“Now I’ve taken a 45-day unpaid leave of absence from my job at Merrill Lynch. It’s not right to draw a salary when I’m out every day campaigning. Fortunately, I’ve still got a little NYU teaching job and some MSNBC, so for a while I think I can put food on the table."
—That's New York's would-be Senator Harold Ford, just stone cold being an ass. @11:40 AM 11
Sotomayor Approved With Just One Republican Yea @12:36 PM
Sonia Sotomayor (the activist Latina judge who adjudicates through the lens of her personal experience, unlike Clarence Thomas or the Italian judges, what's his name and what's his name, they're all black to me, since I live in the year 1910) has made it through the sort of grueling, sort of totally ridiculous Judicial Committee hearings with approval for a Senate vote on her elevation to Lord Queen Justice of NAFTA. That will be another boring spectacle. "Among the seven Republicans on the committee, only Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina voted in favor," says the Times. It is sad that the Republican understanding of Sotomayor's deep-seated unfitness to serve, because she believes that judges interpret and therefore create law in the course of their work, law which actually circumscribes human and governmental behavior (instead of Baby God or the Giant Space Jesus Monkey doing so), will not be further heard because of things like democracy and voting and our attention span. 1
Why Can't Today's Filmmakers Appreciate The Brutal Dictators Of The Past? @2:44 PM
By way of discussing Tony Manero, the 2008 Chilean film just released here to some rapturous reviews, National Review's John Derbyshire offers historical perspective (the picture is set in 1978, four years after the coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power). READ MORE 11
Jake Tapper STATES FACT @4:31 PM
Here is scientific proof that Twitter either makes you stupid or reveals existing stupidity. 7
Reality TV Kills, But So Does Everything Else @4:44 PM
Newish Hollywood site The Wrap presents an "investigation" which reveals "that the reality of reality shows is not nearly so benign: at least 11 reality-show participants have taken their own lives — and two more who have tried to — in tragedies that appear to be linked to their experience on television shows." READ MORE 19
Low-IQ Terror Plot Foiled @9:45 AM
In re the latest latest foiled terror plot—four small-time criminals planned to blow up a couple of temples in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an air base in Newburgh—a few questions: Are the authorities only breaking up conspiracies planned by demonstrable idiots, are or are those the only ones they're telling us about? And which scenario is scarier? 14
In that underwater houses are common to both, I guess. @2:35 PM
"'This isn't like your typical Nor'easter where a tree falls and your lights flicker,' said Michael Daly, founder of the buyers' brokerage True North Realty Associates in North Haven, New York, and a Hamptons real estate blogger. 'This is more like a Katrina,' he said, alluding to the historic 2005 Category 5 Hurricane. 'It's going to be a number of years before the market recovers.'" Yes, he is talking about the decline in Hamptons real estate values. Ugh. 6
Pity The Poor Limo Driver Who Has To Haul The Homos To The Country Club @2:41 PM
The New Republic's Isaac Chotiner notes some dissatisfaction with the New Hampshire compromise over gay marriage (Gov. John Lynch agreed to sign the bill if the legislature adds provisions "exempting any religious group – and any person or nonprofit organization working for such a group – from having to participate in such ceremonies."). Kevin Smith, a leader of the state's anti-marriage movement, doesn't think the protections go far enough. READ MORE 5
Wacky Prank Tricks Students Into Thinking They're Going To Die @12:37 PM
Remember the crazy capers you pulled off when you were in college? Kids today aren't much different! "Three teens at Central Connecticut State University face criminal charges after police say they burned popcorn in a microwave, then tied shut the doors to some dorm rooms so students thought they were trapped in a fire." The three students—athletes all—meant no harm; they were in it for the LULZ. 2
Anecdotage: Small Mexican Businesses Suffering Due To Swine Flu Fear @3:37 PM
According to an exclusive interview by an Awl correspondent with a taco truck vendor in Walla Walla, Washington this afternoon—population 30,000, and where about 1 in 5 residents are Latino and the rest are white—business is down about 40% right now. The purveyor of fine taco products said it was because the white people are afraid of the Mexican flu! Good job with the hysteria, TV! 15
Co-Ed Dorm Rooms Offend Clueless Parent @10:56 AM
Apparently conservatives have just cottoned on to the fact that a huge number of college dorms—and dorm rooms!—are co-ed. (Wait till someone tells them that the bathrooms have been going co-ed for a while now.) So this crazy woman takes to The Blogs to announce that she's horrified by her daughter living with a man in a dorm room and how they couldn't get out of it and how she stopped paying her daughter's tuition at Stanford. And her daughter was forced to explain the actual truth in the comments section of a Times blog. Isn't that just like parents—betraying their children on the Internet to their kids' bafflement! 16
The upside of torture @1:49 PM
If you're okay with being irate for the next twenty minutes, please read this assemblage of wisdom from torture defenders. It'll get ya good and steamed. 9
Elections have consequences @9:53 AM
Here's about as representative a quote as we could find from a participant in the "tea parties" that took place yesterday:
"This is a matter of liberty. We're here to break the chain of taxation without representation," said Abraham Mudrick, who traveled from Oregon to DC — which he called "the belly of the beast" — for the event.Although Mudrick acknowledged taxpayers are represented in Congress, he said, "My elected officials aren't doing what I want."
Al Franken Wins Election (For Now) (Again) @8:03 PM
Teabaggers Should Have Voted Democrat @3:09 PM
The teabaggers (Blissfully unaware? Here!) want to halt the "borrow-and-spend-like-there's-no-tomorrow approach" down in Washington. Guess they'll be voting Democrat next time. 0
Smart Companies Expand In A Recession @10:11 AM
"Numerous studies have shown that companies that keep spending on acquisition, advertising, and R. & D. during recessions do significantly better than those which make big cuts." —Jim Surowiecki, New Yorker. Related: Stocks Open Lower as Investors Await Earnings, Brace for GM Bankruptcy. 0
CEOS UNCONFIDENT! @10:53 AM
Business Roundtable has released a report on America's CEOs; it says a survey finds CEOs lacking "confidence"! Why are America's leaders so bereft of confidence? Who did this to them? Well, they will get some confidence the old-fashioned way: "More than two-thirds of CEOs surveyed said they planned more layoffs." 0
