Urban raccoons (no joke, for real raccoons)

8:37 AM Manny: raccoon invasion!

8:41 AM me: oh no!

8:42 AM Manny: I was all beatin' on the dog until I saw the screen window.

8:43 AM me: are you joking!

?

Manny: I wish

I been up since 5

8:44 AM me: wow

that's fuckin crazy

did it eat the cat?

Manny: the animals did not notice, apparently

8:45 AM they suck at the guarding

me: are you sure this isn't like the other day when you told me about the invasion that didn't really happen?

8:46 AM Manny: it dumped the garbage, ate a bunch of rolls

me: and it wasn't named dog?

8:47 AM Manny: not unless the dog ripped up the screen too

it also ate the cat food up on the counter, and took a crap on the stove

8:48 AM me: uugh. that's horrible

crazy urban racoons

that's what you get for living near the park

Manny: they're like gang members

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWqb2U8KnvM&NR=1

8:51 AM me: that's hysterical

Manny goes on a rant...Surprise! It's about the news media

2:51 PM Manny: "Memo to my remaining daily print colleagues and their nostalgia club: Get over it and get over yourselves. It’s not that the Internet is Mr. Wonderful. Much of it mimics the same bad qualities that drove the public away from daily newspapers. You lost the public to us because - there's no nice or sugar-coated way to say it - you guys really suck at what you do. In your arrogance, you established calcified “rules” of “journalism” and false “objectivity” that neutered and spayed all of your reporters, domesticated so they would never again afflict the comfortable or comfort the afflicted. When you took the honest advocacy out of reporting you emptied it of all passion and reason to exist. It was a nice ride on your profit ledger sheet during the recent decades when you turned your rags into propaganda arms for the wealthy and powerful, but a funny thing happened on the way to the ATM machine: You lost the trust of your readers, half of whom have already given you the finger and pursued alternate routes to inform themselves of current events. And the rest are on the way through the same EXIT sign." (From the below link...)

2:52 PM http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/black-and-white-and-dead-all-over

2:54 PM Me: Now that is a diatribe

Manny: Giordano's a pissed off dude though

kinda always

2:55 PM me: so are you

I like this: "I grew up reading a New York Times that no longer exists: Tom Wicker reporting from the Attica prison truthfully and in solidarity with the rebelling inmates, Max Frankel ordering expensive investigations into government wrongdoing, the publication of The Pentagon Papers leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, and I’ll never regret following music critic John Rockwell down Bleeker Street to The Bowery and through those graffiti-covered doors into the future that we inhabit today. "

I'm nostalgic for a time I never knew

The great media cave in

1:30 PM Manny: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/affirmative-action-for-conservative-at-the-philadelphia-inquirer.php

smart man

1:32 PM me: I've been saying that for years! Headline: "Sustained right wing attack causes media to abandon jobs in favor of becoming talk show hosts"

1:33 PM Manny: this is why you and I have no sympathy for the times

but why M gets mad at your dissing them

me: ?

1:34 PM Manny: actually, i don't know why M gets mad when you diss them

1:35 PM but it IS why I don't give a crap about my own industry

1:36 PM me: I told him to post why he gets mad himself, so I'm not going to speak for him, but I agree, this is why the whole industry is suspect.

1:38 PM Manny: I spend half my life typing excuses that I know to be untrue into stories.

here is a story from bloomberg yesterday:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afWvIdZWi5bo

1:39 PM Now read the second post "spy vs. spy" on this site

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

which one is truer?

5 minutes

1:44 PM me: I feel you

Idealogically alligned?

10:21 AM Me: So I got the following email today. Can you pick out the problem?

------------------------------------
Good morning Gabriel,

My name is Fred, and I am currently in the principal's certification program at University. JB suggested I contact you. One of my cohort peers, Brandy, and I are very passionate about starting a charter school. We are excited by the excellent results some model charter schools, such as the KIPP and IDEA schools are producing with respect to student achievement and college preparation. As the idea for us is only a seed currently, Judy mentioned that you were interested in starting a charter school and could probably share some valuable information with us.

Perhaps you could share some essential readings you've done, advice on moving forward, or just some of your thoughts on the issues of entrepreneurial education ventures. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Fred

10:22 AM Manny: the shout-out to KIPP?

me: You got it!

10:23 AM If you are reaching out to me for help building a school like KIPP, you are clearly confused. And I'm not even questioning their "results"

10:24 AM Manny: It's like someone writing to me and saying they want to start a news channel that's a combination of FOX and TMZ.com

me: exactly

10:25 AM Manny: I think one could make moneey that way, I just wouldn't want to be that guy

me: you can obviously help them with journalism, but you aren't so interested in promoting their horrible lies

10:26 AM Manny: indeed

getting paid to play with some financial papers

1:26 PM Manny: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE0D91331F935A25756C0A9619C8B63

michael kinsley is funny

11:32 AM me: love the finance article you sent me yesterday

it's amazing how much people get paid to play around with paper

57 minutes

12:30 PM Manny: I know, right?

This is what they teach at biz school

me: how to play with paper?

16 minutes

12:46 PM Manny: I assume

And how to steal

12:47 PM me: Dude, it's not called stealing. It's called creative shuffling

12:50 PM Manny: Yes and I'm using the actual words

12:54 PM me: I think they should test swine flu vaccines on financiers

19 minutes