November 29, 2005
It seems that, from time to time, everyone syncs up for just a few short seconds, like car blinkers in traffic. One of those times seems to be now, and it’s all about finding and appreciating the beauty in simplicity.
A few that I’ve noticed as of late…
November 24, 2005
It’s a little too dark to capture the sight of my first snow in Baltimore by photographic means, but I just saw OS X Tiger’s snow graphic for the first time and it’s pretty beautiful.
It’s even nicer than the real snow outside.
November 19, 2005
Maybe Jennifer Love Hewitt can come holler at ‘em.
November 13, 2005
This has been a long time coming. Thanks, Scott!
From: SCOTT
Subject: OLD TIME POTTERY
MATT….DUDE, WHATS UP WITH THE SLAM ON OLD TIME POTTERY?
POTTERY BARN IS A CUTE MALL SHOP, PERFECTLY SUITED FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO CLUE THEY ARE PAYING PRICES FOR MERCHANDIES THAT ARE FAR ABOVE THE ACTUAL VALUE OF THE STUFF THEY ARE BUYING. AT OLD TIME POTTERY, YOU GET GREAT STUFF AT MUCH MORE REASONABLE PRICES, FAR MORE REASONABLE THAN POTTERY BARN. SO, WHEN YOU SHOP AT OLD TIME POTTERY,YOU DONT WALK OUT THE DOOR WITH THAT "I JUST GOT SCREWED" FEELING LIKE YOU DO AT POTTERY BARN. THATS WHY OLD TIME POTTERY HAS ALOT MORE CUSTOMERS THAN POTTERY BARN, MAKES MORE MONEY THAN POTTERY BARN, AND HAS A BETTER REPUTATION THAN POTTERY BARN.
DON’T BE SLAMMIN THE BIG DOGS DUDE.
From: Matt Thomas
Subject: Re: OLD TIME POTTERY
wow. that’s funny.
since you typed in all caps, i’ll type in all lowercase, and maybe we’ll balance each other out.
scott, you’ll be happy to know that i only worked for pottery barn for a month and a half before i got a real job. and i quit. and i certainly haven’t shopped there since. i worked there, you don’t have to tell me that the store is overpriced.
i stand by my word, however, that old time pottery is full of cement yard angels and other useless potpourri-scented shit. but more power to you for loving it so much.
love,
mt
From: SCOTT
Subject: Re: OLD TIME POTTERY
OK…..BUT…..
THERE ARE NO YARD ANGELS AT OLD TIME POTTERY, AND THEY DONT SELL POTPOURRI ANYMORE…...
SCOTT
From: Matt Thomas
Subject: Re: OLD TIME POTTERY
sorry, scott. i must have been thinking of the cement turtles or virgin marys (or is that virgins mary?) or birdbaths or picnic tables or something. There was a whole outdoor section of cement crap when my mother drug me there as a child.
glad to hear about the new potpourri policy. who ever said old time pottery couldn’t adapt for the 21st century?
love,
matt
November 12, 2005
As if the differences between political persuasions in our country weren’t acute enough, a few of the American right-wing media’s brightest stars have sought to make things ever-more abundantly clear for us since Tuesday’s off-off-year election.
I won’t pretend like I’m not happy that Democrats—and all rational, sane people of all parties—finally had a good election cycle. No matter how “off” the year is, it’s good to finally see the court of public opinion reflect a sense of something other than slack-jawed faith in George Bush and the “top-tier” arch-conservative Republicans currently playing with our country.
In the past five years, Democrats have come to be considerably good losers. We get far too much practice in it. Sometimes there may be legitimate challenges (i.e., a certain hillbilly state run by the brother of a certain hillbilly presidential candidate) to the results. But we’ve lost a lot more than that, and sadly, we’ve become quite good at it.
The Republicans, though—at least the hardcore, holy (or just assholy, in Bill O’Reilly’s case) conservatives—have become terrible at accepting defeat. Following the small, but sweet victory in Dover, Pennsylvania, where every school board member running for re-election and involved in the now-semi-famous “Intelligent Design” controversy was summarily booted from office, hyperconservative wingnut windbag Pat Robertson menacingly announced that Dover had “voted God out,” and warned of things to come…
If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God… You just rejected him from your city, and don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin.
Pat Robertson really fearmongers with the best of them. The best part about his little tirade is that he openly, incontrovertibly admitted that Intelligent Design is, and always has been, Creationism in secular clothing.
He’s still a passive voice, though, and any real Republican worth his salt knows that the key to fear mongering is to threaten a direct, devastating terrorist attack. Anybody up for the job? Oh, hi, Bill O’Reilly. I’ll let you take it away:
From the November 8 edition of The O’Reilly Factor ...
Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I’m not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, “Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, ‘look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco.’”
The only thing I like better than the fact that Bill O’Reilly said such an asinine and categorically indefensible thing is the idea of George Bush actually taking his advice. If the president of the United States actually held press conferences in left-leaning cities to grant them sovereign nation status, maybe people would finally realize that Bush is as shitballs crazy as he is.
In the end, it’s clear that Republicans are going to have to get a lot better at losing gracefully. Otherwise, next year, when the losses are even more seriously damaging for the Republicans, Bill O’Reilly is going to strap himself to a dirty bomb and go blow up a gay bar. And we’d hate to lose one of our national treasures like that. The bar, that is, of course.
November 4, 2005
He’s my friend and yours: ladies and gentlemen, presenting Kway Gordon.
Mattcast 051104: Loud!
November 2, 2005
It’s a good time to be a good liberal. Watching the Republicans’ country club implode over the past two weeks, culminating in Bill Frist’s hissy-fit today over the Democrats’ closed session of the Senate, is just a tiny, tiny reprieve from the abuse we’ve been taking for the past five years. I didn’t think it could get any better after Scoota’ was indicted, but it has.
Now we get to watch the shitstorm over Alito. Politics is fun again.
