Sun - February 13, 2005
I'm Back Baby
Had a grand old time in the Big Easy. I saw
some relatives I haven't seen in years and rode in the Mardi Gras parade. (Only
one woman flashed me during the entire parade route. It was a very difficult
angle but when she chose to do that I decided it would have been ungallant to
hold onto my beads, so I stepped into my throw and hit her right in the
hands.)
I'm not feeling well. I picked up some kind of miserable illness from the plane last week and it kicked in just as my Dad and I were starting back this morning, so posting will continue to be light for a while. If you like, you can amuse yourselves with this photo album , or this one, from my adventures in New Orleans, or you can read this article by Frank Rich in The New York Times which covers Eastwood versus Medved and includes reaction from Clint. If Iraq is more your speed, go check out Juan Cole's post-election analysis (warning, it's depressing). I'll have more to say about Iraq, Bush, Social Security, The Raiders offseason, and movies once I recover and catch up.
I'm not feeling well. I picked up some kind of miserable illness from the plane last week and it kicked in just as my Dad and I were starting back this morning, so posting will continue to be light for a while. If you like, you can amuse yourselves with this photo album , or this one, from my adventures in New Orleans, or you can read this article by Frank Rich in The New York Times which covers Eastwood versus Medved and includes reaction from Clint. If Iraq is more your speed, go check out Juan Cole's post-election analysis (warning, it's depressing). I'll have more to say about Iraq, Bush, Social Security, The Raiders offseason, and movies once I recover and catch up.
Posted at 03:54 AM
Sun - January 23, 2005
Johnny Carson Dies
I never thought much of him as a comedian or as
an interviewer (Cavett was a better interviewer, and even though I know him only
from archive material, Steve Allen always struck me as funnier), but he did
launch a lot of great comedians. That is the best that can be said for him.
Like Ed Sullivan, Carson managed to change television by dint of his sheer longevity, building and solidifying the modern celebrity chat-show genre. He packaged celebrity, which in the old days thrived on distance and awe, as something accessible and comfortable that fit in a living room. Without Carson, no Regis and Kelly, no Letterman, no Leno, no Arsenio, no Larry King Live nor Mike Douglas. And, certainly, no John Cleese "Mel Badphin Show" sketch. It takes a kind of genius to do that--not a kind that I like very much, but a kind nonetheless.
Pace, Mr. Carson. I'm sorry you're dead.
Like Ed Sullivan, Carson managed to change television by dint of his sheer longevity, building and solidifying the modern celebrity chat-show genre. He packaged celebrity, which in the old days thrived on distance and awe, as something accessible and comfortable that fit in a living room. Without Carson, no Regis and Kelly, no Letterman, no Leno, no Arsenio, no Larry King Live nor Mike Douglas. And, certainly, no John Cleese "Mel Badphin Show" sketch. It takes a kind of genius to do that--not a kind that I like very much, but a kind nonetheless.
Pace, Mr. Carson. I'm sorry you're dead.
Posted at 01:01 PM
The Sex Lives Of Fundies
Those of you who haven't already stopped can
prepare to be shocked! shocked! shocked! at the way fundamentalist dogma
requires married women to provide sex to their husbands whatever the
circumstances may be. In the vein of "lie back and think of England", the fundie
woman writes in
a forum (link courtesy Majikthise):
Posted by anon. please on Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 11:11:00 am
Im sure this is such a common question, but I wonder how all of you get round the demands of pregnancy and making sure your husbands sexual needs are met?
My dh has been extremely understanding recognising that Im not purposely denying him but that tiredness and sickness are taking their toll (Im asleep by 8.30 some nights). However he has said there is no where else he can go without it being sin and this obviously frustrates him.
So how do you deal with it?
Posted by Anon Because of Subject Matter on Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 2:08:00 pm , in response to meeting husbands needs during pregnancy?, posted by anon. please on Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 11:11:00 am
there is no necessary reason for abstinence during pregnancy. We remained as active as usual right up until labor. We had to experiment at times because of the changing shape of my body and because of a wildly fluctuating sleep schedule. But whether or not I was tired or felt out of sorts was just as irrelevant when pregnant as when not pregnant. It isn't about whether or not I'm in the mood, it's about my husband's need and our need to express relationship in a physical manner. I also needed to connect with him even if the need wasn't solely physical. Sometimes I needed to know that I was still physically desirable/attractive and knowing that he wanted me was vastly reassuring.
And really, unless you're not communicating your preferences to your husband and/or he is insensitive about your needs, lack of being in the mood is a temporary thing, right? :) You may not be in the mood to start, but eventually the interest kicks in...*G*
The only scriptual basis for denying a husband is temporary hiatus for prayer. I don't see an exclusion clause for pregnancy. :) So how to deal with it??? Find what works. Experiment with method and schedule. There may be rare times when you are too physically uncomfortable for actual relations, but there are still ways to make sure his needs are met... bowing out now as that is about as far as I can go with this in a public forum....
Anon Because of Subject Matter
Jeez, even the S&M crowd allows for a safe word. According to this unless you happen to be rapping with the Big Guy, get ready for a poking from Big Jim and the Twins. And if you're too tired to fuck him, you'd better suck him or give him a hand job ladies because you'll burn in hell if you don't.
Now my girlfriend could talk me into any of a number of eyebrow-raising sexual amusements, especially if she starts me off with a good bottle of wine. I could probably do the same with her. But demanding sex from a woman when she doesn't want to isn't one of my kinks. It's rude; and like Hannibal Lector, I find discourtesy unspeakably ugly. (I wonder if I should have Anon's husband over for dinner.)
Discovering that men and women like this still live on the planet is like finding a Beta machine in hotel room. They still make these? As if there weren't plenty of reasons why a pregnant woman would not want to have sex at any given moment: swollen ankles, back pain, general fatigue, morning sickness, resentment of spouse who put her in this position by insisting he could pull out before anything happened. For me, and for most of the men I know, if the women in our lives aren't having a good time, we're not having one either. I'd find having sex with a woman who's uninterested or unwilling nauseating. I'd start thinking of myself as one of those 19th century guys who "does his business" on his wife--man-on-top-get-it-over-with-quick--and I'd make myself sick. But where I see the disgusting remnants of a bygone and best forgotten era of human sexual history, fundie guys see their ticket to major stud-dom.
Charles Keating, whose private sex life now opens before me like a grave filled with mucus (Thanks to Anon I have this picture of him in a cassock brandishing a bottle of Log Cabin and demanding that his wife toss his salad in the name of Jesus), produced Perversity for Profit about forty years ago to rail at the pornography industry (You can check this movie out in the Permanent links section, to your right and down a bit. Quicktime is required.). In it, the narrator, George Putnam, tells us that pornography is driving children away from "healthy" attitudes toward sexuality.
If what Anon's doing is healthy, I'll stick with the disease.
Posted by anon. please on Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 11:11:00 am
Im sure this is such a common question, but I wonder how all of you get round the demands of pregnancy and making sure your husbands sexual needs are met?
My dh has been extremely understanding recognising that Im not purposely denying him but that tiredness and sickness are taking their toll (Im asleep by 8.30 some nights). However he has said there is no where else he can go without it being sin and this obviously frustrates him.
So how do you deal with it?
Posted by Anon Because of Subject Matter on Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 2:08:00 pm , in response to meeting husbands needs during pregnancy?, posted by anon. please on Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 11:11:00 am
there is no necessary reason for abstinence during pregnancy. We remained as active as usual right up until labor. We had to experiment at times because of the changing shape of my body and because of a wildly fluctuating sleep schedule. But whether or not I was tired or felt out of sorts was just as irrelevant when pregnant as when not pregnant. It isn't about whether or not I'm in the mood, it's about my husband's need and our need to express relationship in a physical manner. I also needed to connect with him even if the need wasn't solely physical. Sometimes I needed to know that I was still physically desirable/attractive and knowing that he wanted me was vastly reassuring.
And really, unless you're not communicating your preferences to your husband and/or he is insensitive about your needs, lack of being in the mood is a temporary thing, right? :) You may not be in the mood to start, but eventually the interest kicks in...*G*
The only scriptual basis for denying a husband is temporary hiatus for prayer. I don't see an exclusion clause for pregnancy. :) So how to deal with it??? Find what works. Experiment with method and schedule. There may be rare times when you are too physically uncomfortable for actual relations, but there are still ways to make sure his needs are met... bowing out now as that is about as far as I can go with this in a public forum....
Anon Because of Subject Matter
Jeez, even the S&M crowd allows for a safe word. According to this unless you happen to be rapping with the Big Guy, get ready for a poking from Big Jim and the Twins. And if you're too tired to fuck him, you'd better suck him or give him a hand job ladies because you'll burn in hell if you don't.
Now my girlfriend could talk me into any of a number of eyebrow-raising sexual amusements, especially if she starts me off with a good bottle of wine. I could probably do the same with her. But demanding sex from a woman when she doesn't want to isn't one of my kinks. It's rude; and like Hannibal Lector, I find discourtesy unspeakably ugly. (I wonder if I should have Anon's husband over for dinner.)
Discovering that men and women like this still live on the planet is like finding a Beta machine in hotel room. They still make these? As if there weren't plenty of reasons why a pregnant woman would not want to have sex at any given moment: swollen ankles, back pain, general fatigue, morning sickness, resentment of spouse who put her in this position by insisting he could pull out before anything happened. For me, and for most of the men I know, if the women in our lives aren't having a good time, we're not having one either. I'd find having sex with a woman who's uninterested or unwilling nauseating. I'd start thinking of myself as one of those 19th century guys who "does his business" on his wife--man-on-top-get-it-over-with-quick--and I'd make myself sick. But where I see the disgusting remnants of a bygone and best forgotten era of human sexual history, fundie guys see their ticket to major stud-dom.
Charles Keating, whose private sex life now opens before me like a grave filled with mucus (Thanks to Anon I have this picture of him in a cassock brandishing a bottle of Log Cabin and demanding that his wife toss his salad in the name of Jesus), produced Perversity for Profit about forty years ago to rail at the pornography industry (You can check this movie out in the Permanent links section, to your right and down a bit. Quicktime is required.). In it, the narrator, George Putnam, tells us that pornography is driving children away from "healthy" attitudes toward sexuality.
If what Anon's doing is healthy, I'll stick with the disease.
Posted at 05:22 AM
Sat - January 15, 2005
My iTunes Party List (First 10)
Matt
Yglesias and Majikthise
have theirs up, and you know how I love to stop working and fart
around.
I'm not counting the track from my Italian Language CD (from Parliamo Italiano). It's fairly R.E.M. heavy this time.
1. Departure (R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi)
2. Ocean Size (Jane's Addiction Nothing's Shocking)
3. Red Rain (Peter Gabriel Shaking the Tree)
4. I've Tried Everything (Eurythmics The Sopranos)
5. Saturn Return (R.E.M. Reveal)
6. Solitary Man (Johnny Cash American III)
7. What Are You Doin' In My Life (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes)
8. Lawyers, Guns, and Money (Warren Zevon Learning to Flinch)
9. Wichita Lineman (R.E.M. Bittersweet Me--EP)
10. Crucify (Tori Amos Little Earthquakes)
I hope people go on to read other things on this blog. Otherwise Nick Hornby will kneecap me one day in the streets and tell me to stop working his side of the street.
I'm not counting the track from my Italian Language CD (from Parliamo Italiano). It's fairly R.E.M. heavy this time.
1. Departure (R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi)
2. Ocean Size (Jane's Addiction Nothing's Shocking)
3. Red Rain (Peter Gabriel Shaking the Tree)
4. I've Tried Everything (Eurythmics The Sopranos)
5. Saturn Return (R.E.M. Reveal)
6. Solitary Man (Johnny Cash American III)
7. What Are You Doin' In My Life (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes)
8. Lawyers, Guns, and Money (Warren Zevon Learning to Flinch)
9. Wichita Lineman (R.E.M. Bittersweet Me--EP)
10. Crucify (Tori Amos Little Earthquakes)
I hope people go on to read other things on this blog. Otherwise Nick Hornby will kneecap me one day in the streets and tell me to stop working his side of the street.
Posted at 05:20 AM
Thu - January 13, 2005
Is God Mightier than the Mightiest Cayenne Pepper? Next on Sick Sad World
Majikthise
links to a Guardian article describing scientists who want to determine whether
religious faith impacts pain perception. I agree that they shouldn't call it
torture. The worst outcome I can see from this kind of investigation is that
faith healers of various stripes might use this work improperly to bolster their
own unverified and discredited claims. (These scientists would bear about as
much responsibility for that as holocaust historians do when the Institute of
Historical Review quotes them out of
context.)
If you're curious about those sorts of people, click here, and here.
On a slightly related note, there's a guy now parked on his couch in front of the Cinerama waiting for Star Wars Episode III tickets to go on sale. Maybe they should test him. It'll get down to 24 degrees tonight, and I wonder if his faith in George Lucas will defend him from perceiving mockery, disdain, and incipient hypothermia. His faith certainly blunted the pain of two really awful Star Wars pictures. When he's out there, freezing his nunny off, does he just lie back and use the force? Does he insist that passers-by call him by his Star Wars name? Does he imagine himself wrapped in the warm but smelly carcass of a tauntaun? Is he tempted to use the dark side when someone tries to steal his couch for their own apartments? After all, these scientists are after the effects of irrational beliefs. The belief that George Lucas is still capable of making a movie worth crossing the street for, much less street-camping five months to pay full Cinerama fare for, certainly qualifies.
If you're curious about those sorts of people, click here, and here.
On a slightly related note, there's a guy now parked on his couch in front of the Cinerama waiting for Star Wars Episode III tickets to go on sale. Maybe they should test him. It'll get down to 24 degrees tonight, and I wonder if his faith in George Lucas will defend him from perceiving mockery, disdain, and incipient hypothermia. His faith certainly blunted the pain of two really awful Star Wars pictures. When he's out there, freezing his nunny off, does he just lie back and use the force? Does he insist that passers-by call him by his Star Wars name? Does he imagine himself wrapped in the warm but smelly carcass of a tauntaun? Is he tempted to use the dark side when someone tries to steal his couch for their own apartments? After all, these scientists are after the effects of irrational beliefs. The belief that George Lucas is still capable of making a movie worth crossing the street for, much less street-camping five months to pay full Cinerama fare for, certainly qualifies.
Posted at 11:28 PM
Wed - January 12, 2005
When we were kings
Two things have kept me from blogging over the
past couple of days. First, Neil came back with his edited copy of
The Ice
Age, and I've been adjusting the manuscript
accordingly. (Neil found several embarrassing continuity errors, and none as
charming--to my eye--as Emma Bovary's changing eye color. I don't think it's
worth leaving them in on the off chance that a post-post-post modernist author
of the 22nd century will use them as playthings the way Julian Barnes did in
Flaubert's
Parrot.)
When I haven't been submerged in that, I've been transferring my videotaped copy of the Oakland Raiders' victory of the Tennessee Titans in the 2002 AFC Championship game to DVD. We were kings, for a little over three hours, staving off the Titans' valiant but futile challenge of our greatness. I look at it now the way aging Edwardians looked back on the period when the sun never set on the British without asking permission first. Ours was a shorter-lived empire, but it was glorious, and all dressed in black.
I'll be gone for a while if you need me.
When I haven't been submerged in that, I've been transferring my videotaped copy of the Oakland Raiders' victory of the Tennessee Titans in the 2002 AFC Championship game to DVD. We were kings, for a little over three hours, staving off the Titans' valiant but futile challenge of our greatness. I look at it now the way aging Edwardians looked back on the period when the sun never set on the British without asking permission first. Ours was a shorter-lived empire, but it was glorious, and all dressed in black.
I'll be gone for a while if you need me.
Posted at 02:16 AM
Sun - January 9, 2005
Speaking of Torture
The Charles Keating movies are back up on the
site (down and to your right). Feel free to watch it the same way all those
fundies and rotarians probably did--alone with the sound turned down and the
lights off.
Posted at 02:21 PM
Sat - January 1, 2005
A Very Mean Year Ends
I've never been a fan of celebrating New Year's
Day, any more than I celebrate Fiscal New Year's Day, End of February Eve, or
any other random annual moment. Far be it from me to deny the world a party, but
for me it's all pregame and no Superbowl. We put on the same cheesy
entertainments, drag out the same minor celebrities, detonate the same
fireworks. Dull. Dull. Dull.
I could understand celebrating the end of 2004, if 2005 were looking all that much better. But we'll still be in Iraq next December, and our soldiers will still be blowing up. Our President will manufacture another crisis in hopes of fulfilling his ideological dreams (and make us all poorer in the process). Another 365 days of lies and ignorance from the White House. My back hurts thinking about it.
It'll be a while before I know whether or not 2005 will bring improvements to my life. Certainly a lot of good things could happen, but for now it all seems too tentative. There's a strong chance that I'll continue to owe my soul to the company store when the next tired hack drops the ball in New York.
If I weren't an absurdist, I'd be really depressed.
I could understand celebrating the end of 2004, if 2005 were looking all that much better. But we'll still be in Iraq next December, and our soldiers will still be blowing up. Our President will manufacture another crisis in hopes of fulfilling his ideological dreams (and make us all poorer in the process). Another 365 days of lies and ignorance from the White House. My back hurts thinking about it.
It'll be a while before I know whether or not 2005 will bring improvements to my life. Certainly a lot of good things could happen, but for now it all seems too tentative. There's a strong chance that I'll continue to owe my soul to the company store when the next tired hack drops the ball in New York.
If I weren't an absurdist, I'd be really depressed.
Posted at 01:58 AM
Wed - December 29, 2004
Pretty Nice State You've Got Here, Ms. Gregoire. It would be sad if something happened to it.
Key graf from Dino Rossi's slimy
missive to Christine Gregoire calling on her to support a
revote:
The law allows me to contest the election. An election contest would bring every questioned aspect of this election before the Legislature or a court for review. It would take many weeks, perhaps months, to complete. At the end, even if the results were to change back in my favor, the state would have suffered from the long, drawn-out process.
Disgusting, isn't he?
The law allows me to contest the election. An election contest would bring every questioned aspect of this election before the Legislature or a court for review. It would take many weeks, perhaps months, to complete. At the end, even if the results were to change back in my favor, the state would have suffered from the long, drawn-out process.
Disgusting, isn't he?
Posted at 08:56 PM
God Stuff
Flipped by Jack Van Impe (then flipped him off,
but that another story).
Two questions
Has Rexella been getting into the collagen? Her lips have thickened. And is it a coincidence that Jack started harping on the way the faithful are going to get new faces and new bodies when they're raptured?
No tsunami talk, but I'm sure you can guess where it could go. (Hint: IT'S IN REVELATIONS, PEOPLE!)
Of course, the weird bit of all this is the glee they always show whenever something bad happens, because it brings the rapture closer. I wonder about a faith that roots actively for the deaths of billions. I can't help thinking that Jack and Rexella represent what Charles Manson and Susan Atkins might have become if they'd had better marketing savvy and more eyeliner.
Two questions
Has Rexella been getting into the collagen? Her lips have thickened. And is it a coincidence that Jack started harping on the way the faithful are going to get new faces and new bodies when they're raptured?
No tsunami talk, but I'm sure you can guess where it could go. (Hint: IT'S IN REVELATIONS, PEOPLE!)
Of course, the weird bit of all this is the glee they always show whenever something bad happens, because it brings the rapture closer. I wonder about a faith that roots actively for the deaths of billions. I can't help thinking that Jack and Rexella represent what Charles Manson and Susan Atkins might have become if they'd had better marketing savvy and more eyeliner.
Posted at 06:55 PM
Fri - December 24, 2004
Tue - December 21, 2004
Book Recommendation
I'm not sure where you'll find it because it's
not a new book, but y'all might want to check out
An End To
Silence:
Uncensored Opinion in the Soviet
Union. It is a fascinating look at a period
in Soviet History where both reformers and conservatives were trying to come to
grips (both politically and morally) with the Stalinist past. Edited by Stephen
Cohen, the book is a collection of samizdat writings--transcripts of political
meetings, unpublished interviews and letters to
Pravda
and
Izvestia,
and essays of opinion on a range of political topics. These items appeared in
Political
Diary, an underground journal known only to
a few Communist party members and affiliated intellectuals, that covered the
period from the fall of Khrushchev, through the Prague Spring, to Brezhnev
taking sole power in the early 1970s. In one odd letter, a former gulag guard
defends herself and the gulag system against Solzhenitsyn's portrayal of it in
A Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich and Dyakov's portrayal in
A Tale of
Survival. A typically weird
graf:
We can see why the hero of this story, having such an attitude toward the Soviet people, hopes for nothing but the sick bay in order somehow to get out of redeeming his guilt, the wrong he did his motherland, through toil. After all, he is in a corrective labor camp, even if he is innocent, and so he ought to set an example for the others, as a real Soviet citizen, as a Communist, to inspire others and not to get demoralized and demoralize others. And why exactly should a person try to avoid physical labor and show scorn for it? After all, for us labor is the foundation of the Soviet system, and it is only in labor that man becomes cognizant of his true powers. but here, as we see, the heroes of these stories are afraid of work, have a fearful attitude toward it; they seem to be afraid to go out felling timber. Millions of our Soviet people, however, fell timber for a living and praise this kind of work, and they don't march out to work at rifle point; they undertake this difficult and noble labor following the dictates of the heart.
I would find her conception of the duties of a falsely accused Soviet citizen comic if it weren't so evil, but it is also indicative of the level of rationalization necessary to do a job like hers. It is also, I'm afraid, a habit of mind that many of our own soldiers, interrogating accused terrorists in Iraq and in Guantanamo, will be adopting soon (if they haven't already).
This book will make the old Soviet state, a place that seems stale and monolithic in history books, come alive for you. You'll even squirm a little (or even a lot) as you recognize many of their passions and terrors in our own culture. Check it out at your bookstore or your library.
We can see why the hero of this story, having such an attitude toward the Soviet people, hopes for nothing but the sick bay in order somehow to get out of redeeming his guilt, the wrong he did his motherland, through toil. After all, he is in a corrective labor camp, even if he is innocent, and so he ought to set an example for the others, as a real Soviet citizen, as a Communist, to inspire others and not to get demoralized and demoralize others. And why exactly should a person try to avoid physical labor and show scorn for it? After all, for us labor is the foundation of the Soviet system, and it is only in labor that man becomes cognizant of his true powers. but here, as we see, the heroes of these stories are afraid of work, have a fearful attitude toward it; they seem to be afraid to go out felling timber. Millions of our Soviet people, however, fell timber for a living and praise this kind of work, and they don't march out to work at rifle point; they undertake this difficult and noble labor following the dictates of the heart.
I would find her conception of the duties of a falsely accused Soviet citizen comic if it weren't so evil, but it is also indicative of the level of rationalization necessary to do a job like hers. It is also, I'm afraid, a habit of mind that many of our own soldiers, interrogating accused terrorists in Iraq and in Guantanamo, will be adopting soon (if they haven't already).
This book will make the old Soviet state, a place that seems stale and monolithic in history books, come alive for you. You'll even squirm a little (or even a lot) as you recognize many of their passions and terrors in our own culture. Check it out at your bookstore or your library.
Posted at 12:40 AM
Mon - December 20, 2004
I hope I never write anything this bad
And I'm running a terrible risk by blogging.
But I don't think I would ever write anything like this sentence from Professor
Judith Butler, renowned academic and winner of
Philosophy and
Literature's fourth annual bad writing
contest. Witness:
Professor Butler’s first-prize sentence appears in “Further Reflections on the Conversations of Our Time,” an article in the scholarly journal Diacritics (1997):
The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.
Professor Butler’s first-prize sentence appears in “Further Reflections on the Conversations of Our Time,” an article in the scholarly journal Diacritics (1997):
The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.
Posted at 03:42 PM
Sat - December 18, 2004
You want what now?
Sometimes I take a stroll through my web
counter just to find out what strangers are looking for. Amid the various
searches for Ben Roethlisberger and a Jim Snowden who played tackle for the
Washington Redskins in the late 1960s was a search that read "paul freeman anal
sex". I'd love to know, Paul Freeman the actor? The one who played Belloq in
Raiders of the Lost
Ark? Or is there some other Paul Freeman
famous for either giving it to or taking it in the butt? I tried the same search
and came up with nothing interesting, but I must say I'm curious. Was this
person just sitting up late one night, surfing, and just suddenly thought to
himself, "I wonder if the guy who played Belloq ever took it up the ass. Let's
find out."
Posted at 03:42 PM
Sun - November 21, 2004
Raiders 17; Chargers 23
As I've said a bunch of times, I don't really
look for wins from the Raiders at this stage. I look for signs of growth, and
there were some. Kerry Collins played reasonably well, throwing two touchdowns
without giving the ball away. He still throws the ball in ways that expose his
receivers to vicious hits over the middle. He needs to work on keeping the ball
low. The defense, after a miserable start, played decently the rest of the game,
keeping the Raiders in it when they could have folded. They gave away a lot of
yards to L.T., though, and committed way too
many penalties.
I was disappointed that we didn't see more Justin Fargas in the game (still injured?), but it is good to have Tyrone Wheatley back. He didn't have an extraordinary day, but he ran well enough to keep San Diego's defense honest and set up play action. Ronald Curry took a few steps forward before dropping a potential game-winning pass late and dropping a 3rd down conversion catch one play later.
All in all it was a good effort, but not good enough. The secondary needs a lot of work. They're guilty of too many defensive holding and illegal contact fouls (one of which robbed Sapp of a sack and fumble in the second quarter).
Players who demonstrated growth:
Kerry Collins 18-30-227 2TDs no INTs. He would have had 4 TDs if Curry hadn't dropped a ball that bounced right off his hands and had the referees not called Robert Gallery on a cheap illegal block penalty. After a miserable quarter and a half, he picked it up nicely. If he could play a whole game the way he did the last two and one half quarters, he might actually beat a team with a winning record someday.
Jerry Porter 5 receptions 63 yards 1 fumble lost. He's becoming a clutch receiver. His catches ignited the Raiders' first scoring drive. The fumble he lost was the result of a helmet to helmet hit for which the San Diego defender may well be fined by the end of the week. He showed toughness and good hands. May he continue.
Ron Curry: 4 receptions 58 yards 1 TD. He should have had two, but he continues to grow.
Danny Clark: He continues to show that he's a keeper at linebacker, with thirteen solo tackles today.
Tyler Brayton: No sacks, but he knocked down a pass from Drew Brees to Antonio Gates that would have sealed the Raiders' fate (much earlier than it was actually sealed).
Teyo Johnson: He only had one catch today, but it went for a touchdown. Well done, Teyo.
Tommy Kelly: With a caveat. He did force a fumble that spoiled a San Diego scoring drive early on, but later in the game he handed San Diego a gift with a late hit on Drew Brees.
Doug Gabriel: He caught what should have been a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, and played well in spite of a hamstring injury.
Marques Anderson: Provided some devastating hits that forced San Diego in the three-and-outs in the third quarter.
Players who need to grow in a hurry:
Nnamdi Asomugha: He committed his share of illegal contact and defensive holding penalties, and was beaten in coverage too many times. You were a first round pick Nnamdi, and you've had a year-and-change with Charles Woodson and Willie Shaw as mentors. Pretty-please with sugar on top, cover the fucking receiver.
Philip Buchanon: Not because he did anything terribly wrong, but because his punt returning skills seem to have regressed. He's not making the first guy miss the way he used to. Unfortunately, we're not really deep enough to bench him (we can't risk losing another WR to injury), so he's got to find a way to get his swerve on, as the kids used to say. He also dropped an easy interception that he could have turned into points.
Napoleon Harris: We're not seeing enough of him in run defense. He's the middle linebacker, yet he had only three solo tackles today. He also committed a drive sustaining pass interference penalty.
Denard Walker: Denard, you've got to jam the receiver when your teammates are on an all-out blitz. Give them cushions the way you did, and Brees will have an easy checkdown target. Stand by your man.
I was disappointed that we didn't see more Justin Fargas in the game (still injured?), but it is good to have Tyrone Wheatley back. He didn't have an extraordinary day, but he ran well enough to keep San Diego's defense honest and set up play action. Ronald Curry took a few steps forward before dropping a potential game-winning pass late and dropping a 3rd down conversion catch one play later.
All in all it was a good effort, but not good enough. The secondary needs a lot of work. They're guilty of too many defensive holding and illegal contact fouls (one of which robbed Sapp of a sack and fumble in the second quarter).
Players who demonstrated growth:
Kerry Collins 18-30-227 2TDs no INTs. He would have had 4 TDs if Curry hadn't dropped a ball that bounced right off his hands and had the referees not called Robert Gallery on a cheap illegal block penalty. After a miserable quarter and a half, he picked it up nicely. If he could play a whole game the way he did the last two and one half quarters, he might actually beat a team with a winning record someday.
Jerry Porter 5 receptions 63 yards 1 fumble lost. He's becoming a clutch receiver. His catches ignited the Raiders' first scoring drive. The fumble he lost was the result of a helmet to helmet hit for which the San Diego defender may well be fined by the end of the week. He showed toughness and good hands. May he continue.
Ron Curry: 4 receptions 58 yards 1 TD. He should have had two, but he continues to grow.
Danny Clark: He continues to show that he's a keeper at linebacker, with thirteen solo tackles today.
Tyler Brayton: No sacks, but he knocked down a pass from Drew Brees to Antonio Gates that would have sealed the Raiders' fate (much earlier than it was actually sealed).
Teyo Johnson: He only had one catch today, but it went for a touchdown. Well done, Teyo.
Tommy Kelly: With a caveat. He did force a fumble that spoiled a San Diego scoring drive early on, but later in the game he handed San Diego a gift with a late hit on Drew Brees.
Doug Gabriel: He caught what should have been a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, and played well in spite of a hamstring injury.
Marques Anderson: Provided some devastating hits that forced San Diego in the three-and-outs in the third quarter.
Players who need to grow in a hurry:
Nnamdi Asomugha: He committed his share of illegal contact and defensive holding penalties, and was beaten in coverage too many times. You were a first round pick Nnamdi, and you've had a year-and-change with Charles Woodson and Willie Shaw as mentors. Pretty-please with sugar on top, cover the fucking receiver.
Philip Buchanon: Not because he did anything terribly wrong, but because his punt returning skills seem to have regressed. He's not making the first guy miss the way he used to. Unfortunately, we're not really deep enough to bench him (we can't risk losing another WR to injury), so he's got to find a way to get his swerve on, as the kids used to say. He also dropped an easy interception that he could have turned into points.
Napoleon Harris: We're not seeing enough of him in run defense. He's the middle linebacker, yet he had only three solo tackles today. He also committed a drive sustaining pass interference penalty.
Denard Walker: Denard, you've got to jam the receiver when your teammates are on an all-out blitz. Give them cushions the way you did, and Brees will have an easy checkdown target. Stand by your man.
Posted at 04:45 PM
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Archives
Categories
XML/RSS Feed
Permanent Links
My Fiction
No Room In the Margin
Josh Marshall
Daily Kos
Gadflyer
Juan Cole
Eric Alterman
Matt Yglesias
Donkey Rising: The Emerging Democratic Majority
Tapped
The Chicago Cubs Website
The Seattle Mariners Website
The Oakland Raiders Website
ESPN
Pro Football Weekly
The Internet Movie Database
Rotten Tomatoes
Bitterspice
Charles Keating's Perversity (part 1)
Charles Keating's Perversity (part 2)
The Anal-Retentive's Guide to Nuclear War
Political Blogs
Sports News
Movies
Other Blogs
Funny, Shocking and Disturbing Video
Webring
Polls
| |
Links by Blogroll
Search the Omnibus (or the Web)
|
|
Online Status (Yellow Guy=Active)
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Feb 13, 2005 03:54 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Feb 13, 2005 03:54 AM