Open Thread / Vent
— LauraW.

What's up kids?

Me, I just read today's Ann Coulter and am regretting it.
I used to read her habitually, but she's so ugly now that I am loathe to go there anymore. Her latest is as bad as anything she's ever written.

Enjoy her latest. NOT.

I wonder if she came up with the title herself.

UPDATE: If I'm a shrinking violet, I'm in Godly Company.

UPDATE II: Did a search of this site with the keyword 'coulter.'

Holy crap. I knew there were at least two previous Coulter posts, but had no idea this had been rehashed so many times before.

To recap and refresh: I apologize for the glib-snark tone of this post, which has inflamed some (rho). I should have mentioned that I had long admired Ann Coulter, but at some point she just seemed to chase controversy for its own sake, and that's when she lost me. I miss the old Coulter zing, and it doesn't look like her better craft will come back any time soon.

And it also looks like I have no leg to stand on when it comes to ham-handed bashing that comes off as assholishness.

rho, if you're done with my ass, I'd like to have it back please. My head's getting cold.

Posted by: LauraW. at 11:04 AM | Comments (300)
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National Guardsman Attacked [posted by Harrison]
— Ace

The soldier was walking to a convenience store when a sport utility vehicle pulled up alongside him and the driver asked if he was in the military and if he had been in any action.

The driver then got out of the vehicle, displayed a gun and shouted insults at the victim. Four other suspects exited the vehicle and knocked the soldier down, punching and kicking him.

But don't you DARE question their patriotism.

From KIRO-TV via Drudge.

Posted by: Ace at 10:28 AM | Comments (32)
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Shot Across the Bow
— Slublog

Interesting.

The University of Illinois is in many ways a classic state university system. Urbana-Champaign is a flagship, with a history of Nobel laureates and competitive admissions. The Chicago campus has been very much on the rise in the last 10 years, expanding research and graduate programs and attracting academic stars. Springfield has more of an undergraduate and liberal arts focus.

All three campuses have some distance education programs, but the university system is now getting ready to launch a whole new campus, creating an online division that could eventually rival the individual campuses in enrollment levels, operating in a very different environment. The University of Illinois Global Campus would be operated as a separate for-profit entity, have almost entirely part-time faculty members (and none with tenure), and focus on a relatively small number of degree programs.

Obviously, this plan is extremely unpopular with faculty, because tenure is the one thing faculty will fight to the death to protect, as shown by this quote in the article from an unidentified faculty member:

“Tenure is a very critical concern because it is a hallmark of the academic freedom that is needed for intellectual inquiry,” said the professor. “If people are all part-time and non-tenure track, is that a university? Is that a faculty? It’s certainly the University of Phoenix, but it’s not traditionally what has been the University of Illinois.”

If academic freedom is so important, then I think faculty across the country should be more critical of those in their ranks who abuse it. As we've seen in the cases of Ward Churchill and Kevin Barrett, some faculty consider academic freedom a license to delve into any crackpot theory or personal tirade in the classroom. With the cost of higher education going up, people are going to be much less patient with professors who waste classroom time on political issues unrelated to their academic discipline.

Keep an eye on this one - it's going to get ugly.

Posted by: Slublog at 07:14 AM | Comments (38)
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Path to 9/11 [Retired Geezer]
— Ace

I haven't had time to come up with an intelligent post on my own; no horse stories or pictures of the grandkids, no attempts at teh humor or shameless blog pimping.
I'll just link Patterico's excellent review of ABC's upcoming movie:

For those who have been asking for a clear historical account of the build up to the 9/11 disaster, free of political spin, politically correct whitewashing and partisan wrangling - I can say wholeheartedly that this is the film that you have been waiting for.

“The Path To 9/11″ is astonishing.
It is an amazing achievement on many levels. It is flat out one of the best made-for-televison movies seen in decades. The only thing that would keep this movie from theatrical distribution is its nearly 5-hour running time (split over two days in this instance). Forget CNN’s “replay” broadcast from 9/11 - Trust me and mark your callendars to watch ABC these nights.

The Clinton administration will likely go ballistic over this film. (Perhaps why ABC isn’t pushing it at as much as they should be??) It does not have a ”partisan” feel to it by any means. The Bush administation comes in for some criticism (Condi Rice in particular comes off rather poorly), but that is nothing comapred to the depiction of Sandy Berger and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. I doubt that they will be able to show their faces in public after this (and also helps to explain why Berger was so earger to try and illegally remove classified documents from the archives before his Senate testimony on the 9/11 events). If Bill Clinton’s current purpose in life is solidify a positive ”legacy” for his time in office, this film has the potential to be his biggest hurdle to overcome yet...

The Path to 9/11 ~ Patterico's Review

CORRECTION: It was Justin Levine, not Patterico.

Posted by: Ace at 05:45 AM | Comments (93)
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Keep On Dancing -- Michael
— Ace

In a comment thread below, Amish is bitching about the fact that I have not posted any AC/DC.

I'm thinking about this.

Ace does not really want his site to be trashed up with a lot of music videos. Despite all of his funny shit, Ace wants to be taken seriously as a credible political commenter with a relevant point of view.

On the other hand, Amish is a regular commenter at Innocent Bystanders.

It's after 3 a.m. and Ace is not here. That dumbshit gave me the password to his blog.

LET'S KEEP DANCING!!!

Posted by: Ace at 11:31 PM | Comments (12)
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Rammstein -- Sobek
— Ace

Now that Michael has managed to take the wussiness factor of this site to new levels, it's time to butch up a bit. This video has the three basic pillars of masculinity: German, heavy-metal guitars, and a smack-fiend dominatrix as Snow White. What's not to love?

Posted by: Ace at 11:25 PM | Comments (15)
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Dance Party!!! --- Michael
— Ace

Ace is gone. It's after 2 a.m.

Let's just burn up his bandwidth and DANCE!!!

P.S. Ace, please note that I tried to post some serious shit, in order to maintain the gravitas of your site while you were gone. Not just baby poop, mind you, but obscure census data about college graduates. But it's late and I've been drinking.

P.P.S. Plus, your blog was named "Michael of Spades" only for about 8 minutes, so I think I should get some points for self-restraint. I don't think anybody noticed except Bart and Hayeus, and I've banned both of them.

Posted by: Ace at 10:11 PM | Comments (9)
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More Music - AnalogKid
— Ace

Speaking of female vocalists ... Just kidding.

Posted by: Ace at 09:31 PM | Comments (9)
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Chuck E's In Love -- Michael
— Ace

Actually, I can do better if we're going to listen to the female vocalists of yesteryear.

Posted by: Ace at 09:14 PM | Comments (4)
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Poverty Train -- Michael
— Ace

Hey, it's late. Time for some music.

Laura's post on welfare reform, and my post on the diminished circumstances of college graduates, reminded me of an old Laura Nyro song.

Posted by: Ace at 09:09 PM | Comments (4)
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