the voice of great antiquity

"This is Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains reminding you that smoking is allowed on the lower drive outside the building and only in designated areas… Bummer, dude."

"We have, according to Mr. Gingrich, “an absolute obligation to minimize damage to the natural world,” a “moral obligation to take care of the ecosystem,” but since this collides with his wish to lift the “ridiculous burden” of “environmental regulations hatched in Washington,” the fulfillment of our moral obligation to take care of the ecosystem is left to a constituent in Mr. Gingrich’s district, Linda Bavaro, who turns two-liter Coca-Cola bottles into T-shirts, which she sells at Disney World. “Linda,” Mr. Gingrich notes, “has a good chance of doing well financially by doing good environmentally. That is how a healthy free market in a free country ought to work."

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Reminding the crowd that Romney had made fun of his plans for lunar colonies, Gingrich said there is something Romney’s researchers haven’t found yet, something he referred to as “the weirdest thing I’ve ever done”: When he was in the House, he authored a bill that would allow a lunar colony to apply for statehood once it reached 13,000 residents.

I met a gentleman in the audience who told me he had worked on Gingrich’s Congressional staff and helped with the bill, which was called a Northwest Territory Ordinance for Space. The man told me the bill would have allowed space colonies with over 20,000 people to apply for recognition as a US territory.

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“I know people are making a big deal of that play,” she says. “Look, JaVale does that to break up the monotony. Wouldn’t you if you were losing like this? He’s been here for four years and it’s been same ol’, same ol’. I don’t want him to get institutionalized to losing. My son is the future of the NBA. I don’t want him to be part of this culture of losing forever.”

[…]

His mother was his AAU coach from 9 years old to sixth grade, getting up at 6 a.m. to work on drills with him. Trying to toughen up her son in the post when the ball dropped below JaVale’s chest as a child, “I hit him in the chest with my fist,” Pamela said.

“You’re my mother,” the boy would wince, “how could you do that to me?”

Pamela: “You stinkin’ up the gym, that’s why. I’m your coach right now.”

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"The Tous PSG bet is that a sports team can be profitable catering only to casual fans, rendering history and association insignificant. Maybe it took an official stance against racism to lure back fans disgusted by the racist provocations at the stadium. But sweeping racism from the stadium did not require the radical makeover of telling 13,000 fans they were no longer wanted in the cheap seats. Further, all those fucking Pastore shirts suggest that, in a metropolitan area of 12m, it is not impossible to find 40,000 glory hunters every other weekend. Former Club President Leproux’s calling cheap tickets for children an investment sounds like Hubbard’s plan to commodify individual identities in order to build a “lifelong fan” with a sellable experience, or, another way, a lifelong casual fan who comes because it’s “worth it,” not be cause he or she feels the “need” to support the team. The team is not interested in keeping you, specifically you, around for life. They’ll find another you, if they need to. That other you will hopefully earn a bit more and be willing to pay a bit more for your ticket. But in the meantime, you’ll suffice."