Daniel Dern was tipped to the presence of opinining
on Big Bird. And then, let loose the
photoshops of war — Dern particularly
like the last one.

I knew all of this, but do you know How
the Internet Works?

Kent Peterman ran across an old George Carlin question, "If
lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, then doesn't it follow
that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys
deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners
depressed?"  I found a site that continues the
discussion in an amusing way. Kent also found this: "I’ll
believe corporations are people as soon as Texas executes one of them."

Oedb.org recently
published an article, 100
Indispensable
Twitter Tips for Journalism Students.
Looks to
me like these are good tips for anyone (and, alas, that means everyone)
for whom social media will be a part of their professional life in the
future. Well, shall we say everyone under 60 (which is how old I am,
and, conveniently therefore, excludes me)

Dan Grobstein File

• A
  Mockumentary Pulls In Real Players
• Real time Tokyo
  subway map (ed. note: wish there was one for New York)
• Why
  textbooks are boring (ed. note: amen)
• ThinkProgress @thinkprogress
  
  10/7/12
  10:35 AM Jack Welch, coming from the corporate world,
  probably doesn't understand how hard it is to fudge government
  numbers." — Paul Krugman
• Liars League NYC (@LiarsLeagueNYC) 10/5/12 8:18 PM "When he
  was young Mitt Romney looked like a porn star. Now he looks like an old
  porn star." Martin Amis, ladies and gentlemen. #nyfest

Heard this on the Slate Culture Gabfest, and it is true: Best Line
Delivery of All Time.
The description: "This line is from "The Box." It came out in 2007. Do
not confuse this with "The Box" starring Cameron Diaz which came out in
2009. Watch as Giancarlo Esposito rocks your world.." Esposito is
curremtly chewing up all available scenery in the NBC post-apocoalyptic
drama Revolution.

Daniel Dern noted the West Wing cast appearing
in a campaign video.

Two political briefs: Lobbyists
At Work
: Terrorists no more, An
Explanation For Romney's Relative Reduction In Public Events

Dan Grobstein File

• California
  as Bellwether, for the GOP and for Us All
• Budget
  Cuts to Archives Put History Out of Reach
  
• The
  Secret Factor in Running for President: Time on airplanes
• Lean Forward:  Latest voting concern: Ohio voter
  rolls reduced by
  half a million since 2008: leanforward.msnbc.com/_news/2012/09/…
• That
  Loaded Gun in My Carry-On? Oh, I Forgot
  
• Displaying
  the Dinosaurs of the
  Digital Age
• Atlas
  Stiffed
  His Waitress…

My rave review of Ruby
Sparks last week left several readers in a state of doubt.
I will not be changing my favorite film; it continues to be Groundhog Day. For
the reasons why, see my fan
site. Ruby
Sparks had originality, but GHD has originality (yes, I
know there were several science fiction stories using the same gimmick
that preceded it, but I've read them and Danny Rubin/Howard Ramis were
much cleverer) and a message–only through selfless service can we
break out of the endless repetition of this life (or the cycle of
reincarnation, if you're inclined that way).

Andy Borowitz is now blogging at the New Yorker; his Letter
from Ann Romney is as funny as most of his stuff, which is to
say, pretty funny.

Miichael Moore's amazing book Here
Comes Trouble Again is now out in paperback. I haven't
read it, but I've read other books of his, seen all his movies, and
read the excerpts he's posted. It looks great. Someday, I'll find time
to read it. What's your excuse?

Apropos of last week's remarks about testing, a friend sends along word
that the Boston Globe looked
at the relationship
between family income and test scores, and, mirabile dictu,
kids from well-off families do better than kids from poor families. If
you predict the scores based  solely on income, you get a
pretty
accurate prediction of how a district will score.

Dan Grobstein File

• All
  the TV News Since 2009, on One Web Site
• David Atkins (@DavidOAtkins)
  9/18/12
  3:57 AM It would be easier for the #47Percent
  to take care of themselves if the 1% weren't stealing 90% of the wealth.
• LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) 9/22/12 10:02 AM
  Mitt released one doctored tax return this week but he
  also-accidentally-released something that no one expected: truth eclectablog.com/2012/09/mitt-r…
• How
  to handle the Right — "join" them

Who knew that Iran has more cyberpolice than China? The Enemies
of the Internet infographic, that's who (Syria: 250,000,
China: 30,000 according to the famously reliable Wikipedia; apparently
China is better at automating its censorship).  It also
suggests that SOPA and PIPA are the first steps towards putting America
on the list of Internet Enemies which includes China, Iran, Syria and
North Korea. If those countries sound familiar, it is because they also
top the list of countries using the death penalty. Distinguished
company for sure.

Bob Newhart, one of my favorite comedians, did a sketch on the old Fox
show, MAD TV, poking
fun at psychotherapy. As the husband of a therapist and the
friend of others, it tickled me.
 
Jon Carroll, America's greatest newspaper columnist, wrote about Carpe
Diem
17 years ago. I probably read it at the time (although itg was over
Christmas, when I was often out of town). In any case it is worth
rereading. I was reminded of it by the Bob Greene item in the Dan
Grobstein file.

My friend Kevin Sullivan writes:

When I reviewed Robot
and Frank,
I included a remark from a dimly remembered college lecture about the
superiority of wheels over legs for robots, in part because walking is
so hard and rolling is so easy. Craig Reynolds checked in:

I stand corrected. I forget who told me that "legs are an inefficient
means of getting around," but it must be the same professor who told me
"Modem speeds will never get over 3KB, because you can't put 10 pounds
of (poo) in a five pound bag."

Dan Grobstein File

• Jeb Brovsky (@JebBrovsky)
  9/3/12
  11:07 AM You can tell Monopoly is an old game because there
  is a "Luxury Tax", "Community Chest" and the Banker can still get
  thrown in jail.
• Good
  point about population density. An an expensive energy future
  the subsidized expenses of the sprawl will really cost us.
• Michelle:
  serious and humorous.
• Clinton:
  The Corpus Callosum of Politics
• Voter
  Supression
• smartMeme (@smartMeme)
  9/7/12
  6:14 PM 10 ways to tell if a terrorist is white by @jricole bit.ly/UyBxhu 
• Everyone knows who is running for president & has
  an idea how they're going to vote.  It's the downticket races
  that are easy to sway with the flood of money coming in. The radio and
  tv ads around election day get really crazy. There is very little
  coverage of most races unless you make a point of going to look for it
  so low information voters will vote for the last shiny object that
  they've seen. I wonder if the Republicans don't care if Romney loses.
  They work better throwing sand into the gears and will shirk any
  responsibility for any bad outcomes.
  Democrats:
  where do you put your money?
• Disliking
  Bob Greene. Still. 10 years later.
• Two
  Centuries of Creating U.S. History
• David Kurtz (@TPM_dk)
  9/14/12 9:07 AM oh my RT @meredithshiner:
  "Let's have a hand for the cute and curvaceous Jennifer Granholm!!" youtu.be/b4FJIP-eZCA
  #TheDatingGame

The
people who do these infographics keep sending them to me, and I'll keep
plugging them as long as I find them interesting and provactive. I am
not sure I agree with the thrust of this one (I tend to be a skeptic
about the power of virtual revolution; I think you still need bodies on
the street), but here it is anyway: Power
to the Internet People

Dan Grobstein File

• Scott Stossel (@SStossel)
  8/27/12
  11:09 PM Uh, has David Brooks been drinking? If so, he should
  drink more often. This is hysterical. Better than Borowitz! nytimes.com/2012/08/28/opi…
• Scott Shane (@ScottShaneNYT)
  8/31/12
  5:59 PM A New Yorker shares one day's electronic data trail
  as she goes about her ordinary life. It's eye-opening:
  thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/one…
  #theagenda
• Afshon Ostovar (@aostovar)
  8/31/12
  12:28 PM Fantastic! RT @will_mccants:
  Love it: Scenes from great American movies drawn as Persian miniatures bit.ly/TEIHOT
  cc @jricole
• David Corn (@DavidCornDC)
  8/31/12
  7:08 PM Best evidence you don't want to force octogenarians
  to find their own private health ins plans: Clint. #eastwooding
• Brett Brownell (@BrettBrownell)
  8/31/12
  7:56 PM Props to Shawn Clover. RT @BuzzFeed: If
  The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Happened Today bzfd.it/RrVlza
  #SF
  #photography
• George Takei (@GeorgeTakei)
  8/31/12
  12:10 AM Clint Eastwood's RNC speech was to imaginary Obama
  in an empty chair. I'm drafting a DNC speech to imaginary Romney in an
  empty factory.
• Catherine Bracy (@cbracy)
  9/1/12
  7:07 PM You guys, this is huge (and so easy). If you've got a
  website, add voter registration: barackobama.com/registration-e…
• But what
  they’ve actually done is given us a master class in how
  access reporting sacrifices fact in favor of forced objectivity to give
  us poor journalism, and as a result a poorer republic.

For my non SF readers: Don't miss Jon Carroll's latest cat column: The
fat cat and the scrawny cat

Dan Grobstein File

• J. Bradford DeLong (@delong)
  8/21/12
  9:29 AM The secret history of shipping pallets – Boing Boing boingboing.net/2012/08/20/the…
• Henry Blodget (@hblodget)
  8/22/12
  8:48 PM Question: Have there been studies of how people pick
  their political team? Is it like Yankees/Red Sox?

A friend reminded me this week: "I'd rather be lucky, than good." You can only be so good, but you can be very, very lucky!

Dan Grobstein File

• David Waldman (@KagroX) 8/14/12 10:13 AM The great secret of Mitt Romney's tax returns is that they illustrate the blueprints the wealthy use to keep things from "trickling down."
• david carr (@carr2n) 8/13/12 11:53 PM Not a single person in SF asked me for $, which was new. I must look homeless as well.
• I've been listening for over a year (new podcast posted every friday afternoon). They're a husband and wife from Illinois and try to give their listeners a vocabulary that is useful for arguing with our Fox News watching and hate radio listening neighbors, relatives and co-workers.
  Professional Left Podcast #140
• Years ago, I was a poll watcher for one election when my mother ran for board of education. (she won). There was a Republican poll watcher and a Democratic poll watcher there and either could stop and question a voter when she signed in if they thought there was any chicanery.  The system seems to be working very well. It's obvious what this ID stuff is about.
• CONSCIENCE BALM techweenie (@techweenie) 8/15/12 7:08 PM Romney's tactic of accusing the president of division, anger and hate is right out of the Rove playbook. It gives cover when you do the same. Also Gaius Publius (@Gaius_Publius) 8/15/12 7:26 PM  .@techweenie @Angie_Coiro The 180 Tell™. They announce what they're doing by accusing you of it.
• Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) 8/16/12 9:34 PM Awesome post proving how #paulryan is Ayn Rand disciple and now lying about it driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/08/who-is…
• William K. Wolfrum (@Wolfrum) 8/17/12 12:26 PM Breaking: Same people who wanted to put the Dixie Chicks in jail now outraged that Russia is jailing #PussyRiot
• The National Memo (@NationalMemo) 8/18/12 4:53 PM History Tells Us Why Mitt Must Release His Taxes awe.sm/o2dYv
• Mainstream Media’s Identity Crisis Of Infinite Broadcasts

Letters, of course, is also where one-liners go. I wouldn't want you to think that everything I know I get from podcasts, but it is kind of true. I heard about this on the Slate Culture Gabest: Comedians in Cars getting Coffee, featuring Jerry Seinfeld. The Larry David episode: great. Ricky Gervais, not so much.

Then there's the Boner Rower controversy fanned by Gawker. Funniest thing I've heard about the Olympics.

Two political notes: Blatant Disenfranchisement and Nationwide Search By Journalists Establishes In Person Voter Impersonation Almost Non-Existent; Independent Check Shows Republican Lawyers Offered No Evidence Of In Person Voter Fraud

Dan Grobstein File
[Editor's note: It's been a while, but an e-mail from a reader asking "Who's Dan Grobstein and why does he get a file," leads me to think it is worth mentioning again. Dan is the brother of a woman to whom I was engaged in 1972, but never married. He is an avid reader of the column, and an avid contributor whose taste in links I thoroughly enjoy. Plus, unlike some of my other contributors, he is proud to have his name on his links.]

• Kevin Underhill (@loweringthebar) 8/6/12 2:28 AM Putting a robot on Mars: $2.5 billion. TSA budget 2012: $7.85 billion. And the robot works.
• Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) 8/4/12 5:23 PM Powell's Books — it's like a bookstore, except housed in a giant building rather than a website. [Ed. note: I visit every time I return to my home town.]
• ‘Mind-blowing’ tidbit about public radio: Public Radio: No one is that eloquent.
• John Dean (@JohnWDean) 8/7/12 9:51 PM Nice Find @BuzzFeedAndrew: The ship the British sent to Boston Harbor to enforce taxation laws in 1768: HMS Romney   buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynsk…
• Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) 8/8/12 3:50 PM Ironic, no? NYT story on Obama and "false balance" "he-said-she-said" journalism quotes TPM then Powerline nyti.ms/OMso18
• David Rakoff, Mordantly Comic Essayist and Actor, Dies at 47
• It's still night time in America
• Software Runs the World: How Scared Should We Be That So Much of It Is So Bad? – The Atlantic
• Soaring Ointment Prices Are a Dermatologic Mystery
• Language Log (@LanguageLog) 8/10/12 3:52 PM  Neo-Babylonian brick: My brother-in-law, Dan Heitkamp, bought the following object at an estate sale in Seattle:… bit.ly/ToQmCJ
• Adam Bonin (@adambonin) 8/11/12 8:41 AM If Romney-Ryan were to win, there would be no Protestants in the White House or on the Supreme Court. [HT: @BobbyBigWheel]
• Jesse LaGreca (@JesseLaGreca) 8/11/12 7:25 PM I do NOT want lower taxes. My taxes are lower than ever. It's the 30 yrs of stagnant wages, union busting and job outsourcing, stupid! #p2
• Dick Cavett: Comedy Pain and Comedy Pleasure
• Wanted, Dead or Alive: Used Books

A woman from Bachelorsdegreeonline.com asked me to plug her list of the 100 best blogs for journalism students. Consider it done.

Dan Grobstein File

• Prescient quote of the century
  “…the Republicans will join hands with the southern Democrats to try and repeal or undermine every social reform the New Deal has put in. The hue and cry against labor has already started! The republicans have not had an idea since Benjamin Harrison’s time and the southern democrats have not had one since Appomattox—and I foresee an unofficial coalition of them running the country.”
  Esther Murray, in a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, late 1942, cited in Lisa Cohen, All We Know: Three Lives (Farrar Strauss, 2012), p. 96.
• DeMarco is a Bush appointee who has not been replaced because the confirmation of his Obama-nominated successor is stuck in the Senate because of Republican filibusters on everything. You can tell how pissed I am because I don’t do these messages much anymore because the captchas are so opaque. Regulator Rebuffs Obama on Plan to Ease Housing Debt 
• 75 years of health care benefits must be prepaid by the post office (and no other entity in the world). This was passed by the Republicans in 2006. They are paying for employees who haven’t been born. The reporter can’t seem to get that fact into the story. Obviously privatization is the answer :(.   As Default Looms, Postal Service Sees Deeper Woes
• These R crazies have a lot in common with guys coming up the ranks to be the new Al Quaeda or Taliban head. There’s no hope for compromise until they’ve proved themselves by being even more crazy than the last guy. You can’t have a Nixon goes to China moment without it. You need an elder statesman.  For God, Texas and Golf

Interesting Infographic: Psychology of Social Networking

Daniel Dern shares two finds:

Dan Grobstein File

• He just seems foreign
• Lance Mannion (@LanceMannion) 7/28/12 8:28 AM John McCain, never a rebel bit.ly/OufWoJ 
• Rhodri Marsden (@rhodri) 7/29/12 4:03 PM  Anyone currently marvelling in wonder at the bodies of the male swimmers has clearly never seen the body of a freelance writer.