Eugene David ...The One-Minute Pundit |
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Saturday, January 10, 2009
SLIME's rags always fall for every last stunt because your subservient hack wants to be helpful. Flying cars will not happen in our lifetimes, for obvious reasons, like -- if people can't drive on the road...not to mention drunk air-driving, mid-air collisions that could kill people on the ground, morons doing "wheelies" and other idiot stunts, and the impossibility of traffic control (where would you put road signs and traffic lights?); the idea that internal navigation systems would help is sheer fantasy -- just like air-driving. And we haven't mentioned their energy inefficiency -- a god's gift to our enemies the Saudis and the Russians. Which reminds us -- a squadron of these could be useful in terror attacks. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO thank you, SLIME.
The incoming Obama administration will not abandon US President George W. Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas, the chief national security spokesperson of the Obama transition team has told The Jerusalem Post.
Wait! Didn't the election end in November?
Cadbury starts a "three-minute" Web site for Dentyne and proves even some supposedly ultra-cynical Internet impresarios were born yesterday (not to mention that sometimes commenters can be more intelligent than the people who run Web sites):
No. 1 · Shimstu
Just what we need: More people moonlighting as bad musicians.
Well, if that's your happiness....It sure isn't mine. (If only someone could come up with a punctuation mark to symbolize the rolling of eyes.) Friday, January 09, 2009
Another Modernaires tune has hit me on the head: "There! I've Said It Again." Most people know the timorous tenor Bobby Vinton's version, forgetting the so-called Million-Dollar Monotone Vaughn Monroe "introduced" it back in '45 -- though I learned just yesterday that Benny Carter first played it in '41, but wasn't a hit with it -- amazing with such a supremely gorgeous ballad, which was meant for the full-throated group treatment (Monroe sang it with a girl quartet); but then we must remember Glenn Miller was first with "I'll Never Smile Again," which he took with Ray Eberle at a quick and indifferent tempo never thinking his rival Tommy Dorsey and the Pied Pipers (and Frank Sinatra) would make it the kind of slow, dreamy ballad he specialized in. Listening to this masterpiece of pop music I know why I get exasperated at the press's mental dross that turns every last bit of fool's gold into solid platinum. American culture was once as big as the continent, and larger than life; listen to Copland's Billy the Kid and you hear a composer almost in awe of his nation. You could be proud of it, and of you. Though we can't view it through anything but the grotesquely distorting prism of its time, of the golden age of radio, and the golden age of film, and the golden age of song (and the golden age of war), The Swing Era could not have been made anywhere else; and its tunes were larger than life, not a few coming from the pens of patriotic immigrants like Harry Warren who brought opera to the music. Today it's all screamin' 'n' whackin'. That one-hit wonder whose picture I posted today will be long gone before she has a chance to make another, but that picture makes me grimace because if someone with any looks sang like Doris Day or Kitty Kallen or Peggy Lee or Jo Stafford, and she sang Styne and Cahn, or Burke and Van Heusen, unlikely though it is and despite the incorrigible notion of "retro" she'd not only be the champagne toast of America, she'd be every young man's fantasy, instead of another of the SOB SUMNER's girl-toys and another shrug of the shoulders. But what truly rankles is when the hacks get their hands on our current undying genius; [C]RAP (for one example) is less offensive than the idiots who turn it into high art and excuse its every prejudice, and thus twist the knife for its every sleazy manner of offense. And always the typists must close their pea minds to what we once were, and once did, conveniently assuming a defensive posture to speak of genius when even they know better. That's why I say against all reason if every last movie ad-blurbist and TV ad-blurbist and rock cri-TIC lost his job it would be America's victory, and why, disastrous though it would be, I long for the day MNI sells for ZERO.
Now the Citi and Morgan Stanley banks (PFFFFFFFFFFFT!) may merge their brokerages, meaning somewhere they figured the taxpayer has a mandatory in.
(This too via Cheapie Marketwatch)
Robert Rubin's leaving Citigroup.
While Mr. Rubin has defended his performance since joining Citigroup in 1999, insisting that the bank's problems were due to wider turmoil in the financial system, not failures by Citigroup, he is "tired of it," a person familiar with the matter said. DITTO. (Via the Journals' poor relative Cheapie Marketwatch)
It's official: HANK has supplanted Andrew Mellon as history's worst treasury secretary.
(Via Seeking Alpha)
TRANSLATION: If we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to the Europeans, and we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to the Russians, and we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to the Chinese, and we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to the PA, and the Europeans talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to Hamas, and the Russians talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to Hamas, and the Chinese talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to Hamas, and the League of Nations talks talks talks talks talks talks talks talks talks talks talks talks to Hamas, and somebody signs a piece of paper, and we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk some more to the Europeans, and we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk some more to the Russians, and we talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk some more to the Chinese, and we...well, not to BELABOR it, but after all this talking and paper making maybe, just maybe, Hamas will agree not to kill Israeli women and children. For six months.
Shut up, Jackson, and go back to slanting the news with your friends. P. S. Kaplan, Inc. still 60 percent from its all-time high. You know, if this dame sang "Sentimental Journey" or "It's Been a Long, Long Time" instead of that usual screaming pop pap we just might find her attractive.
HORROR IN AD-BLURBSVILLE:
The amount of bad news is staggering, even compared to the pitiful previous year, which also had its share of cat-fighting and pink slips. Among the print publications that sank in ‘08 are No Depression (which didn’t dip in circulation), Harp, and Resonance. In addition, the Tribune Company (which includes the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune) and Creative Loafing were forced to declare bankruptcy, The New York Times had a number of staff buyouts (including noted music industry watcher Jeff Leeds), Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone instituted layoffs (Rolling Stone alone had three rounds of it), XXL fired its editor-in-chief, Maxim became vulnerable to creditors, and both Blender and Rolling Stone had to find new publishers. Even the online world wasn’t spared as the Paper Thin Walls collective shut down, the promising online Juke Service didn’t even get a chance to open, Gawker had to cut its pay for staff, and Yahoo instituted lay-offs as well. UK music magazines didn’t fare any better, with many of them dropping in circulation or barely holding on to their previous numbers. And all of that is still a drop in the bucket compared to the industry as a whole—in all, it’s estimated that over 21,000 jobs were lost in the publishing biz in 2008. Given the ADJECTIVES you clowns spew out and the inescapable publicity stunts you subject us to every damned day of the year -- as I said with the writedown in prof jobs, this is NOT bad news. For print scribes in the music world, the biggest headache came in the form of disappearing advance copies. Weeklies usually need at least two weeks lead time, and monthly publications need about two months or more, but Nine Inch Nails, the Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, and Beck sent many editors scrambling when they put out their new albums without any advance. TRANSLATION: You're also mad you're not getting as many PERKS. (Via the annoying ArtsJournal, which must link to such tripe)
"The major purpose should be to reinforce the slight increase in market confidence," says economist David Jones of DMJ Advisors.
TRANSLATION: The One should do this to make the Wall Street Casino feel better. Hasn't it felt good enough? Thursday, January 08, 2009
Here is another and annoyingly frequent example of the eyeball-rolling inanity the press foists on us in the name of excusing every noble cause: the the-superrichies-are-cutting-back-on-their-ostentation-because-they're-too-chicken-to-flout-their-superriches story. Your success stories from the luck dispensaries of Wall Street and Hollywood will be back to flaunting their bad taste when they can get away with it. And even if we could think their flaunting is good, the example of yesterday (such as Veronica Lake) says otherwise in a thousand words.
Which one will last longer: Israel, or Time magazine? I'm betting on Israel.
NUF SAID. (Via WeeklyStandard.com)
One of the deadliest words in English is "demographics." It is used for two reasons: either to justify financing junk television or to justify a tirade about illegals. I do not intend to read this story because any typing with the portentous title "The End of White America?" sounds like some writer is building a new crutch for mostly white news hacks to lean on. We can say this, as we know the inspiration: Whatever the people may or may not have been thinking when they elected The One, they were not making a statement about race, they were trying in their two-left-footed way to choose the best man. America survived immigration before and it will survive going majority non-white, assuming the demographics spouters are any more accurate than economists. Whether it can survive some other problems is another story.
Yesterday: The Chrysler Building, 30 Rock, Lever House. Today: Ice cubes on a stick. Thankfully these are NOT going up, a rare instance of common sense defeating AHT.
TRANSLATION: Appoint first, ask questions later.
When Congresspoops do the "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" routine something's up.
We wonder when the funds of funds will demand to be bailed out, especially by people who squired Elle Macpherson.
Stories like this please us because Wall Street (like the bigmedia and politics) is essentially a luck dispensery, and these cretins were long overdue for bad. The only problem is they can wreak revenge on the harmless, which they're doing with exquisite ferocity.
Does anybody remember Red Barber's (supposed) phrase "sitting in the catbird seat"? (James Thurber wrote a story around it.) Big banks refusing to lend so they can get more government money, and being so big the government HAS to give them the money, is sitting several levels above the catbird seat.
ANOTHER Bernie (albeit low-grade):
Forte's business found a steady stream of customers because he told investors he was earning them consistent returns of between 8 percent and 14 percent, one investor said. How many other such geniuses still crawl in the financial woodworks?
Twenty years from now, when he is in his dotage (although arguably he's there already) and can relax himself in the sweet days of retirement recalling the great thrill of being a president's close friend and then writing a novel about it, Anonymous will still let out a banshee scream over Abu Ghraib, no matter what offenses against mankind others have since committed.
Mr. Bew-KES, why can't you lay this guy off?
WHAT IS YOUR DRIFT, MA'AM? A GanNETtoid gets all tangled up wondering if Washington said "so help me, God" when he took the first presidential oath of office, and while we may speculate as to why a GanNETtoid would get so excited there is no speculating that GCI is at $8.71, nearly $82 from its all-time high.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Further on the economy:
The nation's tax code is so complex that taxpayers spend nearly $200 billion a year on the work required to comply with requirements, the government's taxpayer advocate said in a report released Wednesday.... The tax code is likely to get even more complex in the coming weeks as Congress considers an economic stimulus package that is expected to include about $300 billion in tax cuts, including breaks for individuals and businesses. Some of that money could go back to the taxpayers and help the economy -- don'tcha think?
Forbeslist.com scratches its head over a husband-and-wife economist team, the wife of whom will serve The One as head of the Council of Economic Advisers:
The Romers' research actually undercuts the Keynesian approach in a more fundamental way. They find that tax cuts to offset a recession are ineffective, but their reasoning would also apply to government spending increases to offset a recession. In other words, if she believes her own research, Christina Romer should be a strong critic of her new boss's policies. In other words, economies may resist dogmas, regardless of what Gekko "Grasso" Kudlow and the Angry Nobelist Paul Krugman think. Whose dogma will work best now?
What we can expect from WALTER WINCHELL JR.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'s version of SUPERNIKKI!!!!!:
Watch Out For Watchmen [Jonah Goldberg] My first post at Big Hollywood is up. It's pretty much for rightwing comic book geeks. 01/07 01:17 PM
So much for our MNI IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE WATCH: down 40 cents, or over 22 percent.
Live by the pink sheets....
ESPNCORP NETWORK NEWS outsources its Iraq coverage to the Beeb.
Why does Ub Iger continue to maintain the illusion He's in the broadcasting business?
...13 watches, 4 diamond brooches, a jade necklace, two sets of cufflinks....
And a Ponzi in a pear tree!
AP NEWSALERT!
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Obama declines to take position on whether Burris should get Senate seat. Outspoken as usual.
Just how bad is the oil...glut?
Prices remain so low that oil is being stored at sea to avoid selling it at current market prices.
Sorry Lloyd, King Lear is not a comedy -- and its title character probably never had "strawberry-tinged hair".
And tons of antioxidants! (Via The Daily Beast, where somebody's giving this a deserved thumbs-down)
The last time HBO had anything to do with an inaugural it plastered its logo on a third of the screen. (We seem to recall it did make its wingding available to basic subscribers.) This time, TWXSTERS, do you think we could plaster the logo on the WHOLE SCREEN?
(Via MediaBistro) P. S. at 9:16 a. m. PEOPLE WARNER CABLE is writing off $15 BILLION in cable franchise rights (i.e., GOODWILL). How much of nothing do cable subscribers pay for every month? P. P. S. at 9:23 a. m. TWXSTERS WRITING OFF $25 BILLION! $40 BILLION IN ZERO FROM THE UNIVERSE'S GREATEST MEDIA COMPANIES! Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Parsons to Commerce!!!!!!!!!!!? [Exclamation points added]
A TWXSTER Commerce boss, a TWXSTER surgeon general, a TWXSTER press secretary for Veep Kinnock -- is The One intending to bail out PEOPLE WARNER?
We wonder if Jeb simply realized the third time might not be the charm.
NO MORE BUSHES IN THE WHITE HOUSE!
WALTER WINCHELL JR.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! starting his new conservative celebrity blog (BLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!) is the definition of "fool me once, shame on you...."
And fool me three times and everyone will call you "AMERICA'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BLOGGER!!!!!" and you can run anything you please. And fool me four times and you're worth $200 million. (First and second links via IWantMedia)
Nor will we comment on Alcoa's horrendous layoffs except to say 1. Nobody's building houses and 2. Aluminum's not expensive anymore.
Nor do we care too much about Apple's decision to kill DRM because it's now obvious it was pretty well dead from the day the first PC got its first hard drive and modem.
A Seeking Alpha columnist writes that maybe deflation mightn't be that bad, citing high-tech. It sounds like self-parody but he may have a point. Deflation mightn't be bad if you live sensibly, unlike the experts and brokers and media types who keep whining about it and don't.
Somebody named Michael Hirschorn, who ran one of SUMNER's brain rots, writes in The Atlantic that the Paper of Re-CORD could cease publishing by May. Since you say that, Mike, what are the chances YOUR FORMER BOSS declares BANKRUPTCY FIRST?
(Via CuteLittlePinkPaper.com)
Oh, so now it's 30 "unconfirmed" dead at that UN school in Gaza. Maybe because the Jerusalem Post (a biased source, it being Israeli) said MILITANTS were firing mortars from the school and had it booby-trapped?
Which leads us, somehow, to our MNI IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE WATCH. It finally closed up 30 cents at $1.80. We will make this a daily feature until all those investors (or short-sellers, or whatever) come back to their senses, which may not be soon.
The ASSPress, fresh from grieving over all the atrocities that ISRAELIS and ONLY the ISRAELIS are committing in Gaza, assures us that The One will "ban earmarks" from his stimulus package!
We could ask whether the stimulus package is one great big earmark, but that would be like asking if a Hamas hospital is a hospital.
ESPNCORP engages in deceptive campaigning for its prospective Os-CAR® nominee -- and Mogul's Friend is FURIOUS!
If the news biz spent half as much time improving its product as it spends tantruming without a cause, Sam Zell would still be a colonel.
NRO and FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NEWS daydream that the House will vote John Dingell in as the speaker.
Not bloody likely. Monday, January 05, 2009
Science: Carefully Timed Jerks Could Power Space Elevator
Given the source we shall merely say, NO COMMENT.
Health official Raed Arini said he has stopped filling out the space on death certificates left for "reason for death."
"THE REASON FOR DEATH IS THE ISRAELI ARMY!!!!!!!!!!" Arini said, as medics rushed in with more wounded people. [On-the-side-of-the-angels overemphasis added] If we had to guess ASSPress and its partners in JERNALISM have been running nothing but "humanitarian" stories lately. P. S. McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) 45% HIGHER; [DAMMIT!] continuing higher today but not hearing any news that would justify today's rally on strong volume. Shares of McClatchy rose more than 36% on Friday. [DOUBLE-DAMMIT!] With about 22.5% of its float shorted during December, today's move could be the result of short sellers covering their downside bets. PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!! Consolation: GCI's still under ten, and that new ad platform didn't budge PAPEROFRECORDCO.
Today tragedy struck the news biz as The Paper of Re-CORD ran its first front-page display ad -- and not even Romy's readers cared.
Which is not to say all the economic news is bad. Inside Higher Ed says there'll be a fifteen percent decline in history-prof jobs. Now if this is true throughout the humanities (as it may be) it can only be good news -- fewer profs boring their students, fewer profs boring their students with their PC passions or crank political views, fewer profs marching in lockstep off a cliff for the latest noble cause, fewer profs playing favorites sexual or otherwise, fewer profs writing dull textbooks, fewer profs sucking off the GUVMENT teat -- no one wants to wish unemployment on anybody, but where's the bad news in this?
Speaking of REPUBLICANS:
RNC hopefuls predict Obama backlash Be careful what you wish for -- it might backlash YOU. Speaking of -- chairs, there have been hundreds of thousands of posts in con-SER-va-tive sites about his, meaning some people really need to get a JOB.
A tribute to OUR kind of Republican, Wayne Gilchrest:
He never had much use for politics - he says he registered as a Republican for his initial run against Democratic Rep. Roy P. Dyson in 1988 only because it was cheaper than filing as an independent candidate.... Happily, These are peaceful days for Gilchrest, who spoke of feeling liberated after losing a bitterly fought primary last year to conservative state Sen. Andy Harris. It pleases Gilchrest that tomorrow, Frank M. Kratovil Jr., the Queen Anne's County Democrat whom he crossed party lines to endorse in the general election, will be sworn in as his successor. Happy fishin' -- WAYNE! When time's up this honorable man will be another lobbyist.
Chrysler sales halved in Dec. as industry sales plummet
We figure at least one of the THREE HEADS on that DOG must be smiling.
Now USAOKAY!!!!! and all those underpaid CEOs will NEVER shut up:
DreamWorks, SoBe, Intel, NBC Plan 3-D Super Bowl Ad
"We're not doing anything today that declares winners or losers or anything to that effect," Ritchie said.
No -- only the ASSPress can do that. Here's betting Al does win eventually, and here's praying he lives down to his reputation.
This sounds mournful: a "reality" TV show where contestants get picked off because they lack kindness. One can be a cynic about such shows and still admit maybe our problem is we're not squooshy enough.
NRO, which for months insisted The One was a RADICAL, seems to have changed its tune now that he's proposing tax cuts. The fact remains, it's a lot of money he's spending -- and thre Wall Street Casino has shown it can turn government's trillions into a pea shooter.
Speaking of PEOPLE WARNER, a post from its flagship -- in full:
After giving us her personal holiday recipes, Gwyneth Paltrow shares her post-holiday diet secret in her latest GOOP newsletter. Gwyneth admits, “I need to lose a few pounds of holiday excess. Anyone else? I like to do fasts and detoxes a couple of times during the year, the most hardcore one being the Master Cleanse I did last spring. It was not what you would characterize as pretty. Or easy.” Working with her doctor, a detox diet specialist, Gwyneth has created a seven-day elimantion diet that helps detox the body. “As I do not wish to subsist on lemon water in the middle of winter, I asked my doctor, a detox diet specialist, for the guidelines he uses to achieve a good detox that is not as hallucinogenic (in a bad way) as the Master Cleanse,” says Gwyneth. “What it came down to was this: you can detox easily and effectively while you continue to eat as long as you are cutting out the foods and other substances that interfere with the detoxification process.” While cutting out dairy, grains with gluten, meat, shellfish, anything processed (including all soy products), fatty nuts, nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant), condiments, sugar and obviously no alcohol, caffeine or soda, Gwyneth’s diet consist of salads, fruit smoothies, chicken, soups and lots of water. Click here to read the full scoop on Goop.com. One word: GROSS!
We don't know what The One had in mind in appointing Leon Panetta to the CIA. Maybe he figured he needed all that résumé excellence. Or maybe he figured after all those insiders and their brilliant analysis it could stand an outsider. The problem is a labyrinth like the CIA has a way of swallowing up the outsider -- and then spitting him out. We wonder if this isn't more of the usual rearranging of the acrostics puzzles.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Remember the name: Frank Nicastro. He will be the first among many pols to let slanters and publicists and movie ad-blurbists keep their jobs under the cover of THE ECONOMY.
Providing government support can muddy that mission, said Paul Janensch, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and a former reporter and editor. "You can't expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it," he said. Never mind watchdogs -- WE'RE HUNGRY!
I know the hacks are saying how The One is wafting into DC on clouds of glory, but between the stimulus mess and the Senator messes has any recent president come in with such clouds over his head?
With Littler Jeffy's stock selling near its lows, still -- STILL, people want GE BANCORP OUT of SHOW-BIZ.
At what point does Littler throw up his hands and pull a Tyco -- a government-aided Tyco?
Now that the Eddie of the West is reluctant history, who would like to bet on the REAL Eddie? Or is he still looking for something important to do?
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Too bad it's bogus– half the pages on the site are either not counted on the clock or open in new tabs, escaping the timer.
sigh