Comedian in Chief

Obama goes after Trump in one of the funniest presidential performances ever...

Fun With Wordle

I still have trouble with the concept of word clouds. I understand they are supposed to be a nice visual way for me to see what is important, but I still like an old-fashioned ranked list. Anyway, Wordle provides word clouds that at least look really cool. I decided to Wordle this blog and see what we could come up with. I'm still not sure what the criteria are, but this is what it gave me:



Need? Not sure about that one. I'm pretty sure I only wrote about the OECD once, and a Republican from Columbia seems to be getting a bit too much run. I suspect maybe it is pulling from the main page only, but I don't know. What I do know is that the subject matter seems right.

To check it, I threw Gone Mild in there...



For any of you who know Mr. Mild, the accuracy is astounding. And I appreciate being one of the featured words...

Inequality Chart of the Day

This is from an OECD report. It shows inequality in member countries before and after social spending. We go from third from the bottom to fifth from the bottom with that added in. Eat it Poland and Greece.

Then They Come for the Hairspray

The Tennessee House just passed a bill protecting teachers who want to teach Creationsim and anti-global warming theories. You might think that this is about a bunch of people who want to instill right-wing views in classrooms. You'd be wrong, however, this is about high school beauty:

Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia, said when she was in high school, “we gave up Aqua Net hair spray” because of fears “it was causing global warming.”

So it all makes sense now (other than the confusion between global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer). This is, like most things, about high school popularity contests. If she could have kept that hairspray, she could have been prom queen... and then who know where she might be today.

Recipe for Disaster

Dear Taco Bell,

I am not a scientist, but I do know that "Signature Recipe" does not appear on the food pyramid. I believe you should consider not putting out PR that informs people that your ground beef is 12% "Signature Recipe" if you don't already know that "Signature Recipe" is something people enjoy and are comfortable with. That is all.

Jim

The Rules

In a piece on the 2011 NBA non-playoff teams, Bill Simmons provides a simple and yet profound explanation of what makes a good team.

You only need eight and a half guys to win in the NBA: five starters, three bench guys, then an 8½th man who doesn't mind playing 0-10 minutes a night and being on call if a rotation guy gets into foul trouble, gets hurt or whatever. Of those eight and half guys, ideally, you need two scorers, one ball handler, one perimeter defender and one rebounder. You need to be able to play defense. You need everyone to know their roles. You need to know who's playing crunch time and who gets the ball in those last few minutes. And you need a coach competent enough not to screw things up. That's it.

That is exactly right, and it kind of makes you wonder why so many NBA GM's are so bad at putting teams together.

Supreme Jerks

Reminding us why appointing Judicial nominees is one of the most important roles in politics, an article from Slate talks about the two most conservative Justices' indifference to the apparent suffering of someone wrongly accused.

But this week, writing on behalf of the five conservatives on the Supreme Court and in his first majority opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas tossed out the verdict, finding that the district attorney can't be responsible for the single act of a lone prosecutor. The Thomas opinion is an extraordinary piece of workmanship, matched only by Justice Antonin Scalia's concurring opinion, in which he takes a few extra whacks at Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissent. (Ginsburg was so bothered by the majority decision that she read her dissent from the bench for the first time this term.) Both Thomas and Scalia have produced what can only be described as a master class in human apathy. Their disregard for the facts of Thompson's thrashed life and near-death emerges as a moral flat line. Scalia opens his concurrence with a swipe at Ginsburg's "lengthy excavation of the trial record" and states that "the question presented for our review is whether a municipality is liable for a single Brady violation by one of its prosecutors." But only by willfully ignoring that entire trial record can he and Thomas reduce the entire constitutional question to a single misdeed by a single bad actor.

Both parties to this case have long agreed that an injustice had been done. Connick himself conceded that there had been a Brady violation, yet Scalia finds none. Everyone else concedes that egregious mistakes were made. Scalia struggles to rehabilitate them all.

The whole article is just shameful. And it is an important reminder of the power that comes with appointing Justices.

Cartoon of the Day

From Slate:

I Shall Have This Cake and I Shall Eat It Too!

Quote of the day from the hyper-consistent Newt Gingrich:

"I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American."

Mr. Bright(green)side

Food blogger Mark Bittman has a great post up about the positive things happening with food production and diets in our country. Check out the article. It is loaded with links, and tells me this interesting tidbit:

There are now more than 6,000 farmers markets nationwide — about a 250 percent increase since 1994 (significant: there are half as many as there are domestic McDonald’s), and 900 of them are open during the winter. They’re searchable too, thanks to the USDA. (Community Supported Agriculture programs — CSAs — and food coops are also searchable, courtesy of localharvest.org.) Furthermore, serious and increasing efforts are being made to get that food to the people who really need it: Wholesome Wave, for example, began a voucher program in 2008 that doubles the value of federal food stamps (SNAP) at participating farmers markets; that program has grown more than tenfold in less than three years.

A Helping Hand

When I was a child, I thought as a child. I remember actually watching John Stossel and thinking he was really good at explaining how things worked. Now that I am an adult, I realize that his childish thinking really only has the ability to explain how he would like things to work. How else to explain a statement like this?

"Why is there a Bureau of Indian Affairs?" he said. "There is no Bureau of Puerto Rican Affairs or Black Affairs or Irish Affairs. And no group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians, because we have the treaties, we stole their land. But 200 years later, no group does worse."

A Comment On My Smartphone

I marvel constantly at what is available to me in the small electronic gadget in my pocket. But I also kind of feel like this too:

I worry that in our zeal to plan out and fill up our children’s lives with lessons, play dates, CV-building activities we are stripping them of the chance to experience untrammeled idleness. The mind alert but not shunted along a set track, the impulses not pegged to any productivity. The motionless bobber, the hand trailing in the water, the shifting shapes of the clouds overhead. Idleness is the mother of possibility, which is as much as necessity the mother of inventiveness. Now that our technologies so adeptly bridge the old divide between industriousness and relaxation, work and play, either through oscillation or else a kind of merging, everything being merely digits put to different uses, we ought to ask if we aren’t selling off the site of our greatest possible happiness.

There are no better days to test this theory than those of sunny spring weekends. I'm going to give it a go soon... when I can fit it into my schedule.

NCAA Tourney Blues

My favorite four sports day of each year have come and gone. The games in this year's NCAA tourney were particularly good. But now it's another 359 days until they happen again.

Also, I have the tourney blues because I am posting, by a wide margin, the worst bracket score I can ever remember. I am currently sitting at 29 out of the 48 games picked correctly, with almost the entire right side of my bracket decimated. I think next year I'll use the Magic 8-ball.

Ocho Goalo?

Queen City Family Man informs me that Chad Ochocinco is having an official tryout with the onceWizards (now Kansas City Sporting). Listening to Soren Petro and Peter Vermes, I understand that #85 said he would be willing to race any man on the team. That should be no problem for a man that once raced a horse. Of course, horses aren't known for their soccer talent. I guess we'll see if Chad Ochocinco can be.

This Mic Is On!

So many things to love about this video. The rep seemingly checking out the lady behind him, the panicked staffer, the desperate "hatchet man." Of course, the actual payoff is the clear evidence that Republicans (at least these Republicans) know good and well what may be wrought by their crass political opportunism, but they plan to continue with it anyway.

Missouri - Where Lawmakers Save Us From Ourselves

Great but depressing column in the Star today by Barbara Shelly. The upshot is that lawmakers really don't care what voters say:

In what may be a Missouri record, the legislature is poised this year to overturn — count ‘em — four voter-passed initiatives.

By a vote of 20-14, the Senate on Thursday voted for a bill invalidating many of the provisions and protections of Proposition B, the initiative cracking down on abuses by puppy breeders that Missouri voters approved in November. Supporters bemoaned the complexity of the initiative and said they were pretty sure people didn’t realize what they were voting on.

The House has already approved a bill repealing a 2006 voter-passed initiative allowing the state’s minimum wage to rise if the cost of living increases; action in the Senate is expected soon.

Another voter-approved law in the legislature’s sights is the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative, which in 2009 passed in every county in the state except Osage. It calls for 15 percent of the state’s energy to be produced from renewable sources by 2021.

A move is also under way to undo a 1976 voter-approved law that prevents electric utilities from charging customers for a new plant before the plant begins producing energy.

And that is just part of the column. Read the rest for greater depression.

Wrap It Up (In the flag)

I think electing Newt Gingrich would be a terrible idea for this country. However, it might result in some of the best explanations for U.S. actions ever. Here is Newt on his rather robust record of infidelity:

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," said Gingrich. "And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them."

I hate to even put the thought of Newt's bedroom behavior in your head, but what do you suppose he shouts in that one transcendant moment?

That's American as Apple Pie!
United, I Stand!
E Pluribus! You Numb?
Let Freedom Ring!
The Bomb's Bursting in There!
Liberty and Justice for You!
Old Glory... Long May it Stand!

I only kind of like any of those... better ideas?

Trouble in the Valley

ESL brought a good point in his comment on my last post. That point was that the Valley has a conference RPI of 12 right now, which will certainly not do Missouri State any favors. The question I have is what happened to the Valley? Their conference RPI over the last 8 years (as far back as I found info) goes like this:

03-04: 11
04-05: 8
05-06: 6 (ahead of the Pac-10)
06-07: 6 (ahead of the Big 12)
07-08: 8
08-09: 9
09-10: 9
10-11: 12

So what gives? Have Valley teams started scheduling soft? Have the big boys discrimnated against a conference that had broken into their territory? Is this a natrual ebb and flow of conference quality? I have no idea. Thoughts?

Dancing Bears?

It will most likely be another year before the ol' hometown Missouri State Bears return to the NCAA tournament. Despite winning 25 games, winning the regular season Missouri Valley Conference championship (the Valley champ has made every tourney since 1993), and an expanded NCAA field, the Bears lack of wins over tournament worthy teams will most likely keep them out of the field.

This is depressing stuff because Missouri State hasn't made the tournament since 1999 when they went to the Sweet Sixteen. This is despite having 3 of the highest RPI's (21, 34, and 36) ever left out of the tournament. As with my other favorite local teams, the Bears just don't have much post-season luck. Maybe all that changes and beyond all hope, the selection committee decides to put them in. But I'm not holding my breath.

A Very Lionel Friday

I stole this from a friend on facebook. I have no idea where he got it.

Brauereisterben

This is most certainly not good news:

These days, Germany's celebrated brewing towns and atmospheric old taverns can feel like retirement homes. Visitors to the south of Germany today (where more than half the nation's breweries are located) find few of the ardent young beer lovers that crowd craft watering holes in Copenhagen; Brussels; London; New York; Portland, Ore.; and even Rome. And while it's true that last fall's 200th Oktoberfest was bigger than ever, using Oktoberfest to measure the health of German beer culture is like using Disney World admissions to measure the health of American cinema. Once a decorous wedding pageant, Oktoberfest is a hot mess, with cheesy carnival rides and hordes chugging cheap lager as if it were Hawaiian Punch. Paris Hilton even showed up for the anniversary celebration.

Oktoberfest is my favorite foreign holiday reappropriated by Americans to mean "day of the drunk." Did we kill Oktoberfest???

Sounds Bad

A question: does anyone know what might be the cause of the recent rash of sound problems at major events? The Black Eyed Peas had all kinds of trouble at the Super Bowl. Rihanna was barely audible at the NBA All-Star Game, and Randy Newman's music was too loud at the Oscars.

Are professional sound people on strike? Did some change in equipment happen that has flummoxed everyone? What is the answer?

Charts of the Day

A whole bunch of charts to depress you courtesy of Mother Jones. Here are two of them. Follow the link to see the rest.

Nice Job Public

I hate public opinion polls for the most part. But if politicians are going to listen to them, I like the message the public is sending in the Gallup/USA Today poll.

In the poll, 61% of adults nationwide said that they would oppose a law that would take away some collective bargaining rights for state employees, including teachers. Only one third, 33%, said that they would support that measure if it were proposed in their state.

The question, of course, is whether right wing media and conservatives in general can find a way to frame this issue that scares a large percentage of Americans into believing that worker's rights really are a threat to the American way of life. I bet they are already working on it.

Rooney!!!!

Wayne Rooney scored one of the most incredible goals ever yesterday. Go see the video here. Even if you don't like soccer, you can agree that this is an unbelievable feat of athleticism.

Budget Woes

I think Kevin Drum gets it just right here:

Put another way, Obama has proposed cuts of about 1% from a defense budget that's already the largest in the world, versus cuts of about 10% from a domestic budget that's already one of the stingiest in the world. And that's moderate compared to what Republicans want to do. As Ezra says, this puts a little different spin on "winning" the future, doesn't it?

In other words, get a job in something to do with the defense industry.

See For Yourself

A great interactive chart from the Economic Policy Institute. Go and use it. See what conclusions you can draw.

Via Matt Yglesias.

Words Matter - Science Edition

So as you probably are well aware, there are still quite a few people who don't believe in climate change. Why is that? Probably because newspaper reporters write things like this...

Q: How about global warming? Does this cold winter disprove it?

A: Not really. As global temperatures rise, higher pressure is more likely at upper levels of the atmosphere, Ostro says, which is what happened this winter. Strong ridges aloft in recent months and years have been conducive to potent troughs of low pressure that help form intense storms.

"It's important to look at the context and the big picture," he says. "While major population centers such as London, Paris, Chicago and Atlanta were shivering, which got a lot of media attention, large expanses in and near the Arctic, including northeast Canada and Greenland, have been experiencing unusually warm conditions this winter."

Q: Anything else to worry about?

The loss of Arctic sea ice, which was at its lowest December and January levels on record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

"It could be changing atmospheric patterns," Ostro says.

Not really? How about "NO?" Yeah, no would probably work better since everything he quoted the actual scientist saying meant no. Saying "not really" does not mean he is being impartial, or non-partisan, or fair and balanced, or whatever the hell he thinks he is being. What he is really being is factually incorrect. Way to go.

Listen to the People!

The people of Fort Wayne, Indiana have spoken... and they have said they want the "Harry Baals Government Center."

And if they can't have that, their second choice seems to be "Thunderdome." I like the people of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The Public Taste

The fact that the public's general poor taste still surprises me is a testament either to the unfathomable amount of optimism I have about mankind or further evidence of my poor memory.

Either way, the public once again let me down by declaring two horrible commercials with dogs as their co-champions in USA Today's Super Bowl ad meter. The pug commercial was poor, but at least it wasn't developed by an ad agency. The one featuring dogs serving beer was, and still was awful.

By contrast, VW ran this ad, which was awesome.



Some credit where it is due: this ad was the third favorite in the ad meter.

In all, my top five were:

1. VW Star Wars
2. Doritos Back From the Dead
3. Groupon Tibet
4. Bridgestone Beaver Payback
5. Doritos Finger Licking

Bottom Five:
1. Budweiser Wild West
2. Teleflora Faith Hill
3. Go Daddy Spots
4. Best Buy Ozzy
5. Pepsi Torpedo Cooler

Sarcastic Chart of the Day

Via Matt Yglesias.

Making Your Stocking Stuffer Work for You

Wired Magazine presents the story of a smart Canadian who figured out the code to some scratcher tickets.

The trick itself is ridiculously simple. (Srivastava would later teach it to his 8-year-old daughter.) Each ticket contained eight tic-tac-toe boards, and each space on those boards—72 in all—contained an exposed number from 1 to 39. As a result, some of these numbers were repeated multiple times. Perhaps the number 17 was repeated three times, and the number 38 was repeated twice. And a few numbers appeared only once on the entire card. Srivastava’s startling insight was that he could separate the winning tickets from the losing tickets by looking at the number of times each of the digits occurred on the tic-tac-toe boards. In other words, he didn’t look at the ticket as a sequence of 72 random digits. Instead, he categorized each number according to its frequency, counting how many times a given number showed up on a given ticket. “The numbers themselves couldn’t have been more meaningless,” he says. “But whether or not they were repeated told me nearly everything I needed to know.” Srivastava was looking for singletons, numbers that appear only a single time on the visible tic-tac-toe boards. He realized that the singletons were almost always repeated under the latex coating. If three singletons appeared in a row on one of the eight boards, that ticket was probably a winner.

The irony here is that after he calculated how much time it would take him to gather and scratch enough tickets to make more than he was making as a geological statistician, he decided it wasn't worth the effort.

This means that a man who know he can win doesn't even think scratchers are a good deal, and yet there are millions of people know they won't win who spend hard-earned cash on them daily. But none of those people are geological statisticians I guess.

Way to Go MO

I thought when Missouri became the only fence-riding state to go for McCain, we'd hit kind of a political rock bottom. Little did I know, our Democratic Senator would have something to say about that just over two years later.

Then came the McCaskill-Corker proposal. The progressive-leaning Center on Budget Priorities scored the bill with the horror of a too-young tween reading an early Stephen King novel. "Limiting spending to an historical average of some kind has been a longstanding goal of very conservative organizations such as the Heritage Foundation," wrote CBP's Paul Van de Water. "Historical spending levels are not a realistic or appropriate goal for the future." In another analysis, CBP's James Horney assessed that the CAP Act could slash $4.5 trillion from the budget, $2 trillion more than the RSC plan that Democrats had blanched at.

A memo to Claire: if the political climate in Missouri doesn't change, you're not going to get re-elected no matter how much you try to sound like a Republican.

Pawlenty!

I guess Michael Bay is now directing presidential candidate videos...

Great Ad Campaign

A friend sent me this ad campaign titled "life's too short for the wrong job." Follow the link to see a few that are even better than the one below, but that were all attached in one file (and I was unwilling to go the extra mile for you all).

Blogger Recommendation

Just wanted to take a moment to recommend the blog of a good friend and writer who has returned to regular blogging recently. His most recent post is a rumination on the subject of fouls called late in basketball games.

Fouls are not like human beings. They are not all created equal. Sometimes an official can, and will, allow certain things to go at Point A in a game, but call it at Point B. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If a referee is going to send a player to the free throw line, or wipe a basket off the board, and that’s possibly going to be a major deciding factor in a game, he’d better make darn sure it’s a blatant violation.

If you don't care about basketball, don't worry. He covers other topics as well. Check him out.

NFL Fashion

These are supposedly the prototypes for the Chiefs version of Nike's ProCombat Uniforms that would be for the 2012 season.




I don't think I like either, mostly for the lack of red on the uniforms. But I especially don't like the second one,as it would generally result in the chiefs all looking like the bird from the movie Up.



But what do you think?

poll by twiigs.com

Why People Don't Trust the Government

People don't trust the government because the new controlling party of the House is always running around telling you not to trust the government. The newest target is the CBO, who everyone has long agreed are the best option for non-partisan scoring of budget items. Well, not now that they have given the healthcare law a good review.

They have claimed, as Doug Holtz-Eakin, Joseph Antos and James Capretta do in today's Wall Street Journal, that the CBO's work is now the product of "budget gimmicks, deceptive accounting, and implausible assumptions used to create the false impression of fiscal discipline." They have created a separate world for themselves when it comes to this bill, a world where there are no accepted estimates except the ones they choose to accept (notably, they regularly mention the CBO results that they think help their case), where there is no neutral arbiter who can be relied on to set the premises of the debate, and thus, where policy debate is not really possible.

Ezra Klein takes down most of their claims at the previous link, and here. And this is why people don't trust the government.

Craliorse

So, it seems that I may be a crab now. I'm not sure. I think I would rather stick with being a lion. But the menu at my favorite Chinese restaurant tells me I'm really a horse.

I think from here forward I shall be a horse with a lion head and crab claws. You better watch out.

JFK - Mr. Honesty?

If you write on your Harvard application that you want to go there because it will "give you a better background," you either have an honest streak that trumps your desire for sefl-preservation... or you knew you were getting in anyway.

Either way, it's a funny thing to write.

Another Reminder About the NBA

It isn't coming to KC. Here is the latest reason to think so from David Stern:

The issue where contraction has been raised in the past and might be raised again is when you watch teams struggle in the economic sense and they are partners of and they’re included in what I would call shared revenues, where in a couple of years we will have developed in the near future, where between licensing revenues, network television revenues and revenue sharing, where certain teams at the bottom end were getting $50 million a year from their partners from the group effort whether or not they sell a piece of merchandise or whether or not they appear on network television, then the issue gets raised among owners would it be economically sound for us to consider contraction. That’s a subject that will be fully aired after the season is over.

So even if there are teams who might move, and even if they decided Kansas City was the place for them, they still might end up on the chopping block if the league decides to contract. Depressing but true.

Meanwhile in the Real World

And while our House of Representatives completes the all-important task of reading the edited Constitution, the economy continues to suck for most Americans. That trend is likely to continue...

Among the top ten occupations projected to have the largest numerical growth in the next decade, seven pay median wages under $30,000 a year, including food preparers and servers earning $16,000, and retail and home care workers who make $20,000. Home aides and retail workers are expected to add about 1.4 million positions this decade while middle-class manufacturing jobs are projected to lose more than a million jobs.

Fortunately for Missourians, our state Senate is promoting "right to work" legislation that will help companies crack down on the unions that provide many of remaining decent working class jobs available.

But nevermind that, let's see Obama's birth certificate dammit!

Read It... And Weep.

Just in case you hadn't heard, Republicans chose to open this session of Congress by reading the Constitution out loud. This was apparently to remind them all that it is infallible and should be the unquestioned basis for everything they do... except the part about slavery, which they edited out.

Also, as one Republican Rep read the part about the president being a natural born citizen some woman in the crowd shouted, "Except Obama! Except Obama! Help us Jesus!"

Help us Jesus indeed.

Being Healthy Is Not Easy

Slate has an interesting series about healthy eating called Clean Plate running right now. It is interesting to me because I have decided that the upward creep in my weight over the last 2 years needs to be reversed now - before it is too late (and before Ancillary Fiancee and I hit some tropical locale in our swimsuits this summer). Anyway, the piece today is about how confusing the food pyramid charts are.

Fortunately, we are no longer limited to just the USDA food pyramid. The Nutrition Department at the Harvard School of Public Health criticizes the USDA pyramid and offers its own Healthy Eating Pyramid. And that's not all. The Mayo Clinic and Oldways.com offer Asian, Latin-American, Mediterranean, and vegetarian pyramids. So pick your pyramid, and start eating it. (Note: I went to my doctor this morning to discuss this plan and get blood tests so I can see if anything changes in the next few weeks. And you should consult with yours before embarking on any eating plan.) (Also of note: The USDA updates its Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years, meaning there is one due any moment. It's almost as exciting as waiting for a new baby!)

I think I'd take that a step further and say that almost all nutrition related info is confusing. Depending upon who I consult, my needed daily calorie intake to shed my undesired pounds needs to be anywhere from 1600-2400 calories. This is impossible. If the 1600 estimate is correct, I would likely actually gain more weight by using the 2400 number. If the 2400 estimate is correct, 1600 might damn near kill me. Anyway, if anyone has a trusted source for this sort of thing, I'd be happy to hear about it.

I have soup and fruit to eat.

Let's Chase Eachother Around the Oval Office

If you don't believe me that Obama isn't so bad, maybe you'll listen to Merle Haggard.

"It's really almost criminal what they do with our president," Haggard said. "There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he's doing certain things that he's not. It's just a big old political game that I don't want to be part of."

I'm going to guess he's a bit of an outlier in Muskogee these days.

Merry Belated Christmas!

Went home for the holidays, then got wicked sick on Sunday. As Led Zeppelin said, good times, bad times, you know I had my share... all in 5 days!

This Week in Being Nuts

If you are crazy this week, you might have done these things:

Called for a boycott of the upcoming movie, Thor, because there is a black guy in it.

Called for the end of the Methodist Church. Actually, you might have said...

"In short, if you hate America, you have a great future in the Methodist church," he says.

Tried to get all of your Supreme Court judges impeached because you disagree with them.

Thought about making a House Rep who said that global warming can't be real because Genesis says so the head of the House Energy Committee.

TOP 10 Albums of 2010

Top 10 Albums of 2010
1. Mumford and Sons- Sigh No More
2. SSLYBY- Let it Sway
3. Tallest Man on Earth- Wild Hunt
4. She & Him- Volume 2
5. Good Old War- Good Old War
6. Vampire Weekend- Contra
7. Josh Ritter- So Runs the World Away
8. Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
9. Harlem- Hippies
10. Blitzen Trapper- Destroyer of the Void

AA has been harping on me for the past few weeks to post this list. i think it gives him comfort to know he is not alone in the list-making world. hope this makes your day, friend!

this has been one of the best years in music that i can recall, and yet this became one of the easiest years for me to pick my Top 10. i really turned to these 10 albums more than any other this past year, and they never let me down. i know this will be up for some debate, but i deemed Mumford and Sons eligible based on the US release date of their album (Irish was 2009 i think). but hey...my list, my call. though i may have spun "Let it Sway" more often, i just couldn't get over the guttural effect that "Sigh No More" has on me every time i press play thus securing it's position as the best album of 2010.

Top 10 songs list is forthcoming

Don't Mess With Women from New Mexico

Ouch.

When the victim began arguing with her 44-year-old mother-in-law, the older woman allegedly "grabbed (the victim's) right breast and began to squeeze and pull on her nipple." The victim yelled to stop, but her mother-in-law allegedly continued to pull until the younger woman began punching her in the face, according to the police report.

The victim then told police she threw her mother-in-law into the yard, but the older woman allegedly kicked in the back door and had to be physically removed again. It was when the victim was putting her mother-in-law's belongings in the yard that she felt fluid on her breast and realized there was blood on her shirt. When she untucked her tank top, her nipple fell on the floor, she told police.

In the story it explains that everyone had been drinking. How much does one have to drink before they don't realize when their nipple is torn off? I would think a lot.

A Good Rant

Kevin Drum rants today in a way that channels my fears about America. It's interesting because I think many people have a similar feeling, there is a hopelessness to it that keeps those people from ranting about it all the time, and it occassionally boils over when we see something that just seems like too much. But, make no mistake, it is always there.

Anyway, instead of ranting myself, I'll just let the guy who already wrote it well rant for me.

I can't remember when I've been more demoralized about American governance. I have this overwhelming feeling of barnacles building up relentlessly, untouchable because of interest group pressure on both left and right, and a complete inability and/or unwillingness to address any of it. Democrats have some things they want to do, but in addition to satisfying their own interest groups they have to settle for third or fourth best policies because Republicans have simply decided they don't care about anything except tax cuts for the rich, hating gay people, and bennies for favored industries. In the middle of a massive recession they opposed a stimulus bill. In the aftermath of a financial crisis they opposed a financial reform bill. In the face of skyrocketing healthcare costs they demagogued modest cuts in Medicare spending. They spent months negotiating a spending bill — transparently, openly, via the ordinary committee process — and then killed it just because it would annoy Harry Reid. Global warming is a hoax, gay recruits will destroy the military, and creationism is an appropriate topic for high school biology classes. Our infrastructure is crumbling and our schools are mediocre, but the creeping encrustation of government prevents anything serious from being done about either. We're in hock to Middle Eastern theocracies for our oil, and the laughable answer from the right consists entirely of nukes and a bit of marginal extra drilling around the periphery of America. An arms control treaty that could have been negotiated by Ronald Reagan himself is unsure of passage because too many Republican senators deem it unsafe to risk the wrath of Fox News or their tea party constituencies.

Democrats have their pathologies too. Teachers unions really do impede school reform. Public sector unions have bid up government salaries. Environmental and land use rules have made infrastructure development of any kind a grueling, expensive marathon. Both parties subsidize idiocies like corn ethanol, and both sides boast coal state senators who are unwilling to think seriously about pricing carbon.

But at least we all have access to 300 TV channels in glorious high definition! Who says America can't accomplish great things anymore?

I think that about sums it up.

That's It

The last stand alone store selling new music (there are still some resale shops) I can think of in Kansas City is shutting down.

The Facebook page for Streetside in Kansas City announced the closing, and a store manager confirmed the development. Other questions were referred to officials at parent company Trans World Entertainment Corp., who could not be reached Wednesday.

So, if you want music now you better have an Internet connection... or a box store and some mainstream taste.

Word of the Day

Globalization - A process whereby the average American realizes he is the least traveled item in his house.

Best Songs of 2010

As I mentioned yesterday, it was a great music year. I put down a bunch of the best songs from the top 10 albums on that list. But there were a bunch of other great songs too. Here are some of them:

Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells
Who Makes Your Money - Spoon
You Must Be Out of Your Mind - Magnetic Fields
Evening Kitchen - Band of Horses
Sink/Let it Sway - SSLYBY
Cold War - The Morning Benders
Lonely at the Top - Jamey Johnson
Wanna-be Angel - Foxy Shazam
Electrocution - Nada Surf
Power Lies - The Thermals

For an overall Top 10 songs of the year, I'll go:

1. City With No Children - Arcade Fire
2. Juveniles - The Walkmen
3. I Think Ur a Contra - Vampire Weekend
4. The Water - Johnny Flynn
5. You Must Be Out of Your Mind - Magentic Fields
6. Be Your Baby - Harlem
7. Everlasting Light - The Black Keys
8. The Wild Hunt - The Tallest Man On Earth
9. Cold War -The Morning Benders
10. Cloud Shadow on the Mountain - Wolf Parade

NBA Unlikely

Sam Mellinger does some nice reporting and thinking about what makes an NBA relocation to Kansas City unlikely. This is the most important part:

American City Business Journals did a study that showed the Kansas City region’s total income is $57 billion short of what’s needed to support the teams we already have — let alone 41 NBA home dates with an average ticket price around $50.

We make up the nation’s 31st biggest market, according to Nielsen. No. 23 Pittsburgh is the smallest with three major-league teams, and remember they almost lost the NHL’s Penguins and the Pirates are consistently near the bottom of MLB attendance.

Actually, Nielsen's 09-10 numbers have us down a spot to 32. Right in front of us is Salt Lake City who has only one pro team. The only three smaller markets with two teams are Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and New Orleans.

So instead of adding, why don't we start pursuing a trade. Just imagine how far a baseball would travel in that Salt Lake City air...

Top Ten Albums of 2010

Consistently one of my favorite posts each year... and the only one I spend months preparing.

My favorite album not eligible because my buddy did it: American Weekend by Dallas Jones. If you don't know who Dallas is, do yourself a favor and check him out. He's a good guy to boot.

As for the others, whose personal virtues I cannot speak for, here is the list (along with two favorite tracks from each).

1. Contra - Vampire Weekend
(I Think Ur a Contra, White Sky)
2. Lisbon - The Walkmen
(Juveniles, Stranded)
3. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
(City With No Children, Modern Man)
4. Brothers - The Black Keys
(Everlasting Light, Howlin' For You)
5. Been Listening - Johnny Flynn
(The Water, Amazon Love)
6. High Violet - The National
(Conversation 16, Bloodbuzz Ohio)
7. Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
(The Cave, Winter Winds)
8. Hippies - Harlem
(Be Your Baby, Friendly Ghost)
9. Expo 86 - Wolf Parade
(Cloud Shadow on the Mountain, Cave-o-sapien)
10. The Wild Hunt - The Tallest Man on Earth
(The Wild Hunt, Love is All)

This was a rough year. I almost disqualified Mumford & Sons since it was actually released last year (but this year for the U.S.). I kept em in thought since they weren't in last year's list. Honestly, though I could have used another spot. I think I could have done a top 25 without much effort. Great music this year!

Best songs post coming tomorrow...

Big Bowl of Interesting Stuff

People continue to assert that tax cuts are unfailingly successful at stimulating the economy... with virtually no evidence to support such an assertion.

Extending unemployment benefits, on the other hand, is helpful.

Turns out healthcare rationing is actually a threat... brought on by Republican decision-makers in Arizona.

Fried chicken is no more at Power & Light.

If I read this right, having a pleasant disposition helps you figure stuff out faster.

Kansas City still isn't getting an NBA team, but one is available.

Christian Takeover

Why is it important to defend a seperation of church and state? This is why:

After Williamson sent a fact sheet to SREC members defending Straus, Cook responded by dismissing her claims and saying that "We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it." Since the SREC governs state Republican Party affairs, this marked the first time an elected party leader had semi-openly called for a "Christian conservative" Speaker.

This is referring to a campaign to get the Jewish Republican speaker of the Texas House replaced by a Christian Republican speaker of the Texas House. Read the whole thing if you want to get more familiar with how oppressed Christians are in this country.

Actually, I'm Familiar

From Married to the Sea:

Republicans Reminding Me Why I am Not a Republican

On my way in this morning, there was a story on NPR about Republicans blocking the extension of unemployment benefits unless they could be paid for with other cuts. I would disagree with that priority, but if it is a principled stand, then that is a reasonable position.

But, of course, it isn't. Republicans in the Senate are also threatening to shut down all government business unless all of the Bush tax cuts are extended... whether they are paid for or not.

So if you are unemployed and sturggling because the economy sucks, well you are out of luck. But if you make $1 million a year, don't worry. Republicans have your back.

When YouTube Sucks

Yesterday, I missed a great opportunity to pass along a Dangerous Minds blogpost that the Back to Rockville blog had reposted. It had YouTube videos that broke up all the different recording tracks that made up the Stones' Gimme Shelter.

It was awesome. But now it has been taken down because ABKCO has the rights and isn't sharing. I hate it when this happens.

80's Movie Line of the Week, R.I.P Leslie Nielsen

From the Naked Gun:

Frank: Yes, well when I see five weirdo's dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of a hundred people, I shoot the bastards, that's my policy.

I Solved the Deficit!

The New York Times has a widget that give you a chance to solve the deficit. I did it with 62% spending cuts and 38% tax increases. Pretty tax friendly for a liberal I'd say. Here is the link to my solution.

What's yours?

Thankful

I'm thankful today. I've got good friends, family, co-workers, teammates, and especially a wonderful fiancee. Lots of other stuff in the world isn't the way I'd like it to be, but all those people make it a wonderful world nonetheless.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Can't Afford to be Sick

Most of the arguments against healthcare reform were the silliest of the silly. The one that is legit is that the reform didn't do anything to control costs. This chart via Kevin Drum shows why that would have been important.

Apples That Fell Very, Very Close to the Tree

The Palins are just not a smart group of people. Apparently, Bristol and Willow recently entered a fray on Facebook. The subject was the Palin reality show, and some facebook posters didn't care for it.

The fight heats up when a guy named Matt jumps in. Matt apparently went to Teeland Middle School in Wasilla with Bristol. At first, Matt sticks to criticizing the TV show and the Palins' attitude: "man these Palins really don't like it when you don't admire them fully, well Im sorry that people don't like some programming," he writes in his initial post. But after Willow retorts, "Your effin fat as hell. Stfu," Matt responds in kind, calling Bristol fat. Willow replies: "Haha your so gay. I have no idea who you are. But what I've seen pictures of, your disgusting. My sister had a kid and is still hot." She adds, "Tre stfu. Your such a faggot." Other than the text-speak abbreviations (stfu stands for shut the fuck up), this is all pretty timeless material. Kids have forever trotted out the gay and fat insults, though one likes to think it has become more taboo now to use the word faggot, especially if you're the daughter of a public figure and you're posting the word in public.

The whole article is pretty incredible. With all the money they have on the line, doesn't the Palin camp have someone monitoring what the girls might be saying online? Or does everything they do at this point just incense Palin's opponents and delight her followers? If so, they might be smarter than I thought.

But I doubt it.

Why I Like Joe Biden

Honesty.

People Were Strange in the Fifties

There is an interesting slideshow on Slate showing ads form the fifties with ping pong tables in them. The point of the associated piece is that the ping pong table was a symbol for the good life in suburbia.

It's pretty interesting, but I was particularly struck by this ad.



What in the world was The American Home magazine all about? This cover shoot looks like A Clockwork Orange meets Gilligan's Island, with a group of people protraying a family who have approximately zero chance of coming from the same gene pool.

But it did come with a gorgeous 9 x 12 bird print, so I guess all was right with the world.

Roger Ailes, I Don't Like Him

Howard Kurtz did an interview with Roger Ailes where he said, among other things:

“They (NPR) are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.”

and

“He (John Stewart) hates conservative views. He hates conservative thoughts. He hates conservative verbiage. He hates conservatives.”

and most importantly upon Kurtz's suggestion the Fox has moved further to the right

“Bill has not moved to the right,” Ailes says. “He’s moved to the left. He’s been very fair and balanced on Obama, Bush, everyone.”

That's the really special one, I think, because it kind of shows you that reason Fox news can be in its own self-delusional and deceitful world is because it's boss in his own self-delusional and deceitful world. Kurtz didn't ask what O'Reilly had done, he asked what the network had done. And Ailes responded by answering a different and more self-satisfactory answer. I don't like him.

It's Fine for Me Because... Well, Because

If you campaign and win primarily on your opposition to government-run healthcare, perhaps you shouldn't do this at your Congressional orientation:

According to Glenn Thrush of Politico, Harris created a stir at the orientation meeting by demanding to know why he had to wait a month after he was sworn in in January for his government-subsidized health care to kick in. After responding in a huff, he even asked if there was some way he could buy into the government care in advance, seemingly thinking there might be a government program similar to the so-called 'public option' championed by progressive Democrats in 2009.

According to an unnamed congressional staffer quoted by Thrush, Harris stood up at the meeting "and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care."

Fortunately, for Representative Harris, politicians can get away with crap like this almost every time.

Older Women

There is a piece on Slate regarding a study by economists on the relationships of high schoolers. The main conclusion for me... if you can land an older woman, you are a rare fellow.

Boys and girls in the same grade account for about 42 percent of relationships, while older boys dating younger girls make up 40 percent of high-school relationships, and older girls dating younger boys make up 18 percent.

Here's to any of you who had an older girlfriend. Well done boys.

If a Democrat Did This (Part 3,487)

It's been some time since we played "If a Democrat Did This" but this seems like a pretty good opportunity. It seems Eric Cantor met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Wednesday.

That probably in and of itself would probably qualify for "If a Democrat Did This" discussion. But what he said during the meeting takes it from a middling contestant to a surefire winner. And he said...

Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington. He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.

So, what if a Democrat had gone to meet with a foreign leader and told that foreign leader that his party would henceforth be a 'check' on the President of the United States? What kind of outcry would that provoke?

If God Had Intended Spiraldy Light Bulbs...

Joe Barton, Republican House Member from Texas and possible next chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on his priorities:

He laid out the central fronts: the battle to repeal what he calls Obamacare, the fight against the EPA, backing the growing insurgency opposed to net neutrality regulations, taking on "environmental radicalism" and -- of course -- defending the "traditional, incandescent light bulb" against government regulators who want to replace it with what Barton called "the little, squiggly, pig-tailed ones."

Only a bunch of pansy-assed, liberal, government do-gooders would dare give us pig-tailed light bulbs. They are clearly like the gay marriage of illumination.

I'm Easily Distracted

Those of you who know me in real life knew that already. But I was reminded of it again yesterday watching the Chiefs game at a sports bar in Chicago. The Chiefs were playing on a monitor near us, but the audio in the bar was for the Indy-Philly game on other screens.

I think I missed approximately 35% of the Chiefs game because I kept getting sucked in by the audio of the other game. No point to this story. I'm just easily distracted.

T-Wolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves in a nutshell.

Ignorance is Strength

Timothy Noah writes about Jim DeMint's strange advice to incoming Senate conservatives:

"[B]eware of committees," DeMint wrote. "Committee assignments can be used as bait to make senators compromise on other matters. Rookie senators are often told they must be a member of a particular committee to advance a certain piece of legislation. This may be true in the House, but a senator can legislate on any matter from the Senate floor."

Noah gets a theory from Thomas Mann on why DeMint might say that:

"Perhaps," Mann mused, DeMint "is afraid that his new minions will go native on committees and dilute their role in the revolutionary vanguard." Action equals corruption. Mere knowledge equals corruption. Ignorance is strength.

Noah then goes on to decide that DeMint is just being cynical and posturing to burnish his non-compromising image.

But I think Mann was on to something. In the far right wing, DeMint is kind of the minister leading the congregation. And what was that I saw an evangelical minister saying the other day...


Oh right.

Election Thoughts

A random assortment of points about the election:

1. I don't feel nearly as bad as I did in 2004. Perhaps that is partly because I've seen over the last 10 years how quickly political fortunes change. Just because you're down doesn't mean you'll be down in two years.

I think the larger source of my salve, however, is that, while I disagree with them wholeheartedly, the voting populace could at least make a case against Democrats. This is much better than in 2004 when just about every possible conceivable shred of evidence showed that Republicans were screwing things up, and the voting public re-elected them anyway. That year, I was really despondent about who was voting. This year, I disagree with those who voted Republican, but at least I can rationalize that many of those votes were really votes against the state of the country.

2. Get out the vote campaigns should really be amended to place more emphasis on getting educated before you go vote. I received several messages this year about how important it is to make my voice heard, but none about how important it is for me to know what I'm talking about before a I cast a ballot. It's as though the voting itself is the goal. It isn't. Making political choices about how you want your country, state, county, or city run is the goal. If you don't know about any of the things you're voting on, you can't do yourself any good, and your vote is really more of a detriment to democracy.

3. Republicans have control of the House. Democrats have control of the Senate. DOes this allow Republicans to pass legislation in the House, continue to obstruct in the Senate, and blame Democrats for not being able to accomplish anything in the Senate? I'm afraid so, but we'll see.

4. Missouri is really no different from Kansas at this point. The bellweather days seem to be gone.

Reality and Parody Racing to Meet One Another

Have you ever seen Idiocracy? It is a movie that you will see and likely think it is either "ok" or "not so good". Then you'll get back to living life and witnessing different things that happen in society, and you will say to yourself "my God, they're right!"

The latest example of that for me was this story about the Senate race in Connecticut. From TPM today:

Republican Linda McMahon might be seriously down in the polls for the Connecticut Senate race, but it looks like she'll have some unconventional help on Election Day, The Day reports. Folks from World Wrestling Entertainment, the company she ran along with her husband and business partner Vince McMahon, will be handing out WWE merchandise near select polling places...

...As The Day reports, Vince McMahon is now mounting this new maneuver, and boasting in a statement: "I can't think of a better way for WWE fans to celebrate their constitutional rights and freedom of expression while voting than to proudly wear the WWE merchandise that Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz attempted to prohibit from the polls."I want to still have hope in a climate like this, so I think back to what Luke Wilson's character says in addressing Congress:

... And there was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags and neither was writing. People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting, and I believe that time can come again!

I hope he's right.

Christmas Gift Idea

To any of you planning on spending 7 figures on me this holiday season:

The pages used by James Naismith to write the first basketball rules will be auctioned off Dec. 10 at Sotheby's in New York. The two pages are expected to go for millions of dollars.

That's, of course, if you want to get off cheaply. A great gift for a small sum more would be an NBA franchise for Kansas City. Don't say I'm hard to buy for.

Thinking Outside the Box of Throwing Stars

Just a reminder of why Bill Clinton was awesome via Foreign Policy magazine:

In 1999 or 2000, after the failed attempt to kill Osama bin Laden with some 80 cruise missiles launched into the al Qaeda camp in Khost, Afghanistan, a frustrated President Bill Clinton thought that somehow the United States could "scare the shit out of al Qaeda if suddenly a bunch of black ninjas rappelled out of helicopters into the middle of their camp," according to the 9/11 Commission.

Maybe he was kidding, maybe he was serious. If you've seen The Men Who Stare at Goats, you'll not find it surprising if he was serious.

Brandon Flowers

One of our best young Chiefs players is getting noticed. This is pulled from an article about Jay cutler being an ass.

"I've played against [Hall] before -- there's no reason to shy away from him. That's hard to say after throwing four picks at a guy, but if we had to play him tomorrow, I'd go at him every time." That was Cutler's response to the valid question: "Why did you keep throwing Hall's way, when he was picking off everything in his area?" It's true that Hall isn't exactly Brandon Flowers(notes) or Darrelle Revis(notes), but this goes beyond hubris on Cutler's part. Easy enough to give a perfunctory answer about how Hall played a great game, and "the breaks just didn't go our way," blah blah blah ... but this?

I think Flowers needs to do it for a few more games before he moves into a class with Revis. But, the early returns are certainly good.

A Masters Degree in Communication!

I'm sure many of you have seen this. For those that have not, please enjoy.

Life

Keith Richards has a new book out. It sounds like something I want to read:

But is there anything new that can be said about the Stones anyway? As “Life” emphatically demonstrates, the answer is yes. And some of its most surprisingly revelatory material appears in what Mr. Richards jokingly calls “Keef’s Guitar Workshop.” Here are the secrets of some of the world’s most famous rock riffs and the almost toy-level equipment on which they were recorded, like the cassette recorder onto which Mr. Richards dubbed guitar layer after guitar layer for “Street Fighting Man,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and part of “Gimme Shelter.” Here’s how the silent beats in Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” worked their way into some of Mr. Richards’s most inspired solos. Mr. Fox found that “Heartbreak Hotel” itself was the key to some of Mr. Richards’s best musical memories.

That's cool.

Fantasyland

Maybe this is fair, maybe it isn't. I think it probably is.

Kevin Drum makes an interesting observation.

The modern, tea party-inflected conservative movement is based on a few core principles. Global warming is a hoax. Income inequality hasn't been growing. Tax cuts don't increase the deficit. America has the best healthcare in the world. Evolution is a myth. The economy is weak because of regulatory uncertainty. Barack Obama is a socialist.

I'm trying to think of another successful political movement in history based on so many objectively fantastical beliefs.

He couldn't think of one. I can't think of one either. I suspect allowing for all of history gives us a pretty good chance of finding someone, but probably not in modern American history.

I do wonder how many of these things most conservatives actually believe. I know there are some conservatives that believe all of these things, but I guess most conservatives at least believe a few of them or they wouldn't keep being talked about by conservatives I know.

Solving the Puzzle

There is endless talk from the right about the ridiculousness of liberal Hollywood stars giving their opinions about this, that, or the other. But, of course, as I believe we have noted here before, the right has a much stronger record of validating the views of Hollywood types by electing them (the Gipper and the Governator to name a couple).

They apparently now also let the celebrity rooters write columns in their magazines. Perhaps they shouldn't. Pat Sajak's first column for the National Review Online tackles the scourge of allowing public sector employees to vote:

In nearly all private and public endeavors, there are occasions in which it’s only fair and correct that a person or group be barred from participating because that party could directly and unevenly benefit from decisions made and policies adopted. So should state workers be able to vote in state elections on matters that would benefit them directly? The same question goes for federal workers in federal elections.

He bolsters his case by pointing out that his family and friends aren't allowed to participate on Wheel of Fortune. I'm not kidding. He doesn't explain whether or not employees' families should be allowed to vote despite their obvious conflict of interest. Likewise left out are taxpayers who have a definite stake in most elections. Perhaps when Sajak's though experiment ends, he will come to the conclusion that we are all too conflicted to vote and thus democracy should be eliminated.

It is exciting, however, to think where this column might go. When you start with the disenfranchisment of a sizeable portion of the U.S. Workforce, there is no telling where you might end up.

You Can't Say You Didn't Know

Via Wordarific.

Several Things That Suck

I just read all of this, and well, damn.

Anne Applebaum on anti-intellectualism:

In America, the end of the meritocracy will probably come about slowly: If working hard, climbing the education ladder, and graduating from a good university wins you only opprobrium, then you might not bother. Or if you do bother, then you certainly won't go into politics, where your kind is no longer welcome. We will then have a different sort of elite in charge of the country—and a different set of reasons to dislike them, too.

Christopher Hitchens suggesting maybe Applebaum's fears are already reality:

I could introduce you to dozens of enthusiastic and intelligent people, highly aware of "the issues" and very well-informed on all questions from human rights to world trade to counterinsurgency, to none of whom it would occur to subject themselves to what passes for the political "arena." They are willing to give up potentially more lucrative careers in order to work on important questions and expand the limits of what is currently thinkable politically, but the great honor and distinction of serving their country in the legislature is only offered to them at a price that is now way too steep.

Kevin Drum points out that our other groups of elites are doing just fine.

Pay on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year, according to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal...There's some speculation in the article that Wall Street pay might "level out" as profits flatten in response to financial reform, but if that happens "analysts and experts expect that Wall Street will lay off employees in order to keep bonus pools high."

I think I'll go read something about the Royals to cheer me up.

Buenos Noches

One more thing about the Royals. There probably is only one guy on the Royals who deserves a big pat on the back this year, and that is Joakim Soria. Not only did Soria set a Royals record by pitching 23 straight scoreless innings, but he also recorded 36 straight saves on his way to a 4th best in the majors total of 43.

But the really impressive thing about Soria's stats this season were the percentage of total Royals wins he saved. Here are the top five closers this season by number of saves, then the number of wins their team had, and the percentage of the wins saved by the pitcher (WS).

Brian Wilson SF, 48 Saves, 92 Wins, WS 52%
Heath Bell SD, 45 Saves, 90 Wins, WS 50%
Raphael Soriano TB, 44 Saves, 96 Wins, WS 46%
Joakim Soria KC, 43 Saves, 67 Wins, WS 64%
Neftali Feliz TX, 39 Saves, 90 Wins, 43%

Granted, this may say more about the Royals than anything, but that is a lot of pressure to heap on one guy. Well done Joakim.

Batting Average at the End of the Season

Thanks to Dan for forwarding this piece that combines two of my favorite things, numbers and being depressed about the Royals.

“Two economists at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, while investigating how round numbers influence goals, examined the behavior of major league hitters from 1975 to 2008 who entered what became their final plate appearance of the season with a batting average of .299 or .300 (in at least 200 at-bats).

They found that the 127 hitters at .299 or .300 batted a whopping .463 in that final at-bat, demonstrating a motivation to succeed well beyond normal (and in what was usually an otherwise meaningless game).

Most deliciously, not one of the 61 hitters who entered at .299 drew a walk — which would have fired those ugly 9s into permanence because batting average considers bases on balls neither hit nor at-bat.”

The Royals part of this is a reminder that this statistic doesn't mean much because the Royals finished second in all of baseball in batting average (.274) yet scored less runs than 19 other teams. Let's go minor leaguers!

Taxpayer Receipts

Missed a couple of days, so here is the first catch up item. Taxpayer reciepts - good idea or bad idea? What would you you reduce on this list? Expand?

The Weirdest Walkmen Show

Saw the Walkmen last night on the roof of a parking garage at the Plaza... at a fashion show. Ancillary Girlfriend and I were two of about 30 people there who came to see the band and therefore didn't realized we were supposed to put on our sleekest black outfits for this kind of thing. It was certainly the strangest concert crowd I've been a part of.

The fashion show was for a fall line of clothes inspired by the military, though the only people I saw wearing camo were the two Capital Electric guys running the power. The models were actually wearing a whole range of other things from fur jackets (perhaps inspired by Spies Like Us) to one guy dressed like an English paperboy. I didn't understand much of what was going on.

On the plus side, we got to meet and talk with Pete Bauer from the Walkmen. He was standing next to us during the fashion show and eased my suspicion that the weirdness of the event was related to it being in Kansas City. He claimed to have been at similar events in New York and L.A. and assured us that all such events are, in fact, weird.

Once the Walkmen played, the show was fantastic. They were missing bass player Walt Martin, so they passed the bass around and played songs they could handle with four guys (and songs that don't have horns). The setlist was great. They played stuff from every album except 100 Miles Off. Most of the crowd didn't care. I did. Bravo Walkmen!

Smooth Operators

I am confused by the process that selects stories for the breaking news section of the Star's website. Currently, the top story in breaking news is that Sade is coming to town next year. What, nothing about Danny Pintauro getting a TV Role in 2010?