First Looks category archive

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

In the La-La Land of the lotus-eaters:

The grasshoppers that are covering the foothills and pastures from the Merced-Mariposa county line up toward the mountains live up to their name — the devastating grasshopper, or melanoplus devastator.

• What: Virginia Beach Democratic Committee Third Thursday Dinner
• When: July 21st, 6:00 PM
• Where: Kelly’s Hilltop Tavern, 1936 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (map), in the nonsmoking section.

Show up, order off the menu (separate checks), socialize, and talk politics–or whatever else interests you.

See the website for more information.

Sharpton counters each talking point most skillfully.

Excerpt:

What would be so intolerable to the seniors that you say are in the tea party, to those who have Medicaid and Medicare in the tea party, to say ‘we’ve got to put on the table talking about tax cuts for corporate jets . . . ‘?

Via C&L.

Off to drink liberally.

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

When: 6 p., Wednesday, July 13.

Where:
Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub
241 Granby Street
Norfolk, Va. (map)

Moved to The Boot, 123 West 21st Street, Norfolk.

Details here.

More about Drinking Liberally.

Watch this. Wait for the surprise ending.

Via Hanlon.

From El Reg:

Although US Transportation Security Administration screeners are encouraged to caress others’ trousers, one blue-shirted crotch watchmen used his own as a temporary cache for an iPad he’d bagged from a traveller’s bag.

TSA employee Nelson Santiago was spotted by a Continental Airlines employee as he was stuffing said Cupertinian foundleslab into his pants when inspecting luggage at a Florida airport.

This guy had stolen over 50 grand worth of stuff in six months, selling it over unspecified internet sales sites.

Also, fondleslab.

Wow.

According to the story, this has lain undisturbed for years and years:

A US$22 billion treasure trove in a south Indian temple, the world’s single-largest treasure find, has sparked an intensifying debate across India about who owns this ancient wealth of the gods: priests or the people?

Much fascinating detail and history at the link.

It’s being kept under guard.

Heh.

“Twitter? Who cares?” scoffed CNN reporter Jeffrey Toobin, a former prosecutor who often joined the network’s panel discussions of the Anthony case. “It’s like people talking on street corners. The idea that because a few people are upset on Twitter that we as a society should do something differently, I think it’s insane.”

The resident curmudgeon at my local rag felt it necessary to sound off on the Casey Anthony case in this morning’s fishwrapper.

In the last paragraph of her column, she quotes a local lawyer as saying:

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful to my jury, but the problem I have is that juries seem to think too much,” Reed said. “They require the commonwealth to eliminate all possible doubt … Jurors expect DNA and a smoking gun.

“But you go outside and the grass is wet. That’s pretty good circumstantial evidence that it rained.”

Unless it were the dew or the underground sprinkler system.

And that is “reasonable doubt.”

Seen in the back allies of the internet:

Man: Hello, I’d like to report a mugging.

Officer: A mugging, eh? Where did it take place?

Man: I was walking by 21st and Dundritch Street and a man pulled out a gun and said, “Give me all your money.”

Officer: And did you?

Man: Yes, I co-operated.

Officer: So you willingly gave the man your money without fighting back, calling for help or trying to escape?

Man: Well, yes, but I was terrified. I thought he was going to kill me!

Officer: Mmm. But you did co-operate with him. And I’ve been informed that you’re quite a philanthropist, too.

Man: I give to charity, yes.

Officer: So you like to give money away. You make a habit of giving money away.

Man: What does that have to do with this situation?

Officer: You knowingly walked down Dundritch Street in your suit when everyone knows you like to give away money, and then you didn’t fight back. It sounds like you gave money to someone, but now you’re having after-donation regret. Tell me, do you really want to ruin his life because of your mistake?

Man: This is ridiculous!

Officer: This is what women face every single day when they try to report a rape.

Karen and I have been carrying on a desultory email exchange regarding the Casey Anthony case, a media circus which I have avoided most diligently.

I have no comment on the verdict.

This video puts the news coverage of it in some perspective.

Thanks to Bob Cesca for the video.

I might even go see that one for the sheer absurdity of it all.

Then, again, it might not be so absurd. Thoreau points out in discussing something else

. . . to those who assume that alien technological superiority would ensure an easy victory, the technology gap between a high-tech drone and an Afghan villager who’s never made a telephone call is quite substantial. Despite that, the Afghan villagers are currently pwning the most technologically sophisticated force on the planet.

Aside: I seriously have to learn to count. I look forward to these things so much I skipped a week.

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

When: 6 p., Wednesday, July 7.

Where:
Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub
241 Granby Street
Norfolk, Va. (map)

More about Drinking Liberally.

Street parking is tight at the tail end of rush hour, but the Freemason Street Parking Garage is two blocks away.

I understand why persons want to ride without helmets.

It’s fun.

It’s also not very bright. When I had a bike, I wore my helmet.

A motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws went over his handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was killed, police said Sunday.

The motorcyclist, 55-year-old Philip A. Contos, likely would have survived the accident if he’d been wearing a helmet, state troopers said.

If you have never read it all the way through, doing so would be a good way to celebrate Independence Day and takes less time than an episode of Jersey Shore and is a damned sight more coherent.

After you read it, open your blue books and answer this discussion question:

To what extent does what you have just read resemble the representation made of it by the current Republican Party? Support your conclusions with examples.

Portions in italics were altered by subsequent amendment.

Source: The National Archives.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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