tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51199095373049359792012-01-29T18:36:24.898-05:00                 The official blog of notorious former African dictator Mobutu Sese SekoMobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.comBlogger5151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-58092370849247163002012-01-27T11:01:00.003-05:002012-01-27T12:33:22.785-05:00

Today, thanks to an article in the Washington Post entitled "Ron Paul signed off on racist newsletters in the 1990s, associates say," people can finally affirm, with confidence, the exact same things most people have been claiming for months:[People] close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the [racist] newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-79636908376234354202012-01-25T20:41:00.004-05:002012-01-26T12:59:54.414-05:00

Yesterday, GQ ran an article I wrote on NBC's Republican Presidential Debate, which was conducted at the University of South Florida in Tampa. If you haven't read it, please go check it out. Otherwise most of this won't make sense.I tried to rationalize not going. I deeply dislike these people, and their fans sometimes seem even worse. After all, they could choose leaders from among the great

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-34834246912950780862012-01-23T12:58:00.003-05:002012-01-23T13:09:02.962-05:00

As part of their DEATHRACE 2012 coverage, the good people at GQ.com asked me to talk about the frequent Republican refrain — and sometimes dog-whistle racist appeal — that Barack Obama is essentially stupid.Even when they don't have the stones to make the case directly, GOP candidates run to old lines about "the teleprompter" (a device every politician uses), or echo the sighing smug-fuck

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-1571550284120903382012-01-20T08:57:00.003-05:002012-01-20T09:38:07.846-05:00

Years ago Newt Gingrich stumbled on a pretty good idea: garnish any policy proposal with multiple historical analogies or references to significant events and hope that one resonates with the audience.History moves us; it bestows on us the sense that the mundane moments we endure are part of an as-yet unperceived grand narrative. Newt's schtick is that he alone perceives this narrative, and it

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-70759213414457748512012-01-20T04:58:00.004-05:002012-01-20T05:10:23.572-05:00

My editor at Vice asked me to say something about the interminable Republican debate schedule. He's a nice person, and worth following on Twitter, so I can't bring myself to hold this request against him.If one thing leaps out at anyone watching more than a few of them, it's the homogeneity of the ideas and approaches presented. Click the Bachmann to read more:Due to space constraints, one thing

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-15260828237894246602012-01-19T01:35:00.001-05:002012-01-19T06:28:45.497-05:00

Note: For discussion of Muslim figures in literature, we turn for insight to General Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi, former Israeli Minister of Tourism. His multi-part series on Libya, Slouching from Benghazi, resumes later this year.Amazing Gaze: The Western Eyes of Soulful Scribbler Caleb Powellby GENERAL REHAVAM "GANDHI" ZE'EVI"'Algonquian women in New England,' wrote William Wood in 1634, were 'more

General Rehavam 'Gandhi' Ze'evihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055498197609879280noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-72336558012899920692012-01-18T11:59:00.001-05:002012-01-19T04:50:53.500-05:00

I meant to post this last week, but illness got in the way.The head of steam Mittens generated from New Hampshire and his early polling data in South Carolina inspired a lot of easy predictions and overreach from the punditocracy. The word "inevitable" creeped in overnight, despite the conditions that attended his New Hampshire victory and the possible responses that other candidates might

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-472178367648859252012-01-17T16:05:00.004-05:002012-01-17T17:20:47.849-05:00

A couple of weeks back, the incoming Editor-in-Chief of Deadspin, Tommy Craggs, asked me to add a few lines to a roast for outgoing editor AJ Daulerio, who has taken over the top job at Gawker. You may know Gawker as the internet's premier news resource for things people from SomethingAwful.com did the night before on Twitter.You can imagine my reaction, which was to send my laptop table flying,

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-30274237863097230112012-01-13T07:02:00.001-05:002012-01-13T07:09:35.571-05:00

I think we were very deferential because in the East Room press conference it's live. It's very intense. It's frightening to stand up there. Think about it. You're standing up on prime-time live TV asking the president of the United States a question when the country's about to go to war. There was a very serious, somber tone that evening, and no one wanted to get into an argument with the

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-22887508581337366542012-01-11T01:27:00.004-05:002012-01-11T20:23:00.410-05:00

It's already 2012, and we have yet to address 2011's NaNoWriMo, or, "National Novel Writing Month." We have failed.As explained last year, NaNoWriMo is something of an online tradition, when people who may not do much reading and certainly even less writing agree to put inexperience behind them and create an entire novel in 30 days. Like looking at a schematic an eight-year-old has drawn up for a

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-56916666185621955002012-01-08T00:31:00.003-05:002012-01-08T02:35:38.140-05:00

This article is part two in our Sucks Really Bad series. For part one, please see, "Newsweek Sucks Really Bad."Unless you've spent a lot of time lately sitting in airports or being over 60 and scared to death of Mexicans, you probably haven't been watching CNN at all. Good.The Daily Show and our national weariness with 24-hour news has made mocking CNN fashionable, but that doesn't mean that it

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-82821933089870571062011-12-28T13:06:00.007-05:002011-12-29T00:42:22.203-05:00

Note: unlike many guest pieces on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? today's article comes from a real, live person: Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, former Supreme Leader of North Korea and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, who evades foreign intelligence agencies by pretending to work the finance beat for the press in another Asian country. He last wrote about North Korea to debunk entertaining

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-75001883388992283542011-12-27T02:39:00.011-05:002011-12-28T01:28:07.612-05:00

by JONATHAN BERNHARDTPerhaps we never liked him anyway.The baseball writers of my age and generation have found former Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin's fall from grace easier than most to deal with, though not comfortable. Given almost any other impetus, comfort we would have found; before this week, I knew Conlin almost wholly as a wide, pompous ass of the institution, the moron

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-8944776361921758632011-12-25T02:32:00.003-05:002011-12-25T02:50:41.739-05:00

The last few columns posted here have stirred strong emotions. Politics is a touchy subject at even the best of times, which is why we rarely bring it up at dinner parties with strangers or introduce our spouses by saying things like, "This is my first and only wife, Jen. That's the same number of wives Barack Obama has and only one-third of Newt Gingrich's. Also, her face is still capable of

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-4900762168290831382011-12-22T13:53:00.009-05:002012-01-18T14:01:11.461-05:00

Note: For discussion of Middle Eastern affairs, we, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? turn for insight to General Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi, former Israeli Minister of Tourism. Having faked his assassination in the Mt. Scopus Hyatt Hotel, the General has been in deep cover, in Judea and Samaria, posing as an American goy pursuing graduate studies in the Middle East. He last joined us for

General Rehavam 'Gandhi' Ze'evihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055498197609879280noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-27543266406935235182011-12-21T06:01:00.009-05:002012-01-27T12:38:20.894-05:00

For a certain segment of the Ron Paul fanbase, no evidence of his disseminating hateful, paranoid material will ever be enough. Citing James Kirchick's piece in The New Republic wasn't sufficient, because Kirchick could have just been "making everything up." Then, when I and others posted copies of "The Ron Paul Political Report Special Issue on Race Terrorism," that too wasn't convincing."Proof

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com164tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-47217149650922270852011-12-20T14:17:00.007-05:002011-12-20T14:28:06.669-05:00

Beaten down by years of feckless centrist candidates with no interest in the working class, Democratic voters turn to increasingly bizarre outlets for signs of rescue. Seemingly since 2000, they've annually flirted with some new Republican hopeful — a mythic, "Reasonable One" — whose bipartisan appeal will somehow unite the country and deliver... the same sort of feckless centrist

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-64359177443045720052011-12-16T03:44:00.006-05:002011-12-16T12:56:24.975-05:00

Note: unlike many guest pieces on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? today's article comes from a real, live person: Mornacale, a serious journalist and Brusly High School and Louisiana Campaign for Liberty's 2011 Douchebag of the Year. Despite showing all outward signs of an intelligent human being, he's still a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has yet to be seriously accused of killing anyone. You can

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-65242622990333568022011-12-14T01:13:00.003-05:002011-12-14T16:10:03.477-05:00

Alex Nicholson has been finding stuff literally for years. Sometimes it's not even intentional. That's how good he is. "Found Stuff" is his attempt to freeze some of these objects and moments in time, to share them with you so he can get on with metal detecting and forget about them. You can follow him on Tumblr and Twitter.With bullies, homework and public schools' flagging soda availability,

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-55605215819761937882011-12-12T14:00:00.004-05:002011-12-14T14:24:17.944-05:00

Today, on Vice, we have to deal with Ron Paul, Part III: The Enpaulening. There was the first version, and it was ugly and real, not like what we expected. It was like First Blood.Then the replies made it all a vengeful, direct attack on something that was right. Like Rambo: First Blood Part II. We had to kill — even the made-up crap. We had to look the bad thing in the eye and say, "Aaauughhh!!!

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-80502646160824679882011-12-12T03:13:00.006-05:002011-12-13T00:06:46.851-05:00

I'm not sure what Mike Florio's purpose is, but his weekly appearances on NBC's Football Night in America are keeping him from discovering it. Each week, he faux-banters with Peter King while trying to make reading a Huffington Post listicle of the day's football news off an iPad2 seem natural. Usually it seems the opposite.Unengaged by news or analysis, the viewer is left to stare at Florio's

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-69680548827133549072011-12-07T00:17:00.004-05:002011-12-07T00:19:05.679-05:00

NotCoachTito is the former fake manager of the Boston Red Sox. He currently resides in the Parody Account afterlife, occasionally sending vulgar messages from the Other Side, about Bobby Valentine and John Lackey, to his personal medium Hunter Felt. In his spare time, NotCoachTito enjoys drinking Bigelow Green Tea, listening to Happy Mondays and pinch-running for his best hitters in the ninth

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-43476343709973681532011-12-05T16:31:00.001-05:002011-12-05T18:00:13.611-05:00

Well, that's it. I'm voting for Ron Paul because of graphics.The Ron Paul campaign released a new ad recently, which features the kind of sick computer generated explosions, dogs on things and big truck metaphors that pretty much immediately win me over every time. Plus, the voiceover is performed by a guy who narrates trailers for horror films, so his inclusion here is totally appropriate. NEXT

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-58160159358517605422011-12-03T16:09:00.012-05:002012-01-18T11:58:54.811-05:00

One of the most entertaining aspects of yesterday's Ron Paul rundown is watching comments and Tweets roll in declaring that it contains no proof of Ron Paul's racism and everything of my perfidy or incompetence. In many cases, much of this outrage seems to be the product of a complete unfamiliarity with how links work. ("He didn't even prove that thing he said in blue words!") But most of it

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-68763060389039779252011-12-02T12:05:00.005-05:002011-12-02T12:34:30.978-05:00

This week, the good people at Vice.com asked me to write about Ron Paul, because we both thought Newt was just too tiresome, and, "Please, God [we're] sick of Herman Cain. No more Herman Cain."A lot of this Paul information isn't new. That's because Ron doesn't change. Time lumbers on, indifferently, into a bigger future, and he remains, hiding behind his 18th century battlements, picking lice

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-55148252731458278792011-11-30T13:10:00.008-05:002011-11-30T14:15:45.008-05:00

Rooting for the Rays is an easy and likable activity. They have a smart manager and players with positive or at least neutral personalities. Their front office embraces critical thinking and new ideas. And sitting in the AL East with teams with monstrous payrolls, bigger fanbases and better stadiums makes rooting for them seem somehow just. Being an underdog by dint of fewer opportunities gives

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-58725164871880361892011-11-23T01:40:00.003-05:002011-11-23T02:12:51.279-05:00

At the end of this year's MLB postseason, I got a few IMs from people asking a variation of one question, "Where's JShap?" For the last two years, a writer I know has joined me for a chat-form "liveblog" of a playoff game. The first time was mere chance; he was around, and the game was miserable. The second time was planned, and this year he indicated that there was "no way [he was] watching a

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-35976599519044710662011-11-22T00:01:00.003-05:002011-11-22T15:37:58.732-05:00

Note: unlike many guest pieces on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? today's article comes from a real, live person: the mysterious Mr. Awesome, an underemployed law school graduate. He wants a job, very badly. He will also do part-time writing or editing work. He would like to be paid money. He would also enjoy health insurance, but nothing fancy. He fears nothing and has great credentials.Pretend Moral

Mr. Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11858436191510000158noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-43359877635938980032011-11-21T01:20:00.002-05:002011-12-07T16:32:45.089-05:00

A few weeks back, I was invited to contribute to a sportswriting startup called The Classical. They liked an article idea I sent in, and rather than respond to an email asking me for a fuller outline, I ignored it for two days and instead submitted a complete and entirely unrelated thing about TIM TEBOW.Click on the Football Jesus to be taken to The Classical:Right now, The Classical exists only

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-90468463106226812722011-11-17T13:15:00.003-05:002011-11-17T13:23:46.129-05:00

Bad historian, worse novelist, wife-and-idea recycler and generally insufferable fatlord Newt Gingrich took the lead in the race for the Republican presidential nominee this weekend. Finding Newt in the lead in this horrific contest despite all the pragmatic assumptions about his chances and his sincerity is like overhearing someone start to tell a mortifyingly inappropriate joke at a cocktail

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-48552289487021753992011-11-16T02:45:00.006-05:002011-11-16T20:59:14.293-05:00

We, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? are a pretty collegial lot. We like to chat on instant-messenger services with each other, because often one of us will discover an illegal stream and password to an Irkutsk-originating pay-per-view video of human or animal bloodsport. Last night, as I polished a new column for Vice, and General Rehavam Ze'evi worked on Part IV of his three-part series

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-90555431244832169372011-11-15T04:04:00.003-05:002011-11-15T06:00:33.925-05:00

Apparently between appointments to explain to people that minorities and poor would-be homeowners tanked the American economy with billions of dollars of debt brought on by 40-1 leveraging, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to wipe the hippie smears off one of his parks. So long, for now, Occupy Wall Street.I'm sure Bloomberg thinks he has a plan, and I'm sure he's wrong.Bloomberg's office

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-49883563866260914132011-11-14T01:08:00.005-05:002011-11-14T02:08:48.719-05:00

by JONATHAN BERNHARDTIt is October 11, and ESPN's Buster Olney has opinions about things. Specifically, he thinks the list of candidates to fill the hole Andy MacPhail has left in the Baltimore Orioles' front office has six names on it: Tony LaCava of the Blue Jays, J.P. Riccardi of the Mets, Dan Jennings of the Marlins, Gerry Hunsicker of the Rays, Josh Byrnes of the Padres and Thad Levine of

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-58648796884493977252011-11-09T17:22:00.005-05:002011-11-09T17:31:08.348-05:00

If Herman Cain knew his greatest value to the GOP was providing distracting cover for "reliable" candidates, he definitely overdid it. Too hardworking and Republican. If only he'd been a "liberal black" about it—lolling his stupefied, unemployed head in squalor and super-fertility, in between compulsively voting for Clintons—he might still have only one sexual harassment allegation and a weird

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-59539411235954472622011-11-06T11:30:00.004-05:002011-11-09T23:21:19.825-05:00

by JONATHAN BERNHARDTDavid Richard Freese is 28 years old and looks a bit like a young Sean Penn. He was born in Corpus Christi, TX, but grew up in the St. Louis, MO metropolitan area. He grew up a Cardinals fan, of course. He almost went to school with Ryan Howard; he was four years behind Philadelphia's first baseman at West Lafayette High.In a way, Freese is lucky: born in 1983, he drifts

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-78364859064827162752011-11-05T01:26:00.005-04:002011-11-05T02:39:21.503-04:00

The good people at Vice.com, or at least one of them, asked me to start writing for them about the politics and the goings on and things these days. It's exactly like being Andy Rooney, except with a bigger word count, more facts and hundreds of thousands of dollars less. Although, as was the case with Andy, being concerned about what I think also portends senescence and death.Because he's been

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-6705280669638224562011-11-02T01:39:00.001-04:002011-11-02T02:50:41.459-04:00

by ERIC AUGENBRAUNOn October 15, 24 Occupy Wall Street protesters walked into the Citibank at 555 LaGuardia Place with the intention of closing their accounts and, presumably, taking their money elsewhere. Because this completely legal act by a group of peaceful demonstrators was admittedly difficult to distinguish from a bank heist, they were locked in the bank and then arrested by the

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-29006206467564784132011-10-31T02:44:00.006-04:002011-10-31T06:27:05.589-04:00

Florida might be the best state in the country for accidentally great billboards. In the past year, driving on odd little highways far from the interstate, I've lost count of the number of times I've kicked myself for not having a camera ready in time to try to snap an in-focus picture of some sublime artistic atrocity. I particularly regret missing the bloodied, manacled wrists of what I

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-52500775353906206262011-10-28T06:00:00.003-04:002011-10-29T00:20:45.233-04:00

I don't think the tenth inning was even halfway over when Joe Buck started referring to Game Six as a classic. I don't know if that's true. A moment after Game One ended, writers praised it as a cerebral masterpiece, but the eagerness to make these games into metaphor and referenda probably overlooks what they've actually been.Game Six does seem hard to top. This surprising, infuriating series

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-15416538048911762152011-10-24T04:06:00.009-04:002011-11-03T03:00:20.325-04:00

Tim Tebow is doomed. I don't mean that metaphysically, because I'm sure he's going to Heaven. Although, for humor's sake, I hope it's 99% full of Muslims and unprepossessing socialist members of the Church of England.I don't even mean that from an athletically evolutionary level, although pairing him with John Fox virtually guarantees that whatever abilities he develops will be stamped out of

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-47470143914404692532011-10-23T02:52:00.008-04:002011-10-23T12:36:42.232-04:00

Three nights ago, after the Cardinals' tough loss in an exhilarating World Series Game Two, Yahoo Sports writer Jeff Passan criticized All-Star slugger Albert Pujols for disappearing from the clubhouse, refusing to answer questions and showing a failure of leadership after a tough error cost the Cards the game. Since we lack the credentials to respond to Mr. Passan, we, the good people of Et tu,

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-49191309897907883052011-10-21T03:07:00.006-04:002011-10-24T07:13:59.752-04:00

Apart from a bizarre attempt at pardoning Mark McGwire's very public use of androstenedione, I can't think of any time Jayson Stark has written something objectionable or especially silly. True, he might have, and I might have missed it. Otherwise he comes off like a good guy who loves talking about trades and spring training, and mostly he seems to get things right. Yesterday, not so much:Maybe

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-91134624679216290102011-10-20T00:36:00.002-04:002011-10-20T00:45:03.454-04:00

Note: We, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? are proud to present Criterion Recollection, an analysis of the popular Criterion Collection of historic and unique achievements in film. Your guide is Mark Brendle, a former media critic for BarnesandNoble.com and a short-fiction writer. Brendle lives in the Pacific Northwest in a small post-recycled yurt adjacent to America's largest

brendlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343862209902159880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-24385271695952626772011-10-18T01:43:00.000-04:002011-10-18T01:43:29.994-04:00

GAME 162On the last day of the season, the Phillies eliminated the Braves, letting the Cardinals slip into the NL Wild Card spot, while a rain delay and extra innings allowed a historic Red Sox collapse to nearly synchronize with an Evan Longoria homer that sent the Rays into the playoffs as the AL Wild Card. It was amazing, and it prompted an almost explosive joy from fans. This was what the end

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-8589462431550621912011-10-15T02:01:00.002-04:002011-10-15T02:12:08.393-04:00

On Thursday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Occupy Wall Street protesters would have to vacate Zuccotti Park, their place of occupation, so the park could be cleaned. After that, they would not be permitted to re-enter the park with sleeping bags, tents or other necessary occupation supplies.The Occupiers refused to move, delaying their eviction. They suspected a trap: after

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-6959094384166411482011-10-11T00:39:00.004-04:002011-11-09T23:21:17.087-05:00

by JONATHAN BERNHARDTThe night the Phillies' window begins to close, Ryan Howard steps to the plate with two outs in the ninth. It is a mild evening in Philadelphia, but it has gotten colder as the game goes into the later hours. No one has left. The Phillies are down to their last out in the 2011 NLDS. Unless Howard can tie or at the very least prolong the game, they will fall 3-2 to the wild

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-13067765996012893982011-10-09T05:00:00.002-04:002011-10-09T05:10:34.452-04:00

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis died yesterday at 82. For most of you, that means the end of the scabby creature who ran the Raiders and leavened seasons of humiliating losses with employee firings suffused with Nixonian paranoia and loathing. Skimming Twitter reveals pretty much exactly what you expect from the internet: "jokes" linking Davis to Lovecraft monsters, fantasy monsters, sci-fi

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-66164520859960356802011-10-06T02:57:00.009-04:002011-11-09T23:21:13.970-05:00

by JONATHAN BERNHARDTJonathan Bernhardt is a freelance writer born in Baltimore, Maryland who lives and works in New York City. His very first concrete memory of the Baltimore Orioles is Game 1 of the 1996 American League Championship Series. He hopes they either get good or move to the American League Central before his liver fails. You can follow him on Twitter.I. The Mathematics of Emotion

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-35824678254241804522011-10-06T02:56:00.008-04:002011-10-07T01:21:35.880-04:00

Continued from Part I, "The Mathematics of Emotion."II. The Chase The first game of the doubleheader on Monday, September 19 is a solid Baltimore win, but there's no feeling of destiny to it. The Orioles start Jeremy Guthrie, a nice guy and solid, back-of-the-rotation starter that they got serious about trading two years too late.The Sox start Kyle Weiland. Francona gambles here; the cupboard's a

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-66448092897871695412011-10-06T02:55:00.006-04:002011-10-06T15:08:16.415-04:00

Continued from Part II, "The Chase."III. Birds in Fall On September 26, the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox reconvene at Fenway South, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to send this season screaming back to Hell. Tommy Hunter starts for the Orioles; Josh Beckett, again, for the Sox. Each man allows two runs through five innings pitched; then Hunter pulls his groin. He makes it through the fifth

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-8058058374906502962011-10-04T09:53:00.001-04:002011-10-04T10:06:34.345-04:00

As Occupy Wall Street looms larger in the national discourse, more people you know on Facebook will probably try to explain its significance to you in increasingly counterproductive ways.Cartoon panels of rewritten David Caruso CSI: Miami one-liners are only a week away, while today we can rest easy knowing that people who watch South Park have looked at the extreme claims of Wall Street and the

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-45673449525142557732011-09-30T16:19:00.001-04:002011-10-03T03:36:34.769-04:00

The new Brad Pitt vehicle based on Michael Lewis' bestselling book and a script by the authors of Schindler's Facebook has been getting unfairly blasted by exactly the sorts of people who you'd think would be in love with it: sports nerds. The negative reactions seem to come down to upset superfans, churlish nitpickers and cynics who see the movie as a chance to pimp their criticisms of the book

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-13597537292480222642011-09-27T12:42:00.005-04:002011-10-05T05:01:43.909-04:00

Note: We, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? are proud to present Criterion Recollection, an analysis of the popular Criterion Collection of historic and unique achievements in film. Your guide is Mark Brendle, a former media critic for BarnesandNoble.com and a short-fiction writer. Brendle lives in the Pacific Northwest in a small post-recycled yurt adjacent to America's largest

brendlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343862209902159880noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-15892282277241247832011-09-22T00:37:00.003-04:002011-09-22T04:35:03.572-04:00

"Meet Trouble, the incorrigible rogue colt that refuses to be ridden but later goes on to discover deep within himself the... most dreadful thing that can ever happen to a horse owner... BLACK FURY... ...AND much, much."— Horse E. BooksThat's how the stories used to go, brilliant disconnected snippets resolving over a day into a sliced-up narrative or one cobbled together by the reader, through

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-84217476243298400082011-09-21T04:59:00.001-04:002011-09-21T07:01:56.675-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-74315966300435785882011-09-19T04:27:00.009-04:002011-09-20T02:32:19.761-04:00

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) held its annual awards show last night. Last year, I looked at the Emmys' structural badness and historical oversights in Part I, then covered all the major nominees and nominations in Part II and Part III. Many of those shows were nominated again this year, so going into this year's slate in any detail will only run the risk of repeating myself

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-28476726744633141902011-09-18T02:56:00.001-04:002011-09-18T02:57:13.321-04:00

Thursday night, the NFL Network aired part one of Bill Belichick: A Football Life, a two-part documentary of the New England Patriots 2009 season, whose primary appeal is seeing the season through head coach Bill Belichick's eyes and hearing him mic'd for every game, practice and coaches meeting.During the Week Four game on October 4, in which the Patriots went on to defeat the Baltimore Ravens

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-9186488209143768312011-09-16T03:33:00.009-04:002012-01-09T19:15:46.981-05:00

Aside from reminding Americans for the next 15 minutes that history has actual value, Taylor Branch's devastating article, "The Shame of College Sports," finally fully legitimized the discussion of paying college athletes for their performance. It certainly didn't approve the notion by fiat, but simply allowing it to enter the conversation as an equally reasonable proposition was triumph

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-29486828537158600072011-09-15T03:40:00.009-04:002011-09-16T11:58:27.910-04:00

Nothing about sudden Sarah Palin-related schadenfreude erupting on Facebook or Twitter surprises me. I know where it comes from, and I know the feelings it satisfies. What surprised me this time, though, was how little I sympathized with it. It felt tiring, if not unnecessary.You probably know the tasty details by now: Joe McGinniss, author of the seminal The Selling of the President, has been

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-89531992339404667162011-09-11T02:15:00.003-04:002011-09-13T04:55:02.205-04:00

Note: For MrDestructo.com's counterpoint on the remembrance of 9/11, please consider Flavor Flav's "9/11 Is NOT a Joke."Weirdly serious or threatening signage is par for the course in Florida, something I've gone into before. Even official government signage gets in on the act. The oddest thing I've ever seen on a county sheriff's/county road construction sign read, "REMEMBER TO LOCK YOUR DOORS!"

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-59691187507649555822011-09-09T03:09:00.010-04:002011-11-30T13:59:21.676-05:00

Whenever the first NFL game of the year comes on TV, I completely slacken in my chair, let my mouth fall open and emit a narcotized "aaaahhhhhhh" noise. Mostly I do this to bug The Wife, whose loathing of football I've never managed to lessen with cajoling, barbecue, beer or desperate garment-ripping (mine, not hers) pleas. I like to play to every addiction stereotype she already believes

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-25179560587396029892011-09-07T04:37:00.004-04:002011-09-08T17:22:11.341-04:00

I keep buying books about Hitler, and really this doesn't make much sense. All GOP claims aside, the world is not making more Hitler. Our Hitler levels remain constant at one or none, depending on your attitude. It's slightly illogical to pick up a book on Hitler and expect to find anything novel or radical. There is no new Hitler under the sun.Still, I do this, not because I admire the man, but

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-30261061360009944522011-09-05T03:36:00.003-04:002011-09-06T14:32:33.528-04:00

Depending on which nation or state you live in, you might have missed the Republican party's commitment over this last year to returning the U.S. to Jim Crow levels of voter disenfranchisement. Rolling Stone had an excellent article on the subject this week (and you should read it as soon as possible). In it, and in every right-wing pundit's gloss on the strategy, it's clear that the GOP believes

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-73997971764130098932011-09-02T01:00:00.000-04:002011-09-02T01:00:01.789-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-14121637151521397402011-08-31T01:34:00.006-04:002011-09-28T04:57:58.789-04:00

Note: Mark Brendle is a former media critic for BarnesandNoble.com, a short-fiction writer and the author of both book reviews and the Criterion Recollection series for Et tu, Mr. Destructo?. Today he takes a break from books and cinema to address the first great humanitarian crisis of the 21st century: the potential that Apple gadgets might become less awesome before you've paid off your iPhone

brendlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343862209902159880noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-31081210403028079972011-08-29T02:41:00.005-04:002011-08-29T05:07:52.463-04:00

College is a wonderful place. A community of people engaged in the same pursuits provides a welcoming environment that fosters speculation, intellectual adventure and novel risks. Perhaps credit for this falls on a positive context for self esteem or just on the suspicion that everyone else is equally frightened and prone to "fake it until they make it," but for many of us it's a rare chance to

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-79166001084530186152011-08-26T16:19:00.006-04:002011-08-26T16:38:06.322-04:00

I turned on NPR during a long drive home from a ballgame yesterday and found myself listening carefully to the news from Libya. I tend to listen carefully to NPR, because only through any strain on the user's end of the exchange can one divine actual information from the verbal miasma of "both sides of this confusing and open-ended story are equally valid!" NPR dutifully reminds you that it just

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-21278842164435862962011-08-23T05:28:00.008-04:002011-08-23T08:01:18.535-04:00

Nothing, it seems, about Deadspin or Grantland can be discussed without amateur dramatics. A refrain that grew in intensity over the last month reached a kind of crescendo on message boards and Twitter yesterday when Deadspin printed three pieces about Grantland: "The editors and contributors of Deadspin must be consumed with a mindless, soul-eating jealousy of Bill Simmons, working for ESPN and

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-78957874629886880242011-08-22T01:27:00.001-04:002011-08-22T03:45:52.340-04:00

Note: We, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? are proud to present our first guest column from a real, live person who is also a complete stranger. Maxwell Kuhl is a blogger who might also be a horrible monster or a powerful genius, but we don't know, because he didn't go through the normal vetting process of "being someone we got drunk with at some point." Instead, he used the contact

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-77634496976100056122011-08-19T05:05:00.003-04:002011-08-19T17:54:05.473-04:00

Perhaps you remember "I-Hannah," the pre-teen who inexplicably made a Youtube video decrying government-mandated healthcare by awkwardly singing a Michael Jackson song featuring the lyric, "All I wanna say is that they don't don't really care about us." I have zero interest in tormenting "I-Hannah"; at best, anyone who does is a poor marksman or a poor person, shooting at wounded game in a

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-16202935992667019862011-08-18T00:07:00.002-04:002011-08-18T00:43:54.527-04:00

Dear Mr. Warren Buffett, Thank you for your recent editorial, "Stop Coddling the Super Rich." I never thought you would write to me, part of a working class of people rarely recognized for their great contribution, a letter dictating to politicians what they should do with regard to The Super Rich. Some might say that your article should have been sent to the people it presumes to lecture, but

brendlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343862209902159880noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-54282980246131017242011-08-17T18:05:00.000-04:002011-08-17T18:05:35.030-04:00

Some smart people are starting a smart sports website. They've expressed interest in giving me money to write for their site. Please give them money to launch, which will eventually give me money for articles. This will be the first time in history that trickle-down economics works. Why? In this case, the money will be taken from the bottom, to give to the top, to trickle back down to the bottom,

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-56761997210365294852011-08-16T03:06:00.000-04:002011-08-16T03:07:21.495-04:00

Note: We, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? are proud to present Criterion Recollection, an analysis of the popular Criterion Collection of historic and unique achievements in film. Your guide is Mark Brendle, a former media critic for BarnesandNoble.com and a short-fiction writer. Brendle lives in the Pacific Northwest in a small post-recycled yurt adjacent to America's largest

brendlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343862209902159880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-14648036386595816622011-08-11T03:15:00.004-04:002011-08-11T05:36:52.288-04:00

There will always be people who claim that Twitter is useful. They'll mention monetizing your blog, winning free iPhones, crowdsourcing or promoting natural dick growth. They're mistaken. Twitter's most powerful value lies in baiting people — whether it's Hoobastank sending two million people to "goatse" during the Iranian election crisis, or a man named "Fart" goading Smash Mouth's front man, Mr

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-1930745071353150242011-08-10T03:23:00.013-04:002011-11-05T01:57:28.659-04:00

I like Jonah Keri. Apart from a calculus teacher who brought a hammer dulcimer to class and a trigonometry teacher who let us turn in homework only weekly, he's one of few people who've taught me things involving mathematics without engendering any sense of malice. He also has the best intro music in all of podcasting, and I suspect he makes beautiful, tender Canadian love.More importantly, he

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-76011498924851865782011-08-09T03:25:00.001-04:002011-08-09T03:37:22.678-04:00

For the last year, I've spent significant time driving in Florida, partly for work, partly for vacations and visiting people. Within just a month or two, I lost count of the number of stunningly weird signs and billboards I saw. I'm sure that many of them aren't particularly novel in a broad, American sense, but the sheer selection Florida offers must be unique. Cosmopolitan areas see

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-13413382263296991612011-08-04T02:08:00.002-04:002011-08-04T02:15:57.275-04:00

If yesterday you were given a magic lamp and forced to conjure Miranda July into existence, you would have asked the genie for a Diablo Cody who tries ten times as hard to say something even shallower than her current body of work. July, like Cody (who also shares the distinction of having a fake name that immediately makes you think, "Holy shit, what an obviously contrived name"), is one of few

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-83499318874091512782011-07-27T04:23:00.004-04:002011-07-27T05:02:26.544-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-45403939514835385302011-07-25T00:09:00.001-04:002011-07-25T00:11:21.348-04:00

Note: The talented and troubled English soul singer Amy Winehouse died this weekend at the age of 27. To help us understand the cultural and personal impact of losing such a talented person so prematurely, we the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? turn to noted family man, Christian and tireless workaholic Bil Keane, creator of the comic strip The Family Circus.Who Thinks Dying Young Is a Neat

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-90897260253455336022011-07-15T00:15:00.003-04:002011-07-15T02:37:43.103-04:00

Note: unlike many guest pieces on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? today's article comes from a real, live person: the mysterious Mr. Awesome, who is not a pundit and fears nothing. Since he last wrote, about the actual contents of the Health Care Reform bills and the gutlessness of Robert Samuelson, he has graduated law school and embarked on a career of doing whatever he wants, all the time.Mitch

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-58827351276699178242011-07-13T03:37:00.006-04:002011-07-15T02:11:45.587-04:00

Despite their 2010 mid-term success, the Republican National Committee will probably not spend 2012 banging the socialism drum again to the same degree. Sure, their mid-term victories supposedly "stopped Obama," but the administration's policy juggernaut also raced forth with all the horsepower of a kid riding a big-wheel with one of those plastic handbrakes jammed in the "on" position.Scaring

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-83694253383517660872011-07-13T03:36:00.004-04:002011-07-13T06:49:46.175-04:00

(This INFOGRAPHIC is an addendum to "Understanding 'The Shariah Threat.'")Those looking for a fuller explanation of Sharia can turn to the normally terrible Wikipedia — home of facts like this one — for a surprisingly decent rundown of what it means. Cynics will note that, politically, Sharia is Michelle Bachmann's favorite new argument, one that ignores history and the terms of the Bill of

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-26761783827565433062011-07-07T16:21:00.002-04:002012-01-23T13:10:22.595-05:00

I rarely relish an opportunity to not know something, but the Casey Anthony trial furnished me with the dual concepts of something horrible and something easily ignored. Despite Facebook's best baiting attempts, the topic never mattered.Yesterday, though, a smart guy I know wrote a smart thing about crass jokes and emotional crassness relating to the trial. He was right. The guy who makes the

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-40092966172474231222011-07-05T03:41:00.002-04:002011-07-05T11:56:37.419-04:00

Note: unlike many guest pieces on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? today's article comes from a real, live person: Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, Supreme Leader of North Korea and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, who evades foreign intelligence agencies by pretending to work the finance beat for the press in another Asian country. He last appeared to debunk entertaining myths about the DPRK

Kim Jong-Ilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00440417664166948238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-91791053464572283082011-07-02T04:18:00.005-04:002011-07-07T03:58:16.613-04:00

Despite having the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United States, Florida is culturally very young. Eddie Izzard has a joke about coming from England ("where the history is") to Miami Beach and hearing someone intone, "We've restored this hotel to the way it was over fifty years ago." Aside from enjoying the natural beauty, filling up your day with local activities can be tough.

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-59607301704101035002011-06-16T08:48:00.001-04:002011-07-06T01:37:42.295-04:00

The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup last night, pulling off a city's exacta of being insufferable in every major sport.Assuming you were once fond of Boston sports fans, watching them this last decade has felt a lot like watching episodes of The Simpsons after the eighth season. A few clunkers aside, they both delivered a reliable product — one angsty heartbreak, the other comedy. You grew up

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-61632523583065676022011-06-13T03:46:00.003-04:002011-06-13T04:03:19.151-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-78539565726361632462011-06-09T14:47:00.001-04:002012-01-23T13:09:49.201-05:00

Thanks to the good-natured badgering of Bethlehem Shoals (a/k/a @freedarko), I have a piece today on GQ about the various kinds of LeBron hatred and where they seem to come from.It's peculiar how unwilling many people are to accept the story of a man who essentially did what he was supposed to: take less money, to be part of a team, to win a championship. Those are the sorts of high-minded goals

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-40581393566710135682011-06-07T01:39:00.005-04:002012-01-18T14:01:36.782-05:00

Note: After the death of Osama Bin Laden, we, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? turn for insight to General Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi, former Israeli Minister of Tourism. Having faked his assassination in the Mt. Scopus Hyatt Hotel, the General has been in deep cover, in Judea and Samaria, posing as an American goy pursuing graduate studies in the Middle East. He last joined us for Bela

General Rehavam 'Gandhi' Ze'evihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055498197609879280noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-89394344167468564522011-06-05T12:48:00.002-04:002011-06-13T02:59:07.943-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-15682453571901233912011-06-02T04:31:00.004-04:002011-06-02T20:34:10.721-04:00

Even if you don't follow college sports, surely by now either workplace conversation or your friends' Facebook walls have brought you up to speed about Jim Tressel, former Head Coach of the Ohio State football team, a "wholesome good guy" who resigned amidst a cloud of ethics violations.There was something almost awesomely square about Tressel, with his Transitions Lenses and ties. He was like a

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-41483034457671042172011-06-01T01:10:00.004-04:002012-01-18T14:01:50.142-05:00

Note: After the death of Osama Bin Laden, we, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? turn for insight to General Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi, former Israeli Minister of Tourism. Having faked his assassination in the Mt. Scopus Hyatt Hotel, the General has been in deep cover, in Judea and Samaria, posing as an American goy pursuing graduate studies in the Middle East. He last joined us for Bela

General Rehavam 'Gandhi' Ze'evihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055498197609879280noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-51001636916586326002011-05-31T00:00:00.003-04:002011-05-31T00:38:56.977-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-22538952652598096512011-05-22T02:13:00.005-04:002011-06-13T02:59:38.852-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-58152223273187979122011-05-19T00:05:00.006-04:002012-01-18T14:02:02.246-05:00

Note: After the death of Osama Bin Laden, we, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? turn for insight to General Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi, former Israeli Minister of Tourism. Having faked his assassination in the Mt. Scopus Hyatt Hotel, the General has been in deep cover, in Judea and Samaria, posing as an American goy pursuing graduate studies in the Middle East. He last joined us for Slouching

General Rehavam 'Gandhi' Ze'evihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055498197609879280noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-62042636439402927852011-05-18T01:10:00.003-04:002011-05-20T01:27:36.145-04:00

Note: We, the good people of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? are proud to present Criterion Recollection, an analysis of the popular Criterion Collection of historic and unique achievements in film. Your guide is Mark Brendle, a former media critic for BarnesandNoble.com and a short-fiction writer. Brendle lives in the Pacific Northwest in a small post-recycled yurt adjacent to America's largest

brendlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343862209902159880noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-45265294550028856622011-05-16T05:00:00.002-04:002011-05-16T05:04:14.018-04:00

Note: Tuesdays with Marty is a recurring segment on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? highlighting the opinions of our publisher, Marty Peretz. Mr. Peretz wishes to make it absolutely clear that he is neither responsible nor liable for any content in this site, including but not limited to words, ideas, images, and things implied by said means of communication, in addition to other forms of communication not

Marty Peretznoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-82649265959032648492011-05-14T12:29:00.004-04:002011-06-13T02:59:52.847-04:00

Note: every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field

Idi Amin Dadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10200223612445825984noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-76376968350934240882011-05-13T15:39:00.006-04:002011-05-13T18:35:59.544-04:00

Since early morning yesterday, Blogger's suffered significant site problems, which has eliminated posts and post comments, caused account information to go missing and to change the names of post authors, often to random gibberish. It's made navigation difficult and shutdown reply functions.In terms of Destructo-specific problems, it's claimed the life of a preview sending readers to a joint

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5119909537304935979.post-47884298436833805532011-05-12T02:26:00.001-04:002011-05-14T12:01:53.615-04:00

Every year, thousands of Youtube users participate in VEDA, "Vlog Every Day in April." While its purpose might be to promote community ties, compel users to practice making Youtube content and, of course, drive up interest and pageloads on Youtube itself, it mostly turns into a horrible collision between vanity and inaptitude. Many of these people have nothing to communicate but, on top of that,

Mobutu Sese Sekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00248812411837063895noreply@blogger.com0