Evening Plans
Because of the technical difficulties I experienced with Blogger during the VP debate, I haven't decided whether or not to liveblog the Presidential debate tonight. However, as this is the most important event* in the election to this point, I will be writing something about it one way or the another. So, you know, drop by if you're of a mind. Y'all.
* Tonight, after all, is where Kerry will either amplify the impression he gave in the last debate, solidifying his upward trajectory and all but assuring his victory, or negate the gains he made last week and make a race of this damn thing. It's kind of strange to think that the future of the United States -- hell, the future of the world -- may very well be decided tonight at 9:00 PM EST.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
The Calculus of Bullshit
It takes five seconds to speak a lie. Let us be extremely optimistic and say that it takes thirty seconds to debunk a lie. Both candidates are alloted the same amount of time to speak and respond. Therefore, the advantage goes to whoever is willing to lie most freely. The poor bastard on the wrong end of this equation ends up being unable to address more than a handful of the lies, leaving most of them unchallenged (or inadequetely challenged) while he himself appears to be ducking questions because he spends all his time refuting a minority of the other guy's points, or speaking in vague generalities in an attempt to do the impossible by addressing them all.
Welcome to the Vice-Presidential debate, ladies and gentlemen; believe me, I am even more appalled than you.
In 90 minutes, Dick Cheney did more to undermine my faith in democracy than the fact that we're still allowing Florida to participate in national elections.
I have nothing much to say about the debate, other than I'm glad it's over. Frankly, there's no excuse for Edwards' lack of immediate responses to most of Cheney's lies - they were almost exclusively rehashes of the same basic untruths he's been peddling for two years. The only real way to counter the calculus of bullshit is to scare the other guy out of using it by coming down like a bomb on one or two lies early on.
When Cheney talked about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Edwards should have responded with something along the lines of "What you left out, Mr. Vice President, is that Zarqawi was operating prior to the war out of a camp in the Kurd-controlled portion of Iraq, an area inaccessible to Saddam Hussein. You know this, and yet you use Zarqawi as an example of Al Qaeda connections to Saddam Hussein. That is a deliberate ommission with the intent to deceive, and where I come from, that's called a lie, Mr. Vice President." If it didn't slow down Big Dick's Bullshit Express, it would have at least provided the press with a juicy quote to toss around all week - and maybe, you know, confirm the fact that Cheney lied.
But he didn't, and, until things got bogged down in domestic policy wonkery (and wankery - "Your record is undistinguished!" "No, your record is undistinguished!"), it gave the national security advantage to Cheney - which translates to an overall Cheney advantage, for I guarantee you that a large portion of the audience changed the channel when the debate turned to HeadStart and medical malpractice.
With all apologies to my Democratic brethren, I'm calling this one for Cheney - albeit not by much. I don't think that anyone really doubts that the major issue for the few remaining undecideds out there is terrorism and national security, and during that portion of the debate, Edwards did the "I'll get to your question in a second, but first I'd just like to say..." thing way too often. I like John Edwards, I'm voting for Kerry/Edwards, and even I rolled my eyes at wha seemed for all the world like standard politician-avoiding-the-question. Even when he did actually end up answering the question, that repeated initial response to questions will be seen in retrospect to be a disaster - at least for people's opinions of Edwards performance in the debate. As to what degree tonight's debate will actually affect the election, I really couldn't say. Not much, I would guess.
As a final observation, I have decided that it is now the number one, no-shit, do-this-right-the-fuck-now priority for the Kerry/Edwards speechwriting crew to come up with a way to convey the fact that Kerry and Edwards have a plan to do a bunch of good stuff without actually saying that they have a plan. Again, there is nothing on this planet that could get me to vote for Bush/Cheney, but I'm going to be honest with you: it looks really freakin' bad when our boys keep repeating "I have a plan to..." in response to direct questions about details of how they intend to proceed. I know that the plans they do have are complicated and cannot be adequetely explained in soundbites, but I am absolutely positive that a good number of people's natural response to "I have a plan" is "Yeah? Like what?" - and then they decide that Kerry/Edwards is bullshitting them, and the task of winning them over becomes exponentially more difficult. This problem is exacerbated by constant repitition, which makes it seem more and more like a cop-out. After all, it's easy to say you have a plan, but actually having a good plan, and then executing it, is another animal entirely. Even the dumbest among us know that; only blind faith keeps you from acknowledging the difference, and the people with blind faith in one cadidate or another are not in the "persuadable" column.
It takes five seconds to speak a lie. Let us be extremely optimistic and say that it takes thirty seconds to debunk a lie. Both candidates are alloted the same amount of time to speak and respond. Therefore, the advantage goes to whoever is willing to lie most freely. The poor bastard on the wrong end of this equation ends up being unable to address more than a handful of the lies, leaving most of them unchallenged (or inadequetely challenged) while he himself appears to be ducking questions because he spends all his time refuting a minority of the other guy's points, or speaking in vague generalities in an attempt to do the impossible by addressing them all.
Welcome to the Vice-Presidential debate, ladies and gentlemen; believe me, I am even more appalled than you.
In 90 minutes, Dick Cheney did more to undermine my faith in democracy than the fact that we're still allowing Florida to participate in national elections.
I have nothing much to say about the debate, other than I'm glad it's over. Frankly, there's no excuse for Edwards' lack of immediate responses to most of Cheney's lies - they were almost exclusively rehashes of the same basic untruths he's been peddling for two years. The only real way to counter the calculus of bullshit is to scare the other guy out of using it by coming down like a bomb on one or two lies early on.
When Cheney talked about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Edwards should have responded with something along the lines of "What you left out, Mr. Vice President, is that Zarqawi was operating prior to the war out of a camp in the Kurd-controlled portion of Iraq, an area inaccessible to Saddam Hussein. You know this, and yet you use Zarqawi as an example of Al Qaeda connections to Saddam Hussein. That is a deliberate ommission with the intent to deceive, and where I come from, that's called a lie, Mr. Vice President." If it didn't slow down Big Dick's Bullshit Express, it would have at least provided the press with a juicy quote to toss around all week - and maybe, you know, confirm the fact that Cheney lied.
But he didn't, and, until things got bogged down in domestic policy wonkery (and wankery - "Your record is undistinguished!" "No, your record is undistinguished!"), it gave the national security advantage to Cheney - which translates to an overall Cheney advantage, for I guarantee you that a large portion of the audience changed the channel when the debate turned to HeadStart and medical malpractice.
With all apologies to my Democratic brethren, I'm calling this one for Cheney - albeit not by much. I don't think that anyone really doubts that the major issue for the few remaining undecideds out there is terrorism and national security, and during that portion of the debate, Edwards did the "I'll get to your question in a second, but first I'd just like to say..." thing way too often. I like John Edwards, I'm voting for Kerry/Edwards, and even I rolled my eyes at wha seemed for all the world like standard politician-avoiding-the-question. Even when he did actually end up answering the question, that repeated initial response to questions will be seen in retrospect to be a disaster - at least for people's opinions of Edwards performance in the debate. As to what degree tonight's debate will actually affect the election, I really couldn't say. Not much, I would guess.
As a final observation, I have decided that it is now the number one, no-shit, do-this-right-the-fuck-now priority for the Kerry/Edwards speechwriting crew to come up with a way to convey the fact that Kerry and Edwards have a plan to do a bunch of good stuff without actually saying that they have a plan. Again, there is nothing on this planet that could get me to vote for Bush/Cheney, but I'm going to be honest with you: it looks really freakin' bad when our boys keep repeating "I have a plan to..." in response to direct questions about details of how they intend to proceed. I know that the plans they do have are complicated and cannot be adequetely explained in soundbites, but I am absolutely positive that a good number of people's natural response to "I have a plan" is "Yeah? Like what?" - and then they decide that Kerry/Edwards is bullshitting them, and the task of winning them over becomes exponentially more difficult. This problem is exacerbated by constant repitition, which makes it seem more and more like a cop-out. After all, it's easy to say you have a plan, but actually having a good plan, and then executing it, is another animal entirely. Even the dumbest among us know that; only blind faith keeps you from acknowledging the difference, and the people with blind faith in one cadidate or another are not in the "persuadable" column.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
The Vice Presidential Debate (Rah! Yay!)
Damn, no warning or anything on C-SPAN, just, "Here they are!"
***
Um...are they debating via telepathy?
I know I didn't bother to check out the rules and format of this debate, but neither did 99.99% of the people watching. To us, this long stretch of silence is just freakin' weird.
***
Excellent camera findin' skills, Mr. Edwards. Yes, we're over here. Hi!
***
First question to Dick: Excellent use of current information by whoever wrote the first question.
Dick's Response: 9/11, need to go after state sponsors of terror, Iraq/Al Qaeda connections, etc. Damn. If I had a pair as big as Cheney I wouldn't be able to sit down.
***
Edwards is making a point of saying "John KErry and I...", which is what he needs to do, seeing as how him and Dick are just surrogates for Kerry and Bush.
Edwards: "I want the American people to listen very closely to what the Vice PResident is saying." A beautiful way of saying "He's fucking lying" without actually, you know, saying it. Good work, John.
Cheney: "I have not said there is a connection between Iraq and 9/11." If the DNC doesn't release a blast fax to every media outlet within two minutes quoting all the times Cheny has done just that, the party is well and truly being run by idiots.
***
Cheney: Blah blah blah, Afghan elections. If Edwards doesn't rip Cheney's head off about massive voter fraud and the security situation in Afghanistan, I will hate him forever.
***
Edwards: "Here's what's actually happening in Afghanistan..." Good.
***
Blogger problems...this might not work tonight.
***
PS - Blogger sucks. It's taking 5 minutes to reload pages so I can post, and then eating my posts. Too many people posting at once, maybe. Or maybe, you know, they just suck. Either way, this exercise appears to be over. I'm sorry to everyone who expected me to liveblog. I guess I'll post a wrapup when the thing is done.
Damn, no warning or anything on C-SPAN, just, "Here they are!"
***
Um...are they debating via telepathy?
I know I didn't bother to check out the rules and format of this debate, but neither did 99.99% of the people watching. To us, this long stretch of silence is just freakin' weird.
***
Excellent camera findin' skills, Mr. Edwards. Yes, we're over here. Hi!
***
First question to Dick: Excellent use of current information by whoever wrote the first question.
Dick's Response: 9/11, need to go after state sponsors of terror, Iraq/Al Qaeda connections, etc. Damn. If I had a pair as big as Cheney I wouldn't be able to sit down.
***
Edwards is making a point of saying "John KErry and I...", which is what he needs to do, seeing as how him and Dick are just surrogates for Kerry and Bush.
Edwards: "I want the American people to listen very closely to what the Vice PResident is saying." A beautiful way of saying "He's fucking lying" without actually, you know, saying it. Good work, John.
Cheney: "I have not said there is a connection between Iraq and 9/11." If the DNC doesn't release a blast fax to every media outlet within two minutes quoting all the times Cheny has done just that, the party is well and truly being run by idiots.
***
Cheney: Blah blah blah, Afghan elections. If Edwards doesn't rip Cheney's head off about massive voter fraud and the security situation in Afghanistan, I will hate him forever.
***
Edwards: "Here's what's actually happening in Afghanistan..." Good.
***
Blogger problems...this might not work tonight.
***
PS - Blogger sucks. It's taking 5 minutes to reload pages so I can post, and then eating my posts. Too many people posting at once, maybe. Or maybe, you know, they just suck. Either way, this exercise appears to be over. I'm sorry to everyone who expected me to liveblog. I guess I'll post a wrapup when the thing is done.
Monday, October 04, 2004
Liveblogging Once Again
In a move I will surely regret in the morning once I sober up, I have decided to liveblog the Vice Presidential debate tommorrow evening. Join me in what will no doubt be a mind-numbingly dumb spectacle of fresh-faced optimism, monotone lies of historic proportions, and a thousand media personalities falling all over themselves to tell us how a thousand media personalities feel about the pack mentality of a thousand media personalities. Festivities begin at 9:00 pm EST. I begin writing in my head a new canto of the Inferno describing an entire circle of hell dedicated to everyone involved with cable news at 9:05 .
What's the Italian translation of "small fiery demon with sharp hot stick"?
In a move I will surely regret in the morning once I sober up, I have decided to liveblog the Vice Presidential debate tommorrow evening. Join me in what will no doubt be a mind-numbingly dumb spectacle of fresh-faced optimism, monotone lies of historic proportions, and a thousand media personalities falling all over themselves to tell us how a thousand media personalities feel about the pack mentality of a thousand media personalities. Festivities begin at 9:00 pm EST. I begin writing in my head a new canto of the Inferno describing an entire circle of hell dedicated to everyone involved with cable news at 9:05 .
What's the Italian translation of "small fiery demon with sharp hot stick"?
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Liberal Media
Damn*. Is Wolf Blitzer really asking Tommy Franks on CNN right now to evaluate the merit of Kerry's charge that Bush let Bin Laden escape at Tora Bora?
The same Tommy Franks who has not only been a loyal Bush man from the beginning, but also commanded the campaign in Afghanistan? You know, as in, the guy who shares responsibility if the charge is true?
*Edited, because the words "God" and "fucking" should only be placed adjacent to one another in a sentence when circumstances or hyperbole truly deserve it. This minor observation doesn't qualify. Sorry for offense/inconvenience/disappointment.
Damn*. Is Wolf Blitzer really asking Tommy Franks on CNN right now to evaluate the merit of Kerry's charge that Bush let Bin Laden escape at Tora Bora?
The same Tommy Franks who has not only been a loyal Bush man from the beginning, but also commanded the campaign in Afghanistan? You know, as in, the guy who shares responsibility if the charge is true?
*Edited, because the words "God" and "fucking" should only be placed adjacent to one another in a sentence when circumstances or hyperbole truly deserve it. This minor observation doesn't qualify. Sorry for offense/inconvenience/disappointment.
The First Presidential Debate (cue appropriately reverential noises)
Because newstickers and various other overlays during major events annoy me, I'm wtching this on C-SPAN. Besides, CNN won't show you amusing footage of Jim Lehrer immitating the warnings in movie theaters to shut off cellphones, pagers, and to kick out crying babies.
1 minute to air. Fantastic.
***
By the way, I've decided that at the end of this thing, I will rate Kerry's advisors as either "smart" or "not smart" (or, possibly "complete and utter dipshits") based on Kerry's performance.
***
Bush: "I don't think [another terrorist attack] is going to happen, because the American people know I'm a great leader"
Does this mean that because I think he's a goddawful leader, I'm participating in a terrorist act?
***
Kerry: "Beofre I answer..." let me suck up to the audience.
NO! Goddamnit, John.
***
LEt us all note that Bush has spoken for thirty seconds and has already emitted two audible sighs. I remember Gore being taken to task for that...do they not count when they are sighs of "Oh shit, I'm blanking already!" rather than "I cannot believe I'm onstage with this idiot"?
***
Bush is already speaking like he's on the defensive. Is that giddiness I feel welling up inside me?
***
"What colossoal misjudgements do you think the President has made?" Kerry: "Well, where do you want me to begin?" Not funny enough to offset the snottiness. Bad John.
***
Bush: "My opponent looked at the same intelligence I looked at." Not unless a US Senator has all the security clearances that the President does. In fact, don't I remember the administration using a number of variations on "trust us, we KNOW things" before the war began?
***
Bush: "Allawi is a strong leader..." Somewhere, Augusto Pinochet is laughing.
***
Kerry: Body armor and Humvees without armor...excellent. Hit him where he hurts, the supporting the troops thing, and placing blame for it directly where it belongs- on the guy who sent them without what they needed.
***
Second time Bush has mentioned Kerry's vote for the authorization of force before his current opposition to the war.
Dear John,
Why the FUCK are you not quoting your own reasons for voting for the use of force resolution - you know, the ones you gave at the time? The whole damn issue can be laid to rest by a clear answer right now....what is wrong with you?
Love,
TMRM
***
"At the current pace, the current President will not secure Russia's nuclear material for 13 years." Excellent soundbite. Good John.
***
Bush: "Like a huge tax gap...but...anyway...that's another debate."
Translated for your convenience: "Dammit Wrong gear! Shift! Shift dammit!"
***
Kerry: "We didn't need that tax cut, America needed to be kept safe."
THAT is a nice kick to the nuts. Good John.
***
Kerry: quoting Daddy Bush to kick Junior's legs out from under him (a passage that sounds eerily prophetic, by the way). Good John. Good good John.
***
Bush: "What kind of message does this give to our troops..." This formulation is getting real, real old.
***
There's that explanation for the authorization of force vote. Plus a Shinseki reference. The young Senator might be able to pull this off after all.
***
Bush: "I know how these people think." Like Putin?
***
Am I the only one who things Bush actually sounds whiny?
Bush: "Well, actually, you forgot Poland." Jesus. I thought he was going to yell booyah after he said that.
***
I see the President is still under the impression that the resistance in Iraq is being carried out primarily by Saddam loyalists. That whole flap about Bush claiming to not read newspapers a few months ago is looming rather large in my head right now.
***
Holy hell...the camera needs to pan to Bush when Kerry is speaking...the shot I just saw showed Bush puffing his lips like a damn blowfish....what the fuck kind of nervous tick is that?
***
Bush: "He looked at the very same intelligence I did." This again.
***
Kerry: "I've had one consistent position thoughout...that Saddam Hussein was a threat, and there was a right way to take care of him, and a wrong way. The President chose the wrong way."
I want to have sex with whoever taught Kerry about good soundbites.
Bush: "The only thing my opponent has been consistent about is...inconsistency."
Ha! I also want to have sex with whichever idiot taught Bush about soundbites. I think I hear the 5th grader next door laughing at Bush for having lame comebacks.
***
Bush: "Kerry's campaign alleged that Prime Minister Allawi is a puppet! That's no way to treat someone who's noble and brave!" I have to admit, I laughed out loud at that one. I'll be using that myself.
"You're an asshole, Christian."
"That's no way to treat someone who's noble and brave!"
***
God be praised. Kerry is kicking Bush's ass with a quickness.
***
Ooh...bad Kerry. No mention Kyoto. Not worth rehashing that shit right now. More important things to do.
***
Bush: "I wouldn't want to join the International Criminal Court.." George, is it really a good idea for the President that brought us Abu Ghraib to poohpooh on a court that is supposed to be dedicated to prosecuting human rights violations? I mean, I don't know if the ICC is something we should be a part of, but I DO know that you're in no position to make that judgement.
***
Bush: "The breach, by the way, was not on plutonium, it was on highly enriched uranium!"
I'll say it for him: BOOYAH, bitch!
***
Bush: "It was not my administration that put sanctions on Iran. That happened...long ago."
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
***
Kerry: "I'm not going to talk about differences of character; that's not my job, that's not my business." Swing voters who honestly --honestly -- are undecided will love that one; it's a repudiation of the negative campaign bullshit we're all sick of. Excellent work, John.
***
Greatest threat to the United States -
Kerry: "Nuclear proliferation. Nuclear proliferation." Very forceful there. I can't think of a better way to answer that question. And Bush is left making excuses.
***
Did Bush just say he busted the AQ Khan network? Which of our jails is Khan in?
Oh, that's right. He's still free in Pakistan.
***
Thank you, Jim Lehrer, for mentioning Putin, and Bush's previously stated judgement of him. Here's an interesting qeustion: If Bush misjudged Putin, might he be now misjudging Allawi? (we shall, for now, ignore the fact that Allawi is more likely than not, with all due respect, a fucking puppet).
***
Bush: "Oh, I'm a pretty calm guy." Damn. He's melting down. Rove must be praising Lucifer that the debate is almost over.
***
Closing:
Kerry: America is great, and with me in charge we will become greater.
Bush: Vote for me or you're fucked.
Fantastic.
***
Jenna and Barbera onstage post-debate:
Ah, so that's what a "My daddy just got his ass whupped bad" expression looks like.
***
Aaaaaaand, we're done.
Kerry's advisor rating: Smart! My God, smart!
Bush's advisor rating: Dumb! Thank God, dumb! And going to hell, for trying to get him re-elected, but that kind of judgement is outside the mandate of VeryVeryHappy (for now...).
End liveblogging. Go to bed.
Because newstickers and various other overlays during major events annoy me, I'm wtching this on C-SPAN. Besides, CNN won't show you amusing footage of Jim Lehrer immitating the warnings in movie theaters to shut off cellphones, pagers, and to kick out crying babies.
1 minute to air. Fantastic.
***
By the way, I've decided that at the end of this thing, I will rate Kerry's advisors as either "smart" or "not smart" (or, possibly "complete and utter dipshits") based on Kerry's performance.
***
Bush: "I don't think [another terrorist attack] is going to happen, because the American people know I'm a great leader"
Does this mean that because I think he's a goddawful leader, I'm participating in a terrorist act?
***
Kerry: "Beofre I answer..." let me suck up to the audience.
NO! Goddamnit, John.
***
LEt us all note that Bush has spoken for thirty seconds and has already emitted two audible sighs. I remember Gore being taken to task for that...do they not count when they are sighs of "Oh shit, I'm blanking already!" rather than "I cannot believe I'm onstage with this idiot"?
***
Bush is already speaking like he's on the defensive. Is that giddiness I feel welling up inside me?
***
"What colossoal misjudgements do you think the President has made?" Kerry: "Well, where do you want me to begin?" Not funny enough to offset the snottiness. Bad John.
***
Bush: "My opponent looked at the same intelligence I looked at." Not unless a US Senator has all the security clearances that the President does. In fact, don't I remember the administration using a number of variations on "trust us, we KNOW things" before the war began?
***
Bush: "Allawi is a strong leader..." Somewhere, Augusto Pinochet is laughing.
***
Kerry: Body armor and Humvees without armor...excellent. Hit him where he hurts, the supporting the troops thing, and placing blame for it directly where it belongs- on the guy who sent them without what they needed.
***
Second time Bush has mentioned Kerry's vote for the authorization of force before his current opposition to the war.
Dear John,
Why the FUCK are you not quoting your own reasons for voting for the use of force resolution - you know, the ones you gave at the time? The whole damn issue can be laid to rest by a clear answer right now....what is wrong with you?
Love,
TMRM
***
"At the current pace, the current President will not secure Russia's nuclear material for 13 years." Excellent soundbite. Good John.
***
Bush: "Like a huge tax gap...but...anyway...that's another debate."
Translated for your convenience: "Dammit Wrong gear! Shift! Shift dammit!"
***
Kerry: "We didn't need that tax cut, America needed to be kept safe."
THAT is a nice kick to the nuts. Good John.
***
Kerry: quoting Daddy Bush to kick Junior's legs out from under him (a passage that sounds eerily prophetic, by the way). Good John. Good good John.
***
Bush: "What kind of message does this give to our troops..." This formulation is getting real, real old.
***
There's that explanation for the authorization of force vote. Plus a Shinseki reference. The young Senator might be able to pull this off after all.
***
Bush: "I know how these people think." Like Putin?
***
Am I the only one who things Bush actually sounds whiny?
Bush: "Well, actually, you forgot Poland." Jesus. I thought he was going to yell booyah after he said that.
***
I see the President is still under the impression that the resistance in Iraq is being carried out primarily by Saddam loyalists. That whole flap about Bush claiming to not read newspapers a few months ago is looming rather large in my head right now.
***
Holy hell...the camera needs to pan to Bush when Kerry is speaking...the shot I just saw showed Bush puffing his lips like a damn blowfish....what the fuck kind of nervous tick is that?
***
Bush: "He looked at the very same intelligence I did." This again.
***
Kerry: "I've had one consistent position thoughout...that Saddam Hussein was a threat, and there was a right way to take care of him, and a wrong way. The President chose the wrong way."
I want to have sex with whoever taught Kerry about good soundbites.
Bush: "The only thing my opponent has been consistent about is...inconsistency."
Ha! I also want to have sex with whichever idiot taught Bush about soundbites. I think I hear the 5th grader next door laughing at Bush for having lame comebacks.
***
Bush: "Kerry's campaign alleged that Prime Minister Allawi is a puppet! That's no way to treat someone who's noble and brave!" I have to admit, I laughed out loud at that one. I'll be using that myself.
"You're an asshole, Christian."
"That's no way to treat someone who's noble and brave!"
***
God be praised. Kerry is kicking Bush's ass with a quickness.
***
Ooh...bad Kerry. No mention Kyoto. Not worth rehashing that shit right now. More important things to do.
***
Bush: "I wouldn't want to join the International Criminal Court.." George, is it really a good idea for the President that brought us Abu Ghraib to poohpooh on a court that is supposed to be dedicated to prosecuting human rights violations? I mean, I don't know if the ICC is something we should be a part of, but I DO know that you're in no position to make that judgement.
***
Bush: "The breach, by the way, was not on plutonium, it was on highly enriched uranium!"
I'll say it for him: BOOYAH, bitch!
***
Bush: "It was not my administration that put sanctions on Iran. That happened...long ago."
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
***
Kerry: "I'm not going to talk about differences of character; that's not my job, that's not my business." Swing voters who honestly --honestly -- are undecided will love that one; it's a repudiation of the negative campaign bullshit we're all sick of. Excellent work, John.
***
Greatest threat to the United States -
Kerry: "Nuclear proliferation. Nuclear proliferation." Very forceful there. I can't think of a better way to answer that question. And Bush is left making excuses.
***
Did Bush just say he busted the AQ Khan network? Which of our jails is Khan in?
Oh, that's right. He's still free in Pakistan.
***
Thank you, Jim Lehrer, for mentioning Putin, and Bush's previously stated judgement of him. Here's an interesting qeustion: If Bush misjudged Putin, might he be now misjudging Allawi? (we shall, for now, ignore the fact that Allawi is more likely than not, with all due respect, a fucking puppet).
***
Bush: "Oh, I'm a pretty calm guy." Damn. He's melting down. Rove must be praising Lucifer that the debate is almost over.
***
Closing:
Kerry: America is great, and with me in charge we will become greater.
Bush: Vote for me or you're fucked.
Fantastic.
***
Jenna and Barbera onstage post-debate:
Ah, so that's what a "My daddy just got his ass whupped bad" expression looks like.
***
Aaaaaaand, we're done.
Kerry's advisor rating: Smart! My God, smart!
Bush's advisor rating: Dumb! Thank God, dumb! And going to hell, for trying to get him re-elected, but that kind of judgement is outside the mandate of VeryVeryHappy (for now...).
End liveblogging. Go to bed.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
For the edification of the three or four people who still read this site regularly, I will be liveblogging the Presidential debate tonight, beginning at 9:00 pm EST.
Why? Because screw it, I want to get back into this blogging thing somehow, and a format that doesn't allow me to obsess over things like clarity and sentence structure seems to be the best way to prevent myself from declaring the post a lost cause and doing something else.
Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
For the edification of the three or four people who still read this site regularly, I will be liveblogging the Presidential debate tonight, beginning at 9:00 pm EST.
Why? Because screw it, I want to get back into this blogging thing somehow, and a format that doesn't allow me to obsess over things like clarity and sentence structure seems to be the best way to prevent myself from declaring the post a lost cause and doing something else.
Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Dear JDC,
Ha!
No, wait. That's not quite right.
HA! HA HA!
Better.
Love,
TMRM
P.S. Cheese sucks. More coming soon.
Ha!
No, wait. That's not quite right.
HA! HA HA!
Better.
Love,
TMRM
P.S. Cheese sucks. More coming soon.
Monday, August 16, 2004
So Happy Together...
Kevin Drum and I are practically brothers!
Me, last year:
Him, today:
It's nice when smart people agree with you.
Kevin Drum and I are practically brothers!
Me, last year:
"Until a Left-leaning Supreme Court Justice clears the way for a viciously partisan Democratic Special Prosecutor to take control of a high-profile, endlessly-funded investigation that has already cleared Bush of wrong-doing and extend said investigation into areas that aren't covered by its mandate (and are, indeed, being manufactured and promoted by Hard Left lawyers with funding from wealthy Leftist crackpots) in order to force Bush to perjure himself so that the inherently totalitarian House of Representatives -- controlled by insanely partisan Democrats -- can draft and pass embarrassingly weak Articles of Impeachment (but only after illegally presenting waffling moderates, outside of the House chamber in a Democratic headquarters, with "evidence" that wouldn't hold up in any court that Bush was a rapist) - all enabled by some of the most factually-impaired reporting since Hearst's heyday and a television pundit corps that skews heavily to the Left, I think we can safely say that the "Devious Shit" award goes to the reigning champion GOP."
Him, today:
"Tell you what, Jonah. As soon as the most popular liberal editorial page in the country accuses George Bush of murdering one of his aides, maybe I'll give your argument a hearing. And as soon as one of the most influential liberal interest groups in the country starts distributing hundreds of thousands of videos suggesting that George Bush ran a coke ring out of Austin, then I'll really perk up. And when Senate Democrats spend $70 million investigating the Valerie Plame affair — compared to the current $0 — and end up bringing impeachment charges against George Bush, then you'll have me. You'll really have me."
It's nice when smart people agree with you.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Repository of Factual Bitchslaps
While I appreciate the warm support my previous post has generated, there are a few minor misperceptions I'd like to address.
It seems that a not-insignificant portion of readers interpreted the letter addressed to the Kerry campaign as an exhortation to go absolutely balls out, rhetorically. This was not my intention. I actually believe that sticking to the relative high ground is a very smart strategy. Bush's approval ratings on almost every subject are plummetting - something that I believe was inevitable, given his policies, but that I also believe was expected by Bush's handlers to happen several months in the future, after the election. The best route to go seems to be to hold off massive fire on Bush, and build a strong following, person to person, in the swing states. This is exactly what Kerry appears to be doing.
My main concern is that since the President is in such trouble, his allies have begun a massive smear offensive against Kerry. As many people have pointed out, building Bush up seems pretty well beyond reach; what is left is to tear Kerry down.
It seems clear to me -- and from the response my last post received, many others -- that the Kerry campaign's response to this massive bit of mud slinging has been somewhat lukewarm. This is inexcusable, and, given the stakes involved and the margin for error, very dangerous.
My suggestion, stripped of the anger/annoyance I feel justified in displaying, is rather simple and, given the resources available to the campaign, quite workable:
1. Hire a group of people to immerse themselves in the media world of the Right. Listen to Limbaugh. Listen to Hannity. Read Rightwing publications. Read Rightwing blogs - particularly InstaPundit, The Corner, and RedState. Read Rightwing forums - particularly FreeRepublic. As a very poor shorthand, I will refer to these staffers as the immersion group.
2. Give these people some kind of access to the top level of the campaign - 15 minutes a day on the phone with Kerry himself would be nice, but is most likely unfeasible. A good chunk of time with top-level media staff would probably be a decent substitute, as long as they don't minimize the importance of the immersion group.
3. As the immersion group sees themes, quotes, and lines of attack move from the fringes into the semi-mainstream (for example, once something makes the jump from Free Republic to InstaPundit), have them coordinate with press staff (actually, I'd prefer it to be with Kerry himself - this is why I'd like them to have direct access, but again, I understand that it might not be workable) to get everyone on the same page and up to speed with what the truth is, and what documentation exists to prove it. This is no time to have multiple agents floating their own personal explanations which may conflict or need to be retracted later.
4. Set up a very user-friendly website where each individual smear is decontructed at length, with as much documentation and citation as possible. Put it on either johnkerry.com, or, if people who know better than I do think that isn't appropriate, put it on the DNC's website. This is so that it has an official quality, and cannot be dismissed as a "product of far Left fringe group." Such an accusation can still be used by Righties, of course, but the power of that charge is significantly lessoned when it is directed at an official party source.
5. Sum up each deconstruction/response in quick, snappy soundbite fashion, and forcefeed it to your spokespeople, every single day. Make sure they point to the website frequently.
This should go a long way in minimizing the impact of various smears, because it will:
1. Give your spokespeople grounds to speak with authority when refuting bogus charges, minimizing rhetorical gotchas and allowing your spokespeople to stand their ground and continue to push the message they are supposed to push that day.
2. Give allies in the media an authoritative source for refutation material, so that they aren't left floundering when someone on the other side gets backed into a corner and becomes dramatically anal about citations.
3. Give mainstream media sources an easy means of "balancing" their story if and when they decide to run wiuth a particular rumor. Spoonfeed them the definitive rebuttal, rather than hoping they quote the right part of a random spokesperson's response. If rebuttals are definitive enough, the campaign may even be able to prevent a rumor from being picked up at all. After all, the mainstream media prides itself on its important role in American public life, and even if you and I think they sometimes do a horrendous job of it, most of them won't knowingly run blatantly false information.
4. Allow anyone interested to access the rebuttal themselves. With the prevalence of blogs and other internet media, this becomes especially useful as an alternate means of rapidly distributing your information.
It is no longer useful to sit back and hope that the media is too responsible to pick up any given rumor. The Right has proved that it can inject damn near any rumor it wants into mainstream discourse by distributing it along its own media network and then having the respectable press -- pathologically adverse to being scooped -- scramble to catch up. The internet has accelerated this process to the point where something can go from faint whisper on the fringes to RNC talking point on CrossFire in a matter of days. However, because all of these sources are open to the public, they can be monitored and countered in real time, if the Kerry campaign is smart enough to use its resources to do so.
While I appreciate the warm support my previous post has generated, there are a few minor misperceptions I'd like to address.
It seems that a not-insignificant portion of readers interpreted the letter addressed to the Kerry campaign as an exhortation to go absolutely balls out, rhetorically. This was not my intention. I actually believe that sticking to the relative high ground is a very smart strategy. Bush's approval ratings on almost every subject are plummetting - something that I believe was inevitable, given his policies, but that I also believe was expected by Bush's handlers to happen several months in the future, after the election. The best route to go seems to be to hold off massive fire on Bush, and build a strong following, person to person, in the swing states. This is exactly what Kerry appears to be doing.
My main concern is that since the President is in such trouble, his allies have begun a massive smear offensive against Kerry. As many people have pointed out, building Bush up seems pretty well beyond reach; what is left is to tear Kerry down.
It seems clear to me -- and from the response my last post received, many others -- that the Kerry campaign's response to this massive bit of mud slinging has been somewhat lukewarm. This is inexcusable, and, given the stakes involved and the margin for error, very dangerous.
My suggestion, stripped of the anger/annoyance I feel justified in displaying, is rather simple and, given the resources available to the campaign, quite workable:
1. Hire a group of people to immerse themselves in the media world of the Right. Listen to Limbaugh. Listen to Hannity. Read Rightwing publications. Read Rightwing blogs - particularly InstaPundit, The Corner, and RedState. Read Rightwing forums - particularly FreeRepublic. As a very poor shorthand, I will refer to these staffers as the immersion group.
2. Give these people some kind of access to the top level of the campaign - 15 minutes a day on the phone with Kerry himself would be nice, but is most likely unfeasible. A good chunk of time with top-level media staff would probably be a decent substitute, as long as they don't minimize the importance of the immersion group.
3. As the immersion group sees themes, quotes, and lines of attack move from the fringes into the semi-mainstream (for example, once something makes the jump from Free Republic to InstaPundit), have them coordinate with press staff (actually, I'd prefer it to be with Kerry himself - this is why I'd like them to have direct access, but again, I understand that it might not be workable) to get everyone on the same page and up to speed with what the truth is, and what documentation exists to prove it. This is no time to have multiple agents floating their own personal explanations which may conflict or need to be retracted later.
4. Set up a very user-friendly website where each individual smear is decontructed at length, with as much documentation and citation as possible. Put it on either johnkerry.com, or, if people who know better than I do think that isn't appropriate, put it on the DNC's website. This is so that it has an official quality, and cannot be dismissed as a "product of far Left fringe group." Such an accusation can still be used by Righties, of course, but the power of that charge is significantly lessoned when it is directed at an official party source.
5. Sum up each deconstruction/response in quick, snappy soundbite fashion, and forcefeed it to your spokespeople, every single day. Make sure they point to the website frequently.
This should go a long way in minimizing the impact of various smears, because it will:
1. Give your spokespeople grounds to speak with authority when refuting bogus charges, minimizing rhetorical gotchas and allowing your spokespeople to stand their ground and continue to push the message they are supposed to push that day.
2. Give allies in the media an authoritative source for refutation material, so that they aren't left floundering when someone on the other side gets backed into a corner and becomes dramatically anal about citations.
3. Give mainstream media sources an easy means of "balancing" their story if and when they decide to run wiuth a particular rumor. Spoonfeed them the definitive rebuttal, rather than hoping they quote the right part of a random spokesperson's response. If rebuttals are definitive enough, the campaign may even be able to prevent a rumor from being picked up at all. After all, the mainstream media prides itself on its important role in American public life, and even if you and I think they sometimes do a horrendous job of it, most of them won't knowingly run blatantly false information.
4. Allow anyone interested to access the rebuttal themselves. With the prevalence of blogs and other internet media, this becomes especially useful as an alternate means of rapidly distributing your information.
It is no longer useful to sit back and hope that the media is too responsible to pick up any given rumor. The Right has proved that it can inject damn near any rumor it wants into mainstream discourse by distributing it along its own media network and then having the respectable press -- pathologically adverse to being scooped -- scramble to catch up. The internet has accelerated this process to the point where something can go from faint whisper on the fringes to RNC talking point on CrossFire in a matter of days. However, because all of these sources are open to the public, they can be monitored and countered in real time, if the Kerry campaign is smart enough to use its resources to do so.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Dear Kerry '04 Campaign Staff,
I don't know what's going on in your heads, but you guys need to seriously get your shit together.
You are trying to get a man elected to the most powerful office in the world. You are running against liars and thieves who have a coordinated smear apparatus with branches throughout the national media. You have the example of the 2000 campaign, and indeed the entire Clinton presidency, to learn how this apparatus operates.
You know this. So why in God's name am I seeing interview clips that involve your spokespeople beginning sentences by stuttering, looking nonplussed, and saying things like "I believe" and "That's not entirely correct"?
I don't know, maybe you're hiring your favorite nieces or the neighbor children to be your spokespeople, but whatever it is, it ain't gonna cut it my friends. Anyone who goes in front of a camera with the imprimatur of the campaign and is blindsided by quotes, allegations, or outright lies that I have already heard needs to be fired immediately. There's a lot of dirt gonna be thrown your way in the next few months, and the time to pattycake with this bullshit is over.
Your fundraising efforts have been extremely effective and have won you accolades from various sources. Congratulations. Now tell me why the fuck you aren't paying some college kid $300 a week to do fulltime what I do for an hour or two a day? You have the unique opportunity of seeing the other side's talking points at least a day or two before they go into effect nationwide. How? Read their freakin' blogs. Hell, you'd be infinitely more prepared for this crap if you just read the goddamn InstaPundit, whose mission in life appears to be to collect as much bullshit as possible from as many questionable sources as possible and spray it hither and yon into the media winds. I believe in a Just God, and as such I know that Reynolds and his family will be punished unto the fourth generation, but for now, you can use his sin to do good. It's what Jesus would do, and you love Jesus, right?
Sure, most people who hear the various false charges, distortions, and lies about your candidate are skeptical, and realize that they are bogus. But the other side doesn't need most people. They need a small handful of undecideds to break their way in a few critical states. That's why every little smear, no matter how ridiculous, is potentially devastating.
There's only one way to deal with this: every lie, distortion, and false charge needs to be crushed, immediately and irrefutably, to the point where journalists will be mocked for repeating them.
You not only need to say that their bullshit is ridiculous, but you need to explain in detail why it is ridiculous. Not on television - I understand the need for soundbite wisdom in the ADD nightmare that is cable news. No, what your crew needs to do is set up a resource, a central repository of factual bitchslaps across the jaw of all this character assasination. Bullet point it so that your representatives can quickly get the message across on TV, but make deeper detail available online for anyone who's interested, particularly journalists. Make it part of johnkerry.com, or have the DNC set it up and put it under their name, whichever you like. But make sure your people point to it in every interview in print, on television, and on radio.
You're good people, and despite what you say in public, God is on your side, but if you fuck this up, you will undoubtedly burn in hell forever. God is merciful, but He's getting sick of this shit. Don't let Him down.
Regards,
The Mighty Reason Man
PS - Also, I advise you to hire someone to beat the living hell out of Sean Hannity, on general principles. Contact me for further advice.
I don't know what's going on in your heads, but you guys need to seriously get your shit together.
You are trying to get a man elected to the most powerful office in the world. You are running against liars and thieves who have a coordinated smear apparatus with branches throughout the national media. You have the example of the 2000 campaign, and indeed the entire Clinton presidency, to learn how this apparatus operates.
You know this. So why in God's name am I seeing interview clips that involve your spokespeople beginning sentences by stuttering, looking nonplussed, and saying things like "I believe" and "That's not entirely correct"?
I don't know, maybe you're hiring your favorite nieces or the neighbor children to be your spokespeople, but whatever it is, it ain't gonna cut it my friends. Anyone who goes in front of a camera with the imprimatur of the campaign and is blindsided by quotes, allegations, or outright lies that I have already heard needs to be fired immediately. There's a lot of dirt gonna be thrown your way in the next few months, and the time to pattycake with this bullshit is over.
Your fundraising efforts have been extremely effective and have won you accolades from various sources. Congratulations. Now tell me why the fuck you aren't paying some college kid $300 a week to do fulltime what I do for an hour or two a day? You have the unique opportunity of seeing the other side's talking points at least a day or two before they go into effect nationwide. How? Read their freakin' blogs. Hell, you'd be infinitely more prepared for this crap if you just read the goddamn InstaPundit, whose mission in life appears to be to collect as much bullshit as possible from as many questionable sources as possible and spray it hither and yon into the media winds. I believe in a Just God, and as such I know that Reynolds and his family will be punished unto the fourth generation, but for now, you can use his sin to do good. It's what Jesus would do, and you love Jesus, right?
Sure, most people who hear the various false charges, distortions, and lies about your candidate are skeptical, and realize that they are bogus. But the other side doesn't need most people. They need a small handful of undecideds to break their way in a few critical states. That's why every little smear, no matter how ridiculous, is potentially devastating.
There's only one way to deal with this: every lie, distortion, and false charge needs to be crushed, immediately and irrefutably, to the point where journalists will be mocked for repeating them.
You not only need to say that their bullshit is ridiculous, but you need to explain in detail why it is ridiculous. Not on television - I understand the need for soundbite wisdom in the ADD nightmare that is cable news. No, what your crew needs to do is set up a resource, a central repository of factual bitchslaps across the jaw of all this character assasination. Bullet point it so that your representatives can quickly get the message across on TV, but make deeper detail available online for anyone who's interested, particularly journalists. Make it part of johnkerry.com, or have the DNC set it up and put it under their name, whichever you like. But make sure your people point to it in every interview in print, on television, and on radio.
You're good people, and despite what you say in public, God is on your side, but if you fuck this up, you will undoubtedly burn in hell forever. God is merciful, but He's getting sick of this shit. Don't let Him down.
Regards,
The Mighty Reason Man
PS - Also, I advise you to hire someone to beat the living hell out of Sean Hannity, on general principles. Contact me for further advice.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Ringu
An experience that I am beginning to truly hate, that has been occuring with increasing frequency of late: I run into a pretty girl somewhere, strike up a conversation, get her to laugh, get her name, get the whole eye-contact thing going, decide that, yeah, this chick's cool enough to try to get her to go out for coffee or something, and then glance at her left hand and see my Nemesis: that fucking diamond on the ringfinger.
Great. Five minutes down the drain.
It's come to the point where I'm in favor of ditching the customary wedding/engagement ring and requiring women to tattoo "MOVE ALONG" on their foreheads.
I guess it's time to become more vocal in my support for gay marriage, so that the institution crumbles to the ground and life can become more convenient for me.
Or, you know, remember to look at the left hand first, as opposed to...well, I'm a straight male in his early twenties; you already know what I look at first.
An experience that I am beginning to truly hate, that has been occuring with increasing frequency of late: I run into a pretty girl somewhere, strike up a conversation, get her to laugh, get her name, get the whole eye-contact thing going, decide that, yeah, this chick's cool enough to try to get her to go out for coffee or something, and then glance at her left hand and see my Nemesis: that fucking diamond on the ringfinger.
Great. Five minutes down the drain.
It's come to the point where I'm in favor of ditching the customary wedding/engagement ring and requiring women to tattoo "MOVE ALONG" on their foreheads.
I guess it's time to become more vocal in my support for gay marriage, so that the institution crumbles to the ground and life can become more convenient for me.
Or, you know, remember to look at the left hand first, as opposed to...well, I'm a straight male in his early twenties; you already know what I look at first.
I Wonder If The Authorities View With Suspicion The Disappearance Of Small Children In Glenn Reynolds' Neighborhood
As a casual observer of the art of dark insinuation in the absence of actual incriminating evidence, I direct you to this bit by the reigning expert:
Ha ha.
But seriously. The "you should be worried" formulation, and variations thereof, is an old Reynolds standard, directed at various people he dislikes - from the Europeans, to Chris Matthews, to the mainstream press.
It's yet another one of his little implied threats that really bug the shit out of me. I'm constantly tempted to call it the faintest glimmer of the fascist impulse which I suspect plays a larger part in the mentality of die-hard Bush supporters than they will ever admit, but that would make me a shrill, hysterical, shrieking Leftist, who wouldn't say that kind of thing if he knew what was good for him. After all, aren't I worried that real patriotic Americans would hurt me if they knew what I really thought?
Yeah...yeah.
Sidenote: On the subject of insinuations without evidence, in the same post Reynolds quotes a reader who reads dark happenings in the Kerry campaign's lack of angry response to the Sandy Berger story, the implication being that they have something to hide.
Right. Because the Kerry campaign is too stupid to realize that anything they say only prolongs what is, essentially, a non-story, and that the smartest response would be to shut the fuck up about the whole thing and let the 9/11 report knock it off the frontpage.
I know Glenn gets a lot of readers, but why do only the dumb ones bother to send him email?
As a casual observer of the art of dark insinuation in the absence of actual incriminating evidence, I direct you to this bit by the reigning expert:
"So Berger knew he was under investigation. As we've seen earlier, Bill Clinton says that he knew months ahead. And, I guess, so did Joe Lockhart, serving as Berger's "spokesman." (Hence the "we" and "our" -- and who else might be included in those terms? And why does a retired government official have a spokesman, anyway? Beats me.) Yet John Kerry says that he "didn't have a clue."You know, things like "the Niger uranium claim has very weak evidenciary basis," or "we have set up an internal intelligence operation made up of our own people because all of our intelligence agencies think we're full of shit."
If I were Kerry, I'd worry about what else my staff wasn't telling me."
(emphasis mine)
Ha ha.
But seriously. The "you should be worried" formulation, and variations thereof, is an old Reynolds standard, directed at various people he dislikes - from the Europeans, to Chris Matthews, to the mainstream press.
It's yet another one of his little implied threats that really bug the shit out of me. I'm constantly tempted to call it the faintest glimmer of the fascist impulse which I suspect plays a larger part in the mentality of die-hard Bush supporters than they will ever admit, but that would make me a shrill, hysterical, shrieking Leftist, who wouldn't say that kind of thing if he knew what was good for him. After all, aren't I worried that real patriotic Americans would hurt me if they knew what I really thought?
Yeah...yeah.
Sidenote: On the subject of insinuations without evidence, in the same post Reynolds quotes a reader who reads dark happenings in the Kerry campaign's lack of angry response to the Sandy Berger story, the implication being that they have something to hide.
Right. Because the Kerry campaign is too stupid to realize that anything they say only prolongs what is, essentially, a non-story, and that the smartest response would be to shut the fuck up about the whole thing and let the 9/11 report knock it off the frontpage.
I know Glenn gets a lot of readers, but why do only the dumb ones bother to send him email?
Thursday, July 15, 2004
I Must Face The Evil Warlock Who Killed My Father! Give Me The Boots Of Oruku, So That My Cyber-Psionic Power Will Be Unmatched!
I have mixed feelings about Japanese anime; the storytelling potential of animation is enormous, and I give the infiltration of America by anime all kinds of credit for slowly breaking down the absolutely tragic perception of animation as primarily a children's medium. However, the writing in most anime that I have seen is pretty shoddy - and the dialogue is almost uniformly atrocious. Now, I'm willing to attribute most of that to problems inherant in translating between vastly dissimilar languages, but at least some of it is due to differences between Japanese and American culture. What I'd really like to see is an emergence of American (or British) written anime intended solely for an adult audience, stripped of most of the cutesiness that infects virtually all Japanese anime to one degree or another. The Animatrix, for example, is a very promising development which I hope will inspire similar efforts in the future. See also: Samurai Jack, which is somewhat kid-oriented, but combines some very good storytelling with simple but very dynamic animation.
Why does the potential of anime excite me so much? Several reasons.
- You can do anything. An animation screenwriter doesn't have to worry about whether something can be realistically depicted onscreen - if you can draw it (or computer-generate it), you can do it. This could be particularly useful in the science fiction, fantasy, and historical genres, which in live action cinema require huge amounts of money to look anyhting but cheesy.
- Which brings us to cost. Compared to live action cinema, animation is dirt cheap, especially if you're talking about effects-heavy productions.
- Which brings us to specialization and risk taking. Since animated movies are cheaper, they don't have to do nearly as well at the box office to recoup production costs, which in turn means studio executives would be much more willing to take a chance on something experimental, or something that would appeal to a specific audience. The reason that big-budget movies are so often cringe-worthy is because, due to that big budget, they need to make lots and lots of money, which means they have to try to be all things to all people, which leaves most people disappointed in one aspect or another. This is particularly evident in the sci-fi genre, where people like myself would be willing, in order to get a movie that doesn't need to sacrifice a tight, smartly-written story in order to pay for the special effects, to kill somebody - particularly the idiots who produce ludicrous, bloated characatures of science fiction like Armageddon. I also really like the idea of a historical drama set in some little-explored period, without having to make it a star vehicle or fill it with anachronistic and ahistoric elements in order to broaden its appeal.
- Animation eliminates the need for actors to be pretty. Voice roles can be cast based solely on talent, instead of on whether someone looks right for a role. An example off the top of my head is the dude who played Kraven in Underworld. Yeah, he sure does look like the leader of a vampire clan, but everytime the guy opened his mouth, I wanted to put tire iron in it. In his defense, it appears that he was born in Ireland, which means his verbal awkwardness may have been due to the director forcing him to use an American accent - which of course only reinforces my point. Had Underworld been animated, he never would have been cast in the role.
So, um, yeah. Support adult animation1 in the US! Or something. I don't really have an action plan on this one.
Note: This post inspired by a post by DenBeste, which I read only enough of to see this summary of a particular anime series:
Goddamn if that isn't a spectacular display of every crappy anime cliche in existence. Shit like that is the reason I don't like anime.
__________
1 Non-porn, that is. Animated porn is really fucking weird, and if you are into it you are a freak. No exceptions.
I have mixed feelings about Japanese anime; the storytelling potential of animation is enormous, and I give the infiltration of America by anime all kinds of credit for slowly breaking down the absolutely tragic perception of animation as primarily a children's medium. However, the writing in most anime that I have seen is pretty shoddy - and the dialogue is almost uniformly atrocious. Now, I'm willing to attribute most of that to problems inherant in translating between vastly dissimilar languages, but at least some of it is due to differences between Japanese and American culture. What I'd really like to see is an emergence of American (or British) written anime intended solely for an adult audience, stripped of most of the cutesiness that infects virtually all Japanese anime to one degree or another. The Animatrix, for example, is a very promising development which I hope will inspire similar efforts in the future. See also: Samurai Jack, which is somewhat kid-oriented, but combines some very good storytelling with simple but very dynamic animation.
Why does the potential of anime excite me so much? Several reasons.
- You can do anything. An animation screenwriter doesn't have to worry about whether something can be realistically depicted onscreen - if you can draw it (or computer-generate it), you can do it. This could be particularly useful in the science fiction, fantasy, and historical genres, which in live action cinema require huge amounts of money to look anyhting but cheesy.
- Which brings us to cost. Compared to live action cinema, animation is dirt cheap, especially if you're talking about effects-heavy productions.
- Which brings us to specialization and risk taking. Since animated movies are cheaper, they don't have to do nearly as well at the box office to recoup production costs, which in turn means studio executives would be much more willing to take a chance on something experimental, or something that would appeal to a specific audience. The reason that big-budget movies are so often cringe-worthy is because, due to that big budget, they need to make lots and lots of money, which means they have to try to be all things to all people, which leaves most people disappointed in one aspect or another. This is particularly evident in the sci-fi genre, where people like myself would be willing, in order to get a movie that doesn't need to sacrifice a tight, smartly-written story in order to pay for the special effects, to kill somebody - particularly the idiots who produce ludicrous, bloated characatures of science fiction like Armageddon. I also really like the idea of a historical drama set in some little-explored period, without having to make it a star vehicle or fill it with anachronistic and ahistoric elements in order to broaden its appeal.
- Animation eliminates the need for actors to be pretty. Voice roles can be cast based solely on talent, instead of on whether someone looks right for a role. An example off the top of my head is the dude who played Kraven in Underworld. Yeah, he sure does look like the leader of a vampire clan, but everytime the guy opened his mouth, I wanted to put tire iron in it. In his defense, it appears that he was born in Ireland, which means his verbal awkwardness may have been due to the director forcing him to use an American accent - which of course only reinforces my point. Had Underworld been animated, he never would have been cast in the role.
So, um, yeah. Support adult animation1 in the US! Or something. I don't really have an action plan on this one.
Note: This post inspired by a post by DenBeste, which I read only enough of to see this summary of a particular anime series:
"In an alternate reality, in 1920's Japan, the capital is under assault by mystical forces. The primary attackers are called Wakiji, and they are partly mechanical, partly biological, and partly magical. They are also virtually invulnerable to conventional weapons which the military tries to use against them, and can only be defeated by rare individuals who have very strong spirit power and who can learn to control it.
They can use their spirit power with weapons such as swords or even pistols, but with sufficient training, they can also use their spirit power to move armored suits called Koubu, which are far more powerful. But that is very difficult. And there are four special enemies, particularly powerful and particularly menacing, who show up now and again who are not so easily defeated. Nor do the defenders know why the city is being attacked, or what the attackers hope to accomplish.
A small number of young people identified as having the greatest potential spirit power are collected together, in the desperate hope that they will master their power and bond as a team in time to be able to fight and defeat the enemy before its plan is completed. As an aid to development of discipline and teamwork, they operate as a theater company. But the enemy plan continues to unfold, and the team doesn't seem to be pulling together. Time is running out.
Sakura Shinguji is the last girl to join the group, and she is potentially the strongest of them all, for she carries the blood of the destroyers of evil, as her father did before her. The series begins as Sakura arrives in Tokyo to join the company, and culminates with a climactic battle between the Imperial Flower Division and the mysterious enemy seeking to destroy the capital, which can only end in total victory or complete defeat." (emphasis added)
Goddamn if that isn't a spectacular display of every crappy anime cliche in existence. Shit like that is the reason I don't like anime.
__________
1 Non-porn, that is. Animated porn is really fucking weird, and if you are into it you are a freak. No exceptions.
That Was Way Too Close
I hate agreeing with people from California, because California is so relentlessly rubbed in my face every freakin' day by the media, but Ezra Klein is right. The potential Ditka candidacy scared the shit out of me, for four reasons:
1. Obama is one of the Democrats' legitimate rising stars. A loss for him in November would knock the wind right out of his sails before he ever really gets off the ground - which is why the GOP is so desperate to throw someone, anyone, at him who can win - or at least seriously damage him.
2. And yes, Ditka really would have had a good shot at winning. Illinois can in many respects be divided into two states: the Chicago metropolitan area (generally, Cook county and chunks of DuPage county), and everything else. The former is one of the historical strongholds of the Democratic party, while the later is largely made up of smaller rural communities and a shitload of farmland - prime Republican real estate. The state population is roughly divided between these two Illi -- Jesus, what's the plural of Illinois? -- and statewide races tend to be a tug-o-war between them. Democrats tend to use Chicago for a base and try to make inroads toward the rest of the state -- witness Dick Durbin's senate campaign, a large chunk of which emphasized his independence from Mayor Daley -- while Repubicans do the opposite.
Among traditionally Democratic demographics - middle and working class Chicagoans - Ditka is worshipped as a god, or perhaps more accurately the ringleader of a group of gods; if he were able to pull them in in significant numbers, with his conservative politics giving him non-Chicago Illinois, the election would look like a rerun of 1985.
Some have opined that Ditka's notorious temper would ruin his chances, but I have the feeling that such people are not Chicago natives. Part of Ditka's entire appeal is that he's a no-apologies tough guy - I know one of my favorite sports photographs depicts Iron Mike striding the sidelines, giving the bird to the camera. I mean, come on, another one of Chicago's sports heroes is Dick Butkus, and that motherfucker tried to kill people.
3. The Democrats need to pick up Fitzgerald's seat - there are already too few Dem pickup opportunities this year, and throwing Illinois back into play would be a devastating blow to efforts to take back the Senate.
4. When all is said and done, I love Mike. Some of my earliest sports memories are of watching him coach Da Bears on TV with my parents. But let's face it, Ditka would be a really bad Senator. His personality virtually guarantees a meltdown of some sort out in Washington. I mean, if he thought the sports press was hard on him in his post-Superbowl years, wait 'til he encountered the lying scumfucks that haunt the Capitol.
Seeing his reputation tarnished by an ill-advised Senate career would really kind of upset me - I already have to pull off a massive bit of self-deception in order to pretend that his New Orleans tenure didn't happen.
So, good call on turning the GOP down, Mike. I can handle the Levitra ads - watching you go to jail for tackling someone on the Senate floor would kill me.
As a sidenote, the article Ezra links to has been changed - last night, it included a quote from a GOP official stating that Ditka was Chicago's only real sports hero, to which I can only reply thusly.
Update: The illustrious Mr. Sloane (who used to have a different blog, with a cool picture of himself with lots of hair and sweet sunglasses...but times change, people change, and the whole world generally goes to hell in my absence) disagrees, for reasons that are entirely valid. I still feel justified in fearing the Ditka, but, really, who the hell knows. He's not running, Obama's in for sure, and so I am content.
I hate agreeing with people from California, because California is so relentlessly rubbed in my face every freakin' day by the media, but Ezra Klein is right. The potential Ditka candidacy scared the shit out of me, for four reasons:
1. Obama is one of the Democrats' legitimate rising stars. A loss for him in November would knock the wind right out of his sails before he ever really gets off the ground - which is why the GOP is so desperate to throw someone, anyone, at him who can win - or at least seriously damage him.
2. And yes, Ditka really would have had a good shot at winning. Illinois can in many respects be divided into two states: the Chicago metropolitan area (generally, Cook county and chunks of DuPage county), and everything else. The former is one of the historical strongholds of the Democratic party, while the later is largely made up of smaller rural communities and a shitload of farmland - prime Republican real estate. The state population is roughly divided between these two Illi -- Jesus, what's the plural of Illinois? -- and statewide races tend to be a tug-o-war between them. Democrats tend to use Chicago for a base and try to make inroads toward the rest of the state -- witness Dick Durbin's senate campaign, a large chunk of which emphasized his independence from Mayor Daley -- while Repubicans do the opposite.
Among traditionally Democratic demographics - middle and working class Chicagoans - Ditka is worshipped as a god, or perhaps more accurately the ringleader of a group of gods; if he were able to pull them in in significant numbers, with his conservative politics giving him non-Chicago Illinois, the election would look like a rerun of 1985.
Some have opined that Ditka's notorious temper would ruin his chances, but I have the feeling that such people are not Chicago natives. Part of Ditka's entire appeal is that he's a no-apologies tough guy - I know one of my favorite sports photographs depicts Iron Mike striding the sidelines, giving the bird to the camera. I mean, come on, another one of Chicago's sports heroes is Dick Butkus, and that motherfucker tried to kill people.
3. The Democrats need to pick up Fitzgerald's seat - there are already too few Dem pickup opportunities this year, and throwing Illinois back into play would be a devastating blow to efforts to take back the Senate.
4. When all is said and done, I love Mike. Some of my earliest sports memories are of watching him coach Da Bears on TV with my parents. But let's face it, Ditka would be a really bad Senator. His personality virtually guarantees a meltdown of some sort out in Washington. I mean, if he thought the sports press was hard on him in his post-Superbowl years, wait 'til he encountered the lying scumfucks that haunt the Capitol.
Seeing his reputation tarnished by an ill-advised Senate career would really kind of upset me - I already have to pull off a massive bit of self-deception in order to pretend that his New Orleans tenure didn't happen.
So, good call on turning the GOP down, Mike. I can handle the Levitra ads - watching you go to jail for tackling someone on the Senate floor would kill me.
As a sidenote, the article Ezra links to has been changed - last night, it included a quote from a GOP official stating that Ditka was Chicago's only real sports hero, to which I can only reply thusly.
Update: The illustrious Mr. Sloane (who used to have a different blog, with a cool picture of himself with lots of hair and sweet sunglasses...but times change, people change, and the whole world generally goes to hell in my absence) disagrees, for reasons that are entirely valid. I still feel justified in fearing the Ditka, but, really, who the hell knows. He's not running, Obama's in for sure, and so I am content.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
So, Um, Has Anyone Else Seen Fahrenheit 9/11?
~ Because I'm having a hard time finding things written about it on the internet. ~
Maybe I just don't get around enough on ye olde internet, but I have yet to see the single most important accomplishment of Fahrenheit 9/11 -- and, not coincidentally, the most potentially damaging to the re-election efforts of George Bush -- explicitly stated. It has, in quite dramatic fashion, linked together two important and effectively irrefutable notions, to wit, that the President is a moron, and that the Iraq war has had devastating consequences for numerous people and their families.
To which Bush supporters immediately object, asking how such a slander against the President can be irrefutable - Moore's movie has been thoroughly debunked1, anyone supporting Moore is a sociopath of one variety or another2, the fires of insane Bush-hatred are anathema to patriotic Americans3, and what are your qualifications to judge such things4?
Fair enough, but you will notice the qualifier "effectively." The clever thing about Moore's portrayal of Bush is that he doesn't do the stupid thing and try to change the public's perception of him (by, say, arguing that he wants to take over the world), he does the smart thing and merely reinforces a theme which most Americans already agree is essentially correct -- the aforementioned moron thesis -- while stripping it of the various positive qualities (moral clarity, vision, strength of will) that Bush backers would have you believe bloom in the fertile mental soil an absence of intelligence begets. There are a number of things one could potentially see in the President's visage during the now-famous seven minutes immediately following Card's informing him that the country was under attack, but blossoming determination is not one of them unless one is tempermentally predisposed to see good in everything Bush does, which would place one in a demographic already lost to both Democrats and hope.
As to the second point, I don't see anyone arguing that there have not been adverse consequences to the war; the most common (and really, the only workable) rhetorical tactic is to try to drown said consequences in a flood of positive news - the deservedly maligned "re-opened schools" line of argument. The importance of F9/11 is that it highlights, in an undeniably visceral manner, the impact the war has had on the people that both Left and Right have spent three years talking up: soldiers and their familes. There is a vast difference between reading "3 marines killed in Iraq" on the front page of the newspaper and watching a blood-soaked soldier screaming in pain while being carried by stretcher to the medic, and that difference is what gives F9/11 its power.
Essentially, the true force behind the movie is not the intricate connections between the Bush family and the Saudis (although the fact that people who a few months back were yelling "John Kerry Jane Fonda John Kerry Jane Fonda John Kerry Jane Fonda" are angry at people saying "George Bush the Saudis George Bush the Saudis George Bush the Saudis," despite the greater accuracy and relevence of the later, is most amusing to me), nor even the explicit charge of misleading the country into war, but rather the question implied by the juxtaposition of the above theses: "Were Americans unnecessarily hurt or killed because the President is stupid?"
Yes, this is merely a crude version of attacks on the Administration's competence that have been coming from Democrats for years. And yes, there is not, and by definition cannot be, proof that Bush's personal lack of intelligence directly resulted in harm to Americans.
But so what? Merely asking the question (especially in an easy-to-digest visual format) raises doubts about the wisdom of re-electing George Bush, and crude is another way of saying "appeals to the lowest common denominator," and while appealing to the lowest common denominator is justly reviled, the reason people do it is because it's the best way to reach the most people, and I fully support the mass-distribution of the idea that stupidity in the Oval Office is a bad thing.
And to those that would call this an endorsement of dishonesty, please explain to me why the difference between "the President is stupid and got people hurt" -- which is the message I want put out -- and "the President is unable to understand, due to personality or lack of capacity, the complexities of foreign policy, and is therefore incapable of refereeing inter-departmental feuds or evaluating the merits of alternate courses of action, which leads to a foreign policy determined by inflexible ideology, personal agendas, and amount of access to the President, which resulted in costly mistakes that didn't have to happen" -- which is what I actually believe -- is vast enough to be characterized as "dishonesty."
__________
1 No it hasn't, you are wrong.
2 No they aren't, you are wrong.
3 It's not hate in the sense that you mean it, it's not insane, it's not antithetical to patriotism, and you are an asshole.
4 I'm an American citizen, and fuck you.
~ Because I'm having a hard time finding things written about it on the internet. ~
Maybe I just don't get around enough on ye olde internet, but I have yet to see the single most important accomplishment of Fahrenheit 9/11 -- and, not coincidentally, the most potentially damaging to the re-election efforts of George Bush -- explicitly stated. It has, in quite dramatic fashion, linked together two important and effectively irrefutable notions, to wit, that the President is a moron, and that the Iraq war has had devastating consequences for numerous people and their families.
To which Bush supporters immediately object, asking how such a slander against the President can be irrefutable - Moore's movie has been thoroughly debunked1, anyone supporting Moore is a sociopath of one variety or another2, the fires of insane Bush-hatred are anathema to patriotic Americans3, and what are your qualifications to judge such things4?
Fair enough, but you will notice the qualifier "effectively." The clever thing about Moore's portrayal of Bush is that he doesn't do the stupid thing and try to change the public's perception of him (by, say, arguing that he wants to take over the world), he does the smart thing and merely reinforces a theme which most Americans already agree is essentially correct -- the aforementioned moron thesis -- while stripping it of the various positive qualities (moral clarity, vision, strength of will) that Bush backers would have you believe bloom in the fertile mental soil an absence of intelligence begets. There are a number of things one could potentially see in the President's visage during the now-famous seven minutes immediately following Card's informing him that the country was under attack, but blossoming determination is not one of them unless one is tempermentally predisposed to see good in everything Bush does, which would place one in a demographic already lost to both Democrats and hope.
As to the second point, I don't see anyone arguing that there have not been adverse consequences to the war; the most common (and really, the only workable) rhetorical tactic is to try to drown said consequences in a flood of positive news - the deservedly maligned "re-opened schools" line of argument. The importance of F9/11 is that it highlights, in an undeniably visceral manner, the impact the war has had on the people that both Left and Right have spent three years talking up: soldiers and their familes. There is a vast difference between reading "3 marines killed in Iraq" on the front page of the newspaper and watching a blood-soaked soldier screaming in pain while being carried by stretcher to the medic, and that difference is what gives F9/11 its power.
Essentially, the true force behind the movie is not the intricate connections between the Bush family and the Saudis (although the fact that people who a few months back were yelling "John Kerry Jane Fonda John Kerry Jane Fonda John Kerry Jane Fonda" are angry at people saying "George Bush the Saudis George Bush the Saudis George Bush the Saudis," despite the greater accuracy and relevence of the later, is most amusing to me), nor even the explicit charge of misleading the country into war, but rather the question implied by the juxtaposition of the above theses: "Were Americans unnecessarily hurt or killed because the President is stupid?"
Yes, this is merely a crude version of attacks on the Administration's competence that have been coming from Democrats for years. And yes, there is not, and by definition cannot be, proof that Bush's personal lack of intelligence directly resulted in harm to Americans.
But so what? Merely asking the question (especially in an easy-to-digest visual format) raises doubts about the wisdom of re-electing George Bush, and crude is another way of saying "appeals to the lowest common denominator," and while appealing to the lowest common denominator is justly reviled, the reason people do it is because it's the best way to reach the most people, and I fully support the mass-distribution of the idea that stupidity in the Oval Office is a bad thing.
And to those that would call this an endorsement of dishonesty, please explain to me why the difference between "the President is stupid and got people hurt" -- which is the message I want put out -- and "the President is unable to understand, due to personality or lack of capacity, the complexities of foreign policy, and is therefore incapable of refereeing inter-departmental feuds or evaluating the merits of alternate courses of action, which leads to a foreign policy determined by inflexible ideology, personal agendas, and amount of access to the President, which resulted in costly mistakes that didn't have to happen" -- which is what I actually believe -- is vast enough to be characterized as "dishonesty."
__________
1 No it hasn't, you are wrong.
2 No they aren't, you are wrong.
3 It's not hate in the sense that you mean it, it's not insane, it's not antithetical to patriotism, and you are an asshole.
4 I'm an American citizen, and fuck you.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Corporate Whoring
On Monday, I bought the Nike Sport mp3 player. I was aware of its existence before that, but had dismissed it as the unholy result of some branding scheme cooked up by marketing folk desperate to cash in on "this mp3 thing the kids are crazy about" by slapping a swoosh on a third rate device and jacking the price to levels that border on extortion.
To my surprise, I found that the price was actually somewhat lower than that of similar players. When I realized that it also comes packaged with a rechargable battery and a charger, I was sold. So I took it home, and was happy. So happy, in fact, that the next day I returned it and bought the 256 Mb version for a few dollars more - and yes, I repeated that last bit several times to every customer service representative in earshot, hoping someone would pick up on the reference and associate me with a squinty-eyed Clint Eastwood, and tremble in fear. No one did. Well, the girl waiting on me stumbled a little bit, but that was most likely due to the fact that she was in what looked to be her 12th month of pregnancy.
The point, though, is that this machine has changed my life. For the first time ever, I finally have an actual soundtrack to accompany the one that constantly plays in my head, and the delivery of such is accomplished through means that I can ignore completely.
My problem with walkmans and discmans and other such things has always been that they require constant fiddling. You have to flip the tape, or change the CD after an hour, or walk with an unnatural gait so as not to make the CD skip. Beyond that, it's a pain in the ass to walk around with a music-making device, because where the hell do you put it? Cassette players and CD players are too big to fit in your pocket, and I have always felt ostentatious and dorklike wearing such things clipped to my belt on the very rare occassions when I have done so (a feeling that I carry over to cellphones as well). Something along the lines of, "Look, I have an electronic device that makes sounds in my head! It's almost as if I were using magic! Don't you wish you had one of these? I am supercool." Distasteful in the extreme.
Which doesn't mean that I want to fit such devices in my pocket - there was something of an incident a year or so ago in a bookstore where I was trying and failing to skip to the next track on the last mp3 player I owned, which was in my pocket, and my gaze just happened to alight on the chest of an attractive female at a nearby table, where, despite my best efforts, it remained for a good ten seconds. When I finally managed to force my eyes upwards, I realized she was looking at me, and was Appalled. Put the vigorous fiddling-around in my pocket together with the atypical (ha!) ogling, and I really can't blame her for what she was undoubtedly thinking.
Enter the Nike Sport. With both a slim profile and a waistband to which it can be very securely attached, I can wear this thing on my hip just above my belt, hidden underneath my shirt. By running the cord to the headphones down the back of my shirt, the visibility of this thing is nonexistent, with only the headphones to betray the fact that I am not paying attention to you, I am paying attention to the Kinks.
Well, that and the fact that I tend to dance in public a bit more now. My inner boogie needs to be let out, and this device is the key.
On Monday, I bought the Nike Sport mp3 player. I was aware of its existence before that, but had dismissed it as the unholy result of some branding scheme cooked up by marketing folk desperate to cash in on "this mp3 thing the kids are crazy about" by slapping a swoosh on a third rate device and jacking the price to levels that border on extortion.
To my surprise, I found that the price was actually somewhat lower than that of similar players. When I realized that it also comes packaged with a rechargable battery and a charger, I was sold. So I took it home, and was happy. So happy, in fact, that the next day I returned it and bought the 256 Mb version for a few dollars more - and yes, I repeated that last bit several times to every customer service representative in earshot, hoping someone would pick up on the reference and associate me with a squinty-eyed Clint Eastwood, and tremble in fear. No one did. Well, the girl waiting on me stumbled a little bit, but that was most likely due to the fact that she was in what looked to be her 12th month of pregnancy.
The point, though, is that this machine has changed my life. For the first time ever, I finally have an actual soundtrack to accompany the one that constantly plays in my head, and the delivery of such is accomplished through means that I can ignore completely.
My problem with walkmans and discmans and other such things has always been that they require constant fiddling. You have to flip the tape, or change the CD after an hour, or walk with an unnatural gait so as not to make the CD skip. Beyond that, it's a pain in the ass to walk around with a music-making device, because where the hell do you put it? Cassette players and CD players are too big to fit in your pocket, and I have always felt ostentatious and dorklike wearing such things clipped to my belt on the very rare occassions when I have done so (a feeling that I carry over to cellphones as well). Something along the lines of, "Look, I have an electronic device that makes sounds in my head! It's almost as if I were using magic! Don't you wish you had one of these? I am supercool." Distasteful in the extreme.
Which doesn't mean that I want to fit such devices in my pocket - there was something of an incident a year or so ago in a bookstore where I was trying and failing to skip to the next track on the last mp3 player I owned, which was in my pocket, and my gaze just happened to alight on the chest of an attractive female at a nearby table, where, despite my best efforts, it remained for a good ten seconds. When I finally managed to force my eyes upwards, I realized she was looking at me, and was Appalled. Put the vigorous fiddling-around in my pocket together with the atypical (ha!) ogling, and I really can't blame her for what she was undoubtedly thinking.
Enter the Nike Sport. With both a slim profile and a waistband to which it can be very securely attached, I can wear this thing on my hip just above my belt, hidden underneath my shirt. By running the cord to the headphones down the back of my shirt, the visibility of this thing is nonexistent, with only the headphones to betray the fact that I am not paying attention to you, I am paying attention to the Kinks.
Well, that and the fact that I tend to dance in public a bit more now. My inner boogie needs to be let out, and this device is the key.
Basketball
Ah. Ah ha. Ah ha ha ha.
The Lakers, along with the Yankees and the Cowboys, are part of the unholy trinity of teams from which I derive endless amounts of pleasure watching get kicked in the nuts. Don't get me wrong, I like Shaq, and, as an exiled Chicagoan, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Coach Philip (he ain't Ditka, but, short of the Second Coming, who is? [Alright, Jesus Christ versus Ditka? Is Ditka coaching or playing? Coaching, but he can play in an emergency. Ditka by a safety.]). However, basic patriotism requires a hefty disdain for anyone with a sense of entitlement, no matter how many sportswriters agree with them, and this Lakers team, along with their pretty little LA fanbase, saw this as a season-long coronation requiring only the smiting of a few minor usurpers in Minnesota and San Antonio.
BOOyah, fuckers.
The Lakers' loss is pretty sweet in and of itself, but the really satisfying part is that they were completely thrashed by the Pistons.
Wait, what? I'm a Pistons fan? What the hell? I'm from Chicago, that is Not Right.
The explanation for this misbegotten basketball loyalty is twofold. For one, Michigan is now the state that I call home - well, that I call residence, at least. By itself, this is not enough to justify the outright betrayal of the land of my birth that rooting for the Pistons is. However, because I moved to Michigan two years ago, I met one of my very best friends, who eats, drinks, and breathes the Pistons. It is damn near literally impossible to be this guy's friend and not be a Pistons fan. In fact, it was his constant prodding that revived what I had thought was a long-dead interest in the game itself (mortally wounded by my [completely justified] failure to make the sophomore team in high school, and then killed off a few years later by Michael Jordan's departure from Chicago).
I was forced to watch the 2003 playoffs, held hostage by his wife's constant attempts to set me up with her friends1 and the fact that all my beer was in his fridge. To my surprise, I found myself getting into the games in a big way -- hey, you try to sit in a room with your best friend, drunk beyond all reason, and not join in when he leaps up every five minutes screaming, "YEAH MOTHERFUCKER! GET THAT SHIT THE FUUUUUUCK OUT, YOU PUNK BITCH!" As the Pistons advanced, as Tayshaun Prince became a breakout rookie, as Chauncy Billups kept hitting those threes, as Ben Wallace proved again and again that he is a badass of Shaft-like proportions, my own contributions gradually increased from "Damn, that was a nice shot," to "Holy- wow, that was cool as hell," to "Eat THAT, punk!" to "I shit on your mother, Jason Kidd, you goat-fucking bastard! You hear me? You fuck goats, and I shit on your mother!"
The loss to the Nets was devastating, but I was hooked.
At the beginning of this season2, I was convinced that, the loss to Jersey in the semis acting like a forging fire and the aquisition of Larry Brown being the single best thing any team can do to improve itself, the Pistons would actually make it to the Finals this year. "One step at a time," I kept telling everyone, "last year the semis, this year the Finals, and in 2005, the trophy."
But my friend didn't see it that way.
He had a feeling, you see, a sense of destiny. From day one, he refused to consider the idea that the Pistons would be anything less than the NBA champions come July 2004. This was not the futile optimism that every sports fan feels every year (Bears Uber Alles!), but a real conviction that his boys were flat out better than everyone else.
He was not alone.
It's funny, when you think about it, the way that sports can act as a common language between men3. My friend and I were both at work when another guy we work with came running into our building, shouting to everyone the news that the Pistons had traded for Rasheed Wallace. Productive work ceased for about ten minutes as we all got together in a small crowd, cheering and jabbering to each other about stomping the rest of the league into oblivion.
"The final piece!"
"Another scoring option!"
"Two Wallaces on defense! No one will score on them ever again!"
"Lebron can suck my nuts!"
"Hey, fuck you!" from the one Ohio transplant in building.
These are the things I heard and said that day, months ago, things that I just started hearing about a week ago in the national sports media.
You see, the thing about the Pistons' win is that it didn't come as a surprise to anyone who was really following them. Everyone, including me, talks about how the Lakers felt certain they could win. Well, the Pistons did too. The difference was that the Pistons didn't talk about it - they let their fans do that.
And in the end, we were right, and those losers in LA were not.
The hardest series for the Pistons this year was against New Jersey. Goddamn Jason Kidd is good.
The Pacers put up a good fight, but I'm convinced that that Tayshaun's famous block of Reggie Miller's layup early in the series broke their spirit. After all, that was a feat that could only be accomplished by a minor deity, and who can summon the will to seriously resist the might of a team composed of supreme beings?
The Lakers controlled the Finals for a grand total of five minutes in game two. Other than that, they were treated like little sissy men, and for their efforts have become the official bitches of every person in the state of Michigan.
And yes, it is indeed sweet.
1 An effort that is ultimately doomed to failure due to my being an unrelenting asshole and her inability to come up with anything resembling a redeeming quality in my unshaven person. "Um...my husband thinks he's pretty cool...and he never beats our dog...and...um...no, he wasn't ogling your breasts. He was...there was something on your shirt. And the ass of your pants. He sneers like that when he likes someone. Really. No, he didn't mean what he said about wishing he was gay so he wouldn't have to deal with lunatic women. He was being funny. Um..."
2 Sure, everyone says that they are a Pistons fan now, and that the Pistons were better all along now. Where was I a month ago, when the biggest debate in sports was whether the Lakers would win in four games or five?
Ho ho.
Ho ho.
That's right. July of 2003. That's when I predicted Pistons dominance, all official-like, for all the world to see.
Ignore the word "Darko" in those posts.
3 Yes, women like sports too, I know. But not once in my life have I started a conversation with a strange female by mentioning a sports team, whereas that is almost exclusively how I initiate conversations with guys I don't know.
Ah. Ah ha. Ah ha ha ha.
The Lakers, along with the Yankees and the Cowboys, are part of the unholy trinity of teams from which I derive endless amounts of pleasure watching get kicked in the nuts. Don't get me wrong, I like Shaq, and, as an exiled Chicagoan, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Coach Philip (he ain't Ditka, but, short of the Second Coming, who is? [Alright, Jesus Christ versus Ditka? Is Ditka coaching or playing? Coaching, but he can play in an emergency. Ditka by a safety.]). However, basic patriotism requires a hefty disdain for anyone with a sense of entitlement, no matter how many sportswriters agree with them, and this Lakers team, along with their pretty little LA fanbase, saw this as a season-long coronation requiring only the smiting of a few minor usurpers in Minnesota and San Antonio.
BOOyah, fuckers.
The Lakers' loss is pretty sweet in and of itself, but the really satisfying part is that they were completely thrashed by the Pistons.
Wait, what? I'm a Pistons fan? What the hell? I'm from Chicago, that is Not Right.
The explanation for this misbegotten basketball loyalty is twofold. For one, Michigan is now the state that I call home - well, that I call residence, at least. By itself, this is not enough to justify the outright betrayal of the land of my birth that rooting for the Pistons is. However, because I moved to Michigan two years ago, I met one of my very best friends, who eats, drinks, and breathes the Pistons. It is damn near literally impossible to be this guy's friend and not be a Pistons fan. In fact, it was his constant prodding that revived what I had thought was a long-dead interest in the game itself (mortally wounded by my [completely justified] failure to make the sophomore team in high school, and then killed off a few years later by Michael Jordan's departure from Chicago).
I was forced to watch the 2003 playoffs, held hostage by his wife's constant attempts to set me up with her friends1 and the fact that all my beer was in his fridge. To my surprise, I found myself getting into the games in a big way -- hey, you try to sit in a room with your best friend, drunk beyond all reason, and not join in when he leaps up every five minutes screaming, "YEAH MOTHERFUCKER! GET THAT SHIT THE FUUUUUUCK OUT, YOU PUNK BITCH!" As the Pistons advanced, as Tayshaun Prince became a breakout rookie, as Chauncy Billups kept hitting those threes, as Ben Wallace proved again and again that he is a badass of Shaft-like proportions, my own contributions gradually increased from "Damn, that was a nice shot," to "Holy- wow, that was cool as hell," to "Eat THAT, punk!" to "I shit on your mother, Jason Kidd, you goat-fucking bastard! You hear me? You fuck goats, and I shit on your mother!"
The loss to the Nets was devastating, but I was hooked.
At the beginning of this season2, I was convinced that, the loss to Jersey in the semis acting like a forging fire and the aquisition of Larry Brown being the single best thing any team can do to improve itself, the Pistons would actually make it to the Finals this year. "One step at a time," I kept telling everyone, "last year the semis, this year the Finals, and in 2005, the trophy."
But my friend didn't see it that way.
He had a feeling, you see, a sense of destiny. From day one, he refused to consider the idea that the Pistons would be anything less than the NBA champions come July 2004. This was not the futile optimism that every sports fan feels every year (Bears Uber Alles!), but a real conviction that his boys were flat out better than everyone else.
He was not alone.
It's funny, when you think about it, the way that sports can act as a common language between men3. My friend and I were both at work when another guy we work with came running into our building, shouting to everyone the news that the Pistons had traded for Rasheed Wallace. Productive work ceased for about ten minutes as we all got together in a small crowd, cheering and jabbering to each other about stomping the rest of the league into oblivion.
"The final piece!"
"Another scoring option!"
"Two Wallaces on defense! No one will score on them ever again!"
"Lebron can suck my nuts!"
"Hey, fuck you!" from the one Ohio transplant in building.
These are the things I heard and said that day, months ago, things that I just started hearing about a week ago in the national sports media.
You see, the thing about the Pistons' win is that it didn't come as a surprise to anyone who was really following them. Everyone, including me, talks about how the Lakers felt certain they could win. Well, the Pistons did too. The difference was that the Pistons didn't talk about it - they let their fans do that.
And in the end, we were right, and those losers in LA were not.
The hardest series for the Pistons this year was against New Jersey. Goddamn Jason Kidd is good.
The Pacers put up a good fight, but I'm convinced that that Tayshaun's famous block of Reggie Miller's layup early in the series broke their spirit. After all, that was a feat that could only be accomplished by a minor deity, and who can summon the will to seriously resist the might of a team composed of supreme beings?
The Lakers controlled the Finals for a grand total of five minutes in game two. Other than that, they were treated like little sissy men, and for their efforts have become the official bitches of every person in the state of Michigan.
And yes, it is indeed sweet.
1 An effort that is ultimately doomed to failure due to my being an unrelenting asshole and her inability to come up with anything resembling a redeeming quality in my unshaven person. "Um...my husband thinks he's pretty cool...and he never beats our dog...and...um...no, he wasn't ogling your breasts. He was...there was something on your shirt. And the ass of your pants. He sneers like that when he likes someone. Really. No, he didn't mean what he said about wishing he was gay so he wouldn't have to deal with lunatic women. He was being funny. Um..."
2 Sure, everyone says that they are a Pistons fan now, and that the Pistons were better all along now. Where was I a month ago, when the biggest debate in sports was whether the Lakers would win in four games or five?
Ho ho.
Ho ho.
That's right. July of 2003. That's when I predicted Pistons dominance, all official-like, for all the world to see.
Ignore the word "Darko" in those posts.
3 Yes, women like sports too, I know. But not once in my life have I started a conversation with a strange female by mentioning a sports team, whereas that is almost exclusively how I initiate conversations with guys I don't know.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Sharing The Love
Those of you pouring in from the several links the preceding post seems to have garnered would be well served to head on over to Roy Edroso's place.
Were one to compare our respective writing styles to a bar fight, I would be the guy who bashes you repeatedly with a chair, while Roy simply draws his gun and shoots you in the face.
Enjoy.
Those of you pouring in from the several links the preceding post seems to have garnered would be well served to head on over to Roy Edroso's place.
Were one to compare our respective writing styles to a bar fight, I would be the guy who bashes you repeatedly with a chair, while Roy simply draws his gun and shoots you in the face.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Blogatrol: Booster Shot
~ In which we inoculate ourselves against dumbfuckery by observing the distilled essence of prominent Rightwing bloggers ~
Instapundit:
THE MEDIA'S WAR ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION continues unabated. Recent events have combined with the media's anti-Bush agenda to paint a misleadingly dark picture of Iraq. If you received all your news from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Army Times, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, the Sacremento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, The Orlando Sentinel, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Lansing State Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, the Houston Chronicle, UPI, Reuters, or the Associated Press, you would be under the impression that things are pretty bleak in Iraq.
Fortunately, Michael Ubaldi has several blog posts explaining how good it actually is over there. Just keep scrolling.
posted at 05:23 PM by Glenn Reynolds
THE UN OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL, in the eyes of serious observers, has completely discredited the United Nations leadership.
As well it should.
posted at 04:43 PM by Glenn Reynolds
THANKS TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S TAX CUTS, I was finally able to buy new blinds for the upstairs. This has made the InstaWife a diehard Bush supporter. Who says the tax cuts were only for the well-off? Something tells me most Democrats won't be celebrating the windfall.
posted at 04:36 PM by Glenn Reynolds
A LAW PROFESSOR EMAILS, telling me I should demand more than the $375 an hour I currently charge for consulting work. I'm not so sure; I only really do consulting work when I feel like it.
posted at 04:32 PM by Glenn Reynolds
JEFF JARVIS HAS SOME THOUGHTS on the lack of military expertise displayed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He includes suggestions about how to remedy the problem.
(He also has a totally rockin' new CD coming out - stamped with the InstaWife's seal of approval!)
Read the whole thing.
posted at 04:25 PM by Glenn Reynolds
A NOT-PARTICULARLY-SHY READER EMAILS:
Update: Another reader has a question as well:
Another Update: Alan Colmes emails:
Yet Another Update: Tim Blair, on his website:
Still More: This is getting out of hand. Virginia Postrel is demanding pictures. Lileks wants collectible porcelain figurines.
posted at 04:16 PM by Glenn Reynolds
THE ABU GHREIB SCANDAL, to the extent that anyone actually cares (the Arab press seems to have completely forgotten about it. Why hasn't our media, I wonder? Certainly not because they have an agenda!), is being used to try to discredit the US leadership.
This is, of course, a completely partisan ploy, and if certain parties aren't careful about overreacting, they could find November to be a very harsh month indeed.
posted at 02:58 PM by Glenn Reynolds
James Lileks:
I love my daughter.
I love my daughter, who is adorable.
I love Gnat, my daughter, because she is the sweetest, most lovable creature in the world.
It is impossible for me to properly describe how much I love my daughter.
The most wonderful thing in the world is my daughter, whom I love.
I have a funny story about the cherubic innocence of my daughter. The one that I love.
Hey, fuck you hippie. You and your America-hating compatriots are the reason this country is in mortal danger from insane Islamists who want to kill us all. You traitorous scum. You don't even realize how damn good you have it, because you've spent all your time in college getting hammered and having group sex. You want group sex? How about the gangraping that Saddam would be doing right now if we hadn't taken him out. But no, you'd rather have him in power, killing anyone he looks at and raping people. Fuck you. Fuck you. Universal peace? Fuck you. He was a psychotic madman who wanted to kill every single American. Swine like you don't deserve to live here, enjoying the same freedoms I enjoy, breathing the air I breathe. You don't deserve freedom. You deserve to be dropped naked in the Iraqi desert, forced to serve as a human shield for our courageous troops. A human shield, so bullets and shrapnel can rip through your flesh and tear apart your organs until your torso fills with bile and black blood until you drown, saving the life of a soldier. It would be the only patriotic thing you ever did in your life. But you know what? I'm not even angry at you. Instead, I feel sorry for you. Because thanks to your efforts to support those who hate freedom, someday a chemical weapon is going to be used in your hometown, and you're going to catch a big whiff of sarin, or VX, or mustard gas. On that day, your flesh will bubble up and your skin will be covered in sores that will itch and burn and bleed, and your throat will close, and you will gasp for breath and only inhale feces, because your legs will have stopped working and deposited you on the ground face first in a puddle of your own voided bowels and then when your friends the Islamofascists who have been wearing gasmasks just so they could watch up close come over to laugh at your twitching form, they will rip out your eyeballs and skullfuck you and as their acidic demon seed eats its way through what is left of your cerebellum your last concious thought will be shame and regretatbeingagoddamndemocratvoting- peacelovingmotherfuckinghippieprickandyouwillbegforgivenessfrom- agodwhonolongercaresbecauseyouopposedgeorgebushandwantedhimtolose- thewaronterrorandyouwillburninhellforeverandeverfuckyoufuckyoufuckyoudiefuckyoufuck.
Today, Gnat learned that peanutbutter is not an effective substitute for videocassettes, at least not as far as VCRs are concerned. I really love her.
Mickey Kaus:
Shriller and shriller: What question does this answer?
1) What is a literary critic's judgement of Paul Krugman's writing style?
2) What is a description of Hillary Clinton's voice as she demands Bill finish his overhyped memoirs before the election so that talk of "Hillary 2008" isn't overshadowed in the immediate wake of a Kerry loss?
3) How does the electoral train bearing down on beleaguered Democrats afraid of change sound?
If you answered 4) all of the above, you win the prize! [What prize is that? --ed] You'd love to know, wouldn't you?
I am smarter than Juan Cole: It's difficult to come away from this post thinking anything else. How shrill do you have to be to deny your own shrillness? This is, ultimately, the Democratic paradox - they cannot help but be shrill even during their bouts of being upset about being called shrill, which of course leads to more shrillness, and, as shrillness tends to do, shrillness begets shrillness, and eventually you wind up with John Kerry.
So where's my royalty check?: Several kf readers have noted recently how few homeless people they see when walking through metropolitan areas. I've noticed this too. It seems pretty obvious that tougher welfare laws have convinced most of these people to find jobs, although I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for liberal Dems to admit it. I guess Clinton's welfare reform did do what it was supposed to do!
P.S. Faithful kf readers will note that I am the reason welfare reform became a winning issue for Democrats.
Boobie Trap: Beyond my initial reaction of "Nice rack!" upon seeing the picture of John Kerry's daughter's transparent dress at the Cannes film festival, it occurs to me that this kind of thing perfectly illustrates my main critique of Democrats. In attempting to shock people jaded by years of political claptrap so as to convince them that Bush is "bad for the country", they show a disturbing lack of character by disrespecting average people's basic values and shunning what can only be called common decency. What's left, then, is a thin gloss of transparent fabrications, attempting (but failing) to cover an average boob named Kerry.
Beyond even that, for a candidate flaunting the sex-stained mantle of the Democratic Party to have his daughter walk around naked is foolish beyond belief, to the point where you have to wonder how sane Kerry really is. [Wait, so you mean you want us to believe that the fashion sense of Kerry's daughter should convince us that he is unfit to be President, but your constant pandering to Glenn Reynolds, your incessant criticism of Democrats, and your comparitive lack of criticism directed at the Right should not convince us that you're a worthless Rightwing kiss-ass? --ed] Yes.
And the winner is: the winner of the kf motto non-contest contest held last week is Marlon Johnson of Orange County with his entry, "John Kerry is a pile of shit with fake hair." I'm trying to convince the web design guys to add it to Slate's main page kf teaser, so be patient. In the meantime, Marlon gets a free - [What? What exactly does he get for having the motor skills necessary to type that clever bit of genius and send it to you? --ed] Ooh! Getting a little feisty there, eh? Must be from hanging around with too many Democrats! [That's pretty clever too, jackass. However would your instant witticisms be properly relayed to the masses were it not for the power of blogs! Idiot. --ed] Hey, what the hell... [And while I'm at it, does it ever occur to you that, as a rhetorical device, I'm getting pretty weak? --ed] What? Nonsense. You are fresh and hip. kf readers agree by an overwhelming margin! [Are you kidding me? I'm so pathetic, other rhetorical devices mock me. Polysyndeton calls me a pussy. Synecdoche spits at me whenever I walk by --ed] Quit whining. My writing's fine. [Hey, fuck you. You didn't get your ass kicked by alliteration. Alliteration! Do you know how humiliating that is? --ed] Huh? [What are you, deaf? Alliteration beat the shit out of me! The dweebiest device dropkicked my derriere! DO YOU SEE HOW FUCKING LAME THAT IS?--ed] I always thought alliteration was kind of neat. Wait, this sounds like a job for the blogs! Glenn, what do you think? kf readers await your opinion! [You are such a cocksucker. --ed]
Tacitus:
It is with great sorrow and trepidation that I write these words, but conscience forces honesty, even when it turns against one's own party. George Bush has turned what was a brilliant, courageous plan into a disaster. His utter incompetence, his arrogance, and his refusal to admit error have led this country into an impossible situation which will take decades to remedy. Beyond that, by bungling the war in Iraq, he has given Islamists hope, hope that they can defeat the United States after all. This will inevitably have horrendous consequences, both in the US and abroad, as terrorism spreads and Islamist governments cement their hold on power.
Unfortunately, the only alternative to Bush is Kerry, and I cannot in good conscience support him. After all, let us not forget that the man who I think might be John Kerry's Secretary of State has said some things which lead me to believe he might point our country in the wrong direction, and future generations would rightly condemn us for allowing such a thing to transpire.
I am, after all, a man of principle.
Steven DenBeste:
(4,000 words which display a broad range of knowledge spanning a number of subjects, combined with smart analysis and interesting insights, leading up to-)
It is then impossible to escape the conclusion that we must invoke NATO's Article V and conduct a global war against France.
(Sound of thousands of readers interested by preceding technical discussion simultaneously going "Wait- what the fuck?")
[Oh shit! It's assonance, and it's got a bat! Mickey, help me, you hack motherfu- *CRACK!*
~ In which we inoculate ourselves against dumbfuckery by observing the distilled essence of prominent Rightwing bloggers ~
Instapundit:
THE MEDIA'S WAR ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION continues unabated. Recent events have combined with the media's anti-Bush agenda to paint a misleadingly dark picture of Iraq. If you received all your news from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Army Times, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, the Sacremento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, The Orlando Sentinel, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Lansing State Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, the Houston Chronicle, UPI, Reuters, or the Associated Press, you would be under the impression that things are pretty bleak in Iraq.
Fortunately, Michael Ubaldi has several blog posts explaining how good it actually is over there. Just keep scrolling.
posted at 05:23 PM by Glenn Reynolds
THE UN OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL, in the eyes of serious observers, has completely discredited the United Nations leadership.
As well it should.
posted at 04:43 PM by Glenn Reynolds
THANKS TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S TAX CUTS, I was finally able to buy new blinds for the upstairs. This has made the InstaWife a diehard Bush supporter. Who says the tax cuts were only for the well-off? Something tells me most Democrats won't be celebrating the windfall.
posted at 04:36 PM by Glenn Reynolds
A LAW PROFESSOR EMAILS, telling me I should demand more than the $375 an hour I currently charge for consulting work. I'm not so sure; I only really do consulting work when I feel like it.
posted at 04:32 PM by Glenn Reynolds
JEFF JARVIS HAS SOME THOUGHTS on the lack of military expertise displayed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He includes suggestions about how to remedy the problem.
(He also has a totally rockin' new CD coming out - stamped with the InstaWife's seal of approval!)
Read the whole thing.
posted at 04:25 PM by Glenn Reynolds
A NOT-PARTICULARLY-SHY READER EMAILS:
At the bar the other night, my girlfriends and I were talking about some of the law professors at our school (we attend a major southern university). One of them mentioned how she had heard that the most common injuries suffered by southern law professors are complications due to falls caused by tripping over their own larger-than-average penises. Who better to confirm or deny this than you?Indeed. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've never had any problems maneuvering around my enormous cock, although there have been a few close calls. It's just something you learn to live with, although, like my synesthesia, it does allow me to focus on other problems while my tremendous wang completes mundane tasks.
Update: Another reader has a question as well:
I too have a monstrous johnson, as do most of my Republican friends. My liberal friends, on the other hand, refuse to talk to me when I ask them about it. This leads me to believe that they are, shall we say, light in the drawers. So, my question is, does Republicanism cause one's equipment to grow, or do people with massive schlongs naturally tend to be Republicans?I don't think there is necessarily a causal relationship - after all, I am not a Republican, yet my gargantuan tool is, so far as I know, without equal.
Another Update: Alan Colmes emails:
First of all, big fan of your site. Hannity sent this to me, and I figured I'd add my two cents. While I'll grant you that conservative dick is quite a bit larger, on average, than liberal dick, it is important to bear in mind that size doesn't matter, so long as you know how to use it. Not that many of us do, I know, but still...That's what they all say.
Yet Another Update: Tim Blair, on his website:
Having repeatedly licked The Professor's balls over the last two years, I am in a position to say that the hardest part of doing so is holding up his elephantine peter in order to keep it from flopping down on your head, causing a mild concussion.Heh.
Still More: This is getting out of hand. Virginia Postrel is demanding pictures. Lileks wants collectible porcelain figurines.
posted at 04:16 PM by Glenn Reynolds
THE ABU GHREIB SCANDAL, to the extent that anyone actually cares (the Arab press seems to have completely forgotten about it. Why hasn't our media, I wonder? Certainly not because they have an agenda!), is being used to try to discredit the US leadership.
This is, of course, a completely partisan ploy, and if certain parties aren't careful about overreacting, they could find November to be a very harsh month indeed.
posted at 02:58 PM by Glenn Reynolds
James Lileks:
I love my daughter.
I love my daughter, who is adorable.
I love Gnat, my daughter, because she is the sweetest, most lovable creature in the world.
It is impossible for me to properly describe how much I love my daughter.
The most wonderful thing in the world is my daughter, whom I love.
I have a funny story about the cherubic innocence of my daughter. The one that I love.
Hey, fuck you hippie. You and your America-hating compatriots are the reason this country is in mortal danger from insane Islamists who want to kill us all. You traitorous scum. You don't even realize how damn good you have it, because you've spent all your time in college getting hammered and having group sex. You want group sex? How about the gangraping that Saddam would be doing right now if we hadn't taken him out. But no, you'd rather have him in power, killing anyone he looks at and raping people. Fuck you. Fuck you. Universal peace? Fuck you. He was a psychotic madman who wanted to kill every single American. Swine like you don't deserve to live here, enjoying the same freedoms I enjoy, breathing the air I breathe. You don't deserve freedom. You deserve to be dropped naked in the Iraqi desert, forced to serve as a human shield for our courageous troops. A human shield, so bullets and shrapnel can rip through your flesh and tear apart your organs until your torso fills with bile and black blood until you drown, saving the life of a soldier. It would be the only patriotic thing you ever did in your life. But you know what? I'm not even angry at you. Instead, I feel sorry for you. Because thanks to your efforts to support those who hate freedom, someday a chemical weapon is going to be used in your hometown, and you're going to catch a big whiff of sarin, or VX, or mustard gas. On that day, your flesh will bubble up and your skin will be covered in sores that will itch and burn and bleed, and your throat will close, and you will gasp for breath and only inhale feces, because your legs will have stopped working and deposited you on the ground face first in a puddle of your own voided bowels and then when your friends the Islamofascists who have been wearing gasmasks just so they could watch up close come over to laugh at your twitching form, they will rip out your eyeballs and skullfuck you and as their acidic demon seed eats its way through what is left of your cerebellum your last concious thought will be shame and regretatbeingagoddamndemocratvoting- peacelovingmotherfuckinghippieprickandyouwillbegforgivenessfrom- agodwhonolongercaresbecauseyouopposedgeorgebushandwantedhimtolose- thewaronterrorandyouwillburninhellforeverandeverfuckyoufuckyoufuckyoudiefuckyoufuck.
Today, Gnat learned that peanutbutter is not an effective substitute for videocassettes, at least not as far as VCRs are concerned. I really love her.
Mickey Kaus:
Shriller and shriller: What question does this answer?
1) What is a literary critic's judgement of Paul Krugman's writing style?
2) What is a description of Hillary Clinton's voice as she demands Bill finish his overhyped memoirs before the election so that talk of "Hillary 2008" isn't overshadowed in the immediate wake of a Kerry loss?
3) How does the electoral train bearing down on beleaguered Democrats afraid of change sound?
If you answered 4) all of the above, you win the prize! [What prize is that? --ed] You'd love to know, wouldn't you?
I am smarter than Juan Cole: It's difficult to come away from this post thinking anything else. How shrill do you have to be to deny your own shrillness? This is, ultimately, the Democratic paradox - they cannot help but be shrill even during their bouts of being upset about being called shrill, which of course leads to more shrillness, and, as shrillness tends to do, shrillness begets shrillness, and eventually you wind up with John Kerry.
So where's my royalty check?: Several kf readers have noted recently how few homeless people they see when walking through metropolitan areas. I've noticed this too. It seems pretty obvious that tougher welfare laws have convinced most of these people to find jobs, although I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for liberal Dems to admit it. I guess Clinton's welfare reform did do what it was supposed to do!
P.S. Faithful kf readers will note that I am the reason welfare reform became a winning issue for Democrats.
Boobie Trap: Beyond my initial reaction of "Nice rack!" upon seeing the picture of John Kerry's daughter's transparent dress at the Cannes film festival, it occurs to me that this kind of thing perfectly illustrates my main critique of Democrats. In attempting to shock people jaded by years of political claptrap so as to convince them that Bush is "bad for the country", they show a disturbing lack of character by disrespecting average people's basic values and shunning what can only be called common decency. What's left, then, is a thin gloss of transparent fabrications, attempting (but failing) to cover an average boob named Kerry.
Beyond even that, for a candidate flaunting the sex-stained mantle of the Democratic Party to have his daughter walk around naked is foolish beyond belief, to the point where you have to wonder how sane Kerry really is. [Wait, so you mean you want us to believe that the fashion sense of Kerry's daughter should convince us that he is unfit to be President, but your constant pandering to Glenn Reynolds, your incessant criticism of Democrats, and your comparitive lack of criticism directed at the Right should not convince us that you're a worthless Rightwing kiss-ass? --ed] Yes.
And the winner is: the winner of the kf motto non-contest contest held last week is Marlon Johnson of Orange County with his entry, "John Kerry is a pile of shit with fake hair." I'm trying to convince the web design guys to add it to Slate's main page kf teaser, so be patient. In the meantime, Marlon gets a free - [What? What exactly does he get for having the motor skills necessary to type that clever bit of genius and send it to you? --ed] Ooh! Getting a little feisty there, eh? Must be from hanging around with too many Democrats! [That's pretty clever too, jackass. However would your instant witticisms be properly relayed to the masses were it not for the power of blogs! Idiot. --ed] Hey, what the hell... [And while I'm at it, does it ever occur to you that, as a rhetorical device, I'm getting pretty weak? --ed] What? Nonsense. You are fresh and hip. kf readers agree by an overwhelming margin! [Are you kidding me? I'm so pathetic, other rhetorical devices mock me. Polysyndeton calls me a pussy. Synecdoche spits at me whenever I walk by --ed] Quit whining. My writing's fine. [Hey, fuck you. You didn't get your ass kicked by alliteration. Alliteration! Do you know how humiliating that is? --ed] Huh? [What are you, deaf? Alliteration beat the shit out of me! The dweebiest device dropkicked my derriere! DO YOU SEE HOW FUCKING LAME THAT IS?--ed] I always thought alliteration was kind of neat. Wait, this sounds like a job for the blogs! Glenn, what do you think? kf readers await your opinion! [You are such a cocksucker. --ed]
Tacitus:
It is with great sorrow and trepidation that I write these words, but conscience forces honesty, even when it turns against one's own party. George Bush has turned what was a brilliant, courageous plan into a disaster. His utter incompetence, his arrogance, and his refusal to admit error have led this country into an impossible situation which will take decades to remedy. Beyond that, by bungling the war in Iraq, he has given Islamists hope, hope that they can defeat the United States after all. This will inevitably have horrendous consequences, both in the US and abroad, as terrorism spreads and Islamist governments cement their hold on power.
Unfortunately, the only alternative to Bush is Kerry, and I cannot in good conscience support him. After all, let us not forget that the man who I think might be John Kerry's Secretary of State has said some things which lead me to believe he might point our country in the wrong direction, and future generations would rightly condemn us for allowing such a thing to transpire.
I am, after all, a man of principle.
Steven DenBeste:
(4,000 words which display a broad range of knowledge spanning a number of subjects, combined with smart analysis and interesting insights, leading up to-)
It is then impossible to escape the conclusion that we must invoke NATO's Article V and conduct a global war against France.
(Sound of thousands of readers interested by preceding technical discussion simultaneously going "Wait- what the fuck?")
[Oh shit! It's assonance, and it's got a bat! Mickey, help me, you hack motherfu- *CRACK!*
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