Here is CBS Sports turning a column over to an insane person named Gregg Doyel. Gregg is the most American American of all America. In an actual (not The Onion) column at CBS-fucking-Sports, Gregg argues that the US allows other teams to be better at soccer:
“In some ways, it’s sort of embarrassing for those other countries. After all these years, decades, centuries, they still haven’t diversified athletically. Their grandfathers played soccer. Their grandsons will play soccer. The world changes everywhere else — cars, clothes, technology — but overseas, the sport stays the same. Soccer is all they do. Meanwhile, we moved on. We invented basketball. We invented baseball. We invented American football. If it’s a team sport, we either made it or we perfected it. All but soccer, anyway.”
The Daily Show has always been forward thinking when it comes to Internet dissemination of its show. From the high-speed-internet beginning, it has made itself available, in full, on demand at its website. It’s likely they are of the opinion that more attention is good for drawing future viewers.
But… (more…)
Bravo, Slate. Bra. Vo. This is what you’ll be remembered for:
“I Did Not Love My Adopted Child. The painful truth about adoption.“
Hey, Slate, I’ve got a story pitch for you: “I Molested my Daughter. The painful truth about how some dad’s find their kids sexy.”
It’s about 1,200 words. Guaranteed 100,000 page views and at least three NPR and one Fox News booking.
After pouring over literature, message boards and talking with proponents, it’s challenging not to see those who carry a handgun as dweeby 15-year-old kids who carry a condom everywhere. They’re “prepared,” “just in case,” because “you never know,” “it could happen.” Equally, they both seem to fantasize about situations when they might actually use it. It’s this way that some CCWers emphasize rare or unlikely “tactical” scenarios that will never materialize that make it a test for a rational person to take the movement seriously. And yet, the effort should be taken seriously because the driving force behind much of it is a genuine desire to be safe and protect oneself because “the system” is failing at this responsibility…
READ IT ALL
Oh, did my headline grab your attention? I bet it did. Just as BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow’s recent post headline “Cheap Chinese appliance imports drive British burglars to switch to iPod muggings” was a reprehensible (maybe unconsciously racist) grab for attention.
The post links to a Science Daily story titled “Burglars Have Changed Their ‘Shopping List’, New Research Reveals” which claims that “the incredible rise of the new superpower has made burglars ‘redundant’ due to the decline in cost of household goods traditionally targeted by thieves.” Basically, since tech junk made overseas is so cheap at Wal-Mart it’s not worth break-and-entering to steal; so instead criminals are jacking people on the street for their iPods. Great premise.
But Doctorow only quotes the bit on China being responsible which, in fact, additionally reveals the misconceptions of the researcher himself. Are many cheap electronics made in China? Yes. Are many other cheap electronics made elsewhere? Yes.
I emailed Doctorow to ask him to explain his reasoning for wording of the post. Big surprise, he did not respond.
Of course, the irony is that iPods are largely made in China with “cheap labor,” a fact that has been widely covered and something one would expect Doctorow to know.
Lazy all around. And it only spotlights a growing problem with focusing on China as the root of manufacturing problems.
ALSO: It’s a quibble, indeed, but when journalists, and bloggers who fancy themselves journalists, use the terms “cheap labor” or “cheap Chinese…,” do they even realize the derogatory manner in which this negatively brands a citizenry that their so-called liberal hearts so bleed for? Even if Chinese find the freedom so many want for them, they will spend a generation dumping the global perception that they themselves are “cheap” and incapable of quality instead of it just being a product of their current economic conditions.
To many it was a shock last weekend when the film Dear John blew by ticket sales predictions by almost double to become the number one film at the box office. This week, experts like Entertainment Weekly are predicting Valentine’s Day is going open huge and that Dear John “is going to be crushed this frame by the Valentine’s Day juggernaut. If it drops 50% it should consider itself lucky.”
That’s not going to happen and not just because Valentine’s Day is more horrible than anyone expects.
The photo at the top of this post is from around my neighborhood. Those are just a few of the very humble homes displaying service stars that represent active duty personnel overseas. And that doesn’t mean in Germany.
Dear John is a sappy love story. But it also revolves entirely around a soldier serving in Afghanistan (and Iraq). But the story itself isn’t about the wars themselves (Hurt Locker). And it’s not about soldiers dealing with the toll of being soldiers (Stop Loss, Taking Chance). It’s simply a love story very specifically focused on the romance between a young soldier and a young girl… in South Carolina. Besides being a not-all-that-bad (if heavy handed) weepy romance tale, that specific situation very much appeals to a whole segment of the nation that writers of Entertainment Weekly do not come into contact with often (which is ironic as they are probably EW’s audience). It’s the same kind of thing that happens when a Tyler Perry film or a small Christian film like Fireproof open huge and all of the mainstream entertainment scrambles to ask “how the hell did that happen?”
Dear John will not be number one this weekend. But I predict the film is going to do way better than expected, again. And it’s going to remain wildly popular with soldiers, soldiers’ friends, soldiers’ wives, girlfriends and ex-girlfriends, a group that doesn’t see itself represented very often on the conventional popular entertainment landscape.
I know most New Yorkers don’t shovel a flake of snow, many in D.C. and other locales own are underwater on condos, houses and town-homes. Also, maybe some newly underemployed i-banker is now the super of your building and needs to know how to shovel fucking snow. Anyway, knowing how to shovel snow is a useful skill. I have shoveled literal shit-tons of snow in my life so here’s how.
First, chug a fucking glass of red wine.
Put on a hat and gloves. Next, throw on a light jacket. Not too heavy moron; you’re going to get sweaty. Also, it’s gotta be loose so nothing you bought at H&M. Armani? ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME? Next slam your feet into your boots. No, WITH PURPOSE. What, you don’t have boots?! (Rolls eyes). Okay, put on your Aldo dress shoes and put each foot into a few tall plastic bags, doubling or tripling up. Duct tape those fuckers on around your calves. You do have calves, don’t you? Yell to nobody in the house in particular, “I’m going out to shovel!”
Get your shovel.
READ ON
