Author Archive
Our Morning Roundup: ‘Hasan Was an Avid Redskins Fan’
Somber morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to what will probably be my last Freedom Friday. Henceforth, I'll be doing the morning roundups on the Arts Desk. In genuinely somber news, Major Nidal M. Hasan, prime suspect in yesterday's shootings at Ft. Hood, was home-grown. WaPo's reporting reveals a rather mundane yet devout religious man who didn't want to see his theological brethren slain in a pointless war, but whose ultimate expression of that anxiety was not only pointless, but grotesque and heartbreaking. In other words: Sick shit begets sick shit.
Prepare yourselves for all kinds of anti-Islam vitriol in the coming days and weeks; stuff that will likely dwarf anti-teabagger sentiments and provide some sort of twisted justification for prolonging our military's stay in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Our Morning Roundup: Chuck Lane Strikes Back
Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to Freedom Friday! Today's topic: Chuck Lane, former editor of the The New Republic and promoter of the conventional wisdom on the editorial pages of the Washington Post. For those of you who missed last week's FF, I said some not nice things to Chuck. Why did I say those things? Because Chuck Lane was acting like a dick.
Note to The Week and Others: Check Links Before you Retweet
This morning, The Week's twitter account retweeted an item from twitter user Brandee C., who had retweeted a link from Random House, promoting a list by Tracy Kidder of his favorite books. Only problem? The link The Week retweeted wasn't actually for Kidder's piece (which you should read). Instead, the link that The Week sent out to its 5,547 followers, courtesy of Brandee C., took them to a Japanese porn site (this link will take you to Brandee's tweet, but clicking the hyperlink you see there probably won't be safe for work.)
Twitter users frequently retweet something--essentially pass it along--without checking the content of the link. My guess is that the magazine assumed Brandee C.'s retweet, since it arrived via Random House, was legit. Brandee C., however, obviously likes to read about books while surfing Japanese porn, and in her/his excitement, confused the links.
I responded to the magazine via twitter, and The Week has since fixed the link, and deleted the original retweet.
Let this be a lesson to us all: Check those links before you retweet.
Our Morning Roundup: Marijuana Is so Going to Be Legal One of These Days Despite Hacks Like Charles Lane Edition
Good morning City Desk readers, and welcome to the dawn of a new era of freedom (Friday!). This week, the Justice Department announced that medical marijuana--and the people who sell it through dispensaries and the people who smoke it with a scrip--is no longer one of its concerns.
Do I want to be elated? You betcha. But then I had a total downer moment this morning, courtesy of the Washington Post's Charles Lane. In a post titled "'Medical Marijuana' Is a Trojan Horse," Lane argues that weed has very few medicinal properties and that we're all just using it for recreation, and that that's wrong because it's not honest.
Then he compares the medical case for marijuana to the scientific case for creationism.
Our Morning Roundup: Rush Just Needs Somebody to Love
Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to a cold, wet Freedom Friday. If I didn't know better, I'd say god has blackened the cursed sun! OMG, y'all, I totally called that whole thing with Balloon Boy. Darrow can tell you. That flying popcorn bag landed on the television, and the cops cut it open with an axe, and Falcon was not in there, and I said, "I bet he untethered that puppy by accident, freaked out that his dad was going to beat his ass, and hid somewhere around the house." Darrow called the garage. We were half right.
More half-rightness after the jump.
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Dressing Like Che Will Cost You Your Paycheck
It's not Freedom Friday yet, dear City Desk readers--YET!--but I couldn't resist sharing this ridiculous bit of fashion goodness (and no, FTC, J. Crew is not paying me to blog about this).
Introducing: The Belstaff® Che Guevara replica jacket:
Our Morning Roundup: Prez Obama Further Alters the Nature of Reality
What the hell, City Desk readers? President Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize! Even though he's done nothing for peace! Brief thoughts on this: Norwegians are much, much more sentimental, European, and borderline-retarded than anyone realizes. Also, Obama won, basically, for not being George W. Bush. How else to explain the fact that he had been in office for a little over a week when he was nominated for the prize, and had yet to officially do nothing to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Incidentally, the Taliban are also disappointed in the Norwegians:
"We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP....
"When Obama was elected president, we were hopeful he would keep his promise to bring change. But he brought no change, he has continued the same old strategy as (President George W.) Bush.
I don't mean to further offend the sycophants on the prize committee, but I have to say, the Taliban kinda sorta have a stake in this. Granted, they are shitty and stupid and regressive. But they're also getting bombed and shot by USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
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Our Morning Roundup: Yvette Alexander Knows Almost Nothing About Gas Station Profit Margins Edition
Good morning, dear City Desk readers, and welcome to an especially incensed edition of Freedom Friday!
You know what's got my goat this morning? Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander's horrendous crusade against single cigar sales. The kids use them to smoke the marijuana, sure. But the kids will smoke out of anything! The cigarette foil, the hollowed-out apples, the dented cans, the Sobe bottles, the garden hoses, the seasonal squash, the hollowed-out hot dogs, the pens, and even the ground! And you know what? A 14-year-old who can score weed and a single cigar knows how to make things happen. Smoking out of the ground will be a cakewalk for these kids!
And the worst thing about Alexander's crusade--the worst!--isn't her nanny instincts, but this horrible, off-the-cuff lie:
Our Morning Roundup: Taxi Cab Confessions
Good morning City Desk readers, and welcome to the first Fall Freedom Friday! Or something! So: Ted Loza. Smart cat. Why? Well, because if his boss' claims are true, Loza got money for nothing. Per the excellent reporting of one Mike DeBonis, Mr. Jim Graham has claimed Loza had nothing to do with cab regulations that are being put into place: "Going one step further, I had never had any conversation with Teddy Loza where he came to me and he said, ‘Will you do this or will you do that?", Graham said.
Does this mean that Loza promised someone taxi cab regulation in exchange for money after he knew the regulation was going to be approved regardless of his influence? If so, that's brilliant and appalling. Then again, Graham could be lying his head off. Note to bribe-easy pols, we need more cabs with fewer regulations. Why? Because people need jobs and I NEED RIDES AND NOT THE KIND AT THE CARNIVAL.
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Our Morning Roundup: This Dude Abides
Good morning, y'all! I'd say, "welcome to a blah blah Freedom Friday," but I'm not really feeling it today. You see, our annual Fall Arts Guide hit the streets yesterday, and that's got me happier than a pig in shit, what with all the blood, sweat, and open weeping I put into it. That also means we're avoiding politics on Freedom Friday today, and instead celebrating fun things that we can all enjoy!
After the jump: IS CHEESE DIP DEEP SOUTHERN? DOES THE DUDE ABIDE?
Tonight: Teza at Avalon
Fans of independent film and foreign affairs should see tonight's screening of Haile Gerima's Teza, hosted by WPFW and the European Commission.
Gerima's film follows Anberber, a displaced Ethopian who studied medicine in Germany with hopes of bringing his skills back home, only return to a country ravaged by the Marxist dictator Haile Mariam Mengistu.
An interview with Gerima, and venue details, after the jump.
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Our Morning Roundup: RIP, AHOD; You Won’t Be Missed
Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to a slightly soggy Freedom Friday!
"All Hands on Deck," Chief Cathy L. Lanier's unconstitutional excuse for setting up roadblocks and checkpoints, is done--but not because it violated the Fourth Amendment. No, AHOD is dead because "police union officials have long decried the AHODs as essentially a publicity stunt that generate goodwill for politicians at the expense of rank-and-file officers."
Christ almighty: "We'll stop this thing we're doing that's illegal, but only because the people we've asked to do it ARE TIRED OF DOING IT SO MUCH. " If you're disappointed that AHOD is kaput--and at least one of you is--then you obviously never had anything to hide and are probably an incredibly boring person. The rest of us will be celebrating the return of our right to no unreasonable searches and seizures at an undisclosed location. ORWELLIAN SAPS ARE NOT INVITED.
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Our Morning Roundup: The (9/11) Truth Hurts
Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to another addition of Freedom Friday. How about that Van Jones, huh? Obama's enviroczar yodeled down on himself an avalanche of hate after a video of him calling Republicans "assholes" was found on the internet and explicated by the savants at FOX News. Why this irritated Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter, who are both total assholes, is still being investigated.
Really, the good thing about the blowup was that it drew additional attention to Jones, providing further publicity to the allegation that he is a 9/11 Truther.
Alice Swanson’s Family Made a New Memorial
Anna Shoup emailed City Paper with news that Alice Swanson's aunt was at the intersection of Connecticut and R streets NW today, where she replaced her niece's memorial ghost bike (which the Department of Public Works removed on Friday) with flowers and a hand-written sign that reads, "Why has the mayor taken the bike?"
Alice Swanson Memorial Removed
The ghost bike memorializing cyclist Alice Swanson has been removed. Swanson was killed at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and R Street NW on July 8, 2008. The snow-white bike had remained there since shortly after the tragedy. She was hit by a trash truck while she was riding her bicycle to work.
The bike's removal came in response to complaints from Dupont Circle business owners, according to both Anna Shoup, Swanson's roommate, and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
