In Praise of Folly

A look at the absurd world in which we live, through the lenses of popular culture, sports and politics.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Kicking the Kennedys

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Shooting has just begun on a new History Channel miniseries based on the Kennedys. The eight-hour project has already stirred up some contr...
Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Depression Redux?

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An important op ed from Paul Krugman on Sunday suggested that we may be on the road to a depression: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opini...
Monday, June 28, 2010

Conservative, Non-Partisans Unite!

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I write often here about the rhetorical strategies and tautologies conservatives use and the general tenor of conservative discourse. Today,...
Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Thankless Ones

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There can be no more thankless job in the world than umpiring/referring big time sports (college and professional). When you do a good job, ...

Ignorance Wins Again and Again

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There was a wonderful post in Talking Points Memo a couple of days ago, which you can read here: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/...
Saturday, June 26, 2010

Another Obama Failure?

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It will be interesting to see how conservatives will spin what many might call another Obama/Democratic Congress success -- the passage of f...
Friday, June 25, 2010

Hollywood and the Marketing/Quality Conundrum

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The following quote from A.O. Scott's New York Times  review of Knight and Day perfectly captures the problem with Hollywood today: ...

First Free Speech, Now Free Reign?

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Corporate executives got more good news from the Supreme Court yesterday, as a suit brought by ethically-challenged Jeffrey Skilling of Enro...
Thursday, June 24, 2010

And Now For Something Kind of Different . . .

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I usually allow this blog to sort of follow the news of the day, but I think it is time to ask a broader question that doesn't relate to...

The "Basketball" Set

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The match that wouldn't end finally did, after three days and 11 hours and 5 minutes on court, with a 70-68 final set victory for Americ...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Do You Believe in Miracles

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The U.S. soccer team completed a nail-biting group stage of the World Cup with a dramatic 1-0 victory over Algeria in the 91st minute. It wa...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

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Following the advice of positive thinking gurus the world over, BP's PR team is in overdrive turning a tragedy into good news ( http://b...
Monday, June 21, 2010

Palin Prays; Sane People Glad its Not From the White House

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Sarah Palin had a tweet today about the Gulf Crisis . . . “Gulf disaster needs divine intervention as man’s efforts have been futile. Gulf...
Saturday, June 19, 2010

Obama's Disposition

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New York Times Visual Editor and Op Ed contributor Charles Blow has an interesting Op Ed on the waning popularity of Obama: http://www.nytim...
Friday, June 18, 2010

No Place for Privacy in the Workplace

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While we do not have to sell our souls to the corporate devil quite yet, we do apparently have to sell our privacy. So said the Supreme Cour...
Thursday, June 17, 2010

More Republican Malarky . . .

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During the BP hearings today, Texas Republican Congressman Joe Barton criticized the White House’s brokering the $20 billion fund as a “shak...

Republicans Decry BP $20 Billion as "Chicago-Style Shakedown"

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After eight years of Bush, Cheney and crew arguing that the President has almost unlimited power, Republicans are actually complaining that ...
Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Big Pharma Losing an Excuse?

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Seniors and others in the U.S. have called for legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs in America (with much cheaper versions of...
Monday, June 14, 2010

Tea Party in New York

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Many think of the Tea Party as a fringe party that is much more active in the backwoods of American life. But as the New York Daily News re...
Sunday, June 13, 2010

Bryant Admits Foul

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Boston, MA -- For the first time in six years, Kobe Bryant admitted a foul call. The momentous event occurred with 3:24 left in the fourth q...

Marketers Empathize with Teens Who Lack Empathy

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A new study finds that college students lack the empathy of their peers from 30 years ago: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100528/sc_l...
Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Another Blow to Same Sex Advocates

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In yet another blow to those arguing that all people in the U.S. should have equal access to the institution of marriage, a new study finds ...
Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Kids will be . . .

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poor, it appears. A new study finds that quality of life for American children has fallen to 1975 levels. That translates to 21% of children...
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Republicans Start Talking Sense

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The party of no is starting to say yes -- at least to Internet users who might have an actual platform for them. Rather than telling us what...
Friday, May 21, 2010

Media Malaise

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I have been absent from my blog the past month or so with an end of semester rush, but wanted to start it up again now. I have talked often ...
Monday, April 19, 2010

Tea Party Movement and Trust in Government

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Not surprising given attitudes on taxes, the countries trust in government has been trending downward for the better part of 50 years. Pew, ...
Thursday, April 15, 2010

News Alert: Americans Hate Taxes!

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A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that most Americans think "most taxes" are wasted. A surprising 74% of responden...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's . . .

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Lehman Brothers screwing their investors by hiding its riskier investments through its undisclosed subsidiary Hudson Castle: www.nytimes.com...
Saturday, April 10, 2010

Postmodern Art

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A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the new exhibit at the Guggenheim. It provided a sometimes interesting engagement with the evolution of...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Great Book: The Manual of Detection

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There have been some impressive debut novels in recent years, including Gary Schtyngart's The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Jonat...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010

The Optimist

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David Brooks used to be a conservative I could occasionally look up to. When he was on PBS, he seemed to be reasonable and often had interes...
Monday, April 05, 2010

Global Warming Doubters Share Low IQ and High Gullibility

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The New Yorker has a nice article on global warming doubters in the current issue: www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/04/12/100412taco_talk...
Saturday, April 03, 2010

Need a Job without a Job History . . . No Problem!

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So you cheated your way through high school, earning an honors degree. Then after getting kicked out of five schools (for cheating, those hy...
Friday, April 02, 2010

New Fuel Emission Standards to Destroy America

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In a move clearly designed to destroy America, President Obama passed new fuel emission standards for cars today. The new standards are an a...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Republican BS

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Scott Brown and Mitt Romney are mad as hell about Obama's healthcare plan and they are letting the world know it. Romney has been using ...

To Terrorize or Not To Terrorize

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The papers are full of the radical Christian group that planned to kill an police officer and then others at his funeral: www.washingtonpost...
Monday, March 22, 2010

Healthcare Passes . . . Media Buys Some Tea

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So Obama appears to have passed a bill that some have been hankering for over 70 years. It is a major achievement, especially when one party...
Sunday, March 21, 2010

Tea Party Trolls Torment

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Not that it is really surprising to people who are paying attention, but the mainstream media has finally gotten in on critiquing the group ...
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Corporations Finally Get into the Political Fray

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After years of watching their interests go unheeded by Washington, corporations will finally have their say in the political arena. The Supr...
Wednesday, March 03, 2010

He Looks Like $50

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A highway, airport, aircraft carrier and one of the biggest federal buildings in DC are all named after Ronald Reagan. But that's not en...
Tuesday, March 02, 2010

ACORN Exonerated!

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Surprise, surprise . . . the two conservative pranksters that caused a media firestorm over five months ago charging that ACORN was giving a...
Monday, March 01, 2010

Healthcare Through the Backdoor

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To those of us who has watched bumbling Democrats for the better part of 30 years it is a near miracle to conceive that they might actually ...
Friday, February 26, 2010

Turning Schadenfreude on its Head

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In an odd turn on the American love affair with Schadenfreude is a new website that will let friends anonymously tell you what they really t...
Thursday, February 25, 2010

Ahistory 101

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What do you do when history is working against you? What if people really do want to learn from history so they don't repeat it? Well, j...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Brother Can You Spare a Quarter Million?

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The Washington Post today reports that Wall Street is shifting its allegiance from Democrats to Republicans: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/c...
Monday, February 22, 2010

Government the Problem?

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It depends who you talk to. For those at the top of the income ladder, this is clearly the case. They benefit from a laissez-faire approach ...
Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sphincter Says What

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"I'm not frightened by bipartisanship... We should be brave enough to stand up and say let's work together until we finish defe...
Saturday, February 20, 2010

Healthcare Tango

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So a growing number of Democrats are pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to include the public option in the reconciliation bill, that...
Thursday, February 18, 2010

Et Tu, Homer?

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Simpson that is! A few articles in the past few weeks have called into question one of America’s favorite pastimes – namely, working. The Da...
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