Posted 10:22 PM by Gene

We will not estimate how many words Moronna Dargis has expelled over a long and illustrious career in putting her name above the title, but we will say it takes a very dense person 1,480 very condescending words to write what she accidentally sums up in a quote of five:

"Quality is now a genre."

Posted 5:28 PM by Gene

Everyone knows of all the wonderful bargains eBay offers on scams. One of my favorites (though it isn't a scam) is the Beatles record player. Some company made these plywood boxes back in '64 for $2 that now go for $500,000 in any condition because of terms in wide use since then, like anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive and GET A LIFE!

As you can see from the photo, these things should be easy to scam. This reader of a very relaxing magazine called Model Railroader knows it's easy to work up the necessary skills to craft a fake, like woodworking, electronics and art. Probably the hardest part would be the covering, but I suspect one can track down reasonable facsimilies, and as any experienced model railroader knows the easiest way to verisimilitude is weathering. The knobs aren't tough; you can mold them. As for the platter, the tone arm, the motor and speed selector and the latches, you can get them from a kiddie player at a Goodwill store for a dollar. I suspect even the handle's not a difficult acquisition. And who's going to look inside? It's a wonder we haven't had fakes on eBay. Yes, it would be easy -- and hugely profitable.

I mention this because the last few months someone has sold several of what I suspect are faked antique clocks on eBay. (No links for obvious reasons.) They advertise antique phonographs, and the first one featured dial art that was clearly fake, with ultramodern fonts straight off a computer, and a manufacturer's ID in what looked like Rosie's Nephew's favorite anachronistic font, Helvetica. With both clocks the seller took suspicious pains to highlight the crazing on the dial -- which, when I think of it, looked identical-- and an equally suspicious brown tinge around the keyhole. (The cases and works may be genuine.) They both got bid in the four figures. If somebody took such pains to fake two advertising clocks, why not fake a Beatles record player! Heck they fake watches and Tiffany jewelry on eBay, don't they?

And yes, fake antique clocks and watches are quite common on eBay. And many of the fakes have the exact same dial design as these two phonograph clocks.

P. S. I'm not accusing model railroaders of doing this, or even wanting to do it; they're a gentle folk. It's just that this begs for scamming.

P. P. S. Beatles record players came with serial numbers, but as most have fallen off over the years -- voila! Another excuse!

Posted 5:15 PM by Gene

Another EHDYUKAYSHUNULL innovation: So as to not hurt their feelings (and we presume with the tacit approval of DUBYA) high schools don't rank their students -- which leaves the colleges to figure out how well they did.

MOR EKKSULLENTS IN EHDYUKAYSHUN!

Posted 5:11 PM by Gene

Gil Cates whispers, "CONSERRRRRRRRRRRRRVATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES!!!!!!!!!!!"

K-LO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 2:10 PM by Gene

Do the others work for Sony?

Posted 1:54 PM by Gene

Rolling Stone magazine hits the streets in China

A match made in heaven: JANN is the MASTER of SELF-CENSORSHIP.

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better look over your shoulder.

Posted 1:31 PM by Gene

Speaking of sponsors, yesterday we said they were doing a nice mea culpa job at the American Society of Willfully Ignorant Advertisers' conference. Seems the self-flagellation was better than we'd have thought:

Universal McCann's Jean Pool, who chairs the Amercian Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Policy Committee, said media owners, particularly the television networks, have become "addicted to the ring of the cash register" by allowing an ever growing amount of commercial clutter in their telecasts.

"It is the saddest and stupidest thing we have done to our industry," she told an opening day audience of 1,500 at the annual AAAA Media Conference and Trade Show in Orlando. "Clutter in every conceivable nook and cranny. Just why are we hell bent on irritating the very people that we are trying to sell our products and services to? We're killing the golden goose." [Actually, the goose that laid the golden egg; the golden goose is another story. We wouldn't expect ad-agency types to know. They know nothing as it is. --ED]

While stressing that she was not singling out ABC, Pool said, "How annoying is it to be interrupted every six or seven minutes when you're watching Desperate Housewives. A recent show had 24 minutes of non-program content. I'm not picking on ABC. The big [programming] successes are chock full of non-program time."

And Pool said TV is not alone in its penchant for commercial clutter. She said in one hour of the Howard Stern radio show, 38 commercial units ran. "Geez, that barely gives Howard time to get in his favorite word," Pool quipped.

Pool warned that if the media doesn't do something about clutter, they may find that the media agencies on behalf of their advertiser clients start shunning the more expensive, higher-rated programs, for lower-rated programs and dayparts, where clutter is less. "Maybe somebody would actually remember the commercial in a less loaded environment," she said.

EVERY LAST WORD IS SHEER UNMITIGATED MALARKEY. We repeat: NOTHING will change, because advertisers live in the throes of a PSYCHOSIS, a psychosis of throwing OUR money down the toilet; they have fiefdoms to protect, and names to drop, and BIG-TICKET-EVENT SEATS to fill, and as long as this holds, AMERICA'S ADVERTISERS WILL SPONSOR INDISCRIMINATELY, INDISCRIMINATELY.

Posted 1:18 PM by Gene

Anti-Gregory Petition Has Nearly 1,000 Signatures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GE BANCORP AND REALTY NETWORK has nearly a MILLION SPONSORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Via -- who else? -- The Freep)

Posted 1:04 PM by Gene

Here I was, all ready to gush madly about how Jimson Dickey pinched himself because we're in the sixties again, and the courageous Rosie's Nephew is making movies about them, exposing the EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL of Kenne -- DUBYA (he was president in the sixties?), when the WaPo folks link to another blogger who loves Jimson's, er, commentary -- and who in turn links to some hard working, decent man running for Senate from Utah, with bold statements like this:

The United States of America has historically been an economic superpower and an innovator of technology. We harnessed electricity, invented the light-bulb and the television, but what have we produced lately?

The United States is in dire danger as we are being surpassed by other countries on the industrial front. We developed the first railroad system, but China, Germany, and Japan are developing trains that float with no moving parts. We industrialized around the steam and internal combustion engines, but remain stuck in high gear on fossil fuels. Meanwhile the international community is closing in on energy production through fusion, and guess where the first operating plant is being built -- not in the U.S.A. The Chinese are gearing up to clean our clock economically with no oil dependence at all.

Other countries are now surpassing the United States with innovation. We need to have the courage to reverse this trend.

We wish you luck, Pete -- but I'm afraid running against ORRIN you may need more than luck.

Posted 12:56 PM by Gene

And if I'm to judge from the preliminary numbers from ShowBizData.com, The CONSPIRACY may be heading into another long SLUMP!

P. S. And the won't have WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!! THE JESUS SLASHER MOVIE to kick around this year.

Posted 12:48 PM by Gene

We wonder if the CW that the Os-CARS® will get a record low rating is wrong. After all, when five thousand NEWS HACKS say it it must be wrong. On the other hand we expected THE GAMES to do well, but even after all those cover stories for B0DE ("B0DE"? "B0DE" who?) viewers remained (in NEWS HACK parlance) "disinterested." We hope the same viewer "disinterest" obtains here, but whom the Gods of Media be for....

Posted 9:25 AM by Gene

The Lord God St. Warren has appointed a Successor -- and GOD KNOWS who it is!

Posted 9:07 AM by Gene

As the WIZARD OF OZ reaches the memoir-dictating and book-peddling stratosphere, one of RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'S hacks tries to justify it:

The all-time record for a non-fiction advance is held by President Bill Clinton, who is believed to have snagged $12 million from the Knopf imprint of Random House Inc. (Random House never disclosed the exact amount, saying only that it had paid "over $10 million" - but it has been widely estimated that the world rights deal was $12 million).

His autobiography, "My Life" eventually earned the publisher more than $6 million in overseas rights sales and had surprisingly strong audio book sales.

The hardcover edition was a runaway bestseller and earned back far more than Clinton's advance.

Really? We thought people merely ran away from it.

P. S. We can be sure getting accurate sales figures for books like this is impossible, especially as the aliterature biz has more truthfulness than even the BIG-SCREEN-VIDEOGAME biz.

Posted 9:01 AM by Gene

One of America's most PC states is losing population, no small thanks to the fact it's impossible to build a house there.

Hey Vermont! Why not merge with Massachusetts or New York?

Posted 11:14 PM by Gene

We cannot know how accurate Nielsen's latest audience-size-guesser is, but if these results from Washington have any truth VuhNU's number crunchers have been overguessing their numbers for some time. We would further not wish to wager why not-so-many people are watching television; but we would LIKE to believe enough have been fed up by BIGMEDIA's shenanigans as to have abandoned large chunks of the schedule, and possibly the medium altogether.

One thing is certain: MADAVE's idiots will keep funding the raw sewage out of sheer tradition, inertia, and contempt for the public.

(Via ArtsJournal.com)

Posted 11:09 PM by Gene

CNN is not showing the negative caricatures of the likeness of the Prophet Mohammed because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself.

We will presume that, in light of the NEWS HACKS' compassionate treatment of the cartoon story, they will play down this one, in the name of religious tolerance and the brotherhood of man.

These jackinapes have provided us another reason not to trust ONE WORD of their reporting.

Posted 9:42 PM by Gene

WHEW! People will still be able to play hangman and tic-tac-toe on their wireless keyboard doodads after all.

Posted 9:38 PM by Gene

Eight-years-plus seems pretty fair, given Duke's contempt for the people.

And CURLEY's (Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk!) STOOGES can't forget WHO did this:

A special election to fill Cunningham's seat is set for April 11. The district is heavily Republican but Democrats hope to capture it; their candidate Francine Busby is to deliver the party's weekly radio address on Saturday.

This news story brought to you by THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY! (RAH! RAH!)

Posted 5:28 PM by Gene

"Quite obviously, something went very wrong at the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid-1990s," said the chief.

Let me guess.

Whatever it was NEWS HACKS approved of it.

Posted 5:17 PM by Gene

Dixit is on a monthlong vacation in India visiting her parents. She drew cheers from fans and Bollywood colleagues last week at a film awards function in Bombay where she performed a dance sequence to hit songs from her old movies.

But Dixit says although she misses acting, she will make a comeback only if it's a "substantial" film that is shot in the United States. Bollywood movies are increasingly being shot in locations abroad, particularly the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.

She said motherhood was the best thing that had happened to her and she enjoyed changing diapers and pushing a stroller around in the streets without attracting any attention.

"I think I am enjoying myself more in the U.S. because people don't recognize me and I am not mobbed," Dixit said.

And we might consider there are vast swaths of the world that likewise don't give a damn who wins, and whose movie output the world leader in junk reciprocates with near-total indifference.

Posted 5:10 PM by Gene

I don't give a damn who wins, but it's obvious the whole godforsaken staff of NRO watches too many movies.

Posted 5:01 PM by Gene

The more MICK hyperventilates about the Os-CARS® the more I'm convinced most people have already had them up to their EYEBALLS, and may thus AVERT them on SUNDAY.

Posted 4:57 PM by Gene

"Yasser Arafat sat at negotiations with Israel for 10 years. The result is that Israel killed Yasser Arafat."

I guess it's time to pull that ol' PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION routine again.

Posted 4:53 PM by Gene

ANOTHER GOLDEN MOMENT IN LI-TE-RAH-TEEYURE:

Uzodinma Iweala (Beasts of No Nation) and Nathaniel Fick (One Bullet Away) were given the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for fiction and nonfiction, respectively, in a ceremony yesterday in New York.

Judges for the award were James Frey....

Posted 4:50 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: The CFOs are LEGENDARY WELCHES who got caught.

And doesn't reading ANOTHER story about NEWS HACKS SELLING SOMEBODY UNWORTHY set your teeth on edge?

Posted 4:47 PM by Gene

If I hear ONE MORE of these CODE phrases about how "the last few years have been a very politically divisive and politically vibrant time" I'll raise my right arm and yell

SIEG HEIL!

Posted 10:39 AM by Gene

Hahvahd Mutual Fund's board, taking a break from paying some of the investment industry's highest salaries, decides to stand up for some dean or clerk or whatever whom its former CEO Larry Summers had stood up for, thus underlining the needlessness of his resignation, and the needlessness of Hahvahd Mutual Fund.

Posted 10:16 AM by Gene

Now THE EDWARD R. MURROW OF COMEDY takes his repertoire one step further: he impersonates James A. Garfield.

Is this an omen?

Posted 10:12 AM by Gene

Advertisers do a neat imitation of NEWSPAPER EDITORS:

Along with this accountability issue, she identified media fragmentation and clutter as two other big problems that threaten the future of broadcast media. In support, she released a joint study from Harris Interactive and the 4As that found that about one-third of consumers think there are too many ads in their programming.

That clutter, she said, “is one of the saddest and stupidest things we’ve done to our industry. There are too many products vying for too little inventory.”

Which raises two points: two-thirds of those surveyed think there AREN'T too many ads in their programming; and more important, THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF WILLFULLY IGNORANT ADVERTISERS thinks there aren't too many ads in its programming.

Posted 9:27 AM by Gene

WHEW! Thank God that's over. Now our lobbyist friends can bribe us with impunity again -- until the next DUKE or RED-STATE SCORPION comes along.

George "Moooooooooo" Voinovich must be the dumbest man in the Senate.

Posted 5:10 PM by Gene

We would feel sorry for THE EDWARD R. MURROW OF COMEDY if he didn't make so much money and hadn't earned the unanimous and uncritical devotion of NEWS HACKS. It's the biggest night of his career and he is almost certain to bomb. To be sure this year's Os-CARS® is a veritable gold mine of satirical possibilities, from the preposterous pretensions of the best-picture nominees to the brilliant head-banging of Joaquin and the virtual acting of that schlep who impersonated Truman. Imagine what a gifted comic could do just with the three best-song nominees! Instead the audience is certain to get his enervated, ultrawonkish, dessicated, self-serious attempts at jokes, forced humorous banter from an elitist among elitists. We are certain too, however, that for him the night will be redeemed by idiots like ALESSANDRA gushing with praise, for the sole reason THE EDWARD R. MURROW OF COMEDY is ONE of THEM.

Posted 4:57 PM by Gene

The always contemptible Whitney Biennial has come at an apt time, and it and its partner in risible pomposity the Os-CARS® show us how psychotically detached from life AHT has become. Perhaps all this flatulence in oils and videos does symbolize our general ennui, but I prefer to think it reflects the brain-deadness of a self-appointed elite that stopped learning and thinking and growing decades ago, and is reduced by its ignorance into regurgitating regurgitations. But the truly depressing thing is there's no grand new cultural broom to sweep these bozos clean from the landscape; they replicate like amoeba, or rather like gray goo, and leave our consciences smothered with their nothingness. And in that sense, they damningly reflect the public's impotence.

Posted 1:42 PM by Gene

Oops:

U.S. reviewing second Dubai-based company

Posted 1:35 PM by Gene

Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Thursday 2006 priorities at the world's largest Internet search firm include maintaining and improving the quality of search results and advertisements, building new products and services for information publishers. He also said Google was building the infrastructure required to become a "global, $100 billion company," but didn't specify whether he was referring to annual sales or market capitalization.

Hey Eric, we got bad news....

Posted 1:29 PM by Gene

Romy is upset:

Panel says NYT is "a newspaper at risk" on diversity matters
New York Observer
The Times' Diversity Council says the paper's newsroom is currently 82.5% white, slightly less than the industry average of 86.5%. Only 14% of newsroom managers are minorities. The panel's report notes: "Many in the newsroom said they believed the [Jayson] Blair case had a lasting, deleterious effect on the way minority reporters and editors were viewed, both inside and outside the newsroom."

Happily we're lily-white where it really counts, and we can be George Wallace or Lester Maddox for as long as we please.

Posted 11:18 AM by Gene

And TCS Daily doesn't disappoint: it does some statistical spi -- interpretation showing poorer people have made VAST improvements under Dubya!

We suspect the favorite mode of transportation among Dow 36,000 and his friends is a limousine.

Posted 11:16 AM by Gene

Of course, it is possible that some Wal-Mart workers may be in the process of getting off the public dole; of course, it it possible too that Wal-Mart may be having the taxpayer pay for part of its PROFIT MARGINS.

That can only mean one thing -- time to check out TCS Daily.

Posted 10:58 AM by Gene

Correspondence to a GREAT departing newsman:

It has been fascinating, during my 5 1/2 years as public editor, to observe changes in the types of spam that arrive in my e-mailboxes each day.

When I first came to this job in 2000, most of the spam was pornographic.

At some point, the porn all but disappeared--it must have fallen victim to spam filters. It has been replaced by two other phenomena: letters, always from a relative of some deposed dictator, asking help in recovering an unfathomably large sum of money and, most recently, long tracts in Cyrillic script, apparently from Russia but about ... well, I don't know.

Since these communications keep coming, I assume their authors find them lucrative. For this recipient, however, something gets lost in the translations.

And DO keep those cards and E-MAILS coming!

Posted 10:54 AM by Gene

Brilliant idea, Gov...Mayor Bow-Tie: let's call your successor, and his/her/its successors, governors!

And to that end I say, re-elect Marion Barry!

Mr. Williams said he will continue working on the change after he leaves office in January. He thinks the next mayor should have an official residence.

Hmm, I smell some nice expensive hocus-pocus coming on!

Posted 10:34 AM by Gene

I think we can successfully bury this story:

Soviet Union ordered Pope shooting: Italy commission

Posted 10:31 AM by Gene

So that's why GE BANCORP and REALTY spent all that money:

NBC is already set to become the first network since the advent of people meters in 1987 to carry the Olympics during the February sweeps and not win the ratings period.

Posted 9:28 AM by Gene

JUSTICE SCALITO SENT A THANK-YOU NOTE TO "DR." DOBSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IMPEACH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 9:12 AM by Gene

The entertainment mafia is in a tizz because one of the three great nominees for the best-song Os-CAR®, the immortal "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp", was "rumored" to be "declared ineligible."



Wouldn't it be better just to stop handing out best-song Os-CARS® period?

P. S. AN EARTH-SHATTERING UPDATE: Somebody's performing -- well, we don't want to call this tizz producer a song, so we'll just call it slant-rhymed invective; and throws the Academy® into a well, into a non-tizz, as Gil Cates prepares for the executioner:

Aaron Rosenberg, lawyer for Three 6 Mafia, said it was a milestone for the Academy to recognize hip-hop's influence on American culture and [i.e., BUT; with ONE WORD this flack named SUE shows such a gift for toxic writing she ought to work for CURLEY] the group is extremely sensitive to decency concerns after the baring of Janet Jackson's breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

Here is reason no. 271,568 we HATE NEWS HACKS: we are convinced many of the entertainment stenographers, toadies and job-seekers covering this non-event could be convinced without a bribe to call this "GENIUS." It would never occur to such COMPLETE IMBECILES that it spits on the graves of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields (among others) to call this a "SONG", let alone to give it one of those britannium-copper-nickel-silver-and-goldplated statuettes. And we say this though we KNOW this slant-rhymed invective will follow the last twenty years of Academy-Award®-winning hack work into oblivion, while people will listen to "The Way You Look Tonight" forever.

Posted 9:04 AM by Gene

Hard-core con-SER-va-tives are SPINNNNNNNNNNNING that Slick and his gang helped engineer the DP World deal!

We know all about their deviousness -- but let us not forget Slick left office over FIVE YEARS AGO.

And AmSpec's blog posted the news at "9:13:22 AM." They should rename their blog ESP News!

P. S. Joe Lockhart would have made the PERFECT spokesman. (Sorry for the HUMAN EVENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (Also via ESP News)

Posted 8:52 AM by Gene

We don't know enough about something like Dubya's nuke deal to make an informed judgment (when did you last read a blogger make that statement?), but knowing Dubya we'd bet it was like the DP World deal, a sorta-kinda favor for somebody (remember how much of sainted Corporate America outsources), and we figure the Indians and the Pakistanis can find some sort of excuse to nuke each over that @#$%&* pile of Kashmiri rocks, with or without our help.

Posted 8:24 AM by Gene

Little Howie Hairshirt "carps" about "the abandonment of the Ted Koppel tradition."

Look Howie, St. Edward of Murrow died in 1965. Can't we get over that by now? Besides, you guys need no help doing bad things -- especially when you can paint them as good.

(Via Mediabistro)

Posted 8:22 AM by Gene

I think Dana Milbank's ready for a CROSSFIRE!

Or at least his own show on COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS NETWORK.

Posted 8:17 AM by Gene

A former League of Nations "human rights" functionary (pffh-hh-hh) direct-dials CURLEY to tell the world things are WORSE NOW than under SADDAM, but we should remember the League's definition of an icon of human rights is North Korea.

Posted 8:07 AM by Gene

• Terror Watch: What Bush knew about Katrina

Bush didn't just know -- he PLANNED it. Or rather PRESIDENT ROVE and his EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL SIDEKICK DICK planned it -- they sent a secret Air Force mission to the eastern Atlantic to SEED STORM CLOUDS, then they sent a secret CIA mission to the Gulf to DIRECT STORMS to NEW ORLEANS, then they sent a secret MARINE AMPHIBIOUS mission in to BLOW UP THE LEVEES, all so it would have the most impact on the POOR, the BLACK, and the...oh never mind.

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

GENIUS on the recorded...SOUND front:

CD sales were perilously low last week. According to hitsdailydouble.com, the total for the top 10 was less than 750,000. The No. 1 album was a piece of fluff called "High School Musical," a soundtrack to a Disney TV show.

Warner Music Group's debut R&B album from Jaheim fell from No. 1 to No. 10, off 63 percent with 53,000 copies sold. Ouch!

Even the recorded...SOUND S&M phreaks must be realizing two things: 1. What they're buying isn't music; and 2. The recorded...SOUND Mafia continues to vastly overcharge for its product, so much so that DVDs are much cheaper even though they hold roughly six times the data. This biz deserves its comeuppance.

But public records show that newish owner Edgar Bronfman believes in his product. On Dec. 5, 2005, he bought an underwhelming 1,000 shares of his own company for a total price of $18,340. He wanted to show a dramatic commitment to the enterprise....

Hmmm, do you suppose even the CLUELESS JUNIOR knows?

Posted 11:49 AM by Gene

An all-time masterpiece in the world of naming rights: Indianapolis's new partially-taxpayer-financed NFL pleasure palace will be named LUCAS OIL STADIUM!

Ta-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

"They're in the big leagues now," said Howard, the sports marketing professor.

So was ENRON.

(Via Brandweek)

Posted 10:30 AM by Gene

Boston Globe in talks to print and deliver New York Post

THE LORD GOD PINCH would assist -- THE force of EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!!!!!!!!!!?

When EVIL pays.

Posted 10:23 AM by Gene

If this is such a wondrous publicity stunt why is ZONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN's stock tanking?

Posted 8:59 AM by Gene

I'd bet the Nine Fingers will not stop governments from bribing businesses to relocate. And why should they? Isn't part of government's fun the power to tax us blind to bribe business to build factories they'll abandon after five years?

Posted 8:24 AM by Gene

Now that it's after the fact, CW JON and his friends ALL agree it was a DUMB thing to put B0DE on the covers of two newrags.

Let's see them do something like that again.

Over at Time, Managing Editor Jim Kelly shrugged off the miscalculation with his characteristic self-effacing wit.

Looking for a job?

Posted 8:20 AM by Gene

Study: More know 'The Simpsons' than First Amendment rights

Good news for The Corner; the Simpsons are CONSERVATIVE.

Posted 8:05 PM by Gene

Okay, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!, blame the FCC for THIS one.

Posted 2:16 PM by Gene

WP chatter: "Does the editorial page really work anymore?"

No. That's why it moved to the news pages.

Posted 1:43 PM by Gene

I'm afraid the screaming meemies at The Nation have a point. We should be able to make room for stupid cartoons about Mohammed and one-sided diatribes about demagogues like Rachel Corrie. But we can't, and we've retreated into our little rooms.

Posted 1:40 PM by Gene

The DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHB thinks:

CASTING OUT NINES [John Derbyshire]

A bazillion emails on the dog puzzle. It's just a slightly dressed-up version of the old "casting out nines" technique.

THEOREM. Take any number X; jumble up its digits to get Y; subtract the lesser from the greater of X and Y; the answer is bound to be divisible by 9.
PROOF. Suppose the digits of the original number, in order, are A, B, C, D,... That means that the number is A times some power of ten, plus B times the next-lower power of ten, plus C times the next-lower power of ten, and so on. When you jumble up the digits to make a new number, this new number will **still** be A times some power of ten, plus B times some power of ten, plus... Only the powers are different! Subtracting gives you A times (some power of ten minus some other power of ten) plus B times (some power of ten minus some other power of ten) plus... But any power of ten minus any other power of ten gives you a number divisible by nine. ( E.g. 10,000 minus 10 gives you 9,990.) So the result of your subtraction must divide by 9.

So that 4-digit difference -- the result of your subtraction in step 2 of the dog puzzle -- is bound to be some multiple of 9. For illustration, I'll suppose it's 7524, which does indeed divide by 9.

Instead of removing your chosen digit D (I'll choose D=5) from that difference, just imagine replacing the digit D by a zero. Call the resulting 4-digit number N. In my example, N=7024.

Now, treat that final step -- jumbling the three remaining digits -- as jumbling up the **four** digits of N, but making sure the zero ends up at far left. (E.g. treat jumbling up 724 to get 247 as jumbling up N=7024 to get 0247.)

By my theorem, the 3-digit (ignoring the leading zero now) result of this jumble differs from N by some multiple of 9. (Yes it does: 7024 minus 247 equals 6777, which is 9 times 753.)

AND, it also differs by some multiple of 9 from the number you get if you jumble up N's digits to put the zero -- the one that replaced the mystery digit -- at the far right, units, position. So 247 doesn't just differ from 7024 by some multiple of 9, but also from 7420 likewise... which is some multiple of 9, minus D! (Yep: 247 differs from 7420 by 7173, which is 9 times 797. and 7420 is 9 times 825, minus 5.)

Armed with this understanding, divide that final, jumbled, 3-digit number by 9 and note the remainder R. R, plus the mystery digit D, must equal 9. So D is 9 minus R. (247 is 9 times 27, remainder 4. 4 plus 5 is 9.)

So all the dog program does is look at your final, jumbled-up three digits, divide by 9 to get the remainder, and subtract that remainder form 9. Note that the final, jumbled-up three digits can't divide EXACTLY by 9 (giving remainder zero), because then so would my "N," which would mean you hadn't removed a digit....

Posted at 01:22 PM

Posted 1:13 PM by Gene

Barry Diller, formerly the Second Coming of Christ, dumps his manservant and dumps on a competitor:

...Diller said he didn't think that Google or Yahoo! are invulnerable to competition. "I don't think market share belongs to just one company. We're actually ready to compete."

He chided Google in particular for its "Don't Be Evil" mantra, calling it "pretentious."

"The truth is to a lot of people, Google is now a real business and they do a lot of things that people won't like," Diller said.

Like BLOGGER?

(Via IWantMedia.com)

Posted 1:06 PM by Gene

A PENNY FOR YOUR MAGAZINE
EBay’s Bargain-Basement Subscriptions Harm Brands

Has anyone heard of the phrase "You get what you pay for"?

Posted 1:04 PM by Gene

Aaron McGruder Announces a Six-Month Sabbatical From His 'Boondocks' Comic

Which means the company that draws and writes his strip will REALLY get it when he comes back.

(Via the invincible ROMY)

Posted 1:02 PM by Gene

And in the serious, conscientious, truth-telling world of NEWS HACKS:

Anna Nicole Smith = 551 GoogleNews hits.

Posted 12:57 PM by Gene

G000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000GLE insider selling? PERISH the THOUGHT!

Posted 12:54 PM by Gene

US postwar planning for Iraq almost nonexistent

Sometimes you have to wonder, did Dubya do this just to avenge Papa?

Posted 12:52 PM by Gene

Count on THE PAPER OF RE-CORD to take the joy out of ANYTHING (except bashing conservatives and Republicans):

But the film is also the most hopeful and emotionally mature of Disney's fables. The answer to childhood pain lies in adult affection, as Lady discovers a romantic partner in the figure of the homeless mutt Tramp. Almost imperceptibly, the film shifts gears from children's fantasy to grown-up romance, building not just to that transcendent moment behind Tony's Italian Restaurant, when Tramp nudges the precious meatball toward his Lady-love, but also to a graceful suggestion of physical intimacy, when the sun rises and the two dogs are discovered waking up together.

Posted 11:51 AM by Gene

Shucks, I guess anti-abortion protesters aren't racketeers anymore.

Posted 11:34 AM by Gene

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO:

Report: Top 10 Advertisers Spent 3.3% Less in 2005

You can't do this! You MUST throw your money down the drain! You MUST finance JUNK TELEVISION!! Where is your SENSE OF PATRIOTISM?????

Posted 11:32 AM by Gene

For once we feel sorry for GE BANCORP and REALTY:

On the bright side, NBC notes that it will win the week in the ratings for a third consecutive week -- something it has not accomplished in 18 months.

That, by the way, is when NBC covered the Summer Games from Sydney.

Somebody SIX-SIGMA LISA!

Posted 10:54 AM by Gene

NOW HERE COME THE SUCKER -- BARGAIN HUNTERS!

Posted 10:53 AM by Gene

Douglas Baird, a bankruptcy expert at the University of Chicago, said: "I'd suspect some justices haven't the slightest idea who Anna Nicole is."

GOOD FOR THEM.

Posted 10:45 AM by Gene

GASP!!!!! SHAREHOLDERS PANIC AS G000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000GLE'S CFO PREDICTS SLOW GROWTH!!!!!!!!!! THE SHARES ARE DOWN $50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After having gone UP that much the last two weeks and after having gone up $280 since the THING STARTED TRADING.

Posted 9:08 AM by Gene

THEY CALL ME BYRON TWEEZERHEAD.

Posted 8:42 AM by Gene

Here's the next big thing: school days off for Muslims. We're not opposed -- Jews get their holy days off, and they're a small part of the population; but educrats will endorse them not because there are more Muslims, but because it's PC.

Posted 8:10 AM by Gene

To all you Indians who've accidentally hit on my blog due to my link, let me say, you have a GREAT country.

Posted 5:04 PM by Gene

It is as frustrating to find my hits are as much at the mercy of posts on the WaPost properties as they ever were with the Next Blog button. To whomever is paying even slight attention: If you read my blog, and you like it, e-mail a friend. I'd like a more steady visitorship for a change.

Posted 5:01 PM by Gene

MySpace CEO Chris DeWolf says to his knowledge the backlash hasn't caused any advertisers to drop their support of the site. "We get phone calls from time to time, but when we describe the safety measure that we've put into place generally the advertisers are relieved and feel good about what we're doing."

TRANSLATION: Some advertising fiefdom exec calls an underling into the office and ask, "What's this about MyFace.com? I've heard it's something about selling kiddie porn. Could you look into that?" And the underling makes a call, and finds it's not about kiddie porn, and the fiefdom can throw $100 million more into the bonfire.

From the congratulatory tone of this piece I guess SI has $1 billion of his own to burn.

(Via IWantMedia.com)

Posted 3:01 PM by Gene

"CRUNCHY CON" has become to THE CORNER what METROSEXUAL was to THE PROFESSOR, and you can BOTH stick it where the sun don't shine.

Posted 1:50 PM by Gene

Stale.com does it AGAIN:

Today's Doonesbury: Short and sour.

Posted 1:40 PM by Gene

There goes that @#$%&* NAZ...REACTIO...conSERvative again:

Pope says embryos have rights from conception

Posted 1:23 PM by Gene

This has not been a good week for TV fans: Dennis Weaver has died.

Or as Terry Teachout put it, melodramatically but well enough:

Of course we’re feeling nostalgic for our lost youth, just as our parents felt nostalgic about big-band music. But it’s not just that we miss those old shows, and the simpler world view they collectively epitomized: we also miss the fact that they gave us something in common, something to talk about besides the weather. We all know who Don Knotts is, which is why it made us so sad to hear of his death (and why the obituary of a second banana got so much play on the evening newscasts, which are mostly viewed by older people). What percentage of us can recall the name of anyone who competed on American Idol two years ago?

Posted 11:33 AM by Gene

No Kurt, Hahvahd Mutual Fund will not appoint a Larry Summers 2.0. More likely is a Uriah Heep 263.0.

Posted 9:37 AM by Gene

Conservatives! REPUBLICANS! You've been warned: the network-news shows are doing more -- HARD NEWS!!!!!

Pfffffffffffffffffffffft!

Posted 9:14 AM by Gene

Carol Hamilton, president of the L'Oréal Paris brand division of L'Oréal USA in New York, said she had been shrugging off the efforts to make a molehill out of "Brokeback Mountain" and the other nominees.

"Of course I've read all those articles," Ms. Hamilton said, adding, "My feeling is that it will still be the most-watched show by our consumers" of any TV program this year. Women typically compose as much as two-thirds of the Oscar audience.

"And the attentiveness for the show is at a much higher level than a normal show," Ms. Hamilton said. "That makes our commercials more effective."...

"The Grammys, the People's Choice, the Golden Globes are all nice, but nothing is the party that is the Oscars," said Richard Castellini, vice president for consumer marketing at CareerBuilder.com in Chicago....

"When you have some of these bigger television properties, more eyeballs on the screen, it's a great opportunity," said Alison Lewis, senior vice president for integrated marketing at the Coca-Cola North America unit of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

I don't think I'd want to work for these people for the next three years, as that's how long they may be dropping names, and torturing their subordinates.

Posted 1:19 PM by Gene

And in more show-biz mafia news, THE CLUNKER BROTHERS are selling [C]RAP to sell their CRAP, and should see their sales further decline.

Posted 1:08 PM by Gene

The head of GE BANCORP and REALTY's GAMES unit wants to see B0DE back.

Please! Isn't one hypermarketed goose-egg enough?

Posted 1:05 PM by Gene

In the end, the fight between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is a fight to see who can deliver better videogames, and we hope for this cause all the parties involve waste billions, and confuse the public, and set the cause of lousy "entertainment" back by years.

Posted 12:47 PM by Gene

This is just a repeat of L'Affaire Ovitz: Mafia types scheme, the world yawns, and Hollywood disgorges more junk than ever.

Meantime the biz gets another video-game director.

Posted 11:02 AM by Gene

Bill Richardson's running for president!

"The governor feels very strongly about getting involved personally to promote New Mexico's film industry," Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley said.

Let me guess: unlimited abortions -- and NO BLOOD FOR OIL! Or something like that.

Posted 10:57 AM by Gene

Did you know John Paul II has his own museum in Washington?

The Detroit Archdiocese does.

Posted 10:55 AM by Gene

Either way, California's next governor's a Democrat.

Posted 10:33 AM by Gene

DA POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gives Little Jeffy a suggestion:

If past is prologue, the Winter Olympics' poor ratings performance should garner Jeff Zucker another promotion.

I've got it -- make him CEO of GE BANCORP AND REALTY!

Posted 10:17 AM by Gene

Here's an idea, Dubya: let's appoint a NEW ORLEANS CZAR!

Posted 10:06 AM by Gene

John Bolton lives up to the fears of those who said he would wreck our foreign policy by speaking to the conservative FEDERALIST SOCIETY, a root of EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL. Never mind that the League of Nations is a boiling-over melting pot of corruption and intolerance, nor that it's an excuse for crime, big and little.

Posted 10:01 AM by Gene

Meantime People Newsrag goes civil war blahblahblah. We wonder that both rags didn't sound a cover tocsin over the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL threat to abortion, a right as sacred as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Well liberty and the pursuit of happiness anyway.)

Posted 9:58 AM by Gene

Mr. Mark must be running out of things to spin or plug to put India on the cover. But he does afford Hamas's prime minister a chance to sound slightly reconciliatory; obviously he knew he was speaking to American news hacks.