First Looks category archive

Our next number is dedicated to all the boys and girls who think that “happy holidays” is blasphemy.

. . . at Above the Law.

Michael Harriot reports on the incoming Santa Claus. A snippet:

Of course, there are some elves who refuse to accept the new Santa. But the “Stop the Sleigh” movement won’t change the outcome of the elves decision.

“The last guy was utterly incompetent,” an unnamed elf told The Root. “He wanted to build a wall around the North Pole and spent most of his time playing golf at his resort, Mar-a-Igloo. Of course, he claims that the election was stolen and is even trying to subvert the final decision of the Elf-toral College.”

It has been a year.

I have removed the link to Shaun Mullen’s obituary from the sidebar.

I was privileged to have had breakfast with him many years ago at a small cafe in Newark, Delaware.

He was a friend.

Josephine Tey’s Inspector Grant novels.

I first read these [mumble] years ago in high school. My high school library had two anthologies entitled Three by Tey and Four, Five, and Six by Tey (how they ended up in my high school library I will never know). In looking for something to distract me from current events and being a mystery buff, I remembered them and purchased the six Inspector Grant mysteries.

They are as good as I remembered them to be.

Rachel Maddow looks back on Robert Barr’s record as Attorney-General.

Via C&L.

I have removed the PVF Endorsements item from the sidebar, as the Electoral College has cast its ballots.

It will return for Virginia’s off-year election next fall.

E. J. Montini has mixed feelings.

The Trump cult among Arizona Republicans is a hearty group.

I mourn their gullibility but I admire their grit.

So it should come as no surprise that the GOP’s official Twitter account shared a post from an election conspiracy activist saying he’s willing to “give my life for this fight,” and asking, “He is. Are you?”

He goes on to wonder whether that willingness to sacrifice works the other way. Follow the link for his conclusion.

E. J. Montini reports on a Twitter brawl about the recent election that seems to be engulfing the Arizona Republican Party. A snippet; follow the link for the blow-by-blow.

. . . it’s more of a barroom brawl than a war, sort of like what happens in one of those old Western movies in which the free-for-all that starts inside the saloon spills out into the streets after one of the combatants throws a haymaker and knocks another guy arse over teakettle through the swinging doors.

Thus Twitter continues to elevate the level of dis coarse discourse.

Lee Seglem directs his comments to New Jersey Republicans, as he is writing at NJ.com, but it should be directed to all Republicans. A nugget: follow the link for the rest.

Many people, many “important” people, stood silently by throughout most of this degradation or actively defended it. They call themselves Republicans. Well, here’s a bulletin for them: The Republican Party no longer exists because you gave it away. You handed it to a cult of personality led by a criminal con artist and then let it be stripped bare of pretty much anything resembling socially redeeming value. What’s left? An ugly frame-work of a party dominated by lies, self-delusion, isolationism, racism, greed, corruption and plain old willful stupidity.

Methinks Atrios doth offer comestibles for cogitation.

PoliticalProf.

I’ve removed Indomitable from the sidebar as the site has not been updated in some time.

However, the author’s podcast is alive and well. I commend it to your podcatcher.

This episode of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater is an absolute hoot.