Belated Recognition

seems Tom L. over at Inverse Square went on an extended Whack-A-Megan mission while I was on vacation. That link is just the first of four long, good, posts he produced detailing the level of dishonesty involved in just one of Megan's lies in a single post. On one hand I greatly appreciate it when people better qualified for it than I take Megan's work apart on the specifics, it's not really my thing and it reminds folk there's a reason to place zero confidence in any assertion she makes, but on the other hand a smart and decent guy had to stare long and hard into Megan's dense core of stupid, which is never pleasant.
The topic in this case is Megan's old reliance on a Rand study commissioned by Pfizer to argue that the reduced innovation pharma execs would apparently cause via temper tantrum if their profit margins were reduced by health care reforms would cost us all many years of life expectancy, which is to say it would cost lives. I think Susan and I poked at the issue at the time (I'd provide links but the archive search function from Blogger seems to have become completely useless), but Tom goes into a much greater level of detail on this attempted case of emotional blackmail in place of argument.

Don't Make Me Get the Belt

Alright, TBogg, I'm calling you the fuck out!

That thing I said about Sarah Palin goes fucking double triple quadruple infinitle for fucking Carrie Prejean.

You are contributing to the steady decay of America's soul and I am not going to fucking take it anymore. You keep this shit up and she's gonna be on reality TV and I'm going to have to hear about her all the fucking time and, OMG,fuck you TBogg. Why do you hate me?

Gotta admit, though, the title's pretty hilarity!!!!!

Because (One of) You Demanded It

The Atlantic's James Bennet Is Ad Age's Magazine A-List Editor of the Year, apparently.

Don't feel bad, even Ad Age doesn't know who he is, they just know how well he places products and sells that placement in the off the record paid salons which produce a large portion of the revenues he's being credited with. So yes, technically The Atlantic is still edited, and some tool named James Bennet is in charge of the pretense, though he doesn't put much effort into it.

"I really do believe that we rise or fall on the strength of our writers and bloggers," he says. "They're the stars."

which is why he doesn't require them to perform fact or grammar checks of their work before clicking "submit post".
Such is blogging.

We'll Be Right Back After This Message From Our Sponsors

Kindle Goes on a World Tour:

Amazon just dropped the price of its Kindle from $299 to $259, and is apparently adding an international version for $279 that will work on GSM networks abroad. The company plans to sell the new Kindle in 100 countries.

I'm being unfair, tho, this isn't about product placement, it's about Megan.

It will never be as common as the iPod or cell phone, but the time is pretty quickly coming when it won't attract questions from strangers when I pull it out.

She also thinks that dropping the price to $200 would make lots of people want to pay $200 to be able to buy books that can run out of battery power. Who wouldn't pay $200 for entry to a bookstore where the lights go off if you stay too long and which will soon be made obsolete by a slightly shinier bookstore with slightly longer lasting lights across the street which you'll have to pay another $200 to get into? Oh, and you can't take the books you buy out of the store. You're paying for a license to look at them, not to own the books themselves.

Good Lord

way off topic, but for those of you who read Fire Joe Morgan, I present the horror that is Buzz Bissinger writing for eventheliberal New Republic "against Moneyball".
Yes, that Buzz Bissinger.

To put it in shorter form; hah, the A's can't find market inefficiencies to take advantage of right now, which justifies my childish hatred of Billy Beane for being a better athlete, better looking, smarter, and more popular. In fact, if Billy Beane was soooooo smart, how come teams are now paying large amounts of money for the skills he had identified as being undervalued? Dumb loser can't even make the market stay inefficient.

The New Republic, dedicated to finding new ways to be reactionary, retrograde, and just plain wrong about more than just wars.

Enjoyables

This is pretty much a religious experience for me:

WON'T SOMEONE PLEAES THINK OF THE CORPORATIONS!?!?!?!

So apparently there's some kerfuffle going on somewhere on the internets. Some gold mining company or whatever basically took all their gold from Fort Knox and sold it a huge a profit and now they're paying their employees ridiculous amounts of money for being key advisers to the president's accountant or some shit. I dunno. It's all a bit technical and I can't keep this crap straight in my head. Inconsequential, really. What I want to know is, how does the gold mining company feel about it?

I defended the banks paying bonuses that had already been agreed before the crisis. But this really is ridiculous, and the banks should have known better, if only for PR reasons.

Oh nooooo! It's the return of bad PR! Those poor miners! What will this mean to them?

If they get an ugly new regulation regime, they'll have only themselves to blame. Whatever they really think, deep in their hearts, they're certainly doing their best to give the impression that they believe they are entitled to collect huge paychecks no matter what happens, and have the taxpayer pick up the tab for their mistakes.

Yes! Whatever they believe deep in their hearts! Who knows! I mean, sure, it looks like they're paying themselves hand over foot while seizing control of regulatory agencies through lobbying efforts, but appearances can be so deceiving. Unless you're brown, in which case appearances are everything.

If those silly saxophone players had just APPEARED to give a fuck, we never would've regulated 'em. Americans don't care about their loss of wealth and jobs, growing income inequality and what amounts to outright bribery of the American government! Nope, they just wanna believe that their corporations love them. Maybe someone could make some snazzy commercial for these bankers, like the ones for GE and shit where they make you feel all warm and fuzzy without even bothering to sell you a product. Then everything should be fine.

And Bachmann Liked It, Too

Lil Petey got a Senatorial shout out:

Not to brag on my fiance or anything, but I'm currently watching the Senate Finance Committee's testimony, and Senator John Cornyn just mentioned Peter's excellent article on the experience of the states with various health care reforms. He not only entered it in the congressional record, but also asked Elmendorf whether he had considered the Massachusetts health experience--the very question I asked this morning. Go Team McSuderman!

Megan?



All compliments are not created equal.

Depressing Shit I Hadn't Noticed

David Lynch signed the "free Polanski" big name Hollywood French artist organization's petition. Woody Allen, sure, he's a statutory incestuous rapist himself, so it'd be hypocritical for him not to support Polanski, but Lynch disappoints me. I realize Polanski's kind of behavior is fodder for Lynch's imagination, but that doesn't make it something we as a society should tolerate. Rape is quite horrible enough in and of itself, but to call a life of luxury and privilege everywhere but in the US a punishment is fucking stupid. No talent is great enough to excuse crimes like rape or murder, and using status and/or wealth to escape justice is just as wrong. I can't help but think if this were the case of a redneck who raped his stepdaughter in Georgia then lived under a false name in Arizona for 20 years many of the same people would sign a petition arguing against clemency.
I don't mean to sound wingnutty, I'm just sad David Lynch would allow personal familiarity and the artist's privilege to excuse this bullshit.

*sigh* Buck Henry signed it. And Terry Gilliam, though after Tideland I suppose I'm not shocked, and Scorsese, and many more disappointing names. I realize the petition is supposed to be about a defense of the festival, but that, also, is bullshit. Film festivals do not have the ability to extend diplomatic immunity, and there's a clear difference between Polanski and a criminalized political dissident.

So yes, I'm back, tho I'll probably need a couple days to stretch my legs and get back into form. Any lowlights that Nutella didn't get to? I haven't looked at Megan's output in at least 10 days.

Keep Going to the Well

hahahahahahahahaahhaahah:

Dow 10,000!!!

We hit it! Amidst all the excitement, it's worth remembering that if we had just two more fingers, we'd still be waiting for it to hit 20,736.

hahahahahahahahahaha

That one never gets old!

The Dow finally surpassed 36,000 today, restoring faith not only in our economy, but in James Glassman and Kevin Hackett, whose Dow 36,000 became an icon of the tech bubble gone wrong. To be sure, they were 12 years early. But what's 12 years between friends?

Can't you just imagine her typing this with a stupid smirk on her face thinking "Damn, I'm so clever. These guys are lucky to have me around."