Middle Class America

A really good article from Edward Luce of the Financial Times regarding the woes of the middle class in America.

The slow economic strangulation of the Freemans and millions of other middle-class Americans started long before the Great Recession, which merely exacerbated the “personal recession” that ordinary Americans had been suffering for years. Dubbed “median wage stagnation” by economists, the annual incomes of the bottom 90 per cent of US families have been essentially flat since 1973 – having risen by only 10 per cent in real terms over the past 37 years. That means most Americans have been treading water for more than a generation. Over the same period the incomes of the top 1 per cent have tripled. In 1973, chief executives were on average paid 26 times the median income. Now the ­multiple is above 300.

Read the whole thing. It'll be worth your while.

Not Just Snack Time and Dinosaurs

If you find yourself to be relatively successful and well-adjusted, send your kindergarten teacher a thank you note.

From the New York Times:

Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.

Read the whole article. The biggest question it brings up in my mind is that if life success is correlated with kindergarten success but high school test scores are not, what does that say about the usefulness of high school test scores?

If Economics is All About Self-Interest...

And politics is all about economics, then I would have to say most of the people I know should prefer Obama's proposed tax policy to simply extending the Bush tax cuts. Or at least that is how this chart from the Wall Street Journal reads.


Via Kevin Drum.

Quote of the Day

Isn't it possible to engage in a conversation about the problem we face from Islamic extremism without being cartoonish in our attitudes towards Muslims as a whole? Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey votes "no".

"Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever you want to call it," Ramsey said. "Now certainly we do protect our religions, but at the same time this is something we are going to have to face."

Nationality?

Friday Links

I'd love to see a renaissance on Armour. The plan sounds good, but its got a long way to go from here.

If it does come all the way back, maybe the American aristocracy can live there.

The Royals pretty much just gave away Alberto Callaspo.

I'm going to miss Daniel Schorr.

Yes, in fact, the world is getting hotter. Not that we're going to do anything about it.

Rich Kid, Poor Kid, Red Kid, Blue Kid

Ross Douthat has a piece in the New York Times about how it is harder for poor white people to get into prestigious colleges than it is for rich white people. He attributes it, at least partially, to discrimination against Christian conservatives:

But cultural biases seem to be at work as well. Nieli highlights one of the study’s more remarkable findings: while most extracurricular activities increase your odds of admission to an elite school, holding a leadership role or winning awards in organizations like high school R.O.T.C., 4-H clubs and Future Farmers of America actually works against your chances. Consciously or unconsciously, the gatekeepers of elite education seem to incline against candidates who seem too stereotypically rural or right-wing or “Red America.”

This finding is fine, though there seems to be no indication that being in 4-H has a causal relationship with getting into a school, but to expand this out into an idea that kids from red states don't go to Ivy League schools because of bias against future farmers seems patently ridiculous.

As a kid from a small rural town, I can tell you that there are simply less kids clamoring to get into Ivy League schools from where I'm from. Parents don't make it a priority, in fact they often would rather not see their kids head off to the east coast. Kids, because they haven't been around a lot of people who went to Ivy League schools, don't think about it much as an option. When they do, it is often later in the game than you would need to seriously compete for a spot. And, of course, there are lots of exceptions... I know some Ivy Leaguers who hail from the Midwest.

But what gets lost in all of this, is that rich kids get in more than poor kids. That's the real divide. No matter where you live.

Why to Be Concerned If You Are a Democrat

Because the American public thinks you're better, but will vote for the other guys anyway.

(Update: Emaw makes a helpful point in the comments that the graph is misleading. The first column's label doesn't actually match anything in the underlying data. The last two columns are correct.)

Things We Think We Know

I'm always intrigued by the fact that human history is completely full of the things we are sure we know, right up until we find out they are totally wrong.

I had an argument with some friends awhile back that there is very little that we could find we are wrong about that would surprise me. I think I argued that if we found out cells didn't work the way we thought they did, I wouldn't be shocked. Everyone else seemed to agree that perhaps my cells weren't working properly.

But I stand by my assertion, and the New York Times today has an article that bolsters my convictions.

It’s hard to imagine a more fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of life on the Earth than gravity, from the moment you first took a step and fell on your diapered bottom to the slow terminal sagging of flesh and dreams.

But what if it’s all an illusion, a sort of cosmic frill, or a side effect of something else going on at deeper levels of reality?

So says Erik Verlinde, 48, a respected string theorist and professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, whose contention that gravity is indeed an illusion has caused a continuing ruckus among physicists, or at least among those who profess to understand it. Reversing the logic of 300 years of science, he argued in a recent paper, titled “On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton,” that gravity is a consequence of the venerable laws of thermodynamics, which describe the behavior of heat and gases.

If gravity might not exist, what isn't possible?

The Decision and Other NBA Stuff

1. You can't expect the city of Cleveland not to feel like a jilted lover.
2. You can't really fault Lebron for wanting to play in a better situation with guys he wants to play with.
3. You can fault Lebron for the way he handled the situation, and not understanding that Cleveland wouldn't embrace the decision.
4. I am not going to root for the Heat. Part of my disappointment in the whole thing is that Miami is a terrible basketball town, and they were given this gift. Totally undeserved.
5. The Cavs owner had every right to be disappointed, but it is awfully silly to claim your Antawn Jamison, Moe Williams, and Delonte West led team is going to win a championship before Lebron. Makes him sound kind of foolish.
6. Kevin Durant has been hanging out at the Thunder summer league games helping the young guys, and very quietly signed a five year extension. Favorite player.
7. I watched John Wall's summer league debut. He is going to be really good... but he still needs to learn to shoot.
8. The Suns adding Turkoglu and Childress may not make them better, but if Nash stays healthy, they will probably be even more fun to watch.
9. Joe Johnson ended this whole free-agency bonanza with the best deal (money-wise).
10. I think the Lakers still might be better.

Wait!

I got this.

Woody Harrelson - soccer star.

I Got Nothing

Ideas?

All the Pretty Grills

After several years of apatment living where I could not have a grill, I am now back in business in the new AA pad. I love grilled food, and I love the cleanup involved in cooking that way. I sometimes wonder, though, if I am doing everything with my grill I could be.

Fortuantely, the New York Times just printed an article with 101 easy ways to use your grill. Stuff like this:

93. An idea whose time has come: Halve and grill peaches, nectarines or apricots. Brush with barbecue sauce or, if you want to be sophisticated, a mixture of bourbon, sugar and mint, or simple syrup laced with basil.

That sounds pretty good to me.

Kansas City Kings

Please bring them back. I'm wrong a lot, but I think the Sacramento Kings just had the best draft in the NBA for the second stright year. Tyreke Evans was fantastic this year, winning Rookie of the Year honors.

And I think DeMarcus Cousins may turn out to be the best player in this draft. His floor is probably Derrick Coleman, but his ceiling is Kevin McHale. If he develops close to that, the Kings have filled the two most imporant spots on an NBA team.

If only I could head down to the Sprint Center and watch them play.

Chart of the Day

From a new Commonwealth Fund report on how the U.S. healthcare system stacks up.

Short answer... well it at least it costs twice as much.

Via Matt Yglesias.

Local Man Acts Before He Thinks

What's your pleasure? Blatant hypocrisy? Firmly entrenched know-nothingism? A liberal dose of general honkeyness? Well, a farmer in Raytown has it all for you.

The Raytown farmer who posted a sign on a semi-truck trailer accusing Democrats of being the “Party of Parasites” received more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies since 1995...

Jungerman said he put up the sign to protest people who pay no taxes, but, “Always have their hand out for whatever the government will give them” in social programs.

Crop subsidies are different, he said. When crop prices dip below a certain point, the federal government makes up the difference with a subsidy payment

.See, it's all about being a producer in the free market. So there.

Friday Fun

Because it's Friday, I am stealing this in its entirety from McSweeney's.

7 Things Mario Games Have in Common With the Bible.
By Jake Ardoin
- - - -

1. Stars sometimes play important role.
2. One man saves everyone.
3. Hero comes back to life after dying.
4. Nationality of main hero is a minority.
5. Main hero has a trade unrelated to his role in story.
6. Women most often the cause of all the trouble.
7. Talking reptiles.

Maybe This is Why They Left

Because you built a "catio".

This Is Where Your Neighbors Went

Or where the new kids on the block came from. From Forbes magazine.

Families

I went to a family reunion with the lovely Ancillary Girlfriend in Iowa this weekend. It was fun. I have a family that generally gets along, but it has been awhile since we got a big group together. I forgot what an experience the extended family gathering can be, but this group helped remind me. The video below is evidence that AG's extended family is as big an experience as they come.



Two things I should note. First, I had a great time. Second, neither of those people had a drop of liquor.

Tea Party Angst

A pretty interesting entry on the Tea Party and the intersection of metaphysics and politics on the NYT Stone blog. J.M. Bernstein argues that our status as independent beings is mostly a construct, and that feeling dependent can make you angry.

This is the rage and anger I hear in the Tea Party movement; it is the sound of jilted lovers furious that the other — the anonymous blob called simply “government” — has suddenly let them down, suddenly made clear that they are dependent and limited beings, suddenly revealed them as vulnerable. And just as in love, the one-sided reminder of dependence is experienced as an injury. All the rhetoric of self-sufficiency, all the grand talk of wanting to be left alone is just the hollow insistence of the bereft lover that she can and will survive without her beloved. However, in political life, unlike love, there are no second marriages; we have only the one partner, and although we can rework our relationship, nothing can remove the actuality of dependence. That is permanent.

Bernstein goes on to argue that the Tea Partiers are really nihilists on the grounds that they seem to want nothing. I think he is mistaken about that; they seem to want everything. He acknowledges as much in the beginning of the piece. The problem with the Tea Partiers is that they want everything. They don't want to pay taxes, but they want their Social Security checks.

In that way, they seem to be the logical next step in a society that suggests you can have everything for nothing. Our politicians have helped create this culture by never talking about the tradeoffs necessary for a functioning government. The Tea Partiers have taken that idea to heart, and they are pissed about hearing otherwise.

Somebody Que Up Right Said Fred

As if I didn't have have enough to worry about:

Debrahlee Lorenzana made news this week with the unusual civil rights claim that her employer, Citigroup, has discriminated against her because she is a hottie... According to her lawsuit, Lorenzana is so smoking hot that her co-workers couldn't concentrate on their jobs. Her bosses eventually demanded that she revamp—or, rather, de-vamp—her wardrobe: They banned tight pants, pencil skirts, high heels, and clingy turtlenecks. When Lorenzana pointed out that other women in her office wore more revealing clothes than she did, Lorenzana says her bosses replied, in essence: "Yeah, but they aren't as hot as you are." And when Lorenzana came to work, still looking just as jaw-droppingly sexy as ever, Citibank fired her.

I guess I better not wear those stretch pants I just bought.

Music 2010 - So Far, So Awesome

2010 is shaping up to be a fantastic kick-off to the next decade in music. I'm looking forward to including several 2010 albums on my best of the decade list in about 9 1/2 years. Here are some of the albums that I am loving so far (in no particular order):

High Violet, The National
Destroyer of the Void, Blitzen Trapper
Contra, Vampire Weekend
Astro Coast, Surfer Blood
If I Had a Hi-Fi, Nada Surf
Transference, Spoon
Brothers, The Black Keys
Foxy Shazam, Foxy Shazam
Realism, The Magentic Fields
Big Echo, Morning Benders
Hippies, Harlem

Still on the way are albums from The Walkmen, Tom Petty, Johnny Flynn, Sun Kil Moon, Arcade Fire, Interpol, Ryan Bingham, and The Strokes among others. Un-freakin-believable!

World Cup Mania

Seth Stevenson says this is the best ad ever made. I think that is a bit much, but it is awesome. And it is one of the many things making me really excited for the World Cup.

Why To Elect People Who Do Believe in Government

President Obama made the case very well yesterday:

But to be fair, a good deal of the other party’s opposition to our agenda has also been rooted in their sincere and fundamental belief about the role of government. It’s a belief that government has little or no role to play in helping this nation meet our collective challenges. It’s an agenda that basically offers two answers to every problem we face: more tax breaks for the wealthy and fewer rules for corporations.

The last administration called this recycled idea “the Ownership Society.” But what it essentially means is that everyone is on their own. No matter how hard you work, if your paycheck isn’t enough to pay for college or health care or childcare, well, you’re on your own. If misfortune causes you to lose your job or your home, you’re on your own. And if you’re a Wall Street bank or an insurance company or an oil company, you pretty much get to play by your own rules, regardless of the consequences for everybody else.

Now, I’ve never believed that government has all the answers. Government cannot and should not replace businesses as the true engine of growth and job creation. Government can’t instill good values and a sense of responsibility in our children. That's a parent’s job. Too much government can deprive us of choice and burden us with debt. Poorly designed regulations can choke off competition and the capital that businesses need to thrive.

I understand these arguments. And it’s reflected in my policies. After all, one-third of the Recovery Act we designed was made up of tax cuts for families and small businesses. And when you think back to the health care debate, despite calls for a single-payer, government-run health care plan, we passed reform that maintains our system of private health insurance.

But I also understand that throughout our nation’s history, we have balanced the threat of overreaching government against the dangers of an unfettered market. We've provided a basic safety net, because any one of us might experience hardship at some time in our lives and may need some help getting back on our feet. And we've recognized that there have been times when only government has been able to do what individuals couldn't do and corporations wouldn't do.

That's how we have railroads and highways, public schools and police forces. That's how we've made possible scientific research that has led to medical breakthroughs like the vaccine for Hepatitis B, and technological wonders like GPS. That's how we have Social Security and a minimum wage, and laws to protect the food we eat and the water we drink and the air that we breathe. That’s how we have rules to ensure that mines are safe and, yes, that oil companies pay for the spills that they cause.

Now, there have always been those who’ve said no to such protections; no to such investments. There were accusations that Social Security would lead to socialism, and that Medicare was a government takeover. There were bankers who claimed the creation of federal deposit insurance would destroy the industry. And there were automakers who argued that installing seatbelts was unnecessary and unaffordable. There were skeptics who thought that cleaning our water and our air would bankrupt our entire economy. And all of these claims proved false. All of these reforms led to greater security and greater prosperity for our people and our economy.

So what was true then is true today. As November approaches, leaders in the other party will campaign furiously on the same economic arguments they’ve been making for decades. Fortunately, we don't have to look back too many years to see how their agenda turns out. For much of the last 10 years we've tried it their way. They gave us tax cuts that weren’t paid for to millionaires who didn’t need them. They gutted regulations and put industry insiders in charge of industry oversight. They shortchanged investments in clean energy and education, in research and technology. And despite all their current moralizing about the need to curb spending, this is the same crowd who took the record $237 billion surplus that President Clinton left them and turned it into a record $1.3 trillion deficit.

So we know where those ideas lead us. And now we have a choice as a nation. We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future. We can go backward, or we can keep moving forward. And I don't know about you, but I want to move forward. I think America wants to move forward.

People Still Take Her Seriously... Seriously

Sarah Palin is either very stupid or very dishonest... or both.

Now:

"Extreme Greenies:see now why we push"drill,baby,drill"of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?"

Two months ago:

"[L]et's not forget," she wrote, "that while Interior Department bureaucrats continue to hold up actual offshore drilling from taking place, Russia is moving full steam ahead on Arctic drilling, and China, Russia, and Venezuela are buying leases off the coast of Cuba."

I say both.

The Worst Thing About the NBA

Regular readers of this blog know that I spend a considerable amount of time promoting and defending the NBA. I think most critiques of the league are misinformed at best.

That said, one of the few things most people seem to like about the NBA is something that drives me crazy. That is the historical lack of parity. The NBA is the worst of the four major sports in terms of the percentage of teams in the league who have won a championship in the past 30 years.

NBA 8 out of 30 - 27%
NHL 13 out of 30 - 43%
NFL 15 out of 32 - 47%
MLB 18 out of 30 - 60%

This is the downside to the factor that I mentioned as a positive a few posts back that one player makes a disproportionate difference in the NBA. What that can result in is that through a few lucky personnel turns, we get to watch the Lakers and Celtics again this year for what feels like the 218th time.

The Story of Man

As presented by the Black Keys:

Stuff on a Thursday

You might be shocked to learn that Kansas City is not one of the top U.S. cities for green energy programs. Or not.

Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Joe Johnson are going to get together to talk about their futures, and whether or not they might join forces on the same team. I expect that conversation would be able to wrap up pretty quickly once one of them asks the others who volunteers to give up millions of dollars to make it happen.

Hart Seely noticed that Sarah Palin was a poet but didn't know it. So he took some actual quotes and set them in verse. A couple of favorites:

"On Mark Critz"

A Democrat, he won!
He was pro-life, pro-gun!
Anti-Obamacare,
And he won there!
In a district where
Democrats outnumber Republicans—two to one!

—Fox News Sunday, May 23, 2010

"Blue Dog Peekaboo"

Blue-dog Democrats
Peeking under the tent.
You know …

and finding out,
WHAT IS THIS MOVEMENT ALL ABOUT?
And Holy Geez! I'm scared!

—Interview with Tea Party Nation questioners, CNN, Feb. 6, 2010

Police chiefs across the nation seem to think Arizona may hinder their ability to solve serious crimes.

Mmmmmm. Pretzels.

The Pos Makes a Wise Choice

Longtime KC Star columnist Joe Posnanski was interviewd for a Slate blog all about being wrong. It's a great interview, and Posnanski makes some interesting points about why being wrong is an important part of being a sports writer.

But I mostly appreciated his answer to the question about who he thinks should be interviewed about being wrong next.

Let's see, who has really consistently been wrong? You know, Dick Cheney would be a good interview. I'm sure he'd be wide open to talking to you.

Arguing with Bill O'Reilly

This is how to do it:

Kansas City and Lebron

I live in Kansas City. I therefore know what it means to be perennially downtrodden about my sports teams. Cleveland is a lot like Kansas City. Actually, they might be in worse shape because they've got a lot more important problems than their sports franchises.

That is why I am rooting for Lebron to stay in Cleveland. I can empathize with Cleveland fans. Lebron is essentially the entirety of what is good about being a Cleveland fan. I would hate for them to lose that.

When I thought about this post, I wanted to find a comparison for Kansas City. You know like what if Kansas City lost Zach Greinke, or what if Kansas City lost... well whoever you can think of from the Chiefs. And then it occurred to me that is really the problem with Kansas City sports in what amounts to most of my life.

We have never had a guy you can't lose. Ever that I can remember. George Brett I suppose was that guy, but if you made a list of All-Time Can't Lose Guys he probably wouldn't be in the top 50, maybe even top 100. I can't even begin to imagine which Chief would be the can't lose guy of the last 30 years.

So I think until we get our Albert Pujols or our Peyton Manning, we're going to have to resign ourselves to a ceiling of a good year every now and again. And that is really hoping for a lot around here these days.

Loyal to the Royals

If you click on the pic above and look at the large version, you will see a depiction of the loyalty of fans of all the 30 MLB teams. If you look at the numbers in the chart (and not just the circles on the map, which are incorrect in the case of the Royals) you will see that the Royals have the 13th most loyal fans in all of major league baseball. This is, of course, despite being one of the worst teams in baseball since the early nineties.

The Royals fans have the same loyalty score as Twins fans who have endured nothing like what those who attend games at the K endure on a regular basis. Among the other teams with recent success but fans who are less die hard than Royals fans are Atlanta, San Francisco, Anaheim, Florida and Arizona.

There are two different ways to look at this information. The first is that David Glass should be public enemy #1 in the sports world in Kansas City. He has fans that continue to come to games despite his gross negligence and general cheap skatery. In response to this, he continues year after year to ask the fans to bend over one more time.

The other way to look at it is that the Royals fans in KC get exactly the kind of team they deserve.

Harder in the Movies

I love heist movies. It's always interesting to see the cat and mouse game, the planning, and the reveal of how they did (or did not) get away with whatever the caper happens to be. But one thing that is almost always true is that it is incredibly difficult to pull off a huge score.

Well, I guess in real life that may not be the case.

A lone thief broke into a Paris museum last night and stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, French police said today...

... The burglary was discovered just before 7am. A single masked intruder was caught on a CCTV camera taking the paintings away, according to the prosecutor's office. A window had been broken and the padlock of a grille giving access to the museum was smashed. The paintings appeared to have been carefully removed from their frames, rather than sliced out.

Broke a window? Smashed a padlock? Took the time to carefully remove the paintings?

Where is the laser grid? The floor sensors? Heat sensors? Just alarms on the paintings on the wall? Or at least a glass break on the windows? My God, my house is more secure than that. Maybe they should store the rest of the great works of art there until they upgrade.

Until then, Thomas Crown can just think about how much of a waste it was to set up that diversion with the fake robbery team.

Can I Start Over?

I think you are kind of off to a bad start when two days into your stint as the official party candidate you have to release a statement declaring that you are not in favor of repealing the Civil Rights Act.

Reaping the Whirlwind

You know if you want to stoke fear, baldly lie, and generally whip up a frenzy amongst the rubes, you really need to make sure the rubes don't take control. Via everyone, Josh Green explains:

In my talks with voters on the campaign trail today and yesterday, the idea that the Republican Party is as complicit as the Democratic Party in what ails the country is something I heard again and again. I made a point of seeking out registered Republican voters, and the frustration with Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's senior senator and the Senate Minority Leader, seemed indistinguishable from--or perhaps better to say, "was a large part of"--the general frustration with Washington. "Republicans in Washington, D.C. are just playing 'follow the leader,' Janice Cox told me at a rally in Paducah earlier today, to which she'd brought her daughter, grandchildren, and a jumbo-sized American flag. "We need a true constitutional conservative."

I always knew that Mitch McConnell was a socialist.

Voters Don't Like Polarization, Except When They Do

Polls constantly show that voters dislike polarization. They often say they want their officials to work together to try and solve problems. Yet if the early returns are any indication, voters in this election cycle plan to intensify the polarization exponentially.

One of the most consistently conservative guys in the Senate, Bob Bennett, has just lost his seat in Utah for not being conservative enough. Meanwhile, Arlen Specter looks like he is in serious trouble in his Pennsylvania primary with the more liberal Joe Sestak tied or slightly ahead of him in most polls.

There really is more to this subject that I care to work through my entire lunch to blog about, but I do think it is important. I know a "throw the bums out" sentiment is running very high all over the country. And I would definitely say that just about every member of the House and Senate has earned whatever scorn they recieve.

On the other hand, I'm not sure throwing the bums out is the right thing to do if the alternative is to replace them with new bums who hate one another twice as much as the old bums.

So a question for all of you...

poll by twiigs.com

A Visual Representation

A few weeks ago I posted on a NYT article about the Tea Partiers and how much trouble they seem to have connecting their anger to facts.

Well, somehow I missed a great quote by Steve Benen at Washington Monthly at that time. I think it sums the situation up pretty well.

If you were to make a Venn Diagram of the issues Tea Party members care about, and the issues Tea Party members are confused about, you'd only see one circle.

Thanks to My Brain is Made of Things Made of Gold for bringing the quote to my attention.

The Universal Truths of 12 Angry Men

Watching 12 Angry Men for the first time in several years last night, I was struck by how much more I recognized and categorized (and probably stereotyped) the politics of the characters. I was also surprised at how many lines I still remembered.

One great line reminds me of listening to right-wing blowhards on the radio or TV:

Juror #10: Six to six... I'm telling you, some of you people in here must be out of your minds. A kid like that...
Juror #9: I don't think the kind of boy he is has anything to do with it. The facts are supposed to determine the case.
Juror #10: Don't give me that. I'm sick and tired of facts! You can twist 'em anyway you like, you know what I mean?

Another line just reminds me of being a Royals fan:

Juror #7: You a Yankee fan?
Juror #5: No, Baltimore.
Juror #7: Baltimore? That's like being hit in the head with a crow bar once a day.

Sizing Up Catatsrophe

2500 square miles is a lot of area. That is how big the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is, and this is what it would look like over our metro area.

You can map it to other communities using this tool by Paul Rademacher.

From the Things that Never Change Dept.

Via Matt Yglesias, via Maria Farrell, here is Anthony Trollope in The Eustace Diamonds on the 1870's attitudes of Tories in Britain:

“It was bad to interfere with Charles, bad to endure Cromwell, bad to punish James, bad to put up with William. The House of Hanover was bad. All interference with prerogative has been bad. The Reform Bill was very bad. Encroachment on the estates of the bishops was bad. Emancipation of Roman Catholics was the worst of all. Abolition of corn-laws, church-rates, and oaths and tests were all bad.The meddling with Universities has been grievous. The treatment of the Irish Church has been Satanic. The overhauling of schools is most injurious to English education. Education bills and Irish land bills were all bad. Every step taken has been bad. And yet to them old England is of all countries in the world the best place to live in, and is not at all the less comfortable because of the changes that have been made. … To have been always in the right, and yet always on the losing side; always being ruined, always under persecution from a wild spirit of republican-demagogism – and yet never to lose anything, not even position, or public esteem, is pleasant enough.”

Epistemic Closure

A pretty interesting discussion has been going on in the Interwebs with last few days about idealogical cocoons, and the unwillingness (or inability) of groups to look outside their given worldview. It has ranged somewhat far and wide, but if you're interested, I would suggest you go here to see where it started, here to see where it has arrived at currently, and here to see some prescriptive advice.

Tom Izzo to the Ukraine: F**k You! Sit Down!

Not satisfied with ranting at college athletes, Michigan State's fiery sideline stroller appears to have brought his hard-nosed antics to the Ukrainian Parliament:

Although the recent dust-up was blamed on a controversial political deal with former master state Russia, I have a different theory.

Tom Izzo, invited to Kiev to represent his hometown Iron Mountain, MI in a sister-city cultural exchange, is unable to control his emotions after a junior member of the parliament creates an obvious procedural gaff despite repeated reminders about the rules of order. A word to the wise Ukraine, when Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo starts talking to you about Robert's Rules, you better listen!

Friday, A Day for All Things Pointless but Fascinating

Some say the military's biggest enemy is Powerpoint. I think the chart above makes a good case for that theory to be true.

Tough man contest meets marathon in the Tough Mudder, a race developed by a British-born, Harvard-educated obviously fun-loving dude. Contestants have to make it through barbed wire fences, wade muddy bogs, and jump through a ring of fire.

If Harry Reid loses to the chicken-care lady, then we really are a country of morons. The chicken-care lady has to beat a guy named Tarkanian. I was very disappointed to hear it was not Jerry Tarkanian. I guess there will be no "Amoeba Defense" to scuttle financial reform.


This website aimed at raising money for Stephen Baldwin is apparently real. I would really like for someone to show me that it isn't.



Hand-drawn maps = Awesome.

The Kansas City Royals continue to amaze. They lead the league in batting average, they are 7th in slugging percentage, and they are 9th in OPS. Somehow, they have parlayed that into 19th in runs scored. Incredible.

Queen City Family Man just texted me using the phrase "Pinnacle of Assininity." That goes into regular rotation.

A Lesson in the Importance of Education

Rusty sent me a video this morning that words can barely describe.




Now, I'm not sure whether you can say for certain whether these guys are serious or not. If they are, it is absolute proof that they could use a middle school science class. If they aren't, it says even worse things about their legion of fans who take it seriously.

"F*ckin magnets... How do they work?"

Scariest Movies

Just came across a Boston Globe list of the 50 scariest movies of all time. I don't really like scary movies, so I can't offer a lot of criticism.

I will say that, while I like Evil Dead 2, if it is the 8th scaries movie of all time I should feel like a real sissy for not wanting to see some of the movies beneath it on the list.

Also, Kurt Russell is awesome.

Prognostication

If you look across the web at mock drafts you can find out that in tonight's NFL draft the Chiefs are going to take Russel Okung or Eric Barry or Rolando McClain or Brian Bulaga or maybe the'll trade the pick.

In other words, looking at online mock drafts is not a really good way to spend your time.

Chickens for Check Ups

This is simply remarkable.



Sure it's funny, but she could actually be in the Senate next year. That's not so funny.

Well, When You Put it That Way...

From a Gallup poll on attitudes toward financial reform.

When Wall Street is not mentioned, net public support (percentage in favor minus percentage opposed) for banking reform legislation is +3 points, but when it is mentioned, net support is +14. [...]

On both questions, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support banking reform. Seven in 10 Democrats favor the proposed new federal regulatory powers, regardless of the wording. By contrast, Republicans show greater support for reform when “Wall Street” is invoked than when it is not (35% vs. 22%).

Why exactly do Republicans find "Wall Street" so much more worth reforming than "large banks and major financial institutions?" Why don't Democrats have the same reaction? What do Republicans think the difference is between the two? Why do horses wear shoes? Are there horse socks?

Vote on Quotes

As promised, a poll based on two of my favorite quotes from the NYT Tea Party article.

The Quotes:

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

poll by twiigs.com

Connection Issues

Perhaps the link between education, income, and intelligence has been broken. That is what an article in the NYT about the Tea Party would seem to suggest. The main subject of the article is a poll that shows that Tea Party members are more educated and more wealthy than the general public.

The author then goes on to speak to many of these Tea Party members, and the resulting quotes would seem to suggest that intelligence is highly overrated in one's ability to be educated or one's ability to be wealthy (or, admittedly, that comparing a group to the general public isn't much of a comparison).

The two best quotes will be featured in a poll in the next post.

Not Forgetting Where You Came From

Good for Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling:

I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s.

....A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism.

Via Kevin Drum.

Cilantro

In an article in the NYTimes about people who don't like Cilantro:

“When your brain detects a potential threat, it narrows your attention,” Dr. Gottfried told me in a telephone conversation. “You don’t need to know that a dangerous food has a hint of asparagus and sorrel to it. You just get it away from your mouth.”

I used to dislike cilantro, but I have grown accustomed to it. I think I associate with Latin American food and Vietnamese food, both of which I love. I never knew that spring rolls were all I needed to eliminate a perceived threat.

That's the Culprit

The Royals are batting well with fifth best team average of .290. They aren't yet last in the league in home runs (Jose Guillen is even off to a good start with four homers). The OPS numbers are good at .787.

They have committed 5 errors, which puts them in the middle of the pack defensively (though I can't imagine there is a team that has had more ill-timed errors). The starting pitchers are also middle of the pack with a 4.29 ERA.

So why are Royals fans already despondent about the team's season once again? Could be the bullpen and their 7.96 ERA. This group has blown leads in four of the Royals five losses. And they have mostly done it in explosive fashion not seen here since the days of Todd "Gas Can" Wellemeyer.

But I fully expect the bullpen to get it together. They'll improve some and have some good stretches. The problem will be that when they do, the bats will go quiet, or the starters will suck, or the team will boot the ball all over the field. After all, it takes a true team effort to be as bad as the Royals are every year.

A Poem About Knowledge

You think you know,
But you don't know.
You don't know even
Half of what you think you know.
But you stand there like you do know
Talking about what you don't know
As if we should know that you know
About these things that you
Clearly do not know.
I find it very irritating.
But what do I know?

The 2010 Nonsense Festival

Question:

If Vegas set an over/under on the number of bald-faced lies at this event what would it be?

Whatever it is, I'll take the over.

Chart of the Day - Personal Political Timeline

From this very long but very interesting post on the trouble with the Democratic big tent. These numbers would suggest I am headed into my prime Republican years. I am unconvinced.

Your Average Family of Ebadipdip

If you find numbers, Amazonian tribes, human cognition, first-graders or dots interesting, read this excerpt from Alex Bellos' "Alex's Adventures in Numberland."

It is Pica's belief that understanding quantities in terms of estimating ratios is a universal human intuition, due to the fact that ratios are much more important for survival in the wild. Historically, faced with a group of adversaries, we needed to know instantly whether there were more of them than us. When we saw two trees, we needed to know instantly which had more fruit hanging from it. In neither case was it necessary to enumerate every enemy or every fruit individually. The crucial thing was to be able to make quick estimates of the relevant amounts and compare them; in other words to make approximations and judge their ratios.

I had no idea that children were born counting logarithmically rather than linearly. I am now informed.

Opening Day Post

Well, the Royals are getting ready to open the season in about 2 minutes. I normally like to get all excited this time of year, only to be let down in a month. But this year, we have an opening day lineup featuring a guy who hit 11 home runs last year batting clean-up.

Prediction: 67-95.

Which I suppose is still optimistic considering what has happened the last few years.

Here's to hoping they surprise me... in a good way.

For the Star Wars Fans

I suppose this has a pretty decent shot at being funny... if you're a Star Wars nerd.

In a statement, Mr. Green said: “The ‘Star Wars’ universe is so dense and rich; it’s crazy to think that there aren’t normal, mundane everyday problems in a world so well-defined. And it’s even crazier to think of what those problems might be, since it’s all set in a galaxy far, far away. What do these characters do when they’re not overthrowing Empires?”

I happen to be a Star Wars nerd, so I'm looking forward to it.

Imagine That

I'm stealing this from Matt Yglesias, who took it from John Holbo:

Suppose you have a two-party system.

One of these parties enjoys/enforces total party discipline, the other, not: members of the latter party side with their own, or cross the aisle, on individual issues/votes, as conscience or self-interest dictate. Let’s call the completely disciplined party the Partisan Party. The completely undisciplined, the Bipartisan Party (to reflect its principled commitment to always keeping the door open to the higher value of bipartisanship!)

Over time, both parties will push positive proposals/ legislation. Quite obviously, the Bipartisan Party will be at a tactical disadvantage, due to its lax discipline. Less obviously, it will have an ongoing optics problem. All the proposals of the Partisan Party will be bipartisan. That is, a few members of the other party will, predictably, peel off and cross the aisle to stands with the Partisans. None of the proposals of the Bipartisan Party, on the other hand, will ever be bipartisan. No Partisan will ever support a Bipartisan measure. In fact, all proposals of the Bipartisan party will face bipartisan opposition – as a few Bipartisans trudge across the aisle (there are always a few!) to stand with the Partisans. Result: the Partisan party, thanks to its unremitting opposition to bipartisanship, will be able to present itself as the party of bipartisanship, and be able to critique the Bipartisan Party, with considerable force and conviction, as the hypocritically hyperpartisan party of pure partisanship.

Takes an awfully big imagination... or access to any form of U.S. media whatsoever.

No Final Four

For, I believe, the first time ever, I have no teams in the Final Four on the bracket I filled out. As long as Duke doesn't win the title, I am fine with that.

Technology!

I think I might write a post like this every year, but this is the time I love technology.

The fact that you can watch every NCAA tournament game from your computer, FOR FREE, is the kind of thing that makes technology totally worth it. Even if it does end up in robot domination of the world.

Just When You Think...

... you can stop hating Duke, they go and get the easiest bracket in recent memory despite theoretically being the fourth #1 seed. Classic Blue Devils.

What's worse is that because DUke is still pretty suspect despite that bracket, I have placed Baylor in the Final Four in my brackets. I can't even believe I just typed that.

Also, a pox on the committee for putting so many mid-major teams against one another in the first round. Don't protect the big boys!

Times Have Changed

This was the #1 play on Sports Center last night. It is Trey Starks, a player from Springfield's Hillcrest High School. When I played high school basketball in Southwest Missouri, I don't recall anyone ever flying over me.



If you can't see the video, go here. And get your browser updated... BSD!

Good God

I don't really have the heart to write about this on a friday afternoon, but here are the basics.

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Father’s commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

Read and be depressed.

The People Have Spoken

A little over a year ago, I posted on the most popular posts that have ever occurred on this blog. At the time the top 3 looked like this:
3. Premier League Fan Zone
2. Great Places to Eat in Kansas City
1. Movie Quote of the Week - License to Drive Edition

I mentioned that I was surprised at the fact that an 80's movie widely recognized as terrible could generate twice the traffic of a list of places to eat in my hometown.

Well, I am now more surprised. The top 3 today is very similar in content. Soccer fans have overcome Kansas City eaters, but they are still relatively close.

BUT... the movie about a couple of underage kids driving a fancy car has become the blog phenomenon. The License to Drive post now has over 6 times more hits than do either of the other top posts.

This was, of course, aided and abetted by the death of Corey Haim yesterday. This blog had its largest traffic day ever yesterday by a factor of about 4.

So I, and the other contributors to this blog, must now realize that we will never find glory and fame from any witty, thoughtful, learned, or creative writing on any interesting or important topics. Barring insanity (insanity more insane than the insanity of the overdose of an 80's teen star creating favorable conditions for blog readership on a blog not based on the lives of 80's teen stars), this post will forever be the most viewed post on the blog.

The people have spoken.

In Case You Actually Believed Him

Perhaps you thought that Representative Paul Ryan really was interested in balancing the budget when he proposed his widely discussed "budget roadmap."

You obviously have not spent enough time following the modern GOP. Turns out it doesn't really balance the budget. It does, however, do something far more important, namely further widening the gap between rich and poor in America.



So, if you're scoring at home, that means that about 90% of Americans would see both less government services and higher taxes. Those guys really do have brass ones don't they?

screwed by OSCAR

for as long as i can remember, OSCAR nominees for best original song have been allowed to perform their numbers on stage during the big show. however, this year for some reason they were not. instead, the audience was treated to a very lengthy dance montage that, while very skillful and entertaining, left this viewer thinking: huh?

here's what you need to know: up for best song were two lame randy newman songs, two songs from a high-powered musical, and one incredible song, "the weary kind", that was written by a virtually unknown songwriter named Ryan Bingham (co-written with T-Bone Burnett). Clearly, this category was decided long before the ballots were even issued.

Oscar loves the little guy, and in this case, Ryan Bingham did in fact walk away the statue. however, instead of performing live on stage in front of millions of potential music buyers, he had to settle for a 30 second speech. on a night where his career could have been launched into another stratosphere, he was merely allowed to thank a few friends, his band, and of course, the academy.

now granted, it is still awesome that he won. for a small potato to walk away with such a huge honor is incredible. he will still reap many benefits, and will probably move from the bar circuit to the small theater circuit. but i still can't stop thinking of what could have been. i bet he can't either.

part of the reason i even care at all is that i had the privilege of being in the opening act for Bingham a few years back. just passing through town, he played to an enthusiastic crowd of about 10 people. there were actually more people there to see us than him. from the way he performed, however, you would have thought he was playing the Garden.

after the first verse of his first song that night, i leaned over to the guy next me and said, "this guy is for real. he has got the goods and he WILL make it someday." shortly after that he did make it. with a record deal from Lost Highway in tow, i was soon delighted to see bingham popping up on conan, letterman and leno. to top it all off, he sounded EXACTLY the same as the night i saw him in that dingy little bar. simply amazing.

in spite of my disappointment in oscar's decision, at least they made the right call and gave him the award. if nothing else, he will always be known as academy award winner ryan bingham. surely that will mean something down the road.

if you have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing this artist, please do so asap. both of his albums are great from start to finish, and if you like one of his songs you will probably like them all. while his gravely, growling voice sounds like it would come from a man twice his age, there is also a weary tenderness that make him a true original.

while "the weary kind" was written specifically for the movie CRAZY HEART, it was made possible by years of bingham's own hard-living, vagabond lifestyle. as a musician, i am always pleased to see an artist finally getting their due-credit, especially one as gifted as he. though he may not have been allowed to perform last night at the oscars, he has certainly begun his permeation into main stream society. unfortunately, it just may take a little longer to get there...

Well, At Least They Know It

The RNC held a fundraising presentation recently in Florida. Go here to read about it because it really is pretty incredible. To get a taste here is a slide demonstrating what they think of their own.

Been Awhile

Since something so stupid has made me laugh so hard...

UPDATE: Go here to see the .gif that I'm not smart enought to make work above.

So You Say You Want to Cut Government Spending

On what exactly???



Via the Monkey Cage.

Greatest Research Job... Ever

An article in the New York Times explains that movie makers are getting better at pacing movies to correspond with a rhythm that occurs all over nature.

This is something scientists are studying, and I believe I was cut out to help:

“For two days straight, I went through the movie, ‘Spies Like Us,’ with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase,” said Christine E. Nothelfer, who worked on the project as an undergraduate intern. “I went through it frame by frame, I knew where every single cut was.” She added, “I still haven’t seen the movie as a real filmgoer.”

I think I could tell you where every cut was with my eyes closed! They have definitely hired the wrong person for this job. This whole thing makes me think of one of my favorite Spies Like Us quotes.

Austin Millbarge: Show some balls, man!
Emmett Fitz-Hume: I think it's too late to try and impress them.

College Basketball Update

A few notes about college hoops:

Syracuse is #1! Unfortunately, because they are a host school for a region in the NCAA tournament, that will not translate into the usual home court advantage during the tourney that #1 teams often receive.

I keep hearing that John Wall is the player of the year. I agree that he is awesome, and that he will probably make the best pro of the guys playing college basketball today. However, Evan Turner is having an unbelievable year and now has Ohio State atop the Big Ten. Ohio State really depends on him too. I say maybe he is player of the year at this point.

The Missouri Valley Conference is going to need Northern Iowa to lose in the tournament if they want more than one team in the Big Dance.

I haven't quite figured out the RPI still. Currently Kansas sits at #1 in RPI with a record of 27-2 and a strength of schedule of 17. Syracuse is #3 with a record of 27-2 and a strength of schedule of 10.

Joe Lunardi has 7 at-large teams from mid-major conferences. After a 6 year decline that culminated in only 4 mid-major at-large teams being selected last year, I'll believe it when I see it.

I hate the ACC. Lunardi has them slated to get 7 teams in the tournament (and I don't doubt it) despite the fact that Wake Forest and Duke are the only two that had any significant wins outside of the conference. Somehow, this is Billy Packer's fault.

I am afraid Mizzou is in trouble without Justin Safford... but I hope not.

Why the NBA Would be Better for KC than Baseball

Bill Simmons has an article at espn.com that talks about how the NBA's business model is broken and what could be done about it. It's a good piece, but I'm most interested in one small aspect of it:

This is how the NBA differs from any other professional sport. In a league with 12-man rosters, in which only five guys can play at once, you're really only as good as your franchise guy. If you don't have one, you're screwed.

This is something a buddy and I talk about regularly. NBA teams are built around a guy. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James.

This should interest anyone who would like to see a playoff win from a Kansas City team in their lifetime. It should interest them because a professional basketball team has a wildly better chance of contending for a championship than do the Kansas City Royals (or perhaps the Chiefs, but that isn't because of the structure of the sport). Baseball is the most difficult sport for a team with small resources to field a winner. That is because it takes so many players to put together a team that can compete.

Last year, the Royals had a pitcher who posted one of the 10 best seasons in baseball history... and they finished 32 games under .500. There is 0 chance of that happening on an NBA team. A nice example is Kevin Durant. This season, he has become one of the league's top 5 players and the Oklahoma City Thunder are sixth in a tough race for the Western Conference playoffs.

Let's say the Charlotte Bobcats (who have had some attendance woes) decided to move to KC. They have some pretty decent pieces in place already, and they are currently sitting about .500. Now let's say they win the lottery. You add a guy like John Wall to that team and within a couple of years you have a top half of the east playoff team.

I don't care how much Kansas Citians tell sports talk radio stations they don't want an NBA team. They'd be ecstatic to have a winner.

Nightmares for the Rest of Your Life

I seriously can't think of anything that would traumatize an 8 year old much worse than this:

An employee at SeaWorld Orlando has died after being attacked by a killer whale...

...Park guest Victoria Biniak told WKMG-TV that the trainer had just finished explaining to the audience the show they were about to see.

Biniak told the station the whale suddenly came up from the water, grabbed the trainer around the waist and "thrashed her all around" to the point that the trainer's shoe fell off.

There is an entire crowd of kids who will never ever set foot in the water again. I know I wouldn't.

Quote of the Day

From Kevin Drum, commenting on research presented in Washington Monthly regarding the relationship between consolidation and job creation (or lack thereof).

One of the pathologies of modern conservatism — a pathology that's shared more often than I'd like by mainstream liberals — is that they're pro-business, not pro-free market. The difference is critical. Pro-business means passing laws that your business pals like, and as economists since Adam Smith have observed, what businessmen mostly like is lack of competition. The operation of a true free market, conversely, depends crucially on competition and plenty of it. And just as crucially, that requires government intervention to prevent a few behemoths from taking over every sector of the economy. Keeping a free market free takes a lot of work.

The whole post is interesting, as is the piece it is based on. Read it and remind your pro-market friends what they really mean.

Stuff for a Friday

As I continue my near complete disregard for fresh content on this blog, the least I could do is pass along interesting stuff that other people are doing. And hopefully, once I finish the seemingly interminable project I've been working on, I'll start getting some posts up again.

In the meantime:

-

Kevin Drum passes along a Newsweek article about Republican Hank Paulson's thoughts on Republicans during the financial crisis.

Paulson delivers a continual and biting critique of Republicans....Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning is a “cantankerous conservative” (page 275). Meetings with Senate Republicans were “a complete waste of time for us, when time was more precious than anything” (page 275). Ideas that Republicans do add are “unformed,” like Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor’s plan to replace TARP with an insurance program. In a rare moment of sarcasm, Paulson goes off on the minority Whip: “I got a better idea. I’m going to go with Eric Cantor’s insurance program. That’s the idea to save the day” (page 285).

Could be a fun book.

-

At Gone Mild, Dan has posting with some regularity about the kinds of issues that you would think about if you thought about beer with same frequency most people think about sex.

But I don't want it called "domestic" any more. It's inaccurate, it's insulting to real American brewers, and it siphons money to foreign corporations. SABMiller and AB-InBev are NOT domestic corporations. There are thousands of true "domestics" crafting great beer, and the American beer scene deserves to be recognized as a point of national pride. When you claim that Miller Lite and Budweiser are the "domestics", you are saying that Boulevard and Schlafly are somehow less American. It's just not right.

For what it's worth, I agree.

-

Have you ever listened to Minnesota Public Radio's The Current online?

You should.

-

Kansas City sucks. At least that is what Forbes Magazine says. And it is the Chiefs and Royals fault:

"High taxes and crime rates hurt Kansas City's standing, but what moved them up our misery list were its two awful pro sports teams. The Royals and Chiefs combined finished outside of last place only once in the past three years."

I suppose this means that if you don't like sports, you may not be so miserable. Plus, we aren't St. Louis. They have a really good baseball team and they still came in 5 places more miserable than us.

-

Matt Yglesias points out that ABC tried to do a piece on the economists who thought the stimulus worked versus those who did not... but they couldn't really find any in the second group.

“The stimulus worked,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Bank. Without it, “the unemployment rate would probably be closer to 11 percent” and the economy might not have grown at all last year.

Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com thought the nation would be “still in recession.”

“It played a significant role supporting recovery,” said economist Diane Swonk of Mesirow Financial.

Not all the economists who responded to our survey agreed the stimulus was necessary.

“Throwing a trillion dollars at anything will move it,” said Standard and Poor’s David Wyss, “but the recovery would be beginning and the unemployment rate nearing a peak” without it.

“The economy would probably be recovering,” argued Jay Bryson of Wells Fargo, just maybe not “as fast as it is.”

Unanimity!

Happy Friday.

Nothing to Do With the Decade

Since I missed the boat on the turn of the decade musicality, and since both AA and BSD are much better equipped to deal with the best albums and tracks of the decade, I chose a different path. Thus, the following list of the Top 50 Tracks on my Sansa MP3 player, right now, that are Least Likely to be Skipped, Ever (in alphabetical order by Artist):

Aberfeldy - Tie One On
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
The Beegees - Jive Talkin'
Big Smith - Quarry Anthem
David Bowie - Golden Years
Built to Spill - The Plan
The Clash - Train In Vain
Coconut Records - Nighttiming
Danger Doom - Old School
The Darkness - I Believe In a Thing Called Love
D.V.D.A. - Now You're a Man
Bob Dylan - Days of '49
Bob Dylan - Went to See the Gypsy
Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down
Fatlip - What's Up Fatlip?
Flight of the Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)
Genesis - That's All
Ben Gibbard - You Remind Me of Home
The Gourds - Caledonia
Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue
Group X - You Would Give Me Kiss
The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations
Dallas Jones - Johnny Tyler
Damien Jurado - Tragedy
Marcy Playground - The Vampires of New York
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Paul McCartney - Comin' Up
Modest Mouse - Float On
Mos Def - New World Water
The New Amsterdams - Bad Liar
Ol Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya
Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Walls
Wilson Pickett - Land of 1,000 Dances
Rogue Wave - 10:1
Eric Sermon featuring Redman - React
Paul Simon - You can Call Me Al
Simon and Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York
Todd Snider - Alright Guy
Spoon - The Fitted Shirt
The Streets - Could Well Be In
Van Morrison - Into the Mystic
Vitamin String Quartet - Tangled Up In Blue
Ween - Voodoo Lady
Whiskeytown - Drank Like a River
Wilco - Handshake Drugs
Wild Light - California On My Mind
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On a Gravel Road
Wu-Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M.
Warren Zevon - Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

[Bonus] Last track out: Van Halen - Hot for Teacher

[Double Bonus] Awesomest Lyric Currently on MP3 Currently: MCA of Beastie Boys from the track Hey Fuck You of the album To the 5 Boroughs - "I've got billions and billions of rhymes to flex, I've got more rhymes than Carl Sagan's got turtlenecks"

Worst Date Movies

According to an article in Slate, the worst date movie of all time is Closer.

In my book, that dubious distinction belongs to the Julia Roberts/Natalie Portman/Clive Owen/Jude Law psychodrama Closer. The movie isn't gross like Antichrist, or menacing like The Comfort of Strangers, and no one gets raped. But the movie is deeply cynical about love—each character uses romantic connection as fuel for his or her ego. Fans of Pretty Woman or even Erin Brockovich might have gone to see the film because it starred Julia Roberts. They were expecting the toothy grin of America's sweetheart and the happy ending that usually follows her around. But in Closer, Roberts and her dashing lovers (Owen and Law) are selfish and manipulative. It's an alienating viewing experience, one that diffuses, rather than facilitates, romantic connection.

That is a bad one to be sure. But I think there are worse ones. Generally, I think horror movies are bad date movies because I'm a wuss and I don't want to jump/hide/scream/cry in front of a date. The worst horror movies, though, are ones where a seemingly normal (and often very attractive) woman turns out to be the monster.

Species is one of the classics of this sub-genre. Nothing ruins a date more than the suspicion that any amorous activity might end in the removal of your spine through your mouth.

Because I Think It's Funny

From The Onion.

The WHO still got it!

tomorrow morning, you might hear that the Who's performance at the superbowl was just so-so. you will probably hear people saying things like: daltrey can't hit the high notes like he used too, townsend looked silly in sunglasses, and they both looked out of breath. these people are morons. morons!

the WHO melted faces like a brick-layer lays bricks: one at a time, until everyone gets laid. and judging from the women in the crowd, i am sure they had plenty of offers.

now i will be the first to admit--i wish they would have played a more obscure set, but that was always wishful thinking. they gave us the hits, and tomorrow morning (if not already) sales of Who albums will sky rocket. and that seems to be the whole purpose of the "superstar at the superbowl" concept anyway, right? to have one more career boost to carry an artist for the rest of their existence? mission accomplished.

i also found it interesting that 3 out the 5 selections from their 15 minute show were currently theme songs for TV shows on CBS (CSI, “Who Are You,” CSI: Miami, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and CSI: NY, “Baba O’Reily.”). i suppose "interesting" is the wrong word choice. "no-brainer" is probably more appropriate. surely, i am not the first person to make this connection.

now, on to the performance: i thought it was great. really great. i thought they sounded tight, looked like they belonged there, and proved they still got the goods, man. even the light show was stunningly relevant for once! yes, of course i wish entwistle and moon were still alive to have played the gig. can you imagine keith moon at the superbowl with access to an unlimited amount of explosives and pyrotechnics? one word: awesome!

some will also argue that the WHO are no longer relevant: they are has-beens. they are hacks. they no longer rock and should just quit trying to recapture their youth.

to the naysayers, i say suck it. The WHO are to rock-n-roll what earnhardt is to NASCAR: as long as people speak the word "rock" they will speak of the Who. and for that, and that alone, they deserved to be on that stage tonight. the fact that they also kicked major ass was just the icing on the cake.

while i won't comment on pete's sunglasses, i will say this about roger: he TOTALLY nailed the high note scream at the end of "won't get fooled again". that alone would have been worth the trip to miami...

At the Red House!

I used to believe that local commercials were feces by default, then I went here. Behold!

I'm not saying this dude is wrong, but...

I have couple of questions for the toter of this protest sign before I join the cause:

1. Do you think consistency is important?

2. How about apostrophes?

3. I am very much opposed to the high fullutent, but I've never been able to identify a definition of 'fullutent.' Could you please expound?

4. Is this list in order of damnation? As I am only sophisticated swine and a sports nut, this is very important.

5. Also, could you please clarify whether devil lovers are avid sports fans or leisure activity genitals?

6. What does P. K's mean? If it means either philandering kittens or phat kids, then I'm in.