A Feather In His (Dunce) Cap

If true, gotta give credit where credit is due.

I can't disagree with Mr. Bush's characterization of the pardon process, esp. in light of how the fellow who preceded him wielded that constitutional wand.

(ignore the "read more" click-through)
Read more...

Men Much Smarter Than I

I've been trying for months to condense my thoughts and feelings about the socio-political effects of the economic meltdown so I could post about it, but a man's got to know his limitations.

So, taking Mr. Callahan's advice, I highly recommend reading the following email exchanges between a former Goldman Sachs investment banker/author whose books "predicted the housing market crash, the financial crisis and the election of Barack Obama when Obama was still a little-known underdog" and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

You can read their two follow-up exchanges here and here.

Now, I'm no economist or investment banker, and my post would have been full of "motherfuckers", "bullshit", and "until blood flows like wine", but I think they mostly get my point across.

OK, time to get back to googling "how to build a guillotine". While doing so, I'll be listening to this:
Read more...

4.5 Hours Logged

If anybody ever puts a gun to your head and asks you what's the best music montage in movie history, here's your answer:



Now, if you knew the answer before you clicked through, well, you're either Bart Rachmil, me, or Wes Anderson.

Anyway, enjoy.

And say a prayer for Surf Boy, wherever he is.
Read more...

Lotta Dust to Knock Off

Jenn and I are moved in to our new digs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Well, moved in to the extent that our stuff is here, but it looks like a bomb went off). Been a hectic week, dealing with a novice landlord trying to nickel and dime us, but on the flipside we've moved on to homeownership which brings new problems but no more of that bullshit. Hopefully this woman will see the light and we'll see all of the security deposit. If she doesn't, I will crush her in small claims court and make her wish she'd sold the place instead of renting it.

Moving coincided with some very nice weather (finally!), and some kick ass food. Top of the list was the best cookies and cream ice cream I've ever had as well the best grilled corn. Both places are a stone's throw from us (a stone thrown from our roof perhaps, but still), as well as more restaurants and bars than I can shake a stick at--and I can shake a stick with the best of them.

There's a low profile bar at the end of the block in what was a pierogi factory. The building in which we live used to be a bakery. Gentrification overdrive, sure, but I'm looking out our window across the street at the still-active U.S. Rubber Supply Co. -- "If it's made of Rubber we have it".

Finally, our favorite pint-sized cat, Piper, nearly gave Jenn a heart attack last night and me one this afternoon. With the doors open while moving stuff in she made a run for it last night, but I got a hold of her out on the street. Today while furniture was being delivered I noticed Piper was nowhere to be found. Calling her name and searching high and low inside and out, looking in drawers, on top of cabinets, you name it--I didn't flush her out or find her. I feared the worst.

Four hours later she saunters into the living room like "what? you lookin' for me?"

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, which is me firing off posts with a vengence reminiscent of Popeye Doyle's return visit to the Hotel Du Tangier in French Connection 2 (the most underrated sequel of all time, you know).

Read more...

My Kinda Funny

Apologies if you've seen this particular version of this internet meme, but damn if I didn't spit take (see here for a delightfully deconstructed spit take) the first time I saw it in a comment thread. Whenever it pops up I still fucking laugh.

I'm tempted to break down why it's so awesome, but that would require a level of hubris I don't yet possess. (Though if you don't get the Christmas reference it's not nearly as funny, so here ya go. Victory or Death, indeed.)

Finally, in connection with this topic I want to share with you one of the formative images in my life. On a trip to Washington, D.C. in 1993 I saw a statue in a museum (can't remember which) depicting a seated George Washington. Sounds unremarkable, right? Ah, but this one was marble, oversized, and was basically Washington's head atop a body I can only describe as that of a Greek god. I devoured Greek mythology as a young lad and I also had a deep reverence for our founding fathers; clearly, this conflation blew my mind up. Myth meeting reality and merging into some sort of super-myth.

Sure, it's easy to relegate what we learned about America's origins into the dustbin of names and places foisted on us through rote memorization in a ham-handed attempt at a civic-minded socialization that passes for education. And it's just as easy to think that those same people and events have been mythologized all out of proportion by almost-dead white dudes who make their living writing books about long-dead white dudes. And it's even easier to think we can minimize the importance of such events and people because everybody back then was a misogynist/racist/native-murdering cretin. What makes me sad is that even though all of the above is true, it truly misses the point.

But I'm not going to tell you what the point is, because I keep my patriotism quite close to my vest, for it is deeply held and, I believe, deeply considered. Hard to get across in type, far harder to do in conversation. As it is for so many things, you can't know where to go if you don't know what to make of where you've been. Sometimes I just think Americans miss the entire point of being American.

Read more...