Moe Lane

May you have a peaceful passing, sir.

by

I am very sorry to report that I think that former President Reagan is entering his final illness: Reagan’s Health Said to Have Deteriorated PARIS – Former President Ronald Reagan (news – web sites)’s health has deteriorated, the White House has been told. The White House was informed that the 93-year-old former president’s health had … Read more

I wonder…

by

…if this Paul Thurrott guy got hit with the same Trojan Horse that I’ve been dealing with since this morning. If he had, I sympathize. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a blood-soaked revenge to plan out. (Via Brad DeLong) Moe PS: I am in a sufficiently grumpy mood as to not be looking … Read more

Thursday and tired…

by

…so don’t expect too many posts from me, and fewer consequential ones. Speaking of inconsequential, take a gander of the pure evil represented by this. Or maybe it’ll be comic gold. We don’t know. We. Just. Don’t. Know. (pause) KHANNNNN!!!!! (via Poliblog)

Fourth draft of this one.

by

Don’t expect me to believe that story about the bird getting flipped unless there’s a verified photo involved. It sounded too good to be true, so it almost certainly was. Moe PS: I’m not trying to be coy: I’m trying to state an opinion on a current event while feeding the rumor mill at little … Read more

The future, one step at a time.

by

Private Rocket will try and reach space: MOJAVE, Calif. – A privately developed manned rocket will attempt to reach space this month, its builders said Wednesday. It would be the first non-governmental flight to leave Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceShipOne, created by aviation designer Burt Rutan and funded by billionaire Paul Allen, will attempt to reach an … Read more

Lastly…

by

…while I agree with Gary that this is pretty funny, for some reason I want to see the blogging equivalent. Surely we can come up with twenty-six universal blogging shorthands, yes? Or not. I never know what will spark interest and what won’t…

Two Good Charities.

by

Via Phil Dennison’s Catch Me If You Can we see Spirit of America, a group sending relief directly to Afghanistan and Iraq, and via Nathan’s Argus we see Send a Cow (via The Mongol Rally, which for some reason is having a completely inexplicable appeal to me), a group promoting self-sufficiency programs in Africa. Never … Read more

Another Uzbekistan Post.

by

Edward has already covered the major bit of world news that I was going to blog on and nothing leaped out at me on the domestic political front*, so I’m going to do some quick links then hit the sack. First off, Argus (my go-to blog on all things Uzbek) has two posts up that … Read more

Not dead…

by

…just went to go see Shrek 2. Sweet Jeebus, was that a hysterical movie. I was frankly half-certain that it was going to suck, but I was happily proved to be wrong. I still don’t want to see a third one, though. There’s a limit to how many times you can go to that particular … Read more

Ratzenfraktzen thunderstorms…

by

…completely wrecked our plans today, tanjit. Rain is one thing, large bolts of electricity that strike the ground essentially at random are another. Guess we’ll go to the Memorial this weekend, instead. Open thread. Moe UPDATE: I was so not into the blogging thing today – I was introduced to this wonderful experience called a … Read more

Back from the Barbeque.

by

I’m in fairly good shape, considering that the Dark Lady Tequila was there in her enticing, oh so enticing form of margaritas. Ah, tequila, lover and destroyer… Anyhow, it’s obviously been mostly a quiet day in these parts, although the subject of a DC blogging bash seems to have a resonance. Two notes: 1). When … Read more

Couple of Questions and a statement.

by

1). The girlfriend and I plan to visit the World War II Memorial on Monday (yes, we know about the likely crowds, and yes, we know about the security issues). I don’t normally care about picture taking, but is there any interest on this from our loyal readers? 2). Do DC political bloggers ever get … Read more

Heading this off at the pass?

by

Ted Barlow has a straightforward suggestion about how to make personal attacks against the Bush daughters, now that they’re joining the Bush campaign: don’t. He thinks that it’s not nice (Ted always was a big softie) and not smart politics (being a big softie doesn’t mean that you have to be dumb). Considering the unfair crap that got slung* against Chelsea Clinton, I’d have to agree, on both counts.

Of course, he still has to convince everybody else – certain of his commenters are, um, resistant to the idea – so I’ll sweeten the pot. I hereby swear that I shall make no cheap shots at Senator Kerry’s daughters for as long as Ted Barlow makes no cheap shots at President Bush’s, and I encourage bloggers from across the spectrum to follow my lead. Let us have something about this election that isn’t war to the knife, no matter how small it may be.

Moe

Read more

Thursday Night Blahs…

by

…my Thursday night RPG session was fairly uninspiring (which is all due to me, being the guest gamemaster and everything), I had to do real work today and I’m just kind of beat. Thus, some site work (got a few people to add to the blogroll) and then to bed. If we’re missing sites that … Read more

I link to this Onion article…

by

… not because it’s funny (although it is, in that cruel way that the Onion sometimes adopts), but because I am filled with a certain nostalga for that You Can’t Do That On Television, not to mention a certain other sort of nostalga for Christine “Moose” McGlade. Hey, by the time that I had started … Read more

I’ll say this for Kerry…

by

…he ain’t this guy*: Gore says Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenet should step down NEW YORK (AP) — Al Gore delivered a fiery denunciation Wednesday of the Bush administration’s “twisted values and atrocious policies” and demanded the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA director George Tenet. Raising his voice to … Read more

Well, that’s a relief.

by

Senator Kerry will be accepting the nomination at the Democratic convention after all, thus rescuing it from a fate… not much different than it would have been anyway. It’s not like either party’s is going to be particularly surprising, tasteful and/or memorable. Then again, ‘surprising’ and ‘memorable’ may not be all that positive conditions. As … Read more

OK, now the pollsters are just getting silly.

by

Or maybe bored: Poll Shows Voters Prefer Bush at Barbecue. Do I really need to quote further, here? Oh, wow, he’s also ahead on ‘running the family business’ question and tied on ‘teaching your children’. (Rolling eyes) Yup, we got this election sewn right up, folks: the Democrats might as well just pack up and … Read more

When Journalists Slip on Banana Peels…

by

You know, when I first read this Iraq Now article on some incredibly sloppy (yet oddly similar) quoting done by half a dozen different media outlets, I figured that by the time I got home it’d have all been resolved: somebody would have found the actual transcript that would have explained everything, because nineteen times … Read more

Victory for the Unitarians.

by

Rivka of Respectful of Otters is pleased to announce that the Texas comptroller’s office has decided that a Unitarian church deserves tax-exempt status after all (links all required registration). I could have told them that in about fifteen minutes, but nobody called me up to ask. Rivka (somewhat gingerly) goes on to brush up against … Read more

Sgt. Stryker has a pretty clear idea…

by

…about the coolness factor of political conventions, and it ain’t pretty*:

In the hierarchy of coolness, politics sits at the absolute rock-bottom. I would rather be caught wearing a hooded brown robe and casting a 10th Level Spell of Enchantment against a chaotic good half-elven Ranger, than be standing in a sea of uptight dorks and declaring to the world, “Mr. Chairman, the Great State of Nebraska, home of the Cornhuskers and latent sexual frustration, nominates John Kerry to be the next President of the United States!” And the crowd goes wild! No, no one actually says, “And the crowd goes wild!” because there’s no decent color commentary for political conventions. It can’t be that hard. If a couple of schmoes from ESPN can make the NFL draft seem exciting, surely hiring the likes of John Madden and Pat Summerall could make any political convention more appealing than a local Shriner’s gathering at the airport Hilton.

Also, I don’t want to over-quote, but non-Republicans please note: what he says about Republicans and the American flag is damn funny (the phrase ‘like a star-spangled burrito’ was used). Read the whole thing, as we Reynolds zombis say.

(Via Dean)

Moe

Read more

Fanservice.

by

What the hell: everybody else seems to be linking to the Axis of Eve, so I might as well. There’s a lot of sadness going around with this one. First, we have these activists themselves, who are indeed demonstrating all the maturity, sophistication and good taste one normally associates with high school manga. Also, while … Read more

RIAA rides again…

by

Record Industry Sues 493 More U.S. Music Swappers WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. music industry group said Monday it had sued 493 more people for copyright infringement as part of its campaign to stop consumers from copying music over the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (news – web sites) has now sued nearly … Read more

OK, chapter done, up for air.

by

Tonight’s Moe forecast is for heavy bookishness with scattered blogging (that’s what my girlfriend called it): I finally acquired the new Neal Stephenson this evening and the sooner I read it the sooner I can stop lugging it around. Great books, but they’re blessed heavy.

DO NOT VISUALIZE.

by

Fair warning; do not – I repeat, do not – use the parts of your brain that handle internal visualization for the next few minutes. Shut ’em down; shut ’em all down. We’ll wait.

(pause)

Ready to click through? Good – well, not good. I really do apologize for bringing this to your attention, but better that it show up in a controlled environment. I don’t want anybody to go through what I just did unaware.

Read more

I thought that I was the only one.

by

I mean, I thought that I was just vaguely irritable and out of sorts: I had no way of knowing that I actually had Summer Blogging Malaise Syndrome (SBMS). Although I can’t imagine where I’d have consumed Guizhou snub-nosed monkey* testicles… oh, Fisk. That Endangered Species Sandwich of the Month thing. I thought that the dipping sauce for the panda aus jus tasted… belligerent. That’s the last time I order something from the back pages of Conspiracy Weekly.

Anyway, to combat this I give you something (via Michael Totten) that I almost posted, but didn’t, because it was a tad bit old: Worster Album Covers Ever II. Pretty much, yeah, and I’m betting that Michael’s down with the same thing as both Bill and I, so trackbacking is really an act of mercy in this case.

No, really.

Moe

Read more

Point of parliamentary procedure, Senator…

by

Senator, you have recently gone on the record as considering the suggestion that you delay your formal acceptance of the Democratic nomination for a time, in order to avoid having to dip into the general election public funding a month before President Bush. While I am sure that you have been well-advised on this matter, … Read more