So who else watched the NBA All-Star game last night? In case you missed it, the West defeated the East 155-145 in 2OT, after the East spent entirely too much time trying to get Jordan the last shot. In fact, I’ll go ahead and incur the wrath of Bulls fans the world over (a solid percentage of whom I’m sure are now avidly following the Lakers, since they’re the winning team these days) by saying the level of MJ-jocking last night was ridiculously excessive. It’d be one thing if the league hadn’t already said its goodbyes before the Wizards return last year. And it’d be another if this is the usual protocol for sending off long-time hardfloor warriors (Stockton, Malone, Olajuwon, and Ewing all come to mind.) But it seemed as if even Jordan got sick of all the kudos being sent his way by the end of the night. To say nothing of the fact that the East blew the game because Jordan had to take every game-deciding shot rather than T-Mac or AI. Look, I’ll be the first to admit that MJ was a history-making athlete, one whose only peers may be Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali. But this will be his third retirement. Can we please stop treating him like the pope? Update: David Aldridge concurs.
Author: KcM
License to Incense.
Dahlia Lithwick fills us in on the legal standing of the pro-life license plates sprouting up across the South these days. Hmmm. I assume these plates afford much better protection from random police stops than would, say, a “Jah is my Co-Pilot” bumper sticker. I’m curious as to what percentage of these license plate owners also drive easy-to-flip SUV’s. If you’re so pro-life there, fella, why are you driving such a pro-death vehicle?
Bradley WetWorks.
One of the many nice things about living in New York rather than DC these days is not having to listen to ex-Gore flunkies gleefully recite war stories from the 2000 primary. But, I must admit, the admission in this article sent to me by a friend brought all the Gore fear and loathing of 2000 (lI’m sure many long-time readers remember it well) roaring back like a mouthful of bile. Seeing that Bill Bradley was up in the New Hampshire polls, Gore ops created a traffic jam on I-93 to discourage Bradley supporters from voting. So, next time you hear some Dem flak blaming Nader voters for the results of 2000, remember it might just have been those same flaks purposely clogging traffic to give us Mediscare Al as our choice of candidate. Grrr…
Death from Above.
The depersonalized video game nature of modern war has been noted in a lot of places (Patriot Games, for example), but this video of a US raid on the Taliban from an AC-130 Spectre Gunship really drives it home. A fascinating look at the 21st-century military at work, although a bit unsettling once you realize the white dots fleeing in every direction are in fact enemy combatants.
Read the Fine Print.
Surprise, Surprise. It turns out Dubya’s budget doesn’t add up as advertised.
Scuttling the Past.
Speaking of never-ending remakes, the worst fears of Star Wars fans have come to pass. As if the prequels weren’t snub enough, Lucas says he’ll NEVER release the original versions of the original trilogy on DVD. Which means, from now to time immemorial, Greedo shot first. Ugh…doesn’t Lucas even read the news?
Third Time’s the Charm.
Apparently Gus Van Sant is thinking of remaking Psycho…again. Very bizarre.
Lonesome Shadow.
The tracklisting for Counterfeit 2, Depeche Mode songwriter Martin Gore‘s second solo cover album, has now been released (07.02.03 story.) Longtime DM fans will know that the original Counterfeit EP, following up soon after 1989’s Music for the Masses, was a very worthy pickup. This one, due out April 28, includes more well-known tunes than the first, including songs by Brian Eno (“By this River”), John Lennon (“Oh My Love”), Willie Nelson (“Stardust”), and the Velvet Underground (“Candy Says”). DM frontman David Gahan also has a solo album coming out later in the year, which should be…interesting, I guess.
Treading Lightly Amid the Palmettos.
John Edwards and the rest of the Democratic field try to figure out how to manage the NAACP boycott of South Carolina. Sigh…between Bob Jones University and the Stars ‘n Bars, it’s always a bit embarrassing to hail from South Carolina in an election year. Hopefully a day will someday come when the post-Strom Palmetto State will finally get its act together.
100% Americanism, for better or worse.
Also on the history tip, I found this while preparing for my sections this morning on John Higham’s Strangers in the Land and nativism in the 1920’s: Red Scare: An Image Database…plenty of anti-foreign, anti-radical, and anti-union cartoons from the end of World War I. And, along the same lines, here’s an intriguing collection of WWI propaganda posters, such as this anti-German poster to the right. Very helpful in class, particularly as they will augur our reading of John Dower’s War Without Mercy later in the term.