Somehow I can see NYC Smurfette reviving her blog for this

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 8586174

It's totally free.

Can't argue with that

Me: Are you watching the Yankees?
Mets fan Dawn: Oh yeah, woooo look at me all watching the Yankees, rooting them on.
Me: Well, I thought you'd be rooting on the Red Sox then.
MFD: What do I look like, a moron?!? Who roots for the Red Sox?!

Bloggity

Eric the Young Curmudgeon is back, at a brand new site that looks suspiciously like the old site and even has part of the same URL. He blogs about tonight's crazy blogger party (which has about 100 bloggers attending) and wonders how he'll get people to remember his url. I scratched the idea of nametags because I was assured it was too doofy and also reminded that some bloggers are anonymous and may want to stay that way despite being at a blogger bash. Anyway, visit Eric's new digs and tell him to quit linking to Dawn Summers so much or Karl Rove is going to get really pissed.

And if you're in NY and have nothing to do in about an hour, stop by the party: K Lounge, W.52nd between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Click

Check out the ads in my sidebar, Dawn, Joe and Yehudit took me up on my ad offer and have produced some pretty cool ads.

Love the Drudge

The NY Press has picked the Observer's Politicker blog as Best Political Blog in its 'BEST OF MANHATTAN' list. Congrats to Ben and the gang, they completely deserve the honor (and not just because they link to me every now and again).

I've written a ton (here, here and here) on my feelings for the NY Press. And reading the first few paragraphs of the Best of Manhattan list, I almost started to think they had returned to form, clever, interesting and different. But then, no:

Best Overreaction to a Bad Pope Joke

Drudge & Co. vs. New York Press

Everybody just relax. You know Matt Drudge has a hydra-headed bug up his ass about something when he gives it more play than a new Hillary Clinton book deal. So it was last March when this newspaper printed an unremarkable column by Matt Taibbi listing the "Funniest 52 Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope." For three full days—that's three entire news cycles while the country is at war—The Drudge Report devoted a sizable chunk of real estate to posting the cover of the offending issue of New York Press.

Three days.

If a giant killer asteroid were heading straight for planet Earth, Drudge might give it two days of play before dropping it to make way for a John Edwards bestiality rumor. Nothing gets three whole days of prime play from Drudge. But this stupid little New York Press story did. The only possible explanation is that Drudge was determined to make trouble for your humble narrator, whom he turned on violently after former Press columnist Michelangelo Signorile started outing his closet-case friends.

Emphasis mine.

This perfectly demonstrates 2 things:

1. Drudge is my kind of guy and,
2. Don't mess with Drudge (something I've written on before too)

Outing is purposely trying to hurt someone, by using something they keep secret, against them. Trying to destroy the business of the outer, or the business that employs the outer, is fine by me. I would take it further and go after his whole family but, you know, I'm Russian and all that. If you go straight for the kneecaps the first time an outer tries this kind of thing, we'll be unlikely to see any other outing efforts. No one wants to see their mom all sad, or their business destroyed. It's the only way.

Put down the kool-aid, Glenn

Could Giuliani be the Perot of this decade? If he wanted to be, I think he could. (Heck, if the two parties continue their spiral of mutual destruction, he might even get elected as an independent.)

-Instapundit

Little NY story

The other day I was walking out of the UBS building on Sixth Avenue and 51st Street and there was a large, wooden fruit cart in the middle of the sidewalk, instead of on a corner as is the usual location. It was a big, heavy thing, completely unlike every other fruit cart in the city. There was no one manning the cart. I was looking at it, all perplexed, when a woman said 'they're filming a movie' and pointed to cameras across the street. As if on cue, but actually totally unconnected to the filming, a ragged looking man walked by and scooped up two or three pieces of fruit and then continued on his way. You can't leave a food cart unattended in Manhattan, even if it is just a prop in a film.

Dreier out, Blunt in

NYC Right lays out what went down in the House GOP yesterday and why David Dreier, 'socially moderate amnesty supporting California Congressman' did not take over as Delay's successor.

NY Blogger Party (bumped for correction purposes)

It's this Friday at 8pm at K Lounge, 30 W 52nd St between Fifth and Sixth Avenues (thanks Yehudit for the correction). There are over 70 bloggers currently RSVP'd to attend. If you're in the NY area this weekend, come on by.

Free Ads, again

The last time I gave away 3 free ads, I got 4 paid ones within the week. So, let's try this again: A free ad for the first three people to comment. The ad can be for your blog or business but I do have final approval of all ads.

Good.

International Freedom Center idea scrapped

Indicted

Tom Delay has been indicted and has stepped down from his Majority leader position. Dennis Hasterst has picked David Dreier of California to replace him. The only thing I've ever heard about Dreier is that he's been the target of an outing campaign. The article I link notes:

Dreier can probably survive outing in his district and be re-elected, and it won’t hurt him much with Arnold and his cronies either. But Dreier’s days as a key member of the ultra-homophobic Hastert-DeLay House GOP leadership may be numbered.

Yep. Numbered.

'Now I ain't saying she a golddigger...'

Anna Nicole Smith's case reaches Supreme Court.

Obviously because of French support for the war in Iraq

Terror suspects 'targeted Paris metro'

'Thank you, America, for welcoming us.'

Boat people reach U.S. after 16 years

Hoist it, baby. 4pm EST (Bumped to top, new posts below this one)

(Click this graphic to listen)

Our guests today are Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a contributor to National Review Online and the amazing, phenomenal, hilarious Jeff Goldstein of the blog Protein Wisdom.

Ms. Dawn Summers is unable to live-blog due to her new job so the position is now open.

Call in with questions: 1866-884-TALK (8255). Do it.

We've got Neal Boortz lined up for next week with Steve Forbes and Dick Morris coming up in mid-October. If you're not listening, you're a big loser.

UPDATE: Von Bek to All Sporting Men will be live-blogging the show.

Nothing like news like this from the ole' high school

This post has been removed. The people in the post have been cleared of all charges and it is unfair to them to keep the post up. I have apologized for writing on the matter before all the information was available and for my snarky tone. Albert and Adelphi deserved better from me.

My bizness

In my disclosure statement in the sidebar on my site, I note 'Additionally, all material on this site should be considered my personal opinion and may not represent that of my employers.'

I would just like to mention that this extends to my comments on other sites (which I always post under my real name because I'm not a chicken about my opinions) and also anything I say on 'Hoist the Black Flag', the weekly talk show on Rightalk.com that I co-host with Ace of Spades. Additionally, posts by guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect my opinion, just my opinion of them as interesting writers. I will update the sidebar statement to include all this but figured a post might be needed as well. I always thought my blog would be a problem for me if I wrote about my clients, and that was the point of that disclosure, but it seems it can be many other things as well.

Just saying

It'd be easier for me to laugh at the idea of Ben Affleck as Senator from Virginia if, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't Governor of California.

Going to the chapel and we're....

Charles Star, formerly Ugarte of that dumb RickBlaine.com site, is getting hitched and, like any good blogger, he and his lady, Carrie, have started a blog on the subject.

Charles and Carrie both write for the magazine Stay Free, which "explores the politics and perversions of mass media and American (consumer) culture", and oh boy are their readers letting them have it in the comment section of the wedding blog for daring to spend money on the day that will tie them together, presumably, forever.

It's funny because I acknowledge I love Capitalism, I love money, I love parties, I love getting all dressed up and I love presents and yet I absolutely, positively don't want a wedding. I see it as a waste of money. I'd rather have a down-payment on a home or a long vacation or one of those SUVs that are the cause of all the world's ills. But, obviously, to each his own and the anger directed at Charles and Carrie is more than a little absurd.

Did I Mention I Love Living (And Blogging) In The US? (Posted by Petitedov)

Yahoo outs a Chinese journalist critical of government.

I understand that as a business enterprise Yahoo has loyalty to its share holders and thus it must obey the laws of the country in which it is operating to remain a competitive company and not be barred by from a lucrative market such as China. In doing so Yahoo (and Google) is consenting to censoring information and essentially controlling the content of the internet. Although the notion is unappetizing I understand the rationale behind the endeavor.

However, what I find really wrong with this situation is the lack of resistance that Yahoo has showed under these conditions. A man is going to go to prison for ten years because of a single article he wrote. Whose fault is it? Mainly, the Chinese government, although Yahoo's hands aren't clean either.

We don't need no stinkin' facts

"Tim Russert went on the attack today to please the right wing apologists [i.e. MSNBC and NBC News] who had the nerve to fact check his impassioned outburst on MTP during the nightmare of Katrina."

-Crooks and Liars.

Via Blogometer.

'Apparently you ain't parents'

NY: Vegan parents convicted of assault for nearly starving their daughter to death.

Models to the rescue!

Naomi Campbell defends Kate Moss's drug use by taking part in a UN program on human trafficking?

Campbell said it was wrong to blame the modeling industry for drug abuse and eating disorders among young women.

She agreed to take part in a program run by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Colombia to raise awareness about human trafficking.

Campbell said she wanted to help in "providing a safe environment for models and preventing exploitation of human beings."

More than a dozen Colombian models from the Elite modeling agency recently attended a U.N. course in Bogota on how to spread the message about the risks of being lured abroad and sexually exploited.

Colombian police estimate that up to 50,000 Colombians, including many underage girls and boys, have been forced into prostitution, mainly in Japan, Spain and Holland.

Six Questions for Brian Duprey (by guest blogger Dorian Davis)

The water-cooler topic in Maine this summer was a bill that proposed banning abortions if those abortions were "based on the prospective sexuality of the fetus," should a "gay gene" be discovered. The bill's sponsor was State Representative Brian Duprey (R-Hampden). I interviewed Mr. Duprey this week for an upcoming piece at my own website, www.doriandavis.com. As a gay man, I asked him very tough, skeptical questions. His answers were candid and...controversial:

DORIAN DAVIS: What is your perspective, as a person of faith, on homosexuality: a) that it is a lifestyle choice, b) that it is a biological defect, or c) that it is a biological trait, like handedness, that isn't chosen nor pathological?

MR. DUPREY: Lifestyle choice.

DORIAN DAVIS: If science could isolate a "gay gene," and could "fix" that gene with gene technology, would you support genetic surgery to repair homosexuals prior to birth?

MR. DUPREY: There is no gay gene. They'll never find one. That's why homosexuals hated this legislation, it "outed" the fact that they were born normal and made this choice.

DORIAN DAVIS: The bill that you sponsored, LD 908, was called "An Act to Protect Homosexuals from Discrimination." Do you support legislation to protect homosexuals from discrimination in all sectors of public life, including the workplace?

MR. DUPREY: I support equal rights, not special rights. Protecting homosexuals discriminates against straight people. I employ homosexuals and have them as friends. Why would someone want to work for someone who would discriminate against them??? If a gay employer only wanted to hire gays, should he or she be allowed? Is that discrimination? An employer should be able to hire or fire anyone for any reason or no reason.

DORIAN DAVIS: The bill that you sponsored, LD 908, was predicated on the fact that several women had mentioned that they might abort their children if doctors could determine that their children were homosexual. Who, exactly, were the women who inspired LD 908? Were they liberal women or conservative women?

MR. DUPREY: They were all pro-choice women. Pro-Choice women are both Democrat and Republican, conservative and liberal. Pro-Life women do not abort babies, even if they did have the gay gene.

DORIAN DAVIS: The bill that you sponsored, LD 908, would have prohibited women from aborting their children on the basis of their children's projected sexuality. Do you worry, as a Republican, that punishing women for their reasoning, and not for the act of abortion itself, might be the equivalent of punishing women for a "thought crime"?

MR. DUPREY: If they did ever "map" the gay gene and my bill were to pass, all a woman would have to do is say I want to suck my child into the sink because I can't emotionally handle having another child. All she would have to do is lie as to the real reason. The bill would never be used.

DORIAN DAVIS: The bill that you sponsored, LD 908, was a small media sensation (I learned about it on The O'Reilly Factor), but it was declined by the Judiciary Committee in May 2005. Had you expected more support from the state legislature? What was the response from homosexuals? From conservatives?

MR. DUPREY: I asked the committee to kill the bill. After all the testimony from both sides it was clear there is absolutely no gay gene. The majority of gays or lesbians are either raped, molested, physically or sexually abused, emotionally abused, raised by a single parent, had an alcoholic parent, had a real dominate parent etc. There are very few cases of homosexuality where the child was brought up in a "normal" environment. Being gay is a choice that I do not judge people for. I can care less. Some of my best friends are gay and it doesn't bother me in the least. Knowing some of the childhood abuse stories I have heard, I can understand why they would turn out that way.

Watch

My friend Jeff Cook is primaring Rep. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.) because of her big spending ways. It's going to be an interesting race. Jeff is National Field Director of the Log Cabin Republicans and is quite conservative, on everything except gay marriage. His opponent is fiscally questionable, her issues list on her website is basically a list of pork collected for the district and I don't know where she stands on gay marriage. The incumbent has the edge, obviously, but watching this race play out may be somewhat indicative of where the Republican party is going. Yes, it's just New York and we certainly don't a Republican party that can be considered average by national standards, but that Congressional District is pretty conservative. It will be interesting to see how much of an issue Jeff's gay marriage views become in the race and whether fiscal conservatism will beat out social conservatism.

Hurricanes ain't no thang

I am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita...even though it is a little wind and a little rain...it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today...and in the world!!!!

Via Gateway Pundit.

Zero integrity

The New York Times Public Editor is all over sloppy opinion pieces that pass for journalism over at the 'Paper of Record'. If only anyone who wrote for the paper actually cared.

What is Catholicism?

The other day I wrote about the Catholic church potentially seeking out, and presumably expelling, gay priests. I wrote about it sarcastically, because I think it's kind of dumb to assign sexual identity to people who aren't supposed to be having any sex. Who cares who they're attracted to, so long as they don't act on it? Well, the flip side is this kind of stupidity from Andrew Sullivan:

HOW TO FIGHT BACK: There is a solution to this. It's called courage. I am actually tired of hearing from all these gay priests who refuse to use their names and give blind quotes to the press. Memo to them: your silence is empowering Benedict and the forces of bigotry. You have a choice now: come out to your congregations, explain your lives, stand up for yourselves and the pope, or continue to be scapegoated, exiled, punished.

Oh yeah. That's a great idea. I can just see priests getting on tv to proclaim that they fantasize about other men. Maybe then straight priests will tell us about their fantasies. Maybe some are into bondage? I can't wait to hear all about it. We'll have reality programs of priests living in a house in Boston or Austin showing the wild antics they get up to.

The way I see it is this: if you choose to be a priest, you are choosing a celibate life. This is not a secret. And while it may be true, like commenter Jake noted, that it would be a good idea for priests to be allowed to marry, it just isn't happening in anything resembling the forseeable future. If you're gay or straight and can't control your urges for the lifetime that your position demands, perhaps being a priest is not for you. It certainly isn't for everyone. But to have priests come out as 'gay' while not acting on it is beyond absurd. Its really stating your sexual preferences in a setting that isn't conducive to have sexual thoughts at all. It's not about being gay, either, it's just as weird as Father McGrady telling the press he fantasizes about ole' Mrs. Margaret who sits in the third pew on Sundays. It's just not appropriate in the context of their chosen life. Priesthood is about devoting yourself to G-d and not allowing earthly pleasures, like sex, to get in your way of that. What Andrew Sullivan is advocating is a repudiation of Catholicism altogether. Putting aside that homosexuality is forbidden in the religion, which it obviously is as it is most faiths, Catholicism demands that its priests be chaste. To lose both of these basic tenets in one swoop, as Catholic in Name Only Andrew is advising, is beyond ridiculous.

I have a lot of respect for religion and religious people. The fastest growing religons, such as Islam and certain strains of Christianity, are the most strict and serious. There's a reason for that. People seek a certain wholesomeness and purity from their religions. The purpose of religion is to get you closer to G-d, and the vast majority of people believe it takes some level of sacrifice to get there. Catholicism includes the rejection of a personal life for its priests and nuns. And that's the way it is. If Sullivan or others thinks the church does not represent them, the door is open for them to leave at any time. To change everything about it and still proclaim yourself a member of the faith is ridiculous.

Just wondering

How is South Park on network TV (on right now on WPIX, Channel 11 in NY)?

Celebrating singlehood by finding your mate ASAP

Apparently, from September 19th-25th, it's National Singles Week. What's interesting about this is that it seems to be entirely devised by dating websites and organizations that aim to pair people up. I'd be a lot more impressed with Singles Week if it gave people the opportunity to lay around in their underpants or encouraged folk to make out with a different stranger every weekend. I mean, that's celebrating the single life, right?

Hey! I thought I was the only one with a short list of people I'd spit on if I ever saw them.

And, actually, one of my people appears on his list.

Quote of the Day

Don’t know about all of you, but I, for one, am completely at ease knowing that George Bush has put away the guitar and the cowboy hat, and that this time he really really cares.

Although, judging from this latest round of flooding, the streets of New Orleans don’t seem to appreciate the effort. Ungrateful, hard-hearted streets.

-Jeff Goldstein

Life imitates South Park

The event continues today, and features a concert that will without question make President Bush change his mind about keeping troops in Iraq.

-Greg Newburn on the anti-war protests in DC.

(The South Park reference)

''Are you sure?'

William Shatner has covered Pulp's 'Common People'.

On a different Britpop note, the party Tiswas at Don Hill's, where Peter and I met, is having its last dance party at that location tonight. Come for the indie rock, stay for the lip synching guy on stage acting out the songs.

Be back soon

I'm working waaaaay too much, and have a lot of stuff going on at the moment. I'll be back to regular blogging some time tomorrow (or, today, seeing as it's 3am). If I haven't returned your email, phone call or smoke signal, please forgive me.

What is gay?

Vatican weighs ban on gay priests, regardless of whether they act on their sexuality.

What I don't get is how they will know who is gay if they aren't actually having sex with members of their own gender. If they're celibate, what makes them gay? I imagine gay men who choose the priesthood, whether to supress their own desires or not, will likely not be the stereotypical Cher-listening, chaps-wearing Chelsea boy. So how will they weed out the gays?

Words that don't come to mind when you hear the name 'Ronald McDonald'

Sexy, sophisticated, stylish, female.

It's all Bush's fault

All headlines from Drudge:

DEATH: Bus carrying Hurricane Rita evacuees explodes on Interstate 45 near Dallas...

Jeb Bush warns Rita could set off gas crisis in Florida...

RITA IS 'GLOBAL WARMING,' SAYS UK ENVIRONMENTAL CHIEF...

Jeb Bush warns Rita could set off gas crisis in Florida...

Storm could hit refineries harder than Katrina...

Scenes from NY

Conversation last night with James Taranto:

Me: What?! You're voting for Ferrer?!?!
Him: Yes.
Me: Why?
Him: Well, do you know where Ferrer stands on John Roberts?
Me: No.
Him: I rest my case.

It's a bad scene when Peggy Noonan is ripping into Bush

At first I thought she was trying to excuse Bush's bad, bad spending habit:

George W. Bush, after five years in the presidency, does not intend to get sucker-punched by the Democrats over race and poverty. That was the driving force behind his Katrina speech last week. He is not going to play the part of the cranky accountant--"But where's the money going to come from?"--while the Democrats, in the middle of a national tragedy, swan around saying "Republicans don't care about black people," and "They're always tightwads with the poor."

In his Katrina policy the president is telling Democrats, "You can't possibly outspend me. Go ahead, try. By the time this is over Dennis Kucinich will be crying uncle, Bernie Sanders will be screaming about pork."

That's what's behind Mr. Bush's huge, comforting and boondogglish plan to spend $200 billion or $100 billion or whatever--"whatever it takes"--on Katrina's aftermath. And, I suppose, tomorrow's hurricane aftermath.

But then no.

"You Don't Fit In" (by guest blogger Dorian Davis)

Martha Stewart Flops in PrimeTime

Via: Drudge Report

Now get to work on China v. Taiwan

Gib has figured out a solution to the whole China v. Tibet friction.

'It's in a black person's soul to rock that gold'

Sorry, Kanye, it's in Shirley's soul to rock that cash:

"(Legally) it's something I want to look into, because he was very cheeky, so one way or another he is going to have to pay me a lot of money."

-Shirley Bassey after finding out Kanye West used her voice on his 'Diamonds are Forever' song.

Christianity and the Holocaust

Dawn Eden posts an interesting perspective on the Holocaust, in rememberance of the death of Simon Wiesenthal.

Tonight in NYC

Peter and Mike continue their excellent Archives Listening Project tonight at 12" Bar (179 Essex St, just below Houston) at 9pm. Tonight they're playing Oar by Alexander Spence. Don't worry, I've never heard of it either. Free Admission.

Hurricane Question

Do other countries name their hurricanes?

They're having a bad year

Hurricane Katrina victims in Texas flee Hurricane Rita

I've said it before......

I love Wal-Mart.

It's unanimous, New York girls love Dallas

Dawn Summers has one of her funny travelogues up. This one is about Texas.

Today, 4 p.m. EST

(Click this graphic to listen)

Our guest today is Jack Kelly, national security columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade, and a nationally syndicated columnist.

Our call-in number is 866-884-TALK. So, do call.

Sorry for the delay, am having a busy, busy day.

Thank you to Dawn Summers for posting this, even if it was under duress. She is guest-blogging the show once again so check her out.

Because we're better, Robert, that's why

Robert George questions why he is still a Republican in light of insensitive, and sometimes outright dumb, comments from people like Dennis Hastert and Barbara Bush. As I noted in his comment section, there will always be people in your party that will say dumb things. Lord knows I wouldn't want to be in the party that not only has Howard 'verbal diarrhea' Dean in it, but is actually led by him. I'm really annoyed at all the comments Robert has gotten telling him to 'come home' to the Democratic party as if black people (oh, by the way Robert George is black) belong to the Democrats or something. I find that so racist. It's like 'look, black guy, you've had your fun with the other side now fall into step where you should'. Gross.

I love Bubba Crosby

And just so no one thinks it's a recent love, I've adored him ever since he rounded the bases so fast he crashed into Jason Giambi at second (even if that did get him out, it still showed heart- and speed- that the Yankees were sorely lacking at the time) and then even more when he threw the the Tampa Bay pitcher off his game last week by stealing second. I think it's time for a Bubba t-shirt.

Pants on fire

Aaron Broussard, who broke down on Tim Russert's show during the aftermath of Katrina while telling a story about a man promising his mother day after day that help was coming until she finally died, turns out to have been lying.

Yes, the 92-year old woman did die, but she died on the first day of the tragedy, making those calls, promising that help is on the way, slightly impossible. I'm don't cry very often (ok, I did cry at the finale of Six Feet Under but I never cried over 9/11, no matter how much it broke my heart) but watching Broussard on Russert put a lump in my throat and brought tears to my eyes. I'm sorry to hear he had to embellish this story to tug at heartstrings such as mine. The Katrina disaster was sad enough without the exaggerated numbers and fake stories. I guess one old lady dying on the first day of the hurricane doesn't a sad enough story make. Neither does hundreds of dead, it needs to be thousands to create the appropriate hysteria. I blame the media, who love death, destruction, fear and can't seem to report a story, even about a natural event like a hurricane, without policizing it. And that's the saddest part.

Via Acey.

Quote of the Day

On Wednesday, wishing to spend a quiet and restful evening, I went to the debate between Christopher Hitchens and George Galloway, two mild-mannered, stereotypically reticent Englishmen who have a friendly quarrel over the war in Iraq. Hitchens was brilliant when I could hear what he was saying, and Galloway was always entertaining. But the highlight of the evening was a man in the row in front of us who periodically yelled out "Fallujah!" whenever Hitchens spoke. Indeed, Fallujah. Can anything else be said?

-Joey McKeown

Whoa

Scotland tops list of world's most violent countries

A United Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.

The study, by the UN’s crime research institute, found that 3 per cent of Scots had been victims of assault compared with 1.2 per cent in America and just 0.1 per cent in Japan, 0.2 per cent in Italy and 0.8 per cent in Austria. In England and Wales the figure was 2.8 per cent.

The crimes have been tied to drinking and knives. So, of course, a ban on knives will be forthcoming with one police head saying that 'restricting access to drink and limiting the sale of knives would at least reduce the problem.' But, actually, Scotland already has fairly strict drinking laws with the bars in Edinburgh closing much earlier than bars in NY, Boston, Paris or other major Western cities. As for knives, I've written on this topic before and got some great comments like 'is it really all that hard to make a knife? You get a piece of metal and sharpen it, for godsakes.' and 'I'm just waiting for the repeal of "boards with nails."' It's silly to keep 'banning' inanimate objects without addressing any root causes of crime.

Color me skeptical but didn't they have a similar vow the last time they were starving to death?

North Korea Vows to Drop Nuclear Programs

Update: Uh, scratch that: North Korea Demands Nuke Reactor From U.S.

Hey, hey, hey, goodbye

Exit poll: Germans oust Schroeder's party

Update: I guess anti-Americanism as ideology didn't work this go-round.

Another Update: I do not understand Germany's political system.

A Democrat on Democrats

"The administration's line on Iraq -- it's all good just stay the course -- is at odds with the facts, but it's coherent. Most Democrats, meanwhile, warn that we're on the brink of failure, but it's too soon to give up. But they've been saying that for over a year now, and that can't be right. We can't perpetually be on the brink of failure."

-Matt Ygelsias

One side of the story

More than one in five pregnancies in America end in abortion. That's a stunning number. Twenty percent!

The Times piece linked here is, needless to say, ridiculously biased. I've written before that abortion just isn't one of my issues. It definitely doesn't make my top five list, unlikely even to make my top ten. So, I'm not on the lookout for abortion stories and I generally don't even notice bias against the pro-life position, but it's just so blatant here that it's hard to miss.

People against abortion are 'anti-choice', nearly everyone interviewed is a religious hypocrite having an abortion and the only pro-lifer in the story is, of course, a protestor, who is portrayed as kooky, outside the clinic. While NARAL and the Alan Guttmacher Institute get to comment, no pro-life organization is even mentioned. Counseling and parental notification laws are noted as plainly absurd.

"If you go to the judge and say, 'I'm afraid to tell my parents because they might harm me,' that's all you need to say," said Dr. Tom Tvedten, who has been performing abortions in Arkansas for 20 years, and now works part time at the Little Rock clinic. "It doesn't have to be true, because how would anybody know?"

A doctor is encouraging minors to lie to a judge to have an abortion without having to tell their parents! How can anyone read that with any kind of approval? It doesn't matter what side of the abortion debate you fall on, doesn't that sentence just strike you as wrong? I mean, you can love abortion and think it's the best thing to ever happen to women but isn't there something seriously disturbing about a doctor talking like this?

Though the clinic has developed an equilibrium with its lone demonstrator, Ms. Osborne is wary of any opposition to abortion rights. In 1994, when she was executive director of Preterm Health Services in Brookline, Mass., an abortion opponent named John C. Salvi III came into the clinic and started shooting, killing the receptionist.

So you see, any opposition to abortion is similar to being crazed killer.

Only the NY Times kids, only the NY Times.

Sierra Club sends SUV to pick up Arianna Huffington for event

But, you know, you rubes with families, groceries, sports equipment and rural roads better not even think of owning one of those gas guzzlers.

The MTA in NYC.....

....is a terribly unfunny joke.

A man is judged by his supporters

Is it just me or does the fact that Ariel Sharon got 'the warmest applause in decades for an Israeli leader addressing the UN General Assembly' worry you?

You'd think this was satire....

....but you'd be wrong:

CINDY SHEEHAN CALLS FOR U.S TO 'PULL OUR TROOPS OUT OF OCCUPIED NEW ORLEANS'

If the below post wasn't titled 'Today's must-read' then this one would be

Go over to Joe.My.God and read his three top posts about 9/11. He's got some incredible pictures and a really interesting story.

Today's must-read (even if it was written days ago)

A classic story from Lileks about political correctness in the Minneapolis mayoral race.

Daily Kos, take note

Much as I love the internet, and much as I think it is an important component in campaigns, here's a good reminder that an online campaign will never be able to compete with an offline one.

How much longer before the entire dialogue regarding a Palestinian state changes?

Hamas terrorists blew up part of the wall separating Gaza from Egypt and arms are now moving freely between Egypt and Gaza.

You heard it here first: Bush loves Michael Brown

Someone on NPR, I think it's Leonard Lopate, just compared Bush's appointment of Michael Brown to FEMA to Jim McGreevy's appointment of boyfriend Golan Cipel to a top security post in NJ.

Click

I complained about a lack of ads a few days ago and since then have gotten 4 new ones. Let my advertisers know they've made the right decision by visiting clicking the ads and visiting their sites.

Back tomorrow

Busy day.

So here's an interesting look at how Brad Pitt morphs into the women he dates.

Blogroll Update

Another right-leaning NY'er to add to the blogroll:

Brain of Kelly

If there was ever a good time to use Dawn's 'terrif', I think this is it

BUBONIC PLAGUE-INFECTED MICE MISSING FROM NEW JERSEY LAB

Though I'm fairly certain I'd feel the same way even if she were a conservative

Some liberals I love.

And some liberals I hate.

I still miss Sassy magazine

When I was in my early teens, I fell completely in love with Sassy magazine. It was totally different from anything I had ever read before. They featured music I had never heard of, clothes I would actually wear, segments on people my age doing cool stuff, all in a tone that was so genuine and down-to earth. I read every single word of every single issue, including the captions for products and masthead because if anyone can make that interesting, Sassy writers could. Then Sassy died a pretty sudden death (I come to find out now it was because of Focus on the Family objecting to their Sex Ed content). It got sold and the format changed. I remember complaining about it to Dawn Summers for months.

Then, years later, Jane magazine premiered. I subscribed to it for a year before realizing that it really, really sucked. It was like the girls from Sassy, who had always told their readers to be themselves and not try to be like everybody else, grew up and became obsessed with fitting in.

Media Bistro has a great piece on why Jane never lived up to Sassy. Read the whole thing if you were once a Sassy lover but the reason can be summed up with this:

If Sassy felt, as Kim Gordon has said, "like it was written by your hip older sister," Jane felt like it was being written by your "groovy" middle-aged aunt, the one who's wearing high-end daisy dukes this summer and boring you with tales of stressful manicures, all the while assuring you how full and exciting her life is.

Yes, it's another Blogroll Update

Two more for NY:

Korla Pundit

Gotham Gazette's new Wonkster blog

Quote of the Day

'He looked like a teenager helping out the teacher by moving the furniture around.'

-Gail at Gotham Gazette's new Wonkster blog on the Gifford Miller ad that I made fun of the other day.

Question for other bloggers

Anyone know what's going on with blogads? They've been in and out for the past few days.

Demand a real memorial for Flight 93

Mark Steyn takes on the Crescent Embrace nonsense like only he can:

Four years on, plans for the Flight 93 National Memorial have now been revealed. The winning design, chosen from 1,011 entries, will be built in that pasture in Pennsylvania where those heroes died. The memorial is called “The Crescent of Embrace”.

That sounds like a fabulous winning entry - in a competition to create a note-perfect parody of effete multicultural responses to terrorism. Indeed, if anything, it’s too perfect a parody: the “embrace” is just the usual huggy-weepy reconciliatory boilerplate, but the “crescent” transforms its generic cultural abasement into something truly spectacular. In the design plans, “The Crescent of Embrace” looks more like the embrace of the Crescent – ie, Islam. After all, what better way to demonstrate your willingness to “embrace” your enemies than by erecting a giant Islamic crescent at the site of the day’s most unambiguous episode of American heroism?

Okay, let’s get all the “of courses” out of the way – of course, the overwhelmingly majority of Muslims aren’t terrorists; of course, we all know “Islam” means “peace” and “jihad” means “healthy-lifestyle lo-carb granola bar”; etc, etc. Nevertheless, the men who hijacked Flight 93 did it in the name of Islam and their last words as they hit the Pennsylvania sod were no doubt “Allahu Akhbar”. One would be unlikely even today to come across an Allied D-Day memorial so misconceived in its spirit of reconciliation as to be called the Swastika of Embrace. Yet Paul Murdoch, the architect, has somehow managed to produce a design whose two most obvious interpretations are a) a big nothing or b) a splendid memorial to the hijackers rather than their victims.

I think the most depressing part is that he has given up on NY have a reasonable memorial to our dead. Please don't forget about us. Just because all the lunatics who hate America happen to live here doesn't mean that those of us who want to commemorate that day and celebrate this country should suffer.

It needs to be said:

The hysteria surrounding Hurricane Katrina was way overblown. I hate that I have to give the obvious qualifier, lest I sound insensitive, but of course even one death is one too many and of course I feel for the people who lost family members, friends and property. The current death toll in Louisiana is 423, slightly lower than the random estimates of 10-20 thousand. New Orleans will never be inhabitable again? How's next week for moving back in? Does that work? Meanwhile, Gov. Blanco is practically demanding that more bodies be found. It's like she can't believe that this is all there is, after all that crying, complaining and blame-shifting. There was government failure in New Orleans, on many different levels, but the failure of the state and local officials to maintain their grip on sanity and reality seems to be more evident every day.

Blogroll Update

In NYC:

Another Attempt

David M.

Let's Be Blunt

My Dogs Are Smarter

Weenie Enema

Wordsmithie

In my Boston section:

Jewish Russian Telegraph

More local politics

NY1 is reporting that Ferrer has gotten 39.95% of the vote. If that's correct, he is .05% short of avoiding a runoff. I could be wrong but I don't see Ferrer winning a runoff. Gosh, .05%. He must be all kinds of miserable right now.

NY1 is also reporting that Giff barely broke 10%, less than Virginia Fields who got near 16%. How embarrassing. I stand by my theory that his tv ads did him in. He just came off as too smug and his 'what are we waiting for?' was grating. Ari reminded me today that the fast-paced ad I mentioned yesterday had a moment where Giff said 'The mayor wanted a stadium, you didn't. Others talked about, I cut off his funding'. The look on his face as he says it is pure 'nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah', the kind a kid gives their sibling after they've ratted on them to their parents. Not very mayoral.

Ok, then.

No one let animal-hater Dawn Summers know that cats can apparently be used to make fuel.

Smack

Remind me not to tussle with Christopher Hitchens.

Out

My friend Ren, who works in the movie biz, asked me to go see a film with him tonight, Proof. 'Ok,' I said. 'but I'm wearing a t-shirt and I'm not changing.' 'That's fine,' he laughed. 'It's just a screening, it's not like it's the world premiere or something.'

Except it was the world premiere. Oops.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins were there, doing the red carpet thing, along with Harvey Weinstein who introduced the film, his last for Miramax, and and director John Madden. Jake Gyllenhaal and Hope Davis couldn't make it.

It was a great movie, much better than the overrated 'Beautiful Mind', which had a similar math/crazy concept. Gwyneth deserves an Oscar for her performance. The movie was funny and touching and all those other things that movies should be. Highly recommended.

A funny sidenote is that Jake Gyllenhaal's character plays in an all mathematician rock band. It's like the writers of the film knew about the Wifebeaters (Jessica, Ivan, Yaron and Del are the four mathematicians who make up the band), or something.

Song of the Day

'Lately' by British Sea Power. Only the first 9 minutes though (it's 14 minutes long).

Today, 4pm EST

(Click this graphic to listen)

Annie Jacobsen, Women's Wall Street columnist and author of Terror In The Skies: Why 9-11 Could Happen Again.

Call in with questions: 1-866-884-TALK (8255)

Our usual guestblogger, Dawn Summers, is completely MIA (I didn't kill her and bury the body, I swear) so the position is now open. If you want to guest-blog the show, let me know via email or comment section and I will provide a link.

UPDATE: VON BEK WILL BE LIVE-BLOGGING.

Give these people a state, and quick.

The Israelis have withdrawn from Gaza, so, of course, the Palestinians have taken this opportunity to ransack the synagogues, paint swastikas on the walls and set fire to the place.

I heart National Review

John J. Miller has an article up at National Review about Sigur Ros being the world's coolest band. So now National Review is fulfilling not only my political needs but also my music-listening ones. This is the perfect illustration of why it is the only magazine to which I have a subscription.

Skip this post if you don't live in NY

Tomorrow is Primary Day in NYC and, being a Republican, I have no one to vote for. There is no primary for City Council in my district (we did have one two years ago so it's not totally outside the realm of possibility). There's no mayoral primary. And none for District Attorney, Comptroller or Public Advocate. Hell, forget primaries, we don't even have one candidate for those last three offices. It's pathetic.

Not that the Democrats are in a much better position. What they have in quantity, they lack in quality. Two uninspiring men, Freddy Ferrer and Gifford Miller, and one totally unqualified woman, Virginia Fields, are running for mayor. The last candidate, Anthony Weiner, is a Congressman who, for reasons I can not fathom, has chosen to run for mayor.

I know conventional wisdom has Bloomberg winning in a landslide in November. I don't know that I believe conventional wisdom. For one thing, it's always easy to be the winner when you have no opponent. George W. Bush was crushing any of the 9 Democrats at the start of the primary season. But when it came down to one against one, Bush evened out with Kerry and remained that way until the end. The second reason I don't think that the Bloomberg campaign should be planning a victory party just yet is that he is the only one doing massive advertising right now. The rest have had limited ads on tv, mostly biographical spots. Look for a shift in the poll numbers when there is one clear candidate on tv every day. I'm not saying Bloomberg will lose, you'd have to be a certain kind of stupid to bet against a billionaire, but I definitely don't think it will be as easy as everyone around me seems to believe.

With that in mind, I'm doing what most Republicans in NYC do, considering which of the Democratic candidates wouldn't be the worst, which one could I live with and not have to worry about the city becoming Dinkinsified again. And, with primary day upon us, it's a good time to review the campaigns of the hopefuls.

Let's start with the frontrunner, Freddy Ferrer. Al Sharpton endorsed him yesterday. You know that whole thing about the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Well, Al Sharpton is my enemy, work that in to that analogy as you'd like. He is hateful and disgusting. Anyone he endorses is immediately disqualified from being taken seriously by me. Those outside NY may see Sharpton as the dim-witted comedian who ran for president last time around. I see him as the propagator of racial tension, someone who makes their living off of racial animosity. I hate him and I don't say that about many other people. The Politicker quotes him as saying 'If [Ferrer] makes a mistake, we'll correct him, but nobody else better correct him. This is our family business.' Wow. I want to be as far away from his family and their business as can be. If Ferrer doesn't win this outright, these kinds of statements by Sharpton will bury him in the runoff.

Virginia Fields. Nice enough lady. But mayor? Lady, c'mon. She held the mostly ceremonial post of Borough President, and she got that job mostly by accident. Our last mayor to come from the Borough President ranks? David Dinkins. When she fired her advisor, Joe Mercurio, for allegedly inserting people of different races into a publicity piece for her, I knew she was done. Mercurio was the only one keeping her name in the papers. He was on TV all the time, since he's a regular guest of NY1, pushing her candidacy. Without him, she hasn't had much of a campaign.

Anthony Weiner. Ari said it best: 'look, we're not going to have a mayor named Weiner. We're just not.' But we might. Weiner is now running second to Ferrer. If he holds him to under 40% and forces a runoff, it may seem like election 2001 all over again (with Weiner playing the part of Mark Green who came in second to Ferrer, forced a runoff, won that, then amazingly lost in the general to Bloomberg). But Weiner isn't Mark Green. People don't spontaneously gag when they hear his name. He's the dark horse in this race.

Gifford Miller. It needs to be said: he ran, by far, the worst ads of this race. His media firm should be fired. They were embarrassing. One of them had Giff walking and talking at high speed, because NY is such a fast city and he barely even had time to make this commercial. Another ad is him pushing desks around a classroom and concludes with kids sitting at their desks screaming 'Gifford Miller Yaaaaaaaaaay'. Awful. Apart from that, Miller is just disliked. His babyface isn't his liability. It's his mouth and the pompous sounds it makes. Before the Weiner rise, I saw Miller as Ferrer's second. If he fails tomorrow, and I think he will, he can blame his terrible commercials and his unappealing arrogance.

So, I guess I wouldn't die if Weiner won. And yes, I do prefer Bloomberg to all of these candidates. We'll see what happens in November.

*Off topic but if you want to see the most bizarre ad of the season, check this one out by Brian Ellner. He's running for Borough President although he seems to think his opponent is George W. Bush. It's basically a 'Bush sucks, meet my boyfriend'. Hi-lar-ious, though obviously not meant to be.

Classic

From BOTW:

All Work and No Pay

Picketers have been standing outside a Wal-Mart in Henderson, Nev., holding signs protesting the discount chain's alleged maltreatment of workers. But these people aren't protesting because they believe in what they're doing. They're getting paid for it, albeit at a niggardly rate, reports the Las Vegas Weekly:

They're not union members; they're temp workers employed through Allied Forces/Labor Express by the union--United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). They're making $6 an hour, with no benefits; it's 104 [degrees] F, and they're protesting the working conditions inside the new Wal-Mart grocery store.

Hmm, now we know why unions favor a legally mandated minimum wage. It prevents anyone form hiring even cheaper picketers to picket the picketers.

Quote of the Day (with that day being yesterday)

'President Bush, if it's all the same to you, I'd just as soon have a National Day of Rage.'

-Bill Quick

Cowering

Remembering the Holocaust is offensive to Muslims in Britain and Tony Blair is being urged to get rid of 'Holocaust Memorial Day'.

Maybe next we'll commemorate 9/11 with a Muslim symbol. Oh. Wait.

They're 'speaking out'

Remember when the whole world watched two planes hit the Twin Towers? Well, you're wrong, you didn't really see that. You see, Bush planted bombs in the towers. And Giuliani is a murderer. Oh, and those attacks in London on 7/7? Total bullshit.

That blogger party

It's happening on September 30th. Probably at Madame X on Houston but it depends how many people we ultimately will have. I just sent an evite to every NY based blogger on my blogroll. If I'm forgetting anyone, please let me know. And those of you that already got the evite, feel free to pass it along to your readers or other bloggers.

Looking back

On September 11, 2002, I wrote that while I liked 'G-d Bless America', the song we needed as a country was a fighting song, our anthem, 'The Star Spangled Banner'. I couldn't get over that day. I didn't want to.

September 11, 2003 was the beginning of a return to normality. The two years before this day had passed in a daze. I became such a homebody after 9/11. I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. I think many New Yorkers felt the same way. It wasn't fear, at least not after awhile, it was more the feeling of pointlessness and loss. How could I care about anything when 3000 Americans died at work, at breakfast, in planes going on vacation? 2003 was when I started to feel like myself again, although I can't say that I don't think about 9/11 on a regular basis even now, in 2005. It changed everything. It definitely changed me.

Last year, September 11, 2004, I was in Dallas with my Halliburton Girl. The election was coming up and things were ugly. All the togetherness and community spirit of 2001 was completely gone by 2004.

I thought this year was better. The election was over. How much energy can be wasted hating a term-limited incumbent? Apparently, as the liberal response to a hurricane has demonstrated, a whole lot.

Look, I'm not saying that we shouldn't argue over issues. I believe that smaller government and lower taxes are better for our country, you disagree, that's fine, we don't need to hate each other over tax policy. Even on social issues, why do we always have to take everything to the lowest common denominator? If someone is against gay marriage, that doesn't mean they hate gay people (no matter what Andrew Sullivan or Downtown Lad think) and someone that is pro-choice doesn't love killing babies, they just have a different set of principles and beliefs. It's not the end of the world. Planes into our buildings, that's closer to the end of the world. I wrote this a lot during the election as a reason to vote for Bush but it remains true today: none of our arguments will matter if we're all killed by a nuke that has gotten into the wrong hands.

It isn't just the president's job to take terrorism seriously, though we're lucky to have one that does, it should matter to each of us. You didn't agree with the war in Iraq? Ok. Well. There's a war over there, whether you wanted it or not. Be on our side. Hope America, and by default Iraq, wins. Don't root against us. Don't hope for defeat. Don't side with the terrorists just to show up Bush. It's insanity. Try to remember how you felt that day, the violation, the anger. The people at their desks at Cantor Fitzgerald or Aon weren't thinking about politics. They were killed because they were Americans. And yeah, you don't like hearing that they hate you for your freedom, because then it's harder to blame Bush, but they do hate you for who you are and how you live.

The war on Islamic Fascism, and on their terrorist methods, is going to be long and hard. Afghanistan and Iraq are just the beginning. Yes, it is hard to change an insane culture into a healthy, stable one but our lives depend on it. We can pretend it's not here, that this pause in attacks is because the forces that spurned Mohammed Atta have given up or walked away but we should all know better.

The band Bright Eyes, led by an anti-Bush leftist, Connor Oberst, has a song called 'Road to Joy', sort of the title track of his last album 'I'm Wide Awake It's Morning' (since that's the chorus of 'Road to Joy'). In it, he screams 'And no one's sure how all of this got started, but we're going to make g-ddamn certain how it's gonna end' in regards to the war. I know he means it as a criticism of our ignorance or arrogance or short-sightedness. Well, I'm sorry, even if you don't understand how the war got started, even if you found it pointless, I don't see anything wrong with wanting it to end the way we'd like. As I wrote in a comment section, if we take down a culture that had children's prisons and human shredders while making ourselves safer, what's wrong with that? And if the 'side' of freedom, liberty, justice, capitalism, equality (or if you can't suspend your America-hating to believe that, at least the side that practices these things a million times more than 'the other side') wins, what's so bad about that?

On 9/11/01, we knew we had a country worth defending. I still feel that we do today. I hope that the great majority feels the same.

Political Katrina

Regarding the politicians in Louisiana blaming Bush after Katrina, James Taranto wrote: 'When they point the finger at the federal government for whatever went wrong in the Katrina response, remember that they are fighting for their political lives.'

An AP story has the numbers and, if the projections are correct, I don't see how a Democrat will win in Louisiana for some time.

Landrieu was elected in a 2002 runoff by a 52-48 margin, a difference of just 42,000 votes. New Orleans was the base of her support.

"If that's compromised, that could be a problem for her," said John Maginnis, who publishes a political newsletter in Louisiana.

Landrieu is not up for re-election until 2008. Kathleen Blanco, the Democratic governor, who also won by a 52-48 margin, faces re-election in 2007.

Let's not forget that Blanco's win was owed in part to some very overt racism against her opponent,Bobby Jindal, one of my favorite politicans and now a Congressman.

Want to see life in fantasyland? Check out these quotes about Texas:

Bob Stein, professor of political science at Rice University in Houston, said the political impact on Texas depends in large part on how concentrated or widely dispersed the evacuees are.

...

In any event, though, with Texas' Hispanic population surging and its black population growing faster than the white population, demographic shifts already are pushing the state toward the Democrats. Katrina could help hasten the trend.

"Our politics may be Republican," Stein said, "but that's just a temporary condition."

The thought is echoed by David Bositis, a senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on black issues. He said adding a substantial number of blacks to the state could "potentially make Texas more competitive in the not-too-distant future."

I am a Republican living in NYC. I know that it's nice to dream that the people in your city or state will wake-up and suddenly think like you do. It ain't happening in NY and it ain't happening in Texas. If Texas trends Democrat, a Republican won't win the presidency for a decade or longer. So, yeah, keep the dream alive and by all means, the DNC should spend more money in Texas than in Florida, Ohio or any other state that was actually close in the last few elections.

Sign at Ground Zero, NYC 2005

The Huffington Post guide to high traffic

The Golden Rule: Write the most retarded thing you can think of so that everyone links to it with a 'sheesh, this is the dumbest thing I've ever read', whether it's actual charges of cannibalism on day 3 in Louisiana, or a highly comical story about Bush eating babies and having a suit made out of women.

Running out of people to blame, Sen. Landrieu (D, LA) smears cops across the country

Senator Landrieu of Louisiana on Fox News Sunday:

You have to understand, the mayor of New Orleans--like the mayors of many majors cities--has enough trouble getting his police force to go to work on a sunny day.

Meanwhile, Paul, a cop in NYC, defends the New Orleans police who walked off the job. I'm one of those people that has a lot of respect for cops and the job they do, an unusual trait for someone from Brooklyn who has seen the worst of the worst of policing (including a cop that planted a gun on my brother, but that's a story for another day). But, part of that respect comes from the knowledge that when the shit hits the fan, the cops will be there, like they were in NYC on 9/11 when I'm sure many of them wanted to hide under their beds like the rest of us. The LA cops who handed in their badges and did nothing to help people during and after the storm were disgraceful. I just oppose Landrieu turning all of our cops into unhelpful sloths who don't show up on sunny days because of these few bad ones. I think even Paul would agree that that characterization isn't a very fair one.

I keep thinking about this song.... (by guest blogger Dorian Davis)

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the Earth so much
I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight...

And by 'you' he of course means Josh Marshall

Paul Krugman was there! I was sitting right behind him. Others got to lunch with him, but hey, I was nearby, basking in the glow. He said, "I couldn't do what I do without you."

-'Geeky Mom', an attendee at Eschaton's conference last week.

Who's with me on this?

Most overrated movie of all time: Goodwill Hunting.

Update: Protein Wisdom has added an 'underrated component' to this while Ace is naming a bunch of movies I've never heard of. How old are you, Ace?

Ground Zero, NYC September 10, 2005

Quote of the Day

Unrealistic expectations and breathless hyperbole (tinged with the myopic, desperate certainty of on-site reporters angling for Pulitzers) turned Katrina’s aftermath into a toxic stew of partisan finger pointing. When all is said and done, I, for one, won’t forget who and what is responsible for that.

-Jeff Goldstein on the revised projections out of New Orleans.

How out of touch do you have to be to imagine Democrats are seen as not shrill enough?

Black defended "politicizing" the hurricane. Calling for impeachment might not be the best course of action, but if blaming Bush helps, do it: "Politics is about trying to get things done." He argued, "We can make being a little shrill okay, make people used to the idea that Dems can be hardasses."

-From Blogometer's report on the EschaCon 2005, a gathering of liberal bloggers and blog readers associated with Atrios.

Someone show this guy the door

Is it anti-American to hate everything about America? Or should I not be questioning his patriotism?

In pictures

An amateur photographer has the best, fullest profile I've seen of what went down in New Orleans. A must see.

Via The Bellweather Blog

Ohhhhhhhhhh snap

More from the Gutfeld piece:

HUFFPO QUICK QUIZ!: Could you have predicted that the cause of a lifetime - making Cindy Sheehan the sympathetic icon of our times - could be so easily dropped once we found better dead bodies than Casey to use against the President? NOW LET'S CONTINUE!

How much longer do you think Greg Gutfeld will be welcome on the Huffington Post?

I give it less than a month. This is from his post on qualifications to be a Huffington Post blogger:

-Do you believe that no one can voice support of the IRAQ war UNLESS they are willing to serve in it? -YET when it came to the flood, you readily assumed an expertise in crisis management within hours of the disaster? -And only so you could heave blame at Bush like a monkey flinging his own feces?

Do you always try to relate large-scale tragedies to your own life?
-Do you say things like, "Wow, I was just in New Orleans."
-"I had a connecting flight there."
-"I bought some beads in terminal 2."
-"I rented the Big Easy once. It was good."

My people

Sometimes they make me proud.

Via Yaron.

Tell them the risks and then let them stay.

At first I though the people who are refusing to leave New Orleans, like the guy sitting on the couch in waist deep water are a little crazy. After all, what are they going to do in a deserted, dark city? How will they feed themselves and why do they want to live in flooded houses?

But, the people in this story have a point. Their houses never flooded. One family interviewed have enough food and supplies for a year, a car with a full tank of gas should they need to leave and a canoe. Most importantly, they didn't evacuate when there was actual danger, why should they evacuate now? If they want to stay in a ghost town, by all means let them. "We're not the people they need to be taking out," Mr. Kay said. "We're the people they need to be coordinating with." Exactly.

If we're going to rebuild New Orleans (and despite all the arguments to be made against doing so the main one for me remains that I have never been there and had been planning to go there next month-yes, really-and I really want to see it, even if it is changed after all this), we're going to need people who either will move here (unlikely after seeing what happens to a bowl-shaped city below sea-level) or people who love their city and would never leave it-no matter what. So let them stay, especially if they are helpful to the fixing and rebuilding cause. 'They are sitting on dry ground with all their belongings and plenty of provisions. They say they want to stay to help rebuild their city and maybe earn some money doing it, because they have animals they are afraid to leave behind, or to protect their property or simply because they have always lived here and see no reason to move their lives to a motel room in Houston or San Antonio.'

Some of them will of course leave when their provisions run out: 'Ms. Harris said she did not want to leave. "I haven't even run out of weed yet," she said.' I bet when it does she'll be off to Houston and quick.

I guess no one wanted to throw their diamonds in the sky

Kanye West booed at NFL kick-off show:

Yet it was disconcerting to hear his name booed loudly by Patriots fans who evidently didn't appreciate his nationally televised comment the other night on a Hurricane Katrina benefit that President Bush ''doesn't care about black people." The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number.

Yep, no one saw that coming at all. The majority of America is just like the liberal blogosphere. People love when celebrities criticize their president. Love it.

I hate Nextel (with Sprint!) and I think my 1700 daily readers should know

I lost my cellphone. Yesterday, after giving up hope that I would find it, I called Nextel, my phone company, to put a block on the phone so should someone find it they won't be calling Nairobi on my dime.

Thursday.

Operator: 'Thank you for calling Sprint with Nextel (apparently Sprint 'no service in Midtown Manhattan' recently bought Nextel 'why would you need your cell phone on the FDR Drive?' and so they answer the phone with both company names so as not to confuse people). How may I assist you today?'

Me: I lost my cell phone and I'd like to put up a block on it while leaving my voicemail on.

Operator: Sure, let me just check on that for you.

15 minutes later

Operator: Ok, just one more minute I'm checking on that for you.

10 minutes later

Operator: Ma'am? I'm sorry, we're unable to leave your voicemail on if you put a stop on the phone.

Me: But surely there must be some way....

Operator: No ma'am, sorry, there is no way to leave your voicemail on.

Me: Hold on. What about blocking outgoing calls but allowing incoming calls?

Operator: Huh. Great idea. I'll just check with my supervisor on that.

15 minutes later.

Operator: Yes, we can do that for you. I'm going to go ahead and get that all set up for you. Anything else we can do for you today?

Me: Nope, that's it, thanks.

Operator: Well, have a great day and thank you for calling Sprint with Nextel.

Friday

Dial my voicemail.

'I'm sorry but the Nextel subsriber you have dialed can not be reached at this time.'

MuthasonofakillNextel

Dial Nextel.

Operator: I'm sorry ma'am but there is no way to leave your voicemail on.

Me: But she said. And she checked with a supervisor and wasted an hour of my life. What's the great difficulty in turning off outgoing calls but leave incoming ones on?

Operator: Sorry, we'll have to merge with at least 3 other companies to allow something that fancy, please call back in 2009 when it's all one giant cell phone service provider that can do something as complicated as turn off outgoing calls. (Ok, maybe she didn't really say this).

Me: And, of course I'm still paying Nextel as if I have service this whole time, right?

Operator: Of course. Thanks for calling Sprint with Nextel, have a good day.

The crazy left

James Lileks:

One Air America host said as much; various rappers and actors have blamed Bush for not calling Superman on the hotline and blowing the storm away with Superbreath. One theory – and it’s an interesting one, as Howard Dean would say – suspects the Administration of deliberately flooding New Orleans to test the nation’s ability to deal with a nuclear strike. That makes sense. Sure. Why bother to drill to learn lessons that can be applied in other cities when you can drown a city and learn nothing about the hazards of radioactivity? The latter method has the added virtue of a conspiracy, which means there’s a good chance someone in the chain will breach the levee of secrecy, leading to what the Founding Fathers called Super Extra Immediate Impeachment Plus.

Crazy, yes. But this is what it’s come to. According to the choir of professional carpers, President Clinton spent half his two terms personally drawing up plans for new levees - when he wasn’t sneaking around Afghanistan in camo paint trying to apprehend Bin Laden, that is. By contrast the Bush Junta sent 100 percent of the National Guard to Iraq, which meant the 12th Airborne Plunger Brigade couldn’t descend to the Superdome with jetpacks and unstopped the overflowing toilets. Doesn’t matter that New Orleans had hundreds of school buses unused for evacuation – blame the Feds who cut matching funds for bus-driver instruction back in 1927.

This level of incandescent lunacy isn’t new. In the 90s there were people who believed that President Clinton would use Y2K to herd us into FEAM-run gulags to have barcodes tattooed on our necks, but these people confined themselves to rants at 3 AM on Art Bell’s radio show. By 2006 their ideological heirs on the left will be the evening line-up of MSNBC guests.

I have a feeling I will someday see New Orleans....

....because any city that can hold a parade after going through hell is a city that will bounce back from its trauma.

Anya must be fun at parties... (by guest blogger Dorian Davis)

My Flood of Tears
Shame for My City, Shame for My Country
by Anya Kamenetz

I am ashamed to be an American. We are a people who constantly avow belief in various gods, in liberty and justice, and yet our fellow American citizens, ancient ladies and four-day-old infants, were left to die in the streets for lack of food and water as though they were born in the slums of Mumbai or the favelas of Brazil. We tell ourselves and the world we can do anything, be it grow crops in the desert or bring democracy to Iraq, yet we can't land a helicopter on Interstate 10 or get buses to a convention center. What kind of culture have we made? And as for our government? For shame, Mr. President. With the deep inadequacy of your response, you have disappointed even the lowest expectations. It's worse than your most vociferous detractors could have predicted.

Via: Village Voice

Quote of the day

A buddy will help you move.

A best buddy will help you move a dead body.

But a Republican buddy will deliberately withhold aid to a major American city in a time of chaos and death in order to put a few sheckles in your pocket for collecting and storing the thousands of dead.

-Ace of Spades mocking the more than a little absurd new theory that Bush's buddies in the funeral business are profiting from Katrina.

So, government failed but we don't want to know why or how?

'Katrina makes it clear this government has failed,' said Democratic Senator Harry Reid, seen here in July 2005. Democrats said they will boycott a Congress investigation into the government response to Hurricane Katrina.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)

Taking bets

Some New Orleans evacutees at the Houston Astrodome are claiming that the military exploded the levees to keep certain posh parts of New Orleans from being destroyed. An alternate theory is that a barge hit the levee causing the flooding.

How long before these conspiracy theories make it to Daily Kos's front page and then how long after that before the NY Times picks it up?

The era of smaller government has not yet begun

A piece in today's WSJ proclaims the era of small government 'over'. If only someone could pinpoint to me when this era actually happened.

Paul Krugman had a column ripping into Republicans for not having faith in government and writing that 'For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming?'

Radley Balko counters that it's insane to believe the Bush administration is one for smaller government: 'In Iraq, this administration believes it can build a liberal soceity from scratch. It believes government can save marriages, convert convicts to Christianity, eradicate the drug supply, save public schools through nationalized testing, stop unwed sex by teaching abstinence, and solve the problem of high drug prices by forcing the rest of the country to pay for the medication of elderly people....This is an administration that has added an entire cabinet department to the federal rolls (also the largest bureaucracy in the history of U.S. government), spent money at record levels, expanded the regulatory state....If Krugman believes these to be signs of an administration, political party, and philosophy with "contempt" for government, I'd hate to see what "faith in government" looks like.'

Small-government conservatives tend to believe that the Federal government will always be a failure, that its sheer size will always hamper it from getting anything done. Radley links to this chart from his Fox column that shows exactly why big government is a big problem.

In the days following Katrina's landing in New Orleans, one of the big liberal bloggers wondered how conservatives could possibly still support a small government. Personally, I couldn't believe that anyone could look at the failures at every level of government and think 'yes, we need more of this.'

Blogroll Update

NYC:

Nikhil Bhat

A Brooklyn Life

Out there in America:

Peer Review

Von Bek to All Sporting Men- Long-time commenter of Alarming News and a very brilliant, if surly, guy has started blogging.

My word!

So, Americans aren't racist neanderthals? I cannae believe it.

Via Michelle Malkin.

Tonight in NYC

There are two cool events for right-leaners going on tonight in NYC. I'm going to already be downtown so will probably be going to the Jinx debate one, if anyone cares. For all other events happening this month in the Republican world of NYC, visit my other site: Rightevents.com

September 7, 2005, 7:00pm: New York Young Republican Club (the state-party affiliated one) SEPTEMBER SOCIAL: Fall Season Kickoff. Come to Tonic Bar - 727 7th Avenue, b/n 48th & 49th Streets, 2nd Floor. We will raffle off 2 box seats for the 9/10/05 Yankees-Red Sox game! $5 Yuenglings & $5 Cosmos. No cover!

September 7, 2005, 8:00pm: A JinxMagazine.com debate: Are Chain Stores and Big Box Retailers Hurting New York City? Yes: Becky Ellis (Burning Man participant) No: Megan McArdle (JaneGalt.net, The Economist). Moderator: Michel "The Brain" Evanchik Host: Todd Seavey. Lolita Bar (northeast corner of Broome and Allen on Manhattan's Lower East Side). Free admission, cash bar.

Advertise here

If you've been thinking of advertising here, now is a very good time.

My traffic has been experiencing a nice surge, particularly in the last few days but also for the last month or so:

It's not election levels, but it's not that far off:

And, to my readers: don't forget to click my blogads and crispads to let my advertisers know they're making a good decision.

Ignore this post

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

How dare black people like Deroy Murdock or LaShawn Barber think for themselves?

I'm outraged! They better start following the black liberal talking points or else they'll be portrayed as coffee-bringers and shoe-shiners and generally subservient to the white men they work with. Which is not at all racist because see, only conservatives can be racist. Liberals are inherently not racist even when they're criticizing people for not being sheep and not thinking the way they're supposed to. Nothing at all racist about believing all black people should think in the same way and implying that one's race should determine their opinions. Nope, nothing to see here.

Via Blogometer.

Quote of the Day

A comment on the Feministe blog:

George Bush’s ratings are finally (FINALLY!) in the 30 percentile, so apparently a lot of republicans are finally opening their eyes and realizing Bush is an awful human being (or maybe they’re just mad they have to pay more to fill their oh-so-efficient SUV’s). Hopefully, by the end of his run, the only Bush backers that will be left are the Dodge driving, American flag wearing, ignorance embracing, country listeners.

If only people would embrace condescension, Democrats would be a lock for '08. And, of course, Bush's ratings are nowhere near the 30th percentile but hey, if it makes them feel better about 4 more years of George W., they can believe whatever they choose.

Give these people a state, quick.

From Honest Reporting:

Late Saturday night (Sept. 3), hundreds of armed Palestinian Muslims crying 'Allahu Akbar' descended on the West Bank Christian city of Taibe. For the next few hours, the mob terrorized the community, setting sixteen homes and multiple businesses on fire, looting valuables from both, and destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Said one eyewitness: 'It was like a war, they arrived in groups, and many of them were holding clubs.'

The mob's 'provocation'? A Muslim woman from their neighboring village had had a relationship with a Christian man from Taibe. The woman was poisoned to death by her own family in an 'honor killing', and soon after, the pogrom against Taibe commenced.

Hat tip: Karin.

Yaron wrote something genius awhile ago about how he was fine with born-again Christians liking him (or, specifically Jews) for irrational reasons (like that their Messaih won't come unless the Jews have Israel, or that Jesus was Jewish) because it was so much better than being disliked for irrational reasons by Muslims (we don't actually use the blood of Muslim children to make matzoh, just for example.)

The kind of story above highlights the very rational reasons why Jews and Christians get along, especially over the subject of Israel. Christians have to know that if the entirety of Israel was in Palestinian hands, they'd never see their holy places again. I am still waiting to hear what exactly Sharon plans to do about the West Bank, since I can't imagine him handing over cities like Taibe knowing that they will be overrun and destroyed. Is a Palestinian state within the Gaza borders out of the question?

Music for Katrina teenagers (by guest blogger Peter)

This was sent to an email list I'm on:

my friend sheila is in texas and she has been volunteering at the astrodome. she is willing to have cds, cassettes, walkmen, portable cd players, boomboxes, and headphones sent to her house. she will organize a team of kids in her area to distribute these things to teenage survivors of the hurricane who have been relocated to the astrodome and transferred to schools down there.

so please, go through your music collections and your closets and find things that are collecting dust. so many of us have upgraded our music players and lost interest in things we used to listen to. i think it would be okay to donate burned cds and mixtapes too. ask your friends to donate stuff. ask local stores to donate stuff. maybe you don't have a cd player but maybe you could spare $10 to send a gift card. ask bands you know to donate some of their albums. ask record labels to make donations.

i can't imagine being a teenager and going through tough times without my music.

and i am just imagining having my cat die without listening to sting. or being too shy to talk to ed without being able to listen to debbie gibson. or being pissed off about having to clean my room without having a suicidal tendencies cd to throw stuff around to. or driving around aimlessly without the violent femmes. or ending a fight with my brother without blasting metallica.

imagine losing your home, all of your possessions, and members of your family, some of your friends...and just sitting in a strange place. being told you can't go back AT LEAST for 2 months, but maybe FOREVER.

it might help a little to put on some headphones and escape.

so please help in any way you can. feel free to donate money too. this way if sheila and her friends meet anyone with a request for an album they are desperate to own again they can go get them a copy.

you can send your donations to:

Sheila Jozami
11423 Birchwood
Humble, Texas 77338

I'm guessing they would also need batteries as well.

Ridiculous caption of the day

A man wears a 'Be Strong' t-shirt under a message board for Hurricane Katrina evacuees who are trying to find family or friends, on the floor of the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Americans, who have felt isolated since the Iraq war, have gratefully welcomed the hurricane aid that has flooded in from the rest of the world with none of the sense of humiliation that is seen abroad.(AFP/Stan Honda)

PR Advice For President Bush (by Dawn Summers)

He so needs to move this kid and his family into the White House.

And he should probably open up the Crawford ranch to refugees.

Let's really make this work 'really well'.

Today, 4pmEST

(Click this graphic to listen)

Our guest today will be Robert Avrech a Hollywood screenwriter who recently came out of the political closet.

Barbour for president

Arthur Chrenkoff has posted a comparison by one of his readers of the situation in Mississippi to Louisiana. Mississippi was actually hit harder, with the coast particularly damaged. But, it didn't fall apart like Louisiana. The reader chalks it up to leadership, Haley Barbour had some while Kathleen Blanco did not. The reader also suggests that Barbour would be a strong candidate for president and that people heard it there first. But, actually, y'all heard it here first. :-)

Via Conservative Grapevine.

Update: New blogger Von Bek praised Barbour 7 days ago. Boy am I behind.

Update: Damn it. Yaron had this story, with much the same points, including the link to Von Bek, something like six hours earlier than me.

Because race-baiting wasn't enough....

John 'thank the lord he isn't VP' Edwards: Let's add some good old fashioned class warfare to the mix!

Via Blogometer.

Shook

"What angers me the most is disasters tend to bring out the best in everybody, and that's what we expected to see," Ms. Blanco said at a news conference. "Instead, it brought out the worst."

Dawn Summers said to me yesterday 'this whole thing has really shaken my faith in big government', referring to the inability of government to fully take care of the hurricane victims. 'Good,' I said. I had been trying to shake her faith in big government for years. But the truth is that I never believed in big government because I felt that ulimately people will help each other when there is need. The story of Katrina has really shaken that for me. The stories are just horrific. People shooting at arriving help, hospitals being robbed, rape, murder, theft, evil.

Conservativism is frequently associated with pessimism, but the truth is that a belief that people are ultimately good, and are better when government gets out of their way, is very optimistic and positive. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are evil people in the world, but on the whole I tend to believe that people are good and will be even better when they need to be. How did this happen to New Orleans, then?

I would be less surprised about the bad things that happened there if I hadn't lived through 9/11 and the 2003 blackout in NYC. On 9/11, I remember thinking that crime was probably going to hit record highs since all the police officers were stationed at bridges and tunnels and at the mass grave downtown. But, no. No looting. An actual dip in crime such as theft. The blackout was much the same. It was as if people had seen all the footage from 9/11 with people helping people and wanted to be heroes too. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. It was so nice to see that side of the city. Probably the worst case of opportunism we encountered were people buying gas in New Jersey and selling it on the streets of NY for a higher price. But, really, that's not so bad since there was no gas at all in the city and I'd rather pay more money for gas than not have gas at all.

Mark Steyn sounds much the same sad note as I do, only of course with better writing and a humor I can't seem to muster when thinking about this.

My mistake was to think that the citizenry of the Big Easy would rise to the great rallying cry of Todd Beamer: "Are you ready, guys? Let's roll!" Instead, the spirit of the week was summed up by a gentleman called Mike Franklin, taking time out of his hectic schedule of looting to speak to the Associated Press: "People who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society."

Unlike 9/11, when the cult of victimhood was temporarily suspended in honour of the many real, actual victims under the rubble, in New Orleans everyone claimed the mantle of victim, from the incompetent mayor to the "oppressed" guys wading through the water with new DVD players under each arm.

Michele Catalano has been making me feel better by highlighting good stories coming out of Louisiana so if you've been feeling as pessimistic as me about human nature, make sure you're reading her.

Update: And, of course, some stories will inevitably be untrue. Apparently, and surprising to no one but the wackos at Huffington Post, no one resorted to cannibalism as previously 'reported'. There also may have not been any rapes since apparently no victims have come forward.

Facts about me

1. The drink I most often spill is coffee.

2. The item I most often lose is my cell phone.

Only the second one of these is relevant to any of you. Please use email for the next few days to communicate with me.

Help if you can

Louisiana boy Ken Wheaton has a way you can specifically help his home town of Opelousas. They're asking for supplies instead of cash so do try to help.

MUST MUST MUST MUST READ

If you only read one more post about blame and Hurricane Katrina, please read this one. It is eloquent, brilliant and dead on target. It's long so think about printing it out for later reading.

I have a lot of favorite parts (seriously, go read this piece) but this is one of the best:

A person of some modest education might have remembered that the worship and adulation fostered after 9/11 was for the NYPD and the FDNY. No one was buying FEMA hats after 9/11, because FEMA is essentially a mop-up agency. It's the first responders, the local governments, that will determine if a city will live or die. The State -- that means, the "governor"-- has the sole authority to mobilize the National Guard, and the governor of the state of Louisana was not only slow to do that, she turned down NG assistance from several OTHER states as well. The President does not have the authority to drop precious egg salad sandwiches from Michael Moore's missing helicopters. We do this ON PURPOSE. We limit the power of the federal government, as those of us fortunate enough to have spent time in Civics, rather than Self Esteem classes, are aware. This is so that we do not develop a central power so strong that eventually we end up with idiot inbred royals, or Presidentes for life, on the face of OUR money.

Thought for the day

At the height of the New Orleans saga, my friend MR, with whom I had argued once or twice about gun rights, text messaged me 'Want to see what the world looks like when everyone has a gun? Turn on CNN.'

First of all, bad guys can always get guns. It's not like criminals apply for gun permits and then wait to hear if the government deems them acceptable to own a gun. I could score an illegal gun much quicker than a legal one. That's a problem.

Second of all, would you have wanted to be in New Orleans without a gun during this horrible time? Like I said, bad guys can always get guns. Would you want to be unarmed while looting and chaos reigned around you?

So, yes, MR, I still believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens is a good thing and that more guns necessarily produce less crime. The New Orleans example only reinforces that. It's always a problem when only the violent criminals are armed.

Not enough troops, eh?

From Friday's BOTW:

Plenty of Troops One of the myths the Angry Left has been peddling in the wake of Katrina is that there aren't enough National Guardsmen to deal with the disaster because they're all off in Iraq. National Review Online's James Robbins offers a dose of reality:

Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.

That's all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.

So where are the rest? 751,000 (74.2 percent) are in the U.S. About half are active duty, and half Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the real issue of course--the Left wants you to believe that the country has been denuded of its citizen soldiers, and that Louisiana has suffered inordinately because Guardsmen and women who would have been available to be mobilized by the state to stop looting and aid in reconstruction are instead risking their lives in Iraq.

Recall, too, that many of the same people who are now say the National Guard is too important to waste on American security overseas a year ago were insisting that George W. Bush was a bum for serving in the Texas Air National Guard while "war hero" John Kerry was in Vietnam.

No hurricane. No politics. Just shopping.

If you live in NY there is one shopping event that outdoes all other shopping events. There is one sale that puts the rest to shame. It's the Barney's Warehouse Sale, of course, the sale featured very realistically in an episode of Will&Grace. It happens twice a year (I've written about the amazing shoes I got the last time, here) and if you plan it right, you don't need to buy any more clothes in between.

If you're like me, you've been in Barney's on Madison and walked sadly through the racks looking at all the things you can't afford to buy. Barney's is not just overpriced and extravagantly expensive, it's overpriced, extravagantly expensive and very proud of it. Their clothes are unique, as opposed to its overpriced bretheren Bergdorf Goodman and the less extravagant Bloomingdale's. Barney's is clothing for people that don't want to look like everyone else or blend into a crowd. People deal with loving Barney's in different ways. Some people go for a cheap imitation like H&M. For $40, you could get a knock-off of that dress you saw on the 6th floor. I wait for the warehouse sale because for $40 you can get the exact dress that you saw on the 6th floor.

My purchases today include a Barney's brand wool and cashmere coat for 50 bucks, a Diane Von Furstenberg top for $6 (!!!) down from $135, two tops by Ulla Johnson (my new favorite designer) for 15 bucks each, a pair of wool Barney's brand pants down from $200 to $18 and a couple of other odds and ends. For under $200, I added some incredible pieces to my wardrobe, and unlike H&M these clothes will last for some time.

The sale is not for everyone. Dawn Summers went after hearing me rave about it for years and was out the door within minutes. You have to get there with a certain frame of mind. It is crowded and messy and there are no dressing rooms so if you don't plan well you'll be one of those women in a g-string trying on clothes in front of everyone. The professionals in the place wear a bathing suit under their clothes so they can strip and dress with complete ease. Don't make an amateur mistake like leaving your dress hanging somewhere while you try on clothes, it won't be there when you come back and you'll be sad and crying (I've seen this happen more than once). There are no returns so make sure every purchase is something you like and will wear.

The men's section is actually much better than the women's. It's better organized, cheaper and generally more laid back.

Tomorrow is the last day of the sale so if you're in NYC and need a wardrobe update, I highly recommend it.

I love Jeff Goldstein

That is all.

Blame

A short list of who and what is to blame for the tragedy in New Orleans.

Dawn Summers: not totally crazy

I was going to punish Dawn Summers, for not picking me up last night despite it being just barely out of her way, but her post today is too good not to be linked just because its author is a selfish jerk. It's a classic example of why Dawn and I have been acquaintances for 15 years despite having near zero in common (though these days we do have poker, where oh where would our friendship be without gambling).

While every predictable liberal is having the same 'this is all Bush's fault' response, Dawn has some awesome points to make about the state's role in this disaster and how badly it failed its people. Read it, link it, pass it along, know that not all liberals are totally out of their minds (though, of course, she does make the mandatory digs at Giuliani and Bush to be able to keep her 'Liberal' credentials).

Race-baiting sells

I hate every single person who is making the tragedy of New Orleans into a racial matter. Jesse 'I can't make money if there isn't racial strife' Jackson, arguably the leading racial muckracker in the country, 'questioned why Bush has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering?"

"It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence."'

He's beyond disgusting. At a time when black people need help, he's trying to get jobs for his cronies. And, besides that, Jackson is just wrong. As AP points out: 'U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, head of the military task force overseeing operations in the three states, is black.'

Then, Kanye 'it's in a black person's soul to rock that gold' West babbles on live tv about going shopping instead of giving a donation (but that now he's spoken to his business manager and will give the biggest donation possible- I am eagerly waiting to hear how much that is) and then says 'George Bush doesn't care about black people'. That's what it is. You've figured it all out.

Of course, no idiocy circle jerk is complete without the biggest jerk around, Michael Moore, who bloviates in a letter that Bush would've never left white people on their roofs for three days. I feel huge sympathy for people that could not evacuate and even for people that chose not to evacuate (because, I am almost sure, I'd be just such a person that would choose to wait the storm out). But, be realistic here. The people on their roof of their houses chose not to leave. It's their own fault. White or black has nothing to do with it.

Kanye link via Mr. Snitch.

Always have to take that step into crazy

Sticker I took off a pole tonight in Greenwich Village:

Quote of the Day

'I swear to God, they make cable news anchors look like elder statesmen.'

-Ken Wheaton on the caliber of thought among the writers of Huffington Post.

'They are so poor and so black'

Wolf Blitzer describing the Hurricane Katrina survivors

The crazies are all out

Headline: World stunned as US struggles with Katrina

But don't believe for one minute that they won't take this opportunity to be absolute jerks:

"A modern metropolis sinking in water and into anarchy -- it is a really cruel spectacle for a champion of security like Bush," France's left-leaning Liberation newspaper said.

"(Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, nice and dry in his hideaway, must be killing himself laughing."

Yes, it's a lack of security that failed to prevent a hurricane from hitting and harming a city that sat below sea level. Oh that Bush, always coming up with new ways to hurt people. But that Osama, what a fun loving, happy guy. Positively giggling.

A female employee at a multinational firm in South Korea said it may have been no accident the U.S. was hit.

"Maybe it was punishment for what it did to Iraq, which has a man-made disaster, not a natural disaster," said the woman, who did not want to be named as she has an American manager.

"A lot of the people I work with think this way. We spoke about it just the other day," she said.

Well, a lot of people you work with are morons and so are you. If everything is punishment for something else, why did over 1000 Iraqis die in a stampede on a bridge over the Tigris the other day? What was their crime? And congratulations dumb woman who works for a multinational company: you're in good company with Al Qaeda sympathizers who believe the same thing.

Gross

Not content to write about Wilder Valderamma, or the latest news on Jude Law and Sienna Miller, Gawker takes on Condoleeza Rice for daring to go shoe shopping in NYC while New Orleans sinks. Of course, a Secretary of State deals primarily with foreign policy but that shouldn't stop random Bush administration swipings wherever possible.

As James Taranto wrote today:

Some people respond to a horrific natural disaster by taking cheap shots at their political opponents. Others respond by stealing TV sets. The underlying impulse knows no boundaries of social class.

Are Ford and Carter feeling completely left out at this point?

Headline: Bush Taps Father, Clinton for Relief Help

Donation effort

If you're looking to donate to hurricane relief funds, and if you're able please do, visit Instapundit's exhaustive post about places to do so.

Crispads

You may have noticed a new ad bar under my blogads. It's something called Crisp Ads and I get paid by click. So, if you feel compelled, please do click my text word advertisers.

Blogroll Update

I have no idea how I missed having Ken Wheaton's awesome Non-Dating Life series in my blogroll but now that I do, go visit (in the NYC section).

I'm glad I'm on Movable Type

Has anyone noticed that Blogger now has a 'flag?' button at the top of Blogspot pages? This allows readers to flag sites they find objectionable. They explain 'The Flag button is not censorship and it cannot be manipulated by angry mobs. Political dissent? Incendiary opinions? Just plain crazy? Bring it on.'

Then they note that the purpose of the button is to inform them 'about potentially questionable content, so we can prevent others from encountering such material by setting particular blogs as "unlisted." This means the blog won't be promoted on Blogger.com but will still be available on the web'.

So, fine, people won't be able to find this objectionable blog in Blogger's listing. I don't know why Blogger couldn't just set up a specific area listing questionable blogs that people could choose to peruse, but whatever, it's their company and they do offer a free service of both platform and promotion.

I am concerned though, that the 'angry mobs' Blogger mocks in its explanation are not at all farfetched:

When a person visiting a blog clicks the "Flag?" button in the Blogger Navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. We track the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed.

Offensive can be anything. People can be offended by all sorts of opinions. The beauty of the internet is that it has something for everyone, and that has long also been the great thing about blogs. Want to read a blogging hooker, a guy who calls himself Allah or a multitude of bloggers who really, really like their guns? It's all here. People can be, and I'm sure have been, offended by each of those blogs. A Daily Kos-alanche could get an anti-gay marriage blog shut down and a listing on Free Republic could 'flag' a pro-Hillary blog out of existence. Blogger adds, in the creepiest phrase in their explanation: 'This feature allows the blogging community as a whole to identify content they deem objectionable. Have you read The Wisdom of Crowds? It's sort of like that.' Yikes. The Wisdom of Crowds is about having all information, not about shielding each other's eyes from it. It's an argument against censoring outsider opinions or views.

Here's the kicker: because Google now owns Blogger, the flag clicking can get you delisted from Google if your site is identified as Hate Speech.

When the community has voted and hate speech is identified on Blog*Spot, Google may exercise its right to place a Content Warning page in front of the blog and set it to "unlisted."

Get off Blogger, people, it has lost its way.

Skip this post if you don't play poker

I very rarely go on tilt. I can think of three occasions where I've been on:

1. When my pocket aces got cracked by a K3o despite massive pre-flop raising by myself and a guy that ultimately folded queens.

2. When I folded top pair to an all in bet because I heard Dawn's voice in my head "What are you doing?! (sing-song voice supposed to be an imitation of me)'ooooh I have a pair. Look at me with my pair.'(/sing-song voice supposed to be an imitation of me)" and the guy flipped over a 53o with no 5s or 3s on the board.

3. Tonight. Sigh. I was playing 1/2 NL at a table with all guys, all of whom had much bigger chip stacks than me. I folded my first few hands then got dealt pocket 8s out of position. I raised $10 and everyone folded. Alrighty then. The next (and last) hand I played was in BB. I was dealt a Q9o which I was ready to fold to even the slightest hint of a pre-flop raise. Everyone limped in and I checked. The flop was a 369, rainbow. SB checks, I bet $10. I have two callers. The turn is another 3. Ok, I start to worry about someone catching a set but then think that the only likely hand still in this pot would be an A3 and I couldn't see that hand making it past the flop. I bet another $10. Call. Call. The river is my magical 9. I was so happy I fumbled with my chips and raised $20. 'All in' said the guy with a million dollars in chips to my left. The other guy folded. I quickly called. I mean, I've got the nuts full house. Even if he has a 3, my full house beats his full house. And, it's true that if he had a 3, that's exactly what would've happened. Only, see, he had two 3s, giving him a lovely hand of quad 3s. It's a good thing I only had a small stack because when that 9 hit I was ready to bet everything I owned on that hand. I tilted so bad, I explained the hand in detail to my mom who does not play poker. Sigh.