Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup: What Up?

I hear today (yes, it’s still Monday) is Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s birthday. But is it really? Can we get some sort of birth certificate to back this up?

I Want To Get Back With My Ex But I Am With Someone rgie.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/michael-steele1.jpg?w=240″ alt=”Michael Steele” width=”240″ height=”300″ />

We offer Steele sincere birthday wishes, as he parties out there beyond the cutting edge and changing the game. Really, we all owe Steele something. From Day One, he’s been the gift that’s kept on giving.

A little later than usual, some random-assness from the weekend and beyond:

1. Adam argues against splitting hairs when it comes to calling something a “racial provocation” when it is, in fact, racist. (Shani-o)

2. Via Rumpus.net, The Huffington Post has a piece on “The World’s First Terrorist.” (Belleisa)
3. From the Journal-Sentinel in Milwaukee: “In March, he was laid off from his job as a raw materials coordinator for a plastics company called PolyOne, where he’d worked for 20 years. His severance package had provided several months’ salary, but by August the paychecks were winding down. Soon the cost of his family health coverage was going to triple, then a few months after that, nearly triple again. They needed coverage so Mom could fight her cancer. Dad’s solution: a four-year hitch in the Army.” Remember: the best health-care system in the world. (Blackink)
4. The N.Y. Times announced today that it will cut 100 newsroom jobs, or about 8 percent of the total. (Blackink)

5. Is Fox News “un-American”? Jacob Weisberg thinks so. (Blackink)

6. From Broadsheet: “Franken and The Daily Show Say No to Rape Clause.” (Belleisa)

7. Estranged right-winger David Frum conducts an interesting thought experiment: “Suppose an agent arrived in the offices of Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity/O’Reilly etc. with an offer. ‘I can guarantee you a deal that will pay you twice as much – bring you twice as much fame – and extend your career twice as long – if you’d say the exact opposite of what you are saying now. Which of them would sign?” Also on his new Web site, Frum seems to be soliciting interns who resemble Anne Hathaway. But aren’t we all? (Blackink)

8. And proving Frum actually has a legitimate point about the death spiral of conservatives, ladies and gentlemen: the South Carolina GOP. (Blackink)

9. At Bitch PhD, Ding writes a post that’s about black hair, but isn’t really as much about black hair as it is about white people who question the existence of things they know nothing about. (Shani-o)

10. A review of Searching for Whitopia by Richard Benjamin from BookForum.com: “For two years, Rich Benjamin insinuated himself in some of the fastest-growing communities in America: ‘Whitopias,’ places in Georgia, Idaho, Utah—and even parts of Manhattan’s Upper East Side—where white people are currently migrating in massive numbers.” (Belleisa)

11. Penelope Trunk explains that the internets have created a generation of great writers (minus the trolls, one presumes). (Shani-o)

12. Junot Diaz on becoming a writer in O Magazine (Belleisa)

13. Can’t get enough of “Mad Men”? Want to know where they get all that “technology” you see on set? (Yes, I’m mocking you fans, but you should still read this cool interview with the show’s prop master.) (Shani-o)

14. Athenae goes on a righteous rant about the news value of the Balloon Boy story and beyond. (Blackink)

15. Bill Cosby, social embarrassment, and social media. What more could you ask for? (Shani-o)

16. Want the country to fail? There’s a rep for that. (Blackink)

17. After a relatively interesting week on the matrimony front, Melissa Harris-Lacewell reflects on marriage. (Blackink)

18. Not everyone is impressed with Malcolm Gladwell’s latest piece on football, concussions and dogfighting. (Blackink)

19. Tracy-Clark Flory on the GQ pic of January Jones: “My default setting is: Objects in magazine are other than they appear.” (I must admit that I watched Mad Men last night with an extra eye on JJ believing, like Tracy, that GQ had enhanced her bustline.) (Belleisa)
20. Did Eddie Murphy predict the housing crisis as far back as 20-plus years ago? Probably not. But still. (Blackink)
21. John Mayer seems to think a lot of himself, and not very much of anyone else. Punk. (Blackink)
22. Beyonce’s Galveston Island home apparently violates the Texas Open Beaches Act. (Blackink)
23. For Nas, money is now a cruel, heartless, unfaithful bitch: God’s Son reportedly owes the IRS more than $2.5 million in back taxes. (Blackink)
24. If this was 1988, son, I would definitely be looking for tickets: the Fat Boys’ Markie Dee has challenged retired WWF wrestler Iron Sheik to a match. I mean, I did see “Disorderlies” after all. (Blackink)
25. In case you missed it, Instapundit is leading a crusade against the NFL after poor lil Limbaugh was turned away from owning a piece of the St. Louis Rams. Adam explains it all to the Dittoheads. (Blackink)
26. Stephon Marbury is taking the year off. Which is good, because no one wanted him anyway. (Blackink)
27. A three-month investigation by CBS’ Armen Keteyian is raising a number of questions about the law enforcement investigation into the shooting death of former NFL star Steve McNair. On Tuesday, CBS is promising to reveal a “big” mistake that Nashville police made in the investigation. (Blackink)
28. And speaking of untimely deaths, the University of Connecticut is mourning the weekend stabbing death of football star Jasper Howard at an on-campus student party. A suspect has been taken into custody. As always, words fail. But Orson Swindle at EDSBS sums up the tragedy pretty well here: “Go hug someone. Don’t stab people. Be human. Avoid being a total asshole and try not to kill anyone. This isn’t hard.” (Blackink)
Sorry for working on c.p. time today. Enjoy your week.

I Want To Get Back With My Ex But I Am With Someone

Joel

Joel Anderson —blackink —  writes about sports, politics, crime, courts, and other issues far beyond his competence at BuzzFeed. He has worked at media outlets in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Atlanta and contributed to a number of publications, including The Root and The American Prospect, among many others.
  • Didn’t Cornel West already try the conscious hip hop thing? Maybe Bill ought to give Dr. West a call and ask how that worked out for him.