302 and counting

MANIFESTO

Given the fact that the booboisie is all atwitter over Paris Hilton's recent brush with the law, it might be instructive to remember that 2010's US death count in Afghanistan currently stands at 302. With this pace, this year's death count will hit 450 or so.

Once again, an American administration has been sucked into a foreign civil war with no plan and no apparent method of preparing one. And like the thousands of troops before them since the late 1950s, those who won't be returning from Afghanistan will have died in vain.

The speechwriter and the president

MANIFESTO

Salon's Dan Conley pretty much puts his finger on the frustration I (and, I assume, many others) feel concerning BO. Viz.,

Speechwriter Obama understands the zeitgeist while President Obama seems a prisoner to it. Speechwriter Obama slyly dropped praise of American atheists into a speech about race and religion. President Obama was forced to react to the “ground zero mosque” controversy, and stumbled. Speechwriter Obama promised that his presidency would be the time when the planet would be healed. President Obama signed on to more offshore drilling shortly before the Gulf oil spill and has stood mute while Russia burns and Pakistan drowns.

The speechwriter is obviously the man people voted for in 2008; the President is the man who may be responsible for a political cataclysm come November, 2010.

It's not political; it's personal

MANIFESTO

For those readers who happen to be urban denizens, this report of small town politics may create some nostalgia.

It's sure to be an interesting year in Belltown.

Blaming the victim

MANIFESTO

It seems eminently possible to me that the McMahons' indifference to the working conditions of their employees is going to sink the Crotch Kicker's campaign or land them in jail—or both.

It'll be interesting to see how many wrestlers have to die before someone like Governor Clubwoman (who is oh so concerned about those icky truckers on the state's roads) sees that there's a problem.

Certainly, Chris Benoit's father sees the trouble.

UPDATE — Colin McEnroe opines on the pathological nature of the campaigns thus far.

All things to all people

MANIFESTO

Today's rant can be found here.

Ho hum

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

It's hard to know when American Chopper jumped the shark, but it's absolutely laughable now.

AC's audience (the vast majority men) used to view the show because they liked to watch custom motorcycles being built; it's hard to believe that they'll watch a soap opera starring two hulking males.

TLC might use the lesson WWE has offered.

Today's Krugman

MANIFESTO

As he always seems to do, Krugman sagaciously discusses solons from both political parties thinking of destroying Social Security. Perhaps most troubling in the benighted attack is that the

currently fashionable idea of raising the retirement age even more than it will rise under existing law — it has already gone from 65 to 66, it’s scheduled to rise to 67, but now some are proposing that it go to 70 — is usually justified with assertions that life expectancy has risen, so people can easily work later into life. But that’s only true for affluent, white-collar workers — the people who need Social Security least.

A littel research shows this assertion demonstrated here.

Replay Shmeplay

SPORTING GOODS

I suppose it's somewhat consoling to know that even NFL officials think the use of the replay can be overused. Viz.,

The officials let out more than they intended for anyone to hear Saturday during the preseason opener at Heinz Field between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions.

The men in stripes were not happy that the replay official called for an official review of a five-yard run by Steelers quarterback Dennis Dixon. It was pouring rain. The outcome didn’t matter. And apparently the officials were looking for the nearest exit.

That is because referee Jeff Triplette’s microphone clearly picked up some naughty language.

“It’s raining like this, I’ll kick his [expletive],” was heard, according to the Associated Press.

Of course, playing in such hideous conditions raises another issue, but everyone knows that none of the major professional sports leagues have any interest in accommodating their fans in such instances.

Off to the Berkshires for a few days. Posting may well be sporadic.

Let's NOT play two; in fact, one is probably too many

SPORTING GOODS

Now that Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg own the Texas Rangers, it's time for them to get some corporate sponsorship for The Ballpark at Arlington, and cover the damn thing.

It's all well and good for the Dallas duo to reduce prices for beer, hot dogs, and parking, but who can enjoy them when the ball games are played in 100+ degree temperatures?

We're all crazy

MANIFESTO

I was just poking around the New York Times site and found this gem:

A startling suggestion is buried in the fine print describing proposed changes for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — perhaps better known as the D.S.M. 5, the book that will set the new boundary between mental disorder and normality. If this suggestion is adopted, many people who experience completely normal grief could be mislabeled as having a psychiatric problem.

What's so bothersome about something like this is its possible repercussions—especially in the world of education. I.e., more special needs resources will no doubt have to be employed in order to assuage simple feelings of grief.

There's not much question (at least, in my mind) that IDEA and its brethren have irredeemably changed American education—and not necessarily for the better. Since everybody and his brother now seems to be diagnosed with some psychological malady (The high incidence of the latest ailment du jour , autism, comes to mind.), all must be served—with a large price tag that takes away from all other educational programs.

As a result, class sizes increase dramatically, and the utilitarian goal of the greatest good for the greatest number is no longer served.

It's hardly a rational way to run an education program.

Implosions

OLIO

Charles Rangel, the Red Sox, and Dr. Laura.

I can only chalk up these events as more symptoms of heat-induced instability.

And now ... Terror Babies

MANIFESTO

Today's sign of the Apocalypse:

A quick check of this idiot on YouTube shows such gems as "Gohmert compares gays to bestiality and Hitler" and "Gohmert opposes estate tax extension because 'Jesus never advocated the government go steal.'"

Obviously, there are crackpots all over the place, but the sad part is that this idiot has actually been elected to the US House of Representatives.

Are we done yet?

Dog days derangements

MANIFESTO

Between crazed employees and hysterical customers, it's a challenge to go out anywhere these days.

People—and the weather—just need to cool down.

Dropping like flies

MANIFESTO

Call me callous, but I just can't grieve too much over the deaths of reprobates Stevens and Rostenkowski.

So it's McMahon

MANIFESTO

I suppose it isn't too much of a surprise that the crotch kicker won the Republican senatorial primary in Connecticut, but it might've been interesting if the obviously demented Rob Simmons hadn't re-entered the race two weeks ago.

Anyway, if the primary campaign was ridiculous, now that the crotch kicker is actually running against Blumenthal, the next three months ought to be even more so.

The end of it all

MANIFESTO

Glenn Greenwald continues to make me feel very afraid—and it's not of the terrorists.

To a new level

SPORTING GOODS

This video


EMBED-Spiderman Style Baseball Catch - Watch more free videosis making the rounds this morning, and it's worth all the hype it's getting.

However, a quick search on YouTube shows the catch isn't exactly unprecedented.


I think it's time for MLB players to start exhibiting comparable acrobatics.

Connecticut's massacre

MANIFESTO

I'd feel a lot worse about the actions of an obvious madman if they weren't coincident with an even worse massacre that is a direct repercussion of American policy.

Yes!!

MANIFESTO

The crotch kicker is back, as, with a week to go before the state's primaries, Connecticut's politics get down and dirty.

Starving the beast

MANIFESTO

Steve Benen points out this morning that "Republican officials are slowly chipping away at the ability of our institutions to function," and nowhere is this more apparent than in their obstruction to a jobs bill with $10 billion to save school teachers' jobs.

Because the bill would add $5 billion to the deficit, the now deficit-panicked GOP will never vote for it. Of course, as Benen points out, "If it were tax cuts or Pentagon spending, $5 billion would be considered a rounding error."

And so, situations like this continue, while the Republic twists slowly, slowly in the wind.

Meanwhile, for those of us in Connecticut who have the good fortune to actually possess jobs, the future doesn't look too bright, either.

Monocle

MEDIA

What the ...?

Here's the mag's web site.

Well, that went well

MANIFESTO

So much for the cake walk. The New York Times reports this morning that in Iraq—the nation wherein the US is supposed to end combat operations this month—

the streets are littered with trash, drinking water is polluted, hospitals are bleak and often unsafe, and buildings bombed by the Americans in 2003 or by insurgents since remain ruined shells [and] Baghdad, the capital, had five hours of electricity a day in July.

How like the Bushies: to create an utter catastrophe and then just walk away from it.

But the Obamans are no better, since, while there are certainly no nation-building aspirations in Afghanistan, the apparent goal is simply to kill as many "terrorists" as possible—and if innocent bystanders get in the way ... well, who cares about the loss of some Arabs; they're all Muslims, anyway. And you can forget the planned July, 2011 withdrawal from Afghanistan while you're at it.