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January 19, 2007
hello accu weather!!
I'm not sure if this counts as fun, but give it a check anyway. The Weather Channel has a web presence devoted to tracking/discussing climate change. It is called One Degree. In this blog, a meteorologist by the name of Dr Heidi Cullen posted her thoughts on weather professionals and climate change -- basically, if you are not up to speed on climate change, you are not that professional of a weather professional, and maybe the American Meteorological Society should take that into consideration when offering their "Seals of Approval".This post was picked up by some winger outlet, after which the chairs began to fly. Thereafter, Dr Cullen posted her response, which is well-drafted and all, but also resulted in more chairs thrown. The comments are a hoot; the sheer scale of the cognitive dissonance is almost overwhelmed by the goofy antics of the knuckledraggers, but not quite. Below please find some examples, with all the typos left in for your derision:
When did CNN buy the Weather Channel? No nazi from the weather channel has any right to suggest that those who disagree with the global warming nuts should be decertificed. How dare you! Good bye Weather Channel hello Accu Weather.Robert Dorsey | January 19, 2007
I'm not sure what being "decertificed" feels like -- probably not a backrub.
your drinking Kool-aide.Anonymous | January 19, 2007
Ah, thanks! Now could you fetch me my eating Kool-aide?
Lady,Wake up, you're so far from the truth it's scary. No need to comment on such a stupid position. I'll let Rush tell you the TRUETH.
Ray Rogers | January 19, 2007
I agree. There is no need for your comment. And that's the TRUETH.
This may be the best one:
If the ice glaciers are melting and the sea level rising at an alarming rate as Mr Al Gore has stated many times, why isn't Venice Italy under water?RB | January 19, 2007
Urm, Venice, Italy is pretty much under water, though I'm not sure if that has anything to do with Mr Al Gore.
Dude, I could do this all day long. (And I would, too, if I had the money.)
[Via this DailKos diary.]
Posted by mrbrent at 3:32 PM
just you watch rich little go blue to spite you
You might have heard that the White House Correspondents Association dinner has decided to play it safe this year. Steve Colbert's performance last year (in which he became the first, and probably last, person to haterize on the President to his face) left little taste for future experiments in public speaking. So they went out and Rich Little, who is not only apparently not dead, but also from the Bob Hope school of comedy of a sanitary, sycophantish sort. He's been asked to take it easy. You know, easier than he usually is. In Vegas.I understand trying to protect the Presidential feelings -- after all, there are only so many Presidential feelings (three? four?), and once they're broke, they're broke. But can't the WHCA come up with something a little more watching CSPAN over?
Yes, you know what I'm thinking. I'm thinking Gallagher.
Accordingly, I'm also thinking Sledge-O-Matic.
Posted by mrbrent at 11:21 AM
January 18, 2007
ana you ignorant slut
The good news? More Marc Maron. The bad news? Ana Marie Cox gets the opportunity to continue her slow, sad descent into Dennis Miller, televised.Though maybe the former Wonkette deserves the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she'll drop the Lucianne Goldberg-lite act and return to sly references to sodomy. Maybe this is the beginning of the backlash to the Ana Marie Cox-backlash.
Maybe. Unfortunately, the pairing with Maron, an unabashed progressive (whom I heart very much, from his Air America days), does seem to predict a point/counterpoint relationship between the two.
("Slow sad descent into Dennis Miller" -- that could be a sly reference to sodomy, yes?)
Posted by mrbrent at 10:28 AM
January 17, 2007
i know i know
Fresh from what now passes for the Yahoo! Box of Headlines:• Deadly clue to 1918 Spanish flu virus uncovered
Careful around that clue, you viral pathologists!
Posted by mrbrent at 4:49 PM
alberto gonzales: bringing stunning mediocrity to the DOJ
Alberto Gonzales is all over the newses today, and it's difficult to resist posting a new slander every time he breaks a headline. Let's just say that, as far as Attorney Generals go (including the Meeses of history), Gonzales is the most transparent lapdog a president could ever wish for. Not that he's politicizing the process or anything, no -- he just leaves a Nathan-Thurm trial of slime in his wake, trundling off to dissemble to some Senate sub-committee, or oozing over to send the FBI after some war protesters or random immigrant Mexicans.What's the point? The point is that I hate hate hate him. I'm of the belief that there are some positions in government that should rise above political considerations, the office of the Attorney General being the primary example. And Gonzales is just an intellectually unserious man content to play offensive tackle for the Bush Administration. And fuck him, BTW, fuck fuck fuckitty fuck him.
Sorry. There must be some links out there to some UFO nonsense, yes? Monk?
Posted by mrbrent at 12:45 PM
the justice department will touch you inappropiately
Here are some updates on two of the latest insults to our intelligence noted here.W/r/t Cully Stimson of the Justice Department, he has issued an apology:
During a radio interview last week, I brought up the topic of pro bono work and habeas corpus representation of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Regrettably, my comments left the impression that I question the integrity of those engaged in the zealous defense of detainees in Guantanamo. I do not....
Actually, Mr Stimson, "Cully", the impression that you left was not that of impugning the character of any pro bono defense attorneys. The impression that you left was that the Justice Department was calling for a blacklist of any firms that provided such pro bono representation. So continue to apologize for whatever you want -- questioning our integrity, hurting our feelings, eating the last chicken wing. And then let us know if your evil overlords at Justice were using you to float a balloon, or if you got some wild wicked hair up your ass.
And w/r/t the recent purge of US Attorneys, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has gone on the record:
With respect to politicizing the process, I mean nothing could be further from the truth.
So everyone relax, okay?
(BTW, Most Excellently Qualified Attorney General, that should be "farther" and not "further" -- or is that your dastardly lawyer way to obfuscate the truth?)
Note that both of these clear examples of not politicizing the process have been brought to you by the Justice Department. Now face north.
Posted by mrbrent at 10:46 AM
January 16, 2007
this would count as a shout out to TPM
So, you realize that these blogs the kids are playing with are actually breaking news now, yes? This is of course a generalization -- a specious generalization for two years ago, but a you-know-I'm-right generalization for now.And I'm not talking about the winger/PJM echo box, either -- sure, they gin up a story here and there, but the newsiest thing about them is first the factual incorrectness, and second the contortions of justification and excuse that follows.
The best example of news being broken is currently the Talking Points Memo family of blogs (specifically and predeictably, TPM Muckraker). Josh Marshall's notion of endowing a handful of blogging types to devote their working days to tracking down and breaking news is the model that the newspapers should be noting with interest -- as opposed to the recent outbreak of giving newspaper/TV reporters blogs in which they can talk about, for example, their cat peeing on their shoes. For example, over the course of eighteen hours or so, TPM has sniffed out and broken this story of the Administration surreptitiously replacing corruption-fighting US Attorneys with talentless sinecured hacks. Which is outrageous and offensive, etc., but so? Who can eat just one?
It's difficult to imagine that such a story would break at all if there wasn't some people like TPM with the luxury to track down these odd little stories instead of transcribing the words of every unnamed "senior administration official".
Don't get me wrong -- this is not to weigh in on in any way Old Media/New Media debates. I have friends who are the news-breaking bloggers, and I have friends that are actual (paid!) journalists. In fact, I'm not convinced that there's any use in casting the one against the other. I just am tickled to see a swarm of motivated fourth-estaters flood the zone -- hopefully someone with a more mainstream position in the news media can turn the factoids into a coherent story, the kind that our parents might actually see, on the CNN.
Posted by mrbrent at 3:16 PM
January 15, 2007
mlk
Today is Martin Luther King Day. Or, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is you're a stickler for protocol, as I am on occasion. So, to celebrate the accomplishments and legacy of the Rev Dr, I am not working, as are most of us white collar types not working.(Not to get all Arizona or anything, but it is quaint that we celebrate national days of commemoration by staying home from work, yes? When there is a Titivil Day, all you bastards will still have to clock in, sorry.)
Consequently, not so much news today, unless you consider my suspicion that my cat peed in my favorite shoes "news". I myself consider it a logical consequence of our years-long conflict, exacerbated by our acquisition of an actually-decent and -good dog who gets my vote for Favorite Non-Human of the Titivil household.
So while we all contemplate the Rev Dr/watch daytime TV, let's remember that not only was he arguably singularly responsible for the success of the Civil Rights movement, he also was a very vocal critic of the Vietnam War (which our current warmongers believe we could have one, had we never, ever left Vietnam).
This advocacy occurred, of course, immediately before they iced him.
Oop! Dr Phil's on!
Posted by mrbrent at 2:36 PM