tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112116392012-01-28T14:00:43.843-05:00James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.comBlogger23291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-9562410400379171992012-01-28T10:43:00.002-05:002012-01-28T11:02:12.704-05:00

David Brooks, "Hope, but Not Much Change". January 26THE drool of idiots and the haughtiness of kings is in all eras the same; it's the flattery and excuses of the sycophants, the toadies, the mouthpieces, the Yes men and the ass-kissers that changes.There's no question about the discomfort being felt by the David Brooks/Mitch Daniels wing of the Republican party now that the Republican

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-71676577076777939562012-01-25T13:30:00.003-05:002012-01-25T14:04:44.434-05:00

HERE'S the best thing about Mitch Daniels giving the "rebuttal" to the State of the Union address: it got local news hairdos to talk about something other than how many days are left until the Super Bowl.And the worst thing? I happened to walk through the living room just in time to hear one of 'em say something about what an honor it was for Daniels to be picked.Because, look: this is one of the

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-88107916075781058812012-01-23T13:02:00.002-05:002012-01-23T13:20:38.457-05:00

ITEM: Bring Back Bill Clinton to stop Newt Gingrich! says guy in newspaper which sluiced Ken Starr's flaccid and leaky member and batted 1.000 while doing so. If by "batted a thousand" you mean "whiffed on everything, but gave Congressional Republicans enough cover to keep the investigation going 36 months longer than it should have, legally." By the way, I love how the same Press which has

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-3477031130589656892012-01-22T11:19:00.002-05:002012-01-22T11:32:26.941-05:00

Frank Bruni, "Of Mouselike Bites and Marathons". January 21Jane Black, "What Paula Deen didn't bring to the table". January 20FULL disclosure: George Eff Will's wife didn't do anything for Rick Perry, and my Poor Wife watches food porn. Two distinctions: my wife doesn't cook, and so inflicts those horrors on no one but herself, and her regular job actually benefits people, and society at large

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-88193509939296501212012-01-21T09:58:00.007-05:002012-01-21T10:14:51.560-05:00

SO Piers Morgan asks Rick Santorum how he'd counsel a raped and pregnant daughter:“I would do what every father must do: Counsel your daughter to do the right thing.You can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that too could ruin her life."“This is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that son or daughter was created, it still is

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-26103513751558136462012-01-20T12:50:00.002-05:002012-01-20T13:04:43.677-05:00

SHORTER David Brooks: "Sure, Mitt Romney's character has been shaped by piratical capitalism and kooky theology. But only the good parts."Okay, for starters: the issue with Bain isn't whether Mitt Romney obeyed the law, and it's certainly not whether we can find right-wing mouthpieces willing to defend him in public by spouting some blather about the American "system"; it's whether one can do

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-35057648679783423402012-01-19T11:19:00.001-05:002012-01-19T11:25:06.553-05:00

Chris Cillizza and Dan Balz, "Rick Perry to end presidential candidacy, expected to endorse Newt Gingrich". January 19LAST week someone--I negligently failed to note who--said that Colbert hid the utmost seriousness of purpose behind being silly, while the Media hides its profound silliness behind a guise of seriousness. So:Texas Gov. Rick Perry will end his bid for the Republican presidential

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-28971850940591071942012-01-18T13:57:00.002-05:002012-01-18T14:09:09.016-05:00

Robert Kagan, "Against The Myth Of American Decline". January 11IF there's one thing that keeps me going, it is the hope that during my lifetime someone will be able to explain how the United States foreign policy has, for seventy years now, come under the sway of a series of frauds and con men, from Dean Acheson and John Foster Dulles through Heinz Kissinger and Eliot Abrams to Dick Cheney and

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-47705281800246177702012-01-17T12:31:00.005-05:002012-01-17T12:51:11.984-05:00

NO, really: :The Indiana Chamber of Commerce said the ["Right to work"] bill currently being considered by legislators is "consistent with Dr. King's teachings.""People should have the choice as to whether or not they should belong and pay money to a union or any other organization," said Kevin Brinegar, president of the Chamber of Commerce. "They shouldn't have to be forced otherwise as a

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-51467025782905491722012-01-16T12:49:00.002-05:002012-01-16T13:01:52.134-05:00

Sam Tanenhaus, "History vs. the Tea Party". January 14SEVENTEEN-hundred forty-two words which begin with this:FOR more than two years, conservatives have been riding a wave of Tea Party insurgency that has formed the most dynamic force in American politics, a protest movement that promised to slash taxes, close the federal deficit and remake Washington.then spend the next 1702 trying to explain

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-43019086528893302102012-01-15T13:14:00.002-05:002012-01-15T13:20:32.616-05:00

Jonathan Martin, "Social conservatives back Rick Santorum". January 14MAYBE I'm moving too fast, here; maybe I should hold off until the Press gets around to naming all 150 "Conservative" "leaders" who took part in this pre-selection of the President of the Theocracy of South Carolina And Possibly Several Other States, Frequently Southern.I do understand, though; when you've got James Dobson,

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-5284275974169401512012-01-13T12:06:00.003-05:002012-01-13T12:33:28.209-05:00

David Brooks, "The C.E.O. in Politics". January 12Paul Krugman, "America Isn't a Corporation". January 12FOUR Januarys ago (are you still here?) it fell to David Brooks to explain to the millions of Democrats who hang on his every moderate word why Barack Obama's Magic Speechifyin' should trump The Inevitable Hillary. Come Spring, of course, it was his duty to explain to that same rapt and

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-72059457425794577122012-01-12T13:58:00.002-05:002012-01-12T14:03:03.610-05:00

Kathleen Parker, "Romney's rivals serve up a heaping helping of pious baloney." January 11SO, today's award-eligible assignment: crank out 771 words on the outrage of Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry, who are currently splitting 0.5% of the Republican vote, making such a huge issue of Mitt Romney saying he enjoys firing people, even though that's clearly Not What He Meant in Context.Watch for

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-41257300179206439762012-01-11T11:43:00.003-05:002012-01-11T12:11:13.460-05:00

I HAVEN'T had much to say about Mitch "Booster Seat" Daniels since the day he announced that his wife wouldn't let him run for President, which, oddly, was the same excuse John Wayne gave for staying home and making movies in which he won WWII singlehandedly instead of, you know, actually winning it singlehandedly on the side of the Pacific where it was actually fought. Except Wayne was

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-85299456926280891292012-01-09T12:05:00.004-05:002012-01-09T12:23:22.547-05:00

John Dickerson, "The Great Republican Humor Crisis of 2012: Why is this crop of presidential candidates so incredibly unfunny?" January 8Ouch.-St. Stephen, noted first century ad-libber TEST your psychic abilities! Here's the fourth line from the third paragraph of Dickerson's piece:Great presidents who faced trying times were known for their humor. See if you can guess divine the subject of

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-20151677763612480532012-01-07T11:21:00.004-05:002012-01-07T11:28:59.748-05:00

• Binyamin Appelbaum "A Hidden Cost of Military Cuts Could Be Invention and its Industries". One thousand, five hundred three words, of which one thousand fifty six have been excreted before we get this:Military spending does not compare well economically with many other forms of government spending, some experts say. Professor [Robert] Pollin [an economist at the University of Massachusetts,

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-47543971251168779882012-01-06T10:38:00.002-05:002012-01-06T12:50:55.155-05:00

Doyle McManus, "Is the tea party over?" January 5LEMME ask you: do you look around at US America and see anything real? It's a goddam landslide of crappy merchandise, crappy values, greed, shit-for-brains, guns n' penises, 19th century backwoods religious mania which was already theologically out of touch in the Age of Steam, and food unfit for mammalian consumption. And the whole thing is

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-79343260352844564812012-01-04T12:56:00.003-05:002012-01-04T13:06:30.698-05:00

SHORTER Ross Douthat*: Thank you, Iowa Republicans, for winnowing the horrible** into the merely disgustingly unpalatable, preserving, in the process, the one guy with a reasonable chance of winning a national election†, the Catholic†† religious nutcase, and the beard for Republican "libertarianism"‡.--------* Somehow the Times found a "conservative" who's willing to put a Panglossian spin on

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Mackenzie Weinger, "Gallup: Most fluid GOP primary ever". January 2David Brooks, "Workers of the World, Unite! " (Behind a Republican). January 2FIRST, does any one else smell fecal matter and propylene glycol?The lead for Republican front-runner has changed seven times since May, according to a Gallup report Monday, with Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich all making it to

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-70172226108181793562012-01-01T08:21:00.002-05:002012-01-01T08:31:06.593-05:00

Haley Barbour, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, and Herman Cain, "If I were campaigning for president…". December 30I'M NOT sure which I enjoyed more here: the one-stop reminder of how easily a couple of financial industry and National Association of Manufacturers shills like Mitch Daniels and Haley Barbour could become the "voices of reason" in the Republican party, or the recognition that it is

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-41360946237209734412011-12-29T11:10:00.003-05:002011-12-29T11:21:24.538-05:00

ROY Edroso has a has a blog. . David Weigel has a job with the Washington Post Corporation. Go on, see which one speaks plainly and reasonably about the Paul newsletters (we in no way mean to diminish the accomplishment), and which one spends forty-eight hours trying to absolve libertoonianism (and himself).(By the way, who, exactly, wrote the memo that told Slate columnists to step up the

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-38881332425980301902011-12-28T09:18:00.004-05:002011-12-28T09:24:36.759-05:00

ROY: When the dust settles I'm afraid it'll be Romney with a briefcase and a fountain pen, trying gosh-darned hard to get America to switch insurance companies.I'm no prognosticator, which means, above all, that I don't have to phone in one of these cutesy faux-self-deprecations at year's end (designed, you'll note, to reinforce the Offical Pundit Script even as they supposedly highlight what

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-9924444862414094162011-12-21T12:10:00.006-05:002011-12-21T12:26:38.587-05:00

Jindal tells Iowans that Rick Perry is the best choice for the GOP. AND I'm indebted to Halloween Jack for pointing out the picture above, at Roy's: Not a lot to add to the commentary on the text; I just wanted to mention the picture that accompanies the article, in which Perry possesses the mien of a used-car dealer who is telling you that the car that you're looking at is a great car, a steal

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-47763921821871592332011-12-20T12:34:00.002-05:002011-12-20T12:54:08.205-05:00

OUR story so far: in the 1920s the Indiana Klan took over state government. It's often noted that the Indiana Klan--which separated itself from the national Klan, probably so it wouldn't have to remit 10% of its rape victims to the home office--was more anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant than anti-black. (In my youth I would occasionally hear this factlet recounted as though the speaker was

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-56145229106715130372011-12-19T14:30:00.002-05:002011-12-19T14:42:13.548-05:00

Andrew Bacevich, "The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq marks the end of American supremacy". December 16SO the wingnuts are growing concerned they may sound too detached from reality to win a national election. This is the principle difference between a wingnut and a centrist.In fact, it may damn near be the only difference.In American history, every now and then we get a definitive ending. The crash

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-83212608187219865992011-12-18T13:09:00.002-05:002011-12-18T13:20:43.689-05:00

I'M NOT big on encomia--some of you may've already tumbled to that--but I think the recently deceased should, for the most part, be treated with decency or silence, unless the goddam procession takes longer than the worms do to do their work, à al Reagan. Just try to keep the poppy juice at reasonable levels. You don't need to black out to have a good time, kids.So Hitchens, fine. A sharp and

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-52570726006258184162011-12-15T12:44:00.003-05:002011-12-15T12:55:44.228-05:00

• Point Of Order: If We're Going To Declare The War In Iraq Over, Shouldn't We Declare War On Iraq First?Or, If We Were Going To Have The Last Person To Leave Iraq Turn Out The Lights, Shouldn't We Have Turned On The Electricity At Some Point?My favorite bit, so far: WaPo entitling a slide show "From swaggering hope to quiet departure". Which is like seeing a review entitled "Dance incompetently

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-33288808795656612612011-12-14T12:48:00.002-05:002011-12-14T12:54:51.260-05:00

Ross Douthat, " 'Strong Commentary' on the 2012 Election Consisting of Restating What George Eff Will Just Got Done Saying". December 13Most important, [Gingrich and Paul] represent two very different endpoints for the Tea Party movement. Paul, for all his crankishness, is the kind of conservative that Tea Partiers want to believe themselves to be: Deeply principled, impressively consistent, a

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-28115486021069450572011-12-12T12:57:00.002-05:002011-12-12T13:06:50.098-05:00

Ross Douthat "Professor Gingrich vs. Professor Obama". December 10ONE thing that can be said for Douthat, or at least for his otherwise inexplicable position at the Times: his ill-informed, un-reflective, graspingly obvious attempts to excuse nothing so much as a congenital late-20th century wingnuttery and an early 19th century backwoods religious mania make him the perfect spokesman for Young

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-48993239952839209262011-12-11T10:38:00.002-05:002011-12-11T10:41:30.383-05:00

George Eff Will, "Ron Paul, spoiler?" December 9SO the "conservative" intelligentsia is disconcerted by Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul now? It's like Ford coming out last week to express its concerns over the Pinto.Eff Will's had four decades to watch this happen to the Republican party, and it's still his party. He can sniff his dissent all he wants to, but it's still his party. The cracked and

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-10028501804319188752011-12-09T13:02:00.002-05:002011-12-09T13:12:57.943-05:00

David Brooks, "The Gingrich Tragedy". December 8TAKE my lunch money. Please:Of all the major Republicans, the one who comes closest to my worldview is Newt Gingrich. Despite his erratically shifting views and odd phases, he continually returns to this core political refrain: He talks about using government in energetic but limited ways to increase growth, dynamism and social mobility.In other

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-59918873468231577192011-12-07T07:36:00.006-05:002011-12-07T11:59:33.696-05:00

Mike Allen, "Why Newt's surge is for real". December 7TO begin with, as modern practice has it, there's nary a word here (in 1300) about "why" Newt's "surge" is "for real". That's meant to summarize the Script, not the piece.So, let's answer it: Why is Newt's "surge" for realz? Because Beltway bungholes like the Politico gang--Ross Douthat without the religious trappings--have decided it's more

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-51379943353205415332011-12-06T13:38:00.002-05:002011-12-06T13:45:52.204-05:00

Michael Moran, "On Defense, Silver Linings, Golden Opportunities". December 5FIRST, read Natalie Hopkinson's Op-Ed "Why School Choice Fails".I don't think I've written about education all semester. The simple reason is that, as the husband of a public school teacher, in a state infested by Mitch Daniels, the only thing left to do is howl. What happens with the "free marketeers" come in to save

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-11787751688235986342011-12-05T12:52:00.002-05:002011-12-05T13:05:29.815-05:00

SHORTER George Eff Will: "One look at the current Republican Presidential sweepstakes shows that faithful conservatives have insufficiently burnished to field to reflect my image." Interesting:Rick Perry (disclosure: my wife, Mari Will, advises him)I guess this would have been full disclosure had you revealed it when you wrote that Perry puffer last summer, or all those times since when you

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-77950567167070461802011-12-03T17:49:00.002-05:002011-12-03T18:20:02.785-05:00

The Obama administration is missing a golden opportunity if they don't immediately name this guy US Ambassador to Hoochiekoochieland, or Bongo-Bongo, or Fluoristan. And make a big ceremony out of putting him on the plane.

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-39495130819982194022011-12-03T09:42:00.003-05:002011-12-03T09:54:49.310-05:00

I'M NOT even gonna link the article, out of respect, since the author no doubt went home and killed his family before turning the gun on himself.Fer chrissakes, that headline; it's like the Escher print my math-major roommate hung in our dorm room, with the fish that turned into birds; by the time you get to the right-hand side you figure the white space must be where the meaning is, since the

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-49380875167979115852011-12-01T13:19:00.003-05:002011-12-03T09:42:39.386-05:00

George Eff Will, "The unintended consequences of letting darkies mingle with the Quality". November 30OKAY, so we're never going to be rid of that right-wing jungle fever thing, can we--forty years after Nixon used racial resentment to craft an obstructionist 19th century political coalition, thirty years after Reaganism destroyed the middle class, and less than a full term shed of the worst--

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-6250571193581459232011-11-29T11:18:00.002-05:002011-11-29T11:29:05.658-05:00

Emma Carmichael, "Bob Costas gasbags about showboating". November 28After I'd slammed Bob Costas' participation in that Jerry Sandusky photo op, it came as no surprise to me--or no more than the revelation that "gasbag" is now a verb--to find Costas being universally praised for it, not that I'm suggesting the two might be related. "He didn't let up!" I heard, over and over, as though the

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-63820638086905924432011-11-28T13:02:00.002-05:002011-11-28T13:10:08.084-05:00

Ross Douthat, "The Enduring Cult of Kennedy". November 27FOR starters, could we please be quit of Douthats, and Goldbergs, and Ben Shapiros (if we aren't quit of him already) recapitulating their parents' wingnuttery, uncomprehendingly, like children playing Ring Around the Rosy recapitulating the bubonic plague? * Ross Douthat doesn't know what happened in the 80s. So now he's going to correct

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-18186232829804253632011-11-25T12:10:00.003-05:002011-11-25T12:24:28.091-05:00

FIRST, Cheers! to the young libertarian entrepreneurs locally who realized that a mallful of unattended vehicles in the middle of the night was a fine place to search for treasure. If this seems insensitive on my part to dozens of good folk who had merely gone in search of the illusive Unbelievable Deal on Some Consumer Crap Guaranteed To Make Their Miserable Lives Less Miserable, only to have

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-86610115009230585522011-11-22T12:45:00.002-05:002011-11-22T12:56:29.509-05:00

DOWN goes the UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza; and OUT comes Linda Katehi to "accept full responsibility".So, in case you're keeping score, the pace of fact-finding has apparently accelerated dramatically between Friday and Monday--must be technology--and "accepting full responsibility" remains the method of choice for public officials to suffer no consequences of note, unless cellphone

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-84893025543333250012011-11-21T10:10:00.002-05:002011-11-21T10:18:00.291-05:00

TWO things: first, it does not take a week to convene a Special Blue Ribbon Panel, and it does not take a month to determine that iconic torture video, I'm sorry, tactical application of enhanced crowd control technique above represents something intolerable, both in a legal and a moral sense. Take Doughnut Boy's S&M getup away from him and he's going straight to the slam for aggravated assault.

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-74519938115415975042011-11-20T11:00:00.000-05:002011-11-20T11:00:07.125-05:00

Kathleen Parker, "The Palinization of the GOP". November 18HONESTLY, whaddya want for getting the point after thirty years? A Pulitzer?The headline on Democratic strategist Paul Begala’s recent Newsweek essay dodged subtlety: “The Stupid Party.”“Republicans used to admire intelligence. But now they’re dumbing themselves down,” was the subhead.Democrats couldn’t agree more.Sure, lady. Why would

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-87807876373413009592011-11-19T14:16:00.004-05:002011-11-19T14:24:58.978-05:00

There's a shower room where you do not want to drop your soap.IN Egypt earlier this year, the cops refused to attack the people. East Germany and then the whole Iron Curtain collapsed when the local cops wouldn’t smash heads when Erich Honecker ordered it. What about America? Where are the cops who walked off the job rather than attack their neighbors drowning in debt and despair?

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-33268161312506819852011-11-18T16:12:00.002-05:002011-11-18T16:27:36.395-05:00

Phillip Elliott,"Cain receives Secret Service protection". November 17Susan Saulny, "Cain Says 'We Need a Leader, Not a Reader' ". November 17LOOK, it's too late to excuse Herman Cain as a mutant amphibian harbinger of political ecosystem disaster. That was Richard Nixon. After him, if the system couldn't defend itself from Ronald Reagan, or Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Phil Gramm, Dick Armey,

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-65656808989444062452011-11-17T10:12:00.001-05:002011-11-17T10:12:00.760-05:00

SCOTT and Mary could use a little help. Go, click on the donate button in the top left corner, and feel good about yourself for once. I know I did. At least I think that's what that sensation was.

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-76757258232495751912011-11-16T13:53:00.003-05:002011-11-16T14:07:34.267-05:00

• Just-Barely-Shorter Ross Douthat on the Gingrich "Surge": Reality may eventually do Newt in, but to the extent that he resembles me--a reformed snake-handler who converted to Romanism for the better class of bigot one meets, an "intellectual" who yet manages to maintain a childlike sense of wonder at the shiny, pointy, and brightly colored, as well as a child's sense of United States history,

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-33328742839258660222011-11-15T13:49:00.002-05:002011-11-15T14:07:02.945-05:00

David Brooks, "Let's All Feel Superior". November 14STARTERS:An adult male who has sex with young boys is called a pederast. The word--wait for it!--comes to us from the Greek, via Latin, and entered the English language in the early modern period, around the middle of the 17th century, following pederasty, which entered in the early 17th.A young boy used for sexual services is known as a

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-13151187203423014202011-11-14T12:13:00.003-05:002011-11-14T12:21:37.791-05:00

Scoop Jackson, "Penn State scandal and a tipping point". November 12David Weigel, "Is the Newt Gingrich surge for real?" November 11OKAY, so the easy thing to do would be to ask whether kneeling in prayer as a means of getting out from under a horrible situation is common to both the continuing Penn State story and the continuing Hot Republican candidate of the Week routine. And the easy answer

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-91749042715833415532011-11-13T08:37:00.002-05:002011-11-13T09:03:26.392-05:00

Adam Davidson, "It's Not Just About the Millionaires". November 9ONCE more, as if it were needed: I'm not an economist, I'm a shit-flinger. There's less money in it, but but it's a more valuable service.This election is about stark differences on economic policy, but one of the few fiscal issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree — surprisingly — is how to tax corporations. Every

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WELL, first, what Scott said, and I have no hopes of being so brief.There's no real reason for me to add my slender reed to the general moral condemnation of everything connected with this episode occurring everywhere outside of State College, PA. I'm wiling to presume that the college yahoos who fanned the stench into every corner of the university weren't thinking clearly, and aren't really

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-55427525488209171492011-11-11T13:17:00.002-05:002011-11-11T13:30:24.842-05:00

Matt Bai, "The Other Problem With Perry's 'Oops' Moment". November 10OR, Ya Don't Need a Brain To Suffer Brain-Freeze.Is there any explanation--any at all--for why we suffer through this time after time after time? There are so many godawful components to our godawful mass-market media political coverage--the superficiality, the venality, the faux-balance, the careerism, the cynicism, the herd

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-7296930908363476142011-11-10T12:33:00.003-05:002011-11-10T12:44:25.143-05:00

THE Colts were the winningest team in the NFL the last ten years with him; without him they don't belong in the league. What else do you want?If you wanna know what's wrong with this country, look at professional sports in Indianapolis. If you already know what's wrong with this country, skip it. It doesn't make things any better.The Colts of Indianapolis At Present play football in a

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-32526787066320312712011-11-09T12:47:00.003-05:002011-11-09T13:41:22.504-05:00

Karen Tumulty, "Virginia elections may be a warning sign for Obama". November 8 Katherine Q. "It's Not Fair Steno Sue Is Alliterative" Seelye, "Anti-Abortion Initiative 26 Defeated in Mississippi". November 8a)Tuesday’s legislative elections in Virginia appeared likely to add more evidence — as if national Democrats needed it — that the terrain of the political map will be significantly more

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-16821310615336429942011-11-08T10:47:00.000-05:002011-11-08T10:47:08.520-05:00

"Just how bad do you wanna be President, Mr. Cain?"

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-91168842382765809102011-11-07T12:30:00.002-05:002011-11-07T12:41:51.849-05:00

HOLY crap, I taped this thing. Then I tried to watch it. Y'know, part of me secretly understands that even hack journalists--and "hack" may actually be the collective noun for a herd of journalists--are underpaid, at least those who are forced to view something like this, which must, at some level, be like some vile and malevolent god forcing you to watch a highlight reel of the ritual

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-80516086116549351862011-11-04T10:05:00.002-04:002011-11-04T10:06:52.181-04:00

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-53718471982200738622011-11-04T09:39:00.002-04:002011-11-04T10:00:53.447-04:00

David Brooks, "In Praise of Fracking, and Other Theological Developments". November 3I'M in a bad mood already, so don't start with me about America. Because we watch The Daily Show/Colbert at supper around here, I just caught thirty or forty seconds of Tom Fucking Brokaw with Jon from Wednesday night. (And only because my Poor Wife had the controls and the idea that I'd do my Brokaw

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-74209762824423702922011-11-03T14:09:00.000-04:002011-11-03T14:11:20.424-04:00

T.S. Eliot never had to rake leaves.-Jimbo Riley

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-26167559737174606802011-11-03T13:39:00.002-04:002011-11-03T13:53:42.267-04:00

George Eff Will, "Conformity for diversity's sake". November 2TAKE that, Academy!Seven-hundred fifty words, arguing that the First Amendment, if properly interpreted (that is, if interpreted according to George Eff Will, not legal precedent) guarantees the right of private groups to behave as they see fit, even under the aegis of Vanderbilt University, without restriction.Six-hundred eighty

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-15301104229414032452011-11-02T13:35:00.002-04:002011-11-02T13:50:44.523-04:00

David Weigel, "Bi-monthly attempt to write the history of the Teabaggers in a way that makes David Weigel seem relevant, OWS edition". October 31I WON'T go so far as to call them principles, but let's say this blog has as a persistent article of faith the idea that Dick Fucking Armey is a Republican. And the Koch Brothers are Republicans.And that the Republican party has been the Party of

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-83750447623084659672011-10-31T12:49:00.002-04:002011-10-31T13:07:56.544-04:00

Ross Douthat, "What Tax Dollars Can't Buy". October 30FOR starters, having Herman Cain on the Sundays might be justified by his front-runner, or "front-runner", status--might be; it sure isn't justified by anything else--but if you have to talk about that fucking ad, then the point is not "promoting smoking" but "perpetrating this phony Fuck You! USA! shit" which has gone on thirty years past

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-13279314667001764972011-10-30T09:52:00.002-04:002011-10-30T10:15:24.447-04:00

George Eff Will, "Mitt Romney, the pretzel candidate". October 28IF I had to choose a single reason for the thirty-five years I've spent trying to ignore George Fucking Will as much as humanly possible, it's here: like his Latin-cognater idol Buckley, Will is really never more than a couple paces from complete, mouth-foaming, Anti-fluoridationalist rant of the sidewalk wingnut sermonizer. Either

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David Brooks, "This Oughta Be Good For Two Holiday Columns At Least". October 27I RARELY tackle Brooks in one of those Sociology reveries of his, when he's apparently imagining himself at some private, exclusive, expensive liberal arts college, be-Tweeded and Meerschaum'd, privately discussing her semester grade with some pillowy coed, just enough of sixteen, or fifteen, still echoing in her

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Peter Lattman, "A Stunning Fall From Grace for a Star Executive". October 26Diana B. Henriques, "Ruth Madoff Says Couple Tried Suicide in 2008". October 26Susan Saulny, "As Cain Promotes His Management Skills, Ex-Aides Tell of Campaign in Chaos". October 26FUCKING Hell. If there's anything I want to say about Ruth Madoff, unfairly unincarcerated Dowager Queen of East Ponzistan, trying to kill

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-20320286600648396472011-10-26T13:58:00.002-04:002011-10-26T14:05:43.266-04:00

IT'S 2011. Nobody's ever said there aren't corrupt police officers, even corrupt forces in some places, but I believe that over the last twenty-five years or so I've been justified in thinking, along with much of America that has a functioning sense of history, that "law enforcement officer" was now a profession, not a polite term for thugs to hide behind, the way it too often has been in the

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-27578705383052511122011-10-24T13:52:00.002-04:002011-10-24T14:13:57.440-04:00

Ross Douthat, "The Inevitable Nominee". October 22OH, not the End of the World (again), and not the Death of the American Experiment, although every time I read Douthat's byline at the Times I wonder what's holding that up. No, what's over is the Republican presidential race.And, in a shocker, the winner is the guy who most resembles Ross Douthat: a moderate Republican (a "moderate Republican"

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-2967356804807256582011-10-21T13:13:00.004-04:002011-10-21T14:28:37.803-04:00

AH, WaPo. Do tell. Why does the Librul Media always have to spoil everyone's good time?Do tell. Maybe this is just a question of style books, but, y'know, if someone said "Churchill planned the Gallipoli campaign as a response to the Armenian genocide" I'd call him "wrong", not "an embellisher". Rubio's response, though--that he wasn't checking facts, he was merely writing a book--should cement

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-91709198301212005272011-10-20T11:11:00.003-04:002011-10-20T12:01:44.459-04:00

Steve Kornacki, "This is really the best the GOP can do?" October 19David Weigel, Liveblogging Tuesday's debate October 18OKAY, I really just wanted to riff on Kornacki's title, not his analysis, and as for Weigel's latest exercise in excusing every Republican excess by seeming to poke it some--the man is Mitch Daniels with a sense of humor and slightly better hair--let's just get it over with

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Anne Applebaum, "What the Occupy protests tell us about the limits of democracy". October 17FIRST, that was a "fiery" debate last night? A "fierce clash"? How 'bout "a group of privileged, unruly, and particularly unattractive grammar-school students shoving in the lunch line"? Christ, it's the barely articulate vs the marginally literate for the championship of the Greater Ottumwa Financial

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Matt Bai, "Does Anyone Have a Grip on the G.O.P.?" October 12IF we might say this just one more time: you can't fix something by not looking at it.You can wade through Bai's 7000 + words if you wish, but you're not going to find what's supposed to be wrong with the Republican Presidential campaign line-up excepting Romney and Perry (yes, Perry; this was the cover-story of this Sunday's Times

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-58613706589095353862011-10-17T09:15:00.005-04:002011-10-17T09:21:50.395-04:00

Godspeed, old friend.

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-54199305728733962412011-10-14T11:23:00.003-04:002011-10-14T12:36:50.346-04:00

SO, let's turn to the Washington Post, and get serious:Gee, maybe if you'd thought of that when the foundation of the movement handed you the keys to the Congress in 2006 and the White House two years later..."Whether he has the breadth of knowledge a president needs"? He's running for the Republican presidential nomination. It's like asking whether Chris Christie has what it takes to provide

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HAMILTON county, Indiana's wealthiest, sits like a creamy white rosette atop Indianapolis' mud pie, and is known for three things: 150 million dollars worth of roundabouts, the legal foundation for making Driving While Black a Felony (one which, in fairness, it now wishes to disown, at least during daylight hours), and a One Party system which nevertheless manages to cough up politicians

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-7702708671252660172011-10-12T14:42:00.002-04:002011-10-12T15:10:53.091-04:00

Philip Rucker and Amy Gardner,"Mitt Romney solidifies his front-runner status in Republican debate". October 11Jonathan Martin, "Mitt Romney builds case for inevitability". October 12Fred Barnes, "Romney Rolls On". October 11SO let the record show that October 11, 2011, was the date the Cool Kids--and Fred Barnes--decided that it was time to stop kiddin' around and acknowledge Mitt Romney as

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-13771186367082996102011-10-11T09:57:00.002-04:002011-10-11T10:27:37.237-04:00

David Brooks, "The Milquetoast Radicals". October 10DAVID in NYC, in comments:The locker-dwelling (or even unborn, as is the case of so many of them) citizens of the 60s just can't get over the fact that they weren't cool then, they aren't cool now, and nothing will ever, ever change that.David Brooks in NYT, right on fucking cue:It's the moderates in suits, not the Occupiers, who are the real

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-65347957207518342782011-10-07T12:39:00.002-04:002011-10-07T12:57:46.361-04:00

David Brooks, "Where Are the Jobs?" October 6OKAY, just for the record, when I saw that Brooks column's title I did not immediately think to myself, "Well, moderate Republicans are finally asking, in public, why incontinent tax-cutting hasn't benefitted anyone except the major recipients of the cuts." Because it's David Brooks, and that would be like imagining that a Papal missive entitled "The

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-1183425022959551972011-10-06T09:35:00.003-04:002011-10-06T12:46:39.994-04:00

FRED Shuttlesworth was The Man. The Man of Men. Fred Shuttlesworth stood up when there wasn't even the marginal protection of not-exactly-sympathetic media around to give violent racists pause before acting, or to help identify them after the fact so all-white juries could yuck it up over the charges.He stood up, because standing up was right.Mr. Obama, a Medal of Freedom is in order. Like Martin

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-4845534669893482832011-10-05T10:47:00.002-04:002011-10-05T11:07:51.846-04:00

SO I've mentioned what the backslide into Winter hours has done for my bicycle training, running me into increased traffic and forcing me to watch local morning news on the hopeless but evergreen assumption that the weather forecast will have something to do with the weather.It's always been my Poor Wife who's done this, switching on the locals at 5 AM when she woke up early. She's

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-17171967998098868482011-09-30T13:54:00.003-04:002011-09-30T14:06:34.571-04:00

The irony is that these are two of the demographics the Republican party is trying to kill. Gene Robinson, "Chris Christie's big problem." September.IT'S his Big problem, as in weight, and Gene Robinson fills a column with medical arguments against obesity.Which, of course, is exactly what you'd do if you wanted to call Chris Christie fat for 800 words without actually doing so.Robinson mentions

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WHAT is there to say about Chris Christie that hasn't already been said about Rick Perry? Or Mitch Daniels? Or Michele Bachmann? Or Paul Ryan, Rudi Giuliani, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Jeb Bush, Fred Dumbo Thompson, or Donald For Chrissakes Trump?Well, okay, that he's a slobbery slob who shoots his mouth off. A demo which is underrepresented among candidates in the teevee age, but is a mighty big

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Jon Stewart, The Mitch Daniels Interview. September 21OKAY, so there ain't much to be said for the Extended Mix over the broadcast version. Not a big surprise, because Daniels has one answer, and isn't used to hearing the question it goes with.That's his schtick, and that's the response to President Mitch Daniels? He's 62 years old, and he talks like a fairly bright high-school senior who thinks

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-29488056822934907712011-09-26T15:05:00.002-04:002011-09-26T15:09:31.915-04:00

DUE to various weekend and peri-weekend events--marathon, ecstasy-fueled debauchery, the crying jag that inevitably follows (mine, of course), an unrelated head injury, cats--it was Sunday morning before I got to see the redacted, broadcast version of Jon Stewart's interview with sometime Indiana Governor Mitch "Check That Book Cover Glamor Shot" Daniels, and I've yet to get through the full,

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-32859221459745426992011-09-25T10:08:00.002-04:002011-09-25T10:34:52.114-04:00

FOR starters, Ron Suskind can go on The Daily Show and try to soft-soap the host, and the audience, about their President, if that's what he thinks it takes to sell books in that Demo, but there's no explanation for Larry Summers and Tim Geithner; a couple years in the Senate cannot possibly have convinced an educated man in possession of both his faculties and the rudiments of current events

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Spot the errorsGlenn "Thrash" Thrush, "Obama sparks middle-of-road rage". September 21ONE: thinking up a headline, then concocting a story to fit it? I know times are tough, but maybe you should shop your resumé around to major advertising firms on your own time. TWO: Just because the headlines say Liberals now heart Barack Obama like it's 2004 again doesn't make it so. For the life of me I

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-90948930646627948752011-09-21T15:16:00.003-04:002011-09-21T15:34:10.447-04:00

AS reported earlier, I'm fighting a losing battle with the horizon; even before the Equinox I'm forced to wait until 7:30 in the morning for enough light to safely ride a (lighted) bicycle in the streets, streets which are increasingly filled with drivers who apparently owe their licenses, if any, to the pseudo-Randian takeover of the BMV in 2005. (There are two possible explanations for this.

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-58351406887761222422011-09-20T13:39:00.001-04:002011-09-20T13:41:30.750-04:00

Benjamin H. Friedman and Caitlin Talmadge, "What Defense Cuts?" September 19PUTS me in mind of the two middle-aged Midwestern sisters who skimped and saved and finally got to take a vacation to California and see the ocean for the first time."Look at all that water," says one."Yes," says the other. "And that's just the top of it."...the Senate Appropriations Committee last week unveiled its

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-7707083889067671262011-09-16T11:38:00.002-04:002011-09-16T11:44:15.771-04:00

• No surprise that Slate rises to the defense of Poor Sarah Palin So Unfairly Attacked By Joe McGinniss, since subtracting "double reverse surprise contrarianism with a backward twist" from both sides of the equation yields "defending really stupid shit". As usual, this blog refuses to make "poking fun at The XX Factor, and Rachael Larimore in particular" anything more than a semi-annual fungo

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-75004074685588998022011-09-15T13:54:00.002-04:002011-09-15T13:59:53.025-04:00

E.J. Dionne, Jr., "The GOP establishment's Rick Perry problem". September 14DUDE, at least Rip Van Winkle had the decency to act confused when he woke up:The Republican establishment is said to have grave qualms about Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. Here’s the problem: There is no Republican establishment. It squandered its authority by building up the Tea Party’s brigades and

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-88566876382596483022011-09-14T12:53:00.001-04:002011-09-14T13:08:36.116-04:00

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-55070453141617663352011-09-13T12:39:00.002-04:002011-09-13T12:57:01.395-04:00

David Brooks, "If It Feels Right". September 12I WATCHED a passel a' Republican Reality Show last night, and, frankly, I'm not all that impressed with the field.This was the first time I've (sorta) watched two of these things back-to-back (I mean ever, not just with this collection of oxygen bandits), and the striking feature, for me, was that none of these biting midges can sustain from one

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-22157334993066943172011-09-12T14:10:00.002-04:002011-09-12T14:20:44.091-04:00

The Washington Post editorial board, "Don't underestimate what America has achieved since 9/11". 9-9THANKS are what I guess are in order to ‪ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©‬ for the above link, and certainly to Suffern AC for the capsule description: "the most important thing to do this day was to shield the elite from criticism." I don't remember who said that Sentimentality was other people's

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-89604468126370199282011-09-11T06:43:00.004-04:002011-09-11T06:51:14.564-04:00

[Shown in increasing number of casualties that resulted.]

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-74479091109853965652011-09-09T09:53:00.003-04:002011-09-09T10:11:39.230-04:00

Dana Milbank, "The irrelevancy of the Obama presidency". September 9This just in from Dana Milbank, National Chairperson, Let's Put Gravitas Back Into Politics Foundation.President Obama gave one of the most impassioned speeches of his presidency when he addressed a joint session of Congress Thursday night. Too bad so many in the audience thought it was a big, fat joke.“You should pass this jobs

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-85492056127817281172011-09-08T13:30:00.002-04:002011-09-08T13:51:35.142-04:00

"NOTHING survives being thought of," the sainted Oscar said, and nothing demonstrates that any better than the history of the "Presidential" and "Presidential candidate" debate routines.I watched, God help me, as much as I could stand last night before taping the rest of it, the MSNBC post-game analysis, and this morning's chatter on CNN, in the way someone might cap off a night and early

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-55729610014829434442011-09-07T12:49:00.002-04:002011-09-07T13:00:50.720-04:00

YOU may recall that late last month the roof and rigging of the outdoor stage at the Indiana State Fair collapsed in high winds, killing seven and injuring dozens more. You might also recall that by the next morning Mitch Daniels was on the scene, informing everyone within earshot, and especially potential litigants, that the whole thing was just one of those freakish acts of Nature, Nature being

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-10718416725197090992011-09-06T14:58:00.002-04:002011-09-06T15:08:44.065-04:00

FOR some reason this morning, after the standard subjecting myself to the local inane weather blithering, I switched over to CNN. Readers over fifty may remember CNN, which stood for Considered a News Network (it's now just CNN, like Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC when they stopped using real chickens), and be surprised to learn it survived into the holographic news era. I know I was.The

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-72930536231640701322011-09-02T12:53:00.003-04:002011-09-02T13:05:11.809-04:00

LET'S have a quick look back at the newly-ended career of former New York City Deputy Mayor and Chief Morals Officer of Indianapolis Stephen Goldsmythe. Not because of schadenfreude; just because I've always wanted to say "newly-ended career of Stephen Goldsmythe". First, it's "Goldsmythe". I don't know why the papers are always misspelling it. Back when he was screwing up snow removal in the

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-51794793275582398382011-09-01T14:33:00.003-04:002011-09-01T14:50:19.480-04:00

• Maybe you've heard, but my personal Congressman, Andre Carson, did a bad thing by talking like Glenn Beck within Glenn Beck's hearing. Though in fairness, he made up for it by doing a great thing: refusing to apologize. If you did hear about this I hope it wasn't from the Indianapolis media, which hates to be reminded that the city of Indianapolis is represented in Congress by a scary

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211639.post-64053363472949699132011-08-31T13:17:00.003-04:002011-08-31T13:31:30.486-04:00

• Okay, so my first thought was "This is news for whom, now? The five people who showed up at O'Donnell's book signing?" Then I realized that that might double Politico's readership without appreciably lowering its average IQ. Good move. • And my first thought here was "Oh, Politico's management gave every employee the same Word-a-Day calendar last Christmas." But that doesn't work, since

James Briggs Stratton "Doghouse" Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05378802364709433791noreply@blogger.com7