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Archive for August, 2008

Stay Classy, Eugene: Part Two

August 31st, 2008 by CJ Ciaramella

Money quote from the Oregonian wrap-up of the game:

“I guess we were just distracted,” Washington running back Chris Polk said. “We’re better than this. I was prepared, but I didn’t expect (the crowd) to be this hostile.”

Stay Classy, Eugene

August 31st, 2008 by CJ Ciaramella

An email from our buddies at EPD:

Local area Law Enforcement was kept busy on game day for the Duck’s season opener. The officers working the game itself ejected 60 spectators. 44 of those ejections were alcohol related. There were 7 related to disorderly conduct and the rest were misc. reasons such as trespass and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

The post game traffic was complicated by a DUII crash into a telephone pole on Coburg Rd near Harlow Rd. around 7:39 PM, resulting in a power outage to a large area and snarled traffic (Incident #68781). The driver suffered minor injuries and was arrested for DUII. Arrested was Elizabeth Yural Sholes, 111978. Repair crews were able to temporarily secure power lines to open Coburg Rd. until the post game traffic
subsided and they could resume repairs. As of this release they were still working on it. Two more DUII drivers were arrested by EPD out of the post game traffic. OSP accounted for one more, SPD two, and LCSO has yet to report in.

Officers were kept busy with other non-game related calls involving disputes, fights, a street robbery.

Two Can Play At That Game

August 29th, 2008 by Vincent

John McCain has picked Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

[EDIT]

Do you really want to go there Obama? Really?

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

[update]

It begins.

[update]

Ugh.

Obama is the chosen one

August 29th, 2008 by Jake

Nancy Pelosi Drops It Like It’s Hot

August 28th, 2008 by CJ Ciaramella

Thanks to OC Alum Ian Spencer for sending in this video. It warms the cockles of my heart.


Nancy Pelosi Techno Chicken from wreckandsalvage on Vimeo.

Hope, Change, and the Urge to Vomit

August 27th, 2008 by Vincent

Michael Moynihan at Reason has a video of what can only be called one of the worst musical abominations of all time, or in his words, “a skin-crawling, wretch [sic]-inducing festival of crappiness” featuring such notable musicians as Jason Alexander, Margaret Cho, and Whoopi Goldberg (I think I spotted Herbie Hancock in there, too, which is really a shame). Evidently, this fetid pile of shit was co-written by Bono and some asshole from the Eurythmics who, along with their assorted guests, are offering their “American prayer” to the Democratic nominee.

Word of warning: Do not watch this video unless you have sexual fantasies of giving oral pleasure to Barack Obama, because that’s basically what the song amounts to.

For the record, I made it until 2:35 into the song before projectile vomiting.

I’ll never un-hear that song.

Totten in Georgia

August 26th, 2008 by Vincent

I don’t have too much to say about this except that it’s easily one of the most informative things I’ve read about the conflict in Georgia, bar none. Read it.

Climate Change

August 25th, 2008 by Amy

toothpaste for dinner
toothpastefordinner.com

Tees By The Impressionable Masses, For The Impressionable Masses

August 25th, 2008 by CJ Ciaramella

The Obama website has a new feature that allows you to design and upload your own hope-tastic t-shirt designs. Users can then vote on their favorite entries, and the winner will presumably be put in production.

You can download a .zip file from the website with all the necessary logos and t-shirt outlines (Creative Suite required). Hmm, I wonder what kind of monstrosities our faithful Commentator readers could come up with? I’m hereby announcing our own Obama-rama t-shirt contest. Funny entries will be posted on the blog, and creator of the winningest design will get a beer or a sudsy tee … or something. Have at it. (Send your creations to ocomment@uoregon.edu, and as always, extra points awarded for Big Lebowski references.)

Hat tip to the Eugene Weekly Blog.

Hey hey! Ho ho! Stuff and things have got to go!

August 25th, 2008 by Vincent

I think the DNC (or at least the crazy-fest outside, courtesy of “Recreate 68”) is going to be a hoot and a holler this year.

My personal favorite? “Humanity needs Revolution & Communism, Not a New Face on the Same Brutal Empire”

You can’t make this stuff up.

[UPDATE]

While the “Revolution & Communism” is perhaps the most absurd picture on there (so far), I think this picture of the clenched-fisted tools idolizing Muqtada al-Sadr as some kind of “anti-imperialist” hero beats it for sheer stupidity.

And is it just me, or is that a Coors logo and a small Budweiser logo on the reverse of Muqtada’s picture?

Well, When You Put It Like That…

August 24th, 2008 by Vincent

If Obama Loses: Racism is the only reason McCain might beat him.

Really? The only reason? If you thought the aftermath of the 2000 election was ugly, just wait and see what happens when these little race-obsessed goblins go utterly berzerk in the event of an Obama defeat.

More and more, this race baiting stuff from Obama supporters looks to be designed to guilt-trip people into voting for their guy. So much for the post-racial candidate.

[edit]

Some thoughts from Armed Liberal at Winds of Change:

And while it’s absolutely true that there is some (I believe small) slice of voters who will let their inner Bull Connors out when the curtains close on the polling booth, I think that they are matched by both the absolute solidarity that Obama will get in the Afican-American vote and by the very real group of people – kinda like me – who are in no small part favorably disposed to him because of his skin color.

(Link fixed.)

Obama Chooses Running Mate

August 23rd, 2008 by Vincent

It’s Joe Biden.

Does this help Obama? Does Biden bring to the table the “experience” that the Obama campaign needs?

Confirming What We Already Knew

August 23rd, 2008 by CJ Ciaramella

A survey of 100 bartenders in the Washington D.C. area by Beam Global Spirits & Wine reports that Democrats are better tippers, while Republicans are harder drinkers. The survey also found that Republicans were more likely to order drinks straight, while Democrats were more likely to order mixed drinks. (Insert lame joke about effete liberals here.)

But is this a long-term trend or merely the result of the current political climate? It’s no surprise that Republicans are drowning their sorrows in sweet, sweet booze. (The bottle won’t judge you, Ted Stevens.) Nor is it any surprise that Democrats are more at ease throwing around some cash at the moment. I would like to see a comprehensive study spanning at least a decade to get the real scoop on this phenomenon.

Whither Belgium?

August 22nd, 2008 by Vincent

Via Harry’s Place, a piece at the Z-Word blog examining centrifugal nationalist forces in Belgium. Quoting Ian Buruma:

“Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32%) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58%). The Belgian monarch is desperately trying to stop his subjects from breaking up the state.”

More interesting than the potential split-up of Belgium, however, are the insights they have about how “pan-European post-nationalism” has possibly had the unintended effect of promoting ethnic separatism:

Buruma argues that during the 18th and 19th centuries, when nation-states were formed, cultural, linguistic and national differences were frequently transcended in order to promote “common interests.” That was as true of Britain and Italy as it was of Belgium.

The EU has changed all that. As Buruma puts it, using another example of nationalist revival in supposedly post-national Europe, “[W]hy rely on London, say the Scots, if Brussels offers greater advantages?”

The Scottish example is one that I’ve been aware of for awhile now, but I’d never quite thought of it in the context of European unity. Whether or not it (and other cases, like Belgium) are really unintended byproducts of the EU I can’t say for certain. I’m sure there are those out there who are more informed than I am on the issue who might be able to offer some insight into the dynamics at play. That being said, it makes a certain amount of sense, at least superficially.

Finally, the author uses the case of Belgium as comparison for the situation in Israel/Palestine:

Whether or not Belgium actually breaks up, the current strife there will have demonstrated beyond doubt that the notion of a “post-national” Europe is wishful thinking. Yet many advocates of the single-state “solution” in Israel and Palestine base their thinking on precisely this premise.

Belgium is held up as the inspiration for a one-state solution in the Middle East at precisely the time when significant numbers of Flemish and Walloons are militating for a two-state solution in their own domain.

It is here, I think, that the argument gets simultaneously stronger and more far-fetched. On the one hand, the situation in Belgium versus what’s happening in Israel are extremely dissimilar — Belgium has historically been a pretty peaceful sort of place and the forces that seem to be jeopardizing its existence are rooted in economics that happen to be correlated to ethnicity (Wallonia is much poorer than Flanders), whereas the Israel/Palestine conflict, while undeniably posessing an economic element, carries with it the burden of religion, decades of bloodshed, a sense among Palestinians that their land was taken from them, and the prevalence of violent, hard-line parties on both sides, none of which are all that prevalent in Belgian politics, from what I can tell.

On the other hand, I think all of these extreme dissimilarities actually strengthen the argument that Belgium serves as a useful “canary in the coal mine” for any potential unified state comprised of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Given that I think few would deny that the Walloons and the Flemish probably have more in common with one another than Israelis and Palestinians, it’s hard to see how the “one-state solution” could have any chance of succeeding.

If Belgium is as on the rocks as it’s made out to be (and I have my doubts, personally), it’s hard to see how a united Israel/Palestine could hold itself together, given that the situation there is on the order of magnitudes more extreme than anything we’ve witnessed in Brussels.

The Big O Weighs In On Drinking Age Debate

August 21st, 2008 by CJ Ciaramella

Today the Oregonian ran an editorial against the Amethyst Initiative and its proposal to debate lowering the drinking age (which I previously wrote about here). It was bad, failing to produce any real argument or evidence for its claim, but one passage in particular made me really scratch my head:

[C]ollege presidents are really just showing off a trove of conventional wisdom. In essence, they’re repeating the familiar refrain that banning drinking intensifies the allure of alcohol (and thus promotes a “culture of dangerous, clandestine” bingeing on their campuses).

[…]
But how “clandestine” is all this, really? At many colleges and universities, it’s not very. Students are fairly open in violating the law, and the universities either tacitly approve or look away. In effect, they’ve already lowered the drinking age on their campuses — but there’s no sign it’s helped.

Excuse me? I’m not sure what university the Oregonian editorial board attended, but maybe they should visit the UO, where the EPD’s infamous “party patrol” roams free, DPS is ever-vigilant and, besides the occasional burnt-out stoner, RA’s are vicious fiends. The UO “tacitly approves” of underage drinking like maltreated Rottweillers tacitly approve of small, doughy children.

Note to Oregonian editorial board: Removing your head from your ass might result in slightly more logical editorials.

P.S. Et tu, Reason?