One of the worst phrases in sports is ‘on pace for.’
-- Derek Jeter
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Democrats' (Democracy's) Problem in a Nutshell
Charles Blow's column in today's NYT, which is well worth reading, had a discouraging sidebar, showing some results from a Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll of unlikely voters. Let us weep for our country, together.
First question of interest:
If you were registered to vote and the General Election for United States President were held today and the candidates were Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt Romney, or a third party candidate, for whom would you vote or towards whom would you LEAN at this time?
Answers from those who are not registered to vote:
| Obama | 43% |
| Romney | 14% |
| Third party | 23% |
| Undecided/Refused to answer | 19% |
Answers from those who are registered, but say they are unlikely to vote:
| Obama | 43% |
| Romney | 20% |
| Third party | 18% |
| Undecided/Refused to answer | 18% |
Next question of interest:
Is your opinion of [name] generally favorable or generally unfavorable?
| Obama | Romney | |
| Favorable | 55% | 25% |
| Unfavorable | 37% | 51% |
| Undecided/Never heard of | 8% | 25% |
Oh, one last thing:
Can you tell me the name of the Vice President of the United States?
| "Joe Biden" | 39% |
| "Dick Cheney" | 1% |
| Don't know/Refused to answer | 60% |
To end on a positive note: I think we should be encouraged that none of them said "Sarah Palin."
Friday, August 17, 2012
Yeah? Well what if I bring in two at a time? What about that, hengggh? HENGGGHHH???
While halfway through doing my bit to keep the landfills a little less full, I was accosted by some uniformed twerp who told me that I could not have the grocery cart I was using in their precious bottle room. This is a bottle room I have been in about four thousand times, almost always with a cart, and it's never been a problem. So I asked, "Who am I hurting?" Whereupon he played the same card all low-echelon Napoleons play -- wordlessly pointing to The Sign. Which, y'know, has never been there before.
As I read it, it's corporate-speak for "HOMELESS: GTFO." Because who would want THOSE people performing an environmentally beneficial service in return for compensation? That's socialism!!!1!
Since I no longer have any returnables, much less two carts' worth, I shall be composing a sternly worded letter post haste. That oughta do it.
P.S. You may refer to this post using the shortened URL bit.ly/STOPANDSHOPFAIL. Pass it down.
One of these things is not like the other
Jesus Christ, Microsoft. It's TWO THOUSAND TWELVE.
If there truly is some reason why this limitation has to exist, because you've painted yourself into yet another backwards-compatibility corner in flailing your rebranding way from Hotmail to Windows Live to Outlookdotcom, you should at least get the UI/UX right: just pick up the first 16 characters and silently ignore the rest. Why is this so hard?
Oh, wait.
Sometimes, you like an article just because of the way the words are arranged
I clicked on a link hoping to see some boobies … oh, c'mon, that's not why. This is the New York Times.
I clicked on a link expecting to sneer at some bluenosery, due to the blurb ("Bared flesh is common in experimental modern dance. And sometimes — infrequently — it succeeds."), but I was happily surprised by Alastair Macaulay's "Nakedness in Dance, Taken to Extremes." Here are just three of the reasons why.
• I am now aware of the pejorative term Hooray Henrys.
• I just love inside baseball asides, even when I have no idea what they mean, just because the precision sounds so good: “Crotch (all the Joseph Beuys references in the world cannot heal the pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, betrayal, or trauma....)”
• A rare sensible statement on art versus porn:
When I tell friends of these viewings, they inevitably ask: Where is the line between art and pornography? But there’s always been a huge overlap between the two; you can see scenes of copulation on Greek vases and Indian temples. What’s more, many works of art have seemed pornographic without nakedness. Many of us are tempted to talk as if art = good, pornography = bad. Yet that’s wrong too. Much art is poor, while the novels of the Marquis de Sade are pornography taken to a brilliant, horrifying and extraordinary peak.
The entire article is much more graceful than snippets presented in bulleted list form would suggest. Go read, for pleasure. And rejoice in your membership in the cultural elite, or at least your want to be.
(?)
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Eck. A Sketch.
Ten days from now, some of the world’s best-paid magicians of image and narrative will unveil a reboot of a most unfathomable man, Willard Mitt Romney, a 2012 model with a shelf life of barely two months.
The Republican National Convention will mark the fourth time in 18 years, dating to a losing Senate race in 1994, that a Team Romney has tried to construct a Brand Romney. This problem of who he is, Romney acknowledged last year, has plagued him ever since he became a public figure.
In focus groups, he’s described as a tin man, a shell, an empty suit, vacuous, a multimillionaire in mom jeans. And that’s from supporters.
At the convention, you can expect to hear high praise for a virtuous, disciplined, loyal person of family and faith. You will surely hear the words “turnaround” and “no apology” — both titles of platitudinous and unread books by Romney — in defense of his business acumen and unshakable view of American exceptionalism.
But I doubt you will hear anything of the real Romney because he is afraid of his own past.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
How did I forget?
To check xkcd right after the big night, I mean? Ah, well, better late than never.
Dark Money
You thought super PACs were bad? Read this and weep.
Two conservative nonprofits, Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity, have poured almost $60 million into TV ads to influence the presidential race so far, outgunning all super PACs put together, new spending estimates show.
These nonprofits, also known as 501(c)(4)s or c4s for their section of the tax code, don't have to disclose their donors to the public. [Unlike super PACs, which do.]
[...]
Crossroads GPS, or Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, is the brainchild of GOP strategist Karl Rove, and spent an estimated $41.7 million. Americans for Prosperity, credited with helping launch the Tea Party movement, is backed in part by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, and spent an estimated $18.2 million.
Campaign-finance reform advocates say the spending by the two organizations highlights the role anonymous money is playing in this election, which will be the most expensive in history.
(h/t: John Lesko, in comments on Rootstrikers)
[Added] The lede from the quoted link:
One of the most talked-about "dark money" groups of the election released its tax returns yesterday, showing it raised almost $77 million from fewer than 100 donors over 19 months. Most of the money spent in its first year went directly to political ads or grants to other groups.
My emphasis added in both blockquotes.
Hurrah for the future!
Get here faster, please.
(Not specifically endorsing Amazon, in case it's not clear. But if you wondered where that ad led (which I saw while immersionitizing the Eschaton via Attaturk), go here.)
An assertion worth contemplating
Whenever you find an unasked question you’ve also found an assumption.
-- Verlyn Klinkenborg
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Line of the Day 2: 2012-08-11
At 9 AM, ... Romney and Ryan set foot on the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a former Naval battleship and government-run museum, to point out that the government has done nothing useful and should be destroyed.
-- Jesse Taylor
Line of the Day: 2012-08-11
He [Mitt Romney] is not talking about what is actually in Paul Ryan's budget proposal at all. Nor will he. It polls so badly that you can't even run ads against it because people don't believe anyone would be so radical as to propose such things.
Ah, the wonders of a well-informed electorate.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Thursday, August 09, 2012
Attn: Dropbox users
You might want to change your password, especially if you use that same password elsewhere.
Details of the recent security breach on Business Insider. Supposedly, Dropbox is emailing those whose accounts are known to have been compromised.
Here is a handy page that will let you see what devices have accessed your account. (That link will redirect to the home page if you're not already logged into Dropbox.)
(h/t: Zscaler, via email)
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Hoity-toity!
Hard to believe it's taken me this long to figure out why I have so much trouble remembering that hoi polloi doesn't mean "upper crust," but at long last, there it is.
Sorry to bother you with this, but the penny finally dropping is always a good feeling.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Deep thought
Don't you sometimes wish that you could type in a username and find out how you first discovered that person, who is now your long-time online friend?
We should compel the NSA to make these data available to us.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Sad memory
The news coming out of Milwaukee reminds me of a time about a decade ago, when I was in a convenience store. While waiting my turn, I noticed a small sign next to a pile of handouts, which were offered to explain to customers that just because the store owner wore a turban, and so forth.
This was in the People's Republic of Northampton, for godsake. (If you know anything about that town, you know it is second to none in valuing diversity.) And yet, the proprietor felt compelled, there, to inform everyone who stepped into his store that Sikhs aren't Muslims.
Not that it should matter, in any case, but I think you get my point.
Cricket and baseball now unified, thanks to physics
The referring article by Zach Schonbrun is also worth a look, and has additional links for the truly nerdly.
Friday, August 03, 2012
If that's the most riveting photo you've got, I'd say giving the horserace coverage a break is in order
Caption in a piece about Romney failing to be exciting (who knew?) says it all:
Michael Joe Crandell sat down to eat a pecan roll at the Jaarsma Bakery in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
John Rocker wants you to buy this line drawing of a T-shirt for some reason
Yeah, that guy. In case you missed the tweet, John Rocker has joined the stable of esteemed columnists over at Birther Central.
If you really want to buy that line drawing, send an email to jrock@johnrocker.net, explaining how you're afraid to type your credit card number into his website because of Obama.
Thank you, Christian evangelists, for informing me about Asheville, NC! See you there next year!
Nevaeh Ot Yawriats
Apparently, there's this annual thing called the Bele Chere festival that's been going on since the 1970s AND! it "has become more perverse with each passing year."
What to do, if you're the sort of person who cannot bear the thought of other people having fun, much less in ways that make you all squirmy inside?
Well, obviously. Send in "Christians from at least nine states" to "witness" at them! And then just bask in all the sweet, sweet repentance.
Up to you whether you want to read the report from Wonkette or the Christian News Network. I recommend both.
(pic. source: screen grab from a TED talk by Michael Shermer, at 11:00)
You knew if it involved strippers and the GOP, Michael Steele had to be around somewhere
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Glad we got that cleared up
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 1, 2012
An earlier version misstated the term Mr. Vidal called William F. Buckley Jr. in a debate. It was crypto-Nazi, not crypto-fascist.
Wonder how many wingnuts wrote in to complain about that. (You do know that they're still hootin n hollerin about Buckley's response, I trust.)
A good obit for a good man.
[Added] Roy has a brief note, and promises more to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
