The headline of the Reuters article “Countries re-think swine flu vaccine orders”, by Maggie Fox, doesn’t leave much to the imagination. As the much-hyped disease fades into memory, dropping out of the public’s awareness, people have finally been able to take stock, to put numbers to things, and they’re finding that the drug companies are sittin’ fat.
She’s stopped playing Peeping Tom with Russia, she’s sold millions of dollars worth of books, she has electrified a large segment of the population, but the GOP’s official cheerleader has decided it’s time to step her game up.
The holidays are over. We’re 11 days into frigid January. Spring is 68 days away. What do we have to look forward to? TV winter premieres, that’s what (hey, it’s something). Now the real truth is that we’re going to have to wait many months for some of our faves to come back (Glee for instance, returns in April), but some have already returned (Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Modern Family, Cougar Town), there are some new goodies on their way now and some of our go-tos return this week. Here’s what to watch for this winter season: [Read more →]
The Eagles have everything a team needs to make a serious run at the Super Bowl. And, in my humble opinion, this is the first time they’ve gotten all the pieces to the puzzle in the box. We have plenty of receivers who can catch the ball. We have three running backs that can and do contribute. We have a defense (when it’s healthy) that plays like an offense. Great! But in sports as in art the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. And on any given Sunday a Philly fan is lucky if the Eagles can even equal the sum.
In 2003, the NFL instituted a policy called the Rooney Rule, that would require teams to interview minority candidates before hiring a new coach or senior front office person. On the face of it, this would seem like a good rule, at least in its intent. The percentage of minority head coaches in the NFL has increased in the years since 2003. This weekend, though, I started to question not the rule itself, but the interpretation of the rule by some teams. [Read more →]
10. Your co-workers have posted the video of your office Christmas party meltdown on YouTube
9. You’re the Balloon Boy’s dad
8. Your company is transferring you to its office in Kabul
7. For the Rose Bowl, you put your life’s savings on Oregon
6. Airport security thought your colostomy bag was an explosive device
5. All you got for Christmas was new underwear…Well, new to you!
4. For Christmas, your wife gave you a vasectomy gift card
3. You began the year in the emergency room having a champagne cork removed from your ass
2. Your first name is ‘Tiger’
1. You just woke up from your New Year’s Eve party
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
Due to a tear in the time-space continuum, the following, which appears to be a wish list for a New Hollywood Squares pilot episode for Fall 2030, found its way into my email box. Sender: The Future.
From Fox News:
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Sunday called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for describing Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign as “light-skinned” with “no Negro dialect” unless he wants to have one.
I read Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed “Invitation to Disaster” on the New York Times website yesterday. I had problems when reading it; I found that I couldn’t get as excited about the topic as Mr. Herbert. I mainly feel a sense, not of desperation and an urge to fight back as he does, but one of resignation to the futility of fighting the problem. The People can vote themselves money, and are engaged in said activity with a vengeance.
Dramatis Personae
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader
REID: Mr. President, I want to sincerely apologize for that “Negro dialect” remark of mine.
OBAMA: Apology accepted.
REID: I certainly never would’ve said it if I knew it would one day be published. [Read more →]
Here in Arkansas we’ve had 3 inches of snow on the ground for the last week and temperatures have dipped below zero with the wind chill. Having lived on the shores of Lake Superior for ten years, I haven’t really been paying too much attention to it, but I saw something the other day that really drove home how cold it is in these parts:
I saw a known Democrat walking around with his hands in his own pockets for a change. Brrrr.
Just in case you thought job loss was “probably not happening anymore,” a government report was released on Friday, January 8, stating that the economy lost 85,000 jobs in December, keeping the unemployment rate at 10%. This, of course, leads everyone to ask: Who the heck was supposed to be watching all the jobs?
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be-bomber of an American airplane on Christmas Day, is being treated like he held up a candy store. As Charles Krauthammer said so well in his recent column, this is nuts!
Avatar is a movie everyone should see and no one should think about ever again. By “see”, I mean “watch in 3D on the biggest movie screen you can find.” (Avatar is the anti-Godfather, which demands to be viewed whenever you stumble upon it flipping channels no matter how many times you’ve seen it or how crappy your TV is.) And by “think about”, I mean “do not consider any non-visual aspect of the film.” Just remember there were blue things, they were cool, and that is all. [Read more →]
Since the beginning I have claimed to be a Family Guy fan. And I suppose I still am. It’s fun to watch a show push boundaries and earn a fan base purely on cut-a-way gags. But, I was watching Family Guy in syndication and realized the following: I’ve never really liked this show; left to my own devices I’d never watch it; but I love being someone who watches Family Guy when I’m around other people. Yes, I realize this is fucked up. [Read more →]
In the chart below, I’ve plotted IHE (Ishares Dow Jones Pharmaceuticals ETF), IHF (Ishares Health Care Providers), and IHI (Ishares Medical Devices), with SPY (S&P depository trust) included for comparison purposes. I’ve also included vertical lines marking various landmarks in the road to healthcare reform (left to right): May 11, healthcare industry players meet with Obama; June 8, Senate HELP committee releases initial draft bill; June 23, Obama presser on healthcare; July 22, Obama prime time presser on healthcare; July 31, Congress recesses to go home and get yelled at by constituents; November 19, Reid unveils bill in Senate; December 24, Senate passes healthcare bill. [Read more →]
Dramatis Personae
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Dick Cheney, Former Vice-President of the United States
OBAMA: Dick, you’ve been really tough on me of late.
CHENEY: Oh, that’s just politics, as Tip O’Neill told Reagan. It’s nothing personal — I just have to throw some red meat at the yahoos now and then. [Read more →]
You probably should wait till the kids go to bed or make sure your boss is out at lunch before you play this. But, whatever you do, make sure to play it — and play it with an open mind. Talent comes in mysterious forms and I expect you will ask the same question I asked myself, “How on earth does someone figure out they can do this?” And then answer your own question with “I’d rather not know!”
Up until a few weeks ago we had a Safety 1st Grip ‘n Twist Door Knob Cover on my 3-year-old’s doorknob so she couldn’t get out of her room at night. For me, it was the fear of her roaming around our apartment in the middle of the night and hurting herself, opening the front door, finding her way to the knife drawer — normal things we parents worry about — that led me to put it on her door. Once we put her in a bed, the thought of her having free rein in our apartment caused me complete anxiety. I’m Jewish, what do you want from me? [Read more →]
My wife and I recently watched Donnie Brasco on cable TV. We’ve seen the film about four or five times, but we like it so much we watch it again every couple of years.
The 1997 film, stars Johnny Depp as Donnie “the jeweler” Brasco, aka Joseph Pistone, the FBI special agent who went undercover in 1976 in the New York Bonanno Cosa Nostra crime family, and Al Pacino as mobster Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero. In my view, the film is one of the two most realistic films, along with Goodfellas, about organized crime.
When I was an undergraduate, back in the 1950s*, professors had office hours. There were maybe 3 or 4 hours a week we knew the professor would be in his or her office and we could stop by to talk about course content or an upcoming assignment. We had the phone number of the office and could call during those office hours if we had a quick question. Professors also were available by appointment if we had a class that conflicted with their office hours. But basically, aside from seeing them during class time and the option of seeing them during their office hours — hours that they set — we didn’t have contact with them. They didn’t generally provide their home phone numbers. If we had a question at night or over the weekend, we lived with it. [Read more →]
In many respects, Christmas is just a memory, now. Variations of “How was your holiday?” are disappearing from our conversation, depleted shelves of Christmas goods (at dramatically-reduced prices) are giving way to shelves stuffed with Valentine’s Day goods, and the ‘fridge has been cleared — one way or another — of the last ripening remnants of Christmas dinner leftovers.
Considering that we’re only now, finally regaining our breath and our sanity from Hectic Holiday Hustle 2009, is this any time to talk of lingering over Christmas?
[Read more →]
Back in June, reason.com ran a story about a woman in Pennsylvania who wanted to begin a pole dancing class for exercise. The town, Mars, was fighting her attempt in an effort to keep their streets clear of the hordes of hookers and prostitutes that were bound to descend upon them like a plague of locusts.
Dramatis Personae
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
OBAMA: Guys, what’s this I hear about you conferencing my health care bill in secret?
REID: Well, Mr. President, like they say, legislation of this type is a lot like sausage. It’s better if the people don’t know how it’s made.
OBAMA: But I promised during the campaign that all negotiations surrounding this bill would be public. [Read more →]
Have you ever heard of Sisyphus? Or the Myth of Sisyphus? No? You probably have but didn’t realize it. It’s the story of that ancient Greek who was punished by the gods to push a rock up a hill only to have it roll back down to the bottom before he reached the top…for all of eternity. Why do I bring that up? A French writer/philosopher (Camus) in 1942 published a philosophical essay called The Myth of Sisyphus. He suggested that there is only one question worthy of answering: Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide? [Read more →]
Have you ever been to a McDonald’s and been so mad about something that you felt the need to start destroying property? If you are like most people, the answer is no. Perhaps I should not say “most people,” though. Based on recent events, maybe you and I are in the minority. [Read more →]
December 24, 2009
I dream I am in a hospital to participate in a study of human arousal. Before I am to begin looking through magazines with provocative images, I wander the hallway and run into my friend, Bob. He informs me that he is visiting Sylvia Fine, wife of actor Danny Kaye. I am baffled as to how Bob knows Sylvia Fine and how he happens to know she’s in this hospital. Bob explains to me that it takes a little effort to find these things out but I could learn to do it. I point out that not only can’t I keep informed about Sylvia Fine’s whereabouts, but I can’t remember to wear pants. Indeed, I am walking the hallway with no pants on.
Perhaps you’ve seen the same sign I’ve seen in the windows of stores that sell cigarettes. I’m not writing this to start a debate about the evils of tobacco companies, the nanny-state anti-smoking campaign, the age of consent for smoking, what the punishment should be for adults who buy cigarettes for minors, or whether it is good, bad, justified, absurd, or hardly enough that Philip Morris USA has a Youth Smoking Prevention program that pays for the signs, a program I assume was put in place for PR or legal reasons following various tobacco industry lawsuits. Forget about tobacco. I want to talk about something the sign says. [Read more →]
“Directing a movie is a very overrated job; we all know it. You just have to say yes or no; what else do you do? Yes, no, yes, no — that is directing,” Lilli (the always marvelous Judi Dench) tells Guido Contini (the always divine Daniel Day-Lewis). Well, yes–and no. Director Rob Marshall’s yes and no choices are on larger than life display in Nine, in similar ways as they were in his 2002 Chicago. Your feelings about Chicago may be a good predictor of your enjoyment of Nine. I enjoyed both. Nine has a glamorous all star cast, and the hard work this bevy of beauties put into the musical numbers pays off here. Day Lewis is riveting, the story is one for adults, the production numbers are big and this film looks good. And despite some melancholy moments, Nine is a whole lot of fun. [Read more →]
