Popular Culture

A White Playoff Season

Man, teams must hate playing the Packers in the playoffs at home. I just turned on the game, and it looks like half an inch of snow on the field just before the half, and still coming down.

[Going to check Wisconsin radar and weather]

Yup, thirty degrees, and it looks like it’s going to keep coming down all game.

I’ve always thought that it was kind of cool that football doesn’t call games for weather. It always made baseball look kind of wimpy when they quit playing in the rain, while the pigskinners will play in a blizzard. But still, you’d think that folks in Green Bay would get tired of it, with almost everyone else indoors now (though I think that Soldier Field is still open, right?). I know that I was happy when the Lions moved into the Superdome in Pontiac.

[Update in the second half]

Wow, the flakes really look more detailed in HD. You can almost tell them apart.

Media Criticism

To Non-Americans Who Think They Understand America

I had never noticed this quote on the masthead of USS Neverdock before:

“America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge. I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture…” BBC’s Washington correspondent Justin Webb

From an interview with the Grauniad. This explains why some commenters here are both clueless and arrogantly certain in their (lack of) knowledge. I won’t name names, but if the shoe fits, they might consider a little more humility.

Popular Culture

Good Lord

What kind of nancy boys does Brooks Brothers think we are? Looks like just the thing for that all-male boarding school, complete with spankings.

Is that price the amount that they’d pay us to wear these abominations? If so, it’s nowhere near enough.

[Afternoon update]

And check out this cashmere down vest with the short pants. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. In what kind of weather would one wear that ensemble?

You know, the Brits have a word for people who would wear this stuff. Though I guess we had one of our own, back in the day, the most prominent of whom was called Yankee Doodle.

Political Commentary

Same Old Corn

…different flakes. I’m assuming that the exclusion of Fred Thompson (who just got an endorsement from Human Events this morning) was deliberate.

I wonder how much the endorsement will help? I’m sure that it won’t hurt, but (though I’m not a regular reader) I suspect that most people who read Human Events in South Carolina were probably going to vote for him anyway.

[Update late morning]

Here’s an interesting analysis of why Thompson focused on Huckabee last night, and didn’t go after McCain. Hint: it’s not because he’s trying to help McCain win the nomination.

Meanwhile, Matt Welch, incoming editor of Reason, is making up for lost time in dissecting Dr. No’s past.

[Update mid afternoon]

It just occurs to me that we’ll know whether or not Krumm’s Thompson/McCain theory is valid after the Michigan primary. If he starts to go after McCain in addition to Huckabee after the primary, and before South Carolina, then it will all make sense.

Political Commentary

Random Debate Thought

Whatever else you think of Ron Paul, it is entertaining to hear the phrase “Austrian theory of the business cycle” in a Republican debate (though it almost sounded like he said “Australian”–“tie me von Mises down, boys…”?)

[Update at 9:26]

Fred takes off the gloves and finally goes after Huckabee for his NEA endorsement and opposition to vouchers. “That’s not the position of the Reagan coalition. That’s the position of the Democratic Party.”

Huckabee’s response (paraphrased) boils down to, “well, people reelected me.”

Pretty weak tea to make your credentials as a conservative. Lots of Democrats, even very “liberal” ones, get reelected. Fred’s job is to draw a distinction between himself and the Huckster as the only true conservative in South Carolina, and so far, I think he’s doing well. We’ll see if he hits him again.

[Update at 9:42]

Ron Paul is really coming off as the crazy uncle at the holiday dinner, ranting about things that aren’t even relevant to the question. Brit Hume: “Congressman, all your fellow candidates agreed with the passive response to the Iranian provocation. Who or what are you responding to?”

[Update afterward]

A memorable phrase from the consensus winner tonight, Fred Thompson, on immigration: “High fences and wide gates.”

If anyone is inspired by his performance to send him some money in the wake of his performance, he’s looking for it.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!