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Well, what we've been saying from day one is now made manifest: Alito hopes to overturn Roe V. Wade. And it's only a red herring until you're pregnant and can't get an abortion, folks. This guy should be de facto persona non grata. Why is anyone still arguing about this on the left? Oh, right, because there's a difference between the left and the national Democratic Party.
New Krugman (and for free!). Go!
Normally, we just link away, but today's City Pages offered too good a time waster to not re-post in its entirety. Allow us to present a list of websites whose designers did not think hard enough about how the name of their website would be read:
1) Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous:
http://www.whorepresents.com
2) Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange
advice and views:
http://www.expertsexchange.com
3) Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island:
http://www.penisland.net
4) Need a therapist?
http://www.therapistfinder.com
5) Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
http://www.molestationnursery.com
6) Gas central heating anyone?
http://www.gasheating.co.uk
7) New to Milan and you need electric light? Why not sign up on-line with
Power-Gen?
http://www.powergenitalia.com
So, not only is it Monday again, but no Planetarium postings over the holiday weekend. Bad blogger! Though bonus points for posting on Thanksgiving proper.
A special treat for everyone today- remember how it was really shitty being in high school? Relive all those fond memories along with someone who is still stuck there. Note the references to "cutting" which lets you know it's actually a high school person, and not some dude in his 40s trying to pick up young boys with poetry. Not only that, but the name really seals the deal. Check out the blog Broken Hearts are good for stabbing people with.
Or tofurkey day, as the case may be. Either way, it's nice to have a day off, though Planetarium nonetheless manages to STILL feel guilty about not doing work. It's raining in NYC, and for some reason there's an abundance of bad style out there walking the streets. Perhaps all the out-of-towners in for the parade. Nothing, however, explains the preponderance of Uggs (perhaps the most aptly named shoes of all time). Tevs. Enjoy your day.
We here at Planetarium have a high-tech filter system that removes the literally hundreds of spam comments this blog receives on a daily basis. The past four comments posted on this blog were by:
"Sex"; "Young"; "Old"; and "Fuck".
They sound like awesome people.
In the Senate, a Chorus of Three Defies the Line (from NYT)
You know, every once in a while, watching political wrangling can be pretty interesting.
In response to a couple of queries, we are forced to point out that the reason there are no more links to the new Paul Krugman columns each week is directly attributable to the fact that the New York Times now charges a monthly fee if you want to look at the columns, among other things. Booooo. We're kind of curious to see if they maintain it or not. Sure, it will bring in some cash, but we're betting the cost of an online ad in the Times is about to drop precipitously.
In other news, religious nutters who think the world's about to end are still good for a laugh.
Does anyone else miss the rhetoric and criticism from the early days of the Iraq war? When Bush would invoke enough Christian mythology to drown a burning bush, and even Time magazine thought maybe it wasn't a very good idea? The criticism back then was at least on point: this is a modern-day Crusade. Let's be frank: We're going in there to bring Enlightenment and "freedom" to an uncivilized and barbarous people, and if a couple hundred thousand die in the process, well, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. We really find the justifications and projections of how long we have to stay there to make it "enough" shockingly cloying and ambiguous- as if any amount of time will be "enough"- will suddenly make an entire country living in an occcupation go "oh, we like you now!" The irony is truly of Swiftian proportions. Where's H.L. Mencken when you need him?
If you know who you are, feel very very bad about yourself. Planetarium can't sleep right now.
Alito Downplays '85 Abortion Statement
We especially like the part how it keeps stressing that he just said he would overturn abortion "to get a job", and then you scroll down and it casually mentions that he has not said he would uphold Roe V. Wade. Oh well. On the plus side, maybe this will finally make Americans notice the fact that the right to an abortion has been gone for years already in this country, for many women. Just that, y'know, now it'll be official.
This has Yemen written all over it.
Oh, and this was originally going to be a post about the Democrats, but Planetarium decided to take B.Alec's advice in the last posting and cut them some slack.
First of all, mad ups to Superficial Blog for getting his candidate for city council elected. (in Chief Wiggum voice:) That's some nice electing, boy. Same goes to part-time Planetarium staffer Brunansky, kicking some mayoral ass in St. Paul. All in all, the Twin Cities had a pretty good election. It seems like, by and large, good folks made some good wins.
That being said, it seems pretty funny that the left-wing blogosphere, and especially the mainstream Democrat mass emails, are crapping themselves today with joy, shrieking with glee about the brutal rebuke to George Bush and Republican values in this country. Um, we hate to be the ones to point it out, but A) nobody's been happy with Bush for awhile, and B) the fact that two, count 'em, TWO national seats were switched from red to blue does not a backlash against Republicans make. It's like the equivalent of George Bush declaring his "clear mandate" because a (fraudulent) election gave him a 51-49 win. So before everyone breaks their arms patting themselves on the backs, let's maybe start thinking about the little things, like, say, oh, a clear platform for the Dems? Maybe something that doesn't make them seem like a nutsack-less version of Republicans? Just a thought.
Not trying to poop on the parade, by the way- but then again, Planetarium watched four more years of Bloomberg get locked up because NYC Dems are too stupid to put forth a candidate anyone actually wants to see in office, us included.
To help out Kate in her mission to make this part of the slang dictionary, PLanetarium offers a small anecdote:
This weekend, we saw the film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Not only was it a cool, funny film with a great pulp noir meta- feel to it, it starred Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer, two actors who can actually act, doing the buddy-cop thing. What a welcom change of pace from the endless parade of lookalike young 'uns that are populating our pop culture nowadays. Looking at many of the interchangeable WB pretty faces on TV now, we realized that we can't identify hardly ANY of them. We've had a total hipsterectomy.
Planetarium finally "got" the new Idlewild album, Warnings And Promises TOok a while before it sunk in, as it's a very different record. Despite the totally emo album name, it's a good, dark record that really is- tonally at least- about being happy about being depressed. The good feeling that comes from an inspired kind of sadness. Mucho change of pace from the anthemic, it's-gonna-be-all-right of the last one, The Remote Part. So worth picking up, very much so, just be ready to adapt.
Also- the new Ashlee Simpson is pretty crucial.
Asteroid on Collision Course with Earth.
They're saying this one's not a cry wolf, either. Planetarium should really take up smoking again if this is the case.
From CBSnews.com:
"A question posed to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan at this morning’s “gaggle” by CBS White House correspondent John Roberts has attracted quite a bit of chatter on the Internet. Of course, the topic of the day is the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito, and the question from Roberts, was, 'Scott, you said that – or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?'"