Archive for July, 2009
Tea-bagging queen
If you’d told me someone named Lou had used the phrase “tea-bagging queen”, I would have guessed it was Lou Reed, circa 1970. Turns out I was wrong: The most trusted name in news, my friends.
July 28, 2009
· 
Angry DougJ · 
124 Comments
Posted in: Assholes, Media
The return of wine blogging
I just returned from a fascinating wine tasting held at the New York Wine and Culinary Center (in Canandaigua, NY). It was an all cabernet franc tasting—21 different cab francs, 17 from the Finger Lakes (all from the 2007 vintage), three from the Loire region of France, and one from Long Island. Cabernet franc is [...]
July 28, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 121 Comments
Posted in: wine blogging
Site Issues
A number of you have emailed to tell me the site looks funky, and I have no idea why it would. Please explain what the problem is, what browser you are using, and what OS, and if you can put up a screen cap on an image hosting service, that would be appreciated. If any [...]
July 28, 2009
· John Cole · 608 Comments
Posted in: Site Maintenance
Going With the Gut
I find stories like this fascinating: The United States military has spent billions on hardware, like signal jamming technology, to detect and destroy what the military calls improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, the roadside bombs that have proved to be the greatest threat in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, where Sergeant Tierney is training soldiers [...]
July 28, 2009
· John Cole · 76 Comments
Posted in: Excellent Links, Military
A Poet and Doesn’t Know It
Via Sullivan, this is simply genius. Every now and then someone does something that is so perfect that you have to watch it several times, and this is one of them. William Shatner reading Sarah Palin’s speech: For me, it was the bongo in the background. I challenge you to only watch it once.
July 28, 2009
· John Cole · 129 Comments
Posted in: Starbursts
Answer: we’d never have to see Luke Russert Jr. on tv
What would happen if a freak solar event sterilized the people on the half of the earth that happened to be facing the sun? Freak solar events, craters where cities used to be, bellicose civilizations hurling objects at the speed of light, what is it with wingers and apocalyptic fantasies?
July 28, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 164 Comments
Posted in: Burkean bells
Can’t do better than Ezra
I’ve never read much of Ezra Klein’s stuff in the past, even though it’s been highly praised elsewhere. But there’s no question that yesterday’s opinion piece and today’s online chat are by far the most knowledgeable discussions of health care I’ve ever read in an American newspaper. Read the whole thing, but here’s a sample: [...]
July 27, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 151 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs, Media
My Favorite Monday Sentence (Palin edition)
Pareene at Gawker has a rather interesting (okay, fairly hilarious) essay, including a number of videos, concerning Sarah Palin’s Gradual Descent into Incoherency: What was your favorite line from Sarah Palin’s second resignation speech? Was it: “So, how ‘bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quite makin’ things up?” Or maybe this amazing bit: “Let me tell [...]
July 27, 2009
· Anne Laurie · 117 Comments
Posted in: Clown Shoes, Lies, Damned Lies, and Sarah Palin
Then they came for Ben Smith
A birfer BJ commenter calling himself Details about Ben Smith links back to a crazy birfer website. It’s good stuff: 1. He only “produced” it to FactCheck, and the same page where they have pictures of the cert – pictures that they later compressed and removed EXIF data from – contains the blatant lie that [...]
July 27, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 120 Comments
Posted in: Hoot-Smalley
Nucking Futs
This is great. Mike Stark tracks down Republicans in DC and asks them about the birther issue: The reason Republicans in DC are running from some guy on the street asking them whether or not Obama is an American citizen is because they have spent the last thirty years cultivating a base of insane crazy [...]
July 27, 2009
· John Cole · 80 Comments
Posted in: Republican Stupidity, The Wingularity
Birfo di tutti birfi
Is it just me or does head-birfer Orley Taitz sound eerily like Arianna Huffington? (She comes on at 7:34 of the audio.) I didn’t get through that much of the program, but Ben Smith does a pretty good job of explaining the entire conspiracy. Another question: is the birfer stuff any crazier than the Clinton [...]
July 27, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 87 Comments
Posted in: Hoot-Smalley
Birfers in the briefing room
Actually, not really. Just a question on how to make them go away. I have two predictions: 1) Someone like Ross Douthat will say that birferism is somehow liberals’ fault, the same way it was liberals’ fault for killing the George Tiller by supporting reproductive rights. 2) Birther opposition will be used as a sign [...]
July 27, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 55 Comments
Posted in: Hoot-Smalley
What He Said
I agree with this: The conversation we ought to be having in response to the July 16 incident and its heated aftermath isn’t about race, it’s about police arrest powers, and the right to criticize armed agents of the government. By any account of what happened—Gates’, Crowleys’, or some version in between—Gates should never have [...]
July 27, 2009
· John Cole · 184 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs
Home Sales Up
But still down from last year: Sales of new homes in the United States posted their largest monthly gain in eight years in June, the government reported on Monday, a sign that the housing market is bottoming as buyers take advantage of lower prices. The Commerce Department reported that new single-family home sales rose 11 [...]
July 27, 2009
· John Cole · 32 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs
Up in smoke
I just read a fascinating article on marijuana legalization in Mendocino, CA, which, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The county put in some of the most lenient laws in the state and various problems ensued: Now some growers planted in town, considered declasse because flowering buds put up [...]
July 27, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 67 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs, The War on Your Neighbor, aka the War on Drugs
