Invader

The Gap, Personified

I think the Gap deserves some sort of truth-in-advertising award for their new Fall campaign featuring Sarah Jessica Parker and Lenny Kravitz. There is perhaps no better embodiment of the demographic to which their clothing is marketed: bony white girls under the mistaken impression that they are bombshells, and preening dudes under the mistaken impression that they are hip.

Blogrollin'

I've added a few sites - some political, some not - to my blogroll. Among the new additions: the unholy triumverate of World O'Crap, Sadly, No!, and The Dark Window; the equally snarky, but somewhat overlooked Talent Show; the ubiquitous Boing Boing; and two music blogs (possibly the only two music-related sites worth reading, to be honest) - Coolfer and Stereogum.

In the case of the political blogs, I have given them hilarious nicknames, a tradition long-kept at this site (and one shared by our Comedian-in-Chief, so you know it's not just funny, but ha-ha funny). See if you can guess which is which!

O'Reilly: Annoying (and wrong) even when muted.

At the fitness center to which I belong, there are eight flat-screen TVs mounted above the treadmills, two of which are permanently tuned to Fox News (I guess the assumption is, athletic types tend to be conservative - though it certainly isn't the case that conservatives tend to be athletic types). Fortunately, all the TVs are set on mute (to listen to them you have to tune in to a specific station on an FM radio). However, Fox, with its alarmist, video-game graphics, its bottom-of-the-screen "crawl" full of insipid nonsense and RNC talking points, and its anchors, with their blow-dried coifures and shit-eating grins, needs not make a sound to get on my nerves. Especially, as was the case this evening, when their most stalwart blowhard, Bill O'Reilly, takes to the air.

Tonight, the "splotchy bully" (as Al Franken is fond of referring to him) was broadcasting from the RNC, where he had, among his show's "talking points" (they were printed on the screen for the benefit of the few literate members of his regular viewing audience) "Protesters Hurting Democrats," "John Kerry In Trouble," and "Republicans United" - just his typical blustery, right-wing demagoguery (though he made sure to point out that he was "in the middle" of the convention and the "liberal media who are covering it").

One item, however, stood out: "New York Times has far-left-wing bomb-thrower review Bush-bashing books." Now, who was this ultra-leftist, I wondered (and how did he or she get into the pages of the moderate-to-right-leaning New York Times?) Noam Chomsky? Howard Zinn? The presidential candidate for the Socialist Workers Party? Bomberman? (OK, I have no idea what his political affiliation is, but he's pretty good at bomb-throwing)

Well, as it turns out, the wild-eyed liberal to which O'Reilly was referring was none other than Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate Magazine. Oh, and yes, the label "far-left-wing" is definitely suited to Weisberg, who is such a foaming-at-the-mouth Marxist that he supported the War on Iraq, and presides over a magazine that features writers of virtually every political stripe, including some conservatives.

But, hey, in O'Reilly's world, anyone who doesn't advocate nuking the entire Middle East is a potential pinko. Fair and Balanced, Fair and Balanced.

AWOL

No, this isn't about our President's exemplary military service record (though you can read plenty about that here -- link via Orcinus) Rather, it's an apology for my absence. I recently moved from Brooklyn (where I've lived the past three years) back to Seattle (where I'm originally from), so my life has been a bit topsy-turvy of late, and I haven't really had either the time or the energy to maintain a blog. Amazingly, however, the site still seems to be generating a fair amount of traffic, especially as gay marriage has come back into the news, and - for god only knows what reason - if you google "gay marriage" and arguments, my post, "The Non-Arguments Against Gay Marriage" comes up on the eighth page of results (for a time, back closer to when I wrote it, it was actually on the first page).

As for the predictions regarding Fahrenheit 9/11 in my last post, wayyyyy back in June. Well, there were a few protests against the film here and there, but nothing significant (proving once again that the Freepers - who had discussed taking all sorts of actions against both Moore and his film - are, by and large, full of hot air). It did indeed break the box-office record for a documentary. And the mainstream press was, surprisingly, reasonably kind to both the film and its audience. So, 1 for 3. Which would be a pretty good average, were this baseball.

Anyhow, I should be posting regularly from now on, both here and over at Catch. (In fact, I just posted something there this evening about Nerve's silly idea to have members of its personals network blog about their dating experiences - check it out).