Living Out Loud

From the Old Blogroll . . .

We go to The New York Times and Maureen Dowl.

Maureen says there are plenty of ambiguity, duality and ferocity in Unity. Click here to read her essay.

- Teri Archer

(Photo from MSNBC)

The Pouring of the Wine

I recently read with much amusement an essay Christopher Hitchens wrote for Slate about being out at a restaurant with friends, having a grand time talking and having the flow of their conversation interrupted by a waiter who picked up the bottle of wine located in the middle of their table and poured the wine into everyone’s glass.

Probably, this has happened to all of us. I remember back in the spring being out with a friend at a rather nice restaurant in Newport. We were having a good time catching up with each other – enjoying our dinner and also that bottle of wine in the middle of our table.

Just like with Hitchens and friends, the waiter kept refilling our glasses with wine. With all this pouring, it led, of course, to us ordering another bottle.

When it was time for us to go, that bottle on the table was still half full. What should we have done? Since we were clearly going to have to pay for it, maybe we should have asked to take the bottle with us.

Hitchens points out in his essay that this constant pouring of the wine simple leads to the padding of the bill.

Question: Has this ever happened to you? Here’s a follow-up question: Why do we put up with it?

- Larry Gross

(Photo from www.ladv.org)

That Was The Week That Was - In Blogs

Questions are on my mind this Sunday morning. Turning to the Internet for answers sometimes works - but most of the time, it just raises more questions.

Example: Why do we continue to pay high prices for gas? Are we prepared to pay $7 a gallon by 2010? Why can’t we get off the oil? I was counting on Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish to provide answers but I didn’t really get any.

Americans, apparently, deeply care about Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s saggy boobs. Why? Why is The Huffington Post making such a big deal of it?

The first thing on my mind this morning was why do muskrats hate America? Wonkette really did provide me an answer.

The Cincinnati Nation reported last week that the Democrats have committed more money to the war. Why are they so spineless?

Who paid to build Via Vite? It cost around $2.5 million dollars to build this restaurant around Fountain Square – but who flipped the bill? The Cincinnati Beacon has been trying to get answers, but since it involves City Council, we may never know.

How come viewing the latest video at The Midwest Teen Sex Show won’t make your penis bigger? Beats me, but the video is worth watching.

Why did George Carlin have to die last Sunday? God is not answering me on this one – neither is the Internet. Sadly, No! put up a classic Carlin clip last Tuesday.

What’s black and white and wet all over? We found the answer at Jezebel!

Why does John McCain think telling a joke about beating his wife is funny? Crooks and Liars is asking the question. Here’s another question: Wouldn’t it be scary to have this guy in the White House?

And of course there’s no answer to this one: Why do conservatives in Cincinnati think they know what’s good for the rest of us? The A & E Blog reports on the opening of Jerry Springer: the Opera which is making a few people a bit uptight in Cincinnati. How shocking.

No, not really. Not really at all.

- Larry Gross

(Photo from www.kennardconsulting.com)

I Can't Leave You

Changes will be happening here next week (I'll be explaining at some point) and more than likely; this will be my last Kim Taylor video that I'll be posting. It's down below.

Kim, I can't leave you and I never really will - really.

- Larry Gross

(Photo of Kim Taylor from www.bp2.blogger.com)

From the Old Blogroll . . .

We go to Gawker.

Oh no! Larry's not going to like this. It seems the person he called an excellent television journalist, Lara Logan, has a bit of news.

The first part of it is good. Lara's getting a promotion at CBS! The second part isn't so great. Click here to get the latest.

- Brandy Edwards

(Photo from www.nndb.com)

Barack and Harry

Hey, Look at this! I got an e-mail from Barack Obama!

Let me show you a little bit of it:

Dear LARRY,

No matter where I've gone in this country, I've met working Americans who feel like the American dream is slipping out of reach. They're working harder for less. The cost of everything from a tank of gas to a bag of groceries, from health care to college tuition, is going up and up. It's getting harder to save and harder to retire. And that's why so many Americans are counting on us to win in November and bring about the change they so desperately need.

The stakes could not be higher. And the choice could not be clearer: at this defining moment in American history, we can continue the failed Bush economic policies that are stretching wallets and straining families and the failed Bush foreign policies that haven't made us safer. Or we can seize this moment by turning the page on the policies of the past, and offering a new direction for the country we love.Over the course of this historic campaign, almost 40 million people have made their intention clear. They want a new direction - and they want a Democratic president to make it happen.

But a new President alone isn't enough.

I've served long enough in the U.S. Senate to know that Washington must change, and I also know that big changes don't happen without big Senate majorities - and right now, Democrats occupy only 49 seats.

This November, we have a chance to create a Democratic Senate majority like we haven't seen in decades - but it won't happen on its own. For eighteen months, Sen. Hillary Clinton and I counted on people like you to support our campaigns for president - and now I am asking you to do the same for a tremendous slate of Democratic Senate candidates by supporting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The DSCC delivered historic victories in the 2006 midterm elections, and they will do so again this year if we get behind them before this critical second quarter fundraising deadline.

Click here to make a contribution of $75, $100, or more to help expand the Democratic Senate majority in 2008. This quarterly fundraising deadline is so important that everything you give before June 30 will be matched two-to-one by a group of Democratic senators, effectively tripling your contribution.

I’ll stop here, but that “click” message for money was repeated a second time in the e-mail.

The following day, I got an e-mail from Sen. Harry Reid who wanted to follow up on Obama’s e-mail and he – again – was asking for money, $75, $100 or more.

Now I like both these guys and I hope Obama gets elected, but it puts me off a little bit to be hounded for money - $75 or more. I guess if I had $50, that wouldn’t be enough.

I’ll think about it - but Obama, you’ve made me even grumpier than I already am.

- Larry Gross

(Photo from Google)

Question of the Week

The Cincinnati Nation asked the question earlier this week:

"The Banks will look a lot like a new neighborhood in Atlanta called Atlantic Station, nearly an exact copy. Now - come on - you didn't really expect Cincinnati would do something original, did you?"

. . . and now we’ll asking you sort of the same question: Why are we being such a copycat?

- Teri Archer

(Graphic from The Cincinnati Nation)

Cincinnati Men Are So Dumb

You Cincinnati guys are really, really dumb.

I was with this guy last night making love at his place. Suddenly he stopped. I asked him "Is there anything wrong?"

"Carol," He says, “I hate to be critical; but you’ve got the driest twat I’ve ever encountered."

"Move up, you dummy,” I said. “You’re licking the rug."

- Carol Walters

(Photo: Google)

War

Sorry - Judy Darling, LOL Blog Reporter, is sleeping it off this morning and I don't feel like putting up something cute or funny.

Maybe Judy's depressed about the war.

No, probably not. According to Frank Rich at The New York Times, the bad news about the war doesn't rate here anymore. We don't care about it.

Lara Logan at CBS News basically said the same thing last week. We wrote about that on Sunday.

What does it take to get us angry about this?

Democracy Now reported last week that Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP are getting no-bid contracts in Iraq.

Do you think the Bush Administration has anything to do with this? The same web site also stated that Army General Taguba has accused the Bush Administration of war crimes. No shit.

Another New York Times writer (who really shouldn’t be one, because he can never get his facts right in his column), Bill Kristol, says Bush might bomb Iran if he thinks Obama will win the election.

How fucking depressing.

War: What is it good for?

Judy, do you have any vodka left in that bottle?

- Larry Gross

(Photo from www.chinadaily.com)

Eyeballing the Cincinnati Rich & Famous

Well, she told me she was LOL Girl at the CityBeat rally last Friday night on Fountain Square but I seriously doubted it at the time. Turns out I was right.

The woman in the photo with the two guys is actually a member of The Citizens for Community Values.

- Candy Apple

(Photo of fake LOL Girl with two dudes from www.rapidcityjournal.com)