Posted 10:12 PM by Gene

ARCHDaily!



Frozen Bird's Nest!

Posted 10:10 PM by Gene

More from the new, improved, lower-circ Zeitgeist -- an essay on New Englanders raking leaves. Please JonBoy, if you're going to be banal can't you use words like "conservative"?

Posted 2:03 PM by Gene

We suspect PVT. ZELL's charges (when's that @#$%&* SOLDIER going to be DISHONORABLY DISCHARGED?) spent more time and more loving attention with this picture (and especially the grotesque "joke" in the upper right) than they did with the rest of their reporting all this week.

Well I have a picture of my own:



A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO GEOFF!

Posted 1:20 PM by Gene

We've taken this ASSPress story and substituted our answers for theirs:

Q: How much does it cost to put on an Olympics?

A lot more than public officials are willing to anger the peons with.

Q: Is there an economic benefit that comes with all those costs?

If you're an expense-padding contractor or a parasitic consultant.

Q: How are those [economic-benefit] figures compiled?

With an abacus, two sixty-year-old adding machines and a bug-infested ten-year-old computer.

Q: How accurate are those economic models?

A: Not very.

We'll stop there; the ASSPress provided its own good answer.

Posted 8:05 PM by Gene

Advertisers spent $145.2 million to advertise on the show from January through June this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. That's 15 percent less than in the same period last year. Many advertisers have been pulling back on their spending amid the recession.

At what point does advertising cease being a vehicle for selling products and start becoming a means of preserving no-talents who should have faded into oblivion a long time ago?

With the American Society of Willfully Ignorant Advertisers, we know the answer. And these buffoons will come back to make the Top-10 Sex Machine an even bigger profit center, and further wall themselves off from the people who pay their exorbitant salaries.

And though this PR boost will fade in time we cannot abandon the idea that anyone who MUST watch Top-10, or Conan Who?, or Nightlight, or Jut-Jaw at 10, would deserve to have his head examined if he had one.

Several analysts of CBS Corp. did not want to comment on the record about the incident or how it would impact [SIC] the company.

Whassa matta? Your INNER CRAMER disappeared?

Posted 6:17 PM by Gene

And who'll take down the CHINESE, zillionaire knuckleheads?

Posted 5:36 PM by Gene

It couldn't be -- but yes! It IS! THIS is His Omnipotence's version of Samuel Bodman! You know, Alexander P. Throttlebottom before Wacky Uncle Joe came along!

Posted 1:51 PM by Gene

Rio's governors have promised to inject a massive $11bn (£7bn) into this increasingly dilapidated seaside city in the lead-up to the 2016 Games. [Emphasis added]

TRANSLATION: The Atlantic City of Brasil, with lots more people, and lots more gangs.

Posted 1:43 PM by Gene

In other arrant media idiocy:

Top New York Advertising Creatives Charge $750 per Hour

It costs THAT much to write stupid ads, run them indiscriminately on television, and schmooze with your clients about how wonderful you are?

Posted 1:36 PM by Gene

It is apt that a government of gangsters that claimed to have rooted out gangsters can't handle a new wave of gangsters.

Posted 12:18 PM by Gene

One other reason not to be too upset:

Posted 11:41 AM by Gene

A good time for a reminder:

Posted 11:31 AM by Gene

HA! HA! HA! His Omnipotence's pleas DIDN'T WORK!!!!!

Next time, Om, talk to a GENERAL.

And IN THE EARLY ROUNDS! HA! HA! HA!

The 2016 Summer Games were to be Mayor Richard Daley's legacy. Now the mayor comes home to face recession-driven budget woes and concerns about violence that plague Chicago, without the ability to change the public dialogue to Olympics talk.

How will anyone get the Permanent Mayor's body out of the cryonics chamber?

HA! HA! HA! to him too!

P. S. at 12:35 p. m.

It is possible that the defeat of Chicago at the International Olympic Committee, a stunning, first-round defeat, will be good for the president over the long haul. His loyalties to his hometown are unquestioned, but prospect of Olympic building scandals, of friends and fundraisers benefiting form the Olympic spending, and the virtually inevitable over-budget controversies would not have served Obama well. He has enough problems on his plate as it is.

But it is a defeat nonetheless.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeee like IIIIIIIIIIIIII,
Hoooooooold yourrrr head up hiiiiiiiiiiiigh,
Tillllll you'll fiiiiiind the bllluuuuuuuuebird of happinesssssssss!

P. P. S. at 1:23 p. m. His Omnipotence may have helped lose his city the bid with his BLOVIATING.

Posted 11:09 AM by Gene

Sharon wants "Sumner or Rupert in charge" at CONCAST.

ONE SUMNER OR RUPERT IS ENOUGH!

Posted 10:40 AM by Gene

Professional press ethicists are in a FIT because ProPublica is paying some huge salaries -- which pretty well gives the show away on all the screaming for bailouts. News hacks don't want the industry saved -- they want their exorbitant PAYCHECKS saved.

Posted 10:37 AM by Gene

The Jobless Don't Buy Stocks

But the LOONIES ON WALL STREET do!

Posted 10:20 AM by Gene

And in still more originality for Branson East -- ANOTHER Willy Wonka musical!

Posted 10:13 AM by Gene

Speaking of nukes, His Omnipotence has agreed, no doubt with great reluctance, to let Israel keep its.

Posted 10:12 AM by Gene

Iran’s agreement in principle to export most of its enriched uranium for processing — if it happens — would represent a major accomplishment for the West, reducing Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon quickly and buying more time for negotiations to bear fruit.

If Iran has secret stockpiles of enriched uranium, however, the accomplishment would be hollow, a senior American official conceded.

Well, so long as it's another accomplishment.

Posted 9:55 AM by Gene

Didn't the hilarious John Cleese have a lucrative racket selling business videos? Why doesn't he finance his divorce with them?

Posted 9:53 AM by Gene

And in more great originality from the Branson East feeder circuit -- a SAMMY musical!



Well, he looks a little like him, but I might have said James Brown -- or Adam Clayton Powell.

Posted 9:24 AM by Gene

We had not thought much of this Goldstone report believing it just more League of Nations word processing, but while this piece might be a little melodramatic we would not be surprised to see the WORRRULLLLLLLLD COMMUNITY bring Israel to a kangaroo court, even as it lets scum off scot-free. What will His Omnipotence do then? What he has done since he became our savior -- BLOVIATE.

Posted 9:18 AM by Gene

Dave looks as old and weary as talk shows.

P. S. at 11:42 a. m.

"Let's be honest. You don't think of David Letterman as a sexual object...."

NUF SAID.

Posted 9:05 AM by Gene

Oh by the way, I can meet with you, general, even though I have more important things on my plate.

Okay, maybe His Omnipotence is playing up to his strengths, but why must he have such weaknesses?

Posted 6:22 PM by Gene

ARCHDaily!



Overgrown lampshades in China!



1. Some League of Nations conference center; 2. A skateboarding rink -- look out for those cliffs; or 3. Twelve Fingers from the Dead (or possibly all three).



That Lego house may be gone but its...spirit lives on.

Posted 6:18 PM by Gene

And in other news from a soon-to-be-CONCAST division, why do a series when you can turn it into a mini-series?

Will BRIAN ROBBER abandon such strategies when the turnips' money finally rolls in?

Posted 6:16 PM by Gene

Marc makes us look eagerly forward to the tentpoles of 2011:

A fourth "Spider-Man" kicks off in May, followed by "Thor" and "The Hangover 2" that month. June has the launch of "The Green Lantern" and a "Kung Fu Panda" sequel, while July features the second part of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," "The First Avenger: Captain America," "Battleship" and "The Smurfs." Disney also plans to bow "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" some time that summer.

Which makes us ask -- will anyone still go to the movies in 2011?

Posted 2:53 PM by Gene

Let's see how much CONCAST can gouge its turnips for THIS one!

The one advantage is it's gouging its shareholders too!

PHILADELPHIA -- THE MEDIA CAPITOL OF THE WORLD! PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!

Under the scenario being contemplated, Comcast would not issue equity or endanger its investment-grade credit rating.

BRIAN ROBBER says Ka-CHINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!!!

P. S.

In contrast, Comcast's cable TV distribution systems have a solid future -- the Internet-access side is only going to increase in value. Comcast would be better off buying more cable companies than buying content.

1. What's to prevent us from getting our Internet from someone else? 2. Our local StinkyInky once likened CONCAST to the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baldwin Locomotive Works -- and its TAXPAYER-PAID HQ stand across the street from the site of the old CHINESE WALL. NUF SAID.

(Via Henry Honest)

Posted 2:25 PM by Gene

We’re in the midst of what Brookings Institution’s Darrell West calls an “arms race of incendiary rhetoric,” and it’s quickly reaching the point of mutually assured destruction.

“The problem with this strategy,” says Princeton professor Julian Zelizer, “is if it is used repeatedly, one person just bumps the other, and people won’t pay attention after a while. Dramatic theatrics work only if they are relatively rare. If everyone was screaming at the president, we [wouldn’t] think of it much.”

This is the one thin hope we have of driving all the screaming maniacs out of business.

Posted 1:35 PM by Gene

The world economy will rely more on governments for longer than anyone would like. Premature fiscal repairs could jeopardise the recovery, as America learned in 1937 and Japan rediscovered 60 years later. Governments must eventually fix their balance-sheets, but only when the private sector is strong enough—and it must be done in a way that boosts economies’ growth potential. The bulk of the adjustment should come from spending cuts.

Et tu, Your Omnipotence?

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

If the cretins of Swooshland and the cretins of Hollywoodland have something in common it's an impulse to forgive too readily when money is on the table.

Posted 8:35 AM by Gene

The Official Newspaper of the Entertainment Industry admits a certain noble rapist has become a PR problem.

Posted 8:28 AM by Gene

These are precisely the kinds of people who go bananas with BlackBerry outages, and these are precisely the kinds of people who almost deserve to get themselves killed in an accident while pushing buttons and gabgabgabbing and thinking they're doing something, and if they don't kill themselves that way they'll find another way. A few may kill others if they're lucky.

Posted 8:22 AM by Gene

The NFL has long deserved a comeuppance. It probably won't get one. The depr -- reces -- ECONOMY is merely a speed bump. We're convinced people will resume paying $6,000 a ticket, God knows how. We wonder why the impoverished owners haven't gone back to impoverishing the taxpayers. They drove that one in for a game-winning touchdown, didn't they?

Posted 8:21 AM by Gene

GREAT: Mort Zuck is bidding for BizWeek.

Can he turn it into an occasional listicle?

(Via MediaBistro)

Posted 5:04 PM by Gene

We are sorry to see Roger Penske has given up on acquiring Saturn. We wonder if "the future supply of vehicles beyond the supply period" has something to do with a certain automotive CEO we call His Omnipotence. Perhaps he didn't want to see a car company falling into private hands. Or maybe Roger saw another Oldsmobile, which Saturn had already become. Whatever it is, it is sad.

(Via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 3:52 PM by Gene

One more proof that "any big business that calls itself "international" gives itself carte blanche to commit treason." This is not treason per se, and certainly the touchy-feely we-want-to-sell-our-goods treason may not be treason, but any company that sells thus sets itself up to commit full-blown treason.

Posted 1:40 PM by Gene

HOLLYWOOD LEFT BANDS TOGETHER TO FIGHT POLANSKI ARREST!!!!!!!!!! [Fighting overemphasis added]

Fortunately, not everyone opposing the genius AHTEEST is a right-winger.

This sort of claptrap makes us not take SLIME's "news" outfit entirely seriously.

Posted 1:34 PM by Gene

We see THE NEW RONALD REAGAN has turned over twenty Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a videotape, which presumably will mean the JEWISH DUTCH will turn over 2,000 prisoners to get...a dead body?

Wehell, as the original Ronny said in another context, there they go again!

Posted 1:16 PM by Gene

Well look what happened here! If the loonies keep buying we'll be at the sacred 10,000 before the day is out! Maybe 11,000! Sky's the limit!!!!!

MORONS.

P. S. Finviz.com is one heck of a site. Imagine what it will be like twenty years hence.

Posted 10:31 AM by Gene

Perhaps we got a bit too excited about His Omnipotence's presence before the GAMES geezers -- after all,

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Madrid's royal family and Tokyo's prime minister also are expected to lobby on behalf of their candidate cities before Friday's IOC vote.

Then again, they weren't born to save the world.

Posted 10:29 AM by Gene

Foreclosures jumped 16% in Q2 to 2.9% of all serviced mortgages, delinquencies hit 8.5% of all mortgages, while home retention actions such as loan mods were up by 21.7%, according to a report today from the OTS. Report says data continues to reflect "negative trends influenced by weakness in economic conditions including high unemployment and declining home prices in weak housing markets."

DOW 60,0 -- oops, not today.

Posted 9:13 AM by Gene

Remember Robert McFarlane? You want to? Last we heard of him, a long time ago, he was helping out with the mess called Iran-Contra. Now he's getting money from Sudan -- as a "consultant". Some people just will never learn -- and don't want to.

Posted 9:10 AM by Gene

In tight times, Congress boosts its budget

...so it can boost its friends' budgets -- and shrink ours.

Posted 9:08 AM by Gene

Where would PEOPLE WARNER, PEOPLE INC., PEOPLE and PEOPLE.COM be without cute press releases?

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

The Usefulness of Cranks: Is Environmentalism a Natural Ally of Liberalism?

NO COMMENT.

Posted 9:02 AM by Gene

Attendance declines for 20 MLB teams this year [Home-page hed]

Not enough rich people.

Posted 8:52 AM by Gene

More than 100 film industry figures have now signed a petition calling for the release of Polanski, the acclaimed director of Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist.

They include leading Hollywood figures Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci....

On the Los Angeles Times website only one in 30 comments from members of the public supported Polanski and most called for him to face justice. [Emphasis added]

NUF SAID.

Posted 8:38 AM by Gene

No! It CAN'T be. Chicago's turnips might pull the plug on the Permanent Mayor's cryonic chamber?!?

Posted 8:34 AM by Gene

PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION: The auto makers are back to financing junk television!!!!!

BUT:

Consumers hoping for a price war, though, are likely to be disappointed. For a change, it's the products, not the deals, that will be getting all the attention.

Simply put, carmakers don't have much inventory to sell at the moment, which means prices are likely to hold steady.

I guess we'll find out if financing junk television is enough to move the meter with people who aren't feeling so affluent.

Posted 5:15 PM by Gene

It is getting quite obvious His Omnipotence will never learn from his mistakes.

Why? He doesn't make mistakes.

Posted 5:07 PM by Gene

Now the public will NEVER learn the truth of SUMNER's persecution of ONE OF AMERICA'S GREAT...ANCHORS.

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft!

Posted 3:47 PM by Gene

So much for the guvment getting further into the health-care biz.

Posted 2:58 PM by Gene

ARCHDaily!



This is PRECISELY what that OLD FOGIE the Prince always has in mind.

This is also the formerly Great Britain's version of TILTED ARC.

And it's named DARWIN CENTER, which proves STARCHITECTS continue to DEVOLVE.

Posted 1:14 PM by Gene

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are in trouble, but they deserve it: for one thing, they spawned Mitch Albom....

Them's fightin' words!

And TRUE.

Oh, and does "a lot of newspapers just stink" apply to newsrags too?

Posted 1:02 PM by Gene

Con-SERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-va-tives will be MAAAAAAAAAAAD: The Federal Reserve is proposing a regulation prohibiting credit cards to under-21s, meaning when the GOP comes back it will give away cards to infants, drunks, druggies, dogs, cats, horses, gerbils, squid, and other living creatures with no incomes -- in short, what the nationalized banking biz did before it charged off its excesses to Uncle Sucker.

(Via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 12:53 PM by Gene

For some unknown reason The Daily Kaplan, whose parent KAPLAN, INC. already employs a million pundits, is having a pundit contest. I can see it now -- hundreds of thousands of entries swamping the four young interns who wouldn't know good writing from a hole in the ground (from whence most of the finalists' will come), the winner decided by overpaid scribblers in pro bono mode going eenie-meenie-minie-moe and thinking it's a decision. In short, the blind leading the blind choosing another blind man. With luck the winner will last six months. I'd submit something but I'm used to sending e-mails to myself, so I'll just type for free as usual, sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Posted 10:52 AM by Gene

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., seeking to replenish its fund as banks fail at the fastest pace in 17 years, today proposed that lenders prepay fees through 2012 and shelved any further special assessments.

Lenders would prepay their FDIC premiums for the fourth quarter and next three years on Dec. 30, generating about $45 billion, according to an outline of the staff’s recommendations. The agency raised its estimate for bank-failure costs to $100 billion through 2013, from $70 billion, according to the staff.

DOW 50,000!!!!!

(Via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 10:40 AM by Gene

CLIMATE CHANGE 'KILLING 10 PER CENT OF WORLD'S ANIMALS'!!!!!!!!!! [Very globally warm overemphasis added]

When did we stop taking such heds seriously?

Perhaps when we realized too many scientists are like



THIS.

Posted 9:42 AM by Gene

RENDELLISM comes to the North End of Boston:

Alarmed by a burgeoning late-night bar scene, and businesses seeking more outdoor seating and later hours, concerned residents are fighting to contain the drinking and carousing. In recent months, they have fended off two new outdoor patios slated for Salem Street restaurants, bristled at a deli’s proposal to sell takeout until 4 a.m., and criticized the owners of a new beer and wine shop for reneging on their pledge to sell groceries.

Underlying the tension is a fundamental struggle over what the historic neighborhood will become: a late-night playground for 20-somethings, or a haven for families like those who have lived there for centuries.

Well that's an easy one: with RENDELLISM, the twenty-somethings win!

Posted 9:35 AM by Gene

Speaking of, as neither side will ever admit, both sides have someone they want to censor, and they've amassed huge armies to do so. That said we cannot exactly feel sorry for, say, the former Don of the House because his lobbying came too close to his politics:

“It was the best-paying job I ever had. It was a better-paying job than I ever thought I’d have,” he said. “It had been my anticipation and expectation that I would remain in that firm, in that job, at that salary range, for the next 10 years.”

What a tragedy there, Don -- especially when a big K Street salary can be such an obvious gloating expression of a pol's contempt for his former voting peons.

Posted 9:34 AM by Gene

Horowitz's talks about Islam and what he calls "Islamo-Fascism" have been controversial, with many saying that he distorts history in a way that denigrates all Muslims. But he is also a popular speaker with conservative groups, who regularly bring him to campuses to speak. On some campuses, his appearances prompt protests, but at other campuses he ends up largely speaking to those who agree with him.

Which helps the discourse on both sides.

Posted 8:49 AM by Gene

Obama is our version of a Supreme Leader.

Which is precisely why the hacks elected him, and which is why even people like Dick Cohen can have second thoughts now.

Posted 8:45 AM by Gene

We care neither one way or another how the GAMES bid goes. We don't understand, however, why His Omnipotence must make it a national priority. He could get a few people temporarily mad if he wins, and they might not forget that easily. And if he loses? One more self-exculpation for news hacks to plaster in their pages and Web sites.

Posted 5:17 PM by Gene

Swiss Move Against Polanski Outrages His Sympathizers

Which would include, oh, only about 99.999 percent of news hacks and other media types.

Look, we understand, it's long ago and the victim has forgiven all, but shouldn't ONE OF THE GREATEST DIRECTORS IN THE UNIVERSE'S HISTORY pay a little more than a slap on the wrist?

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

AwwwwwwwwSHUCKS! ARCHDaily! says that Lego house has to be demolished because the owner couldn't find a buyer.

Not even PEOPLE WARNER?

Well at least the bricks didn't go to waste; they're heading to charity.

Posted 12:10 PM by Gene

Fakes in movie-poster collecting? You wonder why it took so long.

Or maybe it didn't.

(Via AHTSJournal)

Posted 12:04 PM by Gene

A Web site that attracts maybe 15,000 visitors a month and a movie that did $369,000 on its first weekend are two reasons this is not important.

Posted 11:18 AM by Gene

OBAMA!!!!! Stock Advance!!!!! Persists on Money Fund Hoarding

Americans holding $3.5 trillion in cash are giving money managers increasing confidence that the stock market rally under President Barack Obama will continue through the end of the year. [Bullish overemphasis added]

The OBAMA RECOVERY is here!

Posted 11:07 AM by Gene

We are sorry to learn that JUNIOR's Rhino division is for all practical purposes kaput. It wasn't perfect -- it engaged in redundant repackagings by the thousands -- but it brought vast quantities of fine old music back into circulation, and now one can fear a good chunk of them will disappear under the long tail, never to return.

(Via Billboard.biz)

Posted 10:54 AM by Gene

And as Jeff Jacoby writes, there is NO protecting children from the baleful effects of the one-eyed Cyclops, which means more reason for more CEOs to give more money to their ad fiefdoms -- and more reason for parents to abdicate THEIR duties.

(Caveat -- he IS a con-SER-va-tive, and this was linked on NRO)

Posted 10:51 AM by Gene

The media money burn -- BUYERS, those true believers in fairy tales, the most useless of shillers this side of Wall Street's sales -- ANALYSTS, hopehopehope and praypraypray that their latest fairy tale of network audiences going upupUP comes true, so they can entice the brain-dead within the advertising fiefdoms to burn still more money on the TUBE, but judging from a few of the numbers this story may not have a happy ending.

Posted 9:44 AM by Gene

Why we NEED The Daily Beast:

Posted 6:13 PM by Gene

Well, the Lions finally won one after all this time, giving hope to the world's sad sacks.

Posted 5:55 PM by Gene

Donald Fisher, co-founder of The Gap, the store that helped make jeans boring, has died. RIP.

P. S. We mean absolutely no disrespect to him or Mr. Safire. They were good at what they did but they must both go down in history for one thing, as most public figures do.

Posted 5:39 PM by Gene

William Safire, who gave America nattering nabobs of negativism and probably could never quite explain why, has died. Tricky Dick was exceedingly lucky though because to him something called nabobs once resided in Red Channels. RIP.

Posted 5:30 PM by Gene

ARCHDaily!

Controversy is surrounding the latest design of the 400 meter tower for Gazprom, a Russian energy company. Designed by RMJM, the tower, known as Okhta Center, will dominate the skyline, towering over the spire of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. The new design may actually become the tallest building in Europe, which begs the question that even though we have the capability of building taller and larger, should that be our priority?

The time will come when STARCHITECTS will design towers 10,000 feet high and a block square. Likely only STARCHITECTS will want to inhabit them.

Posted 5:19 PM by Gene

If it's Sunday it must also be BIG DOUBLE-A-SCRIBBLE TIME:

1. Sony, Samsung Aim to Avoid TV Price War With Ad Efforts

Well that's easy; spend enough on advertising and we can both jack up the prices.

2. Can Twitter Rake in the Ads to Justify $1 Billion Valuation?

If we can get the CEOs to associate it with the NFL and the PGA our budget's the limit!

Although I think they may be a bit behind the curve by now.

3. With luck sponsored iPhone apps will become so numerous and so meaningless for their profusion CEOs will have to confront another reason not to burn their customers' money on ADVERTISING.

4. Mother Births New Model for 'Mass Roots' Marketing

TRANSLATION: Somehow, some way, the GREAT MARKETING GRASS GROWER IN THE SKY will still be in charge.

5. Census, With DraftFCB, to Blanket Country With $300 Million Push

Do I smell a BIGMEDIA STIMULUS?

Posted 5:08 PM by Gene

Living as I must near 500 RENDELIS with liquor licenses I am forced every NFL Sunday to behold hundreds of young people wearing fake team uniforms. This annoys me no end because 1. Aren't those mercenaries rich enough?* and 2. A certain conformity gets people to do it. When I was young I wanted to know as many people I could provided they were interesting. Everybody wearing IGGLES shirts or SKINS shirts or STEELERS shirts or whoever's shirts speaks of people who are happy with their little tiny mindset and content to hang out with people who mutually endorse their eenie-weenie ways. Yes, I know Babbitt; it's unaccountably one of my favorite novels; but I am convinced America has far less social diversity than she used to, and that's a big reason we're in trouble. And let us not forget even in 1922 America still teemed with immigrants, and her cities were boiling melting pots; she didn't know PC, or DILBERTS, or anything near BIGMEDIA. And in the twenties professional football was associated with such wholesome pursuits as flagpole sitting and dance marathons, and thus acquired a smell, a smell washed clean by CEOs screaming of their fealty to the SUPER BOWL.

*Although happily for many of them the answer is NO.

Posted 3:48 PM by Gene

A profound tribute from Christopher Hitchens to ED MURROW and his sidekick SEN. FRED ALLEN:

A liberal joke, at present, is no laughing matter.

Posted 9:45 AM by Gene

Some PEOPLE WARNER shareholder says the TWXSTERS are selling PEOPLE INC.

The media company in July reported its second-quarter operation income fell to $1.18 billion, down 2% from the same period a year ago. Operation income in its publishing segment tumbled to $102 million from $218 million, down 53%.

[PEOPLE WARNER] couldn't be reached for comment.

How about, "You sure, Gordy?"

(Via Henry Honest)

Posted 9:36 AM by Gene

The Subprime Minister has one good eye that's deteriorating, he's (NOT?) taking stress meds, he's (NOT?) taking pain meds -- no wonder UnGreat Britain is in such terrific shape.

Posted 9:28 AM by Gene

Partisans and League of Nations buffs who believe sci-en-tists know all about global warming should ponder this:

Researchers were using LSD to explore treatment into everything from alcoholism and drug addiction to anxiety in cancer patients. But as notoriety of the drug spread, it became a polarizing issue among serious scientists, many of whom abandoned their research.

In 1966, the federal government made LSD illegal, and by the early 1970s, research into all psychedelic drugs in humans had come to a halt, although some scientists continued to study the drugs in animals.

"What poisoned the well was the widespread abuse being promoted by scientists to the public," said Dr. John Mendelson, an associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at UCSF.... [Emphasis added]

So -- scientists sold LSD for trips, which had the happy effect on ending research into possible salutary uses. How sci-en-tif-ic.

Posted 9:15 AM by Gene

I guess saying "classic" three times justifies Roman having once had sex with a thirteen-year-old.

Most news stories can tell themselves in one graf. Anything beyond one graf is spinning, or selling.

P. S. on 9/30 at 12:10 p. m. We had to change the link because the ASSPress changed the original story. But we DID get a BYLINE. And so A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO EHHRNSSHT AND BRADLEY!