Binder & Binder Comments

Comments on the old posts continue. Over a year ago, I had some issues with the cowboy hat worn by a lawyer in a shitty commercial that airs on NY1. Follow the link to the old post if you're interested in reading all of the comments (including one from a former employee! Look out!).

But allow me to draw your attention to one in particular. This week, I received a comment from a fella called Greg, who offered a link to his investigative report on Mr. Binder, Esq. He has conveniently embedded the ad in question, so that you can enjoy the cowboy hat in all its glory. Greg's mom emailed Binder & Binder (awesome), and received a reply to her inquiry about the hat, among other things.

Enjoy the hell out of it, B&E readers, and nice work, Greg, for actually pursuing the information.

And according to Greg, Charles "Cowboy Hat" Binder is bald under that sucker. Nice.

Won't You Take Me To... SEPIATOWN??

Those of my six readers who also click on the links to the right (so, then, none of you) may be wondering why Virgil's been so quiet these past couple of years. It turns out there's a simple explanation for why he's been denying so many of us bite-sized nibbles of his that nubile mind of his.

It's called SepiaTown, and it's been a massive undertaking that he launched this past weekend.

Its scope is limited primarily to a few cities right now, but the idea is that eventually, anyone can see what their current location looked like in the days of yore. "Gee, I'm standing at the corner of East 9th Street and Broadway. I wonder what it looked like in 1910." Well, it looked like this.

SepiaTown is a "wiki," B&E readers, which means it relies on user-generated content. If you have old photos, go put them in there. If you know people with access to old photos, tell them to put them in there. The more people that get involved, the cooler the site becomes.

As one buddy said, Virgil has gone and "built a goddamned time machine."

Hey, Look Over There!

While you, my six readers, wait for me to update B&E, I offer you a worthy distraction: Hedgehogs!

And if you want a look back at other hedgehogs, enjoy the hedgehogs of B&E old, dear readers.

Sure, I Have Thoughts

Since you were wondering, and as long as everyone else is talking about it, I'll share a few thoughts about yesterday's vote in Massachusetts. I know why the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, lost to Republican Scott Brown.

The Democrats are feckless weenies. I don't care who you blame for the loss: Coakley, the Massachusetts Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, or the White House. Nothing but feckless weeniedom from top to bottom.

Headlines about "Upset of the Century" and "Stunning Defeat" only garner a "Really?" response from me. Who's surprised? What about the Democratic Party in the past 30 years (or more) has demonstrated anything other than a reliable ability to fuck up?

There are books to be written (and probably will be written) about why the Democratic Party has failed. Or is failing. Or continues to fail. Or continually fails. Maybe it's a loss of core values. Maybe it's the shift to the right. Maybe it's the vast quantity of cash taken from business interests. Maybe it's the constant compromise that makes people think the party doesn't actually stand for anything. Maybe it's simple weakness.

Ultimately, though, all of those reasons for its ongoing failure come down to the same thing: the Democrats are feckless weenies.

And if you need further proof of feckless weeniedom, just check out how they're responding to the loss: finger-pointing, steps back, further compromise, and total defeat.

Feckless weenies.

But if you want to cheer up, I was introduced to this blog today. I never know if I'm really late in discovering these things, but it's fun anyway. Oh, and look! The puppy cam is back!

Bottle It Up and Be "Happy"!

Please allow me to draw your attention to Barbara Ehrenreich's fine essay, which is extracted from her book that lays into "positive thinking." Barbara relays her specific experience going through breast cancer treatment and how much the culture of positive thinking (i.e. "cancer is a blessing!") surrounded every step along the way. What she really wanted and needed was an outlet for her anger. Anyway, it's a good essay, and I encourage you to read it.

I have an amiable presence in general, so I think it comes as a surprise to many people, including good friends, that I have a pretty gloomy outlook on life. I don't always expect the best results or see the positive side of things. I find it difficult to visualize an ideal scenario, and when I do, that scenario seems totally out of the realm of reality. So yeah, I guess I'm a bit bleak that way.

That's not to say I don't set goals, make plans, or do any of those other things that people do to improve their lives. I have a Protestant work ethic. And I hope that I'm not so negative to be closed off to the opportunities that present themselves to me. But I tend to think that positive thinking is bullshit.

So I hope (and work) for the best and expect the worst. Truth be told, this approach has served me pretty well. I have a terrific wife and a happy marriage. I've been at a job for more than three years, and I actually still like it, something I've never been able to say before. I enjoy creative pursuits. I'm able to go on vacations and trips with the missus. I find genuine pleasure in good food and the company of good friends, even though I don't drink alcohol.

In other words, I'm happy. I don't want to be anyone else or have another life. My inability to think positively has not seemed to hinder me. And in fact I think that not forcing myself to be positive all the time gives me a full experience. I call it "life."

Feckless Weenies and Tango!

A bunch of things cropped up this week that I let go without comment due to busy-ness. I shall touch on a few of them now, ever so briefly.

I'm sure it'll surprise the small number of readers I have that I'm a fan of Medicare For All or a single-payer health system or whatever term you want to call it when the government actually covers its citizens' health needs, since it's a basic human right and all.

So this whole health debate has been infuriating because what seems most logical to me isn't at all being discussed, and the media only seems to be covering the nutty fringe of lunatics. And by "lunatics," of course, I mean our United States Senators.

Meanwhile, a big deal is being made of this whole "public option," like it's the be-all and end-all of health reform. And although I agree that at this point it's the best we can get, the only reason that's true is because the feckless weenies some call the Democrats started this debate with a compromised position.

So the Senate Finance Committee voted on a couple of versions of the public option this week. One version was "robust," and the other version was the opposite of robust. And both versions didn't pass the committee because they couldn't get enough Democratic support.

And why? Because Democrats are feckless weenies.

Of course, this is just one committee, and four other health plans currently on the table include a public option of some sort. And depending on whom you ask, the Finance Committee vote is either a reason for optimism or a "devastating blow."

Either way, with Democrats likes these, who needs Republicans?

In separate but related news, I got an email from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this week (not sure how I got on his list). It had the subject heading, "Delay is unacceptable!"

And for once, I couldn't agree more. Did you see Tom DeLay doing the tango on Dancing with the Stars? He almost dropped his partner! Totally unacceptable! (And if you didn't see his cha-cha...)

Alas, Harry wasn't talking about Tom DeLay. No, he's talking about healthcare reform. He puts the blame squarely on the Republicans, who are, to be sure, doing everything they can to kill reform. But you're the freakin' Senate Majority Leader. Get your party in line, buster.

It's only because Democrats are feckless weenies, led by another feckless weenie, if healthcare reform fails.

And it'll only be because Democrats are feckless weenies, led by another feckless weenie, if the 2010 midterm elections are completely disastrous for the Democratic Party.

All I'm saying is that right now Tom DeLay only looks a little sillier than the Democratic members of the United States Senate.

Meanwhile, from the House of Representatives comes Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida. Earlier this week, he announced before the chamber that the Republican plan for healthcare reform is, "Don't get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly." And OOOOOOOOHHHHH, Republicans are SO OFFENDED!

I actually think what he said is just damned good advice, but what I really like about this fella is that he's not apologizing. And I, for one, greatly appreciate what Greg Sargent says about why lefties such as me like that he's standing firm. It's not that what he said is overly partisan, and we like the partisan shots.

No, indeed, we like that for once we see a Democrat who's not a feckless weenie.

The Head of Mercenaries a Murderer? No!

Remember Blackwater (a.k.a. Xe)?

Oh, man. Man, oh man, oh Manischewitz.

Investigative reporter and Blackwater/Xe expert Jeremy Scahill is now reporting in The Nation that Erik Prince may have murdered or facilitated the murder of cooperative witnesses in government investigations of the company.

This is one of those explosive stories that's likely to get lost while the crazies/assholes are out screaming at the lawmakers attempting to reform health care.

It's also one of those stories that while surprising also feels inevitable. I'm somewhere between exclaiming, "I can't fucking believe it!" and "That makes a whole lot of sense."

It's like a really good movie when that twist really works. Except this is real and seriously deadly.

Food, Glorious Food

I'd just like to give another shout-out to Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! for putting together one hell of a riveting show yesterday. (If you come to this post or follow the link a bit after the fact, it's the Monday, August 3rd show in the archives.)

Please give a listen. It's about food (which I love) and bacon (which I love), and about the associations our brains make when we have a food experience, especially one that includes any delicious combination of sugar, fat, and/or salt. Chalking American obesity up to "laziness" has recently become a pet peeve of mine, and this is further dissection of the very complex issues around the food industry and American diets.

I tell you what else: it got me thinking about Shea Stadium. I'm talking about the Old Shea and not the New Shea officially known by another name.

At the Old Shea, a Mets game meant an Italian sausage with peppers, onion, and mustard (and I kid you not, I just salivated typing that) during the early innings, and a Carvel twist in a cup with hot fudge at some point in the middle of the game.

It never felt like a routine. It was genuinely what I wanted to eat every time I went to see the Mets play at Old Shea. The neurons in my brain required that this be my dinner (or lunch) at the stadium. It had all of the pleasurable experiences of being at a live Mets game (and if you remember, I also had a hell of a win streak there for a while), and between the addictive qualities of the sugar, fat, and salt and those good associations, I was helpless before the call of those obesity-causing sirens.

During this past off-season, I gave up sweets. I was actually concerned that I would need to blow my sugar fast during my first visit to the Mets new stadium. I so associated Mets games with Carvel (especially), I didn't know if I could do it.

But it was the place itself that had the association. Shea Stadium was where I ate Carvel. To keep me from eating Carvel, all they had to do was tear down the stadium! Thanks, Mets!

My visits to New Shea have created new food associations. Now I can't help but dream of barbecued pulled pork and fried flounder sandwiches. It's the same thing, really, only of a slightly higher brow. Better? Probably not.

At least gotten off the Carvel. There's not a lot one can say about Carvel's positive effect on one's health. But it does taste delicious on a hot summer's day.

Follow Up From a Busy Week

It was another one of those weeks, B&E readers, when I got a tad busy, and many things went through my notice without comment. In most cases, people with more time (and, let's face it, more talent) have made more insightful comments in better prose stylings than I probably would have even if I'd had the time.

So here's a quick roundup of just a few things...

Cuts to the Military Budget
Early in the week, I got all excited because I heard that Obama was making cuts to the military, a logical place to look for extra money to help pay for spending that actually promotes the common good. Turns out, I was believing headlines.

TPM seemed to be the first place to state outright that in no way does a 4% increase in military spending constitute a cut. The Daily Show mocked this thinking, too. As did Rachel Maddow.

And yet, Obama-is-gutting-the-military remains standard coverage, and it's certainly what the pundits and politicians of the right continue to state/lie.

But it's sort of brilliant. The left is now in a position to explain that it's not a cut. "It's an increase! We're stronger AND smarter about defense!"

Instead, it seems to me that the left should be saying, "Hey, if they're gonna accuse us of gutting the military anyway, maybe we should actually cut defense spending." Where the fuck are those voices?

We pay way more on the military than any other country and way more than we ever need to. We're building out-dated bullshit equipment that'll never see the light of day, and good goddamn if that fucking money shouldn't be helping to build a windmill somewhere.

Lefty watchdog cheerleaders
During the years of the Bush administration, I would often rely on lefty advocacy groups to keep me informed of various nefarious dealings in the White House. Many of these groups were understandably thrilled with the election of Barack Obama. But I'm not a big fan of these groups just becoming cheerleaders for the people in power.

It's perhaps unfair to pick on one of these groups, but I'm going to anyway. TrueMajority is an advocacy group with a fairly broad left-ish agenda. They were founded by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Here's a quote from their website:

The central objective of TrueMajority is to increase America's investment in programs that benefit our children (like schools, health care, HeadStart) by cutting Cold War weapons systems and shifting the savings. That's just 15% of the Pentagon budget but would make $60 billion available every year to meet children's basic needs.

OK, that sounds fine.

But in their latest email blast, they state that, "under President Obama's budget, instead of paying billions in missile defense and useless Cold War weapons, your taxes will buy schools, healthcare and green-collar jobs."

It's just not true. Although there may be a shift away from spending money on useless Cold War weapons, money from those weapons programs are staying in the military. Remember? Obama has proposed a 4% increase in military spending. I guess we're going from useless weapons to useful ones. That doesn't sound so terrific to me. At least the useless ones won't kill anyone.

Look, TrueMajority, it's totally fine if you want to support the Obama budget. He is actually spending a lot more on schools, healthcare, and green-collar jobs. But don't spread misinformation and pretend it's being paid for by a cut military budget. I expect more out of my lefty watchdog groups.

Taxes
Once again, B&E readers, it's tax season! I'm from the left. I don't mind taxes. I don't particularly like owing taxes, but I certainly have no problem with the pay-as-you-go approach to taxes.

Some people hate taxes. And some of those people are complete idiots. You may have heard about "tea party" protests. The Boston Tea Party was about "taxation without representation." So unless every one of these people lives in Washington DC, they're fucking stupid.

Not only that, but they seem to be completely unaware of what, exactly, "teabagging" means. This is not a family blog, so let me explain for readers who may not know. It's very simple. Teabagging is dipping one's balls into someone else's mouth. Get the image?

Now watch this. Rachel Maddow and Ana Marie Cox clearly know the definition of teabagging.

And finally, just to end on a cleaner note... One of my colleagues is a creator of "information visualizations." That's "info-graphics" if you want to insult her intelligence. She will occasionally send around a particularly interesting info-viz, and this week's was tax-related. Fascinating.

Reading Material

I've been admittedly quiet on the bloggy front the past couple of days, so until I find the time to get something down worth perusing (and as most readers know, my standards for "worth perusing" are quite low), let me offer this entertainment instead (from The Nation, of course).

Election Dance 2008

A few years back, I had the privilege of participating in a variety show called "Dog & Pony." I have only my baldness to credit. A friend I didn't know all that well at the time was performing a sketch he wrote, and he needed a bald, roundish face and head to affix baby doll arms and legs to. (It was wonderfully weird and way too complicated to explain here, but pester Virgil if you'd like details. I sure wish he'd write more.)

So Virgil's previous bald head was suddenly unavailable, and I served as a stand-in. Thus began a fun, prolific collaboration that lasted a few active years and sputters occasionally to this day when we find the motivation. I swear to Christ we'll get to that podcast eventually.

Titivil was the host and co-producer for this Dog & Pony show, and today he linked to a reprise of one of my favorite performances from eight (wow) years ago. The original performance, of course, featured Bush and Gore. Today, it features McCain and Obama. (The performers' current sites can be found here (she was also the other co-producer for D&P) and here.)

Nothing about the campaigns has brought a smile to my face for quite some time, but this sure did, and not just because of nostalgia. I hope you enjoy, too.

It Makes Me Happy

A special shout-out to Titivil, who pointed his readers (including me) in the direction of this video, which has made me happier than just about anything else this week.

It only gets better and funnier on multiple viewings.

Better Than the Iditarod

The missus' godfather is doing what has to be one of the coolest things on earth right about now. It's called Finnmark 2007. While on its dog-sledding trek across the Lapland of Scandinavia, the team will be focused on studying the early victims of climate change, i.e. the Sami. The human response to the effects of global warming, after all, will become increasingly important to understand.

A secondary purpose will be to record snowflakes for NASA's snowflake database. How badass is that?

Be sure to check out the diary of the ride, which has just begun and continues through April 10. The photo of the Northern Lights is pulled right from the diary, and the missus' godfather is one of the regular bloggers from the expedition. The man is sixty-five. While he's got more hair than me, I would consider him bald. His effectiveness is without question.

All About Me and You

I've spent much of my spare time since the holiday known by Christians as Christmas doing two things:

The first is filling my iPod. This is time-consuming because my iPod is considerably larger than my computer (in terms of memory, not physical size). So I load a CD, transfer it onto my iPod, then erase it from my computer again. There's probably an easier and quicker way, but since I don't know what it is, this is how I'm doing it.

The other has been the retooling of B&E, which I mentioned in a previous post. Blogger is no longer in beta and can do things it couldn't before. So I've now labeled most of my previous 750+ posts with headings. Hilary, for example, has been wanting to read just my baseball writings for years. Now she can. In fact, if she wants to relive the play-by-play of my Mets live-blog during the playoffs, she can click on "Mets." Or if she wants to read all my non-Mets baseball writings, including my own baseball-playing adventures in Vermont, she can check out the entries labeled "baseball." Hilary will never be without my baseball writings again.

There are still some problems, though, I must admit. The archives, for example, don't seem to link to the archives. This is a problem.

I've also added a few links. Under "Bald Links" you'll notice two old links renamed. And I've added Frank Dodge and Ali. I've never met Frank in person, but I'm assuming he's bald. If he's not, he has my apologies, and I will alter the location of his link sometime in 2009, when I get around to it. The other bald link is Ali. I went to high school with Ali, and for reasons I can't quite recall, we used to tease her about going bald. She wasn't remotely going bald. But I wanted to even out my list of bald links, so for our purposes, Ali is once again going bald.

Under "Effective Links" I finally updated Ballpeen Hammer's name to Virgil. And I added a link to The Nation because everyone should read The Nation.

Then I added some "Topeka Links" for my Kansas people. Most of you know that I grew up there, and these are the people who (with one exception) knew me then (Ali was among us, of course, but it's funnier to keep her under "Bald Links"). Early Adopter is actually a New Yorker now, but we knew each other back when we looked alike. And Early Adopter, let's not let our current greatness cause us to forget our humble beginnings, eh?

Current greatness. That's a good one.

Sorry, Virgil

I keep forgetting that my links are all out-of-date. Virgil is, in fact, the Ballpeen Hammer link to the right. He changed the name of his blog about a year ago. Click on the Ballpeen Hammer link to the right, or follow this link for your convenience.

Holy Calamari!

It's an age old question: What does one do if it's raining squid? Fortunately (and finally), Ali has an answer.

A Clean, Well-lighted Blog

As I'm continuing to do the work required by my soon-to-end part-time job while simultaneously looking for a job that will continue into the forseeable future, I'm short on posting time today.

Instead I direct you to one of my links. Virgil is a long-time link over to the right (although it hasn't been updated since its "Ballpeen Hammer" days), and I feel he's on a particularly good roll recently with the quality posts. He's clearly feeling inspired by the Dutch people's Nethers in Holland.

I miss his presence in my 'hood for this prolonged absence, but his blog is making me happy during the dark days of my job hunt.

While I'm at it, here's a long overdue shout-out to one of the finest snack reviews I've ever read, also from among the links to the right. I shall never eat the Nobby's, thanks to the muscular prose of Titivil.

Nuking Iran?

Once again, Seymour Hersh freaks my shit out.

How 'bout a Shitload of Links?

Having paid considerably less attention to the media over the past week, I woke up this morning in awe of the goings-on. So here are a few topics upon which I might have commented further, had the hecticity of my life been a tad less, uh, hectic. Many of these little links come via The Huffington Post, a useful site for culling stories liberals might be interested in...

-- Dubya likes to spy on us.

-- Bushie Hearts DeLay.

-- Former Dickhead of the Week Jack Abramoff paid for editorials coming out of the right-wing think tank, Cato Institute, resulting in, like, a real resignation and shit. As a sidebar, BusinessWeek online refers to Cato as "libertarian" and not "right-wing." I guess if you're a pro-business publisher, you don't necessarily want to refer to a philosophical ally as extremist.

-- Trent Lott is rearing his fat, racist head again.

-- Ford has decided that maybe there's more money to be made from the Homos than the Haters.

-- The actor who played everyone's favorite fictional Chief-of-Staff, Leo McGarry/John Spencer passed away yesterday.

OK, well, I'm gonna get back to work now...