First Looks category archive

More literature here.

and meet with the Philadelphia Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society tomorrow evening at Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut and Letitia, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p., Tuesday evening.

While waiting, from the “I Can’t Resist Dept.,” learn about Republicanism by listening to Hour One of Radio Times for July 23, 2009 about “Why Do Couples Have Affairs?” (MP3). (Sorry, it doesn’t cover diapers, toe-tapping, or Congressional pages.)

Travelin’ coming to an end.

Not.

Some persons don’t pass the “stupid” test for gun ownership.

In Las Vegas, a two-year-old girl was in a critical condition after being shot by her four-year-old brother at their home, police said.

In South Carolina, a four-year-old boy was shot in the stomach by his three-year-old brother after the little boy found a gun.

Guns are nasty, smelly, dangerous things that should be treated with respect. There is an irony in that many of those who seem to want them the most respect them the least.

I have often thought that, were it not for the Iranian hostage-taking, Jimmy Carter’s presidency would be remembered far more kindly than it is. And that event had little to do with him directly.

And, yes, I was working on North Capital Street four blocks from the Capital Building at the time and saw the parade when the hostages came home.

Indeed, I have read numerous articles looking back on that event; the Iranian students who participated in the hostage taking have consistently stated that they might have taken over either the Russian or the American embassy.

CC considers Jimmy Carter from his take across the St. Lawrence River:

Jimmy Carter was vilified for being weak because he chose not to speak in threats, because he asked questions first instead of shooting. For some reason mysterious to me, the insane traitor Ronald Reagan is still held in high regard, venerated as a wise and brave warrior leader while Carter is sneered at by the mugwumps and ambulatory excrement of the right. What is it called when one sells weapons to a sworn national enemy? Oh, that’s right… treason. And yet the legacy of Reagan somehow persists despite Iran/Contra and his ugly war crimes in Central America. Reagan was an addled and unprincipled mass murderer while Carter is a thoroughly decent man of peace.

In an act more courageous than anything conceived in the poisonous heart of a Reagan or a Bush, Carter has actually chosen to live by his principles and by his faith. He isn’t a church whore , bending his knee for appearances, power and votes. He remains a man of conscience and commitment. Last week, while Washington’s “Christians” were shedding crocodile tears over their latest round of infidelities, lies and graft and angling for the ways and means to continue their wretched grasping for power, Mr Carter left them in his wake. Jimmy Carter, a true American hero, walked away from the corruption of the message in the book he lives by. Jimmy Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention and in a stirring essay in Australia’s The Age took a stand for the rights and future of women in the face of persecution and dehumanization as wrought by the world’s major religions.

As I said earlier in these electrons, I didn’t leave the Southern Baptist Convention. It left me.

Travel day.

At Vanity Fair.

As the old song says, “Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’.

Over at Hacker Public Radio, JaneDoc, a practicing pediatrician, talks about electronic medical records.

It’s a fascinating listen, not so much because of the “electronic” part, but because of the “medical records” part. In the course of discussing the topic, she describes why doctors ask some of the questions they ask, what they record of their “patient encounters,” and why they record it.

You can follow this link or listen here (mp3–approximately 20 minutes long).

Click here.

Delta Air Lines Inc., based in Atlanta since 1941, is promoting itself as New York City’s “hometown carrier” with mojitos in Manhattan and sponsorships of the Yankees and Mets baseball teams.

Die and go to hell on Delta, you still have to change in Atlanta.

When he was a muggle.

This had to be one of the stranger songs of its era.

on Tuesday, at Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.

Live charitably all the time.

James Wolcott:

So it would appear that the real reason Sarah Palin junked the governorship of Alaska was so that she could Twitter unfettered. Unbound by the inhibitions inherent in holding elective office.

Addendum, Later That Same Day:

Mudflats has more. Click through the image:

Babe the Blue Ox had a certain amount of charm, even though she was a corporate symbol to advertise a lumber company.

The Blue Dogs, not so much. They are to preoccupied with getting their tickets punched by BCBS:

In related news, the new Puritan witchhunters. Wimmen’s bodies belong to them.

Text of the speech, below the fold.

Read more »

Here.

Via the Booman.

No more:

BankFirst, Sioux Falls, S. D.

First Piedmont Bank, Winder, Ga.

Temecula Valley Bank, Temecula, Calif.

Vineyard Bank, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

Ah, Cucamonga.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Mays:

Via Oliver Willis.

Via the Political Cat.

If their capacity for fantasy could be harnassed for electricity, our energy problems would be over.

Another example here.