This used to be a white man’s country. All the good jobs were reserved for men, and most of the good jobs for white men. After World War II, blacks crowded into the great Midwest Great Lakes manufacturing swath that ran from Gary, Indiana up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but with the constantly expanding economy, there…
Tampa strippers ready for Republicans—there’s a First Amendment too, ya know!
Over at the New Republic, Emily Witt lives up to her name with a hilarious take on the doings at Mons Venus, 2,500 square feet of fun in Tampa, Florida, site of this year’s Republican Convention. Joe Redner, owner of the Mons, who doesn’t believe in God and thinks g-strings are optional, and his long-time…
The Guns of Aurora
The recent murders in Aurora, Colorado had no more impact on the possibilities for new legislation regulating firearms than a snowflake on the bosom of the Potomac, as Everett McKinley Dirksen might have said. The NRA definitely had the bit between its teeth with the infamous “Fast and Furious” “scandal”—which I strongly suspect is a…
George Patton, even worse than you thought
You’re (probably) familiar with the story about how General George Patton slapped a soldier for claiming to be suffering from shell shock. But it gets worse. According to war correspondent George Seldes, in his autobiography Witness to a Century, in his anger, Patton 1) slapped the wrong guy and 2) exclaimed “There is no shell…
Elio Villafranca Trio—“Let’s Cool One”
With Marcus Mc Laurine on bass and Chuck Mcpherson on drums. Recorded at the Bassline, NYC. Posted by ElioVillafranca
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “We can fly. We just don’t like to.” “I just want to make sure that you guys really migrate.” “You guys know where you’re going, right?” “I’m not really flying, per se. It’s more like advanced gliding.” “Yeah? Well, maybe you shouldn’t have gotten in my pond.” “Oh, I can hold formation….
Ryan Lizza, way too easy on Paul Ryan
Andrew Sullivan, or one of his minions, collects a number of reactions to Ryan Lizza’s profile of Rep. Paul Ryan for the New Yorker. Lizza makes a point of “nailing” Ryan on spending projects for his own district, as quoted in Sullivan’s post: When I pointed out to Ryan that government spending programs were at…
Ryan Crocker: the silence of a wise man
Ryan Crocker, retiring U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and former ambassador to Iraq, where he presided over President Bush’s “surge,” might have a few interesting things to say about U.S. foreign policy in the post 9/11 decade. And, in a recent interview in the New York Times, he does, if “vague and cautious” means the same…
Put down thy Slurpee, Pick up thy Tit
I really don’t know the details of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s war against what we liberals like to call “Big Soda,” but I do know I’m agin it. If you want to chug down a half gallon of corn syrup-sweetened soda water in one sitting, well, it’s your ass, not mine. But Mayor B’s soda…
Gore the Bore
Yes, that’s harsh, but this is the blogosphere, after all—snark city, the town without pity. In fact, I felt a lot of pity for Gore Vidal. He hit it big while quite young, publishing the 1948 gay shocker The City and the Pillar at age 23. For the next twenty years Vidal had a lot…