Want to see the FLOTUS on Friday?

Just wanted to let you know that while I was on line initially and waited about an hour with Mrs. Nevskaya, there's no line now and tickets are still available. Just head over to the Downtown Mall and 4th Street and you'll see the table...

Danny, I'm killing my eyes...

So this weekend I was hit with a somewhat nasty cold, with one of its lovely side effects being my left eye swelling up and turning red and pus-drippy.

As a result, it became painful to look at a computer screen or television, to the point where on Monday I tried to forego the internet entirely, which unfortunately revealed to me the depths to which I had become addicted. I knew it had to be the one day something actually interesting happened on Facebook and it drove me nuts that I couldn't look at it...

Fortunately, today the swelling and pain diminished to the point where I could get through the workday, despite my duties solely consisting of staring at computer screens.

And lest my tone not make it clear, I am fully aware that blowing out one's eye to the point of not being able to surf the web is the very model of a modern major white person's problem. This post has been made to invite ridicule, not sympathy.

And it's always a good excuse to post this...

Daring Duckie to debate? Good luck with that...

I feel for challenger John Douglass, who is challenging Robert Hurt to five debates even though it's almost certainly a futile exercise.

After all, Hurt ducked debates repeatedly two years ago and still won. Actually, that was probably the smart move, because when he did deign to share a stage with Perriello, he got his clock cleaned.

But accountability has never been a strong suit for Mr. Hurt; this is the guy who "promised" to be as accessible to his constituents as Mr. Perriello was. He may as well have promised to fart out free gold ingots for whatever expectations he had on being called on it.

So good luck to Mr. Douglass for trying to hold his feet to the fire, but he's got a real big hill to climb...

Time for another edition of "Albums I Should Have Listened To Years Ago But Only Getting Around To Now"...

...brought to you by Pepto-Bismol!

In today's edition, from 2001, it's Daft Punk's Discovery!

And remember, shoppers, Pepto-Bismol is the only one that coats!

IT COATS, DAMMIT! IT FUCKING COATS!!

Put your money where your mouth is, or you ain't saying nothin'...

[Started this one when the storm hit, thought I'd go ahead and finish it up. - n42]

I am very heartened to see headlines like these touting the big donations that have come in since President Sullivan has been reinstated to UVa. A few million here and there won't change things too much in the long term, but if the University does manage to close out its capital campaign in the not-too-distant future, it might relieve some of the pressure that Sullivan's facing and silence some critics.

I doubt alumni will be super-pleased with McDonnell's decision to reinstate Dragas, however. More than anything else I find the decision baffling. Colleagues noted to me that McDonnell wants things to quiet down as quickly as possible, and while I agree with that, I fail to see how keeping Dragas on accomplishes that. McDonnell's weak justifications and use of the passive voice ignore that this was a manufactured crisis started by Dragas in the first place, so he either has no idea what's going on or doesn't care. I'm guessing the latter, and as far as that affects McDonnell's future political ambitions, well, maybe there aren't that many UVa alumni in the world.

Happy Independence Day!

Viva Italia! (or something)

Halftime at the Euro Cup, just chillin' with the missus at fry's spring station. Who else is watching?

Holy fuck, what a storm...

Hope you're safe and keeping cool. We lost our power around ten last evening and got it back about noon, thank the heavens. Felt so sorry for our little Monty, that double coat doesn't help you in the summer, and the uncomfortable sleepless night was punctuated with his panting away...

And by the time I got around to try to buy ice in the morning, everything was sold out. All of this has helped to reaffirm my belief that I have no survival skills whatsoever and in a postapocalyptic society I would be one of the first ones eaten. I would be hard-pressed, for example, to build you a fire without matches, unless my coke-bottle glasses could produce a flame a la Piggy's specs in Lord of the Flies. But you would have probably sliced my jugular with your razor boomerang and just put the glasses in your ammo kit, all the while roasting my skin dry for a nice bag of jerky to munch on as you trudge back to your tribe in New Blood City...

It hasn't helped that I just read "The Road" either.

Well, stay cool!

Doesn't the sky seem especially bright and blue today?

I swear, if someone told me on Monday that President Sullivan would be reinstated, and the Affordable Care Act would be upheld, albeit by an unnecessarily razor-thin margin, I'd have told that person to put the pipe down! But sanity, for a day or two, has managed to prevail! So sleep well, everybody!

A few more thoughts about yesterday...

- This comment by GT Shin on Cvillenews sums up beautifully the extent of chicanery that occurred at the hands of Dragas and her cohorts, and why her sticking around (for now) is a little hard to swallow.

- Having said that, I honestly have no idea what McDonnell's going to do about it. My first impression was that the vote of confidence (eyeroll) for Dragas at the end signaled she was going to stick around, but I don't know if the guv would necessarily want to reward her for the unnecessary shitstorm she stirred up. Not reappointing Dragas would signal that he has at least a bit of concern for UVa's reputation, but up to this point he hasn't shown much to me beyond a desire to have it all blow over.

- I can't help but wonder how Mark Kington and Peter Kiernan are feeling; it seems that they were helping Dragas with everything, yet they fell on their swords while she (so far) gets off scot-free.

- And almost needless to say, I received a fundraising e-mail from the College today. But I think I'll follow the lead of the Facebook group that formed to reinstate Sullivan and send a token donation to the President's Fund For Excellence.

Well, THAT was surprisingly anticlimactic...

President Sullivan was voted back unanimously; as an obvious sop to the BOV, Dragas was given a vote of confidence as well as a good tongue-bathing by Fralin... Hey, I'm all for moving forward and working together, especially if that's what all the parties involved TRULY want, but I will say that all the forceful assertions that Dragas was a person with integrity wouldn't have been necessary if she hadn't facilitated this unnecessary crisis.

UVa 1, WSJ 0...

As Waldo documented today, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial on the Teresa Sullivan firing that was a crime against good writing and sound logic. The comments section ran like Bizarro Yahoo, as the audience took it upon themselves to correct the numerous errors and false assertions.

The most glaring error concerned a statement signed by ten of the eleven UVa deans calling for Sullivan's reinstatement. The WSJ supposed that since the business school dean was the holdout, it was proof that the faculty were anti-business and saw the Sullivan firing as a threat to their tenured positions. Of course, the only dean that didn't sign was in fact the dean of the undergraduate School of Commerce, Carl Zeithaml, who had just been named interim president and was not asked to sign the letter out of respect for his difficult position.

Meanwhile, Dean Bruner of the Darden Business School provided his own smackdown, noting that not only had he signed the Deans' statement, he was one of its writers.

While the Wall Street Journal has noted the correction, the actual content of the editorial has not changed, with "UVa faculty vs. Dean of Business School" becoming "UVa faculty vs. business in general". When your unsupported conclusion is already in place before you begin to write, shifting and removing inconvenient facts isn't that difficult.

What is all the more galling is that this piece of dreck screams Hill & Knowlton, the PR firm that's being employed by Rector Helen Dragas to repair her reputation and paid for with funds from a UVa foundation. I wonder how donors will feel about their philanthropic dollars being used this way.

And when it all shakes out, I hope McDonnell remembers what happens here should he decide to run for Senator later. Because Virginia will.

I stand with President Sullivan...

I attended the rally today and came away very impressed with those that spoke out in favor of her return. And as shocked as I have been over the past two weeks, I was resigned to it happening, and as excited co-workers talked about the Faculty Senate's actions, I, sad to say, was dismissive and cynical.

"Oooooh, the faculty's not happy! What are they going to do, tear off the leather patches off their jackets? Have sex with their hot grad assistants in protest?"

Shame on me. And good on them for keeping the noise up and making forceful yet reasonable arguments. McDonnell's mealy-mouthed statement was disgusting; the bulk of the letter is spent chastising the alleged "tone" of those seeking Sullivan's return, but the graffiti on the Rotunda was nowhere near as offensive as the action that precipitated it.

I hope against hope (and despite what I think will happen) that President Sullivan will be back. No one deserves to lose their job like she did, but she didn't deserve to lose it in the first place.

UPDATE: Silly me for not mentioning Waldo Jaquith for his fantastic reporting on this issue. The Daily Progress has been surprisingly good as well, but I only look on that site on my smartphone because I'm afraid the malware that pops up on that website from time to time would destroy my ancient computer...

I'd call this an "open thread" if people read this blog.

Wikipedia tells me that thalidomide was taken off the market in 1961.

But when you read the comments left on Yahoo News articles, you end up questioning that.

Good for you, Mr. President.

I'm glad you've taken this mainstream position, along with the majority of the country.

Yes, yes, f***ing count Ron Paul out already...

This article had the link "Don't count out Ron Paul yet!" Oh Lord, spare me from these insane maniacs...

Oh, wait, they're torturing Romney? Go at it, you patriots, you! Your mission is not insanely idiotic at all!

...and John McCain's an asshole.

Way to stay classy.

Man, these elections are going to be especially painful...

Rush Limbaugh is a racist dick.

Disagree and be wrong. And when someone significant invariably calls him on his bullshit, the fake outrage will spew from his loathsome tongue for hours on his show tomorrow, which I will be busy ignoring.

Jesus Christ, what an asshole.

Another issue of "things I wish I never read"...

The headline says it all:

Ann Romney: ‘Unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out’

There's not enough "ewwwwwwwwwwwwww" and "ickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk" in the world...

Pointing out racists are racist is racist yet fucking again...

God fucking forbid people can't even agree that a kid should be able to walk down the street and not get fucking shot. How can this even be an argument? How?

And yet I read the yahoo comments on these articles and I'm just floored. I shouldn't be; people who comment on yahoo have long ago proven the continued underground use of thalidomide by their mothers. But every time I think we've hit rock bottom they replace the moronic drill bit...

Since I've been slacking...

...go ahead and read Commander Sue's blog. She's still the wind beneath my wings...