Events

The stupidest person ever to sit behind the Resolute Desk has made most of the world feel sad for us. Let's check on why: Matthew Yglesias digs into the abject idiocy of the OAFPOTUS's war on Tylenol. Jeff Maurer puts on his OAFPOTUS mask and declaims "Tylenol is why I'm like this." And yet, both Jennifer Rubin and Josh Marshall see the tide turning hard against the administration, though George Packer thinks we now live in an authoritarian state. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called an...

I haven't regularly used an Apple product in over 30 years when my college newspaper used Mac Classics for compositing. Even by then, I didn't like Apple's closed architecture, having built at least one Windows box from scratch. If you agree with Freddie DeBoer, turns out my instincts were right: There exists, in the digital ether and in the physical world, a peculiar kind of human organization that has no name, no leader, and no stated charter, yet which operates with the ideological precision of the...

Chicago alderman Timmy Knudsen (43rd) has proposed an ordinance to allow dogs in restaurants: Right now, Chicago restaurants are prohibited from serving patrons accompanied by dogs — either indoors or outdoors — unless that customer has a service dog. Although the ban is widely ignored and sporadically enforced, usually in response to a complaint, restaurant owners allow dogs at their own risk and sometimes face the consequences. The ordinance, slated for introduction at Thursday’s City Council meeting...

Rosh Hashana begins in just a few hours. To celebrate, let's sing! Corruption, corruption! Corruption!Corruption, corruption! Corruption! Who, day and night, has got his tiny hands out?Reaching for a pay-out, raking in the cash?And who keeps on whining, every day he's whining,"I'm the real victim here!" The POTUS, OAFPOTUS! Corruption!The POTUS, OAFPOTUS! Corruption! Who must know the way to break a proper law,A needed law, a settled law?Who must shred all precedent and end the law,So billionaires can...

I had a really busy weekend, leading to the first time in years when I went 2 days without posting. The highlight yesterday was the San Diego Padres beating the Chicago White Sox 3-2 at Rate Field. Both of the Sox runs were walked in, highlighting the Padres' stellar defense and hitting and the Padres' dismal pitching: Against San Diego starter Michael King and a Padres' bullpen highlighted by three All-Star relievers, the White Sox totaled five hits and nine walks. But an 0-for-11 day with runners in...

The Inner Drive Technology World HQ weather station actually comprises four Netatmo components: an indoor base station, and outdoor station, a rain gauge, and an anemometer. The outdoor station lives in a white birdhouse in a shaded area on the east side of my house, the rain gauge is in a vertically-unobstructed corner of my west-side deck, and the indoor station is between the two so they're both comfortably within range. At the moment, the anemometer is on the floor of the west deck and doesn't get a...

The OAFPOTUS sued the New York Times in the Middle District of Florida on Monday. It only took until this morning for Senior US District Judge Stephen Merryday to throw it out: Judge Steven D. Merryday, of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, said the president’s 85-page complaint was unnecessarily lengthy and digressive. He criticized Mr. Trump’s lawyers for waiting until the 80th page to lodge a formal allegation of defamation, and for including, ahead of it, dozens of “florid...

The authoritarian project currently underway in the United States, like all other authoritarian projects in history, has nothing to do with any specific policies or official statements except those that concentrate wealth in friendly hands. It's entirely about power and control. The specifics do not matter to the people trying to take over. Corruption is the main reason why Disney/ABC pulled comedian Jimmy Kimmel from its network yesterday. The conglomerate claimed that this was because of Kimmel's...

The Cubs beat the Pirates this afternoon, securing them a spot in the post-season for the first time in five years: Four and a half years after the Cubs dismantled their last championship core, they finally made it to the playoffs. The Cubs clinched a postseason berth with a 8-4 win against the Pirates on Wednesday, sweeping the three-game set to officially end a four-year playoff drought. This year, the Cubs boasted one of the best run-scoring offenses in the majors in the first half of the season. And...

A reader who used to work in the TV industry sent me a potboiler of a story from the New York Times about creative control, credits, and greed: [T]alks over a sequel to “ER” broke down in disagreements between Warner Bros. Television and the estate of Michael Crichton, the best-selling author, who wrote the screenplay for the “ER” pilot. Negotiations with Mr. Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, came so close that Warner Bros. Television had drafted a news release announcing the return of the show. Ms....