Pre-Olympic Open Thread
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References -
Or maybe we need a caption contest! Hint, what would that gesture mean in Brazil?
--Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.
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)Here.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent )“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
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| parent )Lookin' reeeeeeal good."
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )someone's back on the sauce. You guys must have the same newsfeed. :)
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )Via John Cole:
Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.
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| parent )To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent ). . .I'm going to get something out of my system before I write the Olympic diary:
SUCK ON THAT, FRANCE!!!
OK, I feel better now--back to the diary. :-)
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)Someone's back on the sauce.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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)Isaac Hayes: 1942-2008.
Though it ended badly, his time as the voice of Chef on South Park will insure that he is remembered fondly for many years to come--and deservedly so.
Godspeed, Mr. Hayes.
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)And heard a tune called Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic. The year was 1970 as I recall. One of the brothers was playing it on his stereo. I sat down on his bunk and was fascinated, in only the way a white stranger can approach such a tune.
Let me stop procrastinatin'
Standin' hear, and narratin'
Find my emancipator, she's a love educator
Cerebral, cerebellum, amedulla oblongata
A slave's on a horse, everytime she explores
Just heard a discussion about a racial relationship
Now what...I...say
Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic
Before you became a self-aware participating parody of yourself, Brother Isaac, there was one white dude who sorta got what you were trying to say. I can't say I got the whole thing, but I learned the chords, and there was a day when I spent the whole day, learning those minor chords and ostinato solo notes and arpeggios on the beat up spinet, while Duke beat out the 2/2 on his trunk. And we must have played it a hundred times.
Well I tried to get it. Maybe I didn't get it. I couldn't possibly have gotten it. And now you're gone, and soon enough I will be, too. But down under the reverb on that mike and the distance between you and me, black man and white man, there was a harmonic and a ground. And if I'd had a wah and a Marshall, I'd have learned all the guitar breaks. Such were you to me.
Pass on, my brother. Pass on, black man. You left enough behind for some of us to remember.
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| parent )his reputation as one of the fathers of soul music will last a bit longer that a voice over for a cartoon. YMMV.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )But yep. The list of songs he wrote with David Porter is not only impressive, it more or less defines the Stax/Memphis sound.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent )Now I have to wish Nancy Pelosi good luck in getting re-elected.
Whoever sells short buses in that congressional district must make a fortune.
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)Greg Maddux has cleared waivers. Hopefully, that means he will be headed the way of the Dodgers soon, although they're apparently asking the Padres to pay the vast majority of his salary (if that's true, Coletti is an even bigger idiot than I thought, and he deserves to have the Padres tell him to go take a flying f**k at a rolling donut).
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)But they could sure use a pitcher.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent ). . .on the West Coast (oddly enough, the consensus seems to be that means "only the Dodgers", though it would also seem to fit several other teams, including the Angels). His home city is Las Vegas--I'm surprised that he apparently wouldn't be interested in going to the D-Backs.
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| parent )Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.
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)Can't bounce a quarter off Laura's a** no more.
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
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| parent )For those interested in the arguments for boycotting (not watching) the Olympics, please see the info/link I added here http://theforvm.org/diary/brooks-and-b-rational/boycott-genocide-olympics#comment-109058 re: Mia Farrow's daily webcast from Darfur. I won't embed stuff like that on these Olympic threads, nor will I lay out arguments on these threads, because I don't want to impose. I think it's not too jerky, though, for me to just post links here to such stuff on my "Genocide Olympics" thread as I've done with this comment.
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)Given the problems of time zones and whatnot, I'll probably end up posting about one Olympic diary every two days, with some kind of reasonably unified theme for each one. The first one should be up tomorrow evening.
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)And doesn't realize this is de facto support for dictators everywhere. Meanwhile, for those who enjoyed the opening ceremony spectacle? It was largely due to director Zhang Yimou -- responsible for very good movies small (Happy Times, Long Road Home) and large (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). Oh. And he also discovered by Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi.
Wowzer.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent )I know he was a great gymnast, but the idea of being thrown around on a wire like that at his age (he'll be 45 next month) is a bit horrifying to me. Not to mention that if some terrorist had wanted to make some kind of display, sabotaging that performance would have been high on the list of symbolic targets if they had found out about it in time, and it was a long way down.
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| parent )Godspeed, Bernie Mac.
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)Relative of US Olympian murdered in Beijing: murderer takes own life to avoid capture.
When I heard the details of this incident, I thought about the incident during the men's marathon in Athens four years ago, when a lunatic tackled Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, knocking him off the track and delaying him before spectators grabbed the attacker and let de Lima continue on to an eventual third-place finish:
If that guy had had a knife, things could have been far, far worse--as the Chinese and their many guests have been reminded to their sorrow.
My condolences to the victim's friends and family.
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)I met a hero yesterday:
http://theforvm.org/diary/brooks-and-b-rational/boycott-genocide-olympics#comment-108954
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)Four years after Michael Phelps tried for eight gold medals in Athens and fell but two short, Pat Forde of ESPN.com handicaps Phelps' eight races as he tries again in Beijing.
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)Just came over CNN
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)Now we can leave behind the distractions of a Russo-Georgian war, and get back to real news.
(Though I'm wondering - might both Edwards' admission and the fight for South Ossetia have been arranged by the folks calling for a boycott of the Beijing-o-lympics? If so - brilliant!)
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )to steal my script? ;)
EDIT/ Never mind, I see he wasn't. What a clown. Now he's a dead man talking.
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| parent )Edwards has been done for a while now, but it has nothing to do with this story about his personal life.
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| parent ). . .for AG in a potential Obama Administration. That's done, and blessedly so.
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| parent )- Login or register to post comments
| parent )- Login or register to post comments
| parent )have I got a real estate investment for you:
The Shire is unique, fearlessly created to the vision of developer Ron Meyers and a team of designers to help implement his vision. The Shire's homeowners will share this unique vision to have their community and primary residence beyond the ordinary incorporated with the values and charms of a different age.
Unfortunately, it looks like Saruman has escaped again and is working his evil:
The rise and fall of Bend’s real estate economy has resulted in foreclosure proceedings against The Shire, a village-themed concept in southeast Bend patterned after J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series.
This is an unbelievable opportunity, I'm guessing that you'll be able to pick up a cottage at a huge discount from the current asking price ($600K and up). Heck, the way the real estate market is going you may be able to pick up the entire village for a pittance. No need to thank me on this one, I've never seen a concept and a person so perfectly fitted for each other. I'll be keeping my eye out for a "Buffy" themed development.(:
--I blame it all on the Internet
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)Little tip for anyone going there: they *really* hate the song "Short People." ]:-)
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| parent )Sean Austin is working there saying "Mr. Frodo" all the time what's the point?
--“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
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| parent )SAG could buy it and turn it into a retirement community for little people.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )This is my favorite story of the week! Why on earth didn't you make it into a separate diary with pix, so it could be voted up? ;)
Just linked my wife to it--she says we're going to change our name to 'Underhill' and go buy ourselves a retirement hole there...
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| parent )that moving there means she'll be doing all the weaving and cooking while you go out on multi-year quests against orcs and trolls. Seriously, I just don't see you as a swords and sorcery kind of guy, I would think the Elvish folk singing would drive you mad.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )She already does all the weaving and cooking. And she's under the impression that she's married to Merlin. Except she makes me shave.
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| parent )the mp3s of your version of The Lays of Beleriand. I hear you play a mean hornpipe.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )**goes back to reading Narn i Chîn Húrin**
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )since I got here ;)
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| parent )I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )... if you're just blowing your own horn?
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )... so much as mentioning the "Lays of Beleriand" makes you the single dorkiest dork ever to dork it up on the Forvm - which is, I'm sure everyone will agree, pretty damn dorky to begin with.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )a Diplomacy player named after a misanthropic philosopher calling someone else a dork? There simply are no words in any language to describe that, but I'll try coining one: retardenfreude. You've already got solitary covered, now back off or I'll get all poor, nasty, brutish, and short on your ass.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )... in the social retardation of others?
Yeah, sounds about right.
(And me? I'm nasty, brutish, and long.)
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )I set up a "Diplomacy Corner" for you guys. Here it is:
<
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )Hank has way crossed the Silmarrilion here.
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| parent )both on the posting rules and adherence to the LOTR mythos.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )Everyone knows it was elf money, not a river.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )Break the system from within! No one can possibly keep up with us.
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| parent )it looks like no one wants to.
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )Special Collections which house the Tolkien papers.
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| parent )We both knew what he was talking about.
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| parent )It's pretty blatant overcompensation on my part.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )or wear Lederhosen at cons or anything, right? And you haven't invented your own Elvish tongue based entirely on consonants, as a high school classmate of mine once did?
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| parent )... never tried to learn Quenya, that's for damn sure.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )I'd like to note that Russia and Georgia are now very close to outright war. Both sides have launched air and artillery attacks, and Georgian troops seem to have gained control of the capital of South Ossetia. In response the Soviets, er, I mean Russians, have bombed an airfield outside Tbilisi and Russian TV news has shown a column of 90 tanks on the highway into Georgia.
This war is complicated by Georgia's NATO ties--it had been promised though not granted membership--and Russia's proud history of armed intervention inside its neighbors' teritory, in this case in defense of its own Caspian oil pipeline, as opposed to Georgia's proposed one, which would divert oil to Turkey. Further, under Turkish blessing, anywhere from 100 - 1000 Israeli advisors are training and in some cases fighting with the Georgian troops.
Will this become a second Chechnya? I can't see how--Georgians are tough but can't count on the inflow of aid from the Muslim world that sustained the Chechens. And there are only 18,000 soldiers, including reservists, in the Georgian army, according to the AP.
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)http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/the-trouble-wit.html
--Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.
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| parent )... Maria comments that
Anyway, this whole mess had been very much of the periphery of my (often-times peripheral) foreign-policy awareness, but, all in all, I wonder if the best case scenario is for Georgia to bow, to scrape, and to realize its place.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )Actually Georgia's best policy would have been to bought some of those post-Soviet nukes we're always reading about.
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| parent )is that NATO will be a lot more circumspect in offering membership in the future (Georgia is not a member, but they were promised a path to membership a few years ago).
--I blame it all on the Internet
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| parent )... some folks might be a little more circumspect about going after that membership in the first place.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )The ever-remarkable Janet Evans shares some thoughts about the upcoming Olympic swimming competition.
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)Opening Ceremonies Uniforms.
--~At times like these I am reminded of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...."I drank what?"
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):)
--Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to intense skeptical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your
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| parent )US men win 1-0 downing japan
US Women lose opener 2-0 to Norway..
Wambach breaking her leg in the tune up with brazil in mid july seems to have hurt... She was considered the best center forward in the world on the womens side...
Opening cerimonies at 0730 eastern time..
--Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to intense skeptical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your
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)I was running late, as usual, as I entered the Alexis Hotel (slogan: When the Four Seasons doesn't suck up to you enough). It was difficult to find Harley and Bird Dog at first, since there appeared to be some sort of transsexual conference going on. I asked an attractive but rather husky voiced woman at the bar if she could spot any non-gay men in the room. It took her a few minutes, but eventually she pointed me to a small table in the corner.
It was great seeing Harley again, despite the rather ill effects the campaign season has taken on his health. I shook his hand (only slightly fracturing some of the bones in his wrist) and said "HARLEY!! IT'S HANK!!". He cast a rheumy eye in my direction and mumbled something about damn Hillary lovers and pseudo Democrats, then lapsed back into a classy looking semi conscious state.
Bird Dog, on the other hand, was a strapping hulk of a man. In between getting the phone numbers of various heavily made up women with protuberant Adam's apples, he showed his appreciation for my visit by repeatedly and good-naturedly punching me in the shoulder. (The tingling in my arm has lessened to the point that I feel comfortable typing now.) We discussed various current events, with BD humorously suggesting that I copulate with various small mammals in geometrically interesting ways and Harley sporadically chiming in about how he used to work with Buster Keaton.
The evening passed very pleasantly in this manner, with BD's shouts of "Obama sucks!" and the occasional 911 call to have Harley defibrillated livening up the ambiance, until at least it was time for us to part and go our various ways. After we had wheeled Harley up to his room, hooked him up to his respirator and put in one last 911 call for good luck, BD laughingly wrestled me to the ground and gave me some friendly advice about how to vote in the election. I got home to the great relief of my wife, who for some reason worries about me disappearing "after meeting with all those Internet losers" and my daughters eager questions highlighted by the rolling of her eyes and comments about how "nobody cares about your loser Internet friends, old man." All in all an excellent night, and a fitting follow-up to my meeting last month with the East Coast contingent of
Internet losersforvm regulars.[apologies to Harley and BD, we actually had a great time. I'll post the pictures tomorrow.]
--I blame it all on the Internet
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)It's fun paddling.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent )Traveller
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| parent )I was there ;)
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| parent )I'm drinking heavily in a Seattle hotel bar with Bird Dog and Hank. Bonus cultural event? The hotel is hosting a Cross Dress For Success night.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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)Seems to be some sort of national movement. Last week at Metro Center I saw a hulking 6'5" male lawyer smeared with lipstick and wearing a summery frock tottering away in high heels at great speed toward the metro entrance pursued by a gang of black teenagers who were literally rolling on the sidewalk laughing. It was, I fear, contagious.
The laughter, I mean, not the cross-dressing. Yesterday I passed the same lawyer, this time wearing a conventional three-piece suit. The expression on his face was one I would describe as a scowling sort relief at his own physical security mixed with a wistful, yet wary, yearning for attention. Welcome to how the other half lives, bud.
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| parent )...the Halston dress with the ponytail, but it worked! He looked smashing! ;)
The funny part was wondering which bathroom the trannies would use. I saw one go into the ladies'.
BTW, damn fun evening.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent ).
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )...looking *good*. That's part of the compulsion. It's a fascinating compulsion that a lot of guys have. And a lot of guys pull it off horribly. Fascinating and sad at times. So, "success" means pulling it off well, I'm guessing. I've been acquainted with two of them in my business affairs. Both competent, nice guys, with this tinge of sadness. The one that pulled it off better was the less sad of the two.
--Me: We! -- Ali
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| parent )and who picked the venue?
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
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| parent )So I plead guilty. The Trannie event was just a bonus. A lotta guys with big shoulders and big shoulder straps. Northwest drag.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent )Gotta admire the skill and effort involved in pulling together a decent, cohesive ensemble around plaid flannel and Doc Martens.
--Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. - W. Somerset Maugham
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| parent )Manual or Automatic?
--“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
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| parent )Inquiring minds want to know.
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| parent )I believe there are photographs documenting the event.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
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| parent )was detained and subjected to the treatment afforded any would-be visitor to Beijing.
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). . .at least you're not accusing the Bush Administration of conspiring with the Chinese to harass the Dubya-hostile media. . .though I'm sure someone at dKos or HuffPost has made the suggestion by now.
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| parent )In a recapitulation in fast-forward of Warhol's Fifteen Minutes, Our Fearless Leader got in his talk about Press Freedom for the Headline News before going to the Big Time Frolicks at Bird's Nest Stadium.
The Chinese smiled grimly and had their own Take 2 on Press Freedom in the People's Republic.
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| parent )...that collapse from the smog? Great idea there, holding the Olympics in one of the most polluted cities in the world.
--Guard, protect and cherish your land, for there is no afterlife for a place that started out as Heaven.
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)Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico City in 1968 were pretty awful, from all reports--and Mexico City was high altitude to boot. Long distance runners were really getting hammered.
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| parent )for the Post Olympic open thread. :)
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
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)To the tune of a .565 BA with 4 HR and 9 RBI since joining the Dodgers, as young Dodgers phenom Clayton Kershaw shuts down the Cards on three hits over seven innings as the Dodgers prevail, 4-1.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Let me enjoy it while it lasts.
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)