First Looks category archive

And it’s a corker.

Not mine. John Cole’s.

R. I. P. Bettie Page, 1923-2008.

Mithras has an appreciation.

(Warning: If you are so warped as to think there is something inherently smutty about naked women, don’t go there.

If you appreciate beauty, go there without qualm.)

Pay close attention to the part along about the middle about picking and choosing. That’s what tipped me over to the side posting this. Then I had to spend 15 minutes tinkering with the embed code to get it to fit my column:

H/T Alison for the link.

. . . for the Dukies.

Here.

It doesn’t get you much. A few discounts here and there but nothing big.

But you can carry the card with pride.

Kicked to the front page.

Via Phillybits.

Also at

Brendan Calling

Suburban Guerilla

Attytood

And numerous other places which you can see if you follow the link to Phillybits.

One of the topics I do not generally touch is US/Israeli policy. I am not some kind of guru; I’m just a guy who hear himself talk, whether or not anyone else is listening. (That’s one of the wonderful things about this medium–as long as you don’t look at the hitmeter, you can convince yourself someone is out there.)

I have strong opinions in that area but scant knowledge; my academic training and my interest is in US domestic history, in sociology, in learning theory, and in group dynamics, not in foreign policy (though domestic events and foreign policy are often inseparable)–and you know my knowledge must be really scant to keep me from shooting off my mouth.

But someone for whom I have the highest respect recommends this organization. That’s all I need to know to pass it along as worth a look.

John Cole:

Fortunately for everyone involved, Barack Obama is no George Bush.

Acorn.

Nobody can get it wrong all the time. Just most of the time.

Via Eschaton.

Dick Polman has a nice roundup of just deserts.

After running my errands.

Josh Marshall:

Everything I know about Fitzgerald tells me he’s exactly what you want in a US Attorney. The real thing.

. . . and, when proven innocent, still treated as guilty.

Bushie justice.

There is no more morality in the Current Federal Administration than there is in a brick.

Drink.

You have reasons.

Drink to forget.

Drink to forget that your 401K is now a dollar-three-eighty-K.

Drink to forget that job you don’t have any more, or the one you won’t get because it no longer exists, or the one your husband/wife/son/daughter/father/mother/friend just lost.

Drink to forget your employer, the company that is gone with the wind.

Drink to forget your house, the one you don’t have any more.

Drink to dedicate the refrigerator box that is your new home.

Drink to forget the lives lost, twisted, mangled, and wasted in the Glorious and Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.

Drink to forget torture, betrayal, concentration camps, duplicity, and doltishness.

Drink to celebrate.

Drink to celebrate January 20, 2009.

Drink to celebrate competence, steadiness, and thoughtfulness.

Drink to celebrate the elevation of idea over ideology, the general welfare over General Confusion (and his entire staff).

Drink to celebrate hope over hostility, selflessness over selfishness.

Drink to celebrate the blood, sacrifice, and ideals of the Founders.

Drink to celebrate the Constitution of the United States of America.

Drink to celebrate the people of the United States of America, who, with many false starts, much backing and filling, many errors, sidetrips, and distractions, somehow usually, over the generations, ultimately figure out the difference between right and wrong.

Drink Liberally, Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Tuesday, Chestnut between Letitia and 2nd, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.

(Updated to include the day of the week. D’oh!)

Light bloggery.

But I’m sure something will enrage me.

BOA backs down on mountaintop removal.

Justice? We shall see.

According to a recent report, the Department of Justice may use an anti-drug law intended to fight the 80’s crack epidemic to put the gunmen away for up to three decades, minimum.

While no drugs were involved in the killings, the government’s attorneys may attempt to apply a clause in the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act that requires a 30-year sentence for any violent crime committed with a machine gun.

Can’t top this list.

Just heard a newscaster refer to Mr. Obama as “the President,” rather than as “the President Elect.”