Monthly Archives: December 2007

Santa Gets Political

Posted on December 25, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Santa tries, but fails, to make a delivery at the White House.

I guess he knows who's been naughty.

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on Santa Gets Political

GW Bush Library Planned

Posted on December 24, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Gene Spafford ('Spaf') runs a mailing list called “Yuks” which is often pretty funny. Today's entry, originating from Wm Leler, is about the next Bush Library:

They are already making plans for the GW Bush Library. Proposed exhibits include:

The Alberto Gonzales Room – Where you can't remember anything.

The Hurricane Katrina Room – It's still under construction.

The Texas Air National Guard Room – Where you don't have to even show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room – Where they don't let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room – Where they don't let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room – Nobody has been able to find it.

The War in Iraq Room – After you complete your first tour, they can force you to go back for your second and third and fourth and fifth tours.

The Dick Cheney Room – In an undisclosed location, but reports are if you find it, it contains a unique shooting gallery.

Plans also include:

The K-Street Project Gift Shop – Where you can buy an election, or, if no one cares, steal one.

The Men's Room – Where you can meet a Republican Senator (or two).

Last, but not least, there will also be an entire floor devoted to a 7/8 scale model of the President's ego.

To be fair, the President has done some good things, and so the museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate them.

When asked, President Bush said that he didn't care so much about the individual exhibits as long as his museum was better than his father's.

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on GW Bush Library Planned

Summarizing the Latest from Jack Thompson

Posted on December 24, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

For the convenience of readers who do not have the energy to read the latest pleading from Coral-Gables-based anti-video-game-zealot Jack Thompson, AKA John Thompson, in the ongoing proceedings as to whether he should be disbarred, I present the following graphical summary:

(For those who came in late, Wikipedia has a decent background article on Jack Thompson.)

Posted in Virtual Worlds | 6 Comments

Wrong APA

Posted on December 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

There I was getting all excited by this teaser link at Brian Leiter's blog, “How the APA Stole Christmas”.

Someone writing about the Administrative Procedure Act? In the holidays? What fun!

But no, it's about the American Philosophical Association job fair. Which, incidentally, sounds much worse than the AALS's version.

Posted in Administrative Law | Comments Off on Wrong APA

The Internet Is a Giant ‘Topping’ Exercise

Posted on December 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

When I took Theater Studies 100 as a college freshman, one of the exercises we did was a “topping” exercise. You had to tell a story, and somewhere in it you had to show that something was even MORE than you first realized (the fish was big, really big, really really really big — I mean BIG, humongously big, elephantinely big, giant big, Tokyo-stomping-monster big…it was so big I couldn't finish it).

Well, it just struck me that the Internet is a giant topping exercise. Whenever you find a weird video (or whatever), there's always a weirder one. This one stars Mike Gravel, so it has a head start, but it makes the most of it.

(spotted via Scholars & Rogues)

Then again, one of the many points of the topping exercise was that you often make a point stronger by being quieter. Does that work on the Internet?

Posted in Kultcha, Politics: US: 2008 Elections | Comments Off on The Internet Is a Giant ‘Topping’ Exercise

Robert Waldmann Is Appalled

Posted on December 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Poor Robert Waldmann, who has been living abroad for a long time, is now being exposed to US TV. Political TV.

And his reaction after a session of “Hardball”? “It is worse than I imagined possible.”

Then again, he admits he was warned:

The point, as has been explained to me by many on the web including Atrios and Yglesias, is to have dramatic conflict in which a tough journalist forces someone to answer questions he doesn't want to answer. The fact that they are not important issues is irrelevant.

Posted in The Media | 1 Comment