Your Tuesday Random-Ass Roundup: Fire And Diesel

I’ve got nothing. So I went with this:

Thing is, this is better than anything on Shaq Diesel. If only because the Fu-Schnickens aren’t involved.

This Tuesday roundup is becoming something of a regular feature. I really don’t know what to say. But don’t get used to it.

Now, for random-assness:

1. Gerry Canavan wants the White House to name Leah Ward Sears to the Supreme Court seat to be vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens. “[She] would be the first African-American woman on the court. She feels like a smart pick that the GOP would have trouble moving against after the Sotomayor debacle. She’d also fulfill the crucially important non-Ivy criterion. I think she’s the one.” (G.D.)

2. Also, Jonathan Zasloff comes up with an interesting candidate to replace Stevens: Newark Mayor Cory Booker. “Will Republicans filibuster one of the most innovative and talented African-American public servants in the country? Go ahead; make my day. Stir up the Democratic base.” (Blackink)

3. Gautham Nagesh, friend of the blog, offers this salient advice as we delve into the respective qualifications of the candidates: “One thing that should be banned: citing someone’s law school as evidence they are qualified for the Supreme Court.” Yes. (Blackink)

4. NPR has a collection of photos of Warsaw in mourning following the fatal plane crash that killed Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other dignitaries. Also, The Daily Beast revisits the Polish tragedy that Kaczynski was actually traveling to commemorate. (Blackink)

5. The Washington Post won four Pulitzers, The New York Times came away with three and ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative-journalism service, won one for investigative reporting for a story on the life-and-death decisions made by doctors at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina. (Blackink)

6. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United, the White House and Democrats are pushing a bill that would force companies, who are now freed from limits on how much they can spend to support political campaigns, to disclose their donations. (G.D.)

7. In the wake of last week’s coal-mining tragedy in West Virginia, Jeanne Marie Laskas offers some insight into how miners look at death. “You don’t think any of the rules are bullshit because you know every law is written in blood. A guy died, or a guy got his leg chopped off, and that’s why there’s the law.” (Blackink)

8. Henry at Crooked Timber etherizes (G.D. invented this word. Respect) Ross Douthat for making “a ridiculous claim about the causes of the Catholic priest pedophilia coverup.” And Julian Sanchez does the same to Daniel Oliver at The American Spectator. Out in the street, they call it murder. (Blackink)

9. Matt Taibbi goes after David Brooks and, for once, he’s completely right and totally fair. (Quadmoniker)

10. New York gubernatorial candidate and Tea Party favorite Carl Paladino is a man of “100 percent conservative values”: outlawing abortion, banning gay marriages and fucking horses. (Blackink)

11. What happens when members of the clergy stop believing. (G.D.)

12. If you think the Civil War had little to do with slavery, you should definitely read this fantastic post by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Jon Meacham also offers a history lesson for Lost Causers. (Blackink)

13. Over at The Daily Beast, Amanda Marcotte explores the emerging trend of men using Facebook to ogle their female “friends.”  (Blackink)

14. Conan O’Brien will return to late-night television on … TBS? And in related news, today millions of people realized that George Lopez already hosts a show on the same network. (Blackink)

15. In other late-night TV news, Jay Leno will need to find another band leader. Kevin Eubanks – and his indiscriminate sense of humor – is moving on. (Blackink)

16. More tributes to Emmy-winning writer and Treme co-creator David Mills can be found here and here. (Blackink)

17. Jay-Z returns to Britain to roc the mic and reassert himself as “most internationally popular live performer in hip-hop history.” Hov also talks about touring with DMX in the earlier days: “”DMX tore me to pieces. I remember being stunned.” (Blackink)

18. Over the last 10 years, almost two dozen college athletes have collapsed and died during training. At least 8 of them had the sickle cell trait, which is essentially harmless, but which can have serious consequences for people engaged in intense workouts. (African Americans are much more likely to carry the trait than white people.) While some people are calling for mandatory blood testing for Division I athletes, others worry that it could stigmatize athletes who test positive for the trait, and possibly result in the loss of college scholarships. (G.D.)

19. Speaking of Woods, his alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel is not a madam. NY Magazine has an explanation and reveals a bunch of other salacious details (sorta) about VIP hosts and bottle girls. (Blackink)

20. Back on the golf course, CBS Sports columnist Gregg Doyel – normally not one of my favorites – questions the wisdom of those rushing to annoint Masters winner Phil Mickelson as “the good guy” and Tiger Woods as “the bad boy.” (Blackink)

21. Finally, Rachel Larrimore at Double X says there are “no winners” following yesterday’s announcement that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will elude rape charges in Georgia. Matt Yglesias disagrees. (Blackink)

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.
  • Scipio Africanus

    Please tell me this:
    “13. Over at The Daily Beast, Amanda Marcotte explores the emerging trend of men using Facebook to ogle their female “friends.””

    is meant to be taken as sarcasm and irony. I always assumed it was completely understood that that’s what many/most men do on social networking sites.

  • Val

    I think San Francisco DA (and California Attorney General candidate)Kamala Harris would be a good choice for the Supreme Court as well as Justice Sears. But Obama is NOT going to nominate a Black woman to the court. So there is no point in getting our collective hopes up.

    • keke

      So sad but true….it does stings a little when I admit this to myself.

    • I’m not so sure about that Val, Keke, he may not nominate a black woman but I don’t think that’s a given. Obama is accumulating a pretty sizable list of accomplishments which already includes one WOC on the court. He’s done it mostly by patiently persevering when he cares and throwing the rest back in the water. I think Stevens would have waited until after the 2010 cycle to retire if Obama asked him to and so I am betting that Obama will specifically chose another WOC not only because it’s the right thing to do considering the current makeup of the court, but also because it will be as G.D described -political kryptonite for Republicans.

  • keke

    Oh and can we get a link to the Crooked Timber article (#8)? I really enjoy reading articles that go at Ross Douthat.

    I still don’t understand how he is viewed as one of the “reasonable conservatives”.

    Not saying that there is no such thing as a resonable conservative; it’s just that Ross ain’t it.

    Of course I could just find the article on my own but that would be way too much work…

    • blackink12

      Oops. Sorry about that. The link is there now.

      • keke

        thanks!

  • ben’s gonna get supended. he has to. if the stillers don’t, the goddell will. but i think he’ll get an in-house note first.

    • stillers are gonna do a one game suspension to head off the commish. just enough to look like they care, not enough to hurt their season. I think an 8 game suspension or the whole season would be better, but that aint gonna happen.

  • the N.C.A.A. is going to go ahead with the sickle-cell testing, though players can opt out. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/sports/14sickle.html

  • Pingback: I Want To Believe (But I Can’t, Because It Doesn’t Work Like That) « Ned Resnikoff()