June 27, 2010
— Maetenloch The Year Is 1985
Ronald Reagan is president, a gallon of gas is just $1.09, inflation is only 3.5%, Gorbachev is the new leader of the USSR, New Coke is unveiled, the top rated TV program is The Cosby Show, Madonna is still new, TWA Flight 847 and the Italian Cruise Liner "Achille Lauro" are hijacked, Windows 1.0. is released, Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's career base hit record, Super Mario Brothers appearst, and the first WrestleMania takes place in New York, and much much more.
So here are a few commercials blocks to transport you back to those days of yore:
Posted by: Maetenloch at
05:31 PM
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— Ace I wish him good health so he can retire for the fall.
Byrd, 92, was admitted to the hospital after "suffering from what was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as a result of the extreme temperatures," according to the statement. "However, upon further examination by his doctors, other conditions have developed which has resulted in his condition being described as 'serious.' "
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01:26 PM
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— Ace This is from Iran's semi-official news agency, so it's probably just propaganda, and even if it's "reportage," I doubt a cleric-run news agency gets a lot right.
But...
Israel Air Force aircraft dropped off large quantities of military gear at a Saudi Arabian military base a week ago, in preparation for a potential attack on Iran, a number of Iranian and Israeli news outlets have reported.The unconfirmed report, first published by the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars and the Islam Times Web site, claimed that on June 18 and 19, Israeli helicopters unloaded military equipment and built a base just over 8 km. outside the northwestern city of Tabuk, the closest Saudi city to Israel, located just south of Jordan. All civilian flights into and out of the city were said to have been canceled during the Israeli drop-off, and passengers were reportedly compensated by the Saudi authorities and accommodated in nearby hotels.
The claim follows a report two weeks ago in the London Times Magazine that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to fly through a narrow corridor of airspace in northern Saudi Arabia so as to shorten the flight time required for Israeli jets to reach Iran. The Times said that Saudi Arabia had adjusted its missile defense systems to ensure that Israeli jets are not shot down while passing through Saudi airspace on the way to an attack on IranÂ’s nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Italian PM Berlusconi says the G-8 firmly believes an Israeli strike is coming.
World leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday.“Iran is not guaranteeing a peaceful production of nuclear power [so] the members of the G-8 are worried and believe absolutely that Israel will probably react preemptively,” Berlusconi told reporters following talks with other Group of Eight leaders north of Toronto.
Our own CIA, which famously declared in 2007 that Iran had absolutely shelved its nuke program (in order to stop Bush from ginning up support for his own strike), now says oopsie, Iran has enough fuel for two atomic bombs and it will only take two years to assemble them.
CIA Director Leon Panetta says Iran probably has enough low-enriched uranium for two nuclear weapons, but that it likely would take two years to build the bombs.Panetta also says he is doubtful that recent U.N. penalties will put an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
He says the penalties could help to weaken Tehran's government by creating serious economic problems. But he adds, "Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not."
Panetta tells ABC's "This Week" that there is "some debate" as to whether Iran will proceed with the bomb.
"Some debate." On one side we have the don't-worry-be-happy Persons of Stupid that published the fraudulent 2007 NIE, on the other side we have the non-mentally-challenged.
And the Israeli ambassador to the US says that US-Israel relations have moved beyond "crisis" point, because a crisis implies an acute situation, whereas the current situation is permanent.
Relations between Israel and its staunchest ally, the US, have suffered a "tectonic rift", according to Israel's ambassador to Washington.Michael Oren briefed Israeli diplomats on the sharp deterioration between the countries ahead of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House early next month.
According to those present, Oren said the situation had moved beyond a crisis that eventually passes. "There is no crisis in Israel-US relations because in a crisis there are ups and downs," he told the diplomats in Jerusalem. "Relations are in the state of a tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart."
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01:11 PM
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— Ace The Green company sending the package apparently had its actual package -- a report -- swapped with car parts at some point in the mailing. And then...
When [Calzada] called to ask about it, he was told: “It’s our response to your study [on green jobs].”It didn’t look like, or feel like, a letter or report, so at that point Calzada got a security guard to scan it — and what was inside was a cylindrical object with wires attached. At that point, the security guard got an expert to examine it, with others in attendance. The contents were a container for diesel of some sort, and some other parts. The expert saw this as a bomb threat, based on a pattern used by, eg., ETA: “This one is a hoax bomb. The next one might not be.”
I guess that's understandable. Crying wolf always looks bad, though.
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01:02 PM
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— DrewM I love how Democrats seek to portray themselves as friends of the little guys (or "small people" as the Scandis say) yet they have no trouble to keep their mouths shuts when they don't stick to the script.
Occasionally the mask slips and you see what Democrats really think of the middle class...proles who should shut up and pay up, so they can "spread the wealth around" to the people they really care about.
A small business owner has the audacity to tell Sheriff Joe, he'd like to keep a little more of the money he earns and Biden let's him know what he thinks about that idea.
Just for fun, imagine a Republican officeholder, let alone a sitting VP, told a welfare recipient not to be a smart ass if they asked for me government money. Think that would be something we'd hear a lot about?
On the upside, at least Biden didn't call the guy unpatriotic for wanting to have less of his money confiscated by the government.
Still, someone should tell Joey that lower taxes are a BFD to a lot of people.
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09:18 AM
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— Monty I generally read much more non-fiction than fiction, and my particular tastes run to history, economics/finance, astrophyhsics and astronomy, and information technology and cognitive science. I read the occasional baseball book, like George Will's Men at Work. I even enjoy nature and earth-science writing when it isn't composed of barely-hidden Gaia-worship or Rousseauian "noble savage" crap. (Or, in Al Gore's case, nobel savage.)
More after the jump. more...
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04:58 AM
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June 26, 2010
— Maetenloch Hello, hello all M&Ms. Welcome to your regularly scheduled Cat
Okay I know that Ke$ha seems to drive a lot of people crazy even worse than lady GaGa does but I kinda like her songs. Her videos not so much. But you know what makes everything a little better - some original series Trek is what - so here you go. Who knew the Enterprise crew were such partiers.
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06:10 PM
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WHOA: "YouÂ’ve got a lot of golf courses here, donÂ’t you?"
— Gabriel Malor This dude is cracking:
Last night, the White House sent the press corps — which by agreement stays close to the president in order to report on any incident — back to Toronto, leaving the president 150 miles behind. In the wee hours of this morning, the crew of a dozen or so reporters and photographers in the press corps got back on a bus and returned to Muskoka for the day’s events.It is highly unusual for the president to shun his permanent media detail that way, particularly at a high-profile event in a remote location. One White House aide speculated that it was due to scarce accommodations in Muskoka — which is a resort area. But Mr. Obama, who’s been quite vocal in his disdain for the press at times, has blown off his press corps in the past. ... This is a far more significant offense than that one, and is likely to draw another complaint.
I'm not sure what a White House aide's speculation is worth, but I'm certain it's somewhat less than the crud on the bottom of my hiking boots. Here's why: it would be exceptionally easy to just tell the press corps up front that, because of some snafu, there just isn't enough accommodation for them. They'll piss and moan, but they'll get over it quick.
No, this was something else. The White House wanted some alone-time. Now, I don't know if that was the President's call or somebody else's, but there really is nothing the President should be up to at a G8 meeting or G20 conference that requires the press be sent away.
WHOA Update: President Kick Ass's first words upon arriving for the G8? "YouÂ’ve got a lot of golf courses here, donÂ’t you?"
When U.S. President Barack Obama stepped off his helicopter in Huntsville on Friday, the first thing he said was, “You’ve got a lot of golf courses here, don’t you?” Industry Minister Tony Clement told the National Post in an exclusive interview.
Not even trying to hide it.
Posted by: Gabriel Malor at
03:00 PM
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UPDATED
— Gabriel Malor Above-the-Post Update & Bump:
Dave tweets with respect to this post:
Hey, guys, I was referring to the Caller story. You could have learned this if you did, you know, reporting. http://minx.cc/?post=303031
Wow. And here so many people on the right have been saying what a nice guy he is.
First, everyone run over to the Washington Post right now and decide for yourselves whether it appears from the way Kurtz wrote it up that he thought Weigel was referring to emails to the Caller rather than emails to JournoList. I'll wait.
Now that we've got that settled, Dave, don't get snippy with me. Kurtz apparently misunderstood you and his column is written in such a way as to mislead the folks who read it. And, as I wrote earlier, all of the information was available to Kurtz at the Post's own website if he had any interest in getting the story right.
Now, I don't know if that falls under your definition of, you know, reporting, but I don't see why you should have to worry about the Post's brand. After all, you don't work there anymore.
Original Post:
Alright, I thought I was done with this issue yesterday evening, but a Howie Kurtz article on Dave Weigel's resignation caught my eye.
Weigel declined to comment except to say that none of the e-mails was sent after he joined The Post. Earlier, he told the Caller: "I've always been of the belief that you could have opinions and could report anyway. . . . People aren't usually asked to stand or fall on everything they've said in private."
The highlighted part above is absolutely, one-hundred percent not true. Either Kurtz misunderstood what Weigel told him or, well...you know. And to make matters worse, this Kurtz article is the one story on the Weigel meltdown to make it into the print edition.
Weigel started writing for the Washington Post in April. Just last week Weigel sent a funny, but cruel message to JournoList suggesting that it "would be a vastly better world to live in if Matt Drudge decided to handle his emotional problems more responsibly, and set himself on fire."
This was in response to an unflattering link Drudge sent to Weigel on June 14 after Weigel referred to North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge's assault as "a hug." (BTW, protip: do not complain about getting links from Drudge Report. What are you, an idiot? There's the firing offense, right there.)
So Kurtz either didn't get the straight dope from Weigel or he somehow misunderstood. Although, that's not really defensible either since all of this info is public knowledge and it's even available at the Post's own website. So Kurtz has now memorialized something untrue in the print edition.
...I'm sure that's not the first time something untrue made it in there.
How many failures along the way here? Well, definitely Kurtz and Kurtz's editor. Possibly Weigel if he lied to Kurtz. So much for "Multiple layers of painstaking editorial fact-checking", right?
Posted by: Gabriel Malor at
01:58 PM
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— Gabriel Malor Good morning, sports fans, after a shaky match against Algeria, it's the Round of 16. The U.S. team will take on Ghana at 2:30pm Eastern.
Ghana is supposedly the weakest team to make it past the group stage, so the U.S. team should have no trouble....Yeah, right. They said the same thing about the Algeria match, which had to be won in extra time after the U.S. team missed shot after shot. With a dozen missed goals and another blind referee, I'm sure this game will keep me on the edge of my seat.
Oh, and here's something to keep an eye for at the top of the game. The national anthems of the two teams play just before the start of the games and soccer fans have a tradition of belting out their nation's song. Didn't know how U.S. fans would handle it, as our national anthem doesn't exactly lend itself to full-throated drunken warbling. But the Americans at the World Cup have been absolutely screaming it at the top of their lungs. And it. is. AWESOME.
Update: From commenter Tami, this doesn't sound good. Err...I mean it sounds good for some, but not for others. (By which I mean: w00t, suckers.)
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09:09 AM
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