He dropped that groundhog in Staten Island.
I can't understand the kids today and their euphemisms.
I'm having an unfamiliar feeling of being pleased with the performance in office of someone I voted for.
Lie down on the floor with a damp cloth on your forehead, close your eyes and breath in gently through your mouth and out through your nose. It will pass. Also be sure not to operate heavy machinery during this episode.
I was thinking he ran over a pedestrian, but no, that's LA's mayor. I blame bikesnob for my confusion.
There was the seekrit AIPAC meeting, which I don't actually care about per se, but think it absolutely hilarious that he tried to hide it, kept it off his calendar, had a reporter physically chucked out so that he could go on about how it was "elemental to being an American" to find Israel our greatest ally on earth and always take AIPAC's calls. Aha, here.
I feel like you can't complain too much about the mayor of New York being pro-AIPAC. Yes it's the wrong position, but part of the job of a government official in a democracy is to represent their constituents. The senators from Iowa should have the wrong position on corn subsidies. Plus, with the mayor of New York he doesn't get to do much foreign policy, so it has the added bonus of not really mattering that much.
Yeah, the degree of obsequiousness on display at the AIPAC meeting was kind of stomache churning to me. You expect a little bit of ass kissing by politicians towards powerful lobbies, but he really went kind of overboard there. It was like he was kissing up to a particularly volatile and abusive boss.
The kowtowing to AIPAC was embarrassing, but at least he felt enough shame about it to kick out the press.
After all the hay I donated!
Bill de Blasio's push to ban New York City's horse-drawn carriages has stalled, for now, in the City Council.
De Blasio, whose candidacy was helped by spending on his behalf by a group of anti-carriage activists, had promised to ban the carriages in his first week as mayor.
But as the Council holds its second meeting of the new year under the leadership of de Blasio's ally and fellow carriage opponent, Melissa Mark-Viverito, a bill to ban them has yet to appear on the Council's agenda.
2: You're just not with it, daddy-o.
5 et seq.: This sort of thing always reminds me of the scene of John Travolta-as-Bill Clinton in Primary Colors, wearing a yarmulke and telling a Florida audience (in his not-that-bad-actually-but-weirdly-throaty Clinton accent) that the Tsongas-counterpart was wrong to criticize Israel.
I thought Jews in Florida leaned toward Buchanan.
I am pretty pleased with Jerry Brown, except that I'd like him to do even more. So it is possible to like an elected official.
IIRC, there was a scene in Primary Colors where it was implied that Allison Janney really liked John Travolta-as-Bill Clinton shortly after meeting him.
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Like to take this moment to savor the title of the OP, its construction. Encapsulates why I'm so happy to be back.
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Just so long as he listens to Bill Murray when the chips are down I can't ask much of New York City's mayor. Or any mayor, really.
14: I bow to none in my unnecessary invocation of the future perfect.
Just about everyone would listen to Bill Murray, but the problem is that he's very hard to get on the phone.
I guess it's easier when a nasty red-haired guy has imprisoned him.
My reasonably-well-informed view is that Bratton did a really excellent job of ending many of the most brutal and stupid aspects of the LAPD ( in complement with doing a really great job in the crime-fighting side of policing). Not perfect but about as good a police chief as you could reasonably ask for, and it's to DiBlasio's credit that he got him out of retirement.
How about the Operation Impact thing, though? I was seriously shocked by finding out that that was a rookie assignment. Way to get everyone on the police force believing that they're extras in Robocop.
LB was preemptively overconfident in 16 in assuming that she shall have bowed to none in her unnecessary invocation of the future perfect.
19: aw, you just have a soft spot for dudes from Boston who come out to LA.
20 not to 19 -- the weird version of OI wasn't Bratton's.
21:
"I see that the fire has communicated from the haystack to the roof of the chateau. You must however still keep your men in those parts to which the fire does not reach. Take care that no men are lost by the falling in of the roof, or floors. After they will have fallen in, occupt the ruined walls inside of the garden, particularly if it should be possible for the enemy to pass through the embers to the inside of the House."
- A note from Wellington to the commander of the Hougoumont position at Waterloo
Wellington's clarity of mind and conciseness of expression were famed. To have written such purposeful and accurate prose (the note contains both a future subjunctive and a future perfect construction) on horseback, under enemy fire, in the midst of a raging military crisis is evidence of quite exceptional powers of mind and self-control.
From John Keegan's The Mask of Command
there was a location not too far from where I live (although I think it calmed down and came off the list years ago).
Would this be the street with the funny name? An acquaintance who grew up in the neighborhood said years ago they'd just block that street off all the time.
Smug liberals like to accuse the Right of ressentiment, of opposing things just because liberals favor them.
Me, I think de Blasio, like Elizabeth Warren, makes the right enemies. If they piss off Third Way, they're okay with me. They don't really have to do anything else.
I'm considering moving to California to vote for Sandra Fluke.
Time for some policing problems in Inwood
25: One block away -- Academy, not Cumming.
Because I am insane, I like Bill Murray slightly less because of the snopes-ready story(ies?) with the punchline "Nobody will every believe you." Sure they sound almost definitely made up, but what kind of an asshole would have such stories told about him?
28: I anonymized because I don't know why is why.
My probably wealthiest friend who has one of those jobs petting and burping someone's money is preemptively mourning the New York that di Blasio will have destroyed. The future perfect is uniting people on all sides of the political spectrum.
Neighborhoods and streets may just be too broad a focus, with unnecessary collateral effects.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-m-kennedy/the-story-behind-the-nati_b_4634755.html
This piece lays out the best modern thinking, with a welcome shout-out to Gary McCarthy in Chicago.
I have bought Kevin Drum's (not that he did the work, but he's doing a great job publicizing it) "it's all lead poisoning" argument hook, line, and ironically sinker.
32:
He never says it's all lead poisoning, in the sense that there's always been plenty of crime. The lead-poisoning is superadded to the base of ordinary crime to produce the ruinous social effects of the last generation.
He's back today with a link to neuro-science. And I think he has no need to apologize for the way he laid out the case last year, which I think was exemplary.
Well, exemplary for a guy who grew up inhaling lead fumes with the rest of us.
what kind of an asshole would have such stories told about him?
I don't know anything about this, but I don't rely on public slander in determining what kind of an asshole I'm dealing with. Private slander -- or I suppose I should say slander whose audience is necessarily limited -- would be even less informative.
The theory's a bit too plumb perfect for my taste.
Right, not that all crime was lead poisoning, but that the post-WWII rise in violent crime that began inexplicably dropping right around 1990 sometime was caused by lead (leaving the ordinary baseline crime unaffected). It's kind of interesting thinking that I'm right in the youngest cohort that was terribly damaged by leaded gasoline, and anyone younger than I am is presumptively less brain-damaged.
Axiomatically, removing lead piping will result in an immediate 16% drop in homicide rates.
Now if only we could get Di Blasio on side with regard to candlestick control...
Unless you leave it lying around in handy one and two foot lengths.
exemplary for a guy who grew up inhaling lead fumes with the rest of us.
I grew standing around hot rodders, but the car-and-fume density was still much lower than in the cities, especially higher up. Drum's OC, despite being like my Columbus a creation of the private car, wouldn't have created the dangerous exposures.
LB will remember the Robert Taylor Homes along the Dan Ryan Expressway from her time here, since demolished. A better way to concentrate exposure is hard to imagine.
Just about everyone would listen to Bill Murray, but the problem is that he's very hard to get on the phone.
Especially when he's in jail for unlicensed poltergeist storage.
Axiomatically, removing lead piping will result in an immediate 16% drop in homicide rates.
It's no coincidence that the fall in homicide rates correlates with the decline in billiard rooms.
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Quick Bleg - setting up student elections. There are five people running, for four identical officer positions. It's quite obvious which student is the odd man out, and I'd like a phrasing that is face-saving for that student, if possible. Ie "Vote for four of the following candidates" will draw it to everyone's attention that they're checking all the boxes except his. I guess it can't be avoided, can it. Poor guy. He's a vet, and wasn't able to join the cohort of students because of schedule conflicts, so he's just unknown to them.
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Are you allowed to design the whole election from the ground up? If you have them rank all five candidates in preference order, and give them points (5,4,3,2,1), and elect the four top point getters, he might sneak in as being actively dispreferred by fewer voters.
44: I don't think you need to worry so much about his feelings. Losing a student election probably isn't that earth-shattering to a vet. It's not like being the odd-person-out in a threesome.
Maybe just even it out by biasing the ballot subtly in his favour. "Mark X by the names of the four candidates whom you would most like to thank for preserving your freedom."
Just create a new 5th position. Do you have a parlementarian?
It's no coincidence that the fall in homicide rates correlates with the decline in billiard rooms.
Apparently Christie turned down federal funding to construct a secret passage to the kitchen.
And they should expect offbeat electoral structures if they let a mathematician design them, anyway.
It's kind of interesting thinking that I'm right in the youngest cohort that was terribly damaged by leaded gasoline
So did you stop committing violent crimes around 1990?
I'm actually in the same age group, but since I grew up in a not very dense suburb on the coast, I'm hoping that I got minimal exposure to lead fumes.
Well, the last time I hit anyone other than in immediate self-defense or playfighting was a year or so before 1990, yes.
I stopped in about 1985, because Nebraska has cleaner air.
I turned it into a short explanation of IRV voting and did not mention the total number of positions, which is in no way a secret.
And they should expect offbeat electoral structures if they let a mathematician design them, anyway.
I literally said something along the lines of "This is what happens when a math prof runs your elections."
Even if he were the odd-person-out in a threesome I suppose he could probably just rejoin the party and try to save face.
I mean, he's a vet, after all, not a high school kid with hurt feelings. I have to say this whole student election scenario smells fishy.
Running for office means you're putting yourself out there and making yourself vulnerable. I don't see why I should assume a vet would be less susceptible to vulnerability.
57:
Did you mean to write Even after he will have been the odd-person out...?
Is there a really good, detailed explanation of both sides of the lead issue somewhere? It seems plausible, but also seems like it could be overfitting in its purest form.
59: One might detect facetiousness. Worrying over hurt feelings in your election scenario -- or even the adolescent threesome-become-twosome scenario -- might be even more embarrassing than being left out to begin with.
I think gas in Iran might still be leaded. If the mullahs wanted a more docile population, they'd do something about that.
I suppose if he really were hurt he could start a public relations campaign about the unfairness of elections in which all are not included as winners.
60: That would assume the threesome didn't keep going on after he went downstairs to join the party and save face.
61: Search Drum's blog for posts -- I'm pretty sure he's been good about linking to disagreement. We had a post here on it, and maybe there were links in the comments?
61: Here's a negative take on it: http://hisscienceistootight.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-link-between-leaded-gasoline-and.html
Heebie's going to end up as a tour guide at museum in New York, right?
Ha. I was just warming up some soup for lunch, and when I went back into the kitchen, noticed I'd splattered some soup on the floor. Then I had an entire micro-vision that perhaps a custodian had seen me and put me on his shit-list, and this would lead to my Election-esque downfall. Then I came back to my desk and read comment 68.
How about the Operation Impact thing, though? I was seriously shocked by finding out that that was a rookie assignment.
Those are great areas for new guys when they're paired with other experienced officers but if everyone else on your beat is from your same class that just graduated there's going to be some fuckups for sure.
in Inwood from 27 nagged at me all through lunch.
So, Soho sucks?
Try Tribeca instead.
There is one place I will not brook, Brooklyn.
"Heebie, so what's new, New York?"
A man, Manhattan, Nattah Nam Nama.
Here's an update from the lead thesis critic linked in 67. His conclusion, which feels right to me (but which I'm in no position to actually add any value in terms of evaluating) is that there's not really enough to think that lead exposure is a "blindingly obvious primary contributor" to the rise in violent crime, but, considering the statistical studies in combination with a reasonably plausible causal model, there's enough to conclude that "we have a "reasonably convincing contributing cause of violent crime identified."
In other words, we know enough to believe that there is a *very plausible link in which lead contributed to a rise in violent crime* but not nearly enough to believe as per 32/37 that it was all lead poisoning, or that the approximately post-1990 drop in violent crime was *caused* by the change to unleaded gasoline.
69: I always thought that was the unfairest thing ever. Ferris Beuller was doing a good deed by cleaning out the fridge! There was no reason to think he wouldn't finish the job by cleaning the spilled food he hadn't seen earlier!
I think I've mentioned this before, but my brother missed being a stand-in for Ferris Beuller during the filming Election by a haircut.
Still good:
"Citing Restrictions On Gays, Mayor de Blasio Won't March In NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade"
Very nice.
Man, I'm just building up the resentment for when he turns on me.
75: There's a no Irish need apply joke in there somewhere.
@Idp:
Is that you I don't pay?
OT: Is there anyone who can authoritatively tell me what the difference is between muay thai and kickboxing, and between either of the first two and karate? I need to know for professional reasons.
If the answer is "really, there is no difference," that would explain some things that are confusing me.
Muay Thai allows elbow and knee strikes, clinching and grappling, and kicks below the waist (except the groin). Kickboxing generally doesn't.
Also, kickboxing is more of a catchall term than a specific discipline. Western kickboxing is essentially karate with boxing gloves on.
81.1 helps. That explains why what used to be the World Karate Organization is now the World Karate and Kickboxing Association.
Are you available to testify in federal court sometime this fall?
78: http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_13477.html#1657258
LB obviously can't visualize memorized panels featuring Batroc the Leaper. Am I the only one?
Ferris Beuller was weird for me in high school because I mostly identified with Cameron and Ferris kind of stressed me out.
My kids watched it recently, and there was consensus that Ferris was kind of an asshole.
82: Muay Thai is sometimes called Thai kickboxing, and kickboxing is sometimes used to refer to a whole bunch of different disciplines that allow both punches and kicks. But usually, the word "kickboxing" refers either to Japanese or American kickboxing. The main differences there are that Japanese kickboxing allows kicks to the legs, and American kickboxing restricts kicks to above the belt (and they wear long pants in American kickboxing and short pants in Japanese kickboxing).
85 - It makes me so happy that ze Lepair is going to be in the upcoming Captain America movie (played by a Quebecois MMA guy, apparently). I hope they keep his moustache.
I think you better watch a whole bunch of Tony Jaa clips on YouTube to get a better understanding.
Is it clear at all times from the clips what governing body is sanctioning his actions?
Is it clear at all times from the clips what governing body is sanctioning his actions?
I'm pretty sure Ong Bak is sanctioning his actions.
ze Lepair is going to be in the upcoming Captain America movie
Zomg that is the best thing I have heard in days.
Skipping St Patricks day parade because they continue to exclude gay groups.
Shouldn't Batroc be a savate guy? Rather than an MMA guy?
Re: kickboxing
Others have already outlined some of the differences. Muay thai kicks strike with the shin. Karate derived or similar styles wear those padded booties. Savate allows low kicks and the fighters wear leather boots with hard toe caps, and almost everything is a legal target for kicking.
There are different levels of contact, too, and sometimes additional restrictions depending on the type of bout. Elbows (esp to the head) aren't allowed in some muay thai matches. Some kickboxing styles have both light and full contact bouts. Etc
Skipping St Patricks day parade because they continue to exclude gay groups.
What a great idea - I assume the mayor has the legal authority to enforce this? "Look, guys, if you want to start marching normally again, then let the gay groups into the parade. Otherwise you're just going to have to keep skipping."
Somebody pointed out the extent to which DC has fucked up its movie strategy compared to Marvel is illustrated by this fact: Marvel managed to bring Batroc to the big screen before DC managed to do the same with Wonder Woman.
oc? Is that some kind of collaboration between Bruce Wayne and The Black Keys?
There was no reason to think he wouldn't finish the job by cleaning the spilled food he hadn't seen earlier!
I'm with Megan on this. It's not like the soup could walk up out of there and put its mess somewhere Ferris didn't know about.