First Looks category archive

Phillybits.

Chris Dodd for president.

. . . but it’s the tallest.

Just in time for the first winter storm of the season, even though it’s not winter yet.

(The silvery lights on the azaleas are those new LED lights.)

The entire piece is worth reading.

Two of the “rules,” though, stand out as explaining the Failure of Reportage in Our Time (emphasis added):

2. There are two sides to every story and a journalist must give both sides equal weight even if he or she knows one side is completely false. Weighing one side against the other violates a journalist’s objectivity. (See Rule No. 1.)

3. The only exception to Rules 1 and 2 is that during wartime journalists must be patriotic and not write anything that might undermine the government or the war effort or lower morale. Wearing a flag pin on one’s lapel is a good way to demonstrate you are adhering to this rule. Reporters should always remember that they are Americans first, journalists second and human beings third.

Chris Dodd for president.

Susie lays it out.

C-5 from Dover AFB starting to bank to the east (guess where?).

Watch the movie here.

I can’t. Not this week.

So I need you to stand in for me.

Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, one block north of South Street, Center City Philadelphia, tomorrow, starting at 6 p. m.

If you don’t want to spring for the digital edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and you don’t trust Wikipedia, you might try this.

Your favorite person might just be there.

Via Rubber Hose.

There has much hoopla in the news lately about Iraqi refugees returning to Iraq.

Generally, this phenomenom has been portrayed as some kind of indication that the situation in Iraq is somehow being s(pl)urged ™ into some kind of Bushie success.

Phillybits digs into the facts behind the headlines.

It was a Philadelphia thing.

Bill nailed it (see the comments here). And the term had more to do with the Army-Navy game than with shopping.

Listen to the entomology here.

Balloon Juice.

Dwindling.

Via Huffington Post.

The blankety-blank DOD sure doesn’t.

Oh, yeah, and Bushie incompetence is losing Afghanistan, too.

Everything the Current Federal Administration touches turns to shit.

Have a thoughtful Thanksgiving, whether you are in the USA, where it is a holiday, or somewhere else, where it may not be a holiday.

Think about what is good, what is okay, and what could be worse.

And be glad it isn’t worse.

Remember, the Pilgrims didn’t have anything to do with it.

Oh, yeah, and while I’m on the subject, the Pilgrims didn’t come here for religious freedom. They came here to start their own little theocracy.

They were the original Religious Right.

But they sure had a great PR firm.

Think about it.

Jon Swift on Thanskgiving.

Give it a read.

ASZ.

Dick Polman has more.

Frankly, I think Duncan is right. A normal person wouldn’t want the job. Maybe we should just try to vote for the least abnormal (but don’t go for the “folksy guy“–go for someone who can think):

But generally the sad thing is that literally everyone who really wants to be president right now is basically nuts. That’s true generally, and it’s extra true now.