Saturday, June 28, 2008

Recommended Reading

George W. Bush — a hero to those who believe we should get tough with terrorists and never sit down and negotiate with them — sat down and negotiated with North Korea. Fred Kaplan tells us what it's all about.

• Posted at 9:38 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

The webpage for Larry King Live doesn't seem to think it's important to tell us what's on when...but I did a search and found (elsewhere) the info that the George Carlin tribute was rerunning this weekend on the 9 PM broadcasts. You've already missed Saturday night's broadcast but you can still set Mr. TiVo to get tomorrow night's. That's 9 PM Eastern time so it may be another time where you are.

• Posted at 9:31 PM · LINK

Survey Says!

I forgot to post the results of our most recent poll here. You were asked to predict the results of the November election...and by a pretty wide margin, you said it would be Obama. I'll ask again in a month or so and we'll see what the results are.

I'm most intrigued, of course, by the 3% of you who said it would be someone else. Do you actually think Bob Barr or Ralph Nader have a chance? I'm going to get the same number of electoral votes as the two of them combined. Do you think Obama or McCain will not be the candidate of their respective parties? Or were you just being ornery? If you were one of the 3%, drop me a note and tell me what was on your mind.

• Posted at 8:29 PM · LINK

One Degree of Separation

I have a small but real fascination with how "targeted advertising" works on the Internet. As we surf, certain websites are tracking us and our browsing/buying habits, the better to display advertising that will be of interest to us. For a while, every time I went to Google, an ad in the margins would try to sell me Bobby Darin ring-tones...and I couldn't figure out why, of all the eighty zillion recording artists who have ever cut an album, Bobby Darin was being presented to me, not occasionally but often. I finally figured out it had something to do with the fact that my cousin David, who shares my surname, authored a book on Mr. Darin. Somehow, in the cryptic algorithms that are Google, "Evanier" and "Bobby Darin" are linked...so Google thinks I'm a likely customer for things relating to Bobby.

Today, I'm getting this one when I go to Google. This is a screen capture image...

I haven't Googled Jack's name in quite a while but I have in the past. I also have a Google News Alert set to e-mail me whenever his name turns up on Google News. It often brings me headlines about John T. "Jack" Kirby, a sewer worker who's running to be mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island. I also get plenty of news about Superior Court Judge Jack Kirby down in Georgia. (My Jack Kirby would have made an excellent judge or mayor, by the way.)

So is that why I got the above ad? Or is it because my name is linked to Jack in a lot of places on the 'net, especially since my book on him came out?

• Posted at 7:29 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

My favorite recent segment on The Colbert Report was the guest appearance by my favorite Muppet, Cookie Monster. In case you missed it, here 'tis...

Sadly (for some of us), Frank Oz has retired from the role...and apparently all Muppeteering. Muppet fan boards are debating whether the performance here was by David Rudman or Eric Jacobson, both of whom have reportedly played the character since Mr. Oz stepped aside. I'm not familiar enough with them to know the difference but whoever it is, he did a pretty good job...

• Posted at 9:48 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Here's another back-and-forth exchange that I find interesting. It's about the issue of telecom immunity in the new FISA bill, and about the seeming capitulation of most Democrats (Barack Obama, among them) on this matter. Arguing that it ain't so bad, and isn't a serious reversal on previous stances, we have Keith Olbermann. Arguing that it's just that is Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.

If you'd like to follow this exchange, start by reading Greenwald, then go read Olbermann, then go read Greenwald, then read the observations of Jane Hamsher.

As I score this one, Greenwald's ahead on points, especially in noting the following; that it may not matter if the telecoms are still open to criminal prosecution by a President Obama because an outgoing President Bush can (and I'm guessing, will) pardon them. In fact, I suspect that if Bush is to be succeeded by a Democrat, and maybe even by John McCain, he will spend his last few days in office pardoning everyone who's ever worked for him for everything they've ever done, including stuff we don't yet know about.

The argument for the bill seems to be that it will help Obama in the election not to be attacked as being "soft on terrorism" for opposing any part of FISA. There's some merit to that, though I think Obama could go out and single-handedly arrest and drag Bin Laden in for trial, and Republicans would still be attacking him on that basis. But I sure don't think this new bill is a "compromise." In a compromise, both sides regret losing something. Has anyone seen a single Republican who's unhappy with any aspect of this "bi-partisan compromise?"

• Posted at 9:45 AM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

In tribute to George Carlin, NBC is rerunning the very first episode of Saturday Night Live (then called NBC Saturday Night) tonight. The show originally ran on October 11, 1975.

It's an honor that I suspect would not have particularly pleased Mr. Carlin, who did not speak well of that night — or the series he helped launch — in later years. Still, as we noted here, that debut episode is an interesting bit of TV history. Producer Lorne Michaels pretty much had all the ingredients of his show in mind but he hadn't figured out the proportions, so there's way too little of the Not Ready for Primetime Players, way too much of the host (and other folks) doing monologues, plus Andy Kaufman and two musical guests.

I gather part of George's unhappiness with the show had to do with Michaels never asking him to host again. He hosted his only other time in November of '84 when Lorne M. was away from the series.

However — again, with enormous presumptuousness — Carlin would be even less pleased to see the editorial cartoons which turned up to note his death. Almost all seemed to depict him arriving at the Pearly Gates only to learn he would not be allowed to say his famed "seven words" there. Daryl Cagle polled some of them as to why they had so depicted such a famous, outspoken Atheist. Frankly, the part that I think would have offended George was so many of them all going for the same, obvious joke.

• Posted at 1:02 AM · LINK

Told Ya So!

Last November, we predicted here that tickets for this year's Comic-Con International would be scalped on eBay. Over at his Variety weblog, Tom McLean reports that this is happening. Buyers be wary.

• Posted at 12:05 AM · LINK