YouTube as Broadcast Network Minor Leagues

The always-provocative Mark Cuban argues that the television networks should do something about a situation where pay for content in order to sell advertising whereas online players like YouTube sell advertising for content others paid for. I think the real approach is for the broadcast networks to “Game” Youtube. There is nothing that says that they cant use Youtube to ...

Colorado: Purple State

Stephen Green notes Colorado's colorful political history. I keep having to remind people that Colorado was never, ever a Red State. We’re a purple state. Deep purple. “Deep Purple” as in the band, as in weird. We like our Republicans to be small-government conservatives, and we like our Democrats deeply strange. It’s true. Look at the Democrats who came out of Colorado, and ...

Bob Dylan Arrested for Walking

Bob Dylan was on the pavement, thinking about the government. And they arrested him. Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part ...

‘Little House’ Books a Collaborative Effort?

Those of us over a certain age recall the "Little House on the Prairie" television series and many of us read several of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books upon which it was loosely based. An interesting New Yorker profile by Judith Thurman examines the story behind the story. Wilder scholarship is a flourishing industry, particularly at universities in the Midwest, and ...

Insurance: You Keep Using That Word…

The Obama Administration is pushing an 8-pronged list of "Health Insurance Consumer Protections." No Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history. No Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses. No Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care Insurance companies must fully ...

Megan Fox Day Open Thread

As promised last week, today is officially Megan Fox Day at OTB. This Megan Fox Open Thread is here for all red-blooded Americans (male or female), plus right-thinking people from anywhere else in the world, to feel free to express their affection, adulation, and genuine regard for Megan Fox. IOW, post salacious pictures, funny quotations, salacious pictures, interesting interviews, salacious pictures.... ...

Like A Day Without Sunshine

I Heart Chaos and a number of other sites have apparently decided that Megan Fox gets too much media attention. Their solution to this (perceived) problem is to draw still more attention to her by declaring next Tuesday Fox-free. This is, quite obviously, a profoundly stupid plan in every respect. There's no such thing as too much Megan Fox. The very ...

Mad Men Yourself

I haven't done one of these memes in awhile but this one is pretty cool. Aside from the martini, which I never carry to the office, and the tie width, that's not bad. via Jason Kottke ss

If You’re Gonna Play the White House, There’s Gotta be a Fiddle in the Band

"I know folks think I’m a city boy, but I do appreciate listening to country music. It’s about folks telling their life story the best way they know how." - President Barack Obama Via Norm Geras, I see that the president hosted Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley, and Charley Pride as part of the White House Summer Music series. “They grabbed the contemporary ...

Gates, Hazelton, and Chappelle

Robert Cox passes on the story of Demetrius Hazelton, the 17-year-old son a New Rochelle police detective, who is suing said PD after he was arrested after using a  "white racial monotone voice" which police claim is the same voice used by Dave Chappelle "when making fun of white people." Bob supplies the following Chappelle video, which is decidedly R-rated: Dave Chappelle ...

Cheap Trick 8-Track Not So Cheap

Jason Kottke passes along word that Cheap Trick is making its most recent release, "The Latest," available on 8-track.   That's pretty amusing.  Less so:  The $30 price tag. I honestly had no idea that Cheap Trick, which was already past its heyday and was playing small venues like Jacksonville State University twenty years ago (indeed, my ROTC Rangers detachment worked security ...

Star Trek Climate Reform

Matt Yglesias has an interesting suggestion for a preachy movie revival: [W]hat the new rebooted Trek really needs is a re-do of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home but dealing with a more contemporary environmental threat than the need to save humpback whales from extinction. For example, The Enterprise could travel back in time to try to urge the Senate to ...

Retro Comedy: The 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time

Retro Comedy offers a collection of "The 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time."  I'm not sure if this one is creepy but it is rather bizarre: I'm not even sure how this poor woman was supposed to "store test" the coffee.  Even nowadays, when one can easily buy loose, whole bean coffee -- rather than coffee pre-ground and put into ...

The Onion on Star Trek

This "Onion News Network" parody report on fan reaction to the then-new "Star Trek" prequel movie came out in May but Timothy Sandefur's post was the first I'd seen it. "Yes it was exciting . . . but where was the heavyhanded message about tolerance, where was the stiff acting . . . I mean, it just didn't seem like a ...

Bruno La Toya Jackson Scene Cut

He's dead and buried but Michael Jackson still dominates the news: The makers of the film "Bruno" have cut a scene featuring Michael Jackson's sister La Toya because of fears it was in poor taste following the singer's death, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The scene in the spoof movie featuring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as an outrageous gay Austrian ...