Pickled . . . in Spaaace!

Report Uncovers Astronauts’ Heavy Alcohol Use. Oh my.  Here’s what I read between the lines of the linked article: NASA, in the wake of the Lisa Nowak incident, has been busy hunting witches in the astronaut program.  Astronaut pilots, astronaut mission specialists, and astronaut flight surgeons are turning on each other.  It must be a horrible […]

Hotter Saturday Blogging

My God, we started our Saturday morning bike ride at 6:30 and were toast by 8:00, with a few miles still to go.  But we gutted it out to the end, then sat outdoors . . . albeit under patio umbrellas . . . at our local coffee shop.  My one concession to the heat was drinking […]

Osama’s Still on the Loose . . . Ooh, it’s Paris Hilton!

Paris Hilton sat in a cell, Paris Hilton felt rather unwell, All her great fortune and lawyerly men, Couldn’t spring Paris Hilton again. Hah! So there! Justice is served! Still, something about this morality play makes me feel . . . well, manipulated.  Aren’t there other, more important people who should be in jail?  While we focus […]

Homicidal Maniacs

I was hoping something would happen to shift the media’s attention away from Imus.  Another Britney meltdown, a runaway bride, something like that.  But nothing like the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech. In the wake of the Columbine High School shootings, it became more difficult for kids to be different, at least in dark ways.  […]

My One & Only Imus Post

Could there possibly be a scrap of flesh left on Imus’ bones?  Apparently so, because the media’s still munching on ’em.  If the British press, with its fixation on the Royals, weren’t even worse than ours, I’d be embarrassed to be an American. Shame on every newsperson and news outlet that gave the story more […]

The Dumbing Down of Virtually Everything (Part VI)

One tries to ignore pop culture, but it seeps through.  Now Maine lobster and Chad have joined forces with the Ma Na Ma Na song to take over my brain. A seafood chain (Red Lobster, or is it Joe’s Crab Shack?) is advertising Maine lobster tail.  Say what?  What happened to the claws, antennae, head, body, and […]

Border Vigilantism & Logical Outcomes

During the last few days stories about armed groups shooting and killing illegal immigrants have begun to appear on TV and in local newspapers.  Stories like this.  Here’s another. The media seem determined to sooth us by describing these armed groups as “bandits,” perhaps rival gangs of immigrant smugglers fighting each other.  As in this quote from an ABC […]

Getting at the Truth

I thought I was reasonably on top of the Scooter Libby trial story.  But Nicholas Lemann of The New Yorker threw me with this, in his most recent Talk of the Town commentary: What’s ultimately behind Libby’s trial is the Administration’s obsession with finding hard evidence for what it already believes. President Bush is often […]