Spend more but pay less, that has become the conflict which dominates our public policy debates. Doug Elmendorf from the CBO, via Klein sums it up well.
The country faces a fundamental disconnect between the services the people expect the government to provide, particularly in the form of benefits for older Americans, [...]
Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
Spend More, Pay Less
Posted in Community, Culture, Media, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged spending, taxes on November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Books: ‘Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women’
Posted in Arts, Culture, Jesharris, Media, Woman, tagged books, Harriet Reisen, Louisa May Alcott, PBS American Masters, The Woman Behind Little Women on November 2, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Here is my latest book review, from the Sunday (Nov. 1, 2009) Dallas Morning News:
Louisa May Alcott biography
details author’s lifelong struggles
By JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Joyce Sáenz Harris is a Dallas freelance writer.
Two women, both closely identified with the American abolitionist movement, wrote enormously influential best-sellers in the [...]
Defusing the Taliban
Posted in Media, Nation, Politics, Steve S., War, World, tagged Afghaistan, Recruiting Taliban on October 31, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Sean Naylor at Army Times (via Ackerman I think) has a nice piece up on how we are attempting to reintegrate reintegrate Taliban members. Key quotes….
KABUL, Afghanistan — A new initiative to persuade low- and mid-level Afghan insurgents to lay down their weapons and rejoin society is already bearing fruit and holds [...]
Hey, Karen!
Posted in Arts, Media, Scott Lahti, Technology on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Cheerleader-In-Chief
Posted in Culture, Ethics, Media, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged honesty, President as cheerleader on October 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The office of President of the United States combines the position of head of state and head of government. This meant that we had Bush telling us the wars in Afghanistan and iraq were going well, when we were obviously in trouble. Bush defended the economy when the disaster was unfolding. We now [...]
Home Sweet Home – The World Over
Posted in Arts, Media, Mind, Scott Lahti, World on October 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As seen this evening on the only cable program worth the time of psychically-human beings.
harry potter meets roman polanski
Posted in Culture, Education, Janice, Media, Public on October 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I just reviewed the blog stats on Alexandria, thanks to a post that I really couldn’t figure out without going to the attached links. It was gratifying to note that Alexandria does get quite a few hits, regularly, and that, at one point or another, 70 people actually read something I wrote. I didn’t think [...]
I’ll take Restoration Riffraff for £1666, Aleks
Posted in Arts, Humor, Language, Law, Media, Mind, Science, Scott Lahti, Self, Sex, Technology, tagged dildos, Isaac Newton, Mrs. Dash Penis Substitute, Wikipedia, William Chaloner on October 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Because there is only one thing worse than having your post on the role of the dildo in Newtonian post-physics turned into a footnote in an article at Wikipedia, and that is having Apple-Bodied Seemin’, or, Gravity’s Dildo sink like a lead phallus.
[tip: Aleksandreia Blog Stats - Referrers]
“(Don’t) try my product”
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Education, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Scott Lahti, Technology, tagged John Scherer, Martin Short, Nathan Thurm, Video Professor on October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
John Scherer and Billy Mays are the reasons our TV has so many dents in it. – commenter yazd, FreeRepublic.com
Never buy anything advertised on television. – DSL., Notes to Self, 1962-
After noticing one too many times John “Video Professor” Scherer laugh sheepishly on his ads after saying his name, we found this after searching on him; [...]
Conservative Isolation
Posted in Community, Media, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged conservatism, cults on October 19, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Courtesy of Conor Friedersdorf, this analysis of conservatism is very interesting. Key quotes….
These base Republican voters dislike Barack Obama to be sure – which is not very surprising as base Democrats had few positive things to say about George Bush – but these voters identify themselves as part of a ‘mocked’ minority with a set [...]
Ha! Good Luck with that!
Posted in Media, Patrick, Politics, tagged Media, Politics on October 17, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Oh this is too funny.
Reverend Al Sharpton and his lawyers say they are preparing to file a defamation lawsuit against conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for an op-ed published Saturday, which Sharpton alleges “erroneously” characterizes his (Sharpton’s) role in a string of violent incidents in New York in the early 90’s.
In the op-ed published in [...]
Publishers Yearly
Posted in Arts, Media, Mind, Scott Lahti, tagged books on October 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Best American series of annual anthologies from Houghton Mifflin, released each October, is but one line among several now published of omnium gathera across divers bibliographic genera. Those hard-pressed to stuff the bibliophile stockings of family or loved ones this Christmas, as well as those hoping to distill their annual magazine reading down to [...]
Cyrano de Blogerac
Posted in Arts, Culture, Education, Humor, Language, Media, Mind, Scott Lahti, tagged French literature, Madame de Sévigné on October 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696) was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter. Her letters provide much insight into the social mores and customs of 17th-century French life.
From the article on French [...]
GOP PC 4 Thee, Not Me
Posted in Media, Mind, Nation, Politics, Scott Lahti, War, tagged Conor Friedersdorf, conservatives on October 17, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Conor Friedersdorf has been doing yeoman’s work lately over at The Daily Beast calling horseshit on the teabagger – sorry, yellow-bellied sack-sucker (punditry of Christ in red – Ed.) – right. It’s a wonder he has time to sleep, given l’embarras des richesses which that benighted demographic presents him – not excepting its enunciation of [...]
Financial Regulation and the Media
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Ethics, Media, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged entitlement, Record pay on Wall Street on October 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Two recent articles make it clear that we are fighting an uphill battle in trying to effectively regulate the financial sector. First, we have yesterday’s report by the Wall Street Journal noting that major U.S. banks are on track to pay their employees $140 billion, a new record. Key quotes……
Workers at 23 [...]
Frontline in Afghanistan
Posted in Media, Nation, Public, Steve S., War, World, tagged Afghanistan, Pakistan, War on October 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Exum at Abu Muqawama has a nice piece up on our troops in Afghanistan. He also has the Frontline show that was on last night embedded in the piece. If you are at all interested in Afghanistan, I would highly recommend it. Be warned that a Marine dies in the piece, but it is not [...]
Look for the (Soviet) Union Libel, or Stalin the Family
Posted in Law, Media, Scott Lahti, World, tagged Joseph Stalin, Katyn massacre, purge trials, Soviet Union on October 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Partial Hallucination. Six Apparitions of Lenin on a Grand Piano by Salvador Dali (1931)
♫ Boy, the way that Lenin waved
NKVD fêtes depraved
RSVPs, blood engraved
Joe’s were the days
And you’d watch your elders then
Whisked off midnights by armed men
Comrade, we could use an Uncle like Joe Stalin again
Didn’t need no Bills of Right
Civil War, Red killed off [...]
Thoughts on Television
Posted in Arts, Culture, Humor, Media, Mind, Moro on October 13, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Some art forms are completely lost on me. Ballet. How the hell do people watch ballet…
I don’t see a lot of TV either, not entirely out of choice, because I don’t have a hookup, only a DVD player. For the most part, I don’t miss it because my heart belongs almost exclusively to movies. Usually [...]
Defunding the Undie-Fun Doable, or, The Invisible Handjob
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Ethics, Humor, Law, Lifestyle, Man, Media, Mind, Scott Lahti, Sex, Woman, tagged blackmail, David Letterman, Defending the Undefendable, Walter Block on October 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Tom Bachtell
David Letterman
You’ve Got Blackmail: Libertarians who came of age in the 1970s will recall with a wry avuncular twinkle a book from 1976 by the economist Walter Block entitled Defending the Undefendable: The Pimp, Prostitute, Scab, Slumlord, Libeler, Moneylender, and Other Scapegoats in the Rogue’s Gallery of American Society. Its divers chapters defend from [...]
Michael Nesmith’s Twitter, Leon Trotsky’s tongue, Mr. Brain’s Faggots and Adolf Hitler’s Granny
Posted in Arts, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Scott Lahti, Sex, Sport, Technology, Woman, World, tagged stuff on October 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
All that, plus ‘toons.
Dodging the nail-in-the-tire and splash-your-car-with-paint-thinner mentality
Posted in Community, Ethics, Media, Politics, tagged labor, members first 2009, solidarity, Teamster Local 767, Teamsters, union on October 12, 2009 | 10 Comments »
Kristan, on the campaign trail with the Teamsters
Where Anglosphere Tout Read
Posted in Arts, Humor, Language, Lifestyle, Media, Mind, Nation, Politics, Scott Lahti, World on October 11, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Peter Brookes, The Times (UK)
A few mid-Atlantic links Hoovered up while you lot snored last night, on the arts of the confectioner, telly comedians tall/Short/American/English/Canadian, book reviewers, and What It Means To Be Conservative and/arrrr a pirate economist – or just a car buyer hoping to save big next time round thanks to game theory:
Georgia Oyster bar owner not telling the truth about being a racist
Posted in Media, Patrick, Politics on October 11, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I would normally come to the defense of this guy’s right to freedom of speech.
But, with the awesome power of Google. I have made a discovery.
Mr. Oyster Bar owner in Georgia, who put out the sign, saying that Obama was going to “N****** Rig” the Healthcare system; is flatly lying about not being a racist.
…and [...]
Nothing Makes Me Risah Like a Guest Spot für Eliza in the Late Night, or, The Fallon Gong Show
Posted in Arts, Humor, Language, Media, Scott Lahti, Sport, tagged Bruce Springsteen, C. Everett Koop, Capitol Steps, Eliza Dushku, Jimmy Fallon, Manfred Mann's Earth Band on October 10, 2009 | 2 Comments »
When Eliza Dushku was on Jimmy Fallon(’s show) Wednesday night, her walk-on theme courtesy of the band was the early Springsteen-penned number made famous by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, “Blinded by the Light“, whose famously-mondegreened line
Revved up like a Deuce [alt: Wrapped up like a douche], another runner in the night
saw the band singing in [...]
