Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan notes that “The White House debate over how many troops to withdraw from Afghanistan next month is really a surrogate for a larger, more fractious debate over the wisdom and strategy of the war itself.” And Fred, being Fred, also notes that this is really really important and we ought…
Slate Magazine Thinks I’m an Idiot. Or Do They Know I Am?
If you read an article in Slate Magazine, which I often do, you’ll see a column next to it labeled “Recommended for You.” I’m hoping, a lot, that Slate just lists whatever articles some dude is willing to pay them to list there—that is, that this isn’t one of those hip net things where Slate…
Dizzy Gillespie—“Manteca”
A seriously spry Dizzy Gillespie, leading an all-star band at Lincoln Center in 1982. Posted by “Furldman.”
Flying to see your son’s baseball game in a $12.5 million state helicopter? Priceless
Combative lardbutt Chris Christie, New Jersey’s teacher hatin’ governor, may have plunged his ample ass in some hot water by taking a government chopper to watch his son play baseball. Christie split during the fifth inning, apparently to meet with some big-shot Republicans from Iowa who want him to run for President. The New Jersey…
Michael W. Davis—Thelonious Monk’s “Let’s Cool One”
https://youtu.be/5CCRbwZdOGI Michael posting himself as “artvandalaye1,” George Constanza’s architect alter ego. For some reason, Michael doesn’t credit his fellow musicians, at least not so that I can find them.
Antonin Scalia: ~peyote = foreskins forever?
Over at the Daily Beast, Adam Winkler has a nice column slicing and dicing, as it were, the prospects of the prospective San Francisco ban of involuntary circumcisions, should the city pass the ban and should the constitutionality of the ban end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Strikingly, the proposed ban contains no exceptions…
Henry Kissinger: An unnecessary evil
Henry Kissinger has added yet another sin to his already grievous record, in the form of a fat tome, ponderously titled On China.* Because there is no way that I’m going to put another penny in Dr. K’s pocket, I’ll quote extensively from Michiko Kakutani’s review in the Times. Kakutani calls the book” fascinating, shrewd…
New at Bright Lights: Archer!
A brief blurt of praise for the ligne claire charms of TV’s Archer over at Bright Lights. Yeah, I was lazy this quarter. So sue me. Whole thing, NSFW as always, here.
J.J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt, & Howard McGhee—Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time”
Three of Charlie’s children try to show the old man they can run with the big boys. Sorry about the ads but this is some serious footage. There doesn’t seem to be any information about the rhythm section. I probably should be able to recognize them, but I can’t. Posted by zemry.
Jive at Five? Nu-uh. Jive around the clock!
Just to update a few stories: Last week I wrote about serial liar John Brennan, U.S. deputy national security advisor, whose fabulous account of the Navy SEALs raid on Osama’s compound proved to be not only fabulous but fabricated. President Obama and others hastened to add “context,” which, as Slate scribe William Saletan ably explains…