WOAH! Holy missing governor!

10:25 AM Manny: did you see that the gov of south carolina is missing?

me: what!?

10:26 AM Manny: mark sanford

disappeared

his staff NOW says he's hiking

his wife didn't know

they ain't seen him in days

5 minutes

10:32 AM me: that's totally f-ing crazy

8 minutes

10:40 AM Manny: it is

NPR is liberal? Why can't they talk about all the TORTURE!?

9:31 AM Manny: I love Glen everyday, but this is also vg: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/22/npr/index.html

9:33 AM key question: How can you kill a detainee using interrogation tactics without torturing him?

13 minutes

9:47 AM me: no, I don't think so

26 minutes

10:13 AM Manny: NPR is an embarassment on this issue

as are the Times and the Post

I wouldn't have guessed our parents generation would be so quick to rationalize torture

10:14 AM me: dude, npr says "interrogation techniques that some have called torture"

10:15 AM Manny: some

like, you know, the red cross

some have called them "happy puppy tickles."

Like, the people guilty of commiting torture

and their daughter, Liz Cheney

me: ha

ha

10:16 AM ha

the red cross is notoriously hard on peaceful interrogators dude

10:17 AM Manny: My first concert was the Amnesty international show in philly with Bruce and Sting

I never really imagined France holding one of those concerts for our people

10:22 AM me: and the French are exemplary in their treatment of people different from themselves

10:23 AM Manny: also the belgians

love the belgians

me: of course

why we like buffy and not twilight

3:15 PM Manny: this is f--ing fantastic

http://blip.tv/file/2261825/

3:18 PM me: wild

welcome to the new entertainment world

Manny: buffy is a hilarious rebuke to everything in twilight

3:19 PM me: awesome commentary

Manny: everything about buffy rejects on of those mormonist premises

3:21 PM me: word

3:22 PM but dude, Twighlight captures the sexual aspirations of a generation of women doesn't it?

or is that the aspirations of predatory men? I can't remember

3:23 PM Manny: I think it was the 200 year old men who want to do 16 year old girls

buffy had a boyfriend like that

she stabbed him

me: oh yeah, they are an important tv watching audience

Manny: which is why my daughter will get buffy and not twilight for chanukkah

3:24 PM me: mine too. I like the buffy moral: she slept with him, he turned into a monster, she stabbed the shit out of him. the way it should be

3:25 PM Manny: buffy is essentially about girls finding power

twilight is about girls being whores

3:26 PM me: indeed. I haven't gotten there yet in Packaging Girlhood yet. Turns out they have a blog though.

froomkin gets fired...Well, we didn't think the post really planned on actually reporting facts about anything anyway

11:39 AM me: Have you seen this? http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/19/washpost/index.html

11:41 AM Manny: yes

me: I figured

Manny: I am aware of the Froomkin firing

me: another one bites the dust

11:42 AM did you read greenwald's comentary?

Manny: yeah, I have him on RSS

11:43 AM me: "Froomkin was one of the very few journalists working for an establishment outlet who understood and practiced the function of journalism...That's why he was an aberration -- and, to them, an unpleasant one."

Manny: yup

11:44 AM me: word

Manny: Will Bunch wrote about it too

11:45 AM Don't you know you don't need froomkin? You have the excellent reporters at the Times and the Post

11:46 AM me: excellent bombasts

11:47 AM Manny: John Harris, for example

that guy is really, really, really in touch with what David Broder and Cokie Roberts will say

11:48 AM me: ha

perfect

I always need someone to take of new what the news-thinker-inventors think

11:49 AM Manny: FYI, mickleson just eagled 15 to tie for the lead

11:50 AM me: I'm watching

Did you know that MSM means main stream media?

1:28 PM Me: Wow. Great coverage on Iran. Just great.

Manny: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/just-a-reminder.html

forget the nonsense, manny's real response to our friend in Afhanistan

My official response to our man:
http://www.eandppub.com/2009/06/the-daily-show-does-the-nyt.html

who's to blame for bad news?

12:41 PMMe: To me, the problem is only partially on the media end. much of the problem is the consumer and our obsession with things that aren't important, particularly our obsession with famous people and what they have to say (or just anyone on tv really

12:42 PM Manny: ah yes

but media constructs those people

12:43 PM me: true

Manny: media teaches us to value their appearance, and generates anxiety about ourselves useful for selling products

me: or at least they are co-constructive

Manny: it also begs for our attention, teaching us that our attention is the most freakin valuable thing in the world

12:44 PM not sure what that does, except create a world of people who are too cool for every school

foster wallace has a good essay on tv

that way

12:45 PM me: I like him

in his book?

12:46 PM Manny: a supposedly fun thing

I think I have your copy

ha

he blames tv for irony being the default position of US youth

12:47 PM me: that's funny, I was just looking for it on my shelf

12:48 PM Manny: he's blaming tv for the existence of "My cousin, my gastronteologist"

12:49 PM which is prob fair enough

me: ha

5 minutes

12:54 PM me: from wikipedia: David Foster Wallace excerpts this novel in his essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", and presents it as an example of postmodern authors fully embracing the symbolism and style of channel surfing while eschewing the plot development and narrative of earlier literature. Wallace, critical of Leyner's superabundance of irony, also calls the book "dead on arrival."[1]

ha