and now for something completely different

fascinating article!

about the obama administration!

from...

the new...york......TIMES!

gotcha, suckers. good article! matt bai this time! new yorker-worthy! read!

also, i've been reading a ton of good articles recently. thank god for both the age-old practice of name-dropping things i don't know about but should, and the brand-new internet practice of linking to said things.

articles about language by two of the best twentieth century writers:
vonnegut on dictionaries
orwell on sloppy english making for sloppy thinking

one of the best magazine profiles ever (don't believe me? david carr said so, in another great article, which is why i know about it at all):
gay talese: "frank sinatra has a cold"

want to know about afghanistan? read this.

want to know about the outlook for iraq's political situation? read this.

want to know about how COIN really worked during the surge? read this.

want to read my three favorite foreign policy blogs? of course you don't.

if there's anything i can take out of my long sabbatical, it's that i read a shit-ton of good stuff. there's not much to show for it, but at least i have a good idea of the high, high bar that i have to hit for any writing i produce in the future. knowing how much you don't know is wisdom indeed.

i never want to have to get a job

unless i can work for this guy (shown here illustrating the size of my ... ego)


no, seriously. peter "motherfucking baller" orszag. i'm reading the ryan lizza article on him today. it's great, as you'd expect. but here's the cool thing: cartoons!

this article has some of the best cartoons in it i've seen in some time. now, the new yorker cartoons are a constant, easy source of anti-elitist ridicule, because some are either just funny ha-ha or not funny or really priviledged or whatever. most, however, are fucking funny. these in particular reminded me of several people:


steve. duh. also, any drummer i've ever met, pretty much.

badass dudes with moustaches, john d being one. also, this is sort of how i regard myself in my head.




this reminds me of our caps-watching experience on tuesday. we went to bourbon, where they have 3 tvs in the seating area and one behind the bar. we asked for two to be turned to caps so all three of us could watch it, and she said no, they can only have one on at a time for each game. so, whatever, we moved and craned our necks. then, we noticed that every tv in the bar EXCEPT THE ONE THAT WAS CONVENIENT was playing the caps game, and the convenient one was playing fishing or ultimate fighting or some bullshit. talk about inconvenience, am i right?!?



and, last... well. you probably know. this is me, at all times, but most obviously/painfully on every single date i've ever been on.

my basic point is that if i ever get a job, a) i won't be able to write big long sloppy kisses to obama administration officials on my unread personal blog, b) the new yorker cartoons i identify with will be the much lamer office-related ones, and c) working is dumb.