Listening Post

Late last year, Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars of the Replacements reunited to record an EP of covers called Songs for Slim -- with the proceeds going to their former bandmate Slim Dunlap, who recently suffered a stroke.

Yeah, it's not new original material, but it's still great to hear the Mats back together after more than two decades -- regardless of the unfortunate turn of events that led to the reunion.

Here's the Replacements doing Gordon Lightfoot's I'm Not Sayin'.

Pledge Hammer: Day 1

It's been a very long time since I've done one of these, mostly because a lot of my writing has gone directly over to the Daily Banter and not everything here has been entirely exclusive. But DXM is still my baby and we've seen a good amount of content here recently as I try to ramp things up again, so I guess it doesn't hurt to drop my hat onto the digital sidewalk and ask for a little spare change. Yes, it's time for a pledge drive.

You know how it works: If you like what you find here at DXM and, more recently, on The Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show podcast and at the Daily Banter -- if you find my rapier wit, not-at-all-penetrating insight, pathetic attempts at comedy, public fights with critics, musical picks and general juvenile behavior entertaining -- then by all means feel free to throw some money toward keeping these proceedings humming along.

There are three ways you can put your hard-earned cash toward the DXM media empire and its humble proprietor. The first is the easiest: Just click the Paypal electronic tip link in the right-hand sidebar of this screen and donate away. You can also use the Paypal tip jar to pay-what-you-want for a digital copy of my book, Dead Star Twilight, for iPad or Kindle. Go here to begin your instant download. Remember, it's a full length book -- 300-some-odd pages that'll feel like 299-some-odd-pages -- and it can be yours for whatever you feel like putting toward it. The last way you can give is by buying a physical copy of Dead Star Twilight from Amazon. To purchase the paperback, just click here. (By the way, buying the book gives the least amount of money to the site since I only get a small cut; I want to sell books but I know there are some people out there who would want to be made aware of that.)

As always I want to thank everyone who continues to read, share, comment on and generally indulge in this little experiment of mine. We're coming up on our seven-year anniversary around here and, astonishingly, I have yet to be sued, arrested for, or killed over anything that's appeared here (although there were one or two threats of physical violence within the past week or so). I write my ass off on a near-daily basis, whether it's specifically for here or for here, Banter and the Huffington Post, and I sure as hell don't do it because it makes me rich -- I do it because I love it and because you guys still inexplicably keep wanting to read it. So, again, thank you from the bottom of the dank pit where my heart is supposed to be.

An update tomorrow.

Now back to your regularly scheduled nonsense.

I See Your Boobs and Raise You...

Over the past week I've been inundated with all kinds of tweets and e-mails from various unhappy parties, all in response to the series of posts and columns I published about The Onion and Seth MacFarlane. I figured I'd get some hate mail regardless, but I did my best to take as nuanced an approach as possible to the whole controversy so that might have tempered the reaction at least slightly. Still, there was the expected outrage, with some accusing me of "mansplaining" and saying that I had no right to tell people, specifically women, what they can and can't be pissed about, and others hurling the tired "white male privilege" line at me. Not a big deal either way given that I generally don't spend too much time worrying whether I'm disliked or even just misunderstood.

But given the response to my relatively measured analysis of the Oscars -- an event which inexplicably turned into a flashpoint for indignation on par with four hours of televised, forced sodomy -- I can only imagine the kind of crap a quickie rant on the ridiculousness of the whole "We Saw Your Boobs" outcry would draw.

And that's why I'm trying to make sure as many people as possible see Banter overlord Ben Cohen's posts on the subject. Because he dispensed with all the flowery rhetoric and just called Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis's outrage over MacFarlane's jokes what they kind of are: silly and self-righteous. I don't think that just because you've taken off your clothes on film or because you regularly get plastic surgery you're somehow disqualified from calling out a crude joke about boobs (even though this particular joke was purposely crude and undeniably intended to be ironic). I don't think it makes you a hypocrite, necessarily. But Ben's right that Fonda's a pompous bore and Curtis's claim about taking it off over and over again only under internal protest reeks of convenient revisionist history.

Also, I just like to stir the pot and want to see Ben get hammered. Because I'm an asshole.

So read, and if you disagree, leave a nasty comment or send him an angry e-mail -- because he'll be reading it while sitting on a big pile of money in the bedroom of the mansion he had built from the ground up by young children and naked women. Fucking white guy.

The Daily Banter: Jane Fonda Bores Everyone To Death Over Boobs/3.1.13

The Daily Banter: Jamie Lee Curtis Weighs in on "Boob-gate"/3.4.13

Suffering Without Silence

Lindsay Noonan SanGiacomo is one of my favorite people in the world. She and I worked together as producers at CNN in New York City, hung out a lot outside of work, and generally bonded over everything from the perils of producing news to what at the time was our mutual lousy luck with relationships. I can't mention her without being honest about the importance of her role in my life: She pretty much saved me during the early part of 2009, when my marriage was falling apart, New York City began to seem like a very dark and lonely place, and I felt like I had nowhere to turn. Linds gave me a friend to talk to, a shoulder to lean on, and a place to go that I knew was safe. For that I'll always be grateful.

She got married not too long after I left and had a baby boy not long after that. She always wanted to be a good wife and a loving mother and I know that she's now both -- and this makes me very, very happy. A couple of weeks ago, though, she wrote to me to ask if I'd take a look at something she'd written that she was hoping to get published somewhere. I of course agreed and, upon reading, was heartbroken to learn that she'd recently had a miscarriage. She lost her second child. What she wrote about the experience, in the form of a series of tips on what not to say to someone who's miscarried, was tough stuff, but it was easy to see how valuable it could be to other women dealing with a kind of grief I can't even imagine (and those around them).

The Huffington Post has now published Lindsay's column.

Do yourself a favor and take a look.

The Huffington Post: What Not To Say To a Woman After a Miscarriage/3.4.13

The Rich Get Bitchier

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a look at the not-so-triumphant return of the Romneys.

So, what have they learned since the drubbing Mitt took last November?

Not a thing.

Here's the opening shot:

"It’ll be tough to hear this, I know, but Mitt and Ann Romney are still confused, bitter and just plain sick-to-death over the fact that they’re not in the White House right now. I mean, when you pay for something — whether it be goods or services — you’re supposed to receive it. That’s how the system works. It’s certainly the way it’s always worked for the Romneys in the past. It’s what makes this nation great, dammit, and if you make a deal with the country that involves spending millions of dollars for the presidency of the United States, then the country reneges on that deal, what results is anarchy. How can rich people ever trust the value of their money and privilege again?

I have no doubt you’ve missed the Romneys since the destiny Mitt had been promised since birth slammed headlong into the ugly reality of what the American people actually wanted. If Mitt Romney’s lightning-fast exile to historical oblivion shocked you, trust me, it shocked Mitt, Ann and the rest of their family even more."

Read the Rest Here

Assistant Quote of the Day

"John and I are hell-bent on making sure the American people understand this debacle called Benghazi."

-- Lindsey Graham on Face the Nation yesterday, threatening to hold up the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA chief until, of course, something-something-Benghazi

I know. John McCain and Lindsey Graham on the Sunday news shows again, talking about Benghazi again. What are the chances, right? These two are like a Vaudeville act at this point -- or maybe a once-popular band from a couple of decades ago now forced to play the hits nobody gives a shit about on the state fair circuit. Except, of course, that they're actually getting prime arena gigs by still, for reasons not even God knows, snagging invitations every damn week to appear on Face the Nation, Meet the Press and This Week.

The American people understand Benghazi perfectly. It's precisely why we don't care, no matter how "hell-bent" Graham and McCain are on making us.

Quote of the Day

"For us to sort of slap them on the face and say, we no longer want your services or we're embarrassed by you and ashamed of you and we'd like to put you in the back of the tent just felt really dismissive and disrespectful."

-- S.E. Cupp on her decision not to attend CPAC this year because of its exclusion of gay conservative groups

Cupp says that she has a "long and wonderful" relationship with CPAC, which really makes me wonder if anything she says is worth a damn. But there is something to be said for her willingness to acknowledge how painfully backward the conservative power structure is these days. The unspoken reality of a statement like this is that it will almost surely get Cupp labeled a RINO -- or worse, an all-out liberal -- simply because she doesn't want to see members of the LGBT community driven into the sea.

Keep in mind that while CPAC made the wise decision to exclude anti-Muslim lunatic Pamela Gellar from its roster this year, there are a hell of a lot of Tea Party types who are furious about it.