Liberal Talk Radio

Jamal Simmons points out the similarities between an Obama-McCain election and the Santos-Vinick campaign from Season 7 of The West Wing: Then there is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is perfectly filling the role Alan Alda played, Arnold Vinick, the older maverick Republican senator from the West (California in the show). Due to his [...]

A genius idea, methinks. Let stormwater get naturally filtered into the ground, instead of channeling it to a sewage system where it needs to be treated. Downside? Well, it will make it that much harder to find out how much blow you all used last weekend (so maybe that’s an upside, actually?).

Man hugs are finally in vogue in the Pentagon.

When it comes to Faster Legacy, I’m pleased to report that McCain is down: John McCain told voters this morning he’s only looking four years into the future, when asked if he has the stamina and health to be President for the next eight years. “If I said that I was running for eight years, [...]

The most offensive official major league baseball document ever seen: Players were yelling something a whole lot nastier than “You’re blind, ump!” at baseball games in the 1890s. And it’s all there in writing, on a withered 1898 document called “Special Instructions to Players” that’s up for bid by a New Jersey auction house. “In [...]

When it’s winter in Finland, what are you going to do to pass the long, cold nights? How about rigging up your dormitory into a 15-story, cell-phone controlled Tetris game? This makes me weep, it’s so beautiful and pointless:

Jonathan Golob at Slog points out that The Wire is Barack Obama’s favorite TV show, and proceeds to explain why it’s such a great choice for a presidential candidate: No character is left unblemished. Institutions are at best viewed as noble failures (the Stevedores Union) and more often as a destructive force. Obama’s declaration of [...]

Continuing our Shachtman-mania here at BATP, another great article on the Army’s nascent efforts to recruit anthropologists to help understand local culture in Afghanistan and Iraq: In western Afghanistan, the 4th Brigade of the 82nd Airborne had come under a steady stream of attacks, despite “a very aggressive outreach effort to village elders,” the report [...]

Not as good as 2 Girls 1 Cup “reactions” but close. Darn close.

Michelle Obama will not cross a picket line to appear on ABC’s The View. (I know what you’re thinking — they have writers on The View?) Meanwhile Hillary Clinton, in the process of running the best Presidential campaign ever, deftly avoided the picket line altogether and sent a note to she show’s token Republican, Elizabeth [...]