Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Shocking Photos

78 Comments

Barack Obama appeared and marched with the New Black Panthers a year before he was elected president. Actually, I’m not shocked at all.

[Mid-afternoon update]

More from Hans von Spakovsky:

If another presidential candidate had shared a podium, marched with, and received an endorsement from the KKK, it would justifiably be front page news and we would be seriously questioning the judgment of that candidate. If that candidate got elected and his administration then dismissed a lawsuit it had already won against the KKK, it would have led to serious consequences and serious questions being asked from the mainstream media. So why, when the color of the racists is reversed, is such behavior ignored?

That’s a rhetorical question, I think.

Media Criticism, Popular Culture

The Wolverines Are Overrated

3 Comments

I agree with their coach. Number 12 is way too high, and it’s way too early to judge. They won’t really be tested until they go to East Lansing in a couple weeks. And they don’t have to play Wisconsin this year, unless it’s for the Big Tweleven championship. If they play and win that game, they’ll definitely deserve to be in the top ten. But I’m confident that even if they don’t win out, we won’t see the kind of late-season collapse that we did in the past couple years.

General, Philosophy, Social Commentary

Connections

11 Comments

…some meditations:

I’m thinking: no dog, no bag hoarding instincts, no barf-containment. No iPod location mystery, no sorting through the glove compartment, no instantly-available barf bag. The reason this day didn’t end with a stinky car can be directly traced to the moment I walked past a pet shop in Uptown in April 1996, looked in the window, and saw my dog.

Wife took him for a walk later. He was slow. Very slow. “He’s not going to be with us much longer,” she said. Resigned. Then hopeful: “But I’ve been saying that for three years.”

“You saw him when the food showed up. Annoying as a puppy. Where did he take you tonight?”

“Well, I let him go where he wanted, and we went up the hill to the water tower, and then back down, and when we got home he didn’t want to go up the steps so he went down the street, and I thought he would go up the back steps, but he looked at me, like ‘I’m not done,’ and we walked east and around the neighborhood again. But it was dark and he can’t see anything.”

“But he can smell.”

Nearly deaf and nearly blind, and the world is still a story, every scent a character, every strong odor a twist in the plot. The dog walks outside and the world is his iPod, and it’s always set on shuffle. So it is for us all, really. If you have a dog you know how they come to the door and stand there waiting for you to let them out. Standing at the glass door. The wall that keeps the odors out. They can see, but they can’t smell. Daily life for us is just like that. If you’re lucky someone opens the door and all the glories rush over you.

It’s days like these that you realize how much you miss. For once, you saw all the connections. You suspect there are just as many threads between the now and the then every other day. Probably more. Would you go mad if you considered them? Would you exult to discover how everything braids itself together, fear for the action ten years gone that will explode down the road, anticipate the bloom that grows from a casual act last month? Sure. All of that. All these things. You can’t act if you remember everything. You shouldn’t act if you remember nothing.

What a writer. And he does it almost every single day.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Smart

16 Comments

…and the dumb:

The president’s reaction? “He turned to me and said, ‘Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy. [Energy] Secretary [Steven] Chu has assured me that within five years, we can have a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.’” Mr. Hamm holds his head in his hands and says, “Even if you believed that, why would you want to stop oil and gas development? It was pretty disappointing.”

I guess I’d be disappointed, if I had had any expectations of brilliance on his part. But I never had any reason to, other than the bien pensant telling me I should.

Administrative

New Theme

57 Comments

I may use this as the basis for a new blog theme. It obviously needs a lot of tweaking in the style sheets.

[Evening update]

Folks, if you want to complain about the new theme, do it here, not at the previous post. I don’t want to have to carry on two discussions.

And as I’ve said repeatedly, I’m just trying to move it from circa 2005 to modern times, in terms of functionality. I’ll worry about aesthetics later. Not that I don’t want suggestions on the latter, but don’t expect a response to them immediately.

For instance, I now have “Like” buttons, and “Reply” to comments. I don’t want to go back.

Also, if someone with graphic talent wants to come up with a new header graphic similar to the old one, I’d appropriate it gratefully. It doesn’t have to be the same, and I’m open to upgrades, but I’d like it to have some heritage. 980×100, please…

[Update early evening, before settling in to watch Verlander and the Tigers against the Yankees]

Yes, I do hate the blockquote style — why do you ask? It will be the second thing I tackle in the style sheets after colors.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!