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CrookDimwit FAQ
White House rhetoric goes to 11
But every day, the rhetoric coming out of S... the President's mouth is getting increasingly hyperbolic. On Thursday, he pledged to "lick terrorism." On Friday, he identified his administration's goal as to "rid the world of evil." I had hoped that over the weekend, the White House might tighten up the language a bit. But today, Bush vowed to rid the world of evil-doers:
Seriously, though, aside from the fact that many of the world's evil doers contributed to his presidential campaign, isn't this a bit broad for a military objective? Wasn't the frequent GOP knock on Clinton that his military actions lacked "clear, definable objectives and exit strategies?" America is ramping up for a major military action. That's dramatic and serious enough. We don't need over-the-top rhetoric to convince Americans that action is imminent.
Heroes without capes
A artist I know from New Jersey, Logan DeAngelis, has his own alternative comic strip, KU-2. This week, he's put together a comic tribute to some of the real heroes last week.. He tackles the question of how we deal with evil in a world without superheroes. Check out the whole piece here.
Jessica's thoughts...
I urge caution. The United States should not replicate the terror we have experienced by causing the death of innocent children, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers. In addition, I fear we will only set off additional acts of terrorism on American soil by perpetuating a cycle of destruction.
It is irresponsible to think that if one lives in Afghanistan then by association they support the Taliban lead government and Osama bin Laden. Is every resident of the United States a Republican now that George W. Bush is the President? Killing innocent Afghan citizens will not bring back those souls who were lost nor will it restore our sense of security. It is as pointless and as irrational as that which we experienced this week.
Under no circumstances should a civilized society condone the killing of innocent civilians. As we struggle to make sense of the terror of this week, we should promise that as long as the United States is the leader of the free world, we will protect all people – shielding them from the devastation of terrorism. This is a worthy goal of a great nation and guardian of liberty.
A canine hero
Rhetoric rising
Two great columns
I am Michael Benfante, 22, and John Cerqueria, 36, who carried a disabled woman down 68 floors of a World Trade Center stairwell and placed the woman in an emergency van.
I am the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 who fought with their hijackers and brought the plane down outside Pittsburgh, 250 miles from its intended target in Washington, D.C.
I am the dozens of passengers aboard the other hijacked planes who called loved ones to say goodbye, or tried to alert authorities.
I am the pilots and flight attendants on those planes.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post's Donna Britt wrote a moving column as well. It's another excellent piece that rises above the "let's bomb 'em" and "time for war" clamor in so many other columns right now.
Seeing themselves as superior to their victims, these people slaughtered prostitutes, Jews, little black girls and their outwardly similar fellow citizens as contemptuously as if they were the monsters who deserved to die.
News reports describe how they did these things. Nothing explains why.
More wisdom: Falwell, Robertson blame gays, liberal groups for terrorist attacks
"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen,’" Falwell said on the program, which was broadcast nationally.
"Well, I totally concur," Robertson told Falwell, "and the problem is we have adopted their agenda at the highest levels of our government."
Calm, wise leadership was getting old anyhow...
Beauty in the midst of chaos
The day before, she saw bodies falling from the sky as she fled her office.
Our New York office is a block from the World Trade Center plaza. In fact, the last time I saw the twin towers in person was a little over a year ago when I was up in Manhattan to give this staff person her annual review. She is not only one of the best people on my team, but one of the sweetest people I know. Until this week, her daily work routine started with getting off at the World Trade Center subway stop.
She tried to relate to me the horror of what she saw as they headed away from the building on Tuesday. Debris. Bodies. Screams. Thankfully, she got well away from the building before the towers collapsed. We have no idea when they will be able to return to their office, and frankly, I couldn't care less. I'm just happy she escaped there safely and that her family is alright.
So after talking with her, I was ready to call it a day. With respect to my employers, fuck work. No way in hell I was sticking around late last night.
Jessica and I walked down to the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol, where we had heard many were going to gather after sundown for a candlelight vigil. As we walked down the north side of the Capitol towards the reflecting pool that sits between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument, we could already see thousands of twinkling lights around edge of the water. I was unprepared for how moving the experience would be.
We found a spot to stand along the edge of the water. Some strangers offered their candles to light ours. The place was very still and peaceful. There was no podium, no speakers, no grandstanding politicians, just thousands of people, with flickering candles, gathered around the edge of the reflecting pool. As we arrived, a cluster of people across the water was singing "Amazing Grace." The gathering was too spread out for any coordination, so there were different strains of songs from various spots around the water at any given moment. At one side, you could hear people singing "America the Beautiful", and at the opposite side, you could make out our national anthem.
In some sense, it was chaotic, but it was a beautiful chaos. Standing there, looking out at thousands of lights reflected in the water, with heartfelt voices singing assorted American anthems, I couldn't help but cry. It occurred to me that the thousands of people circling the water were probably fewer than the number of people who died Tuesday.
After a while, the crowd seemed to loosen up a bit. It was still very somber, but you could tell people had been carrying a lot of grief for days and needed to smile as much as they needed to show their respect. Some more upbeat songs began to work their way through the crowd. A bunch of girls behind us did a rousing rendition of "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Overall, however, our side of the water wasn't nearly as much into singing as the folks on the other side. I noted to Jessica that a particularly vocal cluster across the water seemed to be routinely leading them in song, and even had soloists. "They've got ringers over there!" I whispered.
Some of us in the crowd also couldn't help but laugh when we couldn't remember the words to "God Bless America." After some folks started singing James Taylor, I feared Springsteen would be next. The most inappropriate thing that nearly happened was a few group of people who tried to start a "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant. These guys clearly misread the crowd, which wasn't in the mood for that kind of boisterous display and continued to either stand quietly or sing. Thankfully, most of the people politely declined to join in with the men who mistook the gathering for an Olympic hockey game.
Still, it was all very moving and powerful. I've been to dozens of protests and demonstrations very close to where we were standing, and this was unlike any of them -- there was no politics, no parties, nobody handing out literature. It was simply a sincere, grass-roots gathering of people, hurting from a national trauma, who came together to show unity. For a while, at least, nobody was determined to “get vengence” or “take action.” For a few moments, we were just Americans, together, celebrating life and honoring the dead.
Tribute in England
Thursday's ceremony took place amid news that the death toll of Britons in the attack was at least 100, and possibly in the middle hundreds. Thousands of Americans are feared to have died.
In an unprecedented move, the US National Anthem was played at the Changing of the Guard.
This was followed by a two-minute silence to remember the dead.
Here we go: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"
Amazon's 1-click support for Red Cross
Anti-Arab actions begin
In Chicago, Mustafa Yassin of the Arab American Action Network said he and three others were closing the office when a middle-aged man drove by and threatened them. ``He said, 'We're going to make sure you guys are going to get yours,''' Yassin said. In Colorado, Farouk Abushaban, a spokesman for the Islamic Society of Colorado Springs, said a carpet layer was working at the city's only mosque Tuesday when ``four guys came in and cursed at him.'' The men said they would return later and burn the mosque down, Abushaban said.
"We have friends and family who work in that building, the World Trade Center. We have family and friends that worked at the Pentagon,'' said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "While we would like to mourn like everybody else in America, we end up looking over our shoulder because someone is pointing a finger.''
I know raw emotions are involved here, but the upswing of anti-Arab sentiment is alarming. People have said a lot about yesterday being "the second Pearl Harbor." Perhaps. Let's just hope that our treatment of Arab-Americans now doesn't repeat the disgraceful treatment of Japanese Americans following that attack. Our internment and mistreatment of Japanese Americans sixty years ago was one of the darkest moments in American history.
Before and after
Words of a good leader
Giuliani:
A horrible day
First off, thank you to everyone who called or e-mailed me with concern about our well being here in D.C.. Jessica and I are fine. Here's what I saw, heard, and experienced today...
At just before 9am, I was walking to the Metro, listening to the Sportstalk 980 on headphones. Just as I was about to turn off the radio and head into the subway, one of the announcers made a brief, off-hand remark about "a plane hit the World Trade Center building". They seemed to not grasp the seriousness of the situation, and must not have seen the images, because they seemed to joke about it. One of them said, "I guess we might not be talking about Michael Jordan today after all."
About half an hour later when I got to the office, there was a small crowd in the lobby. We have a big television in the lobby that normally shows financial news. When I arrived, I saw the image of two burning towers. The Trade Center buildings looked like smokestacks. I was stunned and just stood and watched in sheer disbelief. The facts began to roll in. It was no accident. There were two separate planes, two separate collisions. One of the women in the lobby was sobbing and seemed almost hysterical. I still was thinking that the worst case scenario was that the buildings would simply be horribly damaged and many people would not get out safely. I thought I'd seen the worst of it.
I went up to my office and put down my things. The thought of actually sitting at my desk and trying to do work seemed ludicrous. I went back down to watch the coverage.
When I got there, they were beginning to report that the Pentagon had also been attacked. This really created a stir. The Trade Center was horrifying, but far away. The Pentagon is less than two miles from our office. Many people pass it every day to and from work. Some people in my office used to work there or know people who do. Furthermore, our office is six blocks from the White House and two blocks from the World Bank. Within a minute of hearing the announcement of the explosion at the Pentagon, we could here emergency vehicles out on the street heading past our office.
At this point, I tried to call Jessica on my cell phone but the network was jammed. And then I saw, for the first time, the video of the plane colliding with the building. People in the room gasped and screamed. I'll never forget that horrible image.
Word quickly spread that our office was closed. I rushed upstairs and tried to call Jessica from the land line. Still no luck. I managed to get a line to L.A. to let my parents know that I was OK and headed home.
As I went down the stairs to the lobby again, I saw on the TV that the South tower had collapsed. I almost cried right there. It was hard to imagine that many people could have been fully evacuated. It was around then that I began to see reports that people were falling, most likely jumping, from the windows of the buildings in the Trade Center buildings. The images and words on TV were getting more surreal and grim by the minute. I sat down and watched the coverage, dumbstruck. Not long after, the other tower collapsed on live television. Lots of rumors were being aired on TV -- a third plane had hit one of the towers, a car bomb had blown up in front of the State Department, a second plane had hit the Pentagon. Finally, there was a buzz in the office that another plane was headed towards DC and that fighter jets were moving in to shoot it down. All of these rumors turned out later to be untrue.
It was time to go home.
Metro was shut down. The streets of downtown DC were gridlocked and jammed with cars trying to get out of the city. I was headed home, 36 blocks east, on foot. I kept trying to call Jessica, but still, couldn't get through. Looking around, everyone had a cell phone in hand and seemed to be struggling with the same problems. I listened to the continuing coverage of the disaster on my radio as I walked, and grew more despondent with every grim report that came in. I finally got a hold of Jessica on the phone. She was fine. She insisted that I steer clear of the Capitol on my way home. That was my plan already.
The walk home was bizarre. The sidewalks were streaming with people heading away from downtown. Lots of people were milling about in front of evacuated buildings. On the radio, I began to hear heated rhetoric rising to the surface, with talk of "the second Pearl Harbor" or "we are at war". I began to get a bit nervous about how this country is going to react, or overreact, to this tragedy. We may have to retailiate somewhere, but I fear hysteria and bravado may take the place of caution. The only thing that could make this horrible travesty is worse is for our country to be responsible for the deaths of more innocent people.
As I eventually got closer to Capitol Hill, I stayed North of the Capitol grounds, passing through a rougher part of northeast DC. A few kids sat on the porch of a townhouse, smoking a joint. Not a clue in the world. Meanwhile, I could see fighter jets soaring in the sky above Washington.
I got home just before noon. I watched the news the better part of the afternoon, gripped by shock and disbelief. They began to show the damage to the Pentagon, which now how a huge chunk torn away from it. A surreal image that just seemed too Hollywood to be real. But the most chilling thing I heard was one announcer note, during one skyline shot of Manhattan, "there's the Empire State Building, which is once again the tallest building in New York City."
Jessica made it home a few hours after I did. It was a huge relief. I had gotten tired of the reckless speculation and theorizing on the news by midafternoon and so Abbie and I were sitting on the porch of the townhouse, enjoying the quiet. When Jessica pulled up in the car and parked, Abbie spotted her and let out a ridiculous howl.
I'll save my thoughts on the politics swirling around all this for another time, except for this... If ever anyone needed a good argument for why missile defense is a misguided priority, today's tragedy provided it. With Bush's dream system in place, nothing that happened today would have been prevented. Terrorists don't need sophisticated weapons. Today, commercial airplanes were turned into weapons of mass destruction which paralyzed America. Technology can't magically make us safe, especially that which can be easily circumvented by a truck, or a plane, or a boat.
Sunday, Lazy Sunday
8:59 am
9:25 am
9:40 am
10:15 am
12:30 pm
1:02 pm
1:19 pm
2:14 pm
3:50 pm
4:30 pm
4:54 pm
5:13 pm
6:45 pm
7:40 pm
8:10 pm
8:32 pm
9:05 pm
10:41 pm
12:18 am
3:20 am
Smirky wastes tax dollars, wakes D.C. residents
Just one question: if Clinton had held a party for 136 people and spent a quarter-million dollars on a private fireworks display, wouldn't we be hearing about it all over TV and talk-radio? Hell, wouldn't we already be hearing talk of "special investigations" and "hearings"?
Heh heh
Nine things on my mind
"Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Eazy-E, Scott LaRock—some of y'all niggaz are already up in this bitch," the Lord said. "For those of you who were left behind, know that the Lord has got your dead homies' backs. Faith [Evans], I promise I'm taking real good care of your Biggie. He resting in crazy peace, no doubt."
3. Salon reports today on CNN's continuing slide into disgrace and irrelevance. It's not clear whether pandering to right-wingers or delving into tabloid journalism is worse, but little in the story suggests that this will have a happy ending. MSNBC, anyone?
5. Chicago Bears preseason prediction: 3-13... maybe 4-12 if they get lucky. They flat out suck. I really need to get a hypnotist to relieve me of my loyalty to the pathetically managed Bears franchise. Other prediction: Titans over the Bucs in the Superbowl, 21-17.
6. This morning, walking through Lincoln Park on my way to the Metro, I heard a buzzing sound to my right and noticed a with a locust in its beak. The locust was buzzing and clicking and making that annoying sound that locusts specialize in. The little bird was apparently annoyed by the struggling insect as well and whacked it against the ground several times. I actually stopped walking to watch this scene, which seemed like something from one of those old nature shows by Mutual of Omaha. The locust valiantly kept buzzing and clicking, which prompted the bird to whack it a few more times against the dirt. This time, the locust was silenced. The bird happily hopped across the grass, locust in beak. The whole thing was kind of bizarre, and I kept thinking it was eerily symbolic... but of what I have no idea.
7. In addition to TMQ, another must-read every week is Democratic Underground's Top Ten Conservative Idiots feature. They are never short on material.
8. When I was a kid, I had a horrific nightmare that an "Evil Gumby" was leering at me from the second-floor window down the hall from my bedroom. The angry looking man of clay was identical to Gumby except that he was dark blue, not green, and sure as hell wasn't smiling. I mention this because I was reminded of that dream thanks to a great site I recently discovered: The Nightmare Project. More than 1200 people have posted nightmares they've had. Creepy stuff.... The human brain works in strange ways.
9. Separated at birth? Krypto, a.k.a. Superdog has his own site. I can't help but notice an eerie resemblance. You be the judge:
Another Jackass Retires... God Bless America
Just as a quick refresher: Phil Gramm took tremendous pride in killing Clinton's health care plan that would have provided medical care to millions of uninsured Americans. He spent most of Clinton's eight years obstructing the President's agenda on behalf of his big business and HMO paymasters. He's also one of the most irritating, annoying speakers the GOP has to offer, delivering a mixture of airheaded right-wing economic platitudes with a mouthful-of-gravy southern drawl. Dude has the charisma of roadkill to go along with his smarmy gun nut, cracker Texas politics. Good riddance...
Ok, now look.... I've tried to minimize the Bush attacks in light of our national crisis. I've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and restrain my cynicism. I haven't used the S-word in more than a week!
"Tomorrow when you get back to work, work hard like you always have.'' he told Americans. ``My administration has a job to do. ... We will rid the world of evil doers.''
Ok, Batman, whatever you say.
posted by Matt P | 9/17/2001
One of the things I love about the web is tremendous range of creative expression it allows everyday people. Some of us like to write. Some put together photo essays. Some provide helpful resources for likeminded people. Others create internet radio shows. The tragedy last week in NYC has led to a wealth of weblogs, personal essays, tributes, and graphics that express people's thoughts and feelings as they reacted to unthinkable horror. It's allowed us the chance to get personal perspective on last week's events, with greater depth and feeling that much of what we get on the networks.
posted by Matt P | 9/17/2001
Jessica wrote this over the weekend and asked me to post it... Although I cautioned her that my readership is slightly smaller than CNN.com or WashingtonPost.com, she wanted to make her feelings known:
Our nation suffered a great tragedy on September 11, 2001. As the true magnitude of this horrific act is revealed in the days to come, our collective desire for revenge and decisive action will become increasingly potent. While I recognize that the United States must retaliate and bring those who helped to plot and finance this series of destructive acts to justice, I fear that more death and pain is near.
I didn't marry no fool...
posted by Matt P | 9/17/2001
A Lab retriever helped guide blind man down 70 WTC floors. The owner unhooked his dog from the leash to give it a better chance to escape the burning tower, but the dog stayed by his owner's side and helped guide him to safety. Add this pooch to the many dogs helping with the rescue efforts and we have lots of canine heroes. I guarantee you we will hear no tales of cats rescuing their owners or desperately searching for victims. Read this to confirm that, once and for all, dogs are better than cats.
posted by Matt P | 9/15/2001
Yesterday, Bush said we were declaring "war on terrorism" with the goal no less than to forever "lick terrorism." Today, he modestly said that the U.S. will rid the world of evil. Pretty heavy rhetoric. I don't mean to be cynical so soon, but isn't Bush setting the bar a little high? If you're gonna talk the talk...
posted by Matt P | 9/14/2001
First up, Chicago Sun Times columnist and Ebert film critic sidekick Richard Roeper has written
one of the most moving columns I've ever read. He captures what has been in the hearts and minds of so many of us this week beautifully. An excerpt:
I am the thousands of volunteers who have rolled up their sleeves and donned surgical masks to aid the workers digging through the incomprehensible rubble and debris in lower Manhattan.
Read "The spirit of America: bowed, but unbroken".
Every culture seems to have them, people who move invisibly among us as they plot the unimaginable. From Jack the Ripper, to Nazi collaborators, to those who dynamited four children in a Birmingham church, to Timothy McVeigh, to countless others who murdered the innocent yet couldn't have regarded them as such.
Read "Seeing us in them".
posted by Matt P | 9/14/2001
Can this week get any more miserable?:
The Rev. Jerry Falwell said gays, feminists, "pagans," and a host of liberal advocacy groups have made "God mad" and must share the blame for the terrorist attacks this week...
Well, on the bright side, they didn't blame African Americans...
posted by Matt P | 9/14/2001
Who needs the mob when you have reckless Senators?
"I say, bomb the hell out of them," Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., said Wednesday. "If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to be expendable."
For those not familiar with modern doublespeak, "collateral damage" is the polite military euphemism for killing innocent civilians. Are you brimming with pride yet?
posted by Matt P | 9/13/2001
The last thing I did at work last night was talk with a member of my staff who works in our New York office. She was at home, safe, with her family in New Jersey.
posted by Matt P | 9/13/2001
In London today, the traditional changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was changed for the first time in history:
Thousands flocked to the specially-adapted Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Queen's official London residence.
posted by Matt P | 9/13/2001
Ann Coulter uses her friend's death as a starting point for racism, reckless militarism, and, while she's at it, one more Clinton smear. I don't know what is more distressing in that article: her oblique advocasy of racial profiling for employment, her armchair suggestion that we invade, murder, and "convert" Muslims, or that Solicitor General Ted Olson used reportedly used to read her venemous, hateful column out loud to Barbara Olson at breakfast.
posted by Matt P | 9/13/2001
Amazon put up a page today allowing customers to quickly donate money to the Red Cross. They are providing the service without charging any fees. In less than a day, they've already collected over a million dollars. It's amazing. If you reload the page, you can see the count of donations grow. It looks like they are getting a dozen donations every second. Very heartening on a depressing day. Go there now and donate what you can. We CAN do something besides feel terrible today.
posted by Matt P | 9/12/2001
It just gets worse. Not surprisingly, ignorant fools are beginning to harass and attack Arab-Americans. There are a lot of angry, dangerous people looking for scapegoats:
Vandals fired at least six bullets through windows of the Islamic Center of Irving, outside Dallas, causing about $3,000 in damage, officials said. No injuries were reported.
I'm seeing some this kind of attitude locally. Today, a co-worker from New York, despondent over yesterday's events, suggested to me that the U.S. "should bomb all the towel-heads. Kill them all. They're all evil."
posted by Matt P | 9/12/2001
A couple people have e-mailed me and noted the jarring contrast between my post yesterday and the one I did on Monday. The juxtoposition is indeed striking. Monday's look back on a lazy, frivolous Sunday, followed by yesterday's post dealing with the grim reality of a national nightmare, is night and day in both style and substance. Sunday seems like an eternity ago now...
posted by Matt P | 9/12/2001
This morning I saw New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on NBC's Today show. Since yesterday, I've been impressed with his very steady, very human leadership in this inconceivable crisis. His words this morning moved me much more than the string of platitudes uttered last night by Bush. Almost everything Giuliani said in the exchange below could apply to America as well as New York:
Matt Lauer:
Obviously the city will recover physically, but how does it ever recover emotionally?
It becomes stronger as a result of this... It becomes more understanding of the special role that the city of New York has.... We're a democratic society. We're open to people. We’re a society that's built itself on immigration, on tolerance, on caring for people. And it’s a city that has a reputation of being able to handle the worst situations better than anything else. So we now have to be an example to the rest of America in how we handle this, how we show cowardly terrorists that they can't make us afraid. Someone said that the most visible symbol of New York was the World Trade Center Towers, and it most certainly was a visible symbol, but the most visible symbol in NY is the spirit of a free people. And we're going to show them that we can overcome this. And by reflecting on it and understanding what happened to us, we're going to be stronger.
posted by Matt P | 9/12/2001
It's almost midnight here and I'm still on edge. The whole day seems surreal. I've seen some of the footage on TV dozens of times today, and it's still shocking, horrifying, and difficult to believe.
posted by Matt P | 9/11/2001
Yesterday was easily one of the five laziest days of my adult life. Excerpts from yesterday's itinerary:
Dog is looming over me as I try to sleep in. Her funky breath is bothering me. I hide under the sheets. Its like when I was a kid, hiding from some monster, except this time its REAL.
I listed to AM sports radio as I walk the dog around Capitol Hill. Lost of exciting talk about opening day in the NFL season. It feels like Christmas Morning.
I eat toast and lay down on the couch. The dog reluctantly eats her own food. I'm ready for a nap.
No time for napping... We're meeting my brother-in-law and his girlfriend for brunch at Luna's near Dupont. This may be the most energy I will expend all day. Man... Opening doors, lifting menus, cutting a thick Belgian waffle.... Exhausting!
Almost kickoff for the first game. The tragic liability of a Satellite dish is that it doesn't allow me to utlize my picture-in-picture capabilities. I haul down the small TV from my office and set it down to the left of our main TV. I'll tune that one to local broadcast channel. Gotta improvise.
Kickoff. Go Bears. I eat football-shaped Cheez-Its and drink Code Red soda. Life is good.
Bears are winning 3-0 against Superbowl champion Ravens. I eat some cut watermelon. Tasty.
Grilling hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob... Vikings are losing at home. Hell yeah. Bears are still winning. Ominous bad sign, however: the Bears QB hasn't thrown a pass farther than five yards downfield yet.
2:50 pm
Uh-oh, Bears losing 10-6. I nervously eat more football-shaped Cheez-Its.
Bears lose, 17-6. Better than expected, but I'm still pissed. Was it too much to ask for ONE touchdown. I console myself with another tasty grilled hot dog.
Redskins are already down 17-0.... to the Chargers. Hilarious. Meanwhile, Rams are whupping the Eagles. Great game between two of my favorite non-Bears teams. I stretch out on the couch and add a second pillow under my head. Comfy... sleepy...
I take the dog out again. Short walk. Water the grass.
Phew, nearly exhausted again. Skins still getting whupped. Rams still winning. Good fun. Socks off. Double-pillowing...
Eagles rally. Great game goes to overtime. I eat Mint Chip ice cream.
I cook Tollhouse cookies (from pre-packaged, pre-shaped dough) in the toaster oven. Jessica and I eat them and enjoy NFL highlights on ESPN. Life = Good.
Sopranos are on. I'm grilling soy-ginger chicken and more corn. I keep pausing the show when I run out back to attend to the grill. Jessica wants to kill me. Tony wants to kill the rat in Maine.
The chicken rocks. What's going on with that horny priest? Weird.
Titans are losing at home in the ESPN Sunday Night game. That hour without football was tough..
Titans still losing. They look like the Bears on offense. Weird. One of the replacement referees sounds EXACTLY like Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazzard. "Howwwwlding... ten yard penultee!" I lay down to watch the second half on the office couch. The dog climbs up and lays down next to me. Uh-oh...
I wake up. Walk the dog one more time. Try to do some work at my desk. No chance. I lay back down and watch ESPN NFL Tonight recap.
I wake up. Time to go to bed. Only about 15 hours until Monday Night Football...
posted by Matt P | 9/10/2001
Last night, Smirky held a shmancy state dinner for Mexican President Vicente Fox, but to top it off, provided a late-night fireworks display. Two problems with this: first off, the pyrotechics cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars (make that "YOUR dollars," as the GOP likes to say) and furthermore, the noisy fireworks alarmed and woke thousands of D.C. residents, who, incidently weren't invited to the party or a viewing of the lightshow.
posted by Matt P | 9/6/2001
A picture is worth...
Check out the rest of the W. gallery over at Media Whores Online
posted by Matt P | 9/6/2001
1. The Onion has published one of the funniest damn things I've read in months: God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back To All His Niggaz:
As a further sign of His love for the hip-hop community, God assured the nation's rappers that He is taking good care of all their peers currently with Him in heaven.
2. My favorite read on the web is back: Don't miss Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback over at Slate.
4. There is no "shark crisis." The media frenzy (check out Time Magazine's ridiculous cover story on THE SUMMER OF THE SHARK)is convincing millions of Americans that the nation is gripped with a shark-attack "epidemic." One problem: it's not true. Not only is there not a significant increase in shark attacks this year, but more people will die this year from bee strings, wasp strings, snake bites, or aligator attacks. Be careful or Time Magazine will print another irresponsible cover story: THE SUMMER OF THE BEE STING!
posted by Matt P | 9/5/2001
Just weeks after racist xenophobic homophobe Jesse Helms announced he won't be running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, smug hypocritical right-wing toady Phil Gramm announced that he, too, shall retire. Swell. Don't let the door hit your size 54 ass on the way out... Go the hell back to Texas and try to keep your blubbering yap shut from now on, Kermit.
posted by Matt P | 9/4/2001
