SEC Champions!
LSU basketball is officially back!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The future of the Republican party is a 13 year-old kid from Georgia named Jonathan Krohn
I haven't made mention of it previously, but there was a convention of sorts this week that brought together the very elements of the Republican Party that are destroying it, the Sarah Palin/Joe the Plumber extra chromosome faction of the extreme right wing, at the annual CPAC meeting held in Washington DC. This is where all of the kookiest of kooks get together to wring their hands over the nation's lack of Jesus, tax cuts, and, naturally, abortion. Or "infanticide," which seems to be their new favorite term for it. Regardless, it's all about abortion for these idiots. But whatever. Even Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal skipped out on appearing at this freakshow, so take that for what it's worth. To get an idea of the insanity level of CPAC's attendees, check out Wonkette's post on how Tucker Carlson was almost lynched by an angry mob for offering faint praise of the New York Times.
Now, I've passed on posting anything about CPAC thus far, mainly because I've intentionally tried to ignore the thing because it just kind of depresses me, but there is one aspect of CPAC that I just can't ignore....the unveiling of the far right wing's new great hope, 13 year-old Jonathan Krohn, author of the book "Defining Conservatism."
I'd bet a kidney that this kid is home-schooled.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Picture of the day II
This "how to be cool list," allegedly written by a kid somewhere, has been floating all over this week and is pretty funny to me even if it was written by an adult...
(click on the image to enlarge)
(via urlesque.com)
Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his speech the other night, the one about how he & Harry Lee told bureaucrats to fuck off? It was bullshit!
Oh boy. You know, I actually questioned the validity of this story when I heard it the other night. I mean, of what I know about the now deceased Harry Lee, and he was a somewhat legendary figure in the New Orleans area, I just can't see him having Bobby Fucking Jindal in his office during the height of Hurricane Katrina for backup. Harry Lee would eat Bobby Jindal on a burnt piece of toast for a mid-morning snack. And what do you know...some of those darn pesky, "pathetic" bloggers went digging around and discovered that it was all a bunch of bullshit...
Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.
But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.
This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.
Was there no other instance of "reaching across party lines" in his political career for him to cite, or was this some sort of attempt to Rudy Giulianify himself? Either way, nice work Jinds.
Quote of the day II
Primatologists call at least some of the things that happen on social networks “grooming”. In the wild, grooming is time-consuming and here computerisation certainly helps. But keeping track of who to groom—and why—demands quite a bit of mental computation. You need to remember who is allied with, hostile to, or lusts after whom, and act accordingly. Several years ago, therefore, Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist who now works at Oxford University, concluded that the cognitive power of the brain limits the size of the social network that an individual of any given species can develop. Extrapolating from the brain sizes and social networks of apes, Dr Dunbar suggested that the size of the human brain allows stable networks of about 148. Rounded to 150, this has become famous as “the Dunbar number”.
Many institutions, from neolithic villages to the maniples of the Roman army, seem to be organised around the Dunbar number. Because everybody knows everybody else, such groups can run with a minimum of bureaucracy. But that does not prove Dr Dunbar’s hypothesis is correct, and other anthropologists, such as Russell Bernard and Peter Killworth, have come up with estimates of almost double the Dunbar number for the upper limit of human groups. Moreover, sociologists also distinguish between a person’s wider network, as described by the Dunbar number or something similar, and his social “core”. Peter Marsden, of Harvard University, found that Americans, even if they socialise a lot, tend to have only a handful of individuals with whom they “can discuss important matters”. A subsequent study found, to widespread concern, that this number is on a downward trend.
Put differently, people who are members of online social networks are not so much “networking” as they are “broadcasting their lives to an outer tier of acquaintances who aren’t necessarily inside the Dunbar circle,” says Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a polling organisation. Humans may be advertising themselves more efficiently. But they still have the same small circles of intimacy as ever.
-The Economist
(via Erin Pettigrew)
Jon Stewart destroys Bobby Jindal on The Daily Show. Again.
I just got around to watching Wednesday night's episode of The Daily Show last night, the one where Stewart dissected Jindal's speech on Tuesday night. It did not disappoint...
"Cajun Sexy Cooking" is utterly ridiculous
Someone sent me this last night and I still can't figure out what to make of it. This video titled "Cajun Sexy Cooking" is little more than a brigade of scantily-clad, stripper-ish-looking women, all allegedly from the bayous of south Louisiana mind you, who spend two and a half minutes stirring pots and seductively fondling boiled seafood. I'm completely baffled as to what the point of it all is, but I feel violated by simple virtue of having watched it. It's supposed to be promoting a cookbook or something, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. Here's the description of the video from the Youtube page its hosted on...
Down On The Louisiana bayou, beautiful Cajun girls are stirring up a whole lot of fit & lean Cajun Cuisine. See how they keep in shape to be able to strut down the boat dock like a Super Model struts down the catwalk, looking sexy as ever, even wearing camouflage and rubber wading boots. These girls shop the swamp market in an outboard motorboat and catch dinner, not worrying about their manicure and hairdo. If you like girls next door with natural beauty, you will like the looks of the Cajun Sexy Cooking girls. This video cookbook also contains many delicious fit and lean recipes from the sultry bayous of Louisiana.
Here, you try to make sense of this...
First off, there's nothing "fit and lean" about Cajun food. That's why it tastes so fucking good! DUH! Secondly, is this supposed to be a cookbook that dudes can beat off to? Is that the "niche" market this thing is looking to fill? Holy shit why didn't I think of that?!?!? "Tenderize your meat while you, ugh, tenderize your meat!" Whatever, I still can't figure this out. But there may be more to come because the "producer" has issued a casting call...
Attn: NEW MODELS WANTED. If you are from the Southern Louisiana area and would like to star in the next Cajun Sexy Cooking Video and cookbook, please vist our website at: www.CajunSexyCooking.com and email producer and send swimsuit photo. Y'all come back now!
Let's just blame Bobby Jindal for this, just because.
Quote of the day
Absent any deep thoughts, the Republicans are going to complain about waste. The high point of Jindal’s address came when he laced into “wasteful spending” in the stimulus bill, and used as an example a $140 million appropriation for keeping an eye on the volcanoes in places like Alaska, where one is currently rumbling.
I don’t know about you, but my reaction was: Wow, what a great stimulus plan. The most wasteful thing in it is volcano monitoring.
Louisiana has gotten $130 billion in post-Katrina aid. How is it that the stars of the Republican austerity movement come from the states that suck up the most federal money? Taxpayers in New York send way more to Washington than they get back so more can go to places like Alaska and Louisiana. Which is fine, as long as we don’t have to hear their governors bragging about how the folks who elected them want to keep their tax money to themselves. Of course they do! That’s because they’re living off ours.
-Gail Collins
Morning links 2/27/09
-Police in Evangeline Parish have arrested three people in connection with a plot to sell two small children for $175 in cash and a cockatoo. (The Daily Advertiser)
-Hipster band MGMT is suing the president of France. (NME)
-A Russian mechanic kicks it after "guzzling" a bottle of Viagra to win a bet that he could keep a hard-on throughout a half-day orgy. (Fox News)
-Some idiots still insist on living with monkeys. (IHT)
-A New Orleans man was arrested for jerking off on a flight from Cincinnati. (Nola.com)
-Why the hell is anyone shocked by any of the Obama policy administration's proposals? He's doing EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID HE'D DO DURING THE CAMPAIGN! (Fivethirtyeight.com)
-Is the world facing a horrendous sugar shortage? (Business Insider)
-Another major American newspaper, the 150 year old Denver Rocky Mountain News, is dead as of today. (Rocky Mountain News)
-Louis CK now has a Twitter. (Louis CK's Twitter)
-The LSU and West Virginia football teams will play each other in a home and away series in 2010 and 2011. (The Reveille)
-The demand for ultra-soft toilet paper to wipe pampered American asses is killing all the trees! (New York Times)
-Leonard Cohen's recent Beacon Theater concert streamed in its entirety (NPR)
-The size of the average professional player seems to be declining. Gee, I wonder why? (New York Times)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Greer Barnes on European accents
Caught this cat late night on Comedy Central recently and he's now one of my new favorite stand-up comics...
Quote of the day II
When Bobby Jindal was attending Brown University, he had a friend named “Susan.” Susan and Bobby were very close friends. Some people even thought the two were an item, but they never were. One day, Susan and Bobby attended a Christian concert, and in the middle of the show, Susan got up and left. Bobby knew something was wrong. He followed her outside, and she was sobbing. Bobby tried to console her. A female friend showed up and gave Susan a hug. Bobby knew the problem would not go away with a hug, and he offered to walk her back to her dorm room. Once they were in the room, Susan confessed why she was upset. She said she had cancer. Skin cancer. Bobby promised to stand by her forever. He sat next to her in bed and distracted her with “fairy tales.” Susan calmed down.
The next time they were supposed to meet for dinner, Susan was late. She refused to apologize, so Bobby refused to speak with her for a week. But they quickly resolved everything when Susan opened up about her nightmares and the strange, unknown odors emanating from her dorm room. Bobby attributed the odor to the devil, because it smelled like sulfur. Susan also told Bobby about speaking in tongues and visions she had. Bobby became worried and scared. Bobby had heard a priest claim that “angels, spirits, and other such apparitions” were not meant for literal interpretation. Still, he wanted to believe Susan.
When Susan was telling Bobby this, he excused himself and left the room. Then, he made the sign of the cross and prayed to God for help. When he walked back into the room, Susan “angrily lashed out” at Bobby, and he thought, “Gee. Thanks God. So much for prayer.”
The next day, when Susan went for another set of tests, Bobby and his friends in the University Christian Fellowship club (UCF) organized a prayer meeting for Susan later that evening. Bobby asked Susan if she wanted him to attend the meeting. At first she said no, but she quickly changed her mind.
The UCF prayer meeting was held in a classroom. A group of people, including Bobby, Susan, and Susan’s sister, sat in a circle on the floor and sang songs and prayed together. Suddenly, right after a group prayer, Susan “emitted some strange guttural sounds.” Bobby thought she may be having a seizure. Susan’s sister told everyone to place their hands on Susan’s body. Bobby “refused” and “froze in horror.” Susan began to scream Bobby’s name. She yelled, “Bobby, you cannot even love Susan.” Bobby thought it was funny she referred to herself in the third person. Bobby walked to the back of the room, and Susan began insulting every person in the room, revealing private information and embarrassing secrets.
-Excerpted from "Bobby Jindal: A Story They Don't Want You To Read," a story on The Daily Kingfish about the infamous Bobby Jindal exorcism.
I've known about this whole thing for some time and am not quite sure what to make of it. Sure it's weird and kooky and all sorts of other things, but who among us was a perfectly put together human being when we were in our late teens and early 20s? Anyway, go read it and judge for yourself.
Kenneth the page responds to the comparison to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
Well, we knew this was coming, didn't we? Smart of NBC to do it in a web promo for Jimmy Fallon's show, I must say...
Quote of the day
The reason that Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of Democrats in the last two elections and overwhelmingly against Republicans is because they want Democratic policies and not Republicans policies. They drove Republicans out of office in massive numbers because they don't want Republicans and their policies governing the country. They want something different than Republican policies, meaningfully distinguishable from those policies -- "change." Everywhere but the Beltway, that proposition would be self-evident. [If the question about "bipartisanship" is asked generically without regard to political party -- as the new Washington Post poll phrased it -- only then will Americans will say they want bipartisanship over "political leaders sticking with their positions," because -- as all of this new polling data proves -- they want Republicans to compromise and support Obama's policies.]
The political establishment has never come to terms with, and the media establishment just refuses to acknowledge, how deeply unpopular and discredited the GOP is among most Americans in the wake of the eight-year Bush disaster. Political and media elites don't want to acknowledge that because they lent their continuous support for eight years to Republican power, yet -- even with Bush gone -- it's scarcely possible to imagine how a major political party could be held in lower esteem among voters. By huge margins (63-29%), Americans believe the GOP opposed Obama's stimulus package for political reasons, not because they genuinely believed it would be bad for the economy; they overwhelmingly disapprove of Congressional Republicans (38-56%) while approving of Obama (68-25%) and even Congressional Democrats (50-44%); trust Obama over Congressional Republicans to handle the economy (61-26%); and trust Democrats over Republicans "to do a better job in coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years" (56-30%). Those are enormous margins.
The punditry's claims that Americans want Democrats to dilute their policies in order to attract and include Republican support is entirely misleading. The endless media stories that Eric Cantor, Michael Steele and Rick Santelli are now riding some resurgent, anti-stimulus GOP wave are pure fiction. And the incessant calls for "bipartisanship" are anti-democratic in the extreme.
"Bipartisanship" has long been, and continues to be, a deceitful fig leaf to demand enactment of Republican policies even when Americans overwhelmingly oppose those policies.
-Glenn Greewald is not a fan of "bi-partisanship."
The "Slim Suit" will melt your fat ass away
I swear I have an aunt who had one of these...
(via Videogum)
Morning links 2/26/09
-Scientists say that women who booze regularly are more likely to get cancer. Fuck scientists. (Yahoo)
-Now that's a fucking shark! (Grindtv.com)
-Inside the world of a New York City car service company. (New York Magazine)
-How to insure you don't get tricked into fatherhood by a broad: put Tabasco sauce inside of your used condoms before you throw them out. (Salon)
-Director Danny Boyle is buying new homes for the Slumdog kids. (Daily Mail)
-Hey remember that old guy who wanted to be president but admitted he never learned to use a computer? Well guess what...he's has a Twitter! Like, a not fake one! (John McCain's Twitter)
-The Rude Pundit thinks Bobby Jindal is a piece of shit, basically. (The Rude Pundit)
-Bobby Jindal delivered a national address for the Republican Party, now he's going to Disney World. No, seriously, he is. (Nola.com)
-Just how much water does one use to cook pasta perfectly? (NY Times)
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The "SupaSaint" will Footloose-dance the pain of Saints fandom away
Prior to this video's arrival in my inbox this morning, I'd never heard of the "SupaSaint," the self-proclaimed "world's most deranged Saints fan," but this is pretty damn funny, and the production value is pretty good as well. And if you take away the 80s metal rocker hair, the shades and the stache, it sort of looks like it could be Ben Stiller under there.
Regardless, SupaSaint is, like all Saints fans year after year, heartbroken over the team's disappointing season. And, like all of us, he knows that there's no better way to ease the heartbreak than to dance.
You've got to just fucking dance, man...
SPOILER ALERT: There's a cameo appearance by a Superdome fan favorite near the end.
Quote of the day III
Traditionally, the division between conservatives and liberals has been over the role and size of the welfare state: liberals think that the government should play a large role in sanding off the market economy’s rough edges, conservatives believe that time and chance happen to us all, and that’s that.
But both sides, I thought, agreed that the government should provide public goods — goods that are nonrival (they benefit everyone) and nonexcludable (there’s no way to restrict the benefits to people who pay.) The classic examples are things like lighthouses and national defense, but there are many others. For example, knowing when a volcano is likely to erupt can save many lives; but there’s no private incentive to spend money on monitoring, since even people who didn’t contribute to maintaining the monitoring system can still benefit from the warning. So that’s the sort of activity that should be undertaken by government.
So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course.
And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.
The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.
-Paul Krugman
Kevin Smith on Superman and the Hollywood film development process
This clip of Kevin Smith telling a story to a group of students of his time working on a production of one of the films in the Superman franchise with producer Jon Peters is one of the best and worst stories about "the business" I've ever heard. This is kind of long (20 minutes), and personally I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Smith (and by "not a huge fan" I mean of his films, which I just never really got into, but I love his writing and his authenticity) but this is too funny and rings too damn true for me not to post it. Just hit play and go about your business as if you were listening to the radio or a podcast, although some of Smith's facial expressions and body language do add to the funny at times...
Thank for sending this over E!
Quote of the day II
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- selected to deliver the Republicans' Fat Tuesday response to President Obama -- might also be voted the man least likely to let the good times roll. Slight, earnest, deeply religious and supremely wonkish, Jindal resembles neither his flamboyant predecessors as governor nor his reveling, 30-something contemporaries on Bourbon Street. Somehow the hall-monitoring, library-inhabiting, science-fair-winning class president has seized control of the Big Easy. And his coup has been an inspiration to policy geeks everywhere.
Some have compared Jindal to Obama, but the new president has always been more attracted to platitudes than to policy. Rush Limbaugh has anointed Jindal "the next Ronald Reagan." But Reagan enjoyed painting on a large ideological canvas. In person, Jindal's manner more closely resembles another recent president: Bill Clinton. Like Clinton (a fellow Rhodes scholar), Jindal has the ability to overwhelm any topic with facts and thoughtful arguments -- displaying a mastery of detail that encourages confidence. Both speak of complex policy issues with the world-changing intensity of a late-night dorm room discussion.
While Clintonian in manner, knowledge and political sophistication, Jindal is not ideologically malleable. His high-pressure Asian-immigrant background has clearly taught him not to blend in but to stand out. He has tended to join small, beleaguered minorities -- such as the College Republicans at Brown University. He converted to a traditionalist Catholicism, in a nation where anti-Catholicism has been called "the last acceptable prejudice." Jindal, sometimes accused of excessive assimilation, has actually shown a restless, countercultural, intellectual independence.
But this has earned him some unexpected enthusiasm. In Louisiana, Jindal is the darling of evangelical and charismatic churches, where he often tells his conversion story. One Louisiana Republican official has commented, "People think of Bobby Jindal as one of us." Consider that a moment. In some of the most conservative Protestant communities, in one of the most conservative states in America, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a strong Catholic with parents from Punjab, is considered "one of us."
This is a large political achievement. It is also an indication of what has been called the "ecumenism of the trenches" -- the remarkable alliance between evangelicals and Catholics on moral issues such as abortion and family values against an aggressive secularism. Two or three hundred years ago, the Protestant/Catholic divide remained a source of violence. Two or three decades ago, many conservative Protestant churches questioned whether Catholics were properly to be considered Christians. If Jindal runs for president in three or seven years, he will be widely viewed as an evangelical choice.
Ultimately, however, Jindal is a problem-solving wonk, fond of explaining 31-point policy plans (his state ethics reform proposal actually had 31 points). This can have disadvantages -- a lack of human connection and organizing vision. But this approach also has advantages. Jindal is a genuine policy innovator. "His reforms," says Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, "are the only constructive thing Republicans are doing on health care anywhere."
And Jindal's résumé, intellectual confidence and command of policy make him the anti-Palin. Fairly or unfairly, media and intellectual elites (including some conservative elites) regard Gov. Sarah Palin as an inhabitant of another cultural planet. Jindal, while also religious and conservative, speaks the language of the knowledge class and will not be easily caricatured or dismissed. To journalists, policy experts and Rhodes scholars, Jindal is also "one of us."
At this point in the election cycle, no Republican can be considered more than the flavor of the month. But this is an appealing one.
-Michael Gerson
Signs that Chris Matthews was probably not looking forward to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's speech last night: "Oh God!"
God bless Chris Matthews! Sure he's a blowhard and a bit of an insufferable douchebag, but I've played this at least a dozen times in the past 12 hours or so and it just never stops being funny...
Perhaps even better was even bigger blowhard Keith Olbermann's post-speech comment..."Jindal’s entrance reminded one of Mr. Burns gamboling toward a table of ointments."
Quote of the day
You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" - it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we're just gonna - that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that - In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending," it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate. Some people say the Republican Party lost its way because they got too moderate. Some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. I think it's insane, and I just think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.
-Conservative columnist David Brooks on Jim Lehrer's PBS show last night after the speech. By agreeing with pretty much everything I said about Jindal's speech, Brooks gets it.
"Seafood City, 1826 North Broad"
Yesterday my friend Alex posted a clip of a McKenzie's bakery commercial from back home and it got me feeling nostalgic, as I'm oft to do, so I started digging around on YouTube for old New Orleans local business commercials. It was then that I ran across what may be the holy grail of hilariously bad New Orleans local business television commercials, the ones run in the 70s and 80s by the fine folks at Seafood City. Even if you're not from the area, I think you'll enjoy this...
This clip is excerpted from what appears to be a full program on New Orleans local business commercials. If anyone recognizes it and knows where I might view the entire thing, I'd be highly interested. So pass along any info if you have it...I'd be greatly appreciative.
Yes, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal does talk like Kenneth the page from 30 Rock, & I now know how Alaskans felt when Palin spoke at the convention
Earlier tonight, minutes before Bobby Jindal delivered the official Republican response to Barack Obama's state of the union speech, I found myself overcome with a moment, and yes, it was just that, a "moment," where it all suddenly came crashing down on me...Holy shit, the governor of my home state is about to give an address to the nation! Now, in order to comprehend the magnitude of that, you have to understand that never in my life has there been a politician from Louisiana who has been taken seriously on the national stage. The closest one prior to this was probably former Senator John Breaux, who was, prior to his retiring to becoming a lobbyist, a high-ranking member of the US Senate who appeared frequently on talk shows like Meet the Press and Crossfire (I miss Crossfire btw...the old Michael Kinsley/Pat Buchanan Crossfire to be specific).
So, getting back to my little "moment," it was probably right about the time that CBS, the station I was watching on, cut away to a commercial after Katie Couric teased the viewing audience with the announcement of the forthcoming Republican response after a commercial break, that I found myself overcome with a slight sense of pride in my home state, a pride born out of the knowledge that for once a governor of ours was making news for something worthwhile, something other than a federal indictment or a horrifically botched emergency response. But sadly that feeling of pride turned out to be fleeting, as seconds later my "moment" of Louisiana pride morphed fully into a "moment" of knot in the gut/blood rushing to the head fear, a fear that felt something along the lines of this..."oh for Christ's sake this guy's about to totally make us the butt of a million new jokes!" It was around this time that I posted the following on my Twitter page...
It was so bad, this fear of pending geographical lineage humiliation, that I couldn't deal with it and flipped over to the LSU/Florida basketball game on ESPN. It was so bad that I couldn't watch it! I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that before. It was weird. Totally.
A few minutes later I calmed down and went back to CBS and rewound the DVR recording of it. I then saw the camera from outside the Governor's mansion and I thought, "holy shit I've been in that place," and to see it on national television was all sorts of surreal. And then, finally, Jindal himself came out, this same guy I remember seeing all the time in the Albertson's on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge back in the mid-90s shopping for groceries just like little ole me, and he actually spoke, and it was then in this moment that all of those fears of being the butt of a million new jokes came rushing back again, only this time they were fully realized.
Bobby Jindal was embarrassing the fuck out of me.
Now, I'll skip critiquing Jindal on his presentation, for there's plenty of that to go around already, and honestly...I sorta feel sorry for the guy. I mean, who among us in the same situation wouldn't have been nervous as all hell in that moment, and he was, and it certainly showed. But I digress. Yes, he started out horribly, atrociously, very Kenneth the page-esque, eerily so in fact, but then he seemed to get his sea legs under him and right the ship so to speak. As best he could anyway, in terms of delivery, that is. It's the substance of the speech that I have a real problem with.
You see, going into the night, I'd sincerely hoped that perhaps Jindal, bright young Rhodes scholar that he is, would have something original to say. Perhaps he'd have some bright new idea, some illuminated dissent from the Obama administration's plan to fix the ailing American economy.
No.
Instead Jindal trotted out and, after offering up a brief bio to the nation, launched into the same old Republican party "the Democrats want to increase the size of government and we want to cut your taxes" rhetorical dog and pony show, you know, the same stubbornly simplistic ideological warfare that incites the urge stab yourself repeatedly in the genitals each and every time you hear it because it's so fucking tired and played out and completely devoid of steady flow of blood to the brain intellect, even though you may actually be, like me, beyond all sense and reason, still a registered fucking Republican!
I truly can't understand how ideologues, and I'm talking about fiscal ideologues here, on both sides mind you, Republicans and Democrats, people who steadfastly grip to a rigid set of beliefs as to how things are supposed to be in their minds regarding the US economy, can be so blinded by said beliefs as to not see what is, to me and I believe many other people, so painfully obvious....that America was not made great because of conservative economic political beliefs or liberal economic political beliefs. It was made great by conservative economic political beliefs AND liberal economic political beliefs. Each has their time, their moment in the sun if you will, and each checks the other. It's striking the delicate balance between the two that's key, something we've done rather well for a number of years, and something that's made us quite prosperous, arguably the most prosperous nation in the history of the world.
There have been times when it was necessary for the government to let business and industry run free in order to grow the economy, and there have been times where it has needed to be reigned in. One could make the argument that the 80s and 90s, the time of Ronald "Government is the problem" Reagan and Bill "The era of big government is over" Clinton, were times when it was best for the government to get out of the way and let the free enterprise system do its thing. There have been other times, the late 1800s and 1930s among them, when the opposite has been the case, where the government has had to step in and essentially save us from ourselves.
This is one of those times! The game has changed dramatically and at a stunning rate, and the things that the Obama administration has proposed doing are things taken almost directly from the "how to save your country from complete economic collapse" playbook that other presidents and assorted world leaders have used successfully in the past. So, I guess ultimately what I'm trying to say is this...
We live in a liberal era. Period. Obama is doing what he has to do to get us out of the mess we've created for ourselves. It's the way it has to be. Shut the fuck up and get over it. You'll get your turn again in a few years.
I was on the train earlier tonight thinking about all of this and a bit of an analogy popped into my head. I thought about my childhood growing up in Louisiana, a place where the summers are long, often colliding head-on with the winter, and I remembered how one day it could be eighty degrees outside and then suddenly the next day it'd be like forty degrees. I remember how I'd get upset over my Mom telling me that I had to put on a coat to go outside when I got dressed in the morning.
"But Mom, I haven't worn a coat in forever," I'd gripe, just as a gazillion other kids probably have. "I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt yesterday!"
"Yeah well, that season's over," my Mom would say. "Put on a coat or you'll get sick."
"But Mom I don't wanna wear a coat."
"Stop whining and put on your dang coat!"
That's what the stubborn ideologues of the right-wing of the modern Republican party remind me of. Bratty kids who refuse to put on their coat to protect themselves from exposure. The season has changed, the sun is no longer shining, it's no longer warm enough to go outside with the protection from the elements provided by a coat, and they simply refuse to acknowledge it.
Here's Jindal's speech in case you missed it...
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Morning links 2/25/09
-A jet crashed in Amsterdam early this morning. (AGI)
-Barack Obama to weary nation: "We will survive." (Reuters)
-Sarah Palin will finally, FINALLY, reimburse the state of Alaska for billing taxpayers thousands of dollars in travel expenses to fly her kids around to dog races and such. (Anchorage Daily News)
-The US Senate's resident whore-mongering diaper fetishist, Louisiana's own David Vitter, calls for Roland Burris to resign from the Senate for violating "ethics." (The Hill)
-Wired says that the music industry hates Guitar Hero. (Wired)
-Idolator's Maura Johnston hates the Wired article about the music industry's alleged hatred for Guitar Hero. (Idolator)
-Megan Fox finally came to her senses and kicked her uber-twatwaffle fiance David Silver to the curb. (US Weekly)
-Shaq issues a shout-out to his fellow Twitterers to introduce themselves and they do in fact respond to his siren call. (Ohnotheydidn't)
-Sully goes to bat to get pay raises for his fellow pilots. (Bloomberg)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1941
I'm not sure where this came from or how it was filmed in such vibrant color, but it's pretty damn cool...
Quote of the day II
It is misery to refuse an invitation; one is always declining them, only to put in a surprise appearance; after all, it is difficult to stay away when whispers eerily persist to suggest that in keeping to yourself, you've let love fly out the window, denied your answer, forever lost what you were looking for: oh to think! all this awaits a mere ten blocks away: hurry, put on your hat, don't bother with the bus, grab a taxi, there now, hurry, ring the doorbell: hello, sucker, April fool.
-Truman Capote
"Big Chief" by Professor Longhair
Despite the shootings and my blah attitude toward Mardi Gras outside of south Louisiana, I can't let Mardi Gras pass without posting "Big Chief." Enjoy...
I guess Mardi Gras just wouldn't be Mardi Gras without a shooting in New Orleans to cast a pall over it
Aw man.
Just as Mardi Gras 2009 was about to fade into history, just as I was about to call it day and head home and eat some King Cake and drink some Abita and put Professor Longhair on repeat in my iPod, I checked the news feed on my Blackberry and ran across this...
Six people were injured this afternoon after a shooting spree broke out along the St. Charles Avenue parade route near Second Street, according to NOPD spokesman Janssen Valencia. One of the victims was a man who was shot in the abdomen and is in serious condition.
All other victims are in stable condition. They include a 1-year-old boy with a graze wound to the back; a 17-year-old girl shot in the thigh; a 50-year-old woman shot in the elbow, and and 30-year-old man with a graze wound to the thigh.
All appeared to be innocent bystanders in the area for the day's Carnival parades, said Deputy Chief Kirk Bouyelas.
The violence broke out about 1:40 p.m. on the lake side of St. Charles somewhere between the neutral ground and sidewalk. Truck parades continued to roll down the street as several dozen police officers this afternoon worked the active crime scene just steps away.
Two suspects were arrested shortly after the shooting, when police officers on parade duty heard the pops and chased them on foot. They were apprehended at Carondelet and Second streets, where officers found them carrying three guns, Bouyelas said.
In the Garden District no less. On St. Charles Street! But hey...at least the parade continued to roll, eh?
Reading that kind of reminds me about how in some parts of Israel they say that a bus or a restaurant being bombed just causes a minor blip in commerce, that within hours everything is cleaned up and it's back to business as usual. They're so used to the violence that they've sort of become immune to it.
This just serves to remind me why I often recommend people go to Lafayette or Houma for Mardi Gras instead of New Orleans.
Picture of the day
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin rolls through the Zulu parade on horseback in the 2009 Mardi Gras. Is it just me or does that horse look really annoyed?
(via Nola.com)
Jon Stewart mocks Bobby Jindal in "Clusterf#&k to the Poorhouse" segment on The Daily Show
I have a feeling that Jindal will be a regular on the show for the next couple of years. And let's not forget that he's delivering the official Republican response to Obama's address to Congress tonight.
Old people and technology just don't mix
This skit from the Spike Feresten show on the horrendously terrifying DTV conversion that's going to kill us all has been floating around for a while apparently, but I saw it for the first time over the weekend, and it's pretty damn funny...
Quote of the day
I love this time of year. I really love this time of year in this place. It's like nothing else in America, and we say that all the time around here, but this time -- this time -- we really mean it.
It even smells like Mardi Gras. And I'm not talking about corn dogs, weed, tractor diesel exhaust or urine, but that ephemeral shift in the atmosphere that always seems to accompany Mardi Gras, no matter when the date falls -- when the air smells like winter-into-spring, ripe with possibility, rife with revelry.
Although the rest of the country seems to view Mardi Gras as a homogenized amalgam of drinking, stripping and yelling for beads, the Great Truth About Carnival is that everybody is doing their own thing, with the same people year after year, sticking to family and neighborhood traditions, joining up with the dozens and scores of different events that unfold within the larger event, the Big Event.
Mardi Gras is just the circus tent. Inside, there are a million different sideshows, Carnival freaks, bearded ladies, tightrope walkers and clowns.
The Indians, the Skeletons, the Jefferson Buzzards, the drag queens, the trippy Mystic Krewe of St. Anne, Carnival Under the Bridge, the cook-outs, crawfish boils, costume contests, dog parades, Phorty Phunny Phellows, all those highfalutin King and Queen role-playing games that the rich folks do, the all-night bar bands, the frat boys, everybody's got something going on, everybody's got their own mojo working, something all their own but part of the whole, and all of it organic, homegrown and time-tested, because if anyone ever tried to lay out a plan like this, it surely would fail.
There is just too much to shock the senses, rattle the bones, remind you that life lived out of routine is both risky and rewarding. So many shape-shifters in this town. So many secrets in this town. A bank president in a harness and chaps. A drunken debutante slumming for beads. So many dirty, pretty things.
Everybody's got their own mojo working.
I've never really understood the folks who leave town for Mardi Gras. How could you? Maybe one day I will understand. Maybe one day this will all seem more of a hassle than a joy. Maybe one day I won't want to do this, but that day is not here. It's not even close.
I live for this moment, when this city, this community, this region, shows its true colors and embodies the energy, synergy, unity, music and dance that defines the spirit of New Orleans, the sound of New Orleans, the smell of New Orleans.
All on Mardi Gras day.
-Chris Rose
Even Kim Jong Il is using the internet to get laid
Anything involving Kim Jong Il is funny. Period. The South Park guys understood this and exploited it for great comedic gain in Team America: World Police. Now, Kim Jong Il starring in an eHarmony ad is very funny.
Morning links 2/24/09
-The banks, automakers and insurance companies need more bailing out. Bend over. (New York Times)
-Sign of the times: American Express is paying customers $300 to close their accounts with them. (Wall Street Journal)
-In some parts of northern Louisiana, Redneckery runs so rampant that some people complain that Bobby Jindal isn't conservative enough. (Nola.com)
-Rahm Emanuel is a prick. (The New Yorker)
-David Pogue has a chubby for the new version of the Amazon Kindle. (New York Times)
-Rahm Emanuel saves lives when he goes to the movies. (Politico)
-What sort of things took place inside mind of Bernie Madoff for him to do what he did? (New York Magazine)
-Just when things are looking up for the NBA, a labor dispute looms on the horizon. (New York Times)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Conservative Republican dildo Alan Keyes on Obama: "He's a baby-killing communist who will destroy the country even though he's not really president."
You know, sometimes it's hard for me to believe that wingnuts like Alan Keyes, who was once Barack Hussein Allah Obama's Republican opponent for an Illinois Senate seat, aren't speaking in code when they start jerking themselves off in public about Obama being a baby-killing commie who is hell-bent on destroying this country. Maybe it's just me, but Keyes seems to be calling out to Bubba and Cletus Theewack to gather up a posse and string up the ole skinny negro before he steals the White House china and gives it to Hugo Chavez for Earth Day.
Now, I realize that Keyes is a deranged kook who probably shouldn't be given the time of day, but it's important to remember that these sort of people do actually exist within the Republican party and hold positions of power! As Gawker's Alex Pareene stated earlier today...
An important difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party is that the nuttiest, least-mainstream Dems tend to be random members of the House who embarrass everyone in their own party (like Cynthia McKinney, say), whereas Keyes was a Reagan appointee who served as Assistant Secretary of State and who's been endorsed as a US Senate candidate three times.
Witness for yourself the insanity...
(via Gawker)
Scattered thoughts 2/23/09
-Soooo...the Oscars. As I said previously, I enjoyed it. But then again, I'm the rare straight guy who actually enjoys musicals, so take that with a grain of salt. However, I didn't particularly care for the whole thing where they had past award winners come out and rhetorically fellate the present nominees. That was just bizarre and awkward and sort of cringe-worthy at times (Hello Sophia Loren!), but whatever, I enjoyed it. But I will say this...if the future goal is reach a larger audience, the show needs to lose some of the gay and definitely needs to lose a lot of its overwhelmingly self-congratulatory tone. Like I said, such shit doesn't bother me, but I know how Clint and April McAverage out there in middle America thinks, and this sort of thing just doesn't jive all that much with them I'm afraid.
And for the love of God, can someone just lock Ryan Seacrest away in an underground box and never let him out? Jesus Christ is that guy annoying! I mean, he's the worst! THE. FUCKING. WORST. I didn't watch any of the red carpet pre-show as I have no interest in such things at all, but the clips I have seen of him last night have made me wish that I could reach into the screen and rip his throat out.
-For a while I was thinking it was just me, but the NBA regular season is suddenly an "in" thing again. Ratings are through the roof on just about every game that's televised nationally. People are talking about games around the proverbial water-cooler again in"holy shit did you see what Lebron did last night?" fashion. I personally find myself looking forward to watching regular season games days in advance, rather than simply when flipping channels and running across one and thinking, "oh, well, I guess I'll watch some basketball," and then changing the channel after ten minutes. I haven't done that in probably ten years. Sure, I'd watch the playoffs, but the regular season didn't interest me. At all. It does now. It took the league a while, but it's rebuilt its roster of genuine athletic superstars and strong teams that can breathe life into previously dead rivalries as well as create new one. Hell, even the Knicks are fun to watch! Sure, they lose more games than they win, but they're very fun to watch even when they're losing. I just wish that more Hornets games were broadcast nationally.
-Lately I've been overcome with a new found appreciation for Havarti cheese. The fancy-pants all natural deli near my apartment has this Havarti infused with jalapeno that I can't stop eating. Good shit. I like cheese.
-As you might have noticed, I've put up a post full of links the last couple of days, something I think I'll continue to do in the future. There's so much stuff that people email in and I run across in the course of my daily information feeding frenzy that I find interesting and want to pass along, but can never seem to find the time to figure out how to incorporate it into regular posts, so I figured that I'd just do it the lazy way. And since I'm always up late at night, I can put it together and set it to post at 6am or so, so it's up first thing in the morning for most people. Anyway, just in case you're interested in such things, it'll be there.
UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun rips dipshit reporter a new asshole
Without even getting into the merits of the argument for either side, this is very fucking funny to me...
(via With Leather)
I suddenly have a newfound respect for Jim Calhoun.
A word about Mardi Gras in New York City and other places outside of South Louisiana
As you may or may not know, tomorrow is Mardi Gras day, the culmination of weeks of Carnival festivities all over South Louisiana where we Cajuns eat, drink, dance, and revel just for the fuck of it. We are also typically joined in this celebration of life by thousands of tourists who invade our state and proceed to completely lose their fucking minds. It's quite a spectacle. Something so decadent, hedonistic, gluttonous and, some would even say, vile, that it truly is one of those rare things in life that must be experienced to truly believe, where even the loftiest of great expectations are routinely exceeded.
So I guess it stands to reason that many people each year try to replicate the event in other places on much smaller scales. New York City is one such place. Thus, somewhat predictably I suppose, I've received quite a few emails over the last week or so asking some variation of the following question..."Hey Cajun...where's the party at in New York City on Mardi Gras day?"
My response to that question is this...I have no fucking clue.
Look, let me try to explain something here, using a sexual metaphor, naturally. Let's pretend for minute that you're a guy, a guy who happens to be fucking the woman who, at the moment, I think may be the most beautiful creature to ever walk the face of the earth, Italian actress Monica Belluci...
Now, again, you're fucking Monica Belluci on the regular, and you're pretty damn in love with her. Sure, she has her faults...she forces you to go shoe shopping with her occasionally, she can't cook for shit, she spends way too much time in the bathroom, her temper toes the fine line between sanity and insanity from time to time, she's obsessed with doing you in the anus with a big black strap-on, etc., but you overlook all of that, because you're in love with her, and her imperfections make her all the more perfect after all, and, let's be real here, she's ridiculously hot.
So when you're away from her, naturally, you miss her. A lot. You think about her all the time. You wander the streets at night when you're away from her wondering what the fuck you're doing whatever it is you're doing where you are and aren't holding her in your arms at that very second. Rightfully so I might add.
Now, let's say there's this other girl who wants you really bad but knows that you're in love with Monica Belluci and that you're fucking her and all that, but is undeterred in her efforts to win your affection, so much so that she's willing to put on a wig and get her lips injected and undergo all sorts of plastic surgery and cake layer upon layer of makeup on her face to make herself look more like Monica Belluci and woo you into her web.
So this girl, this Monica Belluci imposter, makes a play for your attention and you notice her. I mean, how can you not notice her, right? But when you get closer to her you see the scars on her face from all the surgery underneath the makeup, you notice that her hair isn't her own, you notice that her Italian accent sounds more like someone doing a bad impression of an Italian accent than the real thing, nor does she smell the same or feel the same when she brushes up beside you. In short, you notice that that this woman, even when you close your eyes really tight and employ every fiber of your imagination's being, is definitely not Monica Belluci!
Now, the question facing you is this...do you give in to your loneliness and longing for your faraway love, drink yourself into an altered state, then close your eyes and bone this comely, eager to please Monica Belluci imposter?
I, for one, am not that kind of guy and most certainly would not.
But I do understand how some guys would, and I make no judgments against them. I, however, would prefer to just stay home and watch Two and Half Men or whatever and wait for Monica Belluci and I to be together again, rather than sleep with some cheesy wannabe for the sake of an easy nut that I'd wind up hating myself for and regretting the rest of my life.
Look...when you're fucking Monica Belluci, every other piece of ass is only bound to disappoint, so why even bother?
So again, hypothetically, if the person in the picture below were the living, breathing embodiment of south Louisiana on Mardi Gras day...
Would you cheat on her with some hideous wannabe for the sake of a cheap thrill?
Which gets me back to this...I have no fucking idea where the party is on Mardi Gras day in New York City!
(All Monica Belluci porn courtesy of my friend Mandalay)
Learn how to be a queer and a whore and a queer whore by attending college in Georgia!
I would expect courses on oral sex and male prostitution at schools where faggotism runs rampant like NYU, but at public universities in Georgia? NEVER!
(via Wonkette)
Quote of the day II
President Obama disdains sound bites, and he does not have Bill Clinton’s talent for reducing the abstruse to aperçus. We wanted someone smart to gather a bunch of smart people around him to get us out of this fix. But Mr. Obama’s egghead manner has failed to soothe a nation with the jits. Maybe he has been so intent on avoiding the stereotype of the Angry Black Man, as he wrote in his memoir, that it’s hard for him to connect with and articulate public anger about our diminishment.
Though he demonstrated in the campaign that he has a rare gift for inspiring the country with new belief in itself, Mr. Obama has not yet captured either the grit the moment requires or the fury it provokes. He has not explained in a compelling way why Americans who followed the rules need to sacrifice more to help those who flouted the rules.
That is why the CNBC reporter Rick Santelli struck a populist nerve with his screed about the unfairness of responsible homeowners picking up the tab for irresponsible homeowners — following the unfairness of taxpayers who are losing jobs, homes and savings propping up the exact same bankers and carmakers whose greed and myopia caused the economy to crash.
He spoke for those who want a pound of flesh. With the Wall Street bailout, Mr. Obama at least gave bankers a bit of the belt, and capped their pay. But homebuyers who wanted more than they could afford seem to be getting a free ride.
Yet Obama is oozing empathy compared with his attorney general, who last week called us “a nation of cowards” about race.
Eric Holder, who showed precious little bravery in standing up to Clinton on a pardon for the scoundrel Marc Rich, is wrong. We have just inaugurated a black president who installed a black attorney general.
We need leaders to help us through our crises, not provide us with crude evaluations of our character. And we don’t need sermons from liberal virtuecrats, anymore than from conservative virtuecrats.
-Maureen Dowd
Jim Rome's hilarious rant against the listeners of his radio talk show
In a past life, when I spent lots of time driving around in a car all over South Louisiana, I used to listen to Jim Rome’s syndicated sports talk radio show in the afternoons. I called into his show one time, on a Monday after LSU beat Florida to snap the Gators’ 20-something game winning streak at the time, and was named the “Huge Call of the Day” for my efforts on that particular show. In doing so, I was awarded a 5-gallon bucket of David sunflower seeds, which UPS delivered to my doorstep a few days later. (True story!) So him going off on the stupidity of his listeners in regards to the homeless, who he’s long referred to as “clones,” in this clip is especially funny to me.
I’m sure that there are more than a few bloggers who’ve had similar rants inside their heads about blog commenters. Not saying I have, just saying...
(via KarenUhOh and Molls)
Quote of the day
No place in the United States is likely to escape a long and deep recession. Nonetheless, as the crisis continues to spread outward from New York, through industrial centers like Detroit, and into the Sun Belt, it will undoubtedly settle much more heavily on some places than on others. Some cities and regions will eventually spring back stronger than before. Others may never come back at all. As the crisis deepens, it will permanently and profoundly alter the country’s economic landscape. I believe it marks the end of a chapter in American economic history, and indeed, the end of a whole way of life.
Lean times undoubtedly lie ahead for New York. But perhaps not as lean as you’d think—and certainly not as lean as those that many lesser financial outposts are likely to experience. Financial positions account for only about 8 percent of the New York area’s jobs, not too far off the national average of 5.5 percent. By contrast, they make up 28 percent of all jobs in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois; 18 percent in Des Moines; 13 percent in Hartford; 10 percent in both Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Omaha, Nebraska; Macon, Georgia; and Columbus, Ohio, all have a greater percentage of population working in the financial sector than New York does.
New York is much, much more than a financial center. It has been the nation’s largest city for roughly two centuries, and today sits in America’s largest metropolitan area, as the hub of the country’s largest mega-region. It is home to a diverse and innovative economy built around a broad range of creative industries, from media to design to arts and entertainment. It is home to high-tech companies like Bloomberg, and boasts a thriving Google outpost in its Chelsea neighborhood. Elizabeth Currid’s book, The Warhol Economy, provides detailed evidence of New York’s diversity. Currid measured the concentration of different types of jobs in New York relative to their incidence in the U.S. economy as a whole. By this measure, New York is more of a mecca for fashion designers, musicians, film directors, artists, and—yes—psychiatrists than for financial professionals.
The great urbanist Jane Jacobs was among the first to identify cities’ diverse economic and social structures as the true engines of growth. Although the specialization identified by Adam Smith creates powerful efficiency gains, Jacobs argued that the jostling of many different professions and different types of people, all in a dense environment, is an essential spur to innovation—to the creation of things that are truly new. And innovation, in the long run, is what keeps cities vital and relevant.
In this sense, the financial crisis may ultimately help New York by reenergizing its creative economy. The extraordinary income gains of investment bankers, traders, and hedge-fund managers over the past two decades skewed the city’s economy in some unhealthy ways. In 2005, I asked a top-ranking official at a major investment bank whether the city’s rising real-estate prices were affecting his company’s ability to attract global talent. He responded simply: “We are the cause, not the effect, of the real-estate bubble.” (As it turns out, he was only half right.) Stratospheric real-estate prices have made New York less diverse over time, and arguably less stimulating. When I asked Jacobs some years ago about the effects of escalating real-estate prices on creativity, she told me, “When a place gets boring, even the rich people leave.” With the hegemony of the investment bankers over, New York now stands a better chance of avoiding that sterile fate.
-Excerpted from Richard Florida's must-read piece in the new issue of The Atlantic titled, "How the Crash Will Reshape America," a piece that addresses some of the questions I've pondered on this here blog.
Morning links 2/23/09
-The complete list of Oscar winners. (New York Post)
-The Republican party is eating itself out of its own asshole with stimulus package squabbling. (New York Times)
-In Mexico the drug cartels are running the country. SURPRISE! (Wall Street Journal)
-Is the reliability of forensic science and DNA evidence grossly overrated? A new study says yes and could overturn thousands of criminal convictions nationwide (Chicago Tribune)
-The NFL scouting combine is one of the weirdest spectacles in all of sports. (New York Times)
-Is Yelp extorting businesses nationwide? (Microblogbuzz)
-If you go to the race track with Clive Owen, don't let him bet with your money, lest he pick the horse with a hard-on. (Esquire)
-Couldn't make it down to Louisiana for Mardi Gras like SOME PEOPLE?! Well nola.com has some live feeds set up in the French Quarter, Canal Street and a few other prime revelry viewing spots. (Nola.com)
Mickey Rourke's awesome acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards almost makes up for his not winning an Oscar
I still can't believe that Sean Penn, SEAN FUCKING BLOWHARD PENN, stole the Oscar away from my main man Mickey last night. Geez, what a punch in the ballsack that was! All I hope is that Mickey didn't go back to his hotel room alone, as losing the Oscar and his beloved dog in the same week has to suck some sweaty balls. But something tells me that he had companionship...just a hunch.
And here's what the world missed by not allowing Rourke to step up to a microphone and give an acceptance speech last night. His speech at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday night was one of the best ever...
Overall I enjoyed the show, which seems to have evoked a polarized reaction all over the internet whose main themes were "Best Oscars ever!" to "GAYEST OSCARS EVER!" And I got 15 out of 24 possible picks correct. Not bad, but I doubt that I won any of the Oscar pools I entered.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Cajun Boy's 2009 Oscar Predictions
Ok, I know that the world's been anxiously waiting for my picks, so here it goes...
Best Documentary- Trouble the Water. I put this category on top because it's the one that means the most to me, and I'm leading with my heart here as I feel truly connected to film because of it's subject matter, New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. It's the only film nominated for anything this year that I feel emotionally invested in. Man on Wire, an utterly fascinating film, is the favorite, but again, I'm going with my heart over my head here. Here's the trailer to the film if you've never seen it.
Best Picture- Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor- Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Actress- Kate Winslet, The Reader.This one gave me fits trying to pick, as my usual "think like an old Jew" strategy goes kinda out the window as some Jews have express discomfort with this film. If she wins, you'll probably see this clip a million times in the coming days.
Best Supporting Actor- Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight. I can't help but wonder if he'd have won anything had he not died.
Best Supporting Actress- Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler. Going with the longshot here, mainly because I've had a crush on her since puberty.
Best Director- Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Film- Waltz with Bashir
Best Adapted Screenplay- Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay- Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Best Animated Feature- Wall-E
Best Art Direction- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Cinematography- Slumdog Millionaire
Best Sound Mixing- The Dark Knight
Best Sound Editing- The Dark Knight
Best Original Score- Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Song- "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire
Best Costume Design- The Duchess
Best Documentary Short Subject- The Witness
Best Film Editing- Slumdog Millionaire
Best Makeup- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Animated Short- Presto
Best Live Action Short- The Pig
Best Visual Effects- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
So there you go!
Morning links 2/22/09
-How CNBC's resident retard/new conservative icon Rick Santelli once helped kick the US banking system in the nuts selling junk bonds with Michael Milken (Long Live the Message)
-Bobby Jindal drops his pants and takes a big dump down Louisiana's throat by officially refusing to accept money from the Obama stimulus package in order to score political point with wingnuts (Think Progress)
-Some Louisiana officials are predictably upset with Bobby Jindal's decision making (Times Picayune)
-Mark Lisanti's 25 random Oscar predictions (Vanity Fair)
-Roger Ebert's 2009 Oscar predictions (RogerEbert.com)
-Fivethirtyeight.com's Nate Silver uses his trusty slide ruler to make Oscar predictions (New York Magazine)
-A 2004 profile of Nick Denton and Gawker Media seems about 1000 years old (Wired)
-Politico.com wants to control the world and sounds like a terrible place to work. (The New Republic)
-The 20 most common male Facebook profile photo poses (2Birds1Blog)
-Remember Chandra Levy, Gary Condit's former intern who disappeared in 2001? Police are close to an arrest in the case. (Washington Post)
-LSU christened the baseball team's new Alex Box Stadium this weekend (The Baton Rouge Advocate)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
2000 separate paintings come together to make one animated short film
This is pretty rad. A student artist spent two years painting all of the individual works that went into creating this animated short...
Khoda from Reza Dolatabadi on Vimeo.
(via Andrew Sullivan)
Picture of the day
Yes, go ahead and insure your irrelevancy long into the future guys...
This is a new movement I guess.
Look, using tax dollars to help people pay their mortgages sucks, just like bailing out Wall Street with tax dollars sucks, but desperate times call for extreme measures. Everything is connected. By helping one domino to remain standing, it keeps others from falling. By helping struggling homeowners, the government is indirectly helping the banks, while helping stem the flood of people from losing their homes at the same time, which all helps to keep our financial system intact. For now anyway. Look, my instinct is to say "fuck them....they acted irresponsibly so let them all fail," but the reality is that doing such a thing would probably end the United States of America as we know it. Even the editorial page of the New York Post thinks that this is a good idea.
To Rick Santelli and others who think he's speaking truth to power or some shit, what's your plan? And before you spit out the typical right-wing simpleton knee jerk answer..."TAX CUTS"...stop yourself and start over and actually use your brain and think about it.
And thanks for sending the link to the pic Mac.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Iron and Wine's cover of "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service
The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" is one of my all-time favorite songs. It's a beautifully written, it's poetry really, and it never fails to make me tap my foot and bob my head when I hear it. However, I may actually like Iron and Wine's cover of the song even better. I've had it on repeat in my iTunes all day today...
Have a great weekend!
The "Fairness Doctrine" is probably the stupidest thing in the history of stupid things
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
-Voltaire
Within days, no, check that, within hours of election night last November 4th, I began hearing fears from the far right wing that the new Democratic leadership in Congress and the White House would try to re-institute something called the "Fairness Doctrine." I heard it just about every time I tuned into to Hannity or Limbaugh, and I heard it from my wingnut right-wing friends back home.
"Aw man...they're gonna try to do this Fairness Doctrine thing, aren't they?'
Now, some of you may be wondering...what the fuck is the Fairness Doctrine? In short, the Fairness Doctrine is pretty much the single worst steaming hunk of dung to ever be conceived in Washington, DC, a town with storied history for producing steaming hunks of dung, a mandate that all media be politically balanced, an egregious shitting on the head of American free speech rights cloaked in the euphemism of "fairness," something that, if one didn't know any better, one would swear came out of some sort of totalitarian regime that kept it's ample foot pressed down squarely on the throats of its people, something that was the complete antithesis of what the United States of America has always claimed to be.
What the Fairness Doctrine states basically is this...let's use radio as an example, because that's where most of the controversy springs from...let's say that a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa decides that they're going to carry the Rush Limbaugh show in syndication. Limbaugh's show runs for three hours, Monday through Friday. Under the Fairness Doctrine, that station, or any other station carrying Limbaugh's show, would be then mandated to carry three hours of liberal-slanted programming to balance out its overall political airtime leanings.
Now, to people who think that Rush Limbaugh is a fucking dipshit who is brain-washing millions of feeble-minded Americans into intolerant Nazi zombies on a daily basis, this may sound like a great idea. But just wait until you're driving to Whole Foods one day for free range chicken and you're forced to listen to Ann Coulter braying about how Barack Hussein Obama is going to let faggots invade your home and fist-fuck your children immediately after your done listening to This American Life.
Yeah. Fucking chew on that shit.
The Fairness Doctrine existed, mindblowingly, in the US from 1949 until the late 80s, when it was abolished by Reagan. His actions in doing such are often credited with giving rise to the conservative talk radio movement, thus the occasional grumbling by liberals to have it reinstated. Recently two of the Democratic party's more consistently petulant blowhards, Charles Shumer and Bill Clinton, have hinted that there may be a movement underfoot to bring it back. Each time I hear this sort of talk I think to myself, "surely they can't be serious, can they?" But here's the thing...they are!
Look, if the free markets in individual cities demands programming filled with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, G. Gordon Liddy, for fuck's sake let them have have it. Let the markets dictate it. If people didn't want it there, they wouldn't listen and there'd be no advertising dollars to support it. Blah blah blah. What fucking country are we living in again?
And where exactly would this thing stop? Who draws the lines? Who polices it? What the fuck would they try to do to the internet? Would I be forced to write a post condemning Hillary each time I point out how much of a Titanic retard Sarah Palin is, lest someone comes and shuts my blog down?
This is America, isn't it? Where we're free to speak our minds about our leaders and we let free markets decide what'll be offered up for our consumption, REMEMBER?!?!
The one thing that I've maintained from the get-go each time a terrified right-winger friend has brought up the Fairness Doctrine is this...there's no fucking way Obama would sign such garbage even if it passed through both houses of Congress. The inevitable rebuttal to that has always been..."but he hasn't ever stated that on the record." That was true, until earlier in the week, when it was unambiguously stated that the Obama White House does not support this horseshit.
As a friend of mine noted earlier in the week, this is why it's nice to have a constitutional law scholar in the White House. And this sort of thing is exactly why I've been so passionate in my support for the guy.
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