drat fink

the weight im in

"Hence, the weight in the Senate is about to shift, to those Senators who can provide a wide bandwidth message that their partisans will not merely repeat, but amplify by finding new arguments in its favor. The internet is finally the place where main street America comes - indeed, it is witnessing the rebirth of Main Street America - a place which does not merely put thumbs up or thumbs down - but which takes information from a diverse array of sources, and funnels them through context - that is done by linking - and community - which is done by commenting, either on the original web site, or in the text around the link. In short, instead of a public life that consists of push down and push back - public life is going to be centered around campaigns and organizations - like Dean's campaign, and like Moveon.org - that can pull people in, and pull people together. The definition of this moment is when people in a movement begin talking to each other, and making distant connections."

pressing information

"Press think has terms of art, and one of them is "master narrative," borrowed from literary critics. I use it to describe a part of the press that too easily eludes attention: the big story, sometimes the back story, often a fragment of a narrative, that generates all the other stories, which are smaller pieces."

man united

"Hallin's device helps us grasp the tension between someone like Krugman and others in the press. For he actually places the current Administration in the sphere of deviance. Or rather, he argues that Bush and company have tried to take policies from beyond the pale straight into "consensus" without being forced through the space of legitmate controversy. This, he thinks, cannot be done without the acquiescence of journalists who patrol these boundaries."

its his fault/my teeth hurt

man, that was a funny rant. lost down the memory, whole. just between me and the key lime pie. i say/blame steve.

within oakeshott

"However, it didn't happen in this universe. And there was no Plan B."

mine games

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO WIN IRAQI HEARTS AND MINDS TODAY?"

blog wars

antiwar.com has a blog now.

potusluck dinner

the blogging of the president: 2004

wheres the beef?

i guess we can rest assured that there will be no shortage of bullshit coming out of the white house because of this.

red sighs at night

just your ordinary everyday rightwingnut.

oll klear

"In these articles Read reports on further
research undertaken after the 1941 article cited by the Funks (and then posted by Fromkin), showing that though the term first gained wide acceptance in the 1840 presidential election when it was taken over as an abbreviation for "Old Kinderhook", it actually originated in Boston as part of a craze
for comical abbreviations in 1838-39. This craze started in the summer of 1838, and Read documents it with dozens upon dozens of citations from the Boston press. The craze started with acronyms such as "O.F.M" for "Our First
Men" (a very popular phrase at the time), "N.G." for "No Go", "S.P." for "Small Potatoes", "G.T." for "Gone to Texas", and many more. The first printed use of "o.k." found by Read is in the Boston Morning Post of March 23, 1839, in which it is used in a humorous context and explicitly glossed as "all correct". This was part of a turn the acronym craze had taken toward using comical misspellings as the basis for the initials, including "K.G."for "no go" ("Know Go") and "K.Y." for "no use" ("Know Yuse"). This was undoubtedly done to increase the "in-group" status of the acronyms as they gained wider use, somewhat similar to the Cockney rhyming slang of today."

skins game

much reviled in the media, washington redskins owner daniel snyder apparently knows how to make money. its almost refreshing for a professional sports owner to actually admit that it can happen. good rundown of the teams financials. whats amazing is that the top tiered players can earn in one year nearly as much as the team generates in profit. that doesnt take into account what an owner can eventually make as a teams value increases over time but its still pretty hard to believe.

got your rubbers on?

i was just thinking about galoshes and wondering whether anyone still uses them. then i thought how much fun it would be to say "has anyone seen my other galosh?" as noone is here, youll have to do. it seems others have an equal (or better) appreciation of the word.

so mint

shocker: mtv, a sellout?

i needed to post this story about the declining morals on mtvs Real World series so i could (not) talk about an exciting project im (not) working on....developing....(there it is again. ooooh, feel the buzz.....? its percolating with latent infotainment goodness.)

red red whine

another fine tradition here in the making on the LES -- no heat on xmas day. i guess the lambsblood on the door isnt the holiday cure-all that i had hoped. im just glad that someone else has to clean it up. and you thought i was unamerican. now where are those funny bunny slippers i got for...oh, wait...i didnt get any slippers.

not even a louse

too funny for words. xmas stories as told by whitehouse functionaries and family.

via world o crap

story bored

i hope the programming genius at tnt who came up with the idea of replaying A Christmas Story (1983) for 24 hours straight is forced to watch every minute of it while imbibing pitcher after pitcher of rancid eggnog.

vidal statistics

nothing says holiday cheer more than a good scolding from gore vidal.

con jobless

great post from billmon highlighting the rise and faltering of the neocons.

dim son

theres an unwritten new york jewish tradition of eating chinese food on xmas eve. ive spent many years trying to uncover the roots of this unlikely confluence of cultures. and i believe i have finally hit upon it; chinese restaurants are open on xmas! now my only question is -- which circle of hell has the best dim sum?

(looks like the Heaven Way Buddha Church outside my window is a little bit confused about their adherents eventual destination. better make a selection soon, god is not a fan of prevaricators.)

Christ's Mass

"I submit that such Expressions of Holiday Cheer are of the purest Heresy; and did not our Divine Saviour say unto the Scribes and Pharisees, "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness, but is in Danger of eternal Damnation"? The truly Pious will observe the Christ's Mass Tide as they would any other Day of the Year: swath'd in a Hair Shirt and scourging oneself repeatedly with a Cow Hide."

the 10th monthiest

open society institute (soros) director and former policy director for bill bradley, mark schmitt, blogs up with The Decembrist. i wonder if hes heard of the band The Decembrists. whats that refering to exactly? my teeny weany brain is flashing "Russsian Revolution," maybe a previous failed effort. will investigate......developing....(whoo, sounds serious)......

ahh, google does all the work for me. and he slags them too. if hes wrong about them, can he be right about tax cuts?

thank you, come again

beautiful day, unfortunately im ailing. a horrendous nightmare would have been far more preferable than the hours purporting to resemble sleep last night that i withstood. and whats worse, i had run out of aspirin. so i just ran out to the rite-aid this afternoon for some advil and despite my dizzied demeanor i was still capable of price comparisons.

1) 50 tablets plus 50 "free" = $6.50 = $.065 per tab
2) 100 tablets plus 100 "free" = $17 = $.085 per tab
3) 225 tablets = $16 = $.071

the second offer had its own special display case abutting the advil section. thanks advil, i feel more special already.

from badd to worser

"NEW YORK -- Scott Layden was fired Monday as president of the New York Knicks and Isiah Thomas was hired to replace him, a source told The Associated Press."

lessigs more

lessig interview and other worthy bits on christopher lydons blizog.

dean of fear

deanophobeaphobe

moving along

vote for moveon.orgs "bush in 30 seconds" ads slated to air during the state of the union address.

spin cycle

counterspin has links to declassified documents related to us-iraq interaction during Saint Ronnies residency.

lay it on

a farmer dreams a little dream.

cosp! update

"ESPN's Peter Gammons is reporting that an Alex Rodriguez-for-Manny Ramirez deal could be finalized within the next couple of days.
There are still several issues to be worked out, but a deal appears close. The Red Sox and Dodgers may have already worked out a Nomar Garciaparra trade, and according the Gammons, the Rangers will sign Todd Walker to replace A-Rod, moving Michael Young to shortstop."

dead enders

if you feel like dancing with the devil today, there is a neocon movement panel with a keynote speech from the living dead...i mean, richard perle at 2pm on c-span. im sure he will be in good humor today.

punditz

"If Iraq is still going this badly in October of 2004, it would be a real drag on the Bush campaign. Yes, I said "this badly." One arrest doesn't turn it around, except in the fantasy world of political theater in which pundits seem to live."

back-breaking news

somebody somewhere or manybodies manywhere have begun working on the theme music for saddams show trial.

video capture

looks to be a slow newsday.

cosp #4

saber-mets fans are happy tonight as centerfielder mike cameron has accepted the teams offer. its especially surprising as he was offered an extra year at the same rate by oakland. apparently he wanted to play on the east coast. here are his statistics. nothing spectacular but he may be the best defensive centerfielder in baseball which is a dramatic change from most seasons.

southpawed

nominations for the left-leaning blogs koufax awards. my favorite post thus far --

"Best Right-wing Blog: Matt Yglesias when he talks about the environment, civil-liberties, or national questions."

voll weavil

i knew i read something about a 3000 page book by william vollman. and for a mere $120 it can be yours. eventually.

my mentor

before there was drat fink, there was.....

cosp #3

aaron gleeman culls some random statistics from bill james 2004 baseball abstract .

that itchy feeling

new york times gives up on real news to take on the onion for primacy in the world of satirical news. that could be the only rationale for the header on this "special" news section. as for the inflammation, i can only empathize. try some cortisone.

cosp #2

knicks blog
sports blog aggregator
nick johnson trade analysis
mets farm system report

tiny tunes

another indie blog - tiny mix tapes

chest pains

excellent indie music blog - large hearted boy

your should laugh more

neal pollack makes fun of blogs and the candidates who love them.

contractually obligated sports post

the mets have signed japanese shortstop kaz matsui while the arbitration deadline passed releasing free agents to pursue other options.

the newark star ledger reports that brooklyn is now leading in its bid to acquire the nj nets. im not running out to buy season tickets just yet (or ever).

meanwhile, in the nba atlantic division, one team has managed to break the .500 barrier, while orlando has lost 19 straight after winning their season opener. the most intriguing division thus far is the midwest division where conversely, every team has a winning record. perennial also-rans, the denver nuggets, have finally turned it around while former knicks coach jeff van gundy has taught the houston rockets how to play defense and how to get 7'5" scoring opportunities. considering that he had 22pts 20 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, id say things were progressing.

uhh, football? no chad pennington magic yesterday, as the jets can join the giants players at the strip club to watch somebody else play in the superbowl this year. anyway, the superbowl is in texas. new yorkers are not interested enough in your deep fried cuisine to make the effort.

as for the latest bcs snafu, USC was my college football bandwagon team when i was growing up so i am shocked and dismayed at the events of the preceding weekend. isnt this the type of thing they elected schwazzisname for? shouldnt he be making clever veiled threats at the ncaa for their incompetence?

get to work

i think i need to hire myself as an assistant.

g-list-in

fimoculous' year in review lists

play blog

i added a few sports blogs a little while back to my impossible mess of a weblog. theyre in the last orange tangle on the left below the set of *ahem* related blogs. most of them are baseball blogs. i guess it stands to reason that baseball fans are the literati of sports fans. most of the links are to metsblogs as that is the team im supposed to care about more than the others. others are more general interest. a fair amount of the baseball blogs are saber or statistically oriented. the bill james movement online is equalled only by howard deans in the rabidness of their true believers.

(maybe not so) suprisingly i have received two reciprocal links which is nice since ive been generally lame of late in upkeep around here and there is generally little sports chatter. so thanks to off wing opinion and mikes baseball rants.

paine in the ask

storm seems a bit more fierce today. wonder what it must be like to deal with this type of weather with greater frequency. of course by deal i mean avoid. were it not for the poorly insulated windows and the constant draft, i would hardly notice it. they still deliver in a snowstorm, right? what? no? but i have nothing to eat. you wouldnt make me go outside, its inclement. it has to be at least 100 feet to the cafe at the corner. i would hardly call that fair. well, i do have three oranges but that hardly counts as food. am i right?


as long as the toilet paper holds out i think i can make it.
as long as the toilet paper holds out i think i can make it.
as long as the toilet paper holds out i think i can make it.

shanti
shanti
shanti


brrr.......

hardly hardly hardly

ye olde bloggewatch

bump in the beltway

gropinator

gruntline

"For several weeks, here exclusively on FRONTLINE's website, we're presenting an inside, behind-the-scenes look at the making of an upcoming FRONTLINE documentary on Iraq."

mallow

"Most cartoon characters spend their lives falling off cliffs, running into brick walls, and chasing small creatures that are lower on the food chain. The animated antics of the cast of Homestarrunner.com seem to be limited to standing around, eating marshmallows, and writing emails--and that’s just how their fans like it."

major leaguer

bill simmons is consistently the funniest person writing about sports. it must be as a result of all that boston fan angst.

hot stove beleagured

"The Rangers remain open to trading MVP Alex Rodriguez to the Sox, and the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that Texas would accept Ramirez on the condition Boston "ante up a significant portion" of the $95 million balance of Ramirez's contract over the next five years."

"According to several reports, the Mets will sign Japanese shortstop Kaz Matsui."

class consciousness

"While students tend to experiment with various identities during their college years, Vanderkamp's peers said the accelerated pace of his process of self-discovery is alarming. Since the beginning of the fall term, Vanderkamp has aligned himself with no fewer than nine social groups, and has adopted a new wardrobe and a distinct set of speech patterns to accompany each identity."

missing ewe

"Some of the newly discovered fossil mammals represent the last holdouts of species thought to have gone extinct millions of years earlier while others mark the first evidence for the few truly classic African species that survived the Eurasian invasion and evolved into today's famed beasts, such as the elephants."

blag

blogging.la

children of the corn

this is an alltime favorite for gawker stalker, or maybe its the second one.

"On 115th and Broadway, Prof. Robert Thurman (father of Uma) explaining the origins of Thanksgiving to a Buddhist monk."

"i saw jennifer connelly with hubby and baby at blue ribbon brooklyn. she's hot. they were wearing t-shirts. he had fried chicken, she had salmon and breast-fed at the table, which was awesome. they cooed over baby and each other. i want in."

land mess

Quote Of The Night:

"As Jalen and Donyell joined the Raptors, they both had to buy their numbers from current Raptors. Jalen bought his no. 5 off of Michael Bradley, and Donyell purchased his no. 42 away from Mengke Bateer. Neither would say how much they paid, but Donyell "Geography" Marshall did have this to say: "Those Europeans, they know how to negotiate". Bateer is from Mongolia"

none in site

"The World Monuments Watch, a global program launched in 1995, calls attention to imperiled cultural heritage sites around the world, and directs timely financial support to their preservation. A panel of leading international experts selects the List of 100 Most Endangered Sites from nominations submitted to WMF every two years by governments, organizations active in the field of cultural preservation, and individuals."