thousands of ugly betties (or, i need to carry a digital cam)

one of the quirks of living in nyc is that people like to do promotional stuff here that just doesn’t get done elsewhere. today for instance i was walking through times square on my way to kinko’s and ran into a herd of betties. ugly ones. hundreds and hundreds of women dressed exactly the same. just like betty on the new abc show ugly betty. red rimmed glasses and serapes emblazoned with the word “guadalajara.” unkempt dark hair and even some with braces. they seemed to have stuff to hand out, but none seemed real interested in doing so.

i so need to either carry the cam or get a cell phone with a cam.

it’s not everyday you see that many ugly betties.

college football allegiances

so it’s friday during the college football season and my buckeyes are gearing up to try to send joepa into early retirement by playing safari on his nitany lions. as it’s football season, my friday attire is, as it’s been since as long as i can remember, something ohio state related. today it’s an ohio state hoodie. i expect that i’ll get the usual question, “oh did you go to ohio state?” well, no i didn’t. but that doesn’t mean i don’t support the buckeyes.

since i’ve been in nyc i’ve always gotten that question. it’s as if people cannot believe that you’d wear the athletic gear of a college you didn’t attend. i’ve been asked, “well if you didn’t go there, why do support them?” it’s a hard thing to explain. i’d say state pride, but i’m not really all that proud of my home state. i think it comes down to a kinda of geographic allegiance common to competetive sports. it seems to me that people tend to gravitate towards and cheer for the team near them and also towards the team that they see the most. i’ve tried to explain that my alma mater is a division 1aa school and as such cheering for ohio state is not abondoning my school, but in my industry folks are not often interested really in the intricacies of college sporting divisions.

most of the people i know who cheer for ohio state are not, in fact, alums. but being raised in ohio, the buckeyes are a symbol that you see growing up. from before the time when you even start thinking about college, you see the buckeyes on tv and there’s this team from ohio competing so it’s natural to cheer for them. it’s your state. allegiances may switch as you get older and attend college, especially if you don’t go to the ohio state university, but from an early age in most ohioans there’s a soft spot for the buckeyes and i’d imagine that it’s similar for many locales. i mean there’s only 117 division 1a schools competeing in ncaa football so if you’re into football, ya kinda gotta pick one. for me, it has always been the buckeyes. so even though i am not an alum, i’m still a buckeye.

the gridiron and my lazy ass

miss me bitches?

sometimes i do have to work and sometimes i get lazy (okay, quite often i get lazy).

since the last time we spoke, the buckeyes dithered over wherther or not to pummel cincy (deciding eventually that it might be a good idea), my beloved steelers got blanked by the jags (i still can’t decide whether it was a good idea or not to play big ben, damn you peter king), dubya’s approval rating on rasmussen skied to 47% and then sunk back to 40%, macaca allen was unmasked as a jew on national television, thailand underwent a coup (proving that going to the u.n. is never a good idea), adolf ahmadinejad came and told the u.n. what he really thinks of them and didn’t get to have dinner with george and laura, chad johnson learned that the browns don’t like the chicken dance or blonde mohawks, capitol security was shown to be a complete joke, doc ock surfaced in switzerland, jim “the gay american” mcgreevey went on a book tour, rosie made elizabeth cry repeatedly, i went 23-9 in si’s peter king challenge which is very disappointing and puts me somewhere in the middle of the road, the u.s. gov’t recognized the mrs. as a permanent resident, god-mama had a heart attack and a few other things that i’ll probably be sad that i left out later.

i have no energy to continue with this…

ladies and gentlemen…

it’s the dead schembechlers!!!

you can never understand me!

this morning on my way in i read thomas sowell’s column cheap shot journalism in the post. beyond the discussion of the new york times’ alleged duplicitous opinion pieces masquerading as news articles, something struck me:

the self-infatuated idea that nobody could disagree with you for honest and informed reasons is far more dangerous than any influence that donors’ money may exercise.

that was how the post edited his column to end. the actual piece runs further to point out an ugly truth:

our whole educational system, from the elementary schools to the universities, is increasingly turning out people who have never heard enough conflicting arguments to develop the skills and discipline required to produce a coherent analysis, based on logic and evidence.

it’s true. i’ve seen it on both sides. the hardening of the partisan bases to the point that anyone who diverges from the party line is evil and must be silenced. it reminds me of a discussion i had some years ago with an african-american friend in which he tried to end our discussion with the phrase, “well, it’s a black thing, you can’t ever understand it.” if i can’t ever understand it, then we can never come to any understanding.

this view has come to rear its ugly head more and more in political discussions where anyone with a differing opinion is shouted down and demonized. actual discussion among those with differing opinions is no longer encouraged save for the requisite visits to opposing blogs to see “what the enemy is thinking.” the give and take between sides is not about addressing each others concerns in a rational way as much as it is about getting your view out there louder and longer than the other person’s. it’s about repeating things over and over until they take root, whether true or not, and become the conventional wisdom. it’s the automatic assumption that because someone believes something different from you that they are somehow less worthy at best and evil at worst.

people of good conscience used to be able to argue different sides of an issue while still remaining friends. not so much anymore. nora ephron, a beacon on the left, said recently that she has no friends who are republican or christian and she is proud of that fact. it’s to the point where if someone disagrees with you, they are the enemy. but as sowell points out, worse for america is the fact that this is the kind of a generation that’s being raised in our schools. one side of an issue is being taught and the other side ridiculed or demonized. partisanship is going to cost us our ability to interact as americans and will, if unchecked, tear this country apart.

some will say that’s a good thing. they’ll also say that i’m a pawn of the evil right wing cabal for trying to point it out. they’ll say that my doing so is an admission that they are winning and my side is losing. i’m not taking sides here. i’m pointing out that both sides are guilty of it. if things don’t take a change soon, the damage that it causes will be irreparable.

always remember and never forget

from firedoglake of all places…

this is what censorship looks like

i’ll even leave the caps in:

September 7, 2006

Mr. Robert A. Iger
President and CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank CA 91521

Dear Mr. Iger,

We write with serious concerns about the planned upcoming broadcast of The Path to 9/11 mini-series on September 10 and 11. Countless reports from experts on 9/11 who have viewed the program indicate numerous and serious inaccuracies that will undoubtedly serve to misinform the American people about the tragic events surrounding the terrible attacks of that day. Furthermore, the manner in which this program has been developed, funded, and advertised suggests a partisan bent unbecoming of a major company like Disney and a major and well respected news organization like ABC. We therefore urge you to cancel this broadcast to cease Disney’s plans to use it as a teaching tool in schools across America through Scholastic. Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

Disney and ABC claim this program to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report and are using that assertion as part of the promotional campaign for it. The 9/11 Commission is the most respected American authority on the 9/11 attacks, and association with it carries a special responsibility. Indeed, the very events themselves on 9/11, so tragic as they were, demand extreme care by any who attempt to use those events as part of an entertainment or educational program. To quote Steve McPhereson, president of ABC Entertainment, “When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right.”

Unfortunately, it appears Disney and ABC got it totally wrong.

Despite claims by your network’s representatives that The Path to 9/11 is based on the report of the 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Commissioners themselves, as well as other experts on the issues, disagree.

Richard Ben-Veniste, speaking for himself and fellow 9/11 Commissioners who recently viewed the program, said, “As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 Commission’s findings the way that they had.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar, and a national security advisor to ABC has described the program as “deeply flawed” and said of the program’s depiction of a Clinton official hanging up on an intelligence agent, “It’s 180 degrees from what happened.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

Reports suggest that an FBI agent who worked on 9/11 and served as a consultant to ABC on this program quit halfway through because, “he thought they were making things up.” [MSNBC, September 7, 2006]

Even Thomas Kean, who serves as a paid consultant to the miniseries, has admitted that scenes in the film are fictionalized. [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

That Disney would seek to broadcast an admittedly and proven false recounting of the events of 9/11 raises serious questions about the motivations of its creators and those who approved the deeply flawed program. Finally, that Disney plans to air commercial-free a program that reportedly cost it $40 million to produce serves to add fuel to these concerns.

These concerns are made all the more pressing by the political leaning of and the public statements made by the writer/producer of this miniseries, Mr. Cyrus Nowrasteh, in promoting this miniseries across conservative blogs and talk shows.

Frankly, that ABC and Disney would consider airing a program that could be construed as right-wing political propaganda on such a grave and important event involving the security of our nation is a discredit both to the Disney brand and to the legacy of honesty built at ABC by honorable individuals from David Brinkley to Peter Jennings. Furthermore, that Disney would seek to use Scholastic to promote this misguided programming to American children as a substitute for factual information is a disgrace.

As 9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick said, “It is critically important to the safety of our nation that our citizens, and particularly our school children, understand what actually happened and why – so that we can proceed from a common understanding of what went wrong and act with unity to make our country safer.”

Should Disney allow this programming to proceed as planned, the factual record, millions of viewers, countless schoolchildren, and the reputation of Disney as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress will be deeply damaged. We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Byron Dorgan

the silence or support from friends of mine who ostensibly support free speech makes me ill. physically ill.

is myspace the internet equivalent of crack and will the gop’s ad push help?

so, i have a myspace. no i won’t tell you what it is. if you find it, more power to you. you’ll totally get a prize which, much like the myspace url, shall remain nameless. the thing about having a myspace is that you have your friends, people you know, but you also sometimes end up with their friends and even people you have no clue about.

now a myspace seems to me to be a bit more personal than say, a blog. maybe it’s the fact that you post pictures and list stuff about yourself, but it just seems mor epersonal than a blog like this where you rant or analyze or vilify or cajole or gloat. maybe it’s just that in my mind a blog is more about words and a myspace is more about pictures and pretty stuff and answering aimless and endless surveys.

the trouble with myspace is that it really does show you something about the people with whom you choose to associate. often they’re boneheads. you take a person who seems for all intents aand purposes to be a fairly well put together person, but then you see that they are endlessly posting bulletins of surveys. “am i hot” and “do you know me” and “what sexual position did you use with my mom last night.” if you have a myspace you know the type. they’re the same ones who forward you emails from the illegitemate half son of the former nairobi finance minister and see if you wanna go halfsies with them on it. they’re the ones who have included you, without your knowledge or approval on prayer chains and conspiracy threads and petitions to have the drinking age changed to 25. now, on the whole these are generally decent people who haave just never heard of snopes.com. so how do you broach the topic of their wackier internet proclivities? or do you? it jusst seems that any discussion of this is doomed to end badly.

kinda like any discussion of this with someone of a different political persuasion has the potential to slip quickly into a knockdown drag out war of words. granted, this is only a bad thing if you are opposed to those kinds of arguments (and i use argument in its highest form here) and feel unable to defend your position or just don’t like shouting. personally, i love it. and i love shouting. i get a kick out of politics unlike the kick i get out of most things. especially internet based blog activities. maybe that’s why i’ve gotten more active about updating mine (i know, i know, it’s still not everyday and it should be more than once a day, shut up, mom!). i’ve been saying for months that if the gop starts using the democrats own words and images against them, it’s going to change the pitch of this cycle. well, with 3 months to go, the gop has spent an average of 20% of their kitty so far on ads. if this is any indication of the direction they’re going, it’s gonna be more crying baby pics for some folks.

yeah we won. so?

35-12. shoulda been 49-6. if that. justin zwick has no business ever being near the football field. put him in the booth with the spotters wearing a diaper and never, ver allow him to handle the football on gameday again. that sccreen to teddy ginn is never gonna work. chris wells is a fucking monster. run the boy. now. granted texas beat a team that’ll be lucky to have a winning record and our foes should be the mac champion, but still. jimbo shut it down in the second half and i think in some ways it’s a mistake because they won’t always be playing a nothern illinois. 35 is not enough points to sit on. not with a young and ungelled d. on the other hand, better get ‘em used to it early. this is tressell-ball boys and this is what will be expected of you.

what is the nature of the threat?

so georgie’s going around the country calling the folks who would gladly kill thousands of americans fascists and comparing them to the nazis. the left is screaming about the politics of fear. a lot of the right is pulling a cringing dianne wiest from bullets over broadway, “don’t speak.” now i know, george bush is a congenital liar unable to even know what the truth might be so anything he says can and must be both false and worthy of immediate refutation and stinging rebuke. but what if he believes it? what if he’s speaking from the heart about the current threat to our world as he sees it?

i mean mahmoud over in iran is enriching uranium hand over fist as fast as their little technicians can and has made no bones about being willing to toss a nuke over at israel. he’s also denied that the holocaust ever happened. he’s a religious zealot. in iraq, we had folks running around cutting off heads on videotape and on the internet those vids were and are still getting great play among the martyrs. the taliban, remember them? they went around smashing thousand year old statues because they were offensive islam. they burned down theatres with people inside because they went to the movies instead of to prayer. they killed women who showed some ankle in particularly heinous ways. the challenge to the west from militant islam is basically, convert or die.

how are these things not representative of a religious fascism bent on world domination? good lord why can’t we acknowledge the threat that we face? or is fascism only fascism if it can be somehow laid at george bush’s feet?

i think this strategy is going to work. i think that people will force those running to state how they feel on these issues. are we facing a serious threat from muslim extremism or not? do those people running for office recognize that there are a whole pisspot full of people out there who cannot be appeased, who will not be denied and for whom reason is not an option? talk all you want while they wrap you in primer cord and walk off to a safe distance to blow you up. the strategy is to make the left acknowledge that there’s something in the world that is worse than a republican and people who are more evil than george bush. i bet that the most vocal of them (the only ones that really matter since their views will be the ones that get the airplay and thus inform america about democrats views) simply cannot bring themselves to do it. that will be their undoing and that’s how they’ll lose this fall.