Monday, August 11, 2008

Recommended Reading

Fred Kaplan on the Russian invasion on Georgia. And if you need more background on what this is all about, James Traub supplies some.

• Posted at 5:34 PM · LINK

The Best Policy

If you follow comics, you already know how well Colleen Doran draws. Turns out she's also real good at gathering info for folks — particularly freelancers — who don't have good health insurance.

• Posted at 9:29 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Ben Stein has lately written some very bizarre articles about Creationism and how a nasty thing called Science must be ignored if we are to live our lives properly. But when the man's right, he's right and I think he is about the Bush/McCain approach to the economy.

• Posted at 9:18 AM · LINK

Monday Morning

You know, everyone predicted this would be a nasty, mud-filled presidential campaign. But no one thought the worst insult these guys would find to hurl at each other is, "You're a celebrity!"

• Posted at 9:09 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

I know some people would rather I just linked to light, happy video clips of wacky commercials and silly songs...but there are some things on the web you oughta see. Whether you like 'em or not.

Here are three video reports on "The Surge" from a gentleman named Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a native of Baghdad who's employed by the Guardian in the U.K. Like all of you, I would love to believe the mantra of "The Surge is working" but an awful lot of evidence suggest that it's only been effective in reducing the humiliation of those in this country who backed the U.S. efforts in Iraq and made grandiose, impossible claims about "winning." It's a way for those who never want to believe their country does the wrong thing (at least when a Republican is in the White House) to stick their fingers in their ears and sing "la la la" loud enough to drown out the reality.

The three parts should play one after the other in the embedded player below. They total about thirteen and a half minutes. If someone would like to suggest an article or video that affords another view of this situation, please do.

• Posted at 12:34 AM · LINK

Wait One Minute...

Out in Studio City, which is in the "valley" part of Los Angeles, there's a place called the Sportsmen's Lodge. It's a hotel and it's a coffee shop and a bar but its main function is as a venue to hold banquets, meetings, weddings, receptions, parties, etc. It's very large and has many rooms of all sizes for such events, and it's known for quaint and lovely surroundings, mediocre service and the worst, most overpriced banquet food you ever tasted.

The place has endured for many years, partly because it's something of an institution and partly because if you need to hold a meeting or a luncheon, there aren't that many other options around. But it also sits on a huge swath of very valuable real estate so there have been constant rumors that someone was going to plow it all under and build a mall or something more lucrative. Thus, people were not surprised to read a series of recent news stories announcing its closure. Here's the lede of one typical one...

Venerable Sportsmen's Lodge closing down
ASSOCIATED PRESS - July 16, 2008
LOS ANGELES — The end is near for the venerable Sportsmen's Lodge, a San Fernando Valley oasis where generations of celebrities and politicians dined and drank among gardens and trout ponds. The 63-year-old Studio City restaurant, bar and banquet hall has lost its lease and will shut down New Year's Eve. Lodge owner and president Patrick Holleran says a nearly yearlong attempt to extend the lease failed.

Pretty straightforward, right? The place is closing...and we have this from an unimpeachable source, the owner of the Sportsmen's Lodge. End of story? Not quite...because here's a story from the same press service and it's dated the same day...

Sportsmen's Lodge to get facelift, new tenant
ASSOCIATED PRESS - July 16, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Extensive renovations are planned for the venerable Sportsmen's Lodge, a San Fernando Valley oasis where generations of celebrities and politicians dined and drank among gardens and trout ponds. Steve Afriat, a spokesman for the property's owner, says the 63-year-old restaurant, bar and banquet hall will undergo renovations after January, when the current tenant's lease expires. The 200-room Sportsmen's Lodge Hotel and Patio Cafe next door is already being renovated.

I dunno what happened here and I'm not sure I care — obviously some dispute between the guy who owns the land and the guy who owns the business and I assume they'll thrash it out. In the meantime, did you ever see a professional news service contradict itself so totally on the same day? And in stories that appear to have been written by the same person?

• Posted at 12:32 AM · LINK