March 04, 2008
Gratuitous Obscure UK Political Humour Post
Paisley to step down as Northern Ireland first minister.
Heck, I thought he was dead. There's a wonderful little throw-away gag in the Michael Ellis episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. As the hero (Eric Idle) is passing through a Harrod's knock-off, he passes what is labeled the "Paisley Counter". Of course, one would normally expect ties and other items made out of the fabric. Instead, however, it features a line-up of Ian Paisley look-alikes, each one carrying on about how evil Papist practices must be "stamped out by the iron boot of Protestantism" in thick Irish accents. Call me whatever, but that bit has always made me smile.Posted by: Robert at 06:03 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Civil War Geekery Posting
By daylight on July 1, I had gained positive information of the enemy's position and movements, and my arrangements were made for entertaining him until General Reynolds could reach the scene. On July 1, between 8 and 9 a.m., reports came in from the First Brigade (Colonel Gamble's) that the enemy was coming down from toward Cashtown in force. Colonel Gamble made an admirable line of battle, and moved off proudly to meet him. The two lines soon became hotly engaged, we having the advantage of position, he of numbers. The First Brigade held its own for more than two hours, and had to be literally dragged back a few hundred yards to a position more secure and better sheltered. Tidball s battery, commanded by Lieutenant Calef, Second U.S. Artillery, fought on this occasion as is seldom witnessed. At one time the enemy had a concentric fire upon this battery from twelve guns, all at short range. Calef held his own gloriously, worked his guns deliberately with great judgment and skill, and with wonderful effect upon the enemy. The First Brigade maintained this unequal contest until the leading division of General Reynolds' corps came up to its assistance, and then most reluctantly did it give up the front. A portion of the Third Indiana found horse-holders, borrowed muskets, and fought with the Wisconsin regiment that came to relieve them. While this left of my line was engaged, Devin's brigade, on the right, had its hands full The enemy advanced upon Devin by four roads, and on each was checked and held until the leading division of the Eleventh Corps came to his relief.
After the fall of General Reynolds, whose advance troops partially drove back the enemy and made heavy captures of prisoners, the enemy brought up fresh troops, and engaged General Doubleday's command, which fought bravely, but was greatly outnumbered and forced to fall back. Seeing our troops retiring, and their need of assistance, I immediately rushed Gamble's brigade to Doubleday's left, and dismounted it in time to render great assistance to our infantry, and to check and break the enemy's line. My troops at this place had partial shelter behind a low stone fence, and were in short carbine range. Their fire was perfectly terrific, causing the enemy to break and rally on their second line, which made no farther advance toward my position.
Shortly after this, I placed my command on our extreme left, to watch and fight the enemy should he make another attack, and went to Cemetery Hill for observation. While there, General Hancock arrived, and in a few moments he made superb disposition to resist any attack that might be made.
Posted by: Robert at 01:11 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
March 03, 2008
School Daze
The Missus had an amusing chat with a friend at church yesterday. The friend's son is off at The People's Glorious Soviet of Middletown, my old alma mater. And while these people are fairly typical Northern Virginia Lexus Liberals and the kid considered himself to be a cosciencious young Progressive coming up through prep school, he was astounded to find himself considered to be a conservative once he got to campus.
Among other things, the kid reports that West College (or "WestCo"), my old residential stomping ground and the veritable epicenter of campus radical politics, has voted to designate itself a "clothing optional" environment. I don't know when this happened, as it's the sort of thing that tends not to make it into the alumni magazine, but I may say that it doesn't surprise me in the least. (I also wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the idea from Brown, whom we were always aping in my time.) And if the stooodents who live there now are anything like the ones in residence back in my day (self included), my first reaction is "Ewwwww." Of course, one couldn't say such a thing out loud there, as one immediately would be branded a "lookist" or some other politically incorrect pariah. I just hope that the kids at least put out some towels before they sit down. (FWIW, the friend's son also reports that the Administration has got sick and tired of WestCo and its antics. What they plan to do, I can't imagine. They were pretty gutless in my time.) Ha, ha, ha. I feel your pain, kid. And I say so as one of the very few genuine conservatives to have put in four years at the dear old col. I wound up there at first simply because I got in, because the place still had an outstanding academic reputation and because I (admittedly) didn't really research the social atmosphere. That I stayed was as much a function of my own eccentricity as anything else: the school ballyhoos itself as "Diversity University", so by golly, I was going to call 'em on it. It was hard sometimes, but it was also fun. The Missus asked me what I would do if I were still there and whether I would stay put in WestCo. After thinking about if for a minute, I said yes, I probably would. Furthermore, I'd probably start wearing a tie every day just to show them what I thought of them. All the same, I'm certainly not planning on blowing close to 50 Grand a year to send any of the Llama-ettes there.Posted by: Robert at 10:30 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Wishful Thinking
Layers of editors, professionalism, J-School, Pulitzer prizes etc. etc. etc.:
Dan Rather, Mary Mapes, and the ghost of Edward R. Murrow were unavailable for comment.
Posted by: Steve-O at 08:44 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
March 02, 2008
More biting cultural satire . . .
this time on cultural habits of pretentious liberal people. I've been visiting this site for the last week or so, long enough to forget who tipped me off in the first place but the likely suspects are Kathy-the Cake-eater, Dr. Rusty, and Special Agent Bedhead.
Posted by: LMC at 12:29 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
If you like biting satire in film . . .
Take a tip from the post chief of staff who teed up Thank You for Smoking , courtesy of the fine folks at Netflix. What is your favorite scene? (Mine is the weekly meetings of the booze, guns, and tobacco lobbies a/k/a The M.O. D. Squad.) Discuss.
Posted by: LMC at 12:21 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
March 01, 2008
Mememememe
Just because, here's another of those mooovie memes, this one swiped from our pal Kathy the Cake-Eater.
The rules this time: Bold movies you have watched and liked.Italicize movies you saw and didn’t like.
Leave as is movies you haven’t seen. It's a looooooooong list, so I'll put it below the fold:
Posted by: Robert at 04:47 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" #1 on NYT Bestseller List
Posted by: Gary at 03:05 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
A Snowball's Chance
Last evening the middle Llama-ette and I attended a "Snowball Dance," the annual father/daughter bash put on by the local Brownie troupes. With all due modesty, I like to think that I have at least a few talents. Dancing, however, is not one of them. I don't really like it and I'm not much good at it, whether one is talking of the more traditional waltzes, foxtrots and two-steps, or else the modern mutual shaking of booties in which the young people like to indulge. Nonetheless, at least one night a year I can wear the mask, especially since (as SWMNBN would say) it's for the children.
This was our third year together, and while there were a number of soothingly familiar occurances - the traditional traffic snarl as the Committee tried to form up the gels for the limbo contest, the conga-lines that transmogrified into games of crack-the-whip, and the notorious "chicken dance", for example - there was a markedly new ingredient this year in that about 75% of teh playlist consisted of either Hannah Montana, "High School Musical 1&2" and the Jonas Brothers. I noticed many of the fathers (self included) looking at each other in a wild surmise as their progeny belted out the words and, as if they'd been choreographing it for months, simultaneously aped the moves performed by the original stars on the tee vee. I wouldn't have minded so much except that one of the songs that got bumped this year was "Shout", just about the only song I can put up any pretense of being able to dance, and that only because I've seen Animal House so many times. Ah, well. In the end, it didn't really matter. I conscientiously swayed and stepped, twirling the gel when called to do so, dipping her at unexpected moments and even - at her positive insistance - once or twice trying that trick where the girl slides forward under one, to be hoisted back to her feet a second later. For her part, the Llama-ette was in paradise. Her mouth was set in a permanent grin, her eyes twinkled, and I do not believe that she let go my hand for more than two seconds in the course of the entire evening. And although there was plenty that my more curmudgeonly side could have found at which to grumble - the crappy music, the heat, the crowding - looking at her, I just couldn't do it. I was keenly aware that just now I am her Hero, and that it was moments like these that I had better savor, because it's only going to be a blink of an eye before she reaches the "Daa-aaaad, I can't be seen with you in public!" stage. Let it go, I said to myself. Enjoy what's in front of you. Carpe diem. And I did.Posted by: Robert at 01:48 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
February 29, 2008
Well, sure
Posted by: Steve-O at 11:18 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Now here this
Elinor---go to bed!!!
Posted by: Steve-O at 10:39 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Jordana's Excellent Adventure
I hope you are following along with Jordana & Co.'s excellent adventure in London.
Posted by: Steve-O at 10:37 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Well That Was A Brilliant Idea....
Technically, it's my Friday off. Nonetheless, I volunteered to bring home a big wodge of work, which I would tell you all about if the rules did not prohibit me from disclosing that [-----REDACTED-----] doofus [---------REDACTED-----] save his incompetent [---------REDACTED------] grrrrrr.
Normally, at least during the school year, I would have the house to myself. However, today also happens to be parent/teacher conference day at St. Marie of the Blessed Educational Method, which means that while the Missus is off dealing with such matters, the Llama-ettes are home with me. As I try to juggle responsibilities, I'm reminded of a friend of mine from when I was a kid in San Antonio. His father was a veterinarian and the whole family was, shall we say, eccentric. Among other things, they had three or four large and vicious German Shepherds in their yard. Whether it was because the neighbors complained of all the barking or because the family itself got sick of the noise, I don't know. However, eventually my friend's dad actually removed all the dogs' vocal chords. Afterwards, they would still race up and down the fence hell-for-leather, but literally could only bark in whispers. It strikes me now that there's much to commend such a strategy. I wonder how much I'd have to bribe the gels' pediatrician?Posted by: Robert at 10:43 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Happy 38th Birthday, Young Frederic!
(If I've got my math right, of course.***)
(I had to poke around a bit through all the clips of that detestable Kevin Kline Pirates - if there's one thing I can't stand, it's campy Gilbert & Sullivan - but came across this rayther nice performance apparently from the University of Iowa Summer Opera. Not the best film or sound in the world, but I think the pleasant singing, the full orchestra and the good staging make it worthwhile.) The dialogue that follows this sequence is quite amusing, too:FREDERIC: Upon my word, this is most curious-- most absurdly whimsical. Five-and-a-quarter! No one would think it to look at me! RUTH: You are glad now, I'll be bound, that you spared us. You would never have forgiven yourself when you discovered that you had killed two of your comrades. FREDERIC: My comrades? KING: (rises) I'm afraid you don't appreciate the delicacy of your position, me boy: You were apprenticed to us-- FREDERIC: Until I reached my twenty-first year. KING: No, until you reached your twenty-first birthday (producing document), and, going by birthdays, you are as yet only five-and-a-quarter. FREDERIC: You don't mean to say you are going to hold me to that? KING: No, we merely remind you of the fact, and leave the rest to your sense of duty. RUTH: Your sense of duty! FREDERIC: (wildly) Don't put it on that footing! As I was merciful to you just now, be merciful to me! I implore you not to insist on the letter of your bond just as the cup of happiness is at my lips! RUTH: We insist on nothing; we content ourselves with pointing out to you your duty. KING: Your duty! FREDERIC: (after a pause) Well, you have appealed to my sense of duty, and my duty is only too clear. I abhor your infamous calling; I shudder at the thought that I have ever been mixed up with it; but duty is before all -- at any price I will do my duty. KING: Bravely spoken! Come, you are one of us once more. FREDERIC: Lead on, I follow. (Suddenly) Oh, horror! KING/RUTH: What is the matter? FREDERIC: Ought I to tell you? No, no, I cannot do it; and yet, as one of your band-- KING: Speak out, I charge you by that sense of conscientiousness to which we have never yet appealed in vain. FREDERIC: General Stanley, the father of my Mabel-- KING/RUTH: Yes, yes! FREDERIC: He escaped from you on the plea that he was an orphan? KING: He did. FREDERIC: It breaks my heart to betray the honoured father of the girl I adore, but as your apprentice I have no alternative. It is my duty to tell you that General Stanley is no orphan! KING/RUTH: What! FREDERIC: More than that, he never was one! KING: Am I to understand that, to save his contemptible life, he dared to practise on our credulous simplicity? (FREDERIC nods as he weeps) Our revenge shall be swift and terrible. We will go and collect our band and attack Tremorden Castle this very night. FREDERIC: But stay-- KING: Not a word! He is doomed!I was telling the Llama-ettes all about poor Frederic's plight this morning. They think he's very silly. They were also all eager for me to queue up the operetta for them....that is until they realized that I only had a CD version of it, not a video. (My CD - done by the D'oyle Carte people and the Royal Philharmonic, is excellent. But I've never come across a decent DVD version. As I say above, I detest that Kevin Kline version from the 80's, but none of the other videos I've seen have been very much better.) Ah, well. (***At one point in the opera Frederic tells Mabel he won't reach his 21st birthday until 1940. That's 68 years ago. I divide 68 by 4 to get 17, which I then add to 21.)
Posted by: Robert at 09:05 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
WFB
Read Up from Liberalism from the Daily Diary of the American Dream.
Posted by: LMC at 07:45 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
February 28, 2008
Is It Still Considered Temptation If The Book Is A Good One?
Posted by: Robert at 01:18 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Cool Cold Pick of the Day
Posted by: Robert at 12:38 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
The unkindest cut of them all
You know the drill by now: cue this clip up, get out the kleenexes, and savor the slow, sweet, ride of the S.S. Clinton into the icy depths of the ocean of obscurity.
Time on Bill. Or, as the rogues were wont to say, what a drag it is to get old...Posted by: Steve-O at 12:05 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
The sheer awesomeness of this defies description
Although I imagine he was a Reds fan, somehow I think William Howard Taft would approve:
Red Sox broadcaster and former player Jerry Remy was officially sworn in as the president of Red Sox Nation on Wednesday in the nation's capital. Remy -- a cult hero in New England -- was officially elected last October. Along with vice president of Red Sox Nation Rob Crawford, Remy was issued an oath of office by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. The oath contained the following: "I, Jerry Remy, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of Red Sox Nation. I pledge to be true to the game, true to our fans and, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and promote all that is great about the beloved sport of baseball and the Boston Red Sox."Now if I can only find the time to dredge up a pic of Washington's first swearing in and a little private time with my neglected copy of photoshop....
Posted by: Steve-O at 09:43 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
February 27, 2008
Requiescat In Pace, Bill Buckley
Posted by: Robert at 12:10 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Processing 0.01, elapsed 0.0404 seconds.
37 queries taking 0.0363 seconds, 52 records returned.
Page size 46 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.