"Welcome to Atlanta, where the players play/And I hope you can make my Bar Mitzvah day..."

(Via Metafilter, where the post just went up, so you can't tell yet whether people are going to trash this kid or love him.)

Steven Tyler appears in drag on "American Idol" and quotes Bob Dylan's "Talkin' World War III Blues."

He came out as if he were the last contestant and maybe it took half a second to recognize the big rock star (who was on the judge's panel last season). The news reports of the little stunt emphasize the drag and the (miniscule) surprise, but even where the lyric is quoted, the attribution to Bob Dylan is missing. Here's the NY Daily News:

"What the, what?" Randy Jackson said when he got a first glimpse of his former co-star on stage.

"My name is Pepper. I'm going to sing a song called 'Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa, Our Love Going to Grow, Wah Wah,'" he joked to judging panel. "But before I do I'm going to judge you all (bleeps) first."

I'm not finding any news reports that place the lyric — which I have engraved on my brain — in the old Bob Dylan song. "Talkin' World War III Blues" has 12 verses of Bob talking his way through a dream he had about walking through post-nuclear NYC, with all the people gone from the "lonesome town." Here's the 9th verse:

Well, I remember seein’ some ad
So I turned on my Conelrad
But I didn’t pay my Con Ed bill
So the radio didn’t work so well
Turned on my record player—
It was Rock-a-day Johnny singin’, “Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa
Our Love’s A-gonna Grow Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah”

Tyler said "Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah," by the way, just like Dylan, not "Wah Wah," as the Daily News would have it.

Now that you get the reference, is there anything to be made of it? Maybe Dylan was making an in joke at the time and Tyler was referring to that joke. Maybe Tyler wanted to alert us to the threat of nuclear war. Maybe Tyler wanted to wink at Dylan fans. But the best clue I found — as I did a Google search to see if anyone had recognized the Dylan quote — was an article from back in November about  friction between Tyler and current-season judge Nicki Manaj. Tyler had said in an interview:

“If it was Bob Dylan, Nicki Minaj would have had him sent to the cornfield! Whereas, if it was Bob Dylan with us, we would have brought the best of him out, as we did with Phillip Phillips....”

Manaj thereafter tweeted:

“Steven Tyler said I would have sent Bob Dylan to a cornfield??? Steven, you haven’t seen me judge one single solitary contestant yet!”

And:

“I understand you really wanted to keep your job but take that up with the producers. I haven’t done anything to you. That’s a racist comment.” 

Racist because it's against her... or because sending someone "to the cornfield" is a reference to slavery?

“You assume that I wouldn’t have liked Bob Dylan??? why? black? rapper? what? go f— yourself and worry about yourself babe.”

To quote Bob Dylan — especially while dressed in a garish blonde wig and big inflated breasts — is to tweak Nicki. Talking blues is related to rap, somewhere in the ancestry. The quoted line, which is talked, is about singing, singing like a rockabilly guy — "Rock-a-day Johnny" — and Tyler was acting as though he were going to sing the song Bob Dylan heard. Dylan is all alone in his dream, looking for company, and in his desperation, he turns on the radio, and then puts on a record, and it's this pop culture idiot, singing nonsense — ooh-wah, ooh-wah —but it's very poignant, because, after the war, Bob is longing for any kind of a voice. In the 10th verse, he calls the telephone number where a recorded voice says the time, and he listens to that voice, repeating the same time — 3 o'clock, the time the war started — for over an hour.

So Steven Tyler had a lot to say, if anybody wants to notice. He's saying we don't get artists like Bob Dylan anymore. The music industry — like NYC after the bomb — is devoid of real people. We're desperate for a human voice. And Nicki Manaj is the embodiment — for all her voluptuous physicality — of emptiness. He was spoofing her, critiquing everything, crying out for real human art, which — for him — Bob Dylan embodies.

But did anyone hear him? He pranced out as a clown. He was dressed as a woman. It resonated in the hollowness that has always been television. In drag, with that wide smile, he even looked like Milton Berle.



IN THE COMMENTS: In this post where I chide others for missing the Dylan reference, Mumpsimus dings me for missing a reference:

"To the cornfield" refers to the SF/Horror story "It's A Good Life" by Jerome Bixby. Or, more likely in this context, to the Twilight Zone episode based on that story.

Dust Bunny Queen links to this TZ clip.

What's The Frequency?

It's a bar in Madison, where they won't have hip-hop shows anymore because there was a fight outside the other night and a gun was fired. The bar's owner, Darwin Sampson says: “It is truly unfortunate that I cannot host an entire genre of music and artists because of the idiocy of a couple people and the ineptitude of the security company that evening.”

What's the frequency?

"But Lupe Fiasco was not 'kicked off stage' for an 'anti-Obama rant.'"

"We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act."

Got that? A rapper was bizarrely repetitive and jarring and he had to go. A puzzling statement. You may think how could a rapper being repetitive and jarring amount to bizarre? I take it that's a nice way to say he was bad and going on too long.

But spinning it as censorship is such good PR that I suspected he went really offensive in order to get attention. Having watched the video, I've abandoned that hypothesis. It's insufficiently offensive. "Obama didn't say shit" when "Gaza strip was getting bombed," and "that's why I ain't vote for him." Come on. It's not like he said he didn't vote for Obama because he would prefer stricter control of federal spending or originalists on the Supreme Court or some such outrage.

"Oxygen Media has pulled the plug on 'All My Babies' Mamas,' a reality special... about a musician who has fathered 11 children with 10 different mothers."

The conceived the show. They gave it life. Then they walked away.

ADDED: Rush Limbaugh riffs on the O Media decision:

It's not gonna air now because a bunch of stuffed shirts, a bunch of prisses, a bunch of morality police... objected.... So we were going to expand the definition of a family to include whatever people wanted it to be.... It was a show of love and devotion, how Shawty provides for all, and it's being ripped right out from under him. I mean, who says that this is a marginalized existence?

"You Can Search YouTube for LITERALLY ANYTHING + 'Rap' and Get Instant Sad."

That's true... except the assumption it will make you sad. It made me happy!

Former Bad Boy rapper G. Dep "has suffered the mockery and insults of his fellow prisoners... for confessing to a shooting that he had essentially gotten away with..."

"... only to find out that his victim had died and that he had turned himself in for murder."

[Trevell Coleman] was sentenced this morning to 15 years prison for a two-decade old fatal gunpoint mugging -- a cold-case murder that was only solved when he walked into a Harlem precinct two years ago, turning himself in so he could square himself, he has explained, with God....

"He's gotten the scorn of other inmates, who called him stupid -- 'Look what happened when you open your mouth,'" [his lawyer, Anthony Ricco] said. "His wife questioned him -- 'Trevell, what about us?'"

Coleman and his wife were raising twin sons of kindergarten age. On the day of his April verdict, the wife -- who had urged Coleman not to confess -- had wondered to the lawyer about how the boys will manage now, without their father.

"My hope is that their sons will grow up to be as proud of their father as boys can ever be, for fixing what he did," Ricco said. "They will have a father who has honor."

"[T]he Beastie Boys were an incredibly energetic band that brought joy to a lot of people."

"This is a real loss to music," says Jaltcoh (my son), with quotes from obits and videos of songs. Here's the 2009 announcement from Adam "MCA" Yauch — "It's not funny... it's dead serious" — saying he has cancer.

"Greener than green, I'm saving the planet/Just like my friends Daryl, Sean, Toby and Janet."

"No greenhouse gas, a tiny carbon footprint up your ass/I'm on a motherfucking bike/Sharing my aggression is what that I do/Every day I'm riding the 'Tour de Fuck You'/Banging on hoods and kicking in fenders/a right-of-way-aholic on a permanent bender..."



Yes, that is exactly what it is like out there!

ADDED: Move!

"I reserved the phrase 'contraceptive sponges' very clearly and specifically..."

"... for people who demand subsidies without offering any reasons beyond the fact that they’d prefer to be subsidized. In other words, the targets of this phrase are people who have not actually stated any views on the matter at hand, namely how do we know when a subsidy is justified."

University of Rochester Professor Steven Landsburg schooling Joel Seligman, the president of that university, on the meaning of free speech and vigorous debate.

Via Instapundit, who suspects that Seligman intended to chill "the speech of faculty who are less eminent than Steven Landsburg."

And Professor Jacobson says: "Why did the President of the University feel the need to get involved? Is he the thought policeman? Sure, the President of the University is entitled to an opinion, but it’s clear that he was trying to tamp down a dissenting view using the power of his presidency."

Jacobson also embeds a video the University of Rochester admissions department and asks: "Will President Seligman accept responsibility and apologize for Univ. of Rochester not celebrating diversity in this video?" Ha. I watched the video before reading that question, and what I said out loud was: "Apparently, they don't have enough male students at that school." That video is desperately projecting maleness. It's all white too, which I think is mostly Jacobson's point, but the exaggerated masculinity is funny in connection with the current controversy, which is about protecting women from the feeling disrespected.

Now that he has a baby girl, Jay-Z will eschew the word "bitch."

Is that enough?

Is it even admirable? If you do something only when you've acquired a self-interest, it seems to me it would be more admirable to continue doing what you were doing before.

AND: Apparently, Jay-Z is taking my advice.

"Which Christmas carol lyric depicts your life?"

A pop quiz:

a. “Bring me flesh and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither.”

b. “BlackBerry on our hip and then it gave a little flicker. . . . Came to realize my homie Bieber hit me on the Twitter. Then I hit him back despite I had some food on my finger.”

That quiz (in the NYT) is really just a cute way — assuming the NYT is capable of being cute — for the NYT to tell you it knows about the pop recording "Drummer Boy," which, it asserts, is "excellent."

Having found the lyric genuinely amusing, I listened to the song and found it immensely annoying. I think I'd managed thus far in life to avoid hearing the voice of Justin Bieber. It's so irritating!... especially when accompanied by constant snare drumming, which is, apparently, regarded as essential, even when layering in rap, for anybody doing a new arrangement of that always awful song "Drummer Boy."

Which reminds me, if you ever feel like giving me a gift, and you think all you've got to give is that drum number you're threatening to perform, realize you are making a mistake. There's also the gift of silence. I'd prefer that. I know baby Jesus reputedly appreciated the gift of drumming — according to that nasty song — but consider the possibility that Jesus was just being nice. I know, politeness is a quality alien to infants, but — come on! — it was Jesus! Put the damned drum away.

What I like about the quiz, though, is that much as I identify with "Bring me flesh and bring me wine," I'm thousands of times more likely to eat while using a high-tech device than in front of a blazing fire.

I don't know about you, but we had orange juice and pancakes for breakfast.

It's pretty much like that around Meadhouse on a typical morning.

(Via Metafilter.)

Pablo Dylan, Dylan's grandson, the rapper.

"I mean, really, my grandfather, I consider him the Jay-Z of his time, and he definitely has a legacy that a lot of people look up to... He feels strongly about my music and I love him to death."

Via my Google alert on Dylan, which got me to that link in AllHipHop News via Salon.

The kid is 15. Perhaps we should refrain from listening to or judging his work, "the first project I ever came out with," which is, he says, "meant to show people what I have been working for, and how I really want to differentiate myself from everyone else." 

Should he really be pushed forward and allowed to grab all the attention he can get on his grandfather's name? But what am I saying? I don't listen to any music in this genre, so I'm not going to be the one to call it bad.

RELOCATED FROM ALTHOUSE2: "So, your blog goes down right after being reported as a cesspool of [misogyny] and homophobia? Hmmmmm . . ."

Says LawGirl, over in the "weasel" post.

The anonymous professor who emailed lawprof Brian Leiter to attack my commentariat said "She has the free speech right to run whatever cesspool she wants, but is she prioritizing her desire for a widely read blog over her obligation to be a responsible member of academia?" — which is quoted by Freeman Hunt, who laughs, calls it the "quote of the day," and paraphrases it: "Free speech is incompatible with academia!" Freeman adds: "Free speech areas are cesspools. Restricted speech areas are responsible academia." Yeah, but can you really expect law professors to drape their brains around that?

Maguro said: "The email is so prissy and self-important that Leiter almost certainly wrote it himself. Anonymous colleague, my ass." Well, let's be fair. Professor Anonymous does call the blog comments here a "festival of misogyny and homophobia." Palladian said: "I hope there's an open bar at your festival of misogyny and homophobia."

Roger J. said:

Professor A: unless I have completely misread you over the last five years, I am thinking you arent going down without a fight--(just dont ask me for money however, my principles arent THAT strong :) )

Hey, good idea. Please! Encourage me:

I need some love!

dbp said:

An interesting logical loop here: Brian Leiter's blog posts an anonymous comment, which presumably is in agreement with the blog's editor. The comment is actively put forward by that blog, unlike at Althouse where comments are all posted and hardly ever deleted.

Both blogs contain what could fairly be described as scurrilous comments. The difference is that Alhouse neither approves or disapproves of the comments while Leiter clearly takes an editorial ownership.

"She has the free speech right to run whatever cesspool she wants, but is she prioritizing her desire for a widely read blog over her obligation to be a responsible member of academia?"

This had got to be the most lame use of a question mark in history. Oh, I make a big long ugly accusation then make it all right with a meaningless squiggle on top of the dot.

If the Leiter post led to the removal of the Althouse blog, then is there a case of slander here?

Good point. But it's not slander. If it's in writing, we lawyers say libel, not slander. But it's not libel. It's just opinion. Lame ass opinion from a lawprof who — in my opinion — envies my readership, which is bigger than his.

***

Now, maybe you're wondering just what the hell was in those terrible comments — that supposed "festival of misogyny and homophobia." You try the link at Leiter's, but it gets you nowhere, because Blogger removed my blog. But here's the cached version of the page the Leiter blog links to. Check out the comments and see if you can tell what's really upset the people who are on my case. There are only 32 comments. They are easy enough to read. I pick out a few.

Maguro said:

[The 3 candidates] seem notably lacking in victim-group credentials. Are any of them gay, trans or gender non-conforming?

This is a criticism based on one commenter's sense of what law schools do.

gutless said:

Is Margaret a lesbian? One imagines so in that her background doesn't seem competitive and yet, here she is. If so, she has the job. If not ,she is merely window dressing and the less offensive of the other two gets the nod.

That's obviously another criticism of law schools, reflecting an assumption that law schools make choices based on diversity factors. I'm sure the criticism hurts some people, but it doesn't say there's something wrong with being a lesbian or that the candidate is a lesbian. Maybe a nervous reader could take that the wrong way, in which case, I'd say: that festival of misogyny and homophobia is in your head. Good thing you hid your name!

Thorley Winston said:

I think it’s generally a bad idea to announce the “finalists” when conducting a job interview, particularly for the top position. IMO there shouldn’t be a public announcement until they’ve made their selection.

I agree, but the Law School chose to put the names and their credentials on its official website, obviously inviting public comment. I linked, opening it up to the comments. You know we are a public law school, and it's appropriate that people around the state receive information and have an opportunity to speak. And yet, feelings can be hurt. People in legal academia like to think that their feelings are righteous indignation having to do with women and minorities... but are they really? Think carefully!

Titus said:

If the woman candidate has big tits I say hire her. Otherwise, go with one of the men.

You can't go wrong with big tits.

tits...yum

All right, that's absurd and over-the-top, by our dear, treasured Titus — a gay man. He's been talking like that on this blog for years. The regulars know him. And they know I love him. If that's what Leiter and the Anonymous Professor feel such angst about... it's because they don't understand the community here. They're like Sean Hannity fretting about Common in White House.

COMMENTS (Relocated from Althouse2):


Which brings me back to the conclusion that I think is painfully obvious about him: he deserves every ounce of criticism that he is bringing upon himself.

Freaking idiot.

MAY 13, 2011 6:43:00 PM CDT 
 Danny Vice said...
There are a couple of avenues available to you Ann if you want to preserve your posts. Granted, it will be pretty time consuming, considering the thousands of posts you've published, but the option is there to grab these posts while they are still accessible.

I trust someone on your end has shared some of these options with you. If not, please email me.

Dannyvice (at) hotmail.com

MAY 13, 2011 6:47:00 PM CDT 
 Lincolntf said...
This post has been removed by the author.
MAY 13, 2011 6:49:00 PM CDT 
 Lincolntf said...
Hmmm, the blog has always struck me more as a tidal pool of mythology and arachnophobia, but I'm a lousy reader.

MAY 13, 2011 6:51:00 PM CDT 
 nevadabob said...
They're 86-ing comments here too.

MAY 13, 2011 6:52:00 PM CDT 
 edutcher said...
To be sure Titus is an acquired taste (there's a metaphor), but, let me think, let's work on that phrase, "obligation to be a responsible member of academia"...

Does that include Ward "Little Eichmanns" Churchill?

William "Guilty As Sin" Ayers?

Cornel "Sun People" West?

We may have our disagreements with her, but the lady gives us a forum unrestricted in most ways. As I said, when the roll is called up yonder, the looker with the platinum bob will be conlawproffing with George and Ben and Jimmy while these "academics" will be sharing a barbecue pit with their heroes from Al Qaeda.

MAY 13, 2011 6:52:00 PM CDT 
 Pastafarian said...
You know, there have been many, many more offensive threads in Althouse blog history. Any of the threads to which I've contributed, for example.

I can recall one that featured Freeman Hunt, of all people, dropping f-bombs like Rahm Emmanuel on an acid bender. Good times, good times.

But I will agree with this much of this turd's thesis: If the mysterious outage is politically motivated, then I suspect that it's the politics of your commenters, more than your own politics, that led to it.

MAY 13, 2011 6:55:00 PM CDT 
 TWM said...
"All right, that's absurd and over-the-top, but our dear, treasured Titus — a gay man. He's been talking like that on this blog for years. The regulars know him. And they know I love him."

Oh crap, does Meade know he signed-on for a threesome?

MAY 13, 2011 7:00:00 PM CDT 
 nevadabob said...
"We may have our disagreements with her, but the lady gives us a forum unrestricted in most ways."

In their eyes, that is her sin. She allows people to express themselves however they see fit.

That's racist and homophobic and misogynistic.

People (in their view) need to be controlled so we can end the hate speech once and for all and get on with the war in EastAsia.

Or is it Eurasia today?

I forget.

MAY 13, 2011 7:01:00 PM CDT 
 Michael K said...
If Blogspot did this for political reasons, you need to be out of there as fast as possible. I use Word Press which has a pretty good rep as blogging software and can be customized as Patterico has done. I also use a separate web host, called Blue Host, and have had no problems and doubt very much if Blue Host cares what is on blogs it hosts.

Academics are such humorless people, present company excepted. I have a friend, a science associate professor, who is sweating out tenure after having to leave another institution when it was denied for political reasons. And that is science, not sociology.

MAY 13, 2011 7:08:00 PM CDT 
 TWM said...
Time for Althouse.com . . . you're that big . . . and that threatening evidently . . .

MAY 13, 2011 7:09:00 PM CDT 
 EnigmatiCore said...
Well. On the off chance that guy is not a Google employee and that their abuse system is not manned by him, I flagged one of his remaining comments as abuse and detailed his abuse of power (including, apparently, the ability to mess with Google accounts-- I had to have them send a verification code to my cell phone and enter it in order to access my account because of 'suspicious activity').

That jerkwad belongs nowhere near any position with any kind of authority.

MAY 13, 2011 7:11:00 PM CDT 
 Michael Haz said...
You broke from the borg. The borg will kill you.

MAY 13, 2011 7:11:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
It's obvious to me what the problem is here. I have told you time and again. Stop with the politics. More posts about American Idol and dogs urinating. These commie pinko bastards are very vindictive pricks. You need to lay low.

You said you wanted your blog to be a mixture of Fellini and the Monkee's.

Neither one of them gave a shit about labor douchenozzles.

I hate to say I told you so...but I told you so.

MAY 13, 2011 7:18:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
And they dumped Tourettes Rocker Boy last night and you didn't even have one post on it.

Shame on you.

You. An American Idol blogger.

MAY 13, 2011 7:18:00 PM CDT 
 Pastafarian said...
This really shines a new light on the cowardly banning and deletion at Lawyers Guns and Money. Maybe they're just afraid of being shut down by their liberal over-lords.

I'm not sure if they're on Blogger -- the meager traffic of their little-known boutique blog is so small that they're able to handle it with their dedicated server, a repurposed Commodore 386. The average comment thread there is about 20 comments; there are several that have one or two. The longest I've seen is a little over 100 -- driven mostly by my participation. So they might have their own domain.

MAY 13, 2011 7:19:00 PM CDT 
 JoeDetweiler said...
My understanding is that nitecruzr is just a volunteer, and that seems to me to be the problem. You should be talking to an employee and Google should be seeing to it that you are talking to an employee.

http://www.google.com.tw/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=051824dc719f3fae&hl=en

MAY 13, 2011 7:19:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
Hey I was banned from Television Without Pity after four comments.

They are like Nazi's over there.

Don't think I forgot about you Kay Howard. You are in the book. Just sayn'

MAY 13, 2011 7:22:00 PM CDT 
 Pastafarian said...
Trooper, I was a little disappointed to see that you hadn't contributed to the cesspool of homophobia and misogyny. When I heard that one of the comments speculated on the candidate's tits, you were the first person I thought of.

MAY 13, 2011 7:27:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
Hey I am a well know lover of tits. I coddle them. Put them in the best of lacy bras. Tits are my friend. They should be yours.

MAY 13, 2011 7:29:00 PM CDT 
 Ann Althouse said...
"And they dumped Tourettes Rocker Boy last night and you didn't even have one post on it."

I tweeted it.

MAY 13, 2011 7:30:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I was busy at a benefit while all this was going on. I asked some of my detective friends to look into it. But so far nobody has a reasonable explanation.

Except that stuff like this is gonna to happen more and more in Barack Obama's America.

MAY 13, 2011 7:30:00 PM CDT 
 blake said...
If your blog returns, you should immediately download it.

Given your traffic, you should consider getting a blogging application that allows you to compose locally and post to multiple blogging sites.

Really, at your level, you should probably get your own domain and hosting service.

MAY 13, 2011 7:32:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I do notice that none of the "liberals" or "progressives" who post daily on your site has anything to say in support of you. Where is AlpaLiberal, Jeremy,Robert Cook, Jay Retread and all the rest. They are oddly silent about the destruction of a blog that they write multiple posts on to support their point of view which is displayed without censorship or fear or favor.

I hope you see who you can depend on. Just sayn'

MAY 13, 2011 7:33:00 PM CDT 
 NotYourTypicalNewYorker said...
The culture war imperceptibly widens.

Here, there...

The losers start stepping out of the tree line for better shots.

MAY 13, 2011 7:36:00 PM CDT 
 Coketown said...
Oh my God, Titus is gay?!

MAY 13, 2011 7:38:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
This post has been removed by the author.
MAY 13, 2011 7:39:00 PM CDT 
 garage mahal said...
I do notice that none of the "liberals" or "progressives" who post daily on your site has anything to say in support of you.

I'm here. I think the theory that Google shut down this blog pretty goofy though. Fittingly it was hatched by Moe Lane @ Redstate.com

I do feel bad if all the old content is gone though. If nothing else all my old comments gone would be a sad day indeed.

Seriously I hope you get your blog back, fully preserved.

MAY 13, 2011 7:40:00 PM CDT 
 Coketown said...
I also 'encouraged' the blog by buying through the Amazon portal instead of going to Best Buy, even though it means waiting several days to get my merch and have a more fulfilling life.

I encourage everyone else to encourage her in this way. Words of encouragement are less motivating that transactions of encouragement.

MAY 13, 2011 7:40:00 PM CDT 
 Pastafarian said...
blake -- wouldn't that cost a butt-load of money, given what has to be pretty substantial traffic, and a content-rich site, what with all of the photos and the enormous archive?

MAY 13, 2011 7:41:00 PM CDT 
 The Drill SGT said...
All right, that's absurd and over-the-top, but our dear, treasured Titus — a gay man

"treasured"?

amusing and entertaining? perhaps

treasured? no :)

MAY 13, 2011 7:41:00 PM CDT 
 nevadabob said...
I find it striking that Althouse is censoring and memory-holing comments that are critical of Google's leftist and socialist politics.

Looks like Google's action is having the correct effect.

They've convinced Althouse to strangle her commenters.

MAY 13, 2011 7:42:00 PM CDT 
 Barry Dauphin said...
You're too big for Blogger.

MAY 13, 2011 7:43:00 PM CDT 
 Shannon Bell said...
Hey Ann,

Just my opinion, but screw Google and blogger. Buy an awesome URL, go with Wordpress and be done with it.

Who knows what kind of games these jokers are playing.

MAY 13, 2011 7:44:00 PM CDT 
 Shannon Bell said...
Oh, by the way. Thanks for that awesome link at Insty's place yesterday!

MAY 13, 2011 7:45:00 PM CDT 
 Michael Haz said...
Wouldn't have happened if McCain had been elected. Google are Obama's people. They're like Organizing for America, except they hold a horrible lot of power.

MAY 13, 2011 7:46:00 PM CDT 
 Coketown said...
I doubt the old blog is lost. And I highly doubt this is a sinister plot by Google to silence people of Althouse's political persuasion--whatever the hell that persuasion is.

And if it is lost, don't worry: Trooper has the last 4 1/2 years printed out and spiral-bound in a handsome collection titled, "The Collected Wisdom of..." And since they're criminalizing prostitution in Nevada he'll have plenty of time to re-post everything. Idle hands, etc.

MAY 13, 2011 7:51:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I didn't include you Garage. I don't consider you a real liberal.

You are just stupid.

(You are a Packers fan)

But you know I love you guy!

MAY 13, 2011 7:52:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
Seriously, the same thing happened when the blogger lady got engaged. Garage was one of the few to quickly and unambigously wish them well. The rest were silent for a suspicious long time until they felt they had to begrudingly acknowledge it. Look it up....oh wait a minute.....

MAY 13, 2011 7:53:00 PM CDT 
 Lincolntf said...
The Google/Blogger conspiracy might be a longshot, but the nitecruzr pissant is all too real. Dickless little shit.

MAY 13, 2011 7:54:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
I'd be just shocked and amazed if Blogger really took down Althouse for political reasons. That is just not done in the United States. I just figured it was ridiculous technical problems and you, Althouse, took down your own blog in disgust until you found a new home.

Anyway, color me skeptical of the conspiracy for now. If it's true, it's sickening and disheartening and really suggests something seriously morbid about the American left. We all know they are closet fascists, but to be so obvious about it isn't usually the way it goes.

MAY 13, 2011 7:57:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
May 13, 2011
Blogger is back

What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.

Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.

Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our authors and readers. We try hard to ensure Blogger is always available for you to share your thoughts and opinions with the world, and we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again.

Posted by Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager, Blogger

http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/05/blogger-is-back.html

MAY 13, 2011 8:00:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
Hey I just heard they buried the Althouse blog at sea....you know they didn't want to offend the Muslims or something....I don't know ....does that sound reasonable to you....yeah it must just be a crazy conspiracy theory...yeah...yeah...that's the ticket.

MAY 13, 2011 8:00:00 PM CDT 
 The Grand Inquisitor said...
"OpenID nevadabob said...

I find it striking that Althouse is censoring and memory-holing comments that are critical of Google's leftist and socialist politics.

Looks like Google's action is having the correct effect.

They've convinced Althouse to strangle her commenters."

Is she really doing so? That would be quite a surprise, and frankly, I don't believe it.

I wouldn't be surprised if the same people who deleted her blog are now deleting comments critical of their behavior, though.

Althouse linked the redstate theory about Google, so why would she be protecting Google from similar theories?

MAY 13, 2011 8:00:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
I'm quite sure Althouse isn't doing whatever the fuck the tool Nevada Bob said.

MAY 13, 2011 8:02:00 PM CDT 
 blake said...
Pasta--

I hosted a bunch of sites on an old machine for years at a nominal cost. Not as heavily trafficked as Althouse, I'm sure.

Aha. So, GoDaddy gives you 10GB of space and unlimited bandwidth for $3 a month if you buy three years at once. $5 for 150GB, which is a LOT of space for text and pix, and the pix are probably gonna stay on flicker, mostly.

Jeez, for $7 a month, it's all you can eat: However many websites, however much bandwidth, however much space, a thousand email accounts (Althouse could offer accounts to donors!), and some other perks.

Curiously, they don't offer as good a deal if you go for their "blog/podcast" offer.

Anyway, $252 over three years doesn't seem like a lot of money to me.

Plus, the data's all yours.

For this deal, Althouse would probably have to buy (or have donated) services to set up her blog. But, you know, blogspot.com kinda sucks, so she might find newer and better technology.

MAY 13, 2011 8:03:00 PM CDT 
 edutcher said...
TWM said...

"All right, that's absurd and over-the-top, but our dear, treasured Titus — a gay man. He's been talking like that on this blog for years. The regulars know him. And they know I love him."

Oh crap, does Meade know he signed-on for a threesome?

With Titus, are you sure it would only be three?

Trooper York said...

I do notice that none of the "liberals" or "progressives" who post daily on your site has anything to say in support of you. Where is AlpaLiberal, Jeremy,Robert Cook, Jay Retread and all the rest. They are oddly silent about the destruction of a blog that they write multiple posts on to support their point of view which is displayed without censorship or fear or favor.

I hope you see who you can depend on. Just sayn'

The One Whose Name We Cannot Mention found us, but only because he was trolling elsewhere.

PS Keep it down, we don't want the rest to find out we're having fun without them.

PPS Agree with Shannon.

PPPS BlogHer is taking up Ann's cause with a fetching photo of Herself.

MAY 13, 2011 8:04:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
It does seem kind of fishy that as big a blog as Althouse is taking so long to get back on line. I mean this is a big dealio. Shouldn't they be paying attention to this or what?

MAY 13, 2011 8:07:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
I agree it's all very fishy. I just can't believe it all. The blog gets destroyed with no warning whatsoever and it just happens to be during a time of tumult and outage at Blogger?

Doesn't add up.

MAY 13, 2011 8:09:00 PM CDT 
 blake said...
With Titus, are you sure it would only be three?

With Titus, could you even be sure it was one?

By the way, I think the Google "conspiracy" thing is far-fetched. The most likely issue is just exactly what it seems: a technical glitch of the sort Google isn't supposed to have.

However, could someone(s) in Google use this as a cover to eff with someone (t)he(y) didn't like? Or minimally put that person at the end of the service line?

Sure. Probably not Sergey or Larry--that seems too far-fetched for words. But some middle manager type getting pissy? Petty bureaucrats are petty bureaucrats wherever.

(Typed on a Google CR-48. Heh.)

MAY 13, 2011 8:11:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I wonder if they will release some photo's from the situation room at Blogger? Just sayn'

MAY 13, 2011 8:11:00 PM CDT 
 Tibore said...
It's back! I just checked it. It's completely blank, but the original URL is responding.

Now, the question is, where's all the previous content?

MAY 13, 2011 8:11:00 PM CDT 
 Lincolntf said...
Yup. The big blog is showing signs of life. Conspiracy theory over (?), Google volunteer hatefest continues.

MAY 13, 2011 8:13:00 PM CDT 
 Michael said...
Nitecruzer looks like Jeremy's dog, the one on the right.

MAY 13, 2011 8:13:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I also think that the other big time bloggers are taking this too casually. If they can do this to Althouse they can do it to anyone.

MAY 13, 2011 8:13:00 PM CDT 
 FlaviusJulius said...
It is back up.

MAY 13, 2011 8:13:00 PM CDT 
 FlaviusJulius said...
This post has been removed by the author.
MAY 13, 2011 8:13:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
Seconded Tibore.

MAY 13, 2011 8:14:00 PM CDT 
 EnigmatiCore said...
Your blog is back up (sans any of your previous posts, which I assume will be forthcoming).

A Blogger employee seems to have put a stop to Nitecruzr's nonsense as well, as the Google 'help forum' thread is open for comments once again after the Blogger employee commented.

Hopefully they will take his keys away.

MAY 13, 2011 8:14:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I told you man. They buried all the old content at sea.

It's the latest thing.

MAY 13, 2011 8:14:00 PM CDT 
 garage mahal said...
You are just stupid.

Awwww! Thanks Troop.

MAY 13, 2011 8:14:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
Or minimally put that person at the end of the service line?

This I can certainly see.

Move, Althouse. Fuck this shit.

MAY 13, 2011 8:15:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
You know I love you man.

Anybody that loves road kill sandwiches is ok in my book.

MAY 13, 2011 8:15:00 PM CDT 
 EnigmatiCore said...
It will be interesting to see what happens to Mr. Croll now. I might even have to read his blogs to find out what he eventually says about the whole kerfuffle.

MAY 13, 2011 8:16:00 PM CDT 
 The Grand Inquisitor said...
I won't out nitecruzr, but apparently he wrote a wikipedia entry about himself, and how famous he is for defending freedom of speech while having such a useful blog.

What a dweeb. He wanted to be famous, and now he'll have his little 26 minutes of fame/lame.

MAY 13, 2011 8:17:00 PM CDT 
 madawaskan said...
Althouse

You can find a lot of your stuff in this "feedburner".

feed://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/eOqB


I'm not going to hot link it so you can *see* the complete address.

MAY 13, 2011 8:17:00 PM CDT 
 Tibore said...
Yeah, the old content is gone. But the Google cached versions are intact, at least. Not the best thing, granted, but that should mean that somehow the old posts can be resurrected.

MAY 13, 2011 8:19:00 PM CDT 
 Lincolntf said...
"I might even have to read his blogs to find out what he eventually says about the whole kerfuffle."

Guerrilla marketing by being an insufferable prick? So dumb it actually worked. Anyway, you should have plenty of material to look at. According to his "bio" he's got at least half a dozen pseudo-eponymous blogs.

MAY 13, 2011 8:19:00 PM CDT 
 garage mahal said...
Odd seeing the comment on the masthead at the original blog. And the blog being gone. Maybe her husband didn't stop reading Althouse afterall

MAY 13, 2011 8:19:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
Yeah we never figured out who that woman was....Michelle.....hello...
Michelle....Buellar...anyone...

MAY 13, 2011 8:21:00 PM CDT 
 madawaskan said...
It has the photos also.

It looks like because there is so much data associated with your blog that it took them longer.

I know in some management decisions sometimes you make the decision to "sacrifice" the bigger table...

Hard to explain-but that's probably all that happened.

I mean really how big a threat can the only blogger who voted for Obama because McCain scared her because he was too much of an ideologue but at the same time not Conservative enough-really be?

MAY 13, 2011 8:21:00 PM CDT 
 FlaviusJulius said...
Where is my Profile pic?

MAY 13, 2011 8:23:00 PM CDT 
 madawaskan said...
This post has been removed by the author.
MAY 13, 2011 8:24:00 PM CDT 
 madawaskan said...
I think the only person that followed that *logic* married you and came to that conclusion after a 2 1/2 year delay...

And was probably threatened with...

sex.

Or no sex-or well-*scary sex *but with not too much idealism.

Jeebus.

MAY 13, 2011 8:26:00 PM CDT 
 blake said...
It's not really back, just responding. At least, =I= wouldn't consider it back if someone said "Hey! You're back--you just lost everything you've done for the past 8 years!"

I presume this means Althouse is at the front of the queue now. That's what I'd do were I in charge of this mess. It's one thing to be politically strident and another to have it seem as though that were impacting your business decisions.

(It does, of course, but they pick on the small fries whom no one cares about.)

MAY 13, 2011 8:26:00 PM CDT 
 Browndog said...
Not seeing many conservative bloggers rushing to Ann's defense--as I've seen them do with other bloggers with similar issued in the past.

Maybe they're still stuck on the "glitch" meme...waiting to see how this shakes out.

I saw it was removed this morning and was surprised. Now, I'm just shocked. Still.

Kinda shocked at myself for feeling a little bummed not being able to read Althouse.

MAY 13, 2011 8:28:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
It's a really big deal if all the old content was lost.

I mean we lost about 1000 comments of Titus pinching a loaf and Loafing Oaf pinching Sarah Palin's vagina.

MAY 13, 2011 8:28:00 PM CDT 
 Lincolntf said...
AoS put up a thread on the possible bannage,with links, etc.

MAY 13, 2011 8:29:00 PM CDT 
 Noah Bawdy™ said...
Your main blog is coming up now, no posts though.

MAY 13, 2011 8:30:00 PM CDT 
 Coketown said...
I would consider it a great personal tragedy if the Downward Spiral post from last fall was lost.

MAY 13, 2011 8:30:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
Somebody pointed out no word verification right now.

Fuckinay! Anybody want to buy some cheap herbal Viagra? I give very good price.

MAY 13, 2011 8:32:00 PM CDT 
 Michael said...
Well, I would say that this incident is not a positive advertisement for buying a cloudbook powered by google with all your work and software residing in the google administered "cloud." Good luck with that comrades.

MAY 13, 2011 8:33:00 PM CDT 
 chickelit said...
Trooper York said:
Garage was one of the few to quickly and unambigously wish them well.

Why that's just fogblather, blogfather! Here, check it out yourself: link.

Garage didn't even post in that thread.

MAY 13, 2011 8:33:00 PM CDT 
 Henry said...
Shocking Meat Video is back!

MAY 13, 2011 8:35:00 PM CDT 
 Anga2010 said...
First they came for the CrackMC, but I didn't care because I'm not CrackMC...

MAY 13, 2011 8:35:00 PM CDT 
 Browndog said...
What the hell is this?

I just checked the old site--

It's there, empty.

But, this is the masthead:

Althouse

"I'm so glad you posted this. I've been trying to convince my husband
not to read your blog for weeks and this finally did the trick."

MAY 13, 2011 8:37:00 PM CDT 
 Palladian said...
Notice that the archives list the post counts for each year. The content isn't lost, it just hasn't found its way home yet.

MAY 13, 2011 8:38:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
I don't know if it was that post but I seem to remember Garage wishing her well. I could stand corrected.

I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

You have to be nice to stupid people. Just sayn!

MAY 13, 2011 8:40:00 PM CDT 
 Prosecutorial Indiscretion said...
This post has been removed by the author.
MAY 13, 2011 8:43:00 PM CDT 
 edutcher said...
Trooper York said...

It does seem kind of fishy that as big a blog as Althouse is taking so long to get back on line. I mean this is a big dealio. Shouldn't they be paying attention to this or what?

I think Insta and Jacobson are. And I mentioned BlogHer, but, yes, if the Google Thought Police are pulling something cute because Ann doesn't censor - and because she took a stand in the recent troubles in Madison - then the Conservative and Libertarian blogospheres ought to be a lot more wound up about this.

MAY 13, 2011 8:44:00 PM CDT 
 garage mahal said...
Trooper
I'm almost positive you are correct. One of those threads anyway.

MAY 13, 2011 8:45:00 PM CDT 
 chickelit said...
I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

You have to be nice to stupid people. Just sayn!

I like garage too. He's one of the few people I've ever spoken to IRL from this blog.

MAY 13, 2011 8:46:00 PM CDT 
 Roger von Oech said...
Ann:

Good luck fighting your way through this current crap. I know you'll prevail!

For what's worth: I remember your saying a few years ago that you liked Blogger because it was free (as opposed to Typepad), and you didn't have to worry about having to pay to have access to your old posts. I assume you've changed your opinion.

MAY 13, 2011 8:47:00 PM CDT 
 Trooper York said...
That's how I remember it Garage. You were conspicious by being one of the few who did have something nice to say.

MAY 13, 2011 8:47:00 PM CDT 
 Seven Machos said...
Althouse ought to leave blogger. No matter what Google did to cause this, it's unacceptably bad.

Technical glitch. Bad.

Political censorship. Bad.

Chicanery because of glitch. Bad.

MAY 13, 2011 8:48:00 PM CDT 
 chickelit said...
garage mahal said: Trooper
I'm almost positive you are correct. One of those threads anyway.

Well maybe. It wasn't the engagement thread though. Check for yourself above.

Oh, and I think reader was the first to congratulate them after their wedding.

MAY 13, 2011 8:48:00 PM CDT 
 Chip S. said...
My first thought in seeing that the blog was a desaparecido was the same as garage's, and that the woman in question had mad hacking skills.

MAY 13, 2011 8:48:00 PM CDT 
 DADvocate said...
reflecting an assumption that law schools make choices based on diversity factors.

My assumption is that nearly all departments/schools/colleges in a university make choices based on diversity factors. My father was a psychology professor at a large state university. During the late 1970s/early 1980s, his department needed to hire a new department head. They tried for 2-3 years to hire a minority/female, preferably a female minority.

They failed because the supply was limited, the demand high and their salary too low. Instead they settled for the president of the APA who was merely a white male.

MAY 13, 2011 8:48:00 PM CDT 
 chickelit said...
@Palladian (if he's around):

Do you happen to know what happened to backtype.com? They no longer seem to host back comments from Althouse.

MAY 13, 2011 8:49:00 PM CDT 
 Matt said...
Your blog is back. Sadly, with no posts.

MAY 13, 2011 8:51:00 PM CDT 
 blake said...
Notice that the archives list the post counts for each year. The content isn't lost, it just hasn't found its way home yet.

Well, not to get too geeky 'cause I'm sure you're right BUT I would imagine the post counts are updated when posts are made, and not recalculated on every page load.

In other words, the counts being there just mean the counts are there, not the posts.

MAY 13, 2011 8:53:00 PM CDT 
 Chip S. said...
Uh oh. I just realized that I've contributed to the cesspool of homophobia by presuming that someone with a husband was a woman.

MAY 13, 2011 8:53:00 PM CDT 
 Michael said...
Why has your blog been on useless, clueless Blogspot since 2005 anyway?

I don't mean to blame the victim, but really, you could at least pay for your own server and use Blogger to publish it, or better yet WordPress.

This is like asking Ford why your Pinto blew up. That's what Pintos DO.

MAY 13, 2011 8:56:00 PM CDT 
 Quayle said...
If you were teaching a class - say at Northwestern - and you lauded big tits on a woman, you'd be a smash hit with the professoriate.

But you're commentators on a blog? You're unworthy of your title and position.

MAY 13, 2011 8:57:00 PM CDT 
 Chip S. said...
But you're commentators on a blog? You're unworthy of your title and position.

Unworthy of the exalted title of blog commenter?

MAY 13, 2011 9:02:00 PM CDT 
 Quayle said...

Unworthy of the exalted title of blog commenter?

Unworthy of the title professor and as a member of the academy.

MAY 13, 2011 9:05:00 PM CDT 
 RuyDiaz said...
I'm sorry but, it was Titus who offered the only (remotely, if at all) mysogynistic comment? That's pretty much all Titus does!

Between the snarky law professor, and Blogger Trouble, it has been farce all around.

MAY 13, 2011 9:06:00 PM CDT 
 RuyDiaz said...
Uh oh. I just realized that I've contributed to the cesspool of homophobia by presuming that someone with a husband was a woman.

Oh, shoot.

When I was a 14-year-old boy, back in 1990, I remember wondering just how big Benazhir Bhutto's breast were. It was hard to estimate, with her dressing in that unflattering Islamic dress and all.

That's mysogynistic and Islamophobic: take that!

MAY 13, 2011 9:12:00 PM CDT 
 Ralph L said...
Is it misogyny to admire someone's tits, or just to talk about them? I doubt he's interested in her "gyn" parts.

Leiter's blog could be a hotbed of Cfud-caliber anti-semitism. He's got a post called "Hung from Temple to Colorado."

MAY 13, 2011 9:13:00 PM CDT 
 blake said...
Unworthy of the title professor and as a member of the academy.

Probably the nicest thing anyone's said about Althouse all day!

MAY 13, 2011 9:14:00 PM CDT 
 Chip S. said...
@Quayle, Oh, OK. I reread your comment and now I get it. One of those times when "you're" vs. "your" wasn't clear from context.

Did you see that Northwestern recently dropped that sex class? Too high a ratio of hardware to soft porn.

MAY 13, 2011 9:19:00 PM CDT 
 starboardhelm said...
Ann, I would love to host your blog on my own server at writecraft.net (as althouse.writecraft.net or any domain name you want) for a very reasonable rate. I will even migrate your database if you can get a copy out Blogger. If you're interested, please contact me at support@writecraft.net.

MAY 13, 2011 9:19:00 PM CDT 

Meade got into the Capitol for the Governor's speech and, afterward, shot this video...

... which I edited:



0:00 — in the Assembly chamber
0:37 — in the rotunda, a Democratic legislator slips on a pile of peace signs
1:14 — a woman has a dog in the Capitol, and the vibration is freaking her out
2:12 — our Assemblyman Brett Hulsey calls it the "Budget Despair Bill"
2:35 — "Oh, oh, freedom..."
3:16 — "Which door do I go out if I don't want to be replaced?"
4:06 — "Is there a door I can go out where someone else won't come in because I went out?"
4:35 — boombox duct taped to a stand made of cross-country skis
5:06 — Meade inquires about a child labeled "planted troublemaker"
5:21 — folkie guy plays "When the Ship Comes In"
6:26 — the folkie switches to rap
7:50 — "I'll be growin' food with all my friends and we'll be livin' on a big farm somewhere."

The NYT finds it appropriate to praise a blatantly racist YouTube parody about President Obama.

I watched the video "Head of the State" because the Times sent me there, and now — in addition to fighting nausea — I'm marveling at the embarrassing writing made possible by the newspaper's perversely politically correct need to appreciate rap music and culture:

It’s first-rate parody, and also untested waters. Mr. Obama was a favorite of comedians even before he was elected president, but typically his stiffness and aloofness are their targets. In reimagining the President as an off-duty, fun-chasing tough guy, Baracka Flacka Flames is a different proposition.

On the one hand, it’s witty and incisive parody, as fluent in Mr. Obama’s tics as in hip-hop manners. The clip was filmed in front of an abandoned house in South Central Los Angeles and echoes the video of Waka Flocka Flame’s original song.

As well, it’s seemingly an acknowledgment by the filmmakers that racial stereotypes still shape how some people perceive the first couple, and that many divergent stripes of blackness can be collapsed into one idea.

As well, you have taken leave of your senses!

"You're looking like a fool" is not the same "message" as "What kind of message is that sending?"

Did Larry "Pants on the Ground" Platt rip off "Pockets on the Floor" by The Green Brothers? (Videos of the songs at the link.)

Certainly, the artists are working the same theme of the proximity of inappropriate pants to the plane upon which the pants-wearer is standing. But I find The Green Brothers' complaint — "The General's song have the same intent, idea and in part the same message" — unpersuasive, though I appreciate the subtlety of "in part."

Surely, the part of the message that is the simple disapproval of giant, saggy pants is the same, but other than that, Platt heads straight for mockery aimed at the pride of the individual. The Green Brothers are imploring young men to become upstanding members of the community, with pants-improvement being merely the beginning or the symbol of an extensive self-betterment project that ought to be undertaken not for the psychological boon to the individual but for the benefit of society.

Platt is an excitable old guy squealing with comic outrage: "You're looking like a fool with your pants on the ground." The Green Brothers, by contrast, sound more like community leaders the public school brought in to lecture to the kids in a musical style the authorities think might reach them about the importance of taking responsibility in all aspects of life to send a message to others about how to be a good role model in the community. The Green Brothers mean well and have come to help, while Larry Platt is mad and venting.

In short, Platt wins in the battle of the pants songs. (And I'm not talking about copyright law. You can't copyright ideas, and even if you could, how could anyone claim to have originated the idea of disapproving of oversized pants?) Platt is more entertaining because he's all about expressing himself, whereas The Green Brothers are earnestly trying to tell other people what to do. And Platt's concern is the dignity of the individual, whereas The Green Brothers want the individual to assume the proper role for the good of the whole.

If this were politics — and it kind of is — we'd characterize Platt as right-wing and The Green Brothers as left-wing. The Green Brothers are kind of Obama, while Platt is McCain.

Maybe sandhill cranes like rap music.

This was out by Lake Mendota yesterday:

"[W]hat is hip-hop studies, and what would a hip-hop studies program offer that is not already available on campus?"

The debate here on campus.

Katrina Flores, arts and education director for First Wave, a student organization that focuses on involving students in hip-hop culture on campus, said hip-hop studies allows for an interdisciplinary connection between departments because students can study hip-hop from a sociological, anthropological or scientific perspective.

“You can’t just come in and study somebody’s culture. You have to live it, you have to breathe it and you have to be doing it,” she said.

Flores added that she is currently working with the UW-Madison physics department to encourage them to do more interdisciplinary research between science and culture.

“I struggled with physics ... but if it can relate to my world and if we can be interdisciplinary in that way then there are so many more possibilities for engagement,” she said.

Maybe you should struggle with physics. Think about it: If the physics teachers on their own had decided to meld hip-hop with their classroom presentation on the theory that it would make it more accessible to you, you would have — or should have — felt insulted and outraged. And yet you want to make them do it to you.

Gethsemane Herron, a UW-Madison freshman, said she does not see why UW-Madison wouldn’t have a hip-hop studies program, highlighting its importance in today’s society.

“How can we ignore something that has permeated American culture,” Merron said. “I feel like to not have hip-hop studies is to offer an incomplete education.”

So what is it? The answer, Ms. Herron (Merron?), is precisely that pop culture permeates the world of young Americans. Why pursue even more of it in college? Learn new things. Get what you can't get just living in the world soaking up the things you naturally love and enjoy. What is the point of going to college?