Walmadness

A WalMart Sunset
Originally uploaded by ryanbooth

Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede [Daily News]

A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.

The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

I'm speechless.

And if you want to be really horrified, check the readers' comments on the original story.

UPDATE:

2 killed inside Toys R Us in Palm Desert [KABC 7]

Two people were shot to death in a crowded toy store Friday in a confrontation apparently involving rival groups, city officials said.

The violence erupted on Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping surge, but accounts of what occurred inside the store were fragmentary or second hand and it was not clear whether it involved any shopping frenzy.

Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other and that there were 25 witnesses. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the next of kin were contacted.

"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys 'R' Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper."

Maybe that isn't such a bad idea.

National holiday?

Not satisfied with the nation of Kenya having declared a national holiday to commemorate the election of Barack Obama (who wasn't born there, wasn't raised there, and never lived there), the downtown Topeka McDonald's will be hosting "Yes We Can" rallies on Tuesdays through the Corona- er, inauguration, to promote an American national holiday for Barack Obama as well.

Isn't that, you know, premature? Shouldn't we wait, oh, I don't know, until he actually does something?

Okay, I do realize that many people are still in the grip of obamamania and shouldn't be held responsible for anything they say until at least after inauguration day.

What landslide?

Well, what could be more unbiased than that?

From Eject! Eject! Eject!:

On Tuesday, the Left – armed with the most attractive, eloquent, young, hip and charismatic candidate I have seen with my adult eyes, a candidate shielded by a media so overtly that it can never be such a shield again, who appeared after eight years of a historically unpopular President, in the midst of two undefended wars and at the time of the worst financial crisis since the Depression and whose praises were sung by every movie, television and musical icon without pause or challenge for 20 months… who ran against the oldest nominee in the country’s history, against a campaign rent with internal disarray and determined not to attack in the one area where attack could have succeeded and who was out-spent no less than seven-to-one in a cycle where not a single debate question was unfavorable to his opponent – that historic victory, that perfect storm of opportunity…

Yielded a result of 53%.

Folks, we are going to lick these people out of their boots.

The Republican party had eight years under President Bush to identify a suitable standard-bearer to carry their message into the 21st century. And they found John McCain?

Coolness in Technology

APTOPIX NEWS CORP DOW JONES
Originally uploaded by photo240779

The "Zipper" has become an iconic image of New York since its introduction eighty years ago Thursday at 1 Times Square, which was then the home of the New York Times. It was given a complete face lift when it was acquired by Dow Jones in 1999, but it retains the all-amber look familiar to locals and tourists (although nowadays it's generated by LEDs, not light bulbs).

Palate cleanser

What's wrong with this picture?

1. Nothing, if you're Long John Silver.
2. You should see the other guy.
3. I have nothing against her left leg.
4. It's a Hallowe'en party. She's dressed as Thanksgiving leftovers. (Two breasts, a busted wing, and one thigh.)
   

I can't even figure what they were going for.
From Photoshop Disasters.

Congratulations and Good Luck

Best wishes to President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Obama will inherit numerous problems large and small, most of which his party has ascribed to his predecessor. This tactic may prove to bite them all in the ass, if (as I strongly suspect) the president really doesn't have the power to have done everything he's blamed for.

With a solidly Democratic House and a near-filibuster-proof Senate, who will Kos and the Democratic Underground (overground?) blame when things go wrong?

President Obama will be on the spot to turn everything around. He's my president too. Have hope and don't expect overnight miracles.

What a country!

Frank Zappa for Luden's Cough Drops

In honor of the day...

Buh-bye, Circuit City

I can't say this surprises me, but according to a PDF available from Circuit City themselves, the 155 stores that they're closing no later than the end of the year include all of the Atlanta area stores. The closest store staying open -- for now, I guess I should add -- is in Rome.

I seem to recall that some culling of the home-electronics herd was expected this Christmas, due to widespread availability of HD televisions at a much lower price point than expected.

I'm very tired

Elective Sunset Super-Wide, originally uploaded by Fort Photo.

I'm voting for McCain.

I could tapdance around saying it, but I can't make the points I'm about to try to make until you know that.

So. In an effort to be as fair-minded as I possibly can -- and because I'm really not looking forward to voting for McCain, and was hoping someone would make a compelling case not to -- most of my current-events reading has been by progressive pundits, most notably by those writing for, and quoted by, the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post.

As a result, I've seen countless accusations of wrongdoing and non-specific fugg-headedness leveled at Republicans in general and McCain, Palin and Bush in particular over the course of this very long election season. I started to say I've seen all of them, but of course I have no way of knowing that I have. I'm only human, I've doubtless missed something.

One thing I've missed, for example, is any proof or confirmation that any of it is actually true. The news cycle on each incident starts with an accusation and, despite progressively (no joke intended) more intense name-calling, never really moves beyond it.

But then, the progressive intelligencia never really responds to accusations from the conservative side, either. They ignore the question, dismiss it as irrelevant, or question the motives of the accuser. Sometimes all three.

The so-called debates were no help. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the issues facing America today are far too complex to be boiled down to a 90-second answer. So, of course, that's what both major-party presidential candidates were asked to do. The Lincoln-Douglas debates took all day.

I should add that conservates are not innocent of the disinformative failings I've observed in progressives. But, in general, conservatives address issues, while progressives talk about feelings.

More importantly, conservatives speak of winning the war, whereas the most progressives will commit to is ending it, consequences to Iraq, Afghanistan and America's international standing be damned.

Okay, that's not quite true. Progressives are gearing up to fight a war that is much more important to them: The one that is going to engender riots in America and make the streets run red with blood.

I'm speaking, of course, of the impending doom and second American Civil War that will ensue if Barack Obama does not win next Tuesday.

I'm so weary.

But, of course, remember how disoriented progressives were four years ago? They cannot be counted upon to do the rational thing if they again succumb to that state of despair.

A key plank in the Democratic platform is gun control. If it were to come to a left-right civil war, who has all the weapons?

Is it "hate speech" for me to point that out?

Are Obama and McCain the best we can do?

Shock and Sadness: Hearing The Unspeakable

I listened to a woman in her early 50s across the table mock Obama as "The One" and "The Messiah" and scorn his policy for spreading the wealth. Then she dropped this bomb: "You know if I ever opened the newspaper and read headlines that something tragic had befallen Barack Obama, I tell you I wouldn't shed a tear."

My spoon froze on its way to my mouth. I heard our host, a Republican, shout at the woman, his sister. "How can you say that? That is beyond the pale. That is simply beyond the pale!"

There was much more screeching and protesting, but the woman repeated her explosive comment once again, justifying her horrid thought with: "I'm just being honest."

I must sadly assure you that I have heard as bad, or worse, from casual acquaintances as well as from people I am otherwise proud to consider friends.

However, as a semi-conservative-libertarian in an overwhelmingly majority Democrat area (Atlanta), I usually hear such hatefulness expressed in the other political direction.

In your situation, I would draw some hope from the fact that the host took his sister to task for her comment. And, if I understand you correctly, several others at the table, conservatives all, spoke up in objection. I can't deny that her like exists, just as I have experienced her opposite number on the left, but let us be aware, and thankful, that they occupy the fringe, not the mainstream of their respective points of view.

About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama and McCain - Dance Off!

Spotted at Dark Roasted Blend.

I’m deeply ashamed right now to be called a “journalist”

Editing Their Way to Oblivion:
Journalism Sacrificed For Power and Pensions

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those people who think the media has been too hard on, say, Gov. Palin, by rushing reportorial SWAT teams to Alaska to rifle through her garbage. This is the Big Leagues, and if she wants to suit up and take the field, then Gov. Palin better be ready to play...

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side - or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for Senators Obama and Biden. If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as President of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography. That isn’t Sen. Obama’s fault: his job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media’s fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so.

Why, for example to quote McCain’s lawyer, haven’t we seen an interview with Sen. Obama’s grad school drug dealer - when we know all about Mrs. McCain’s addiction? Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Senator Biden’s endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?

If only...

There is only one debate scheduled for the "third-party candidates" and it's tonight at 9pm at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington.

I wish I had a handful of worthwhile prizes I could give away. I would walk the street asking people to name four people running for president in 2008, and watch their eyes go blank. I'm guessing a lot of people would misunderstand the question and say "Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin."

There are, in fact, six people running for president, and four of them were invited to tonight's debate. Two of them, Ralph Nader (independent) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party), have agreed to appear. Bob Barr (Libertarian Party) has a scheduling conflict, and Cynthia McKinney (Green Party) hasn't replied.

The debate will be carried on C-SPAN. If they were all there, for sure I'd watch it.

Neal Hefti, R.I.P.

Old news by now. Hefti was one of those musicians who, through luck or sheer talent (most likely the latter), created the soundtrack of life itself. The obits all mention "The Odd Couple" and "Batman", but here's a clip of Lionel Hampton performing Hefti's "Cute". I've heard the song a hundred times but never knew the name, nor knew that it has lyrics at all.



Saw it at Mark Evanier's News From Me.

This campaign needs some intentional humor

Senator McCain and Senator Obama both appeared at last night's Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York. They took the opportunity to let their metaphorical hair down.

Senator McCain, part 1:
"It's gonna be a long, long night at MSNBC if I manage to pull this thing off. I understand that Keith Olbermann has ordered up his very own 'Mission Accomplished' banner."



Senator McCain, part 2:
"Seriously, Chris, if they need any decorating advice on that banner, ask Keith to call me so I can tell him right where to put it."



Senator Obama, part 1:
"What you may not know is that 'Barack' is actually Swahili for 'That One'..."



Senator Obama, part 2:
"...and I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think I'd ever run for President."

Phonographantasmascope

I could wish that the explanation were as loud as the music, and the music were as soft as the explanation, but otherwise this is darned hypnotic.



Saw it at Random Good Stuff.

Tilt-shift time-lapse video

If you're not familiar with it, tilt-shift is a selective-focus photographic technique whereby a real city / beach / landscape can be made to look like an incredibly-detailed miniature.


Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Found at Iheartchaos.

Try this at home

Hard-hitting news

Because it must be said:

Sarah Palin's eyeglasses will not make you look as good as Sarah Palin.

Our analyst adds:

As long as people are going to call it a presidential beauty contest, why not get someone in there with some experience?

That concludes this special report.

And now, this, from Cincinnati WKRC. C, i said. C. Not P. C.

Does Editorial Talk to Marketing?

I'm thinking, "no". These are the front and back covers of the new issue of Nature magazine.

The journal swears it is horrified by the coincidence.
"We didn't know until the issue landed on our desks," Nature pleaded to the media.
"It just goes to show that editorial and advertising aren't working in cahoots."

A-yep. (From the Daily Mail.)