mad men (cont)

i thought reckoning was finally at hand once peggy dropkicked don so soon after betty had. but of course the writers dig don way too much to realize any suggestion of entropy. so here we are, suckered once again into rooting for dude because of our faith in others.

saturday night shower

lost with marriage is the particular optimism of drinking beer with one hand while scrubbing the nut sac just so (clean but hopefully not soapy tasting) with the other.

todays irony

figured on kittys back for piss breaks 1 & 2. that i instead stood through the entire thing slack-jawed and happily immobile is todays notable irony.

new york city serenade

there is no other place on the fucking planet id rather be than this loud fucking arena has always been the magic of bruce and i havent felt that magic in 10 years. but standing in front of the stage under them big madison square garden speakers i was 16 all over again listening on my aiwa headphones and hanging on to every life-affirming breath.

bedtime story

ill stand outside the door rather than pack into a tiny pisser. such was the case when some big motherfucker with tattooed dots all over his face bust past me. i walked in after him and said something like hell no. he slowly took off his sunglasses and asked me to repeat myself. i did. he then slowly took off his hat and again asked me to repeat myself. i repeated myself once more after which he calmly turned and walked out. pissing i wondered how the fuck i was going to explain to my sleeping wife and kids a broken jaw. but i was instead met by a bouncer who asked what i had said in the bathroom. i said there was a line. no foul language? i said there was a line. the big motherfucker remarked that i had in fact used inappropriate language and that as a reliable patron he shouldnt have to suffer such crass indignities.

brooklyn

she spits glottal approximations mostly but this morning she removed her pacifier, nodded with intense purpose and began to beatbox.

today

to be near is to hold on like hell. to fall away is to oversleep summer. but for a moment each morning i let go and i stare. at a sleepy smile knock-kneed and new.

arod

cant help but like the guy. sue me.

forest for trees

brian beutler:

Most of the commentary about last night’s elections has centered around Republican pickups in the New Jersey and Virginia statehouses. But what’s gone largely unnoticed is that the two congressional seats up for grabs last night both went to Democrats, and that will have immediate ramifications for health care reform.

The NY-23 seat abdicated by Republican John McHugh (who resigned to become Secretary of the Army) went to Democrat Bill Owens — the first Democrat to hold the seat in over a century. And the CA-10 seat abdicated by Democrat Ellen Tauscher (who resigned to become Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs) went to Democrat John Garamendi.

That creates some simple arithmetic. Yesterday, Democrats had 256 voting members in the House. By week’s end, they’ll have 258. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could afford to lose no more than 38 Democratic votes on a landmark health care reform bill. Next week, after Owens and Garamendi are sworn in, she can lose up to 40. For legislation this historic and far-reaching, she’ll need every vote she can get — and both seem likely to support reform.

bloomberg

tomasky:

New Yorkers’ Democratic-ness is all about national politics. It’s about supporting candidates like Barack Obama and opposing people like Sarah Palin. But locally, New Yorkers believe in the old adage about there being no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage. They want what works, and they suspect that the local Democratic party can’t and won’t.

which means i didnt vote at all.

health care (cont)

nyt:

Yet White House officials have shown little interest in Republicans, with the exception of Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, whom they have wooed assiduously, and one or two others. Mr. Obama did meet with some Republicans early on, when his aides still believed it was possible to get the support of Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee.

The No. 3 Republican in the Senate, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who attended one session with the president, recalled that in the 1960s, when he was a Congressional aide, Democrats and Republicans worked together on civil rights. He said he saw no possibility of a bipartisan health bill.

“White House officials don’t want one or don’t know how to do one,” Mr. Alexander said.

yglesias:

This is very confused, starting with the fact that Alexander started working as a Senate aide in 1967 by which time the main civil rights debate was over. Then any competent observer of American politics should realize that it’s no coincidence that the bipartisanship of the civil rights era vanished in the post-civil rights age. It was the debate over civil rights itself that created the unusual bipartisanship of mid-20th century America.

Last there’s the small matter here of the actual history of the health reform debate. Chuck Grassley is not just some guy, he’s the top Republican on health care issues. And the Grassley courtship process took a long time. And Grassley abandoned it in a blaze of hypocrisy, eventually slamming Democrats for embracing an individual mandate to purchase health insurance that he had long supported.

The larger context is that the president laid out some goals for health reform. He wants a bill that expands coverage in a way that’s deficit neutral in the medium-term, doesn’t disrupt people’s existing health insurance in the short-term, and bends the long-term cost curve. A lot of different ideas were put forward in Congress about how to do this. None of them were put forward by Republicans. One of them, produced by the Senate Finance Committee, was embraced by one Republican, Olympia Snowe. But the others are opposed to all the different proposed ways of achieving these goals and don’t have an alternative approach to offer either. Which is fine. Political parties can have profound disagreements about objectives. But it is what it is. Acting as if inviting Lamar Alexander over for tea would have fundamentally altered the landscape is silly.

textbook.

todays irony

meghan mccain:

The older generation needs to understand that my generation does not respond well to anger, hate, and personal attacks. We are a generation of communicators, and to us, actions speak louder than loud words. Perpetuating negativity will only result in the tuning out of another generation of voters, and we simply can’t afford that. I find it especially ironic that most of those who criticize Senator Lieberman more often than not have never run for elected office. But as the old saying goes, those that can’t do, criticize.

that mccain finds those who criticize the self-serving use of the anti-democratic filibuster ironic is todays notable irony.

halloween

i dont do gore. never have. prolly cuz my first r-rated movie was night shift instead of friday the 13th.

mad men (cont)

tnc:

I think I really like a scared Don–that’s really his truest self, and the rest is a facade. One of my favorite scenes happens in season one, when Rachel Menken berates Don for wanting to run a way and calls him a coward. It was like seeing him undone offered a view of what’s really happening inside.

the series best scene (or when jimmy barrett dismisses draper) is of course emblematic of the disconnect. psychology for dummies says drapers past makes him prone to running. but so easily from his kids? nothing up to that point suggested anything but a certain devotion.

stoic men

tomasky:

TNR’s James Gardner surmises that the Obamas are the first first couple to prefer abstract art to representational. Bravo. High time. Of course, it’s just more proof what a couple of socialists they are. I mean, before you know it, they’re going to be forcing everyone to hang only abstract art in their homes.

dont know whether ive ever been moved by an abstract art piece. but i can stare at this winslow homer (slide 5/9) long past dusk. because im that fucking predictable.

title ix (updated)

kathleen parker:

Obama’s basketball game, thus, has become a convenient metaphor for an inconvenient truth. Generally speaking, guys prefer to play ball with other guys, just as women prefer to form book clubs with other women. That’s not because women don’t like men (and vice versa) but because when relaxing, women mostly want to drink wine together. And talk about men. I don’t know what men do on the basketball court that is so compelling, but they apparently need it, and I don’t.

how dopey. competitive ballers only care about competition. and obama has probably played basketball with enough d1 women to know that shit is gender-neutral. besides which i probably only say three words during pick-up: lets go back.

UPDATE: the interns have been flooded with email regarding re: lets go back. it means lets go back on defense. as in lets go back on defense because of the purity of the three i just launched in dudes eyeball.

ardbeg

my favorite single malt:

Here the peat is grassy and mossy, mixed with heather, wood, sand and even seaweed. In its raw state it doesn’t smell at all, but once lit it releases a wonderfully rich, earthy aroma that is replicated in the whisky itself. And as for the iodine and salt I also detect, Heads simply waves his hand towards the sea breaking on the cobbles of the old jetty just yards from where we stand.

we have the word terroir. but what have we for the sea?

lebron who

i wrote:

the wiz finished with 19 wins. i figure next years over/under will be double that based on health alone. add flip saunders and maybe blake griffin and were talking 45.

the over/under is 41.5. agent zero will hit that handcuffed in a motherfucking milk can.

munos dad

the coolest dude on television.

obamaism (cont)

bruce bartlett walks the company line:

As if we needed further evidence that transfers have virtually no stimulative effect, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just issued a report on the 2008 tax rebate showing that only 30 percent of the money was spent; the rest was saved, thus providing no stimulus to short-run growth. (See also this CBO report and this new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research confirming this analysis.) On January 24, 2008, George W. Bush assured the country that a tax rebate was just the right medicine to prevent an economic downturn.

…

I think there are grounds on which to criticize the Obama administration’s anti-recession actions. But spending too much is not one of them. Indeed, based on this analysis, it is pretty obvious that spending – real spending on things like public works – has been grossly inadequate. The idea that Reagan-style tax cuts would have done anything is just nuts.

greasy album of the week

midnight soul serenade, heavy trash.

as if charlie rich walked out the swamp a vampire.

[slice: (sometimes you got to be) gentle]

if i could skywrite

i would highlight

pitch Pedro at The Stadium

punch-out!! (cont)

joe klein:

Rahm Emanuel’s television appearance last Sunday, in which he said that no decision could be made on more troops until the Afghan government resolved its electoral mess, was part of a coordinated effort to get Karzai to agree to a runoff election. And it worked, but not before a baloney-storm erupted among the wingers, criticizing the President and Emanuel for dithering about sending more troops. As soon as Karzai agreed to the runoff, a second message was sent by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates–plans were proceeding for the next stage of the war. The Emanuel-Gates statements were routinely described as “dueling” and, for a day or so, that’s exactly how it seemed: a slight breech between the Pentagon and the White House.

But it wasn’t. And Obama’s effort to formulate a new strategy for Afghanistan is, by all accounts, a coherent effort to incorporate four information streams–the military situation on the ground (the McChrystal stream); the military situation across the Pakistan border, where a major offensive is taking place that will have an impact on the situation in Afghanistan; the Afghan political stream; and the latest intelligence about the size, strength and intentions of Al Qaeda.

Once again, it is important to note that absolutely no such strategy review took place about Afghanistan during the Bush Administration. In fact, no basic policy review took place during the Bush Administration about Iraq, its war of choice, until 2006 when the decision was finally made to try counterinsurgency. Even more outrageous, no basic strategic review–aside from a riotously foolish bout of wishful thinking by Donald Rumsfeld–took place before the war in Iraq was launched. No American had a clue about what to do in Baghdad when we got there.

So, to hear Cheney attacking Obama now is the next thing to obscene. And to watch the neocon yackers blindly backing the 40,000 troop military option–without full knowledge of the four information streams the President has to coordinate–and attacking the President for “dithering” is laughably knee-jerk.

the sweet science is bebop which is why wed rather watch heavyweights clot tissue.

agent existential

gilbert arenas:

“The fans, I think, just want to see me play again,” Arenas said last Friday after he and the Wizards were each fined $25,000 earlier in the week because he had not been speaking with the news media. “I think they can live without me just rambling on about stupid stuff in my life.

one part harlem globetrotter. one part brown hornet.

er$atz

jonah weiner:

And it’s not that the band didn’t deliver. To the contrary, Creed seemed to irritate people precisely because its music was so unabashedly calibrated towards pleasure: Every surging riff, skyscraping chorus, and cathartic chord progression telegraphed the band’s intention to rock us, wow us, move us. Tremonti was a brutally effective guitarist, and by 2001’s “Weathered,” he’d even added subtlety—or the hard-rock version of it, anyway—to his arsenal. Creed was formulaic, but that’s only an insult if the formula doesn’t work. One of the surprises involved in returning to Creed with a fresh pair of ears is how rocking, exciting, and, yes, moving, the songs can be. “Higher” might turn out to be the nu-grunge “Don’t Stop Believing”: dismissed by cognoscenti on arrival as bludgeoning and gauche but destined for rehabilitation down the road as a triumphant slab of ersatz inspirationalism.

dude had $20k sitting on a roulette table. his girl had cleopatra bangs and mostly stared down at her nails. someone said her handbag was impossible to get.

like forever

welcome back kdawggy; weve been waiting, like, forever.

the loveless

you can have your hair piled high. you can have your hair slicked back. you can have your hair mussed like mickey rourke in angel heart but you cant be bald or balding in no rockabilly band. a shame cuz guitar breaks like darts to the throat wouldve made for a righteous avocation.

the here and there

yglesias:

There’s often a kind of conventional idea on the left that the United States is an unusually racist society. And I think there’s also often a kind of image of Europe as a place where more of the progressive agenda has been achieved than in the USA. But I think that you’ll find if you look at Europe through the eyes of the liberal agenda that while the German left has certainly been more successful than the American left at securing universal health care, it’s been much less successful at promoting a tolerant, integrated, multicultural society. And allowing for the errors implicit in making any kind of sweeping generalization, I’d say that’s pretty generally the case across Europe. This Swiss People’s Party campaign poster would, I think, make Jesse Helms blush. And I’m not even sure which of the Northern League posters from Italy is the most egregious.

In the US, in other words, racial problems have been more salient for a long time since we’ve been a racially diverse society for a long time. But by the same token, for all the problems we have with us today, we’ve made enormous progress over the years. Racial and ethnic tensions are a common problem in the world, and the United States manages diversity pretty well in comparison with other places (not just in Europe) even if we fall short in some absolute terms. Just look at Barack Obama. I think we’ll be waiting a while yet before someone of non-European ancestry is elected head of government in a European country. Denmark has some great public policy ideas, but it’s also kind of made itself into the gated community of nations in a way I don’t find particularly appealing.

on one hand embarrassingly obvious, on the other creepily insular.

thinking out loud about mini cokes

from cokes press release:

“As the world’s largest beverage company, we take seriously the need to help consumers balance calories consumed with calories expended,” said Sandy Douglas, president, Coca-Cola North America. “The Coca-Cola mini can innovation reinforces the Company’s support for healthy, active lifestyles.”

The 7.5-fluid ounce mini can carries the distinct Coca-Cola contour-shaped bottle image in white with a red background. Additional brands that also will feature the sleek mini can packaging include: Sprite, Fanta Orange, Cherry Coca-Cola and Barq’s Root Beer. It will be sold in eight-packs.

i usually nurse the last few ounces of a 20oz bottle. maybe im still conditioned to drink 16oz. or maybe i prefer the 12oz can because i drink in direct proportion to what i eat (chug with two cookies/savor with steak & eggs). and if i prefer the 12oz can than further rationing with each (and every) meal dont seem all that implausible.

continental drift

if the bed were a risk board then im bivouacked somewhere east of kamchatka; little feet mercilessly pushing me toward the deep blue pacific.

goofus and gallant

the latest summation of marriage here.