First Looks category archive

The CIA? Make stuff up? Oh, the horrors.

I’ve been following it, but Brendan lays it out very well.

It smells real bad.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has sold out to the forces of darkness.

Seriously creepy. Almost, indeed, blasphemous.

Via Balloon Juice. Follow the Balloon Juice link for commentary.

Over at Jack’s Place.

Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., Tuesdays, 6 p. For drivers, there’s plenty of parking on Front.

Whether or not I make it depends on how bad my dentist beats me up Tuesday morning.

The Wilmington News-Journal analyzes the spray paint on the wall:

The most prolific taggers are mostly teenagers who think of themselves as artists, police said. They don’t think of their work as vandalism, don’t fear police and are motivated by a desire to earn respect by painting as much visible graffiti as possible.

“They all come from artistic backgrounds and a lot of these kids are very gifted, they’re just using it the wrong way,” said Officer Phil Young, who investigates taggers for the Elsmere police.

Though taggers come from all racial and economic backgrounds, the majority in Delaware are white middle- to upper-class youths ranging in age from 13 to 22, police said.

“It’s a whole culture that people don’t know about,” said New Castle County police Officer LaVincent Harris. “It’s their life. … If you can’t read it, so what? They want respect and notoriety.”

Wonder how the dollar amount of the damage compares to the time-honored practice of stealing stop signs?

Regarding the naming of the carriers Bush and Ford:

People are not going to know the Bush’s namesake was a brave Navy pilot who served admirably in World War II; they are going to think it was named after ‘Dubya,’ a draft-dodging, Cheney yes-man. Ford’s claim to fame was giving President Nixon a full pardon. Why does he (sic) deserve to have a carrier named after him?

I would not want to be the navigator of the Carrier Bush. I wouldn’t be able to believe anything the instruments told me.

You know him as Phillybits and know his photography from Scene In Philly.

His computer’s power supply is kaput and his economy is like everyone else’s.

If you can, please help him out.

Details here.

This reminds of the Forensic Files episode about the mold-infested house.

These days, the Dunaways spend as little time as possible in the house.

Two months ago, Jason discovered the walls were built with dozens of sheets of Chinese-made drywall, which has been the focus of complaints in several states by people who say it emits a corrosive gas that damages household electrical systems and causes respiratory problems.

Now, electric fans hum throughout the house in an effort to dissipate the unpleasant odor. Sheets of plastic cover large scars cut out of a half-painted living room wall. And the Dunaways debate moving their children to West Virginia to get them out of the home.

And, in related news in the same part of the world,

Five Hampton Roads home-owners filed a lawsuit Friday against a local developer, a distributor and a Chinese manufacturer of defective drywall, seeking damages in excess of $5 million and class-action status.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit, filed in Norfolk’s U.S. District Court, is that the companies were negligent for selling the drywall and not warning homeowners and customers that it was defective.

Such wallboard has been the focus of complaints in several states by people who say it emits a corrosive gas that damages household electrical systems and causes respiratory illness.

“The heart of the complaint was that these companies installed drywall into homes that was unfit for the purpose and in fact has now caused these homeowners to have houses they can’t live in,” said Richard Serpe, the plaintiffs’ Norfolk attorney.

Somehow, this doesn’t pass the smell test.

Boeing Co., the second-largest U.S. defense contractor, is leasing drones to government agencies and militaries seeking to bypass years-long purchasing processes, a market the company says may grow to $10 billion in a decade.

What makes procurement “years-long” (if, indeed, it is so) are redundant and cumbersome procedures enacted to protect the purchaser from vendors who try to game the system.

Not that Boeing would ever do something like that.

Oh. Wait.

An interesting article on Enlightenment (as in Voltaire) values, creeds, and violence in this morning’s Guardian. A nugget:

The real problem is not religion, but a propensity of human nature: we tend to be very attached to the belief systems and worldviews that provide us with meaning, and we are willing to go to great lengths in order to defend them. This human tendency can become lethal by virtue of a simple fact of logic: the very existence of competing worldviews constitutes a threat for any belief system that claims unique validity.

Not just a novel by John Dos Passos.

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

I’ll think about y’all while I’m in Virginia.

New grandson born last night 8:39 p. m. PDT.

The music starts 35 seconds in.

Since the Republican Party was kind enough to send me a business reply envelope, I figured I’d put it to good use by sending them a subscription form for the Nation.

Maybe they’ll get a clue. Forget that.

There was a Republican from Nantucket,
and ev’rything he touched he’d–never mind.

Read something from someone who knows writing:

Republican planning is plain.
They want to rebrand, they explain.
So on Sunday’s TV
New faces we’ll see:
Folks like Cheney and Newt and McCain.