on earth he could be referring to...; 9/12/08, 9:09 AM
George M. Spencer said...: "So there’s a very real possibility—again, impossible to quantify—that within the next year or so, the American banking sector will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. government. In such a case, just as China calls itself a socialist economy with market characteristics, we’d have to call ourselves a market economy with socialist characteristics—and that’s putting a positive spin on things.

But even that’s not the most chilling scenario. The real nightmare would be if the government did all of these things—under the same perfectly reasonable-seeming justifications that it has used over the past six months—and still failed to stem the banking crisis, instead turning it into a national fiscal and monetary crisis....

We risk a slow desertion of our currency and government bonds that could be just as devastating as the rapid desertion the feds were trying to prevent with the Fannie and Freddie action. What would have been a painful economic adjustment would become tortuous. We’d have to bring back our economy after having lost the world’s confidence and having hampered, through massive government intervention, our markets’ ability to recover slowly on their own."

--City Journal; 9/12/08, 9:17 AM
Simon said...: I have a question for folks here more familiar with First Amendment doctrine than me.

Over at PressThink, I'm arguing about the application of the First Amendment to libraries. My interlocutor there suggests that the First Amendment forbids a public library from discarding books from the public library system once they are in it. This seems highly counterintuitive to me. The First Amendment prevents government from censoring a person's speech; why that limitation on government action would limit the decisions of a government as to which books to provide in a public library, still less why it would be a right asserted by a person wishing to visit the library (it is, after all, the speaker who has First Amendment rights, not the listener), is unclear to me.

Seemingly conceding the force of the latter point, they cast their point in terms of the rights of the author: "[d]enying access to an audience for those already engaged in exercising their free speech/free press rights constitutes an abridgement of those rights. Thus if the town has a soapbox, the government cannot act to deny an audience to those with whom it disagrees. And if a book is in the library already, the government cannot deny the author an audience because it disagrees with the what the author is saying." This is a fascinating and, so far as I know, utterly novel theory of the First Amendment. It is also, so far as I know, both unprecedented and contradicted by the seeming thrust of caselaw. For example, in United States v. American Library Association, 539 U.S. 194 (2003), the court noted in dicta that, in order "[t]o fulfill their traditional missions, public libraries must have broad discretion to decide what material to provide to their patrons. Although they seek to provide a wide array of information, their goal has never been to provide universal coverage ... [and] the government has broad discretion to make content-based judgments in deciding what private speech to make available to the public" on its dime in public libraries. (Citation and internal quotation marks omitted.)

But I'm not a First Amendment guy - I don't really spend much time on "rights" Conlaw - so I'm looking for someone to give me some cases showing why I'm wrong. What case holds that libraries are either a traditional or designated public forum by their mere existence? Even the Ninth Circuit hasn't gone that far; in Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, 462 F.3d 1194 (9th Cir. 2006), they treated a library as only a limited public forum, and then only in a case where the issue was not the books in the library system but rooms in the library building offered out for meetings! Is there any case - or even a dissent! - that has as much as dropped hints supportive of an analogy between libraries and the soapbox in the town square?; 9/12/08, 9:20 AM
MadisonMan said...: Yes, that is very troublesome, and it points to the power of regulation before things go so far south. That horse has long left the barn, unfortunately.

When I'm morose I think my kids will have a devil of a time maintaining a standard of living like they enjoy now. I have great confidence in the American economy, but the way the present Republican administration (go figure!) has entangled itself into the markets, I have to wonder what is up.; 9/12/08, 9:22 AM
veni vidi vici said...: Paul,
yeah, you're right about that; it's what happens when I've been up all night working but had, hours earlier, been peppered with bits and pieces of that "service sit-down" or whatever it was that McCain and Obama were doing with those two twaddlers at Columbia. Lost bearings, etc.

Seen the ad yet?

As for this:
"But even that’s not the most chilling scenario. The real nightmare would be if the government did all of these things—under the same perfectly reasonable-seeming justifications that it has used over the past six months—and still failed to stem the banking crisis, instead turning it into a national fiscal and monetary crisis...."

That's why I don't think either candidate will be much different than the other in practice. It's going to be more like Bush 41 than Reagan '81 or Clinton '93. The only difference is how much depth of our colons will be caulked by the government - and it'll likely be a difference of inches not yards.; 9/12/08, 9:48 AM
Trooper York said...: We were invited to the fashion week festivities at Bryant Park today to see the Tadashi collection as we are one of his best customers. But we couldn't go because we were way to busy. We went last year and it is quite a scene. The funny part is that the real buyers, the people who actual get the stuff for stores are pushed to the fringes and celebrities and relatives and hangers on to the fashion scene get all of the prime seating.

It's a lot like politics and the media. They rush to get the opinion of the pointy headed pundits and overinflated gasbags and ignore the people who actually have to buy the product. Go figure.; 9/12/08, 10:13 AM
Trooper York said...: And Meade, dude, blueberry muffin?

Buy the girl an adult beverage for crying out loud.

How do expect to get lipstick on your dipstick if you don't get her happy dude.; 9/12/08, 10:15 AM
Anonymous said...: (Re-sets wristwatch) Hi all. Hey look, it's noon on Friday. I'll bet the brewpub is open. Anyone interested in a burger and a couple of beers for lunch? C'mon, you know you are. This cafe is dull, dull, dull.; 9/12/08, 10:48 AM
MadisonMan said...: Prediction: Ike will knock Palin, Obama, Biden and McCain right off the front page.; 9/12/08, 10:50 AM
Anonymous said...: Have you noticed that when Gustav was heading for New Orleans (and the Republican convention was about to begin) that the bleating hearts in the media were insisting that politicians, especially Bush and McCain, saddle up and head out.

Not hearing any of that bleating as Ike is zeroing in on metro Houston, an area with a far larger population than New Orleans.

Is it because there's no opportunity to disrupt convention coverage? Or because nothing went wrong when Gustave landed, and no one wants to report when government does something well?; 9/12/08, 11:01 AM
Simon said...: Michael_H said...
"Not hearing any of that bleating as Ike is zeroing in on metro Houston, an area with a far larger population than New Orleans."

I would think that it has to do with the fact that unlike NOLA, Houston isn't below sea level in the best of circumstances, let alone when a hurricane hits it.; 9/12/08, 11:07 AM
MadisonMan said...: Simon, it's obviously because of the MSM bias!

Actually, I think it's because the Convention is not ongoing. There is something unseemly about politicians doing normal politician things while people are dying. So if Ike is the monster it could be, look for a lull in campaigning. I doubt there'll be more than a 12-hour lull in the blogosphere before it's back to mudslinging, however.; 9/12/08, 11:13 AM
Trooper York said...: Hey Michael_H I am up for a few brews. I hit this new pizza joint next to Hanleys last night and ended going into the bar for a night cap. They had this Irish dude working who I knew from the Westside and we started doing shots of Jamesons. So I am ready for some hair of the dog.; 9/12/08, 11:21 AM
Trooper York said...: Let's get Meade out of the coffee shop anyway. He just sent over a scone to some old lady. It was a prune one, but still dude you need to expand your horizions.; 9/12/08, 11:22 AM
Revenant said...: Ok; just watched the new Obama ad criticizing McCain for... not using email???

I hardly use it anymore either. The effort of avoiding spam is more trouble than it is worth.; 9/12/08, 11:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Okay Troop, let's go. That place across the street char grills angus burgers and has Spotted Cow on tap. And 83 other microbrews, too.

Grab Meade on your way out. That old woman is trying to convince Meade that "I'll have a double" means "I'll have a shot of prune juice with my bran flakes."; 9/12/08, 11:46 AM
Trooper York said...: I know. Meade gets Maudlin when he's horny.

Not that's he is over sentimental.

He just tries to pick up women who look like Maude.; 9/12/08, 12:09 PM
Trooper York said...: Friends don’t let friends try to pick up women who look like Bea Arthur.; 9/12/08, 12:09 PM
Trooper York said...: Hey, I had Kobe beef burger sliders in Vegas. Good shit. Plus at one joint they had french fries that were fried in duck fat. Man that was tasty.; 9/12/08, 12:11 PM
MadisonMan said...: I don't think I could eat something called a slider. I think it's something that could be called a loogie.

Are you sure he's not trying to pick up Adrienne Barbeau? She was on Maude too.

The TV show, that is.; 9/12/08, 12:31 PM
Trooper York said...: Sliders are just mini hamburgers. The term was made famous by White Castle back in the day when you would buy about 20 of the mini burgers that would "slide" right down.

The Kobe beef burgers were a little over the top but the sause they used was great. With Mozzarella and a tomato relish instead of ketchup. Yummy.; 9/12/08, 1:01 PM
Meade said...: All right, I'm back. Mm mm mm, those blueberry muffins do the trick every time. Stick around, boys and I'll teach you all a few things about how to get on a lady's... banner.; 9/12/08, 2:28 PM
blake said...: Can I get one of those big pretzels?

You know what the magic ingredient is in pretzel dough? It's lye.

Who knew lyes tasted so good.; 9/12/08, 2:43 PM
Meade said...: First of all, you have to like the womens. And I don't mean want the women, I mean really LIKE them. All of them - young, old, rich, poor, fat, skinny. (Unless they're mean. Stay away from the mean ones, of course.) And none of that phony baloney wham, obam, I'll bet you're a capricorn, ma'am crap. That will only get you laughed AT, sister. Like trying to get them loaded before noon. Be smart. Raise your game.

Now, why the blueberry muffins? Because it establishes your antioxidant cred. Women dig guys who care about them and their health, how they FEEL. And they dig guys who know how to protect a lady from evil Bill Ayers-type free radicals.

She pobably won't really eat the muffin because she has her Pilates class in less than an hour but she'll pick the blueberries out in her excruciatingly dainty little way that says, with her little giggles, "later, when you come over to look at my ailing red buds, I'll trust you with a simple foot rub." Plus, you get to say the word "muffin."

If you'll recall from last week's class, "Freeing the Energy Pathways For Higher Chi," and if you've been practicing your foot rub techniques we learned last semester (No, not on your chickens, RH!), she will soon be singing in that low and sultry voice of hers, into one ear and then your other, "you make me feel, da da da, you make me feel, da da da, you make me FEEL like a nat tur ral woman." That's okay, go ahead and lie that you've always really dug Carole King. Act astonished when she tells you that Carole King wasn't a black Motown singer. This is the one time that it's okay for you to be a big fat liar.

And that, boys, will be all she wrote. On her blog. Until tomorrow.

You're welcome.; 9/12/08, 3:18 PM
Trooper York said...: Carole King? Carole frigging King?
How age appropriate are you being dude? I mean seriously.

Tell her you think Rihannia is way cool and you like a little country with Carrie Underwood and that Kelly Pickler is a saucy little minx since she got her new tits.

But Carole King?

She's gonna ask you if she was the one who sang "I have a Dream."

And you are gonna spoil it and say no, it was just an "Impossible Dream" and that was Robert Goulet.

The she is gonna throw you out of her apartment and you are never gonna get to see her rosebuds.; 9/12/08, 3:25 PM
Meade said...: That's red buds, Mr. York.
Red.

Now please, Mr. York, I'm delighted to have you in my class. Really I am. And if you're tired from last night's activities at the brewpub, by all means, rest your head on your desk during open discussion.

But, Mr. York, you were snoring.

In my class.

That is NOT acceptable.; 9/12/08, 3:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Carole King? Didn't she do one of those osteoporosis commercials with Sally Field a while back?

If you're gonna hit on women form that ear, aim for Carley Simon. She's still got the looks.

Linda Ronstadt? She's approaching cruiserweight these days.

I do remember Blueberry Muffins. She danced a the Hi-Lo Club when I was in gradual school.; 9/12/08, 3:40 PM
Trooper York said...: Sorry dude I thought you wanted to see her sled.

Hey did the pizza I ordered come in yet? I told him to bring it right to the classroom.; 9/12/08, 3:41 PM
Meade said...: Why yes, yes it did arrive. Thank you but what's with all this damn garlic?; 9/12/08, 3:58 PM
Trooper York said...: It a natural appro-disee-e-ack man.
Helps you get the good wood if you know what I mean.; 9/12/08, 4:36 PM
Meade said...: Oh. Yes, yes I see what you mean. Wow! This stuff is amazingly strong.

Class, next week we will have a guest lecturer, one of your fellow students who evidently knows some things about powerful medicinal herbs: Mr. Trooper J. York, M.A.

Bring you laptops, your intellectual curiosity, and hearty appetites. We will be dining in.; 9/12/08, 5:13 PM
Anonymous said...: veni said: "Ok; just watched the new Obama ad criticizing McCain for... not using email??? Nice to see that he's finally getting to that "debate about the important issues" he's been itching to have, isn't it?"

Perhaps team Obama didn't know this: "The reason he doesn't send email is that he can't use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. . . . McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes."

The Obama campaign seems to have become a parody of itself.; 9/13/08, 6:12 AM
Meade said...: Thanks for pointing that out, Michael H.

here
and by the way,
here; 9/13/08, 6:46 AM
John Althouse Cohen said...: I think Lawgiver's comment should be your new banner quote.; 9/13/08, 8:09 AM