for an artist like him to take his life at a moment of such national insanity is hard to dismiss as a coincidence.

Yeah, I also couldn't help have Sarah Palin flash into my mind the moment I heard the awful news about Wallace -- not in any crass sense of a causal link, more a sense of a kind of synchronicity of events. No country for thoughtful men. (Check Andrew Sullivan's blog for another thoughtful man being driven to extremity by our current moment of national insanity.)

Perhaps something just went terribly wrong with his brain chemistry and there's no more profound explanation for it.

However, it's hard not to find oneself shaken and searching for larger patterns when someone so humane, intelligent, and observant of human events seems to find life no longer worth living.

If deaths of great people happen in 3s, as the cliche goes, I'd group Wallace with Elliott Smith and Mitch Hedberg, two other late greats who humanely went about making life better for those who loved them (but bafflingly couldn't do the same for themselves.) May they all rest in peace.

the Obama ad is far more effective than the Dukakis one, as it cites scathing words from outside sources and sticks to a very simple point, with the added bonus of tying McCain to Bush on the economy.

Too many words in the Dukakis ad...and who's really surprised by Dukakis thinking attacks against him are dishonest? Either the art of political ad-making has made that much progress over the last 20 years, or maybe that particular Dukakis ad was just amateur hour.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001233/

Each team has about a 50-50 chance in sudden death. The success rate on two-point conversions has been similar in the last few years after spending about a decade closer to 40 percent.

But that doesn't matter. In the risk-averse NFL, even if two-point conversion tries were good 75 percent of the time, the play would be to kick and go to overtime because of that 25 percent failure rate.

This is such a strange passage of logic.

In other words, bravo to Shanahan for taking a bad risk according to the odds -- akin to betting one's life-savings on black in a roulette game, something no one would recommend --, because most of the risk-averse NFL hypothetically wouldn't take that risk even if the odds were far greater.

You ever heard of two wrongs don't make a right? Or actual fact trumping speculative hypothesis?

p.s. -- fantastic game, and truly shocking end to it. It is fun when people foolishly buck the odds, but that doesn't ever make it smart. (BTW, I nod my head in agreement every time I read you attack the conventional basketball wisdom of sitting players in foul trouble -- that, conversely, is foolish risk aversion.)

Not this year.

why the following sentiment

she is absolutely, hands-down the most ludicrous person ever to be nominated. She's a "South Park" character. There was a mix-up. Mistakes were made.

isn't almost universal, is just one of those mysteries.

I'm a very religious Christian, but I am so scared of the stupidity of the large masses of fundamentalist Christians in this country, stupidity that flattens everything in their path, that erases history and every bit of tradition that can't fit in a soundbite or slogan. We're going to find out in November if these idiots are really the majority in this country. God bless 'em, but let's hope not.

were inspired choices. Their performances were full, complex, conflicted, searing. I don't know how the Emmy process works, but the results suggest that actors voted on those awards.

Hard to believe those gems were plucked out of the same awards show that nominates Sheen, Shatner, and Shalhoub every year.

She's no great intellect, but she's certainly not as stupid as she appears in this clip. She somehow ascended to be the most popular governor in the country -- that takes at least some verbal intelligence.

The programmatic crash course in foreign policy + the shielding from the press + the pressure seems to have made her something of a mental basket case. It's understandable; most people just aren't cut out for the big leagues, especially when they're thrust into them with minimal preparation.

It's John McCain's fault, not hers, ultimately. All attacks should be sent his way. He should have known better.

What a strange, reckless, foolish campaign he's running. At the moment, he's still coasting on his considerable reputation. If he continues to exhaust what remains of that political capital in the next 40 days, we could heading for an Obama landslide.

I gave it a try on ONDemand already. Havrilesky isn't kidding; it's bad. Bad animation. No characters. Only the dimmest sort of jokes. Amoral, but not in any interesting way.

Little Britain is far more imaginative, but not especially hilarious or meaningful either, in my opinion. Its humor seems to rely on shock value...but who's left to shock anymore?

Both shows left me with a hollow feeling. Neither has any discernable heart.

I just want to know how much HBO paid for both shows, and what percentage of a final season of Deadwood could have been paid for with that money.