"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
Moe Lane …because this is how you tease Republicans: cheerfully, quickly and with a ready sense of everybody’s absurdity (not just the Other Side’s) firmly in mind*. Sweet Merciful Jeebus and his brother Harry, how I wish that whatever it is that Fafnir has were contagious. (Via Constant Reader James Casey, who needs to start blogging again) … Read more
(Crossposted to Redstate)
That was my rather belated reaction to the secondhand recounting of whatever it was that Mary Anne Marsh said last week on Hannity and Colmes. I say secondhand because I originally got it from Jeff Goldstein: for that matter, the show hasn’t posted a transcript. Jay Nordlinger noted it later on: no transcript there, either, so for all I know there’s a context* issue.
Read on.
Now that she’s blogged about it herself, on behalf of the blogosphere let me one of the first to congratulate Rivka on her upcoming blessed event. Being Rivka, she’s written something interesting on pregnancy and expectations; and, for the record, surely I didn’t use the actual word ‘jerk’. I think. Ach, well. Now comes the … Read more
For more general observations.
Because, really, I did mean to blog this weekend. But we went out to dinner Friday night, then there was the SCA Des(s)ert Revel (Middle Eastern theme. Most fun) last night, and I’m out the door in a moment for a cookout… well. Talk amongst yourselves.
While it would be most excellent to see the Iraqi soccer – OK, OK: the Iraqi football team* – win the bronze, I don’t know if they can beat Italy tomorrow; I’m given to understand that football is practically a religion in the latter country. ‘Course, that seems to be true of just about every … Read more
(Crossposted to Redstate) Possibly both. On the bright side, it’s good to know that I’m apparently not the only one out there getting tired of people screaming at each other over this election. (Via Centerfield – and, if you think that you’ve got political angst, try walking in these folks’ shoes.) Moe
But to a certain someone out there: my own SO saw the relevant livejournal post, she called me right away and now I’m offering both my congratulations and a prayer or two that everything goes perfectly. I know that you’ll do great at it. Now blog about it, already – my own readers are probably … Read more
… no, I’m being quite serious. The Swift Boat / Kerry brouhaha going on right now* is unlikely to have all that much of an effect on my daily life – but the fact that JibJab settled its copyright issues with the Guthrie estate quite possibly will. More accurately, the possibility that my habit of … Read more
…I’m guessing, at least. Armed Robbers Steal Munch’s ‘The Scream’ in Oslo: OSLO (Reuters) – Armed robbers stole “The Scream” and another masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch on Sunday in a bold daytime raid on an Oslo museum packed with terrified tourists. Two masked robbers ran into the Munch Museum, threatened staff with a … Read more
There probably isn’t any real money in this sort of thing, is what I’m guessing – but is there anybody out there who can tell me whether we’re doing well, at least?
They beat Australia. I didn’t expect that. Looks like Iraq may just come out of this with a medal. Cool. Moe PS: Yup, I read some of the hostile comments about the USA made by the Iraqi team. And?
I’m currently engaged in the tricky task of metabolizing two beers and several glasses of a surprisingly good cafe zinfandel at this NJ D&D party that I’m at now, but I must say: the America’s 9/11 Ride thing was pretty cool. Even when it held us up for a half an hour at the Delaware … Read more
John Cole over at Balloon Juice is in full-bore rant mode (I don’t mean that in a bad way, mind you) about a bishop, a non-wheat communion wafer, transubstantiation and an eight year old with an inability to digest wheat products. I am gleefully skipping over the entire controversy – because, well, it’s my blog … Read more
…”Moe, are you sure that this no-politics vacation makes sense? I mean, what if you miss covering something?” When that happens, I look myself squarely in the eye (it’s a mystic kung fu thing. You wouldn’t understand) and say, “Shoot, man, it’s not like they couldn’t replace me with a specially-trained cybernetic wombat. Besides, look … Read more
… Constant Reader Slartibartfast has posted pictures of his brush with Hurricane Charley Treesbane. A good thing that it was his oaks and not him that were injured; the Command Post has an updated list of things that those who were less fortunate can use. Meanwhile, Constant Reader Catsy is coming to a conclusion about … Read more
As you can see, we’ve finally begun to reconfigure the website link lists. Now if I can only get the stupid search engine to function*… Moe *I keep losing the connection, you see. [UPDATE] Crud. Atomz only offers an express search engine for websites with less than five hundred pages. We’ve got just under fifteen … Read more
The two weeks off from politics that I’m taking does not, of course, mean that I’ve stopped reading blogs – I’m a politics junkie, after all. It has meant that I’m paying just slightly more attention to my blograzing habits (just made up* the word!), which means that I’ve noticed that I seem to drift … Read more
…observations made while simultaneously watching the Olympic opening ceremonies, drinking quite a few beers and trying to get that damned six ball in the damned corner pocket. 1). European artistic conventions are a touch weird. Not bad weird, mind you – I’m weird myself – but there’s a definite cultural gap, there; the bar was, … Read more
(Crossposted to RedState) It has long been my general opinion that, no matter whatever path the United States of America takes in this crazy mixed-up world, we must infallibly do one thing: we must, never, ever, ever field a soccer* team that has even a faint chance of winning an international contest. I really do … Read more
…not even particularly burned out, either. Just taking it easy. If there’s going to be a slow period during this election, it’s going to be now; and I’ve been obsessing over politics for nine months on this blog and several years in general. I’m taking a couple of weeks of not-worrying-about-it time. Still, no reason … Read more
I’m not gonna contribute to that silly Drudge meme; I will just note that crucial evidence in the great question of our time – to wit, who is Fafnir – has been unearthed at Amygdala. Go take a look. For the sake of the children, at least. Moe PS: Thirty minutes to post that. Sheesh.
I’m relieved because the latest decapitation video turned out to be fake: SAN FRANCISCO – A video aired Saturday that purportedly showed an American being decapitated in Iraq (news – web sites) was a hoax. The man shown in the video, reached by The Associated Press in San Francisco, said he videotaped the staged beheading … Read more
Err, just practicing. Turns out that apparently Ireland was just that locale’s secret identity: DUBLIN (Reuters) – Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist. (snip of paragraph: everybody here bloody well knows what Atlantis was, … Read more
Come, I will hide nothing from you: my first reaction to reading this story (Democrats’ Religious Coordinator Resigns): WASHINGTON – The director of religious outreach for the Democratic Party says she resigned this week because of criticism over her support for removing the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. The Democratic National Committee … Read more
(Crossposted, as usual)
…that would be the Democratic hawks, you understand. Peter Beinart over at the New Republic is still swinging, at least:
Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention drew rave reviews. So did Bill Clinton’s. But my nominee for best oration of the week goes to Senator Joseph Biden. On Thursday night at about eight o’clock–long before the networks began their broadcasts–Biden laid out the most compelling Democratic foreign policy vision I have yet heard. I just wish more of it had found its way into John Kerry’s acceptance speech two hours later.
This is a very interesting PJ O’Rourke / Colin Powell interview that Macallan found – and I’m not just saying that because Elvis was mentioned in the course of it. Although that certainly didn’t hurt.
…that we’ve successfully invited another blogger into the mix. I’d tell you who, but I’m cynically attempting to generate buzz*. Not a Rightie, not a Republican, first on Katherine R’s replacement list (not to mention my own Possibles list) – that’s all I’ll say, except: Welcome! Moe *Which should not be taken as an instruction … Read more
That was pretty much my first reaction to this story:
WASHINGTON – President Bush (news – web sites) urged creation of a national intelligence director Monday to coordinate the war on terrorism but without the sweeping powers for hiring, firing and spending at the CIA (news – web sites), FBI (news – web sites) and other agencies as recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.
“We’re a nation in danger,” Bush said in a White House Rose Garden appearance where he announced his support for a national intelligence chief and the establishment of a national center to plan counterterror operations in the United States and abroad. “We’re doing everything we can in our power to confront the danger.”
…we’ll have to see the next time we’re over for dinner. What? Oh, sorry: Rivka over at Respectful of Otters posted something earlier in the week that I meant to link to at the time: her own grappling with the issues involved in the aborting of disabled children, being that she is a disabled adult … Read more
(Crossposted to Redstate)
…or possibly a hit and a half:
GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) — World Trade Organization (WTO) states sealed a deal early on Sunday aimed at slashing rich nations’ farm subsidies, opening industrial markets and putting the Doha Round of free trade talks back on track.
After failing to reach agreement in Cancun, Mexico, last September on an interim deal on parameters for negotiations in farm and industrial goods and other areas, WTO states had set themselves a new deadline of the end of July.
My girlfriend is back from her weeklong engineering conference at San Jose, CA; regularly scheduled blogging will resume… later. In the meantime, everyone play nice and only call each other names in a fashion designed to reinforce group-bonding rituals, or to advance the plot, or both. Or you could talk about this, which sounds like … Read more
Seeing as I’m the only person up, apparently. Moe PS: My own take? (Shrug) Well, it wasn’t as if anybody really expected him to make a speech designed to convince people like me, anyway.
Nothing earthshattering: I’ve got a creative deadline* looming, non-blogging creative work piling up – and to be honest most of my posts this week have been a bit of a stretch anyway. I’ll no doubt be caught up by the weekend. Moe *Commemorative poem for my old SCA Barony. I was expecting it to be … Read more