Author Archives: Mallory

by | November 3, 2008 · 11:18 pm

whatever happened to good ol’ ralph?

I hate that I am posting so many article links without much commentary, but this is a pretty busy couple of days for me. Posting quick excerpts and links is a way for me to feel like I’m still involving myself and this blog in some sort of discussion, because obviously there are a LOT of things to be discussed right now. 

MSNBC’S First Read had a blurb in its afternoon political roundup today that I found pretty compelling:

At a rally at the University of Maryland, Independent Party candidate Ralph Nader criticized the way the media covers the presidential race, citing the fact that Joe the Plumber has gotten more political coverage than the Nader-Gonzalez tandem.

Of course you could make a lot of points on either side of the question of Ralph v. Joe, but it’s a question worth thinking about. Read a little more here.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | November 3, 2008 · 6:33 am

mccain for president, says ken layne.

My friends, you must read this. Ken Layne is my favorite Wonkette boyfriend and he is a genius:

This first decade of the 21st Century has not been very good for America. We have been terrorized at home, humiliated in war, humbled by Asia, surpassed by Europe, invaded by Mexico and laughed at by Canada.

We are also so much sicker and sadder and poorer than we were eight years ago.

The question, on November 4, is this: Are we man enough, as a nation, to admit things are just going to keep getting worse? Can we finally grimace into our national mirror and admit that we need someone to finish the job? Then let’s make John McCain, and then Sarah Palin, our president(s). Let’s do this right!

Experts say the United States is like a bus full of enraged cows teetering on the edge of a sea cliff, with swarms of bloodthirsty sharks circling the waters below. Tragically, the frightened and confused livestock are unable to tilt the bus over the cliff by themselves.

We can’t afford to prolong the misery. We can’t afford to elect some pie-in-the-sky character who appeals to our better instincts. We can’t afford to put aside ignorance and poverty.

We need to be pushed over that ledge.

John McCain for pre — okay I can’t even type that line, but you get the point.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | November 3, 2008 · 3:22 am

throwdown: joe biden v. barbara west.

So my friend just sent this video to me. Take a look:

Now as a proud liberal with a potentially unhealthy love for Barack Obama, I found this video entertaining in the sense that Joe Biden wiped the floor with this wingnut reporter. Then I looked at the comments on the video, and realized that everyone thought that Barbara West really tested Biden and proved that Obama is totally a Marxist Muslim nutjob who will destroy our country within the first six months of his presidency. I guess you really do just see what you want to see. 

As I was watching this, I thought of a conversation I had with my sister the other day. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve been bickering just a leeetle these days about politics. I was video chatting with her, and one of her friends muttered something in the background about how Obama was going to get assassinated and that in voting for him, I was basically just voting for Biden.

Now, don’t even get me started on the fact that it is disgusting and embarrassing that no single person is worried that John McCain might be assassinated. Nope, just the black guy. But on top of that, do you REALLY want to play the vice president game?! REALLY? Saying that you shouldn’t vote for Obama because he could get assassinated is like saying you shouldn’t vote for McCain because he might die like tomorrow. Both are certainly possibilities, but to base your vote on either hypothetical situation is absurd. And even if I were to base my vote on those hypothetical situations, I would clearly trust Biden over Miss Wasilla. (Have you seen this, by the way? “Joe the mauve sofa”…hysterical)

And call me a commie, but I honestly think the quote “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need,” is pretty damn right on. Isn’t that SORT OF the foundation of things like conservative Christian things like tithing? The idea that when you are able, you should give of yourself to others who need it most?

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | November 3, 2008 · 3:00 am

walk me down your broken line.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but when I’m bored doing work, I tend to spend a lot of time and money on iTunes. I was just suckered into buying like 300 Joshua Radin songs. I really, really love him. If you haven’t heard the song “The Fear You Won’t Fall,” you should probably find it and buy it right now. There’s not a good video of it online, and I refuse to not do it justice.

As a part of my Joshua binge, I Wikipedia-ed him and discovered that he and Zach Braff are good friends. Apparently Zach is kind of the reason he’s famous, because he got one of his songs to be on Scrubs. Isn’t that adorable? Sort of a Ben Affleck/Matt Damon-type story. Here’s a little photo of Joshua:

Another fun and adorable fact is that Joshua Radin played his song “Today” at Ellen and Portia de Rossi’s wedding. Apparently they turned down George Michael and Justine Timberlake and chose Joshua instead. Not to knock Joshua, but I don’t feel like that’s much of a competition when we’re talking about a wedding. “SexyBack” is not really my dream wedding song.

While I’m rambling, how much do you love Ellen? She is GREAT. I love how unabashedly awkward she is. The other day I was doing my laundry and watching her show, and I was literally glued to the television while holding my laundry basket because she was doing a skit where she went out with Paris Hilton and it was just HI-larious. Anyway.

So Joshua Radin. Love him. Here’s the newest song I’m playing on repeat. And the video was directed by Zach Braff:

Also, THE ELECTION IS TWO DAYS AWAY HOLY SHIIIIIIIT!!!

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | October 31, 2008 · 8:02 pm

here’s to sweatin’ to the oldies.

Number of times I engaged in a political debate with my sister in the past 24 hours: 3

Number of fun-size Snickers bars currently in my belly: 300

Number of days (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) until Barack Obama is elected as our next president: 4

Number of beers I plan to drink tonight: 17

Number of days until Halloween: 0!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, MY LITTLE GHOULS AND GOBLINS!

This evening I will be celebrating by dressing up as the one, the only, Richard Simmons. Think afro, tiny neon shorts, and tall white socks. I will obviously be having sex tonight.

So crack open a ice cold Bud Light and a bag of candy corn, pull something wacky out of your costume box (you have one too, right?), and do the Monster Mash.

Make it a good one! 

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | October 30, 2008 · 4:47 am

aaand i’ve hit a new low.

The first thing I did after getting my computer back from the Apple Store (which gets my two emphatic thumbs up for EXCELLENT customer service, by the way) was download all of the songs that I’d been aching to download in the past week. Buying random songs on iTunes is my crack, except it’s cheaper and less destructive. Here’s what I typically download: random songs that I hear on TV shows and in commercials that I love; songs that my friends recommend to me; songs that iTunes recommends to me; and any of the top ten songs on iTunes that I think I might like. If it wasn’t for Top Songs on my iTunes Store homepage, I wouldn’t have even known that Beyonce had a new song. 

Taylor Swift is always in the Top Songs list. Now, I like country music (I know, calm down), so I’ve known about this fetus for a while, but bitch is getting FAMOUS. I mean she has had like 300 hit singles and she’s only 11:

Now even though I faithfully download most of her songs, I’m starting to get a little irked by the oh-so-subtle monotony of the themes. Let’s take a look at the titles to some of her hit songs. There are the I’ve-had-my-heart-broken-more-times-than-Dawson-Leery songs: “Teardrops On My Guitar,” “Should’ve Said No,” and “You’re Not Sorry.” Then there’s the I’m-capable-of-intense-loving-relationships-even-though-I’m-a-preteen section with songs like “Fearless,” “Love Story,” “Tim McGraw,” “Our Song,” and “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” And I’m probably forgetting some from each category.

That’s an old-souled 11-year-old. (Okay she’s actually 18). The girl is talented, and ignoring the fact that she has had more meaningful relationships in two years than I will probably ever have, I think she needs to branch out with her themes a little bit. Maybe write about calculus. Or the prom. Or the agony of having braces in your senior picture. Maybe — just maybe — I’ll refuse to by her next love/heartbreak song out of protest. Until then, I will be rocking out to her latest single, “You’re Not Sorry,” and weeping silently because I’m a TAYLOR SWIFT FAN. 

In my slight defense, I totally bought a lot of old Paul Simon songs tonight. That’s slightly less embarrassing, no?

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | October 30, 2008 · 3:59 am

welcome to the real world. kinda.

Reason number four million and one that I am totally and completely in love with my friends (and cry face):

Seriously. I am in love with these people.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | October 28, 2008 · 6:03 pm

vote hasselback 2008: mayor of clowntown.

I just threw up in my mouth.

[Posted by Mouse]

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by | October 28, 2008 · 5:45 pm

some david brooks for your tuesday.

My psychology professor just sent my class an interesting article about perception from good ol’ David Brooks over at the NY Times. We’ve talked a lot in my class about the way you essentially see what you want to see. You pay more attention to facts that fit with what you already know; you attribute your own successes to hard work and others’ successes to dumb luck; etc.

In this article, “The Behavioral Revolution,” Brooks links this idea to The Second Great Depression. It’s a thought-provoking article, and worth reading at least these excerpts:

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb] believes that our brains evolved to suit a world much simpler than the one we now face. His writing is idiosyncratic, but he does touch on many of the perceptual biases that distort our thinking: our tendency to see data that confirm our prejudices more vividly than data that contradict them; our tendency to overvalue recent events when anticipating future possibilities; our tendency to spin concurring facts into a single causal narrative; our tendency to applaud our own supposed skill in circumstances when we’ve actually benefited from dumb luck.

He goes on:

If you start thinking about our faulty perceptions, the first thing you realize is that markets are not perfectly efficient, people are not always good guardians of their own self-interest and there might be limited circumstances when government could usefully slant the decision-making architecture (see “Nudge” by Thaler and Cass Sunstein for proposals). But the second thing you realize is that government officials are probably going to be even worse perceivers of reality than private business types. Their information feedback mechanism is more limited, and, being deeply politicized, they’re even more likely to filter inconvenient facts.

This meltdown is not just a financial event, but also a cultural one. It’s a big, whopping reminder that the human mind is continually trying to perceive things that aren’t true, and not perceiving them takes enormous effort.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | October 28, 2008 · 1:42 am

and now you’ve ruined my pants.

I have a confession to make: I sort of love Blair and Chuck together. I often hate them on their own, but when they get together and tell each other to just “say those three little words,” those two evil Upper East Siders sort of melt my heart. I know. I’m embarrassed too.

Also, what the hell are you doing Little J? Whoring around with that model and the sketchball photographer? How do you go from innocent 15-year-old to black-eyeliner-wearing whore sexpot with bangs in ONE WEEK? Oh, that’s right. This is Gossip Girl. Plotlines can be inconsistent and absurd, and I’ll still watch. At least Nate’s still beautiful:

And now, because they’ve added a little poll feature to my blogging toolbox, let’s try a poll:

[Posted by Mallory]

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