Go ahead, laugh at the Brothers Four. But there was that moment in the mid-sixties when they bridged the gap between Suited Crooner (think Mel Torme) and the Grateful Dead. That is no small feat.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 11:29 PM on October 4, 2008

Thanks for this. Hadn't heard it before, and sums up the situation quite nicely.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 11:00 PM on October 4, 2008

The TED talk from hellojed's comment is also very good. Jonathan Haidt's take on eastern religions with regards to the lib/con divide remind me of a line from the Bhagavad Gita: "the wise man laments neither for the living nor the dead".
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 11:24 PM on October 4, 2008

For the record, my rep, Barbara Lee (D), Oakland voted no. She showed some real spine and courage of conviction in going against Paulsons's folly. You may remember Barbara Lee as the sole House vote against the Iraq war. I will be voting for her return to the House in November.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 3:44 PM on September 29, 2008

WE WON!!! HOORAY!!! TARP IS RIPPED TO SHREDS!
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 3:53 PM on September 29, 2008

No ransom? Fine, we're going to kill the hostage.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 5:13 PM on September 29, 2008

For the record, my rep, Barbara Lee (D), Oakland voted no. She showed some real spine and courage of conviction in going against Paulsons's folly. You may remember Barbara Lee as the sole House vote against the Iraq war. I will be voting for her return to the House in November.

That was me on Monday. What a fool I was, once again.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 12:47 AM on October 4, 2008

"Busted halo" sounds kinda like....well, like "busted cherry", but somewhere....else.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:31 AM on October 2, 2008

Ew, those icky nudes. You know, with bodies and stuff. Like hooters just hanging out there! And some of them even show wee-wees! We're so much more grown up than that.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 6:26 PM on October 1, 2008

Two places in San Francisco that were greatly improved by removal of freeways: Embarcadero and Octavia-Fell. The change was like night and day, quite literally because those areas are no longer shrouded in the shadows of elevated freeways. I suspect many existing city freeways could be done away with to great improvement of the city landscapes they now befoul.

I also firmly believe that this is why Vancouver, Canada is such a pleasant city. NO FREEWAYS!
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 6:23 PM on September 28, 2008

I love this post.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 3:06 AM on September 28, 2008

Totally by accident, "Cool Hand Luke" was the first movie I went to without my parents. For some strange reason, the Louisiana theater had it paired with the Jungle Book matinee (This was before the MPAA rating system). My seven year old friend and I fidgeted through CHL and then went ga-ga over the Jungle Book. Still, I remember scenes and emotions from that showing of CHL to this day. In case you're wondering, the egg-eating scene made the biggest impression on 7-year old me.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 1:28 AM on September 28, 2008

I appreciate Palin as an educator here. I imagine a hefty percentage of CBS viewers had NO IDEA that Russia was Right Next To the State of Which Palin is an Executive Of.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 12:34 AM on September 26, 2008

Ow! My Balls!
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 1:16 AM on September 26, 2008

A lot of attempts at being "edgy" often are excuses to simply revel in the problematic.

A better characterization of honest exploration I've not yet heard.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 10:23 PM on September 24, 2008

In any case, the response to all of those problems finally caused Ben Bernanke to gas up the helicopters. Last Wednesday, it was announced that the Treasury plans a special series of bill auctions to help the Fed expand its balance sheet. Read: The Fed is going to print money to buy Treasurys so that the Treasury Department can lend money to all these institutions. In other words, the printing presses are setting about monetizing all of our problems.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 3:50 PM on September 22, 2008

They want to hose us to the tune of $700bn (x2, or x3...) so that the value of the dollar will drop to a level that can sustain the inflated home/asset values? That seems likes the only way it could work.

Much recent reading on the subject gives me the impression that this is pretty accurate. Articles like this Marketwatch piece: Gold rallies as massive rescue plan pressures dollar seem to support this view.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 4:22 PM on September 22, 2008

Mish is asking that people send Congress the following letter:

Dear Senator

Instead of rushing into a $700 billion Paulson bailout proposal, please consider the following alternatives:

Mish's Open Letter To Congress On The $700 Billion Paulson Bailout Plan
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/09/open-letter-to-congress-on-700-billion.html

Hussman's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 6:12 PM on September 22, 2008

Why so many "become a police officer" google ads down the left side of the page?
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 4:07 PM on September 21, 2008

Such a good party in here I hesitate to add that the LB series is so bad it goes all the way around to being good and then on to being bad again. I couldn't even read it at once remove, through slacktivist, though, lord knows, I tried. It just isn't interesting, and I already know the ending.

/party pooper
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 9:21 PM on September 19, 2008

Palin for V.P. : What a cunning stunt.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 10:54 PM on September 14, 2008

What worries me is that people buy into them. One place I worked at back in 1992, a couple of the people said they were voting for a candidate because they thought they'd win. WTF?

This attitude is very common. Maybe hearing it called a "horse race" all the time has something to do with it?
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 4:58 PM on September 10, 2008

Charlie Brooker ScreenWipe, great stuff. Jeremy Kyle...being merely a Jerry Springer copy with the dreadful fake "morality" angle sexed up, not so much.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 1:01 AM on September 10, 2008

Legalize all doping. It's the only fair way.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 8:20 PM on September 9, 2008

Not a chance. The VP choice shows it all. Obama went with safe, tame, boring past. McCain went with FANGS OUT, ABORTION-HATE, LIBERAL-BOOK-HATE, MILITARY-DEISM surprise. Who do you think US Christians are going to choose, without even thinking about it? A master-stroke by McCain, who will be the next President of the US.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 5:18 PM on September 7, 2008

Joe Bageant weighs in on the Redneck/Religion/Palin relationship.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 11:06 PM on September 7, 2008

porpoise: exactly.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 12:31 AM on September 8, 2008

(Ron)Paulite fantasizes then creams about Palin in office.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:18 AM on September 8, 2008

McCain Camp Says Palin Won't Do Interviews Until It Knows She'll Be Treated with "Deference"
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:27 AM on September 8, 2008

Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:53 AM on September 8, 2008

Only when the Republicans courted the racist vote did they overcome this disadvantage, but it's a Faustian bargain, much like courting the Religious Right (ironically enough).

How so? Pugs have demonstrated that they can count on virtually all of the religious right vote, then they can delay indefinitely actually giving the RR what they want, even laugh at them behind closed doors and subsequently be ready to count on pretty much the same... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:41 PM on September 8, 2008

I dunno krinklyfig, again I don't see too much that is "Faustian" (pact with the "devil" to gain power) about the relationship between the Pugs and the religious right. The Pugs take up and discard the RR at will, because what is the alternative for the RR in the binary US political system? That's right, those DemonRats! Who are secretly Muslim abortionists who want to surrender to Osama! Who will take your guns away! Who will teach about SEX to TEENAGERS, thus... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 7:54 PM on September 8, 2008

This Nassim Haramein that godseyeview is into isn't just a charlatan, he's a really boring charlatan. Seriously, you guys find this stuff in any way novel? Guess spending lots of time in California gives one the ability to spot this kind of dross a mile away. Guys like godseyeview are a dime-a-dozen in Cali. I kinda like the shotgun solution that staggering mentioned, but don't get your hopes up.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 5:00 PM on September 9, 2008

Methamphetamine ( Desoxyn ) an amphetamine used to treat narcolepsy and attention-deficit-disorder in children. In some cases but rare this drug is used to treat depression. This drug is from a family of drugs known as central nervous system stimulants.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 11:32 PM on September 8, 2008

telstar, drugs provided for medical usage, dispensed under the eye of a doctor who is presumably able to gauge appropriate dosage and properly weigh the risks and benefits of such usage, is hardly a good analogy for the behavior of a consumer on an open drug market (or an indicator of the quality and purity of the drug on such a market).

I might even tend to agree with you if half the ADHD drugs out there didn't get diverted to illegal markets.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 4:04 PM on September 9, 2008

That was xtra-bad, but I enjoyed the BurningMan dust storm throughout.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 4:35 PM on September 7, 2008

military:neonazis::rice:white
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 4:29 PM on September 7, 2008

Barbiturates? That's an, um, interesting choice of medicine for a bank robbery.

Yah, I wonder where these guys got the idea that pheno-barb would help them? For one thing, PB a slow-acting barbiturate which doesn't even peak for a few hours. They would probably have been long done with the robbery and down the road (or so they'd hoped) by the time they would have noticed the PB.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 8:51 PM on September 5, 2008

The reason they took barbiturates was to calm their nerves. The idea is to not get excited during the robbery by keeping their pulse under control.

Low-ish dose benzo-diazepines (valium, etc.) would have been a much better choice, and maybe would have even have kicked in during the robbery, depending on pharmaco-kinetics of the derivative they chose. Pheno-barb seems to me to be a weird, weak choice if calming themselves during the robbery was their goal.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:31 AM on September 7, 2008

I applaud the Baltimore juries in refusing to bring convictions in even major drug cases. As I recall, a similar phenomenon was the death knell of the religion-steeped witch hunts that plagued Europe and early America. Juries simply began to refuse to bring convictions and prosecutors and their religion-addled sycophants were shut down. May the Baltimore trend continue and grow and lead to the starvation and demise of the prosecutorial-prison-police industrial complex.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 3:58 PM on September 6, 2008

There was a strain of Alaskan-bred cannabis going around California for a few years recently called "Matanuska Thunderfuck". I wondered whether Matanuska was a real place. Thanks for clearing that up.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 1:39 PM on September 6, 2008

Ya know, if McCain really does go down in flames on this Palin thing, we will have the anti-abortionists to thank. Very weird for me to have to give them credit for anything, anytime, anyhow, but there it is.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 1:04 AM on September 2, 2008

That is a very legitimate question...as far as I can tell any criminal penalties would be directed at abortion providers, not the pregnant women.

The war will last three weeks and the people will throw flowers at our soldier's feet.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 8:08 PM on September 2, 2008

sorry kaibutsu, I have to break the news that huge swaths of the US populace are completely innumerate and suffers from instant-eye-glaze syndrome when numerical tallies of Republican credit largesse are discussed. The important thing for them is that Palin loves the babies and also loves the guns which is why I am starting to entertain the notion that McCain has pulled a master stroke, much like that when Bush I nominated Clarence Thomas to the US... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 1:46 AM on September 4, 2008

To sum up: these days, in general, "dems" play fair and "pugs" don't. (Can you imagine McCain coming out and saying "back off" to any right-wing smear effort?) And I guarantee you no one is going to "read their history books" and change their mind. However, here's a book that you may find useful over the next couple of months.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 12:35 AM on September 5, 2008

There's your cue, mods.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:52 AM on August 26, 2008

Ah. Finally a post in my area of expertise.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 11:33 PM on August 25, 2008

Qat is not that much like coca. Qat leaves have a waxy layer and I found it difficult to get much effect no matter what I tried. (Unlike coca, which is pretty easy to get the hang of.) Also, why the instant identification with "addiction"? Wonder how long 'til the next mefi post praising the wonders of coffee, to which no one is "addicted", they merely can't get through the day without it, right?

And this line: "Qat has a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 5:35 PM on August 24, 2008

I hate politicians. I will hate them as long as I live.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 5:45 AM on August 24, 2008

Sublime photography and I love the simple and effective design of the site.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:57 AM on August 24, 2008