BP's CEO, Dilbert and the Small People
My girlfriend told me earlier that America is coming off a little intolerant in Europe today because of the reaction to BP CEO Erik Per Sullivan's remark that "BP cares about the small people." I knew...
View ArticleThe Definitive Smackdown of Overrated Hack Denis Leary
Compared to all the major issues today, this was a very, very minor incident. But it was one of the truly wonderful moments of television I have ever seen, and it just blossoms in greatness in my mind...
View ArticlePat Tabler, Dr. Laura and Ignorant Certitude: The Essence of Wingnut Mentality
In 1987, Pat Tabler was an all-star third baseman with the Cleveland Indians, a young stud with uncanny talent for hitting in the clutch, with a long, successful career in front of him.Three years...
View ArticleStephen Colbert as the teacher we wish Jared Loughner had
When I watched Jared Lee Loughner's YouTube videos, I was strongly reminded of a very funny sketch from the show Exit 57. Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello in Exit 57It features Stephen Colbert as a...
View ArticleRegistration for Netroots Nation 2011 for Sale
I can't make it this year. It's breaking my heart. But I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. A $298 registration (current registration costs $355). First...
View ArticleNN11 Early Bird Registration for Sale
I can't make it this year. It's breaking my heart. But I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. A $298 registration (current registration costs $355). First...
View ArticleEarly Bird Registration for NN11 for sale
I can't make it this year. It's breaking my heart. But I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. A $298 registration (current registration costs $355). First...
View ArticleEarly Bird Registration for NN11 for sale
I can't make it this year. It's breaking my heart. But I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. A $298 registration (current registration costs $355). First...
View ArticleNetroots Nation early bird registration for sale
I can't make it this year. It's breaking my heart. But I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. A $298 registration (current registration costs $355). First...
View ArticleNetroots Nation Early Bird registration for sale
I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. Current registration costs $355 - we can cut a deal for a deep discount. First come, first served. Just drop a...
View ArticleNetroots Nation registration available
I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. Current registration costs $355 - we can cut a deal for a deep discount. First come, first served. Just drop a...
View ArticleWant to attend the Netroots Nation this year??
I have an early bird registration available for anyone who would like to attend. Current registration costs $355 - we can cut a deal for a deep discount. First come, first served. Just drop a...
View ArticleNo love for US Women's Soccer Team from Sports Talk Douches
There is one day in the calendar year when NONE of the four major sports leagues in this country - MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL - have any action whatsoever scheduled. That day is the day after the Major...
View ArticleFinancial website shutdown?
This is probably nothing, and I hope it is, but I happen to be trying to pay some bills online right now, and can't access my accounts in any of my financial institutions. Maybe they're shut down for...
View ArticleJoe Paterno - What would my dad think?
Whenever I see Joe Paterno, I can't help but think of my dad. On an obvious level, they looked alike - my dad was a taller, stouter version of Joe Pa. But my dad loved him, always rooted for him. He...
View ArticleCALL TO ACTION: local Limbaugh sponsor protest - making a business case, not...
I wrote the following letter and sent it to all of the Limbaugh sponsors I could find. It attempts to appeal to the sponsors' business sense, not to their moral or political sense. If you can make a...
View ArticleThe Olympics Obsessive I - Why Bother with the Olympics?
For forty years, ever since I was old enough to know what the Olympics was, I have been mesmerized and obsessed by it. For the sports lover in me, it's a quadrennial (or biannual, depending on your...
View ArticleThe Olympics Obsessive II - Opening Ceremonies
London has an absolutely impossible act to follow. The Opening Ceremonies in 2008 was possibly - beware, a grand statement is approaching - the single greatest public spectacle of any kind of all time...
View ArticleThe Olympics Obsessive III - Doing What Humans Can't Do
How do you get to compete in six Olympics?Well, the most likely way is to compete in an event that isn't as unforgiving to the ravages of age, like shooting or equestrian......or gymnastics.Jordan...
View ArticleThe Olympics Obsessive IV - NBC's Coverage - How They Excel and How They Suck
I'm pretty sure most of the people who hate NBC's coverage of the Olympics are only watching the prime time broadcast. This is unfortunate, because the prime time broadcast is what NBC does the worst...
View ArticleThe Olympics Obsessive V - Finding the Rock
The story of the gymnastics tournament is Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas' heroics notwithstanding. Aly was not on the radar coming into these games. It was all Jordyn Wieber, and maybe Gabby a distant...
View ArticleRomney - Rove: Worst Campaign in History?
I'm watching the Ohio State football game on the Big Ten cable network right now. I've seen about 7 Obama ads and no Romney ads. How does Romney miss this opportunity?? The Big Ten covers Ohio,...
View ArticleMy Best Moment Onstage - A Plea for Arts Education
Inspired by this terrific diary on the importance of Arts Education in our schools, I was reminded of a particularly wonderful moment from my high school years that I've had rolling in my head for a...
View ArticleThe Boston Marathon Explosions and Two Great Comedians
The explosion in Boston reminded me of a brilliant Peter Cook joke from "Beyond the Fringe." This sketch was written in the early '60s, when the threat of nuclear war seemed constant and real. He...
View ArticleNSA Data Accumulation - Is this really a big deal?
Through this whole scandal about phone and internet data accumulation, my kneejerk instinct that it shouldn't happen has been countered with a general not giving a shit. I wasn't sure why I felt that...
View ArticleMonty Python's Last Show
For me, it started at the World West Theater at Kamms Corners on the West Side of Cleveland.Cleveland is and was a divided city. Chief among the many ways to slice and dice the city is culturally....
View ArticleThe Rise of Chuck Todd and the Deep Bench of Wonks at MSNBC
In 2008, CNN and Fox News were boasting about their Super Turbo Election News-tainment Electronic Doodads that could do all this amazing analytical stuff, their sets looking like the bridge of the...
View ArticleHow a 14 Year Old Girl Decimated a Conservative Academic Orthodoxy
Just a simple piece from The Daily Beast ...A substantial portion of Conservative Ideology concerns a denial of victimhood and structural disadvantages of classes of people. "You aren't victimized!...
View ArticleConservatives - How Do You Solve a Problem Like The Donald?
I know there are conservative lurkers skimming through the site. This question is aimed at you. Now the Republican Party has begun shunning Donald Trump and trying to exclude him from the process on...
View ArticleThe Pope, from an Atheist ex-Catholic's POV
Many people were chagrined that Pope Francis met personally with Kim Davis, lending a patina of spiritual credibility to her odious mission of exclusion and bigotry. A close friend of mine found this a...
View ArticleRepublicans - This is what your party is now
Republicans - this is what your party is now.It's no longer sensible conservatives cultivating the vote of the Useful Idiots and then ignoring them until the next election cycle.It's actual people who...
View ArticleAfter Iowa - Where the Parties Stand
On the Democratic SideI have always admired Bernie Sanders, both as a person and for the principles he espouses. I would love to see his style of Democratic Socialism run this country. He is also doing...
View ArticleThe End of the Republican Party - Death by Deplorable
This is an excellent rant from Steve Schmidt, one of the few Republican stalwarts who are willing to call his party on the deep, corrosive problems within it.The problem for principled Republicans like...
View ArticleAmerica has become Putin's female canid
The sickest thing about Putin’s attempts to interfere with the election is how easily he is accomplishing his transparent bullshit. He is not the first to spread propagandistic disinformation about an...
View ArticleTrump vs. Comey - The Quentin Tarantino Theory
The Trump VersionComey asked me to have a dinner with him in January, and I agreed. Over dinner, he asked to be retained as head of the FBI. My response was non-committal. I asked him if there was an...
View ArticleA quick thought on Doug Jones' miraculous victory...
I have seen lots of fear from liberals that Doug Jones will not be able to retain his Senate seat in 2020 (before he even takes the seat), and a lot of cynical demands from Republicans that he tack...
View ArticleHarry Chapin - Remembering one of my heroes
I’ve been thinking about Harry Chapin lately. I don’t think any performing artist had a more personal connection with his audience. He had one of the most intensely loyal followings of any musical...
View ArticleConman Trump exposed - on a TV western in 1958!
There was a show called Trackdown in the late '50s, a western starring Robert Culp (I swear, you wouldn't recognize him).One of the episodes features a con man coming to town trying to sell the...
View ArticleNotes on the All in the Family/Jeffersons reboot...
We assume that modern audiences wouldn’t tolerate shows as un-PC as these because we're all such snowflakes now, right? Of course, they turned television completely upside-down back then. It’s not like...
View ArticleA Recommendation to Guide Which Statues Come Down
There are a lot of slippery slope arguments going on about statue removal - "Andrew Jackson today, who's next, George Washington?" kind of thing.Suggestion - Israel has an honorific of "Righteous Among...
View ArticleThe Argument for Going Back to the Old Convention Model
The pre-taped/Zoom model was all well and good for a pandemic year. But Political Conventions are not for the voting public. They are and SHOULD BE for the couple thousand party loyalists who are...
View ArticleElectoral College - A Rtfking Analysis
All good people are afraid of the ability of the president to rtfk this election. With this in mind, I performed a little analysis based on the following assumptions: 1. It will be very hard to rtfk...
View ArticleThinking through the Politics of January 6
Trying to think through the politics of the aftermath of last week. I just saw a poll that said that 47% of Republicans believe that Antifa is responsible for the siege on the Capitol, and 47% do not....
View ArticleThe Buried Lede - Purging Trump from the Republican Party
Yesterday I wrote a tedious little essay (like this one) about how the Republican Party proceeds, post-Trump. The party can survive without Trump, but how can they survive without Trump voters? What...
View ArticleSeeking medical opinions - if the vaccine made you sick, would you be more...
I have a hypothesis that is not based on a single shred of medical expertise or fact, but I'd like to put it out there for consideration. Many people caught COVID and did not suffer any severe...
View ArticleSimone Biles - What happens when the light goes out?
This Simone Biles situation has reminded me of an old episode of Murphy Brown. The FYI team was covering the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, and Murphy scored an interview with a young Norwegian skater...
View ArticleWordle and the Times - Another Innocent Pleasure Devoured by a Rapacious...
We have all probably heard by now that the New York Times has bought Wordle for a few million dollars. It’s not hard to see why they would want to bring Wordle into their puzzle family — they are...
View ArticleHey, Right-Wing prosecutors looking for revenge indictments... GO FOR IT!
So much concern-trolling about conservative prosecutors exacting revenge for the Trump indictments by pressing charges against Biden after he gets out of office. Hey, Boo-boo… What’s stopping you???...
View ArticleA thought about Ted Lasso
A thought about Ted Lasso… We have come through a 25 year run of amazing television featuring a ridiculous run of well-written, compelling psychopathic and sociopathic characters. It started with Oz -...
View ArticleReport from an Ohio Polling Station Worker
Hey, Gang! I'm home from the polling station, and I have numbers to report!!! I know they've already projected a result. But I'm going to report my numbers anyway… So I was assigned to a...
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