Maverick Philosopher Bill Vallicella concludes a blog post titled “On Hitchens and Death”, by suggesting that “if materialism is true, then I think Nietzsche is right: truth is not a value; life-enhancing illusions are to be preferred. If truth is out of all relation to human flourishing, why should we value it?” [Read more →]
It seems to this American that the people blabbering on about how Obama is a Muslim foreigner miss out on something far more threatening to our nation’s future: we haven’t seen Joe Biden’s birth certificate either. Not even a photocopy. Nor have we seen any birth announcements or baby photos, preferably of him dressed as a cowboy. From this we can draw one logical conclusion: our Vice President is a robot. [Read more →]
My lead story of the week could be categorized as both Good Sports and Bad Sports. Kyle Busch became the first NASCAR driver to ever sweep all three events at the same track on the same weekend when he won the truck race, the Nationwide race, and the Sprint Cup race at Bristol this week. Busch is a very talented driver, and he put it all together at Bristol, where he has always been strong. The media have grabbed onto this story, extolling the abilities and endurance of Busch and taking the public to task for its constant booing of him. I have a different take on all of that, though. [Read more →]
10. Instead of freakishly large floppy shoes, the funniest shoes the clowns can afford are size 15
9. The ‘fire eater’ is just some guy chomping on extra spicy chili peppers
8. Their ‘clown’ is a transvestite Lady Gaga impersonator
7. The trapeze artiste has a seatbelt
6. The ‘bearded lady’ has a suspicious bulge in the groinal area
5. The supposed ‘baby elephant’ looks suspiciously like a bulldog that’s been ‘altered’
4. The cotton candy is guaranteed 100% cotton
3. Twenty clowns don’t pile out of a teeny weeny car, just one really fat clown
2. When you look closely at the tamer’s lion, there’s a zipper
1. Instead of popcorn, they sell trail mix made from tent sweepings
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
Regarding John le Carre’s recent critical remarks about fellow thriller writer Ian Fleming’s iconic character James Bond, the author of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is right about one thing.
Le Carre is correct in stating that the Bond films have overtaken the books. Its true that the general public’s image of the fictional secret agent is that of the often silly, superman-like film character, rather than the darker, more complex and more realistic Bond character in the novels.
Le Carre is wrong about everything else.
When I was 29, and single, dating went like this: See a guy at a party, make eye contact, if he walks up chat a bit, find out some stuff (who his favorite band is, if he likes the Coen Brother’s films, if he had ever bothered to finish undergrad), make out, start dating. Just like that. I didn’t care about getting married, so I didn’t care if we got serious. Nobody I met had kids (or rarely had), no one had relaxed into a job they once hated. We just wanted to be hot for each other and have some things in common. Bonus if we liked each other’s friends.
Sigh… doesn’t that sound nice? Now at 39, and single, dating goes like this: [Read more →]
What are we to make of the media’s latest blithering crapfest, the ongoing Punch and Judy show that is the ‘debate’ over the Ground Zero Mosque-that-is-not-actually-a-mosque AKA Cordoba House AKA Park 51 or whatever the hell the thing is called this week?
With so many heated claims and counter claims, including the now traditional yelps of “bigotry” from what Robert Gibbs describes as the “Professional Left”, and conversely, paranoid accusations of “taqiyya” and all round Islamic evilness from the self-declared Right… well sometimes a man just wants to tell them all to shut up — or indeed, fuck off. [Read more →]
Our metaphorist-in-chief, Barack Obama, has apparently been getting a lot of “mileage” out of his latest metaphor, in which he likens the state of the economy to an automobile.
The first time President Barack Obama used the metaphor at a Democratic fundraiser in April, he spent exactly four sentences on it: “And yet, after driving our economy into the ditch, they decided to stand on the side of the road and watch us while we pulled it out of the ditch,” Obama said at the Los Angeles event for Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. “They asked, ‘Why haven’t you pulled it out fast enough?’ ‘I noticed there’s, like, a little scratch there in the fender. Why didn’t you do something about that?'”
That is a great metaphor. You can see why he makes the big bucks. Enough that his wife can afford to go on great trips to Spain (do you think she ate any paella while she was there? I love paella). It’s easily equal to his other great metaphor, the one about the medical care bill being like planting seeds in a garden, only we don’t know what kind of seeds we planted, so we need to wait and see what comes up.
Actually, it’s a better metaphor, since it reminds people of “Cash for Clunkers,” arguably the president’s greatest accomplishment. [Read more →]
A friend brought me to the inaugural game at New Meadowlands Stadium, where the New York Jets inducted six greats into their Ring of Honor at halftime and, as if to pay tribute to so much of the franchise’s colorful-yet-utterly-embarrassing history, promptly imploded in the third quarter to christen the stadium with a frustrating loss to their co-tenants, the New York Giants (really should have seen that coming). The defeat hardly mattered though because the big perk was having my first chance to look at the recently completed stadium and I think I speak for many fellow attendees when I say that as I wandered through I couldn’t help wondering: how the hell did this thing cost so much? [Read more →]
It is my great pleasure to continue with Dr. Spiegelvogel’s interpretations of selected dreams from my files.
Back in the days of shields and spears whoever won the contested ground would erect a trophy. This would not be an impressive sight to us, it would be a collection of arms and armor and banners piled upon and hung from a tree or a stake in the ground. What made it significant was, of course, that the glittering bits had been taken from brave and well armed men at the cost of their lives demonstrating, say, the Athenians superiority over the Corinthians. But more importantly this quick and dirty memorial would always be raised on a field of victory and was largely a challenge to the defeated to come tear it down. Any offense to the trophy was an act of war, all sides would understand this. Often the first overt act of a war would be a public destruction of the trophy that ended the last war or battle. But many a trophy stood, rusting and rotting, for decades on the road to a once great city, now reduced to a village. The project to build a mosque within a call-to-prayer from New York’s open mass grave is best understood as a trophy. [Read more →]
Director/screenwriter Ryan Murphy (Glee) and screenwriter Jennifer Salt faced particular challenges in adapting Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular book. Eat Pray Love spent over 182 weeks on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list, and both critics and fans were quite taken with Gilbert’s chronicle of her year long journey. Expectations for the film were high, and because it is a true story, Murphy and Salt were limited in what they could change. The filmmakers did not take many liberties, although some fans of the book may quibble with details excluded and embellished. The film is not perfect, but this fan of the book admires the effort Murphy and Salt made in Eat Pray Love. The filmmakers also get a big assist from a terrific cast. [Read more →]
I recently spent a week at the beach with friends. We ate ice cream, we swam, and we drank a truly inestimable amount of red wine. Jealous? You should be. Anyway, my beach read of choice this year was the chick-lit phenom Eat, Pray, Love. Was it good? Not even a little. (I think my friend Kevin’s assessment of the plot says it best: “White people have so many problems!”) Did 300+ pages of pontification get my advice-giving juices flowing? Oh, yes. Those juices flowed like the fat off of a slice of Neapolitan pizza. Maybe, I started to think, the self-absorbed heroine of Expedite, Photograph, Lunge is on to something. Maybe, just maybe, another insanely rich woman out there could benefit from taking a sabbatical to find herself through gelato and yoga. That woman, dear readers, is Jennifer Aniston. [Read more →]
The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be this year’s most improved team. There, I said it. And no, I’m not a Leafs fan. [Read more →]
I am on vacation this week, and am currently in Sandusky, Ohio, at an amusement park called Cedar Point. It’s a very cool place with a LOT of roller coasters (17, I believe). What it doesn’t have, at least in our hotel, which is called Castaway Bay, is WIFI in the guest rooms. As I am unwilling to subject myself to dial-up, at outrageous rates, mind you, and I am also uninterested in spending much time in this lobby, I will not be providing you with any of my usual brilliant commentary this week. I know, I know…how will you ever make it through your Monday morning without any of my keen insight into the world of sports? You’ll have to muddle through. As I am not a total slacker, I will provide you with some links to some bad sports that happened this week. You’ll need to provide the commentary yourselves. [Read more →]
10. Order all your martinis “neat”.
9. Make your morning coffee using lawn dew.
8. Only flush on alternate Thursdays.
7. Wear disposable clothing.
6. Have your entire church group shower together.
5. In the fall, have your gardeners use an air blower instead of a hose to corral that last leaf.
4. Trade in your geraniums for cacti.
3. In the same way your toilet will use less water if you put a brick in your water tank, you yourself will drink less water if you put a brick in your bladder.
2. Fill your swimming pool with ethanol.
1. Brush your teeth with orange juice.
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
You know what I hate? These new ” Fire Safety Cigarettes “. Talk about an absolutely horrible idea!
I recently sent this e-mail to an automaton who works in the marketing department at the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company:
Hi Nxxxx,
I’m writing ask if we might have an informal conversation about a marketing partnership that could, potentially, be mutually beneficial. While it might seem a bit unconventional or “outside the box,” it’s something that I’m sure has been done, and, at very least, would present the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company with an opportunity whose risk is negligible compared to the potential reward.
[Read more →]
For the time being we will continue with video interpretations by Dr. Spiegelvogel. While last week’s dream was about getting undressed, this week’s is the opposite.
In this film, twelve is a potent mixture of heroin and cocaine. It is expensive and highly addictive. The film Twelve (screenplay by Jordan Melamed based on the novel by Nick McDonell) is a straight up tale of drug dealing and violence among over privileged New York teens. But some sharply drawn characters and original direction elevate this film above others in its genre. [Read more →]
