“Today’s commercial fishers use massive ships the size of football fields and advanced electronic equipment and satellite communications to track fish. These enormous vessels can stay out at sea for as long as six months, storing thousands of tons of fish onboard in massive freezer compartments. Commercial fishing has become a big business…commercial fishers kill hundreds of billions of animals every year—far more than any other industry.”
Oh, PETA. Excellent cause. And so well-argued. Fishing is such a “big business” in the United States these days that the average fisherman brings home $28,280 a year and works in the occupation with the highest rate—by far—of fatalities on the job in the entire country. Commercial fishing is so gargantuan, in fact, that in 2007, it contributed just $34.2 billion to the United States GNP, which I think doesn’t even warrant it a single percentage point.
But hey, cute fishie graphic. I myself like my sea kittens grilled and marinated with rosemary and basil-infused olive oil. Preferably fresh out of Nantucket Sound. Oh wait! There’s only one commercial dragger left there. Damn.
Remember Andy Comeau from the awesome if slightly overindulgent and now-canceled HBO series Huff? He played Hank Azaria’s schizophrenic brother, Teddy.
And now he’s in the new Kmart Christmas commercial! Fun times!
I missed this last week, but take a gander at CNN’s most grating anchor, Rick Sanchez, inviting Joe the Plumber on the air and then reading the spottier parts of the man’s credit report—including details of his outstanding medical bills—out loud on the air.
“I know it sounds a little hackneyed,” he said, “but defending the little guy is hard these days, and it’s not something that anybody wants to do, and I do it because—not just because I’m a minority—but because I frankly feel what it’s like to be these people who are really downtrodden right now, you know, to be a Mexican immigrant. Because I know what it’s like to be poor.”
Which is probably why the CNN anchor behaved so compassionately in 1990 when he ran over an intoxicated pedestrian (who happened to be a carpenter and later died of his injuries) while driving under the influence in Miami:
“Though Sanchez says he tried to aid Smuzinick at the scene of the accident and flag down motorists, eyewitnesses claim the anchorman ignored the injured man and loudly told police and bystanders that blood tests were pointless, and would hurt his public image.” [Miami New Times]
Sanchez would later be successfully charged with DUI. Some issues with the working man, Sanchez? Or are you just a really big asshole?
“While some stations display ads on their website, Pandora hasn’t done itself any favors by offering desktop clients and a wildly popular iPhone application that rake in millions of users without so much as a single ad.” [ArtsJournal, 8/16/2008]
“The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, ‘I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that's green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.‘” [Newsweek] (Itals all mine.)
“There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.”
These lines (plus the rest of Barack Obama’s deeply presidential and ethos, pathos and rhythm-ridden victory speech) fairly well sum up why and where his campaign succeeded and John McCain’s didn’t.
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”
In some ways, I’m awfully glad Murrow didn’t live long enough to see all his predictions keep coming true.
I’m guessing that it’s not a good thing that, of late, most urges of mine to be “creative” (by which I mean subjecting whichever idiot happens to fall into this site in his search for a terrible terrible Rod Stewart song to the random trappings of my brain) have been inspired only by the creative acts of others. Good Lord, did you see that run-on sentence? I’m so glad we both made it safely out.
As such, I don’t have anything to add to Michael Duff’s Friday column during which he raised a pen up to Alex Balk and Choire Sicha, among other Bloggers Missing In Recession. (Well, maybe that the “superstar bloggers” Duff’s doffing his cap to would (anddid) get a good chuckle out of that oxymoronic description. Superstars are supposed to get paid, no?) Duff’s right and God (and I) love him for it.
Hey, wouldn’t it be fucking hilarious if someone threw a startup website of the canned and laid-off bloggers who have talked about doing that very thing for years together at various Manhattan gin mills and everyone came and it was awesome? Just saying.
Finest Writers On The Web Are Ready to Work For Coffee, Beer [Michael Duff]
Posted by Maggie
Remember Andy Comeau from the awesome if slightly overindulgent and now-canceled HBO series Huff? He played Hank Azaria’s schizophrenic brother, Teddy.
And now he’s in the new Kmart Christmas commercial! Fun times!
Posted by Maggie
Posted by Maggie
