Pointless Man

When even Cosmopolitan is forced to call you out as a duplicitous propagandist, maybe it's time for journalists to stop taking your calls. There is no reason to assume Ms. Conway, of the "alternative facts", is at all concerned with truth. Her job appears to be to spread propaganda. I think the Cosmo article makes it clear she didn't believe 'the Bowling Green Massacre' was real at all, but was cynically dissembling. She was intentionally attempting to mislead us to justify her boss' unjusifiable travel ban aimed at Muslims. This is a textbook case of lying. More importantly, the US has already reacted to and fully addressed the shortcomings that allowed two Iraqis with terrorist ties into the US and Bowling Green, Kentucky. They would have been screened out in the current process. These men committed no 'massacre' anywhere, but had planted bombs in Iraq years before and intended to send assisstance to Al Queda in Iraq. They were not mastermind...

"'Can I get a witness to all this poverty?' There's no need to, brother. Everybody can see," Joe Strummer sang, but I think he was sadly mistaken.  As I used to argue in non-defense of the G. W. Bush administration, the rich and powerful are so generally and fully ensconced in their rarefied territory, they are mostly unaware of the underclasses. Thus, actions which, with greater understanding, might be seen as intentionally evil, are merely ignorant (though arguably still evil). This helps to explain Bush's approach to Katrina, black people, the poor, public schools, and those foreigners he tried to help free with two wars in their homes; Catherine the Great's inability to tell that her tours of supposed Russian towns involved the same actors, playing the same roles, and using the same set over and over; Marie Antionette's "Let them eat cake;" the casual cruelty of roving gangs in Fist of the North Star 1 ; and Republican efforts to someho...

The other day, I was reading some misguided blathering from a young freelancer about why moustaches are staging a mostly ironic comeback. She concluded the trend (including jewelry and stickers) wasn't jocular at all, and had almost nothing to do with style, but was instead an expression of a longing for things to slow down and regain shades of 'simpler times'. No, there wasn't really an argument, not as such. Nor was there much humour, as such. I do not believe the absence of either to have been intentional. Out of a sense of charity to the author, I shall assume this was an exercise in seeing whether or not highschool journal entries, written after a bowl or three, are acceptable as paid opinion pieces in today's dying newspaper industry. Before coming up with a poor excuse for someone submitting nonsense like this to the only daily newspaper in a major metropolitan area without dying of shame, I remember thinking, "This is all wrong," a sentiment I s...

Not only did someone at the AP like this photo enough to buy it, the BBC thought it was a good picture for an article on coal miners in Ohio . It sort of fits, given how some of the story's subjects view our president. Still.

That magazine has unfortunately become a rag under its current editor in chief.  However!  Is a crazy cover-picture (and title) choice, which gives even greater excuse for right-wingers to complain about the 'liberal media', excusable if it leads to something awesome?  As a principle, probably not.  But in this case, maybe so.  Observe: Mitt Romney with Michelle Bachman's eyes-from-the-cover-of-Newsweek.

Does anyone else find it strange that the press buys into the notion of announcements or press releases on things that have already been announced?  On Thursday, the BBC reported Texas' governor, Rick Perry, had said he was going to run for his party's nomination for POTUS, and that he would announce this on Saturday.  And so he has, but wasn't his previous statement good enough to confirm his already telegraphed intentions? I understand the notion of official communications.  As I recall, that sort of thing used to follow rumors, unattributed comments, and buzz from lower level members of the group which would eventually make the announcement.  No more.  Now, SONY can tell you what they are going to do, get coverage for letting you know, and then do it all over again.  The appeal to those looking for press is obvious.  The appeal to the press, a little less so. That is, assuming the aim of the fourth estate is taken to be informing the public, as ...

If at any point, reading this becomes laborious, please stop.  I'll understand.  It is long, and probably uninteresting.  I promise not to make a habit of this sort of post.  I'm just venting a bit.... After having two minor spats with writers on local news site, Seattlest, I was disallowed from commenting on their articles.  Fair enough.  That's their right, and no one else seems to respond to them anyway.  I was, however, surprised to see a resident author tell me to basically stop reading their articles shortly before I was to be banned.  After all, isn't online business based (at least indirectly) on traffic?  Don't they want people to go their site?  So, setting the present petty argument aside, I e-mailed the editor, and had this untidy exchange: Subject:   You might want to suggest to your authors they not actively drive away readers. Myself: In the comments section for 'Hail to the Co-Chairwoman!: Murray to lead "Sup...

This is Lloyd Blankfein, pictured in a BBC News article on Goldman Sachs execs testifying to Congress entitled, ' Goldman Sachs "Profited at Clients' Expense" '.  Lloyd is Sachs' CEO. Seems a proper reaction for having to play in the absurdist theatre of a Senate hearing on a scandal, where everyone is positively outraged by the actions of their patrons.  Not like it's news that Wall Street is filled with dicks who just want to fuck you.  "I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling going on in this establishment!" Meanwhile, our representatives will continue to whittle down their not-quite-strong-enough to begin with legislation set on reigning in just these sorts of excesses.  Of course, even should it be detoothed and declawed, our Republican friends and officials will still lament it being much too intrusive, stifling, and 'big government', as they call for the tougher reform of largely letting the markets manage themselves. Per...

NYT headline: Poll Finds Paterson Deeply Unpopular You should click on the photo to get a full sense of the composition. It really makes the man look lonely.