First Looks category archive
Drinking Liberally 1
I made it to the Philly Drinking Liberally for the first time in a couple of months. Some of my friends were there; some were out of town. It was good seeing those who were there and, oddly enough, good missing those who were out of town. Even though some were missing, the fellowship was not.
Now to investigate Liberallies in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Barrel. Bottom. 2
One knows that the Newsweek issue about Sarah Palin must be really bad when even diehard carpet chewing liberals are complaining that it’s disrespectful and sexist.
Afterthought: I gave up on Time and Newsweek a long time ago and U. S. News and World Report even a longer time ago. All they are good for is passing time in the dentist’s waiting room.
Well. Not even that. I have internet on my cellphone.
Growing Self-Awareness, Horse’s Mouth Dept. 0
From a “Recovering Republican”:
(snip)
Strangest of all, I developed a finger-wagging puritan bent, which made absolutely no sense for a 20-year-old guy who was getting laid and intoxicated on a steady basis. I blamed “the anti-family Left” for encouraging couples to divorce and youngsters to fornicate, as if liberals were all conspiring together to destroy the traditional family, as if liberal states do not have lower rates of divorce and teen pregnancy than their conservative counterparts. My hypocrisy is mystifying in retrospect — why would I bash sexual liberation while having sloppy drunken unmarried sex whenever possible? — but perhaps conservative politicians such as John Ensign, Mark Sanford, David Vitter, Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich can explain.
“Dick Cheney with Lipstick” 0
A golden oldie from Eileen Davis.
Wonderful 0
Amber waves of grain.
While Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said programs such as food stamps softened the impact of an economic recession, anti-hunger groups pointed to the huge increase from the preceding year when 36.2 million people had trouble getting enough food and a third of them occasionally went hungry.
Watching Ova Ya 0
And then pouncing:
(snip)
But here’s the thing: Cohen, for all his youthful foibles, was a savvy enough consumer that he had already taken the very step the Fed says all bank customers deserve. After an earlier taste of penalty fees, Cohen had opted out of Wachovia Bank’s system of routinely covering overdrafts at $35 a pop.
There are some complications to the story which I won’t go into to, including a transfer into his account that wasn’t credited until the next day; considering the timing of the transfer, I think the timing of the credit was quite reasonable.
But here’s the kicker:
(Benjamin’s father–ed.) Alan Cohen says he spent at least an hour on the phone with Wachovia representatives, trying to understand the system and express his dismay at the charges.
“They’re barely able, if at all, to explain what happened,” Alan Cohen says.
Full disclosure: I bank at the same bank covered in the story and have received only satisfactory service ever since they gobbled up my preceding bank as long as I have been associated with them.
I almost never use my debit card for anything other than ATM withdrawals and deposits. When I see persons using a debit card to buy an $.89 cup of coffee and a $.50 newspaper, I wonder, “How the hell do they ever keep their checkbooks straight?”
I guess the answer is, “They can’t.”
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.