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Mendota. (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:21:40 -0500

Mendota. (Taken with instagram)

Stand back, folks: Charlie Pierce is on a roll

Thu, 17 May 2012 21:30:59 -0500

In re: the whole Old Man Ricketts and His Terrible, Horrible, No-Good-Very-Bad Idea, I totally almost forgot to read Charles P. Pierce on the topic! Which would have been a huge mistake:

Now, though, there’s no need to fake it once you make it. The offices were devalued as we convinced ourselves that “government” was an alien entity, and we accepted the fundamental absurdity of people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to run for office because they were “not a politician,” and running for positions in a government that they pretended to distrust, instead of laughing those people off the national stage as the charlatans they obviously are. Political office became a career move, a vehicle to continue your career in business through other means. And, as this became more and more the rule, actual public service waned, and government began to fail, and the cycle fed on itself until, today, our campaigns are judged and rewarded as though candidates were pitching an ad campaign, with success measured in the same way.

We have done a remarkable thing in this country. We have privatized both political slander and political corruption.

But I know something about you ...

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:56:00 -0500

You went to Cranbook/that’s a private school:

The story paints a detailed portrait of [Cranbook School] as having a kind of Hogwarts grandeur. “In the chandeliered dining room, students waited on fellow students and sat on straight-backed spindle chairs bearing the school’s insignia of a proud crane. After dinner, they wiped their mouths with cloth napkins,” The Post wrote.

What’s the matter dog? You embarrassed?/ This guy’s a gangsta? His real name’s Clarence

And Clarence lives in home with both parents/ And Clarence’s parents have a real good marriage

I assume I am not the first person to make this joke, but the fact that Eminem once used Mitt Romney’s former school in a fake rap battle during a movie called “8 Mile” pleases me to no end.

Miss you already, Dick

Wed, 09 May 2012 09:58:57 -0500

“I’ve said it many times,” Mr. Mourdock said. “This is a historic time, and the most powerful people in both parties are so opposed to one another that one side simply has to win out over the other.”

That sort of talk has Democrats seething. “He says there’s a problem, Mourdock does, of too much bipartisanship and he can be counted on to obstruct,” Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said on Tuesday. “Well, there are a lot of things wrong in Washington, but too much compromise is certainly not one of them.”

Richard Mourdock’s Many Pursuits Don’t Include Bipartisanship

The vote was the Senate Republicans’ 21st successful filibuster of a Democratic bill this Congress,...

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:05:49 -0500

The vote was the Senate Republicans’ 21st successful filibuster of a Democratic bill this Congress, which started in January 2011. Republicans have blocked consideration of President Obama’s full jobs proposal, as well as legislation repealing tax breaks for oil companies, helping local governments pay teachers and first responders, and setting a minimum tax rate for households earning more than $1 million a year. Republicans say the measures were flawed and potentially harmful to the economic recovery.

Senate Republicans Block Bill on Student Loan Rates

When my student loan interest skyrockets and causes my inevitable rage-driven self-immolation, it’s nice to know my local first responders will be there to … ha, wait, nevermind.

The standard Hollywood storytelling model insists that every commercially viable narrative be an...

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:29:54 -0500

The standard Hollywood storytelling model insists that every commercially viable narrative be an inspirational bubblegum version of the Hero’s Journey, and that we all sit there in the dark buying into the self-flattering fantasy that we, too, are the heroes and heroines of our own little movies, and that everyone else in our lives is but a glorified supporting character or background extra, and that they’ll all launch into a collective slow clap when we finally get married or land the big promotion or whatever. Mad Men lets the characters think this way — they’re as self-centered as you or I, which is why their selfish or self-destructive actions are often so disquieting — but it consistently pulls the rugs out from under them, and from us. The times change, history rolls on, the characters get older; they try to improve and know themselves, yet they keep doing things for inscrutable reasons, and keep waking up in unfamiliar circumstances wondering, to quote the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” “Well, how did I get here?”

— Matthew Zoller Seitz

nevver: The New Yorker

Mon, 07 May 2012 09:26:39 -0500

nevver: The New Yorker

Photo

Sat, 05 May 2012 13:24:05 -0500

terrysdiary: Beautiful bulbs.

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:45:27 -0500

terrysdiary:

Beautiful bulbs.

fotojournalismus: Riot policemen stand guard after getting...

Wed, 02 May 2012 10:04:11 -0500

fotojournalismus:

Riot policemen stand guard after getting splattered by paintballs from student protesters during clashes on International Workers’ Day, or May Day, at the central square of Bogota May 1, 2012.

[Credit : Jose Miguel Gomez/Reuters)

Coolest Alphabet Ever

Wed, 02 May 2012 09:47:39 -0500

Coolest Alphabet Ever

Science (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:00:50 -0500

Science (Taken with instagram)

scipsy: A 340-million pixel starscape from Paranal

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:17:47 -0500

scipsy:

A 340-million pixel starscape from Paranal

If there are any real-life inspirations for “Parks and Recreation,” they aren’t...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:29:58 -0500

If there are any real-life inspirations for “Parks and Recreation,” they aren’t necessarily the bold-faced political names you might expect. One of Schur’s personal heroes was the superintendant of schools in the town where he grew up — a man who worked on making the schools better for 46 years.

“There’s a real nobility in that, and I think TV has, at some level, trained people to believe that the only noble choice in life is to be the biggest, best, fastest, strongest — the most famous, the biggest deal, the ‘American Idol’-winning person,” Schur said. “One of the themes of this show is to kind of celebrate the nobility of working really hard for your little tiny slice of America, and doing as well as you can for that part of it in a way that tangibly helps people.”

‘Parks And Recreation’ Gets Political: Amy Poehler And Mike Schur Talk Pawnee Debate Night

Photo

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:25:45 -0500

"The brutal reality is that Iranians had entrusted their national destiny to a man, Khomeini, who had..."

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:01:22 -0500

“The brutal reality is that Iranians had entrusted their national destiny to a man, Khomeini, who had spent far more time thinking about the religious penalties for fornicating with animals than how to run a modern economy.”

- The Ayatollah Under the Bed(sheets), by Karim Sadjadpour

"In an ironic twist, the producer of a movie about mutants cautions against undertaking any genetic..."

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:05:21 -0500

“In an ironic twist, the producer of a movie about mutants cautions against undertaking any genetic experiments with a franchise’s genome. Instead, to avoid losing broad, inter-generational appeal, Shuler Donner emphasizes the need to refresh what she calls the “tone” of the franchise regularly. “You don’t want people to go and say, ‘Ugh! Saw that already!’” she says, “You have to reinvent and give them a different tone. For example, The Wolverine [directed by Knight and Day’s James Mangold] will be an altogether different tone [than 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was directed by Gavin Hood]. And so you’re not going to see Wolverine fight with his claws in any way that you’ve seen him before. This [one] is very different; there’s sort of a noir, Chinatown flavor to it.””

- Spider-Man and the Half-Life of the Movie Reboot

I am going to go out on a limb and say that nothing about “The Wolverine” will have a “‘Chinatown’ feel to it.” Just a hunch.

"What person who actually has a job and a reputation… would give a f*** about getting some little..."

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:01:21 -0500

“What person who actually has a job and a reputation… would give a f*** about getting some little badge like they’re in high school? It’s patronizing.”

- Nick Denton on commenting

I ask some version of this every time I read an Internet comments section. The mind boggles.

"a list that was improbably poignant, and even, in its way, literary."

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:14:26 -0500

“a list that was improbably poignant, and even, in its way, literary.”

- What We’re Reading: Buzzfeed

nickdouglas: Thank you, Reddit

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:50:38 -0500

nickdouglas: Thank you, Reddit