December 2008
“Michael Phelps has been a Las Vegas regular since his record haul of gold...”
– Norm Clark, Las Vegas Review Journal. This rates pretty high on the WTF meter.
a college story I overheard at Hugo's Tacos this...
dude #1: “They went down into the basement, and there’s this guy peeing in a corner. So the guy whose house it is, he walks over and punches him in the back of the head. Turns out he wasn’t peeing — he was getting a blowjob.”
dude #2: “I’d love to know what the next ten seconds of that situation were like.”
a dose of my own personal brand of crazy
Upon hearing this afternoon’s sonic boom, my first thought was “oh, I guess the invasion’s started.”
And then I receive this email:
From: Molly McAleer Date: Nov 30, 2008 1:40pm Subject: did you think you were breaking a terrorist attack on tumblr? To: Eric Spiegelman hahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahhaha hahahhahahahhahahhahahhahhahahahhaha.
and by “personal...
oh.
lafd:
Anticipate twin ‘sonic booms’ across SoCal at 1:20-1:25 PM today due to Space Shuttle Endeavour landing at Edwards AFB. -Brian Humphrey ###
large explosion heard in the Valley just now
no further information available
November 2008
“Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.”
– H.L. Mencken. The jurisprudence that defines the scope of the freedom of the press historically follows a separate, though parallel, path as that which determines the boundaries of free speech. This is due in no small part to the fact that everyone can speak but only a few (i.e., the rich and...
“Instead of the usual frantic chaos on Black Friday, the year’s busiest...”
– two gunmen kill each other in SoCal Toys R Us. I assume that by “usual frantic chaos,” they mean “trampling someone to death.” A mano-a-mano gunfight in the Playstation aisle is so much more civilized.
U.S. intel suspects Kashmiri militants in Mumbai... →
a reminder that Al Qaeda does not orchestrate all the world’s terrorism, and that these terrorists were probably not “targeting Americans.”
once you get my grandparents talking, it's hard to...
One of my grandmother’s better stories this year revealed the existence of Frank Majder, her uncle, who was a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Lublin. Soon after Germany invaded Poland, the Nazis rounded up all the intellectuals and either executed them (my grandmother described “bodies hung upside-down” around campus) or threw them into extermination camps. My...
1 tag
Your goose is cooked, turkey.
(Budos Band,...
California: greater bankruptcy risk than Slovakia →
once again, because you don't have enough to worry... →
(previously)
How not to write a sex scene. →
Relatedly, Elliot Spitzer wants a book deal!
Looks like Hillary Clinton's appointment to the... →
As Marc Ambinder explains it, under Article I Section 6 of the Constitution, a Senator cannot take a civil office position “if the salary was increased during your current congressional term. And the salary for cabinet officials has gone up in the past year.” I think this was intended to negate conflicts of interest, in which a legislator votes to increase the pay rate of some office...
Gates stays. →
a first.
Pirate wars will bring America back →
This is what I’m saying.
(via twothirty:itsbedtime)
“She has coruscating intelligence, beauty, style and — drumroll, please — a butt....”
– An appreciation of Michelle Obama’s beauty — and booty (via aja)
A Note On AIG's Media Relations Strategy In The...
marklisanti:
Ken Layne Vs. AIG’s Media Relations Dept:
From: ken@wonkette.com To: _____._____@aig.com Cc: “Sara K. Smith” “Jim Newell” Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:22 PM subject Re: And while you are covering AIG…
mailed-by gmail.com
Dude, Wonkette is a political comedy blog. You live in New York, you work in “media relations,” and you don’t know Wonkette or Gawker or anything? Jesus...
On Bush's Pardons
liana:
I spent some time this morning trying to make sense of the fourteen pardons President Bush recently granted — thereby letting slide a hodgepodge of offenses that include bald eagle murder, food stamp theft and illegal hazardous waste disposal — and I think I’ve figured it out.
Look at these names: Richard Micheal Culpepper, Geneva Yvonne Hogg, Paul Julian McCurdy, Daniel Figh Pue III. ...
um, all of the sudden, YouTube is in 16:9?
WSJ: How to deal with Pirates →
Thy long trumphant flag once more unfurl, and on pirate fleets thy thunder hurl; then street the hostile prow to Bar’bry’s shores, release thy sons, and humblr Afric’s pow’rs. Secure old Janus’ doors with double bars, and free the world from massacres and wars.
The American in Algiers, attempting to rally the U.S. military against the Barbary Pirates, 1797.
...
Barack Obama doesn't like beets →
“Mr Geithner looks a lot younger than his 47 years. He skateboards and snowboards...”
– from The Economist. As Frangry might say, I think I’m in love with Tim Geithner.
“[During the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s,] Mr. Geithner developed a...”
– more on Tim Geithner’s international cred, plus a dose of crisis management cred, from today’s NYT.
“He has spent more time on financial crises, from Mexico and Thailand to Brazil...”
– more on Tim Geithner’s international cred from The Economist.
“This is the violin model: Hold power with the left hand, and play the music with...”
– David J. Rothkopf, on what Obama’s cabinet selections reveal about his governing strategy. A drastic oversimplification, but I’m a sucker for a good political metaphor.
Google map of L.A. gangs →
(via chickensdontclap)
why did Obama pick Tim Geithner?
check out his resume:
He completed high school at International School Bangkok, Thailand, and then attended Dartmouth College, graduating with a B.A. in government and Asian studies in 1983. After, he obtained an M.A. in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He has studied Japanese and Chinese and...
“These incident reports should be rewritten and assembled somewhere to form a new...”
– best pirate-related idea of the week, from Geoff Manaugh, discussing the incident reports included in the Live Piracy (Google) Map.
“We immediately read both of Senator Obama’s books. We were struck by the ideas...”
– Sol Sender, one of the guys who designed the Obama “O” logo. They’d never done a political logo before, and the entire design process took less than two weeks. This is more or less the definition of “nailed it.”
atencio:
Heloise & The Savoir Faire - Disco...
this is what I just saw rolling down the street in...
a pickup truck, with the bed gone and replaced by a wooden platform with a fence along the perimeter, and on this wooden platform were a slew of shopping carts, which the owner of the truck clearly drove around looking for, with the purpose of returning them to their proper grocery stores. but that’s not the cool part —
muthafucka had custom rims, y’all.
the tech support guy in my office claims he found...
The tech support guy is thrilled, like he just found water on Mars. My boss? Not so much.
oh, enough already.
Unemployment is skyrocketing, the national debt is doubling, pirates rule the high seas, and Iran is on the verge of a nuclear bomb. You think maybe now isn’t the best time to start freaking people out over earthquakes?
I have a new slogan for these guys: “FEMA: Because you don’t have enough to worry about already.”
Rough day? Rough week? Rough life?
No money? ...
Brent Scowcroft advising Obama →
There are two things I’ve come to believe in the past few years. First, that Bush 41 was far more moderate than I ever gave him credit for (especially compared to his neocon evangelical son). Second, that Bill Clinton might actually be of questionable character (as witnessed during this year’s primaries). I now have something of a newfound respect for Bush 41, and the fact that his...
