Since everyone is (for some reason) holding forth on this today, allow me to say some very unpopular and uncomfortable things. Donald Trump was elected “fair and square” — which is to say he was elected by the same system that elected the rest of the Presidents who’ve led us. The problem is that system, not Donald Trump.Filed under: politics | Tagged: donald trump, duopoly, pessimism, rant, trump | 2 Comments »
O’s pitcher Koji Uehara was forced to leave the game yesterday after three innings due to dehydration. Okay, it was pretty hot in D.C. yesterday, where the Orioles were playing, and we did win the game and all…but could we please teach the O’s coaching staff how to say, “Hey, have a cup of water,” in Japanese?
Onto other matters: I was listening to a discussion on Nominally Public Radio about the hullaballoo over President Obama’s address at Notre Dame. The usual balance stunt was in effect: a member of the faculty for the neutral stance (he was obviously in favor of Obama’s speech, but was very carefully asked neutral-seeming questions in an effort to bleach out his viewpoint), a Catholic activist for the antis, and – all together now! – E.J. Dionne for the liberals. (As an aside, can we just buy that man a sign that says “LIBERAL ELITE” and have him wear it on every single channel? Good thing that the MSM is so independent and all.) Continue reading
Filed under: politics, religion | Tagged: abortion, catholicism, conservatives, e.j. dionne, framing, hypocrisy, msm, npr, rant, snark | 3 Comments »
Alright, okay. I haven’t written here in eons. Chalk it up to a perfect storm of soul-searching, personal drama, dwelling on some insignificant details like where the next meal’s coming from, and a well-deserved vacation from, to closely paraphrase Barbara Bush on post-Katrina New Orleans, “wasting my beautiful mind on something like” the news of the day. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the wherefores, because I have a different fish to fry right now.
I do not have extensive experience in politics. Yes, I helped to lead a political party, but we weren’t exactly in the mainstream; there were many, many backrooms where true political power was exercised that I was not invited to, and I may not have accepted even if I was. But I can safely say that I have more than the average joe, and from observation, I may have more than the dreadful excuses for punditry whose limp opinions dominate the interminable analysis that news is subjected to, thanks to the 24-hour news cycle. (That’s a true misnomer, by the way: there simply aren’t 24 hours of news in a day, pretty much by definition, so much of what they say has no value.) Even if one doesn’t buy that assumption, I would hope I’d be seen as possessing at least a different point of view, informed by different but no less valid information.
With that as prologue, I feel I can say two things are true about politics: Continue reading
Filed under: politics | Tagged: charles fort, conspiracy, kenn thomas, parapolitics, politics, rant, steamshovel press, the media, watergate | 2 Comments »
I am more than ready, at this point, to have the year come to an end, and to be about the business of doing something with this one.
I need a year that doesn’t involve surgeries for my children, or job horrors for me, or the general state of insignificance that my politics or my journalistic endeavors have fallen into. I need the progressive movement to wake up and realize that, though the tactics may differ, we’re as necessary under Barack Obama as under George W. Bush. I need to get back on a stage. I need a contract for my company. I need for the Israelis and the Palestinians to stop killing each other, and just settle differences with Parcheesi or something. I need to get off my duff and get back into shape. I need another trip to Ocean City and a number of days under a warm sun. I need the Orioles to have a winning season, and I need to watch the Yankees spend a great deal of money to buy everyone in sight and then collapse like an overripe avocado. I need for those very few tie-wearing white guys responsible for the appalling collapse of the economy of the United States to be staked out over anthills, their bodies smeared with honey. I need to be part of an America in which I do not feel like the single lamb sitting at the table with four wolves when a vote comes up on what to have for lunch. There are some other things that I need that I won’t get into right now.
None of these things are likely to happen in 2009.
But it’s for certain they didn’t in 2008.
Filed under: various musings | Tagged: needs, new year, rant | 1 Comment »
And now, a quick summary of where we are, courtesy of your friends at the Hidden Message.
Yeah, I’m watching this election. The problem is, I’m not watching it from far enough away.
* Yeah, I nicked this line. Couldn’t help it.
Filed under: politics | Tagged: barack obama, bob barr, chuck baldwin, cynthia mckinney, democrats, elections, greens, john mccain, libertarians, rant, republicans, ron paul, sarah palin, sarcasm, the economy, wall street, whine | 7 Comments »
I think a combination of having my lunch interrupted and some other unfortunate events led to my channeling of Hunter S. Thompson, which I occasionally do. Anyway, I wrote this yesterday under such influence, and while I’m in a marginally better mood today, I figured it would be good to post this for the sake of posterity. I think the Zen Buddhists may be onto something: voluntary self-denial – say, a lack of food – does seem to lead to the discovery of truth.
1. If you have in your possession an electronic device that does not work when plugged into five different network ports, at least consider the possibility that your device doesn’t work, rather than calling me the guy who enabled those ports.
2. Particularly if it’s lunchtime, you dumb schmuck.
3. There are no intellectual requirements for public office. This does not mean that there shouldn’t be. Voters should act as if there are…or at the very least, have the decency to shut up when you elect a moron as a consequence of ignoring this.
4. Speaking of which, a great many Democrats are currently off the Greens-are-spoilers argument because, for the most part, they’re slinging this epithet at their own candidates. There are, nominally, a couple of reasons for this: they are too stupid to realize that there’s no difference between the two, they are too stupid to just ignore the MSM and let the votes decide the matter, they are too stupid to realize that the whole “spoiler” argument is a logical fallacy, and they are too stupid in the area of mathematics to realize that their method of voting is fundamentally flawed and that they should choose a different one. The first four words of each of these reasons are sufficient to describe the problem.
5. And while we’re on it, those opposed to alternative voting methods who bring up Stalin by the third graf should be given a nice, juicy hamburger, tied up out back behind the woodshed far away from real people, and never paid any attention to ever again for any reason. Continue reading
Filed under: various musings | Tagged: elections, hunter s. thompson, intelligence, rant, rudeness, voting | 2 Comments »
I have hit the front page of Yah-who to test out a browser. The top story is on last night’s American Idol episode, which is merely depressing, certainly in concept if not in content. The true EC Comics horror factor kicks in when you look down in the bottom right corner. It’s a feature labeled “Pulse”, and subtitled, in a bit of perhaps unintentional truth-telling, “What Yahoos are Into”. The box randomly updates with a different glurge every time you update the page – favorite teen celebs, upcoming Hollywood movies, current “news of the weird” inbox cloggers…basically, a litany of glitzy, content-devoid culture crack for sheeple. The absolutely horrifying one that made me despair for all humanity was Popular Music Artists, a three-word title of which only the first might be true; the accompanying pic was of the first listed putative artist, Danity Kane:
Looks like what happens when five girls from 14th Street uptown suddenly acquire enough money to go to Georgetown for a spree – and then voluntarily choose to go back to 14th Street afterwards. If you’re keeping score at home, Client #9 would need another $21,500.
Not to be outdone, the remaining “artists” were Chris Brown, Lil’ Wayne, Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, and Rihanna. I can’t think of six better reasons offhand to pierce your own eardrums with a hatpin and gratefully enroll at Gallaudet.
Sure, it’s fashionable for each generation to sniff at the following ones’ musical tastes; it happened to Elvis, the Stones, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, any number of hip-hop artists. And “pop music” has never been of too much worth as a body of work, no matter the era. But by damn, skippy, what is wrong with music today? I have gone on at length elsewhere that there were times when things were much better across the board; can we safely say that this is one of those times when the opposite has happened? When things will be rejuvenated soon, and we’ll have another Elvis, another John Lennon, another Mick Jones or David Byrne to come in and clean out the chaff, to hasten them to the backwaters of kitsch musical history? Please, someone tell me this will happen…soon…
Filed under: music | Tagged: horror, music, pop music, rant, the internet | 1 Comment »
I took a train to Rhode Island this weekend (but they made me put it back – bada-BING!) While there, no fewer than two locals told me, in the space of a number of hours, that Rhode Islanders ranked dead last among the states in terms of drivers’ knowledge of traffic laws. Given that Rhode Islanders’ driving in general may be charitably described as “freeform”, that seemed likely. I got home and looked it up online, and, sure enough, the intarnets delivered…but of course, there were apparently madmen who had influence on the test results. Not that Maryland ranked 44th, in a tie with the District; I get along fine in traffic around here, but have also driven here in rain and especially snow, and the ability of my fellow Murlinders to figure out what in the name of Jee-zuss they are doing with their vehicles under those circumstances leads me to believe that the average performance might have been brought down by those days, or by the Beltway (either) in general. No, the truly mad part was that the Philistine, unibrowed, sloped-forehead “drivers” of Virginia ranked 15th. Did they test this ability from orbit? The entire state is composed of people who think they are too good to drive but aren’t, or people who are actually too bad to drive and do. I fully expect to see crates of ripped-open Cracker Jack boxes by the sides of the unmarked and no-U-turns-allowed roads in Virginia as evidence of where the latest crop of unguided missiles called Virginia drivers received their licenses. Continue reading
Filed under: various musings | Tagged: beltway, cars, massachusetts, rant, rhode island, traffic, virginia | 3 Comments »
The Dodgers have reported that Nomar Garciaparra (also known as Mr. Mia Hamm) is injured and won’t be starting the season as their third baseman as planned. Garciaparra’s backup, Andy LaRoche, also seems to be injured and isn’t that great of a hitter anyway, forcing the Dodgers to turn to some other prospects:
PHOENIX, Ariz. (AP)—Chin-Lung Hu is normally a shortstop, but injuries to Andy LaRoche and Nomar Garciaparra have thrust him into the mix at third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hu played second base for the first time last year at Triple-A Las Vegas, and has been taking grounders at third since before the Dodgers’ trip to China earlier this month. He also played some third for the Taiwanese national team.
The 24-year-old infielder said things move “a little faster” at third than at short, and that taking ground balls in practice doesn’t compare to game action. Even so, he said he’s up for the challenge if the Dodgers need to use him at third.
“I think I’d be fine if I played (third),” Hu said. “Last year was my first time at second base, and now I feel more comfortable at second base.”
Now given that Hu has now played at three of the four infield positions, I don’t think it’s too big of a stretch to play him at first base either, right? So for the sake of argument, let’s put him there for now.
I did a bit of digging after this, and discovered that the Dodgers also have a kid pitching for them in the Gulf Coast League by the name of Michael Watt. Given that the Dodgers’ regular second baseman, Jeff Kent, is as old as the hills, I think this would be a great time to bring the kid up and give him a chance. I mean, pitching, second base…what’s the real diff, right? Get him to hit a little bit and the kid’ll be fine!
Now, stay with me, here. Say the Dodgers trade for Adam Dunn, the slugger from the Reds. Plays left field, but hey, third base wouldn’t be that much of a stretch – left half of the field and all that. And of course, you’d need to encourage the guy at his new position, so you could nickname him “Dunn-o”. Like Hawaii Five-O. Y’know, “nice play, Dunn-o,” and “way to hit it, Dunn-o!”
So the Dodgers’ new infield would be Hu’s on first, Watt’s on second, and A. “Dunn-o” on…what? Why are you staring at me??
Is anyone listening? Dodgers!! Don’t blow this opportunity!!
Filed under: sports | Tagged: abbott and costello, baseball, destiny, general weirdness, los angeles dodgers, rant | 9 Comments »
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