Shaker Todd S. emails:
Just pulled this moments ago from Marketwatch.com...
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. financial markets are "strong and solid," President Bush said Friday...Yes as evidenced by nearly every banking stock in America setting new multi-year lows.
Catfight! It's one thing if the terrible twosome want to spend their entire afternoon chasing each other around for the express purpose of attacking one another, but I don't know why they had to drag Mr. Sidney Poitier into it.
I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's Comment is Free about the horrendo cable news coverage of the Iowa caucuses last night.
Proving once again that they are a complete disgrace, the American cable news media embarrassed themselves beyond redemption last night by taking to new levels their deranged fascination with Vagina-Americans' and M-Fer Americans' respective alignment with "their" candidates. Hopefully no one will tell them about the existence of black women, or their heads might explode.The whole thing is here.
Ironically, I was tuned into CNN for most of the night, where 2000 Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile was among the panel of expert pundits. I can only speculate that the reflective shine from Anderson Cooper's famous silver locks refracted the studio light in such a manner as to render Brazile unrecognisable as a black woman to the white men surrounding her.
Hilzoy: "Andrew Olmsted, who also posted here as G'Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July. … What follows is Andy's post…"
[M]any of us in America have forgotten that war means death and suffering in wholesale lots. A decision that for most of us in America was academic, whether or not to go to war in Iraq, had very real consequences for hundreds of thousands of people. Yet I was as guilty as anyone of minimizing those very real consequences in lieu of a cold discussion of theoretical merits of war and peace. Now I'm facing some very real consequences of that decision; who says life doesn't have a sense of humor?Blub and more blub.
But for those who knew me and feel this pain, I think it's a good thing to realize that this pain has been felt by thousands and thousands (probably millions, actually) of other people all over the world. That is part of the cost of war, any war, no matter how justified. If everyone who feels this pain keeps that in mind the next time we have to decide whether or not war is a good idea, perhaps it will help us to make a more informed decision. Because it is pretty clear that the average American would not have supported the Iraq War had they known the costs going in. I am far too cynical to believe that any future debate over war will be any less vitriolic or emotional, but perhaps a few more people will realize just what those costs can be the next time.
This may be a contradiction of my above call to keep politics out of my death, but I hope not. Sometimes going to war is the right idea. I think we've drawn that line too far in the direction of war rather than peace, but I'm a soldier and I know that sometimes you have to fight if you're to hold onto what you hold dear. But in making that decision, I believe we understate the costs of war; when we make the decision to fight, we make the decision to kill, and that means lives and families destroyed. Mine now falls into that category; the next time the question of war or peace comes up, if you knew me at least you can understand a bit more just what it is you're deciding to do, and whether or not those costs are worth it.
A lot of other people are chiming in on the results of the Iowa caucus, and a lot of those people have degrees in political science, they've studied polls and statistics until their ears bleed, they have a lot of innate knowledge about the politics of a small state that doesn't represent the whole of the electorate any more than a chihuahua represents the Westminster Kennel Club, but nevertheless they all seem to have something to say and they all have agendas to put forth. So be it, and so why shouldn't I just make a couple of little observations?
First, I agree with the inimitable Kenneth Quinnell at T.Rex's Guide to Life: calm down, and I pretty much said the same thing yesterday; the Iowa caucus is like the Oracle of Delphi. People take away from it exactly what they want to hear, and it is such a small representation of the real electorate that even losers in the past have gone on to win their party's nomination. That's why I'm sorry to see people like Joe Biden and Chris Dodd give up so quickly.
Second, resist the sweet siren song of the clichés that are pouring forth: "change has spoken," and so on. The spin is nauseating and disorienting, and it will only get worse; the New Hampshire primary is Tuesday -- yet another small state with little or no macro-representation of the nation as a whole. Of course, when you have hours of time to kill on the cable shows and you're up against Chris Matthews, clichés are the only refuge.
Now, to be completely contrary, if -- and it's a big if -- there's anything to be gleaned from the Iowa results, it is that the Republicans should have everything in the world to be freaked out about. A whole lot more people turned out for the Democrats than for the Republicans, and Barack Obama attracted a lot more voters than did Mike Huckabee. If this is an omen for the general election -- and I'm not saying that it is -- it would seem that the Democrats as a whole and Sen. Obama in particular drew in a lot more people both within and without the Democratic camp than Mr. Huckabee did within the Republican party. If you macroized the results to reflect the entire country, it would seem that more people, regardless of party, would be drawn to the vision and appeal of Mr. Obama than they would to that of Mr. Huckabee and his retro appeal to the evangelical wing of the GOP. No matter how much he tries to pretty it up and make it sound soft and folksy, under that velvet tone is the hard-core message of fundamental dominionism. That may win primaries and scare the crap out of the mainline GOP, but it won't win the general election.
Finally, this isn't the end of the Clinton campaign, nor that of John Edwards, John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Rudy Giuliani. Not by a long shot. They may have to readjust their message, but there is still life yet left in all of them. Which means we get to do this all over and over again, and by then we'll all be so sick of it that even Josh Marshall will be posting pictures of his kid to take our mind off the ceaseless noise.
Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
by Elle
So a few days ago, the LA Lakers wore retro (short, close-fitting) shorts in a game versus the Celtics. Kobe was not so thrilled:
I don't know what it feels like to wear a thong, but I imagine it feels something like what we had on in the first half. I felt violated. I felt naked. It's one thing to see films with guys wearing those things. ... I'd rather stay warm, man.Which leads me to wonder if he's at all empathic towards his co-workers who regularly have to sacrifice "warmth" for "uniform gimmicks" like short shorts, in order to entertain the fans?
"None of this worries me—Sept. 11, there were times I was worried."—Rudy Giuliani, on having evidently been as appealing to Iowa caucas-goers as an expired slug.
Satire is officially dead.
Instead of a QotD tonight, we'll just have an open thread for discussion of primary results, on which we should start getting some news in the next half hour or so.
Obviously, I'm pulling for Edwards, but, to borrow a line from him, the Democratic candidates this year are (comparatively) an embarrassment of riches, while the GOP candidates are just an embarrassment. Couldn't be more true. So, unless Biden pulls a win out of his ass, you probably won't hear a lot of complaining from me.
If you need it, here is Your Idiot's Guide To The Democratic Caucuses.
Supposedly, you'll be able to track Dem results here (and presumably the open thread at the Dem Party blog here), and GOP results here.
Anyhow...open thread. I hear JackGoff might be persuaded to serve up some drinks, if we ask nicely.
That's the only explanation, because everyone knows that boys are good at math—and Tweety really, really doesn't appear to be.
UPDATE: Video here.
Selling sex is said to be humankind's oldest profession but it may have deep evolutionary roots, according to a study into our primate cousins which found that male macaques pay for intercourse.Ooh, sounds fascinating! And what did they use as their currency? Twigs? Bananas? Doubloons? Do tell!
On average, females had sex 1.5 times per hour. But this rate jumped to 3.5 times per hour immediately after the female had been groomed by a male -- and her partner of choice was likely to be the hunky monkey that did the grooming.Dirty whores.
[Part 18 in an Ongoing Series: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen.]
In which Subway reminds women that the only reason they have to feel good about themselves is being thin, that their self-worth is predicated on their looks, that psychological health is evidently dependent on being pretty, that fat axiomatically equals ugly, and that no man would ever love a fat girl.
One of the very best things the Missouri electorate ever did was to usher conservative water boy Jim Talent out of the Senate and into the unemployment line. You'd think that the humiliation of losing to Claire McCaskill might have taught Talent the folly of pandering to homophobia in exchange for votes...and you'd be wrong. Think Progress reports that as part of Mitt Romney's chorus, "One-note-Jimmy" is singing the only tune he knows: "Teh gay, teh gay, beware teh gay..."
[Romney's] always had the same position as to regards to the gay agenda. Look, he wants to know people to know he values gay people as people, okay? But he doesn’t want the militant gays to be able to change the cultural institutions of the country.
One good reason for Romney to go down: One less coattail for the whining, wheedling likes of Talent to cling to.
Also noted at Pam's House Blend and by Mustang Bobby, below.
George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels, has died at age 82, after a battle with cancer.
I've recommended the Flashman series before; they are fantastic books about an absolute arse of a man named Harry Flashman, who tumbles his way through life as a coward and a crook, a sexist and a racist, a wholly detestable blighter, and inevitably ends up, as so many like him do (cough Bush cough), regarded as a great man. He is, like Chris Finch, a guy you love to hate.
Five days after we met, Mr. Shakes sent me a missive including the following, which was my first introduction to the odious Flashman—and his slightly more respectable architect, Mr. Fraser:
Mar 20, 9:12 PMTwo months later, on my birthday, I received a package from Mr. Shakes. It was a beat-up copy of the first book in the series, Flashman. I thought he had remembered my affinity for used books and picked up a second-hand copy for me; it was only when I opened it and saw the signed inscription from Fraser that I realized it was his own copy Mr. Shakes had sent.
Anyhow, swiftly on to Flashman. It's not high-minded, intellectual ambrosia, but it is very well written, funny and devilishly entertaining stuff. The books are set in Victorian times and concern the misadventures of an English anti-hero, the eponymous Flashman. Fraser borrowed the character from Hughes' "Tom Brown's Schooldays", in which Flashman was the school bully and general villain.
A more entertaining way to learn history has not been invented, as Flashy lies, cheats, steals, whines and screws his way to victory. Winning honours and medals aplenty, despite his being an inveterate coward.
I detect enough saturnine humour in your correspondence to suggest that it may appeal.
Yesterday, Kucinich exhorted his Iowa supporters, in the likely event that his support fails to make him a viable contender, to select Obama as their second choice. Dodd declined to do the same:
"The idea that I would go around telling key supporters of mine that tomorrow night, if for whatever reason we didn't get 15 percent, I want you to do the following — I'm not sure I'd vote for me," Dodd said. "The idea that you're trying to market me, auction me off to some other campaign, would truly bother me."Wow, lookee there—respect for his supporters' autonomy!
