First Looks category archive
An Rx for Compromise 0
Great Fires of Balls 0
From Bloomberg:
All this means to me is potentially more stupid commercials with persons sitting in bathtubs located where bathtubs aren’t.
At least the bathtubs are slightly less offensive than the inane Viva Viagra song, the sheetmusic for which should spontaneousy self-distruct like a Mission: Impossible tape.
Aside: Wonder whether they ever get out of the damned tubs and get on with it already?
Jangled Bells 0
Unsainted Nick:
(snip)
[Name redacted], a former foster parent and Santa Claus who advertised himself for home visits, operated Studio H Photography, specializing in children’s photography.
There is no indication that he did anything other than collect pictures.
This Place Threw a Great Breakfast 0
And since the original owner retired and sold out, it had a greater variety on the menu. One doesn’t expect to find excellent stuffed grape leaves at a small diner in the middle of not much of anywhere. But they had them.
I saw the fire trucks when I drove by yesterday on the way back from Virginia Beach. I ended up lucky enough to get a seat here for breakfast. I say “lucky” because there is usually a line.
Fortunately, the owners plan to rebuild.
Return of Beyond the Palin 0
NCIS agent to gun-totin’ babe: “Who do you think you are, Sarah Palin?”
When Sarah Palin becomes joke on NCIS, it’s pretty clear . . .
. . . she’s done.
In Transit, Reprise 0
Address changes are in the works.
He Can’t Do It Alone 0
It is not uncommon to see my fellow lefties bitching that Obama hasn’t lived up to expectations.
Dan Froomkin where have they been?
But on some key issues such as jobs, the bank bailout, the war in Afghanistan and a whole slew of executive-power related issues, Obama has fallen way short of expectations. He surrounded himself with too many people who represent politics-as-usual, and he has buckled under to pressure from the national security establishment that Bush put on steroids.
But Obama’s supporters aren’t giving him even rudimentary political cover.
Almost forgotten these days is the fact that in Obama’s first address to Congress. In February, the new president served up a pretty darn bold agenda, backed up by a respectably progressive budget proposal. So what was the reaction? Obama looked over his shoulder and saw — no one.
Politics is the art of the possible. More is possible when persons stop bitching and start acting, or even keep bitching and start acting.
Phone calls are all well and good, but I used to work in Washington and knew lots of folks who worked on the Hill.
Someone who takes the time to write a real letter, in his or her own words, gets more of a listen than someone who calls or someone who signs a form letter, whether it be printed or electronic.
Effort counts.
“It’s All Connections” 0
Stewart does Beck.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The 11/3 Project | ||||
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All Hallows’ Eve 0
The steeples are white in the wild moonlight,
And the trees have a silver glare;
Past the chimneys high see the vampires fly,
And the harpies of upper air,
That flutter and laugh and stare.
For the village dead to the moon outspread
Never shone in the sunset’s gleam,
But grew out of the deep that the dead years keep
Where the rivers of madness stream
Down the gulfs to a pit of dream.
A chill wind blows through the rows of sheaves
In the meadows that shimmer pale,
And comes to twine where the headstones shine
And the ghouls of the churchyard wail
For harvests that fly and fail.
Not a breath of the strange grey gods of change
That tore from the past its own
Can quicken this hour, when a spectral power
Spreads sleep o’er the cosmic throne,
And looses the vast unknown.
So here again stretch the vale and plain
That moons long-forgotten saw,
And the dead leap gay in the pallid ray,
Sprung out of the tomb’s black maw
To shake all the world with awe.
And all that the morn shall greet forlorn,
The ugliness and the pest
Of rows where thick rise the stones and brick,
Shall some day be with the rest,
And brood with the shades unblest.
Then wild in the dark let the lemurs bark,
And the leprous spires ascend;
For new and old alike in the fold
Of horror and death are penned,
For the hounds of Time to rend.
Via Dragonbytes.
“This Way In” (Updated) 0
More here.
(Click for a larger image.)
Addendum:
I was on the road all day and behind in my reading.
This post and its comments fit with the cartoon above.
Faith is not about jots and tittles in books, nor about men’s and women’s judging and condemning other men and women, though many seem to build their faith on the condemning of others.
It is not about living narrowly, emptily seeking justification in contrasting one’s own virtue with the unspeakable failure of the [insert condemned group here].
It is about oneself, not about others.
It is about living charitably and justly.
To the extent that one’s faith is contingent on the disparagement of others, one has not faith.
Whirlybirds (Updated) (Updated Again) 0
There about three helicopters buzzing around over the Delaware River this morning. The last time I woke up to this, some fool had driven off the interstate onto the Amtrak railroad line, ruining a lot of commutes.
Updates when the sun comes up.
Addendum:
This may be it.
Why they need three choppers to look at a collision I don’t know.
Addendum-de-dum-dum:
My brother sent me a text saying there is a missing boater on the river.
Addendum-de-la-la:
It was probably the boater. The boat was found just down the hill about a mile upriver from me.
“Too Privileged To Prosecute” 0
Holy ten to twenty, Batman, we can’t hold them accountable because they are “too privileged to prosecute“!
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
I Missed the Game . . . 0
. . . But I like the results:
. . . the Phils defeated the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 105th World Series, 6-1.
Aside: I have a friend in the western, that is, the Yankee side of Connecticut. She text messaged that she’s wearing red to the office today to irritate the Yankees fans.
I’m not a big one for rubbing it in, but, since Yankees fans are at least as irritating as (and much more smug than) Phillies fans, I said, “Go for it.”
Sermon in the Valley? 2
“We could find ourselves in a situation where we’re accused of inciting someone,” Jackson said of pastors who oppose homosexuality. “I am categorically opposed to the hate crimes bill.”
Just what type of sermons does he preach that he thinks will incite listeners to violence? Don’t sound like a rather well-know sermon that was given on a mount.
Inquisitorial minds want to know.
Light Bloggery 0
Heavy housecleaning.