Scores of funny mashups have been made of this scene from Der Untergang and posted on YouTube. Here's one of the latest, and funniest:
November 13, 2008
Fire Joe Morgan Fires Itself
Sad news on the internet traditions front. The glorious tradition that was Fire Joe Morgan has come to an end.
Fire Joe Morgan devoted itself to skewering the pronouncements of baseball's raft of media "analysts" who never let actual, you know, analysis, get in the way of a dead cliché. The paragon of this practice for the site's purposes was ESPN's Joe Morgan, as the blog's title indicates, but its writers reached out across the country to other sportswriters deserving the back of the hand, and delivered in full measure. What great fun it was to read.
Fire Joe Morgan will be missed. Maybe, someday, like Fafblog, it will return. I can only hope. No, really. As a Giants fan, that's really all I ever get to do.
Fire Joe Morgan devoted itself to skewering the pronouncements of baseball's raft of media "analysts" who never let actual, you know, analysis, get in the way of a dead cliché. The paragon of this practice for the site's purposes was ESPN's Joe Morgan, as the blog's title indicates, but its writers reached out across the country to other sportswriters deserving the back of the hand, and delivered in full measure. What great fun it was to read.
Fire Joe Morgan will be missed. Maybe, someday, like Fafblog, it will return. I can only hope. No, really. As a Giants fan, that's really all I ever get to do.
November 11, 2008
Armistice Day
I suppose the First World War was the last chapter in one facet of the great social upheaval ushered in by the French Revolution. It obliterated the last remaining wisps of the ancien régime throughout Europe, leaving behind a continent of resentful, exhausted survivors who, even in the face of the collective insanity of that horrible conflict, soon enough turned their nations to mutual slaughter once again. Everyone notices that the Second World War was caused by the First, and all the ancillary conflicts around the globe spawned by the outcome of the Second World War can be traced back through the Second and the First to The French Revolution and the utter transformation of social relations demanded by it.
If Chou En Lai didn't really say, "It's too soon to tell," when asked his thoughts on the impact of the French Revolution, history will insist that he would have had to have said that, being Chou En Lai, and ascribe it to him.
The Armistice, entered into on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, halted the age-old murderousness of Europe for a time, and for that we can all be grateful. Only a few short decades after Armistice had been achieved the murderousness returned, redoubled in viciousness and on a truly global scale, the Second World War, which we have not yet outlived, consequence of the First. But there is that oddly symmetrical moment, 11/11/11, the six ones of the Armistice, that pause of peace, to look back on in wonder.
If Chou En Lai didn't really say, "It's too soon to tell," when asked his thoughts on the impact of the French Revolution, history will insist that he would have had to have said that, being Chou En Lai, and ascribe it to him.
The Armistice, entered into on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, halted the age-old murderousness of Europe for a time, and for that we can all be grateful. Only a few short decades after Armistice had been achieved the murderousness returned, redoubled in viciousness and on a truly global scale, the Second World War, which we have not yet outlived, consequence of the First. But there is that oddly symmetrical moment, 11/11/11, the six ones of the Armistice, that pause of peace, to look back on in wonder.
November 10, 2008
Everything You Know Is Wrong
Professional pollsters puzzling over the apparent lack of a Bradley Effect in last week's presidential race will be heartened to know that one of their fellows, Scott Rassmussen, has looked closely, very, very, closely at the election results and come away with the startling discovery that the majority of people who cast their ballots for Barack Obama were actually crossing their fingers behind their backs and voting for Ronald Reagan instead.
Which suggests that, as always, there is no news of any kind that is not, in some universe very much like our own, good news for Republicans.
UPDATE (11/11/08):
Two Comments!!!!111!!!!! Whooooooooooooooh!!
Which suggests that, as always, there is no news of any kind that is not, in some universe very much like our own, good news for Republicans.
UPDATE (11/11/08):
Two Comments!!!!111!!!!! Whooooooooooooooh!!
November 07, 2008
Pretty Blue Here
Related to the previous post, in Santa Cuz County Barack Obama captured 77.41% of the vote, McCain, not quite 20%.
UPDATE: Santa Cruz Frenchier than France! From Le Figaro:
If you were American, would you vote for McCain or Obama?
John McCain: 25.14%
Barack Obama: 74.86%
November 06, 2008
Cartographic projections of the Results of the 2008 Presidential Election
Mark Newman at the University of Michigan bends a map of the United States to reflect the size of the population in each of its counties — the heavily populated counties expand and the less densely populated ones contract — and then he paints the resulting map with colors ranged along the spectrum from red to blue representing the margin of victory in each country for McCain or Obama respectively. Pure red is for counties that gave at least 70% of their vote to McCain, and pure blue is for counties that went for Obama by 70% or more, with all the purples representing results in between. It's an arresting exercise in trying to visualize what our country's coming to.
November 05, 2008
November 04, 2008
November 02, 2008
Soaring Rhetoric! Baseless Charges! Now Half Off!
On this day in history, there were only two days left until
the end of election season so they added an extra hour to the clock just to make it all last a little longer.
Penalty time, I guess.
October 31, 2008
Thanks, Studs, For Everything
Studs Terkel, May 16, 1912-October 31, 2008
In an age of increasing unreality, for what it was worth, he channelled the voice of real America.
October 29, 2008
October 28, 2008
October 27, 2008
History Begins With Statehood And Other Wonders Of The Far North
In a historic decision that leaves one of the Senate’s giants in political limbo, Stevens, 84, was convicted on seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in improper gifts and home renovations he received from 1999 to 2006. The verdict is a stunning blow to a political career that has lasted more than 40 years and covered Alaska’s entire history as a part of the United States.
—John Bresnahan and Martin Kady at Politico.com
October 24, 2008
October 21, 2008
Addendum to Interuptus The Second
Following the well-attended lecture, she bought Naomi Klein's book Shock Doctrine and brought it home.
Addendum To Interruptus The First
Yes, it was she who announced her wish to see the movie Charlie Rose's War with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts when it first came out.
Interruptus
"You're goin out?"
She's dressed to go out and passing through the room says to her daughter, "I'm going to see a lecture by Naomi Campbell."
"Eh?" or its equivalent from the daughter, naturally. "Naomi Campbell?"
"Oh, ha! I mean Naomi Wolfe."
"Uh, Naomi …?"
"…?… Oh, ah, Klein, Klein, Naomi Klein," says she. They're both laughing at it now.
She's dressed to go out and passing through the room says to her daughter, "I'm going to see a lecture by Naomi Campbell."
"Eh?" or its equivalent from the daughter, naturally. "Naomi Campbell?"
"Oh, ha! I mean Naomi Wolfe."
"Uh, Naomi …?"
"…?… Oh, ah, Klein, Klein, Naomi Klein," says she. They're both laughing at it now.
Dismal? I'll Show You Dismal. . .
Paul Krugman sits down to talk with Bloomberg News about the current financial crisis. [Part 1 of 5 parts]
October 17, 2008
When the world falls apart some things stay in place/ Levi Stubbs tears run down his face
Levi Stubbs (June 6, 1936 - October 17, 2008)
October 13, 2008
A Bee
The bee found the thick dusting of wind-spewed pollen on the roof of my truck, and began industriously harvesting the stuff, as is the way of the bee.The bee waddled and scooped its way along the flat open surface of the truck's roof, slathering itself with pollen as it went.
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