First Looks category archive

Well, that was quick.

“Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”

With apologies to John Donne.

Via TPM.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Brendan makes a phone call.

Friday evening is when the FDIC eats banks.

of this life:

And, for a sense of perspective, the other side of that life.

Yesterday’s Radio Times included a discussion on social networking websites and on Facebook in particular. From the website:

The popular social networking site Facebook celebrated it’s fifth anniversary earlier this month. We talk about how online sites like Facebook and MySpace have evolved over the years and now is attracting an older generation of users. Our guests are Time Magazine Nerd World columnist LEV GROSSMAN and MARY MADDEN of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Follow the link above to visit the website and search for February 25, 2009, or listen here (MP3).

(I really have to write them a letter about how lame it is that you can’t link the particular episodes at the site.)

Must be Obama’s fault:

Signaling persistent labor market weakness, first-time applications for state unemployment benefits for the week ending Feb. 21 rose 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 667,000. The level of initial claims is the highest since October 1982 and up 86% from the same period in the prior year.

As is his custom, Mr. Swift cuts to the quick. Two nuggets:

But what really inspired me was the story he told about how people in leaky little boats tried to save the citizens of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina even though government bureaucrats tried to stop them. If the government had stayed out of New Orleans entirely and encouraged more people to use their boats or to make their own boats out of things around the house, more people would probably be alive today. And instead of waiting for inefficient government workers to fix the levies, ordinary New Orleans citizens could have patched them up using bubble gum and duct tape and good old American know-how.

(snip)

And instead of having bureaucrats build roads and bridges why not let people build their own roads and bridges? With all of the companies laying off people and outsourcing jobs to Gov. Jindal’s native country, there are plenty of people with time on their hands looking for something to do during the day. It would give people a sense of accomplishment and distract them from worrying about how they will pay the mortgage or pay for health care for their children.

Follow the link for the rest.

Evil has been done in the name of the people of the United States of America.

Influential Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy has proposed that an independent “truth commission” be established to investigate alleged abuses of power under the Bush administration. President Barack Obama has reacted cautiously to the suggestion, saying he is more interested in looking forward than backwards.

(lots of snippage)

But a USA Today/Gallup poll this month found that 62 percent of Americans support either a criminal investigation or an independent panel to look into allegations of torture and other abuses of power during the Bush administration.

As I have said before, I do not favor prosecutions. But I do favor the truth.

If you sweep evil under the rug, it just lies there waiting to bite you in the behind.

‘Tis better to expose it to the plain light of day.

More here.

Via PDA, who, methinks may have jumped the gun.

When I went to DL last night, I actually found a parking space on Chestnut almost right in front of the bar venue.

With 45 minutes left on the meter.

Metered parking in that area on Chestnut is eight minutes per quarter (still cheaper than the lots).

As one of my DL friends remarked, the previous parker must have been a tourist.

As anyone who watched Parking Wars knows, Philadelphians don’t do meters. Or park legally. (And you thought the show was about the exceptions, didn’t you?)

Mother of all coincidences. This came in from FactCheck dot org even as I typed the previous post (q. v.). As always, follow the link for detailed analysis:

Do some of the Republican claims you’ve heard about the stimulus bill sound too awful to be true? We find a few that are wildly exaggerated or downright false.

• It’s not true that the bill contains spending for “golf carts.” It has $300 million to buy fuel-efficient vehicles, some of which may be electric cart-like utility vehicles like those already in use on military bases and at other government facilities.
• Money claimed to be for “remodeled federal offices” is mostly designated for upgrading buildings to “green” status through such things as thicker insulation and highly efficient lighting, not new drapes or paneling.
• A widely repeated claim that $8 billion is set aside for a “levitating train” to Disneyland is untrue. That total is for unspecified high-speed rail projects, and some of it may or may not end up going to a proposed 300-mph “maglev” train connecting Anaheim, Calif., with Las Vegas.
• There’s no money in the bill specified for butterfly parks, Frisbee golf courses or water slides, despite a GOP congressman’s claim that the bill “will fund” those projects. He culled those silly-sounding items from a list of 18,750 city projects that the U.S. Conference of Mayors cobbled together as examples of “shovel-ready” projects.

Don’t look to us to defend any particular item in the bill, or to criticize it. We will, however, call out politicians for delivering trumped-up descriptions of the bill’s contents.

Later, folks.

Possible Secretary of Commerce nominee, according to the Left Shue.

Tuesday; Triumph Brewing Company; a hop, skip, and jump from Front on Chestnut; 6 p.

Come George your Soros.

All joking aside, this commercial is just obnoxious.

The premise is obnoxious, the pseudo-marine is obnoxious, the script is obnoxious, the concept is obnoxious.

Fisherman’s Friend, the best cough drop.

Full Disclosure: Fisherman’s Friend has no knowledge of nor interest in this blog post. All they do is make cough drops that work.

I agree with this post with a footnote.

Footnote: I have never been interested in the Academy Awards. Or the Emmies. Or the Golden Globes. Or any of the other entertainment industry self-abuse. I have no desire to sit in front of the teevee and watch the entertainment industry stimulate hair-growth on its palms.

The one that’s linked.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

From TPM: