I get out of the shower and, reversing my normal procedure, put on my glasses before getting dressed . . . “Is it funny to see a naked person wearing glasses?” I ask my wife. “No, I see that all the time.” “You do? Where?” “Uh . . . in a movie.” Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying
Hillary Clinton and the New Ghostbusters
The Democratic party and the makers of the new Ghostbusters movie apparently share the idea that you can foist a transparently awful product on the American public as long as you have females in the lead role(s). Have you watched a Hillary Clinton speech? I yawn and cringe in equal measure. At a campaign stop in North Carolina she actually read the word “sigh” — intended as a cue that she should sigh at that point in the speech — from a teleprompter. I cringed twice, once when she read it and once when I reflected on the phoniness of a candidate needing to be scripted to that degree. Read more →
She Can’t Blame the George W. Bush Administration?
OK, But Let’s Not Let Facts Get in the Way of a Good Narrative
Shopper Accused of Taking Pics of Woman in Target Changing Room
If the post didn’t say that the photo shows a woman named Shauna, I could have easily mistaken her for a man. 😮 Read more →
Draymond Green Faces Assault Charges
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green was arrested Sunday on assault charges in East Lansing, Michigan. — ESPN Well, it’s the off-season . . . he’s got to find civilians to hit in the balls. Some players practice basketball skills in the off-season, Draymond Green practices assaulting people . . . Read more →
Oops!
Browns’ Isaiah Crowell apologizes for Instagram post of police officer having throat cut — USA Today Former Miss Alabama: Dallas Shooter ‘A Martyr,’ ‘I Don’t Feel Sad’ For Murdered Officers [Video] — Daily Wire Read more →
Boy, Were We Wrong!
When the country elected Barack Obama president in 2008, those of us who disagreed with many of his policy ideas were nonetheless consoled by the fact that his victory illustrated that America had moved well beyond institutional racism. Certainly the fact that Obama had succeeded in both a hard-fought Democratic primary and a general election meant that the country was ready to move past the intense focus on race in our national politics. Boy, were we wrong! — Steven Malanga Read more →
If a Cat Identifies as a Dog . . .
If a cat identifies as a dog, can the cat be denied full access to public dog park facilities? Can the cat be denied admission to K-9 police dog training? END THE DISCRIMINATION! Read more →
Bernie Sanders is Wrong About Everything But He’s Raised the Intellectual Climate
Socialism has been discredited about as thoroughly as possible, but one thing I greatly admire about Bernie Sanders is this: He’s never made a political issue of the fact that he’s Jewish. He doesn’t say “It’s high time we had a Jewish president.” He doesn’t say “If you’re Jewish, you should vote for me because I’m Jewish.” And most importantly, he doesn’t dismiss criticism or critics as anti-Semitic. And because he doesn’t do any of the above, I don’t see his supporters or the media doing it either. It would be easy for him to do those things because it’s what people expect. Political discourse in America consists mainly of people calling each other racists, sexists, homophobes and bigots. It’s hard to complete a sentence without someone taking offense to a trigger word, a microaggression or a dog whistle. Abraham Lincoln once said this: If you have ever studied geometry,… Read more →
Fireworks Safety is Overrated
9-year-old girl loses hand, fingers after fireworks accident in California — Fox News She can still play in the NFL. Ask Jason Pierre-Paul. Read more →
Even Stephen A. Smith is Right Occasionally
From the Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut files: Stephen A. Smith calls Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Warriors “the weakest move I’ve ever seen from a superstar.” Stephen A. Smith is never right about anything. In case you missed it, Stephen A. Smith has picked the last six NBA Finals winners incorrectly. It’s hard to be that wrong. How hard? The odds are 63-1 against. That means if you chose 64 random drunks at a sports bar, 64 dart-throwing monkeys, whatever — 63 of them would do a better job picking NBA Finals winners than Stephen A. Smith. (FYI, the “dart-throwing monkey” is a go-to metric in assessing investment portfolios. Follow the above link if you don’t know what I mean. It’s not a racial reference.) But Stephen A. Smith is exactly right about Kevin Durant. The Thunder blew a 3-1 lead to the Warriors and lost a series that… Read more →
Tom Kelly, Pat Summitt, Buddy Ryan
The Grim Reaper very active in the sports world the last day or so . . . Tom Kelly dies at 88; broadcast USC football and basketball games for decades — LA Times Pat Summitt, legendary women’s basketball coach, dies at 64 — CNN.com Former NFL coach, defensive guru Buddy Ryan dies at age 82 — ESPN Read more →
Is Tech Addiction Making Us Far More Stressed at Work?
I like this juxtaposition of links on themuse.com. “Is Tech Addiction Making Us Far More Stressed at Work?” sandwiched in-between links to 25 Chrome extensions and 10 apps that you must have in your life right now> Read more →
The One Thing I Can’t Tolerate is Intolerance: Herschel Walker Edition
NFL great Herschel Walker was one of the early Trump supporters out of the gate but now he says he is losing speaking gigs by anti-Trumpers who are blackballing him. — Breitbart Maybe I’m not paying attention but I can’t remember any people with left-leaning views being blackballed from public discourse. At the risk of being super obvious, tolerance and freedom of speech don’t mean anything if you’re not willing to extend them to everybody — people you applaud as well as people you detest. Read more →
My Dog Is a Genius
This needs a little setup . . . I used to take Lightning on weekend mornings to the Irvine Dog Park, then afterward to the Starbucks drive-thru, where I’d get a beverage and he’d get a pup cup (a cup of whipped cream). He loves Starbucks. He used to get super animated from the time he saw we were turning left on Irvine Center Drive (toward Starbucks) to the time he actually got the pup cup at the drive-thru window. He also recognizes the words “Starbucks” and “pup cup”: [youtube http://youtu.be/C1dDJ2SdF_o] He’s too old to enjoy the dog park now — he doesn’t walk well and he can’t see — so I walk to Starbucks myself on the weekends and bring the pup cups home for him. Today I took him to the Starbucks drive-thru, just like old times, and he got super excited again when we got there, just like… Read more →
George Orwell: “I Told You So”
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Associated Press review of the official calendar Hillary Clinton kept as secretary of state identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were not recorded or omitted the names of those she met. — Associated Press Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said that Clinton “has always made an effort to be transparent since entering public life.” In addition to the unrecorded meetings with donors, this effort at transparency includes setting up a private email server to use as Secretary of State, and giving speeches at $200,000 per to Wall Street banks and investment firms, foreign governments and other special interest groups under a contract that prevents anyone from releasing a transcript of what she said. Merrill went on to say, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Read more →
Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson Endorses Hillary Clinton
I’m seeing a lot of headlines today on Henry Paulson’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton, in all of which Paulson is identified as “President George W. Bush’s treasury chief Henry Paulson,” or “ex-GOP Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson,” or something to that effect. There are certainly other ways of identifying Henry Paulson, e.g., Former Goldman Sachs chief executive Henry Paulson Architect of TARP and “Too Big to Fail” Henry Paulson Wealthy Wall Street goon Henry Paulson Henry Paulson, who used his position as Treasury Secretary to bail out his Wall Street friends with taxpayer money It’s hard to see how an endorsement from Henry Paulson is anything but a nail in the coffin of the Clinton campaign . . . I took millions of dollars for speeches to Wall Street banks and investment firms, including $675,000 from Goldman Sachs (see New York Times), and now they’re all endorsing me! (Shocking.) Also: I… Read more →
The Least Newsworthy Assassination Attempt on a Presidential Candidate
Man who attempted to grab gun at rally wanted ‘to kill Trump’ — CNNPolitics.com Am I wrong in thinking this would be a bigger story if a Trump supporter had tried to assassinate Hillary Clinton? Read more →