Snow Job

I'll assume Mlle. McArdle & both of my co-bloggers (Atlantic Seaboarders all) are snowed in, have lost their Internet connections to various manifestations of snow/ice/sleet, or something, explaining their lack of activity (Just have a note from your ISPs or a doctor on my desk Monday morning.)

In passing, I'll note that Ms. McA., who's been living, looking, listening & reading in this country for the better part of 34 yrs., is still amazed by hyperbole in advertising:

You know, I care about good credit and all, but I am not under the illusion that if my credit suffers, I will have to move into my parents' basement; presumably I will still have income.

That is awfully presumptuous of her. Many employers are looking beyond mere criminal records these days; your credit report can be as much a hindrance to an income that'll keep you out of the fianceé's mother's basement as that drunk & disorderly conviction from spring break. Many landlords are concerned w/ your credit rating as well, I might add. But some of us never have to worry about that, because we're just so smart that we're always making the "moral" choice, aren't we?

In the "drunk & disorderly" parts of Friday's Asymmetrical action, we are given a recipe for "hangover cure pasta." More of that false advertising mentioned above, as is (admittedly) admitted:

It was christened by a friend who believes that its alcohol-absorbing qualities are a sovereign cure for excessive imbibement.

A fine theory, except that the body recognizes alcohol as poison, & pumps it through the liver as quickly as possible, often ignoring nutritive substances that have somehow found their way into the digestive tract. Fortunately, some sound advice appears in the item, though you'll have to wait until the very end:

Serve with vitamin C, aspirin, and large quantities of water.

Why Ms. McArdle may need hangover cures: M. McArdle, & Reason columnists Dave Weigel & Cathy Young. From the Reason "Happy Hour," 8 March 2007. Why can't Mr. Weigel unclench his fists? Potential sexual harassment suits if he opens 'em up?

Shame: Not At Work Here

We see that McArdle has copped David Weigel's one-time WaPo end-of-day link dump title.

High School Gun Club

Well, the entire D. C. blog-o-sphere was all a-twitter w/ their exciting trip to the Trap & Skeet Center this weekend. McArdle did two items on it, as did Matt Yglesias, & an editor of Reason, David Weigel, who had only one item (& of course a picture of himself holding a gun). He really has a great "web log;" the comments are all closed, all the time. Even better is one Matt Fricke ("Awesome," Megan calls him) whose "web log" is closed to any but the invited. Really makes you wonder what goes on in there. However, his Flickr™ pages are available, if you want to see more ugly people standing awkwardly w/ shotguns. Ezra Klein, also at the skeet fest, resisted the urge to post anything about himself, but that may be because he seems to turn his web log over to others for the weekend, and is in New York today.

Two comments from Yglesias' web log:

Shooting would be much more fun if I didn't have to spend so much money and schlep out to a range or some deserted public land. I'm assuming those shotguns are rentals. Add shells, clays, and range time, it really adds up. Most of the time, I'd rather plink with a .22 and a brick of ammo at my leisure.
Posted by shecky

shecky, I'm w/ you on the .22 & a brick, but you must remember these are the children of the upper-middle class having a lark, fantasizing that they are the children of the wealthy class.
Posted by M. Bouffant

Of course real shooters, like shecky & this correspondent, either go to ranges & shoot at human silhouette targets (w/ our own damn guns, not rentals) or do indeed schlep out to public lands (I guess Megan would consider herself an immoral parasite/freeloader to make use of "the commons") &, in my case at least, shoot the crap out of the detritus of consumer society, especially electronic equipment.

And isn't it just like high school, when all the bloggers refer to each other by first names, as if all & sundry should just know who the "kewl kidz" are?

"Ezra's Got a Gun" "Matt seeks to avenge his parents." "Dave has also posted a picture..." "Matt, obviously, would play the forbidding enforcer. And Ezra, of course, is the idealistic young kid who is sucked into the blogger army by an urge for adventure and better health care policy, only to become disillusioned, giving us a thrilling plot as he fights to escape."

A bonus from Mr. Yglesias:

•Thursday: confused about all these signs and buttons in my neighborhood about the "Jena 6."
•Friday: reading some stories about the case and pondering the matter.
•Saturday: trying to decide what I should say in my blog post on the matter.

So there you have it, consciousness raised. Unfortunately, I do think there's a lot of truth to what McMegan says here, namely that the best resolution of this situation would be to go back in time and have the school board and the district attorney not handle the early days of the situation much more responsibly. Obviously, though, that's not an option.

Maybe he didn't catch McArdle's sloppy habits, I seldom peruse his web log, but is the word "not" in that paragraph really what he intends? Or did he intend to type "so irresponsibly" rather than "much more responsibly?" And did he know nothing of the Jena 6 before last Thursday?

"Consciousness raised," my ass! Sweet blood of jeezis, you fool, you don't have to spend more time at the fucking Olive Garden, but try to pay attention to whatever the fuck-tuck-tucking hell is actually occurring in the country!!

Fire them all, starting w/ Sully!!!