First Looks category archive

The Klan in camo.

Via Delaware Liberal, which wonders why these self-dubbed patriots hafeel they must disguise their voices.

Evil comes in plain wrappers gowned with hypocrisy, not on chariots heralded by thunder and lightning.

Follow up story here:

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Sign the petition here.

Via Atrios.

Cheers.

This, by the way, is my ringtone of choice, except for three special persons who get their own ringtones. (They are not all special for the same reasons.)

Steve has the skinny.

Aside: I could live on $3500.00 a month. And often have.

Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut within sight of Penn’s Landing if it weren’t for the Chinese Wall of I-95, 6 p.

Good food, good talk, good company.

Hold a stool for me. If the creeks don’t rise, I’ll be there.

Robotic war, the next sign of progress:

Autonomous armed robotic systems probably will be operating by 2020, according to John Pike, an expert on defense and intelligence matters and the director of the security Web site GlobalSecurity.org in Washington.

This prospect alarms experts, who fear that machines will be unable to distinguish between legitimate targets and civilians in a war zone.

“We are sleepwalking into a brave new world where robots decide who, where, and when to kill,” said Noel Sharkey, an expert on robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Sheffield, England.

The younger set thinks that Ginger Baker invented the drums:

Meghan McCain demonstrates a flair for the obvious:

“Simply embracing technology isn’t going to fix our problem,” she said. “Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn’t going to miraculously make people think we’re cool again. Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don’t divide our nation further will. That’s why some in our party are scared. They sense the world around them is changing and they are unable to take the risk to jump free of what’s keeping our party down.”

(Actually, follow the link and read the whole thing. It’s a good reflection on the virtues and vices of connectivity.)

You subscribe to the yawps of a bunch of people; they subscribe to your yawps; and you produce and consume yawps for the rest of your days. The me-me-me clamor brings to mind Emily Dickinson’s poem about the disgrace of fame, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”: “How public — like a Frog — / To tell one’s name — the livelong June — / To an admiring Bog!”

The hits just keep coming.

You can’t bank on it.

Not any more.

American Sterling Bank, Sugar Creek, MO

Must not have been sterling. Must have been plate.

Later: Another one bites the dust

Great Basin Bank of Nevada, Elko, NV

Masters of the Bleedin’ Universe. Free hand of the market my anatomy.

Brendan gets a phone call.

Buildings, however are quite another matter (warning, short commercial at beginning):