Posted 11:26 PM by Gene

Of course what's happened in the Gulf is awful -- not least for the loss of human life already, which we fear might take a back seat in news hacks' minds -- but we should remember as long as we must be automobile-mad and consumption-mad we'll have to power our vanity with that gooey sticky stuff from beneath the ground, and when we don't inspire environmental disasters we inspire jihadists.

And somehow we're not surprised BP was involved, and what with this and Libya (not to mention the Texas City explosion, which comes to the fore now) it has a monopoly on ignominy.

Posted 11:23 PM by Gene

I know I'll annoy a lot of readers with this, but to borrow a page from Charlie Crist's playbook: Jay Leno back at 11:30 and Conan O'Brien reduced to basic cable is proof that our system is broken.

You annoy me by suggesting anyone on late-night is funny.

Posted 11:11 PM by Gene

The Internet content biz seems to be going the way of BRIAN ROBBER -- gouge 'em for everything. But it may be possible to gouge 'em too much, even if THE LORD GOD STEVE helps with the gouging.

(Second link via Paid Content)

Posted 3:12 PM by Gene

A Hollywood eulogy for plastic surgery:

“I think everyone either looks like a drag queen or a stripper,” said Marcia Shulman, who oversees casting for Fox’s scripted shows.

Posted 2:54 PM by Gene

We would argue that the hacks' relationship to His Omnipotence works on two levels. First is the nuts-and-bolts level; clearly the two sides hate each other there. But then there is the generalist, big-picture level, and we contend the news hacks still love Him despite His delinquencies. After all, the hacks wanted a president just like them -- which explains in no small way why He can ignore them.

Posted 9:18 AM by Gene

I don't know who gets me more annoyed: the hack CARL LEVIN with his full-blown decorum or con-SER-va-tives defending GOD'S SERVANTS.

Posted 9:17 AM by Gene

Gordon "BP" Brown is eminently worthy of having to apologize for something; the problem is he has nothing to apologize for.

Posted 9:15 AM by Gene

At times like these I wish the nooz biz had a complete overhaul. Stories like this, not to mention the ruckus over Arizona's new immigration law, scream for the need for a dispassionate, nonpartisan, honest reporting force; instead we get the scream of instant spin. We of course do not trust hacks because they tend to take THE RIGHT SIDE, which makes the hope for better news even more forlorn.

Posted 6:22 PM by Gene

WHY I HAVE STOPPED BLOGGING -- FOR NOW: Mostly it's the Human Rights Fighters of Mountain View and their godforsaken algorithms, but it's also other things. Today I learned an Iowa middle-school student in a rally protesting budget cuts pleaded to "SAVE ARE TEACHERS", meaning half a million of PILLHEAD's followers have called the principal. Closer to home His Omnipotence's national "security" boss made a dumb and not terribly funny joke about Jews, and the professionals got excited, and he apologized. Such things douse the urge for comment. Today via the usual AHTSJournal link I saw some TeleGRAWF hack had to gas about why movie stars have "lost their shine", avoiding the unavoidable point that we don't live in an age of Gables and Sophias and once again demonstrating that too often in the nooz biz the oblivious state the obvious. Today a man who made several very dated Branson East attractions immortal wheezed that "todays, especially the todays of the hip and trendy, have a way of turning into yellowing yesterdays", a bold statement from a 159-year-old codger in a full-body tattoo. Such things make the whole fiber of your being cringe. Today I saw Ross Douthat wrote a column blasting America's Longest Running Publicity Stunt as a vehicle of corruption, and Prof. Krugman wrote a column blasting our "financial system" as a vehicle of corruption, and I wholeheartedly agreed with both, but there comes a time when words by even the most blessed colyumnists may fail to have meaning, especially in a land so thoroughly depleted by the Web's endless wild-goose chase and pulverized in rapid succession by two ennui-inspiring presidents. And how can one scream midst a universal banshee?

Three years ago, suffering from an abscessed tooth and a brief state of enforced idleness, I tried reducing blogging to an irreducible minimum:

It annoys me to think how many of my posts fall into so many puny [I should have said "so few"] categories:

1. Stupid liberal demagogue says something stupid, hypocritical or dishonest about a conservative;
2. Stupid conservative demagogue says something stupid, hypocritical or dishonest about a liberal;
3. Stupid conservative and liberal sling simultaneous invective, the verbal slime besmirching parties other than those intended;
4. Stupid liberal reveres fellow stupid liberal for saying something stupid.
5. Stupid conservative reveres fellow stupid conservative for saying something stupid.
6. Stupid liberal and stupid conservative mutually revere someone for saying something stupid. (Rare, although think of the comedy team of Slick and Papa or History's Greatest Comic Novelist and you'll get the idea.)
7. Stupid news hack demonstrates he cannot write a sentence without emasculating the language or inserting his egregious prejudices;
8. Government does something idiotic;
9. Business does something idiotic;
10. Another show biz blowhard earns thousands of times his weight in unjustified publicity.

In short, "Blogging is words and prejudices bound in a digital corset." Three years have tightened it. Inevitably you not only repeat yourself, you repeat that you repeat that you repeat yourself. Even though most of my recent hits had come from lechers looking for PR0N at least I got some. I'm tired of writing for nothing, and for nobody, and of writing repeatedly for no effect but my own boredom, and while I suppose I will post again soon, I no longer feel the automatic obligation to say what I've said before.