First Looks category archive

Rex W. Huppke writes the obit. A exerpt recounts the dying agony of Facts:

Though weakened, Facts managed to persevere through the last two decades, despite historic setbacks that included President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, the justification for PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and the debate over President Barack Obama’s American citizenship.

Facts was wounded repeatedly throughout the recent GOP primary campaign, near fatally when Michele Bachmann claimed a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease causes mental retardation. In December, Facts was briefly hospitalized after MSNBC’s erroneous report that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign was using an expression once used by the Ku Klux Klan.

But friends and relatives of Facts said Rep. West’s claim that dozens of Democratic politicians are communists was simply too much for the aging concept to overcome.

Spring cleaning.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.

When: Thursday, April 14, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

Off to drink liberally.

Drinking Liberally is a support group for liberals, where you can realize you are not alone.

When: 6 p., Tuesday, April 10.

Where:
Lola’s Caribbean Restaurant
328 W 20th St (map)

Details here. Meetup page here.

Act quickly or you’ll miss your chance:

Pennsylvania’s online auction of items confiscated at airports ends Monday morning.

(snip)

“We have sunglasses, corkscrews, the metal knives, Swiss army knives. Scissors, belts, hand tools. Just a lot of items,” he said. “Frying pans, kitchen items.”

Via PoliticalProf.

Back in Philly, an official of the Catholic Arch-Diocese of Philadelphia is on trial for covering up priestly abuse of children. The trial is happening because, unlike most of the other cases that have come out, this one was still within the Statute of Limitations.

Since I follow Philly news, having lived in that part of the world for three decades, I cannot escape news stories of this case. Here’s today’s Monica Yant Kinney column.

The more I read, the more I am convinced that, if this case did not involve a 2,000 year old religious institution with scads of dollars, a claim to be on a mission from God, and lots of fancy duds for its officials, this trial would have been superseded by a Federal RICO prosecution.

Things to do.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us.

When: Tuesday, March 27st, 6 p

Where:
Lubo Wine Tasting Room
1658 Pleasure House Road (Map)

More here.

Via Contradict Me.

Setting out window boxes on the deck.

They monger fear because fear is the enemy of thought.

Via Contradict Me.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out:

A new Israeli law is trying to fight the spread of eating disorders by banning underweight models from local advertising and requiring publications to disclose when they use altered images to make women and men appear thinner.

The punditocracy is fond of calling for compromise candidates in the wishful, but deluded, belief that today’s Republican Party is capable of compromise.

Perhaps this candidate can fill that bill.

I’ve added a new Old Time Radio Link to the sidebar, over there, on the right, about halfway down:

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Thanks to CBSRMT for bringing it to my attention.

Last night I tried installing a plugin that did not work and play well with others.

Attempts to undo the damage to my database were fruitless, so I have dropped back to the my last known-good backup.

I’ve lost a few days of drivel (I don’t kid myself that my daily ramblings are deathless).

When I feel like another visit to MySQL hell, I might try to restore them, but, for now, I’m going to go do a crossword puzzle.

Normal blogging will resume sometime or other.

I have nothing but compliments for the tech support rep at GoDaddy who assisted me. In addition to pointing me to the right process for restoring the database, he took extra time to look up the possible cause of the error that was keeping the site from working properly.

Update:

I just finished testing the corrupt database from last night. If it were any more messed up and useless, it could join a Republican primary.

If you wonder where the money goes . . . .

The Pentagon estimates that it will still cost about $1 trillion to operate a fleet of 2,443 F-35 fighter jets over the next 50 years, but is continuing to analyze how to drive that staggering sum down, a top U.S. Marine Corps official told Reuters.

More at the link.

Via Raw Story.

Scrapple News, good news edition: