Category: Old Dish

Apologies for the light blogging. It’s been an intense month and I’ve been chilling. Back tomorrow.

“Free debate is a war of ideas. It’s a place where we should be able to hurt each other.” – Theo van Gogh, murdered for criticizing Islam. Salon’s piece has some interesting background. I didn’t know that van Gogh had produced 25 films and programs, or that he was killed 911 days after Pim Fortuyn. Hollywood’s relative silence becomes all the more repulsive.

It’s almost a state secret. Why?

Here’s a guy who’s there. And, yes, the revolution will be blogged.

“What does the new Bush team remind you of?- Funny you should ask. To me, the closest historical parallel would be the Soviet politburo under Brezhnev, where loyalty to the faultless was placed above competence and ideological fealty to a discredited belief system held trump over reality… How long can we expect this Soviet style regime to continue to stumble onward, normative failure after normative failure?- I have no idea.- The Brezhnevites eventually gave way to Gorby, but it took the humiliation of Afghanistan to drive the point home.” – Eric Alterman, equating a duly elected president with a Communist dictator.

Thanks for all your emails. It really is more common than I thought. I’ve now been up since 5.45 am, and feeling fine. Actually great. That was simply unimaginable with my usual sleep patterns. And that’s after only half a night with the treatment. Maybe I’m being “excitable,” but, hey, it’s wonderful. here’s another typical email:

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 9 months ago. I can’t describe the improvement in my life that has resulted from sleeping with the breathing machine, right from day 1. I have been working with a personal trainer for several months. She had a good idea of where my physical limits were. After three days (!) of sleeping with the CPAP machine I was blowing past all of them. She was amazed. My energy level is way up, my memory is better, and I don’t doze off in meeting now. And I’m told I don’t snore anymore either. I hope that your results are as good as mine. The breathing mask can be uncomfortable sometimes but the benefits are huge.
I wonder how many other men suffer from sleep apnea and don’t know it? Snoring and dozing off in midday have become cliches for middle-aged men, but now it seems to be a curable disease. You should encourage all of your readers to be tested if they have any of the symptoms.

Absolutely. Ask your spouse if you’re snoring or having difficulty breathing when you’re asleep. It might be affecting you more profoundly than you think.

PICASSO DOES THE PISTONS: A little blasphemous given the context. But clever.

A WEDDING TOAST: The newly elected president of Massachusett’s senate, Robert Travaligni, gave a moving wedding toast to state senator, Jarrett Barrios and his husband, Doug Hattaway last weekend. Travaligni will be responsible for presiding over the next constitutional convention to decide if a constitutional amendment to ban such marriages will go to the voters in 2006. My guess is that civil marriage for all citizens is here to stay in Massachusetts.

Here’s an MSM classic:

The veteran anchor has been under fire in recent months for his role in a “60 Minutes Wednesday” story that questioned President Bush’s service in the National Guard, which turned out to based on allegedly forged documents.

Allegedly?

Why on earth is Rather staying on full-time at Sixty Minutes, the show whose reputation he besmirched by rashness and partisanship? Notice the ABC News story barely mentions the memo-gate fiasco. Rather’s tenure as CBS anchor was bound to end some time soon. Big deal. A simple question: How can you rehire a man for Sixty Minutes when you haven’t even published your own investigation into the journalistic meltdown that he presided over? Shouldn’t you wait until you know what actually happened before you declare that someone will stay on full-time? And how long does such an investigation take, for Pete’s sake? My bullshit detector just went through the roof on this one.

My defense of Prince Charles – at TNR online (subscription required).

They just get worse and worse.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “I read your colum on ‘The Un-Credibles.’ You wrote:

A large part of the pro-Bush vote – especially among blue state residents – was a vote against the left elite and the cultural attitudes it represents in the public imagination. It was a vote not so much for Bush or his often religious policies (or even the war on terror), but against the post 9/11 left, against Michael Moore and political correctness and Susan Sontag and CBS News, among a host of others.

You nailed it, dude. You just fucking nailed it. I grew up in redneck America – John Ashcroft’s hometown, no less – but I’ve been a chai latte-drinking, Times-reading, wine-scrutinizing-metro-scum pig living in the northeast ever since I got my law degree ten years ago. So I think I know “both sides” of this country pretty darned well. The Democrats didn’t lose this election because of the GOP’s gay bashing – the polls bear that out. And they didn’t lose because 51% of Americans are cross-wielding bigots who want to roll back our civilization to the fourteenth century. Follow the principle of Occam’s Razor – all things equal, the simplest explanation is the best. As applied here, that means the Democrats were not entrusted with the keys to the White House because there were just too many Americans who don’t like and don’t trust the Democratic Party. That’s why they lost this election. That’s why GOP voter id equaled – for the first time ever – Democratic voter id. That’s why Daschle lost his Senate race. That’s why the GOP has six more Senate seats than it did 25 months ago.
Let me say it again – the Democrats lost because they are not liked and they are not trusted. That, and really nothing else, was the verdict of this election. And for what it’s worth, shitting all over the 61 million pitchfork-wielding imbeciles who didn’t vote for them probably isn’t their path back out of the wilderness, emotionally gratifying though it may be.”