World Series Update

The Houston radio crew brings to the airwaves the electricity and charisma of two guys reading from the menu at IHop.

Thanks Comey

It was one year ago today that James Comey took it on himself to effectively (very effectively) swing the presidential election to Donald J. Trump. Thanks, Comey.

Fats Domino, February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017

I'm older than rock 'n roll. I remember when it achieved liftoff in the mid-'50's. I was a kid then, what we would now call pre-adolescent. Fats Domino was right in the middle of it all, serving up musical treats even a kid my age could appreciate: rhythm 'n blues from New Orleans, a style happily expropriated into the seedstock of the newly emerged American popular music style.

I remember hearing Fats Domino's music the first time, sitting in the back seat of my grandparent's car, heading down Skyline from San Francisco to their cabin outside Boulder Creek:

You Made me cry/ when you said goodbye. /Ain't that a shame? /My tears fell like rain.

And then hit after hit from him. All the Blue songs, all the Walking ones: Blue Monday, Blueberry Hill, My Blue Heaven, I'm Walking, I Want To Walk You Home, Walking To New Orleans. Yeah.

Grid Corrections

Principles of Self-Interest

Jeff Flake going all Arizona "maverick" after his speech declining to run for re-election

Annals of Ineradicable Stain

Judge won't wipe out guilty verdict for Arpaio Trump pardon ends criminal case but can't "revise historical facts," court says.

—Josh Gerstein, Politico October 19, 2017

[Previously]

Gord Downie, February 6, 1964–October 17, 2017

Coach Popovich Takes a Knee

"This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward…"

Freestyle Discourse

Tom Paley, March 19, 1928 – September 30, 2017

Observed

Columbus Day

Annals of Defamation

Ralph Northam,who is running for Governor of Virginia,is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs…

— Donald Trump, Tweet, October 5, 2017

1. A defamatory statement;

2. Published to a third party;

3. Which the speaker knew or should have known was false;

4. That causes injury to the subject of the communication

Define Your Left Beyond This Point

An unwillingness to engage with conservative thought, an aversion to debate, and a weakened committment to free speech are among the failures of the left.

Jill Lepore, "Inquietude" The New Yorker, October 9, 2017

I hold Jill Lepore in high esteem, but this is just twaddle. There is no conceivable "the left" that's ever shied away from arguing endlessly, with or without conservatives.

And should an argument be closed off, finished, done with, resolved, the left will satisfy its arguing elsewhere on other subject matter: every subject deserves its argument, to the left.

Oh, but the left will with bad grace revisit arguments it's done with. True, the left will rail, not argue, against bringing up Nazi talk, but Nazi talk is no longer subject to the rules of reasoned argument. There is no longer cause for debate. That's over, resolved in word and deed. It's a settled thing. Response to Nazi talk must not come in the form of an argument. That would be redundant to the left.

Tom Petty, October 20, 1950-October 2, 2017