First Looks category archive

At Philly Weekly.

Earlier excavations there (Gesher Benot Ya’aqov archaeological site in Israel–ed.), carried out under the direction of Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar of the Institute of Archaeology, showed that the occupants of the site – who are identified as being part of the Acheulian culture that arose in Africa about 1.6 million years ago — had mastered fire-making ability as long as 790,000 years ago. This revelation pushed back previously accepted dates for man’s fire-making ability by a half-million years.

Archaeologists theorize that it was the ability to make fire that gave early humans the courage and means to migrate to less hospitable climes.

This was substantially before 4004 BC (or BCE if you are hung up on PC).

Afterthought: If God didn’t believe in science, he wouldn’t have given us carbon-14 dating.

The Republican Party was feeling down and out and depressed. It was disgusted at the debauchery around it.

Horrors! Gay folks wanting to leave the closet where they rightfully belong. Women wanting to be not-barefoot and not-pregnant-all-the-time. Teenagers learning about sex before the baby comes.

Men peeing sitting down!

It just wasn’t like it used to be back in the good ole 1950s 1940s 1890s Republican daydream of what life used to be like.

Against its predilections, the Party decided to take a chance on visiting a shrink.

This wasn’t one of your new, up-to-date cognitive therapists. This was an old line Freudian. Anything after 1950 was far too cutting edge for the Republican Party.

So the Republican Party settled down on the couch. The shrink, being an old-line Freudian, decided to start with the Rorschach test.

He held up an inkblot. “What does this remind you of?” he asked.

“Sex,” answered the Republican Party.

He held of another inkblot. “What does this remind you of?” he asked.

“Sex,” answered the Republican Party.

This went on until the entire library of inkblots was exhausted.

After a long pause, the shrink stroked his goatee (I said he was an old-line Freudian) and said, “I think you are obsessed with sex.”

“Me!” screamed the Republican Party, jumping off the couch.

Wait for It

The comments to this are just priceless.

In this week’s column.

Tonight and every Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p. m.

It’s safe to attend. I won’t be able to make it.

On the Media reports:

Overstretched and short on recruits, the U.S. military has been going to great lengths to find out everything they can about potential enlistees. The only problem is most of these prospective soldiers are under 18 and, in many cases, are disclosing personal information without their (or their parents) knowledge. Mother Jones columnist David Goodman explains how the U.S. military is working behind the scenes to enlist the youth of America.

A key to their strategy is using certain video games to collect data.

Follow the link to listen or listen below (MP3):

The transcript is scheduled to be added Monday.

Couldn’t find the morning paper after going to several places (the Wilmington paper just isn’t worth the effort of carrying it to the car).

The owner of Claymont News told me that “everyone is sold out,” because the Shrinky reduced the size of the delivery for the holiday. Did have a nice chat with another customer about how Brian Tierney has, to quote him, “. . . done the Inquirer no favors.”

I ended up getting a Washington Post instead of a New York Times because, well, what’s Sunday without Sunday comics and an agony column?

Mudslide, earthquake, drought, fire:

Via the Daily Dish.

Find out where you’ll be when the creeks rise.

Via Mithras.

Via Skippy.

Tracking your kids on line.

Via Susie.

Content removed in deference to a friend.

Parents have long suspected their teenagers aren’t thinking the same way they are. In the last decade, scientists studying the teen brain have discovered that they’re right.

The same kids who used to make their beds without a fight, follow the rules and delight their parents with their generally sunny personalities somehow morph into moody, unmotivated youth who seem to delight in frustrating their loved ones and testing the limits of every rule.

It’s all in their heads. Read the article to see why.

Normally, I wouldn’t pay attention to something like an internecine blog war between an anonymous-author-turned-reporter and a Constitutional-lawyer-turned-blogger, but comment number 26 is an absolute hoot.

Afterthought: Greenwald’s response here.

Addendum after Reading All the Comments:

The latest line is Greenwald by two touchdowns and a safety.

Addendum-dee-dum-dum:

It is rather curious how political reporters tend to characterize bloggers as anonymous, even when they are not and may, like Geenwald, never have been anonymous.

In New Brunswick, N. J.:

A city school teacher was sentenced Monday to 364 days in prison for giving school officials a fake doctor’s note to cover more than 30 absences from his job in 2007, authorities said.

And that’s only the first page of the book the judge threw.

The real ones.

Steve Benen asks a question:

I am curious about something, though. Terrorists first attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, early on in President Clinton’s first year in office. Six people were killed, hundreds more were injured. The Clinton administration caught those responsible, subjected them to the U.S. criminal justice system, and foreign terrorists did not strike again on U.S. soil during Clinton’s terms in office.

So, at any point in 2001, did the Bush White House turn to Bill Clinton and Al Gore and ask, “How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time?” I think we can probably guess the answer.

Where is Osama bin Laden again?

Via Atrios.