A big thick slice of middle-class America

It’s been a long week, already, so I’m going to unwind by dumping some Bobo on y’all without adding any commentary of my own:

I would say the typical golfer at my local course, the Falls Road Golf Course in Potomac, Md., is a 37-year-old Indian-American guy with a mid-range S.U.V. who works in I.T. at an office park and buys into the dream of white-collar America. He’ll be in a foursome with some of his buddies, then there will be a foursome of high school boys, then there will be two older couples playing together, then four women who play together once a week and finally there will be my wife and me in a pair waiting 20 minutes to tee off while those in front of us bounce shots from one side of the fairway to another.

In my experience, in short, golf is a big thick slice of middle-class America.

I don’t know why this amuses me but it does.

Update. I may as well inflict this upon you as well. In for a penny…

Several years ago, I arrived in Madison, Wis., for a conference. It was Saturday morning, and as my taxi got close to campus, I noticed people dressed in red walking in the same direction. At first it was a trickle, then thousands. It looked like the gathering of a happy Midwestern cult, though, of course, it was the procession to a football game.

Pet Rescue Open Thread

Been a while since we had a nice rescue story, so I dug one out of the email vault:

On Sunday Brad walked by that pet place on 81st and Amsterdam and asked them if they had any dogs (there were lots of cats up for adoption). Doug, the dog guy, said that he would have one in a few minutes when she came back from her walk. Brad called us and said come and see. So we did. They told us she answers to Bella. She was rescued from a kill shelter 9 days or something before and she’d just been spayed.

I thought Bella was cute and sweet but Brad wasn’t quite convinced and Rosie [our 8-y.o. daughter] was just a little shy with her (Bella is young, 8 months, and still in that puppy chewing on the hand stage and she is about 35 pounds of puppy muscle).

We thought about it and then went to visit another dog rescue place on Broadway (they had small, older dogs). Then we talked about it and went back. We took Bella to Riverside Park with Shelly, a woman from the rescue organization. Bella did very well, no dog conflicts, no barking like crazy at squirrels or birds, etc. A larger aggressive dog approached and she turned around, so that’s a good sign.

As luck would have it, Rosie was walking her when Bella ran up to a little white dog and started to play a little. I was jumping in the middle since we didn’t really know how Bella would do with dogs yet, especially little dogs, and I said, “Sorry!” without even looking. The other dog’s owner said, “it’s okay,” and we went our separate ways. Then Shelly said, “Wasn’t that Gloria Steinem?” I looked back and sure enough, it was her (and she looked really good for being about 75 years old!)

Of course we thought about Bella Abzug! A good Upper West Side connection for sure, so I’m liking the name more and more (aside from the fact that it’s quite beautiful!)

By the time we got back, Doug was asking us to foster Bella for the week, with his normal dog kennel place in Brooklyn full. Bella seems fairly civilized, although she did pee in the house a few times. No poop though. Life with a little one. She’s ours!

I’m off to rot my mind in front of the television. No cable news, though!

Around the way girl

You’ve probably been following this too. It reminds me of that Twitter dispute Joe Biden had with Snoop Dogg.

I’ve been suffering from Palin fatigue for some time now. But good God, she was almost vice-president, may still become president (I doubt it, but Nate Silver thinks it’s possible), and she’s now engaged in a PR war not only with her daughter’s baby daddy but with LL Cool J and Toby Keith.

And one of the leading lights of what some call “conservative intellectualism” says he “would rather have Sarah Palin sitting in the Oval Office than Barack Obama”.

We all get sick of talking about Sarah Palin. But, seriously, let this sink in. And then tell me you’re not a Mayan at heart.

Update. At the request of readers, I have replaced the link to N-Pod’s crazy WSJ piece with a link to Larison excoriating said crazy WSJ piece.

Sadly, Al Gore is Still Fat, So I’m Not Sure Anyone Will Care

I’m sure the media and right wing blogs will give this the same amount of attention they gave the climate change denialists will ignore this completely:

The UK scientist at the center of the “Climategate” controversy over leaked e-mails has been cleared of hiding or manipulating data by a parliamentary committee.

But lawmakers who had been investigating the row over global warming science said in a report published Wednesday that climate scientists must publish all their raw data and methods to ensure the research is “irreproachable.”

***

The Commons report said the leaked emails suggested a “blunt refusal” by Jones to share scientific data but its chairman Phil Willis said there was no evidence that Jones hid or manipulated data to back up his own science.

If the NY Times behavior in the ACORN case is any example, I’m pretty sure they will get around to clarifying their part in the climate change denialist binge around the time Manhattan is submerged by ten feet of sea water. And, in fairness, if they continue to employ Douthat, Brooks, and Friedman, I’m ok with that outcome.

Whatever Happened to the Goldberg Theorem?

Remember this (from Glenn Greenwald, who, I have been reliably informed by some of you, never has a kind word for Obama nor has ever defended him):

Last Thursday, when the Dow was dropping to roughly 8,600, various right-wing polemicists claimed that the stock market was plummeting because investors were realizing that Obama would likely win and his policies would be bad for the economy. The Right’s leading intellectual historian, Jonah Goldberg, wrote a post he entitled “The Obama Discount,” and printed this email:

When are people going to start talking about the REAL reason the markets are down – Obama up in polls. If I was McCain, I’d start telling people, “If you want to lose more money, vote Obama.”

Though Jonah said he had “no idea whatsoever if there’s merit to this, and if there is how much merit,” he nonetheless noted that he was receiving “lots of email like this”—presumably from other geniuses who write emails sharing their economic theories with Jonah Goldberg.

Oddly enough, the Goldberg Theorem never gets trotted out for stuff like this:

Stocks post best first quarter gains in more than a decade

The stock market is taking some ages-old advice to heart: everything in moderation.

Stocks on Wednesday ended a first quarter that many investors and analysts would describe as healthy. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 4.9% by amassing a string of steady gains that were far from the supersized jumps seen in 2009.

The Dow Jones industrials are up 4.1%, but with unremarkable gains of 50 points here and 15 there. They’ve had few of the triple-digit swings that used to be commonplace.

The market’s relative tranquility has made many analysts upbeat about the chances that its gains will hold. They say investors now have realistic not overoptimistic expectations. And the market has gotten used to the idea of a bumpy economic recovery, including the continuing struggles of the housing market. But analysts warn, for stocks to extend their January-March gains, investors will need to see employers hiring again.

Remember a month after the inauguration and Malkin when was blaming the Bush recession’s market collapse on Obama? Good times. Good times.

The World’s Biggest Clown Show

Stung by the stories about the RNC paying for $2,000.00 binges at bondage themed strip clubs (of course this shit starts AFTER I become a Democrat), the Republicans unleash their vaunted oppo research team:

The DNC spent at least $2,204,000 for luxury hotels & caterers, Including:

The DNC has spent at least $423,000 at Mandarin Oriental Hotels. (Federal Elections Commission, www.fec.gov, accessed: 3/31/10)

The DNC spent at least $530,000 at Hilton Hotels. (Federal Elections Commission, www.fec.gov, accessed: 3/31/10)

The DNC spent at least $7,000 at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. (Federal Elections Commission, www.fec.gov, accessed: 3/31/10)

So the Republican response to blowing a wad of cash at a strip club is “the Democrats pay hotel bills!”

The entire Republican party has been taken over by Red State commenters.

Blame The Fags!

The human cesspool you all know and love as Bill Donohoe has an awesome take on the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals- it wasn’t pedophilia, it was faggotry! Not kidding:

Roberts: Bill is good but you cannot link homosexuality to a pedophilia crisis in the Catholic Church.

Bill Donohue: It’s not a pedophilia… most of the victims were post pubescent…

Roberts: You know…

Donohue: You’ve got to get your facts straight. I’m sorry. If I’m the only one that’s going to deal with facts tonight so be it. The vast majority of the victims are post pubescent. That’s not pedophilia buddy. That’s homosexuality.

I’ll just stop here without any additional comment lest my non-existent militant atheism give some of you more delicate flowers the vapors.

I Thought He Was a Poker Player

I know we are all hopeless Obots here who never criticize our cult leader, but someone is going to have to explain this strategery to me before the communal bath (we do have those, no?):

The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.

Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward would remain closed to all oil and gas activity. So would the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.

That is quite an opener there, Doyle! All in before the flop works for me!

Seriously- what is the point in offering up something that is going to INFURIATE the left wing of the party without even seeing if the Republicans will play ball (PRO TIP- THEY WON’T). And surprise, surprise, it isn’t good enough for the Republicans:

President Barack Obama’s plan to allow expanded offshore oil and gas exploration won rebuke from the top House Republican on Wednesday.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president’s plan as not going far enough in opening up U.S. waters for exploration.

Obama’s decision “continues to defy the will of the American people,” Boehner said in a statement, pointing to the president’s decision to open Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, while leaving Pacific and many Alaskan waters largely closed to exploration.

“It’s long past time for this Administration to stop delaying American energy production off all our shores and start listening to the American people who want an “all of the above” strategy to produce more American energy and create more jobs,” the House GOP leader added. “Republicans are listening to the American people and have proposed a better solution – the American Energy Act – which will lower gas prices, increase American energy production, promote new clean and renewable sources of energy, and encourage greater efficiency and conservation.”

Well, that was certainly a surprise. Hoocoodanode it wouldn’t be good enough for the Republicans and they would not treat it as an act of good faith in the negotiating process?

I can’t be alone wondering just wtf the White House is doing on this one.

Let love rule

It’s been a pretty crazy week here, with TapperGate, AccountabilityNowGate, LouisCKGate, and RadokGate. I should probably come clean and tell you that this is all part of a pageview-maximizing scheme John took from Politico and ordered me to implement. I’m not complaining though: Anne-Laurie awakes each day at 4 am to the sound of John screaming “Win the morning!”

The truth is, I’m feeling a little PGTD today, so I’m not up for much commentary. As a gesture of goodwill, I thought I would do a post consisting entirely of approving links to bloggers who are associated with the intertronic axis of evil. There are those who would call this appeasement:

• We are all Obots now (OpenLeft)


• Papal Inquisition (MoDo)


• Atlas Hugged (FireDogLake)


• Some crazy shit Charles Lane said about slavery (FireDogLake)


• Naomi Wolf…teabagger? (The New Republic)

Yeah, I know the FDL links are Tbogg and the TNR one is Chait. Baby steps.

Consider this an open thread.

Arrrrr

France has a new anti-piracy law (“Hadopi”—not to be confused with “Hutaree”) that disconnects pirates from the Internet after three strikes. A recent study showed that French Internet users are doing less of the kinds of piracy covered by the law (P2P file sharing) and instead are streaming and using download services like Rapidshare.

That’s no surprise, but here’s the interesting part:

The survey also finds that 70 percent of all Internet users surveyed don’t engage in any type of online infringement. Far more users hit legal video sites like YouTube and DailyMotion (48 percent), or go to legal streaming music sites like Deezer (43 percent), or legal download sites like iTunes (22 percent) than engage in any infringing activities.

It’s self-reported, but I think it’s more-or-less true. Most people don’t steal music, even though it’s relatively easy to do. But we’re constantly bombarded by music industry propaganda claiming otherwise, which is used to justify all sorts of draconian proposals. For example, the original Hadopi law would allow disconnects based on three accusations of piracy. The law that finally passed at least requires judicial review.

Lighten Up, Francis

Oh for christ sakes. One post asking if the tone has changed and dozens of you start kvetching about an overdose of introspection and bitching about holding hands singing kumbaya and group hugs. The other half of you launch personal attacks at my front pagers, all of whom I think do a great job and who I like (and you people step back on DougJ). And then a bunch of you come out of nowhere and complain things aren’t as good as they used to be when you walked to school uphill in the snow both ways.

I don’t think you people realize what a pain in the ass you all are and how hard it is to get this many random anonymous people to play somewhat nice together. Screw the tone, you can all go to hell. Jackasses.

Coolest Census PSA Ever!

Geek love knows no boundaries of race, color, creed, or sexual orientation!

‘Course, if Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Batshite) and Ron Paul (R-Bugfvck) can agitate Texans into losing votes & funding for fear of OMG ZOG, that’s just the cherry on the sundae…

Something to Think About

Here’s an email I got:

John -

I’ve been reading your site for a couple of years, though posting only rarely. I love: Tunch, Lily, photo’s of the two of them, Rescue stories, Thursday night menus, your openness, your interests (though I can’t say I’m a Steelers fan), your distaste of certain kinds of internet craziness (I seem to remember you telling posters to stop going on about Andrew Sullivan and his obsession with Sarah Palin’s baby), the care that posters often show for you and other members of the community, the not-compulsive ideology of Balloon Juice.

Recently, I feel like some of the posts and comments are getting meaner/more hyperbolic/less insightful. The hullaballoo today over FDL seemed nutty and overwrought (and not even you were able to calm those waters for awhile!) I posted on 3/25 in response to a mistermix front page comment: “I used to think that the notion that the Catholic Church is an institution devoted to fucking young boys was just a joke. But it’s clearly a fact.” I’m not Catholic, I’m hugely liberal. I hate what is happening in the Catholic Church and the awful responses from the Vatican. But, come on. It’s just not an “institution devoted to fucking young boys.” I don’t learn from that. I don’t get ideas from that. I’m not motivated to act by that statement. A couple of your readers really took me on in the comments…some responses were very thoughtful…some were just over-the-top nasty. One guy (I assume) said he wasn’t interested in any useful discussion on the topic. So why would we be spending time here?

Anyway, my question for you: Do you think the tone is changing on your site? I’m feeling kinda sad.

But best to you—and your pals—in your new home.

And Mistermix- just so people know publicly, I thought your statement was over-the-top and just the kind of thing I would have said, so don’t think I’m attacking you. But maybe that means I’m the problem.

But has the general tone changed here? We’ve always been shrill, but the comments do seem more in your face, there does seem like there is less snark. Maybe everyone, from me down to the first time commenters needs to tone it down a notch. It just doesn’t seem that friendly here anymore some days, and it doesn’t seem like there is as much room for dissent as there once was, and I blame myself for that.

Something to think about. I’ve got a bunch to do and probably won’t be back until dinner. Have a good one.

Another Take on Pageviews

Following up on AK DougJ’s post about the noble search for readers at Politico, I thought John Gruber at Daring Fireball got it about right:

[...] Pageviews, as a metric used for directly billing advertisers, are a scam. Publishers game it with sensational link-bait articles and bullshit tricks like breaking articles into multiple “pages”. Advertisers get stuck paying for valueless impressions. Readers get stuck with the sensational bullshit articles, the tricks (like breaking single articles into multiple “pages”), and suffer through too many annoying ads surrounding actual content.

It is, as Jim Coudal and I argued at SXSW, a race to the bottom. Be careful of the “everyones” who say pageviews are imperfect but the best we can do. They’re the ones who are happy with the web as a market for bullshit.

Politico, of course, splits their stories. As for sensational bullshit articles, it’s been known to happen.

Early Morning Open Thread

Half the damn Commonwealth is underwater after what may end up being the rainiest month on record. I spent my day getting the preliminary work done for three more crowns and a replacement, so both my jaw and my credit card are sore. And Andrew Sullivan has decided to defend homosexual marriage by quoting Bobo Brooks and front-paging a reader whining about how feminism these days is just lazy gold-diggers rejecting ‘nice guys’ in pursuit of their own selfish desires.

As TBogg would say: This is why we can’t have nice things.