I’m no fan of Chris Matthews — not by a longshot — but we need more of this (video via TPM). When some pinhead — and I don’t care if he’s from the left, right, or center — goes on and obviously doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, he needs to be called on it. And when somebody uses rhetoric that’s obviously bullshit, that needs to be pointed out, too.
Now if only more of the media would do it, and do it less selectively. I long for a news media where guests know that they’d better not go on expecting to be able to parrot talking points, and where they know that they’d better know what the hell they’re talking about. But I’ll never see that day, I’m sure.
May 15th, 2008
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Politics, Media, News & Current Events |
2 comments
I got the conference semis all right (Kevin can’t say the same), even if I missed the number of games. Time to put my good streak on the line with the conference finals.
Flyers vs. Penguins: This is a tough series to call, because brawn usually beats finesse in the playoffs, but I think Pittsburgh (the finesse team) is a much better team than Philadelphia. So I’m going with Penguins in 7
Stars vs. Red Wings: It’s always hard to pick these, especially when I despise both teams involved. 
The Red Wings are looking like the team to beat this year, and with two quality netminders, I don’t think the Stars have quite enough to take them, even though Turco’s playing about as well as he ever has in net for Dallas. Red Wings in 6
P.S. Sorry, Ang. Being a Sharks fan has to be a tough life!
May 8th, 2008
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Sports, NHL |
3 comments
UPDATED 27 April 2008: Add Kansas City Royals.
UPDATED 20 May 2007: Add Philadelphia Phillies.
I’m a sports fan, and I “collect” stadiums (stadia?). Especially major league baseball, NFL football, and NHL hockey. My goal, before I die, is to see a baseball game in the home stadium of every MLB team. It would be an added bonus if I could do the NHL and NFL venues, but right now, I’m focusing primarily on baseball.
Problem is, I keep forgetting where I’ve been, and losing count. Therefore, mostly for my own reference (and because I expect few others to be interested), I’m posting a list of venues attended below the fold. I’ve ordered them in roughly the order in which I first visited them, to the best of my ability to recall.
However, if you have comments concerning favorite (or least favorite) venues, feel free to leave them.
April 27th, 2008
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Sports, I do too have a life, NFL, MLB, NHL |
10 comments
Yes, I know two games are in the books, but I’m not modifying my predictions based on those results, and I didn’t see any of the games.
EAST:
Flyers vs. Canadiens: The Flyers are a physical, ugly team, while the Canadiens are more of a finesse team. In the playoffs, as much as Kevin hates it, brawn wins. Flyers in 7
Rangers vs. Penguins: The Penguins look for all the world like the team to beat in the East. And even though New York has good goaltending, so does Pittsburgh. Penguins in 6
WEST:
Avalanche vs. Red Wings: The Avs are a tempting upset pick, but I don’t think this is the round where Detroit falls. Goaltending will be the difference here. Red Wings in 7
Sharks vs. Stars: I’m sticking with my prediction that the Sharks will repeat their perennial playoff choke in the second round. They should have destroyed Calgary, and barely escaped in seven games. Plus, Turco’s playing as well for the Stars as he’s ever played. Couple that with the fact that a Wings-Stars conference final makes me want to vomit, and it seems pretty much inevitable. Stars in 6
April 25th, 2008
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Sports, NHL |
one comment
How the times change. Three of the top five boy names in 2006 are names that greatly increased the likelihood of you getting your ass kicked on a regular basis back when I was a kid.
April 24th, 2008
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I do too have a life, Culture |
9 comments
SayUncle is getting all PSH over some gun nonsense, while missing the larger point: Pizza Hut’s pizza sucks, so their corporate policies are pretty much irrelevant. Of course, it’s possible he lives in Backwater, USA (His The City), and Pizza Hut may be his only choice (besides maybe Domino’s, which would be no choice at all, really…). But still, let’s get some perspective here. You don’t stop doing business with Pizza Hut because you don’t like their corporate policies. You stop doing business with Pizza Hut because they have shitty pizza.
April 24th, 2008
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Bloggin, Libertarian Problem Solving |
11 comments
Let’s take a quick look at how Kevin and I did with our predictions:
EAST:
- Canadiens over Bruins in 7 — Kevin picked the Habs in 6, and I picked them in 4. So we both had the team right, but Kevin was closer on the degree of difficulty.
- Penguins over Senators in 4 — Kevin picked the Penguins in 6, while I picked them in 5. So again, we were wrong about the degree of difficulty, but this time in the opposite direction.
- Flyers over Capitals in 7 — Lookie there, I got one exactly right! Kevin, on the other hand, screwed the pooch, picking the Capitals in 5.
- Rangers over Devils in 5 — This time, it was my turn to screw the pooch, as I had the Devils in 6. Kevin correctly picked the Rangers, but had them winning in 7 games.
WEST:
- Red Wings over Predators in 6 — Hey, another one exactly correct! This time, both Kevin and I nailed it.
- Sharks over Flames in 7 — Again, Kevin and I both got the right team, but were wrong about difficulty. I had it taking 5 games, while Kevin had a four-game sweep.
- Avalanche over Wild in 6 — Kevin had this exactly right, while I had it going to 7 games. But we both correctly picked the upset here.
- Stars over Ducks in 6 — This was my second pooch-screw, as I picked the Ducks in 6. Kevin correctly picked the Stars, but had it taking 7 games.
Final Tally: Kevin 7 out of 8, with one exactly right; Tom 6 out of 8, with two exactly right.
Hopefully we’ll have our bad round two predictions later.
April 23rd, 2008
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General |
2 comments
Tonight, PBS is re-playing the Frontline special on the politics of Global Warming. I strongly recommend that you watch it, record it, TiVo it, or otherwise check it out.
UPDATE: If you missed it, you can watch the whole program on-line here.
April 22nd, 2008
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Politics, Science, Climate Change |
one comment
- If you’re going to fuck up somebody’s truck, you’d better have a helluva lot better justification than “probably.” Just sayin’. Oh, and unless you want to pay for all the damage you’ve caused, carving your name into his leather seats probably isn’t a good idea.
- People who have read the book suck. If you’ve read the book, do yourself and everyone else a favor: Don’t go see the movie. They simply can’t fit a 400-page book into a two hour movie, so it’s going to be different. Deal with it, or stay home. Even if they did stay true to the book, you’d end up with something like 2001: A Space Oddysey, which makes absolutely no fucking sense to anyone who hasn’t read the book.
- If the ability to read from a teleprompter were the most important criterion for being president, Clinton would be defeated by Obama in a landslide. But for self-effacing humor, Edwards wins hands down. [Side note: Obama proves that he’s anti-gun by removing James Brady from the “On Notice” board. I’m surprised Uncle isn’t all over this.]
- While I’m on the subject of things absolutely nobody here cares about, the NBA playoffs start today. Whatever little semblance of traveling and charging rules the NBA may have, they’re officially null and void until next season.
April 19th, 2008
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I do too have a life |
4 comments
Today is tax day, and that means that we’re bound to be “treated” to all sorts of anti-tax libertarian blog posts today about how horrible it is that the government rapes us, steals our money at gunpoint, takes “half” our money, etc., etc., whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch. Now the part that these taxophobes don’t ever want to talk about is that while everyone hates paying taxes, people generally like most of the things that taxes pay for (unpopular wars aside). But I’ll let someone else write about that aspect. What I want to talk about, instead, is how horribly the anti-tax crowd exaggerates how much we’re actually taxed.
To counter that, without revealing too many personal details, I’m going to post a summary of my tax situation, and challenge the anti-tax folks to do the same. No specific numbers, just the generalities that I’m listing here.
To that end, for the tax year 2007: (Below the fold)
April 15th, 2008
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Politics, Economics, Libertarian Problem Solving |
29 comments
What can I say, it’s been busy, and I don’t have a horse in this race:
EAST:
- Canadiens over Bruins in 4
- Penguins over Senators in 5
- Flyers over Capitals in 7
- Devils over Rangers in 6
WEST:
- Red Wings over Predators in 6
- Sharks over Flames in 5 (The Sharks won’t do their perennial choke until round two)
- Avalanche over Wild in 7
- Ducks over Stars in 6
April 9th, 2008
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Sports, NHL |
one comment
What do you get when you sample from Werewolves In London and Sweet Home Alabama, and then add corny nostalgic lyrics about growing up in Michigan?
Why, you get the abomination of a new Kid Rock “song” that I just heard on the radio, that’s what. I’ve always hated Kid Rock, but Jesus, that’s a new standard of awful. I didn’t think it could get any worse than whining about feeling guilty for being white…
April 9th, 2008
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I do too have a life |
no comments
That’s right, the NHL regular season has ended, and our loyal readers know what that means: it’s time for me (and probably Kevin) to bitch about the OTL point again. For prior OTL hatred, see here; here; and especially here and here and here.
As I’ve mentioned in those above posts, the NHL should act like a real sports league and have winning percentage be the primary determinant of a team’s record.
Let’s have a look at the before and after, shall we? (Below the fold)
April 8th, 2008
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Sports, NHL |
3 comments
Who has the best record in the NL, and is tied for the best record in the majors? That’s right, it’s my Milwaukee Brewers!
I don’t expect this to last, of course (I remember last year), but I’m going to savor it while I can. Who knows? Maybe they’ll surprise me. In the good way.
April 7th, 2008
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General, Sports, MLB |
10 comments
Publius:
There are absolutely intelligent pro-war and pro-surge voices out there who make cogent, compelling arguments. The problem, however, is that a much larger – and more politically influential – percentage of pro-war supporters have consistently shown astonishing levels of ignorance and downright stupidity about the facts on the ground, the region’s history, and the relative players. Over the years, it’s been difficult to argue about the real Iraq when one side’s premise is that Iraq is actually Ponyland, a dreamworld where wish projections take material form and walk the earth. I’m not saying war skeptics are all Middle East scholars, but their ranks (relatively speaking) have far fewer outright ignorant members, particularly among those with actual political power and influence.
For instance, Wolfowitz famously claimed there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, and Kristol added that it was “pop sociology” to claim that the Shia and Sunnis don’t get along. Well, I’ll sheepishly admit that I only got to the 1940s in Charles Tripp’s A History of Iraq. But it was pretty much all ethnic strife up until then. I’m sure most of that subsided though when Saddam al-Tikrit took power.
Remember too that these were not marginal players, so Ward Churchill quotes can’t make things even. Wolfowitz was the second most powerful man in the Defense Department. The National Review is the magazine of record of American conservatism. Say what you will about them, but these aren’t exactly the fringes of pro-war opinion.
Well said. Although I think it overstates the case to say that there are voices on the pro-war side that make compelling arguments.
April 1st, 2008
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Iraq |
no comments
After much deliberation, we here at Lean Left have decided to endorse John McCain for president in 2008. He’s the most experienced candidate, he’s one of only two to have passed the “commander-in-chief” threshold, and he’s the only one who doesn’t want to cut and run. I know it seems odd that we would endorse a Republican, but anyone who listens to right-wing talk radio can tell you, he’s not really a conservative. In fact, he’s just a liberal in disguise. I mean, he’s half of McCain-Feingold, right?
So show your support, everyone. McCain in 08!
April 1st, 2008
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Politics |
2 comments
We have our answer.
Frickin’ frackin’ rassin’ frassin’ grumble grumble…
UPDATE: At least the Brewers came back to win that game…
March 31st, 2008
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Sports, MLB |
8 comments
I’ve been thinking about this more, and I’m thinking that maybe the “legal conservatives” are right on this one. Perhaps the original intent really is the only thing that matters in Constitutional jurisprudence. As a result, I’m forced to concede that any laws banning individuals from owning flintlock rifles and muskets must be found unconstitutional.
UPDATE: Uncle adds in comments:
And they can ban speech on the internet. But if you own your own printing press, go for it.
Yay originalism!
March 28th, 2008
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Weekend Flame Bait |
11 comments
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