Sadly, No!

Hey kiddos, I should hopefully be back to regular posting in the near future. I started a new job last week that’s required me to do a lot of background research (I’ve, you know, never written extensively about the telecom industry before). Once I get caught up, I should start posting back here on a semi-regular basis.

Two notes:

1.) The Patriots are no-good dirty cheaters. Because I refuse to be like one of those sad homers in San Fran who keeps rooting for Barry Bonds, I hope that the NFL comes down hard on Belichick by suspending him for at least a game and by taking away a first-round draft choice.

2.) David Ortiz has hit ten walk-off homers in his career, and I’ve now been at Fenway Park to witness three of ’em, including last night’s. I clearly rule.

That is all.

UPDATE: Just to stifle inquiries, I’m not working AT a telecom company, but at a magazine that covers IT. My beat happens to be telcos.

The odiously repugnant Norman Podhoretz yesterday took the occasion of the sixth anniversary of 9/11 to lament that those attacks hadn’t turned everyone into warmongers like himself and to compare the current anti-war movement to the dirty fucking hippies of the Sixties. In the midst of this utterly deranged jeremiad, Podhoretz, who’s never seen a war he didn’t want to see other people fight, made this loathsome remark:

As a veteran of the political and cultural wars of the ’60s, I knew from my own scars that no matter how small and insignificant a group the anti-Americans of the left might for the moment look to the naked eye, they had it in them to rise and grow again.

I don’t know what kind of scars a “veteran” of “political and cultural wars” can claim. I suppose it’s an allusion to cocktail party snubs and lost dinner party invitations. But those are nothing compared to the scars that real veterans in Podhoretz’s beloved war in Iraq and his hoped-for war in Iran have had, and will have, inflicted on them. For that reason alone, this dessicated old chickenhawk has no right to call himself a scarred veteran of any kind of war.

Like hell’s mouth torn asunder, like a sudden thaw in the mountains of madness, the smoking hole left by the terrorists of September 11th, 2001, has unleashed all manner of horrors upon the world — the USA-PATRIOT Act, the Iraq War, and the literary career of Charlie Daniels. But perhaps no nightmare that flits on bat wings from that ruined waste has caused more misery than that which crawled into the ear of James Lileks and convinced him to say everything he was thinking.

Above: “Oh, yes, you will aid me in beating up all the hippies! So says…THE LEADER!”

As an inveterate Lileks-watcher, the thing that’s fascinating to me isn’t his post-9/11 ascendant conservativism. The liberal-bashing, the knee-jerk opposition to anyone who suggests the war isn’t going that well, the hopping around in a blind panic like Bill Paxton in Aliens every time an Arab does something in public — that’s all great, but you can get it better in other places, often with a free fifth of drugstore tequila. No, the thing that’s fascinating to me is that his governor has been completely removed since the second those planes hit the towers, and while he once felt content to allow his ultra-reactionary cultural tastes to come out when discussing that horrible crazy rap music or how baseball players made too much money, now he has a built-in audience of ideologically-driven dingalings who will pretty much listen to anything he has to say about anything. Freed from the necessity to be funny, clever, or even well-informed, he now feels free to give voice to his every little complaint about our culture, and permit full expression to that big chunk of his brain that lives in a world that started to go to hell when the first teenager mouthed off after V-J Day, was in in a rapid state of disrepair when Maynard G. Krebs first appeared on television, and ever since the appearance of the first hippie, has pretty much been a write-off, slowly circling the drain and waiting for al-Q’aeda to finally finish it by pouring the Drano of nuclear terrorism all over Seattle.

You can never predict what’s going to set Jimbo off on one of his darn-kids-get-off-my-lawn moments. Insolent stockboy at Target? Inoperative skee-ball machine at Chuck E. Cheese? A reminder that the 1970s happened? This time around, it’s spotting a piece of trash art at a poker store in a shopping mall. Now, a lot of people don’t really expect much from the kind of art you would buy at a poker store in a shopping mall. Even fewer people would be inspired to go on a pointless, clueless jeremiad about our cultural degradation by the kind of art you would buy at a poker store in a shopping mall. But there’s only one James Lileks. And he knows what must be done.

Read the rest of this entry »

Take it away, CNN:

Iraq’s government is “dysfunctional,” the U.S. ambassador to Iraq told a Senate hearing Tuesday, but he said the fact that Iraqi leaders recognized it as such was a sign of progress.

In other news, I crapped my pants on the train this weekend, but the fact that I pulled them off and threw them out the train window instead of happily smearing them all over the faces of the poor SOBS sitting next to me is the surest sign of progress yet.

[A Day By Day remix.]

I posted this last year, and it’s what I want to say this year as well. Because people like Chris Muir think that they’re ‘entitled’ to 9/11 as their cultish emotional lodestone, when it was a real event that involved real people. 9/11 isn’t a symbol; it was something that happened in real people’s lives.

This is a Day By Day strip, featuring someone Muir never knew but only picked out of a list of 9/11 deaths as part of a right-blog ‘we honor the victims’ campaign:

This is Wayne Russo:

The caption would be nearly identical (Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., Confirmed dead, World Trade Center, at/in building), except that Wayne was an accountant there instead of an executive secretary. And there’s more that isn’t nice to speak about.

The remains of [Lynne’s] brother, Wayne Russo, 37, of Union were identified six months after Sept. 11. His remains were found at the landfill, but the family does not know what was found, only that his entire body was not recovered.

And that’s why.

I couldn’t describe Wayne’s family’s suffering, but a token might be that I’ve gone six years without having any idea where and when it’s proper to mention Wayne’s death, and the act of mentioning it now, even today, makes me want to go shut up and hide in a freaking hole. With a big bag of Funyuns and an AM radio softly playing a Yankees game — which was Wayne’s only major fault as a person.

Not the Funyuns, the other thing. But admittedly, Phil Rizzuto lived nearby, and the kids in Union used to go visit him. I might even forgive him that eventually.

[One pic below]

Above: Wayne with Stetz (audio link)

I try to find things to say, and I think that all of history is like this: An indiscriminate tide, a waste of the best, a slaughter-bench.

Update: Hooray! For us, this day is like Christmas!

Ace was drunk-blogging last night. Apparently something is weighing on him.

Drunk (and Open Blog)

I get drunk about once every two years.

This is that once.

Since I cannot just post something saying, “I’m drunk,” here is a good link I got off Instapundit, which you’ve already read, because face it, the only things I link are from Instapudnit and AllahPundit.

You will say this makes me stupid.

I will say: “Who is the fool, the fool or the fool who reads the blog of the fool?”

[…]

PPS: Here’s that creepy stalkerazzi message I got from a liberal troll earlier.

I didn’t want to post it because I didn’t want to freak people out, but it is… unsettling.

Eh, we’ll kick his ass.

‘Sides, we have an agreement with the bar. He acts like a douche, we get the bouncer to toss him.

We’ve seen this side of Ace before.

Ace Of Spades: Valiant Fighter Against Terror

Liberal Troll: OMG, you are such a freakin’ puss.

Ace: Help! Help! I’m being sexually harassed with hate speech!

Liberal Troll: Yeah, okay, whatever.

Ace: Muahaha, iffat muh-fuh douchebag come back here, I’s gone beat he ass, yo. Muh-fuh playa-hata, hatin’ on da playas yo. Respeck.

Liberal Troll: Okay, I’m back.

Ace: Help! Help! I’m being victimized by a creepy harassment stalker!

We actually don’t have any firm plans to hang out at Lir, at 903 Boylston, between 9PM and midnight on. . .uh, what was it, Saturday, September 15th? (We’d double-check, but Ace pulled all mention of the location and time from his site.)

Then again, you know, we don’t really have anything else planned.

Above: “Geh-yeee! Ah-mo beged-ah ratcheer (huck, snaw).”

Pajamas Media™ blogger Confederate Yankee hops onto the ‘Bin Laden is a liberal’ bandwagon, loses his footing, catches his foot in a canvas strap, and is dragged for three blocks whilst screaming for his lawyer:

Name That Goon

Who…

• …claims that Democrats in Congress have failed to listen to the will of the American people to stop the Iraq War by surrendering?
• …claims that we’re sacrificing the blood of American soldiers for the greed of corporations?
• …considers Noam Chomsky one of the West’s greatest thinkers?
• …thinks that the news media are right-wing tools, loyal to an empire-hungry dictator?
• … still uses the worn-out “no blood for oil” argument?
• …blames America for global warming?
• …loathes capitalism, and thinks we are just pawns to a creeping globalism?

Select from:

1. Keith Olbermann
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
4. all of the above

I think we know where this is going.

Who…

• …thinks the Iraq War is wildly popular despite full-tilt, desperate efforts by Teh Democrats to stop it, and thinks that if they succeed, all the troops will ‘surrender’ and be put into Al Qaeda prison camps?
• …claims that we’re sacrificing the blood of American soldiers for. . .oh, uh, look over there, we’re painting another motherfucking school?
• …considers Bryan Preston one of the West’s greatest thinkers?
• …thinks that the news media are left-wing tools, loyal to a shadowy conspiracy of, uh, thingy?
• …still uses the worn-out ‘the wire services are secretly conspiring with the terrorists’ argument?
• …eats food?
• …is actually Hitler?
• …listens to talk radio all the livelong day? Just to pass the time away?
• …loathes the American system of government, except when right-wing howlers like himself are in power and busy dismantling the, you know, American system of government?
• …has no bottom teeth from eating Goo-Goo Clusters, works in a gun shop, thinks NASCAR is a sport, and probably thinks Travis Tritt is as good as George Jones?

Select from:

1. Hitler
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Confederate Yankee
4. Hitler
5. All of the above except 1 and 2

Woo, we are so onto you now, Mein Herr.

It looks like it was another fabulous blur of a Saturday night for Megan McArdle, with the watermelon martinis flowing like liquid family annuities. Because today we find the following:

We must force you to be free!
09 Sep 2007 02:56 pm

Scott Lemieux is blogging about Quebec’s refusal to let Muslim women vote with their face uncovered:

Um. Yeah.

Go ahead, Scott, kick the football.

[Hanx! Jillian and G]

Update:
Welp, what she did was add an update saying that it was a typo, and correcting the line to read as follows:

Scott Lemieux is blogging about Quebec’s refusal to let Muslim women vote with their face covered:

Still unexplained: How this squares with Scott’s post on the ruling in Québec permitting women to vote with their faces covered in federal byelections.

It almost seems as though she’s just making stuff up…

Double Update:
We’re starting to feel bad about picking on McArdle, which means it’s probably time to make fun of someone else for awhile, at least until picking on McArdle reattains that bright, fresh, spinning-in-an-Alpine-meadow sensation, like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, that we have come to love so well.

Fortunately enough, Acepalooza has been formally announced, and it is indeed at this perfect location…

Update Teh Third:
McArdle corrects us, explaining that she really meant something else all along:

No, I didn’t make another error about the topic of the article. The full text reads:

The Quebec government requires everyone to vote with their faces uncovered, even if they have religious reasons for not doing so. Elections Canada has issued a ruling permitting women to vote with their faces covered in federal byelections in Quebec, although the rule will still apply in provincial elections.

i.e. the government of Quebec is refusing to let women vote in provincial elections with their faces covered, whatever their reasons for doing so.

Thanks to everyone who made my Sunday evening so entertaining!

See, this is like we were saying all along: McArdle didn’t make any errors about the topic of the article. What we’ve been saying this whole entire time (and perhaps it’s necessary to clarify) is that in some cases it’s possible for some people to link to Scott Lemieux and to represent what he’s saying in certain other ways than were perhaps what he intended — except perhaps not with this particular post.

So as you can see, we were just speculating about hypotheticals, and to be honest, we’re really not very interested in this topic anyway. Plus, why does McArdle assume we were talking about her? It’s all a bit weird if you ask us.

Above: Ace of Spades in front of Prudential Center, Boston

Acepalooza Location Picked

If you’re coming in from out of town, you’ll want places near the Prudential Center, or which have decent T-access to that area.

LauraW is going to email the location to all those who have responded to her at her laurawtips gmail address. We’re not announcing it openly because we’re not sure about doing that yet.

[…]

Posted by: Ace at 03:21 PM

Comments 39

I’m pretty sure I’ve made a lot of moonbat enemies on the intertubes. I really don’t want my pic being photoshopped. Or worse, have my pic enlarged and end up on some homo’s bedroom ceiling.

Um, hi fellow Ace fans. Uh, hobos, Scandis.

It’s, um, not us. So you say it’s near the Pru in the distant city of Boston, in which we don’t live?

Posted by: Definitely Not Sadly, No! at 02:04 AM

Bleg: Anyone Know of a NYC-Area Room For Rent?

I actually think I’m ditching Boston soon after the Acepalooza. If anyone knows of a room, let me know. I doubt I can afford anywhere decent in Manhattan but I’d like to be reasonably close by subway (or PATH train, of course).

Posted by: Ace at 04:31 AM

Perhaps Ace can enter the Witless Protection Program.

Little Green Footballs, September 6th:

Osama Bin Dead: Still Talking*

The SITE Institute says a new video is coming from Osama bin Laden, but I expect more old footage recut to look new. I remain 97.33% convinced that bin Laden’s been dead for a long time.

Little Green Footballs, September 7th:

Osama Bin Laden: A Chomsky Fan

[…]

By the way, I still believe there’s a good chance he’s dead, although my level of certainty has declined a bit with this new video.

This is understandable, considering the new video that he just appeared in. And yet, Charles, we must hold firm to certainty. Because once we waver in the belief that Bin Laden is long-dead, then the next thing, we might start wondering why he’s been allowed to run around free, lo! these past six years — and that’s exactly what zombie Bin Laden wants!

Above: “Welcome back, Charles Johnson. Tell us your theory
on the UFO/Vatican connection.”

Also in the news, the WMD substance at the UN that Glenn Reynolds famously blamed on the Iran uranium inspectors who had nothing to do with it, has turned out to be a non-toxic commercial solvent.

We believe this only strengthens his point.

Upcoming: Mark Noonan of Blogs For Bush warns of a civil war between sensible Bush-supporting folks and unhinged liberal moonbats twisted by hatred, who had better watch themselves or else. Pam Atlas has taken up a new hobby. Suspense obtains regarding the puzzle of the Acepalooza secret location.

* Charles blocks all traffic from here, and has recently blocked the main workaround, Tinyurl links. Thus has Little Green Footballs been transformed into a veritable titanium fortress, invulnerable to liberals and their puny technology.

However, the sages of old once whispered of an ancient prophecy foretelling that a bold adventurer, selected by fate, might one day breach the citadel by, you know, copying the link text into their browser and pressing ‘return.’