Powerful review, as usual.
Monthly Archives: January 2010
The real state of the union address
Here is the state of the union address Obama should deliver:
Tech quote of the day
This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.
–Steve Jobs, speaking about the rumored tablet as reported by Michael Arrington.
And, speaking of Apple, there is a rumor circulating that it will announce the end of AT&T exclusivity for the iPhone on Wednesday.
Haiti needs more help…please
Business quote of the day
Isn’t it funny when you walk into a investment firm, and you see all of the financial advisors watching CNBC — that gives me the same feeling of confidence I would have if I walked into the Mayo-clinic or Sloan Kettering and all the medical doctors were watching General Hospital…
–Senior portfolio manager, UBS, quoted by the terrific Barry Ritholtz on his blog The Big Picture.
Political quote of the day
This isn’t about betrayal, or a slap in the face, or an insult. It isn’t about strategies to keep seats, or grand theories of justice. Democrats in Congress have the chance to cast a single vote that will make the lives of tens of millions of Americans less wrenching, our demises less brutal. That’s what this is about.
– MD, an anonymous reader of TPM, making explicit the real world effect of a failure by the Democrats in the House to approve the Senate healthcare reform bill and seek improvements later. Where is the courage on the left to vote for real reform even at the cost of each members re-election?
Profiles in bigotry
Wonkette’s take:
Eugene Delgaudio is an adult retarded person serving as a supervisor of Loudoun County, a locality he enriches by… going on the radio and the Fox News sometimes to talk about his hatred of the Gays and stuff. Recently in an e-mail, he wrote to supporters that he doesn’t want to give a cross-dresser — “It” — the same rights “as a normal person.”
Past time for Obama to fight
Andrew Sullivan argues that President Obama must directly take on the paranoid claims of the right and, in doing so, he must fight with every tool at a President’s disposal. And, all of us who supported the President must again to so, even if we are not getting everything we want. Read the entire essay, but here is an excerpt:
The seismic events of the last few days ends, in some respects, the phony war of the first year of Obama’s presidency. As is the case in truly fracturing democracies, the opposition simply does not and cannot accept the fact that it is out of power. The incoherence of the opposition to Obama – that he is both Jimmy Carter and Adolf Hitler, as Stephen Colbert pointed out last night – reveals the irrationality of the hate. It began immediately on the FNC/RNC right. And the ferocity of the campaign against Obama, the sheer dickishness of the GOP and its acolytes, the total oppositionism to everything he has done and indeed anything he might do… suggests that any hope for some kind of cooperation from this rump is impossible.
***
This is about more than health reform and we have to see it in that context. This is about a cynical nihilist attempt to break this presidency before it has had a chance to do what we elected it to do by a landslide vote. It is an attempt to destroy a majority’s morale, to break a president’s foreign policy autonomy, to prevent engagement in the Middle East peace process, to stop action on climate change, to restore torture, to increase tensions with the Muslim world, to launch a war on Iran. We cannot delude ourselves that if Obama fails, this is not the alternative. It is.
And we have to re-engage as powerfully as we did in the campaign to fight back against these now emboldened forces of reaction. I think this is true not just for the sake of the country but also for the sake of the GOP. The nihilist obstructionism and rhetoric they have embraced makes constitutional democracy close to impossible. Their total lack of any workable alternatives to dire problems is a form of degeneracy we have to avoid empowering.
So fight, Mr President.
The 100 cheesiest movie clips of all time (NSFW)
(Via Andrew Sullivan)
Tech quote of the day
Remember Apple is a software company that sells its products in an expensive hardware box.
– Robert X. Cringely, stating the obvious point that many, many so-called analysts totally miss. Software (a synonym for the user experience) is the secret sauce of Apple’s success, and simultaneously its core competency. The user experience is Apple’s only real product and, at least for now, no one compares to their craft. Think about this in connection with the iPad/iSlate/whatever that Apple announces next week.
Disclosure: I own Apple stock. Nothing on this blog should be construed as investment advice.
Sleep talkin’ man
What happens when a husband constantly talks in his sleep? Well, in the age of the Internet, his wife records the statements and then posts them on a web site. The web site is of course called Sleep Talkin’ Man. Caution: Not for children.
Oh, and here is a video interview with the couple.
Ken Burns new special: Late Night Wars
This is great.
Political quote of the day
We’re about to get into a big fight with the banks.
– President Obama, finally showing some determination, alluding to his new plans for financial regulation and tax the largest banks to repay TARP.
Cindy McCain supports same-sex marriage
Cindy McCain, wife of Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain has made a big splash and come out in strong support of the right of same-sex marriage and against California’s Proposition 8. Good for her. If more Republicans actually supported liberty, as opposed to paying lip service to the concept, it would be a better country.
Her husband’s office released the following statement in response:
Senator McCain respects the views of members of his family. The senator chaired the effort to successfully pass Arizona Proposition 102, the Marriage Protection Amendment, and his opposition to gay marriage remains the same.
Would someone please explain to me how prohibiting same sex marriage in any way “protects” heterosexual marriage?
And, while you are at it, would someone please explain to me how President Obama has been supportive in any way of equal rights for gays in the year since he became president? Check out this article by Michelangelo Signorile, writing in Salon yesterday.
Obama’s coldness toward gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people upon taking office could have predicted that he wouldn’t get tough on the banks or show any passion for a public option. Gays were the canaries in the coal mine back on Day One of this administration. That was the day when Rick Warren gave the invocation at the inauguration. It signaled how easily this president would insult and sideline a loyal constituency in return for the false promise of bringing in people who will never support him.Since then he has stepped on his LGBT supporters time and again, including that heinous Defense of Marriage Act brief filed by the Justice Department last June. In addition to pointing to a flowery speech here or there, apologists will tell you about the hate crimes bill or other “pro-gay” actions. But they are no-brainers; Obama has yet to spend any capital on gays.
Curious books for children
If you are looking for the strangest (and sometimes inappropriate) children’s book, you have to check out Curious Pages, the blog highlighting recommended inappropriate books for children. Each book includes scans and a succinct description of why children will like the book. Fascinating and hilarious. Here is a direct link to one of my personal favorites. (via Very Short List)
