Where Is Walter Cronkite?

In the latest Atlantic, Chris Hitchens ponders who is today's Walter Cronkite? He is miffed by his classroom's response: Jon Stewart.

But the answer is actually quite obvious: Charlie Rose. A long and fascinating article about Charlie Rose. Hat tip, Webbs.

Upside Down

Why are the French coming across as pragmatic realists and the US coming across as naive bumpkins?

Nicolas Sarkozy was furious with Barack Obama for his adolescent warbling about a world without nuclear weapons at a meeting Mr. Obama chaired of the United Nations Security Council last Thursday (9/24).

"We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth," President Obama said.

What infuriated President Sarkozy was that at the time Mr. Obama said those words, Mr. Obama knew the mullahs in Iran had a secret nuclear weapons development site, and he didn't call them on it.

‘President Obama dreams of a world without weapons...but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite," Mr. Sarkozy said.

At this rate, soon we'll be making the best cheese.

TMI

An iphone application to locate sex offenders.

It's amazing, the human species lasted all this time without this particular application. This, I'm sure, just causes inordinate anxiety all around. But that seems to be Americans number one product these days - anxiety. About everything.

Yes

Both men and women prefer hot faces to hot bodies.

A new study by Dr. Currie at Royal Society University in London confirmed that men and women approach long-term relationships in a similar way—both genders pay way more attention to gorgeous faces than hot bodies. When it comes to short-term relationships ... well, women were more likely to go for face over body while the dudes placed much more importance on the body than the face. Shocker. Gives a whole new meaning to the term “butter face.”

I could of saved them some time and money and told them that.

Facebook Poll

Facebook shuts down poll on whether Obama should be killed for healthcare reform. Gee, I sure am glad everyone now can have a voice on the internet.

Get the secret service on those m-f--kers. I take this facebook shit seriously.

What's a little unnerving to me - I can no longer tell whether this is the work of right wing nutjobs or left wing nutjobs posing as right wing nutjobs for attention.

Ahhh...welcome to the digital age.

Oy Vey

It's google meets twitter meets email meets texting meets myspace meets friendster meets blogger meets facebook meets....puke already.

Am I the only one who wants less of this crap rather than more? Why do I want to learn a whole new system? Phone and email work fine for me.

Woody Allen Demands Polanski Release

There is a joke in this CNN headline.

I'm not going to take a position on this thing. On the one hand, drugging and raping a 13 year old is a criminal act. On the other hand, it happened 30 plus years ago and I don't perceive Polanski to be a danger to society. On the other hand, if he was a civilian and not a member of the cultural elite, he would have gone to jail. On the other hand, Chinatown is one of my favorite movies.

This - like the Obama beer summit - is a big no-win situation for everyone. So why press the issue now? I know if Bush were Pres, everyone would be saying it was because of him. So...good thing he isn't Pres?

The Best Loss I Can Remember

Singletary is spot on -

"I don't want to see you looking at the floor!" he barked, while at the other end of the tunnel Brett Favre was basking in the glory of his game-winning 32-yard prayer-and-a-half to Lewis, the Vikings' fourth receiver. "You didn't steal nothing! You didn't do anything wrong! We will see them again! In the playoffs! Hold your heads up! Don't you look down at the floor for nobody! You have nothing to be looking down at the floor about! Pick your heads up, put your shoulders back and let's rock!"

Yesterday's game was great. Going in Minnesota, losing Gore at the very beginning of the game, and still outplaying the Vikings. Two big special teams plays virtually cancel each other out. People will talk of Farve's greatness. Let them. He chucked up a hail mary pass and got lucky. That's what happens when you give an NFL team three chances to come back. Yes - I don't agree with the running the ball into the line at the end of the game. I believe in ball control, possession, and sticking the knife in the other team's belly at the end and not allowing them to get the ball back. You want to break the will of another team, that's how you do it. And we have the team to do it. Shaun Hill is not a comeback quarterback like Montana or Elway. What he is, however, is a conservative quarterback, a "game manager," if you believe what you read. We can trust him to throw the ball and get first downs without making back-breaking mistakes. We have Bruce and Davis who are both possession receivers - Davis with his speed and size and Bruce with his perfect route running. We take the ball with 4:32 left in the game and should not let the other team get it back. And especially not twice. And I'm willing to bet our young team does not make this same mistake twice.

As to Farve - let him bask in this glory. I do not fear this guy at all. If you want to see late game heroics, you should watch the end of the Cincy-Pitt game. Palmer drove his team down TWICE against Pittsburgh's defense to score touchdowns in the 4th quarter. And they were real drives. Not two dump off passes we have them and a hail mary. Vikings will implode this year, despite having the best running back (and player) in football and a great defense. Why? You can't win with an idiot coach and a crappy quarterback. You can perhaps win with one or the other, but I'm guessing a first round playoff exit.

Applying The Iraq Strategy to Afghanistan

I get this point.

I still haven't heard a convincing argument as to why we're losing in Afghanistan. In Iraq, it made sense, as violence was tremendously high and the government could barely operate. But we had a big stake in an operable government in Iraq. Do we have a similar stake in Afghanistan? Or is our concern just keeping Al Queda off balance?

Iran

Was Hillary right?

What Worries Me

The Niners are looking good. I know it. Simmons picks them as the upset lock of the week over the Vikings. The defense is damn good. The team plays hungry. And yes, everyone knows they don't have a passing game or QB (although inexplicably Shaun Hill is 9-3 as an NFL starter). However, as other folks begin to the notice the Niners and pick the Niners, they base their theory on the questionable assumption they have a good running game. Yes, Gore ran for 200 yards plus last week. But that primarily based on two runs of 80 yards which were Seattle mistakes. I think people are remembering the 2007 Niners when Larry Allen (aka the strongest man in the NFL) was left tackle. We don't have that kind of line this year that can push the other team off the line of scrimmage. We are committed to the run, but if you take away those two 80 yard runs, you know how many running yards we have over two games? 118. 2.2 yards per carry.

Do we have a good running game?

Okay, Well Make That Argument, Then

Brooks tackles the question of Afghanistan today.

His point - we need to wipe out the Taliban because they have designs on both Afghanistan and Pakistan. My position - if we keep the Taliban off balance with a light footprint, they can neither harbor Al Queda nor take over Pakistan. Mine is cheaper and seems to be working in that we are killing AQ at a high rate and they have not been successful at launching attacks against us.

His argument is we need to defeat the Taliban completely. I could be persuaded, I suppose. But I have trouble gauging the possibility of this - and the cost.

Trouble Closing Guantanamo

Obama Administration doesn't know what to do with the terrorists in Gitmo. Basically, they're having the same problems as the Bush Administration.

Is it just me or wasn't there plenty of time to think this through before making it a campaign promise? Like 7-8 years? And all this reveals to me is that Obama and his crew base their position on not knowing the issues. Which is kinda a scary thought considering all the various legislation they are going for.

I Ain't Gonna Lie

If Crabtree doesn't sign with the 49ers, I don't wish him well. I hope he fails and sucks.

Underpaid


I know I'm underpaid, but this is crazy:

did you know Peterson's base salary is just $755,000? Can you remember another time a half-decent player made 15 times more money than the best player on his team? Peterson isn't the type that would complain about this publicly or hold out. What kind of person is he? The kind who takes out his anger on other teams. Like he did last week. Keep an eye on this one. We could be headed for the first-ever Eff You season by a running back.

Adrian Peterson, ie the undisputed best player in the NFL, is making under a mil in base salary. Que? For some reason, this makes me feel better.

Fascinating

The Soviets may have developed a doomsday devise, but for different reasons than Strangelove hypothesized.

The silence can be attributed partly to fears that the US would figure out how to disable the system. But the principal reason is more complicated and surprising. According to both Yarynich and Zheleznyakov, Perimeter was never meant as a traditional doomsday machine. The Soviets had taken game theory one step further than Kubrick, Szilard, and everyone else: They built a system to deter themselves.

By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, Zheleznyakov says, was "to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished."

Cold War psychology is fascinating to me. I worry about all this stuff because our principal enemies today are a different creature - religious/tribal fanatics who do not care about life on this earth, but rather, the afterlife. They are delusional, but would absolutely eliminate all life on this planet if given the power to do so and the slightest provocation.

What Is Going On?

Netanyahu blasts the UN. And rightfully so. The place is a parade of dictators and petty thugs from Ahmadinejad to Chavez to Gaddafi. What a joke. It's becoming a circus.

I heard on the radio yesterday Obama has single digit approval ratings in Israel. Yikes. That isn't good. One of best allies.

Reading the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict is infuriating. The UN mandated Israel exist post WW2. The Arabs do not accept and invade Israel. They get their asses kicked. The "Palestinians" are displaced because Israel takes territory from the countries who just invaded them to protect themselves. This proves wise as the Arabs again attack Israel in 1967 and Israel kicks their ass again and takes more land to prevent future attacks. Arabs decide to no longer fight face to face battles and fight proxy wars through terrorist groups claiming to be fighting on behalf of the displaced peoples. They call on the UN for protection and support and cry war crimes against Israel.

This is the equivalent of joining a poker game, losing all your money, asking for it back, being told no, then fighting, getting your ass kicked and not getting your money back and getting more money taken, then fighting more and getting more money taken, and then hiring teenagers to attack and annoy the bully until he gave the money back, and then going to the UN and asking for the money back and to complain about the bully fighting the teenagers. I mean, the whole thing is total joke. But that's people, I guess.

WTF

Gadhafi gives rambling speech to the UN.

He wants "equality." Of course that means turning the whole world into the 3rd world. No thanks. If this is the UN, I agree with him on one thing - it's pointless.

Herzog

Always fun to read about. Hat tip, Naveen.

On the future of film festivals:

“You have to be cautious about film festivals. The time of film festivals is kind of declining and coming to an end like at the end of the 19th century when the big time of the world exhibitions slowly came to an end. Festivals will come to an end. And they will come to an end because many of them have become self-serving entities. And the real problem is that you have over 3,000 festivals in the world per year, but you do not have more than three or four good films per year. There’s a very, very dramatic disbalance between the amount of festivals and the amount of good films.”

Yup.

Yuck

She's my daughter. (slap) She's my sister. (slap). My daughter. (slap). My sister (slap). She's my sister and my daughter!

That's some serious Roman Polanski crap. Don't do drugs, kids.