Blogs
Yosemite Sam just wants to be heard
A case of the world of toonery breaking into our reality? A distress call from the pixellated? A skin of skins. And truly a case of the runs.Didn't we once call this “the banality of evil”?
Just next door in New Hampshire, Republican state rep. Martin Harty, who was about 25 years old in 1945, offers an idea whose time has come (and gone). The Concord Monitor (owned by Newspapers of New England, which also owns the Advocate), got the right no-nonsense...Another War
How remarkable to suddenly discover that we are involved in another Middle Eastern conflict. This one is billed as mere no-fly zone and protection, though that’s a tune we’ve heard before. This action in Libya comes with the imprimatur of the U.N., and...A small but important victory
For once, there’s major progress in impeding the incessant destruction of civil liberties for “security” purposes. If you’ve followed the fight to do away with clearly unconstitutional, abuse-prone spying powers that Bush gave himself and Obama...The Extraordinary Story of a Platoon Gone Wrong
As part of a large-scale project, I’ve been up to my eyeballs lately in stories from veterans. Hearing such stories firsthand, I’ve come to believe, demands leaving politics at the door. Understanding the personal and human experience of war is an endeavor...Go Badgers
In Wisconsin, Stephan Thompson, deputy executive director of the state Republican Party, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison to get the emails of Professor Bill Cronon. What had Cronon done to deserve such a thing? Well, he...The 12-Tone Republican Chorale
If you’ve perused the specifics of the Paul Ryan budget proposal, you’ll no doubt–whether you find it admirable or loathsome–have realized its purpose is aparently to force the debate much further to the right. An anonymous commenter...A Barber Shop Conversation
Recently, I sat in the barber shop waiting for my turn in the chair. A gentleman who sat next to me said to the several of us in the room that he’d had it with this Wikileaks guy, Bradley Manning. He said, “They ought to execute him.” Some mumbling...Alisa Rosenbaum, (wannabe) curse of the modern era
Jon Stewart hits a homerun re: the crossing of conservative values with the just plain a$$hole values of Ayn Rand (Alisa Rosenbaum). He also calls Obama on a bit of crypto-political speak: The Daily ShowTags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire...A Taxing Question
Why is the current taxation debate framed in such silly fashion–i.e., want corporations to come nearer their supposed obligations? You hate profit! Favor a more progressive income tax rate? You’re a socialist who wants my money! Entertaining, but not...A Visit to the Techno-temple
Technology is often a matter of faith, oh ye of wetware synapses. This ought to be enough to occasion a few new apostates. A small camera fitted to the glasses can capture 400 facial images per second and send them to a central computer database storing up to 13...A roundup: Jesus hates Net Neutrality and more
Et tu, GOP? Two polls show majorities supporting tax increases on those who make more than $250,000 per year. One of the polls even shows a majority of Republicans supporting that. I guess a lot of Republicans understand that progressive tax does not equal socialism,...The Real Battle?
There can’t be many people who will miss Osama bin Laden. It’s nonetheless dismaying to see people reacting in pretty much exactly the same way they do to winning sports events. Chest-thumping makes most anyone look thick. This was a sobering, violent...The Arab Spring plus bin Laden's death equals?
Now is a particularly good time to check in with Middle East expert Juan Cole. He’s offering a rundown of how bin Laden’s death has gone down in the Arab world. His blog is always an extraordinarily interesting read, but his views and info are especially...Conspiracy central: Osama-Obama?
Here’s a good rundown of supposed Osama bin Laden conspiracies. It’s too good to pass up if you enjoy the fringes. The top 2 are particularly good, and the first is an award-winner: 1. President Obama is actually bin Laden in disguise 2. The U.S. had bin...Osama Conspiracy Central continued; some cool techno news
The best part of conspiracy theories–though that’s certainly a slippery, subjective term–is that they can’t be proven or disproved, so their life span is often extremely long, their claims a feedback loop of outlandishness. In the wake of bin...Bad bin Laden songs
The trend continues: first, a stinker of a tune arrived within 24 hours of bin Laden’s death, written that fast. It was a real face-palmer and a total attempt to get the gentleman’s name in headlines (so no link). But today comes news of an already...John McCain: credit where credit's due
Interesting, given that John McCain has been tortured, that he remains consistently opposed to America’s employing of torture. He’s not been swayed by the dubious narrative about torture yielding bin Laden: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took to the Senate floor...What light in yonder crater breaks?
Some cool stuff from other realms. some hairy: The biennial beard championships just sprouted in Norway. I love that this guy needed help– I don’t know what to say about this unsavory mystery except that when someone knocks at the door, perhaps it’s...Coffee is for Closers: Mamet Gets the Leads
David Mamet has written some brilliant plays and films. He’s inconsistent, but when he’s good–House of Games, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna, American Buffalo–he’s all but peerless. Much is being made at present of Mamet’s very public...At a taco bar somewhere in Texas, Bush is chuckling
How comfortable is it to live in a country where the government can do what it wants, no matter how reprehensible or illegal, then cover its tracks by uttering a phrase that magically makes court cases disappear? Oh, I know–if you haven’t done anything...Bachmann-Palin Overdrive
A 2012 election prediction: “maverick” Sarah Palin will run while not running, then attempt to circumvent the actual primaries in some mavericky way. Heck, she may even not run, not win, and set up her own not-shadow government in a “Maverick...Sharks, Spandex and Cupcakes
Some strange news to report after several days of R&R: 1) Sharks love AC/DC. Great White is probably going to rend its spandex in horror. Which is fine, as long as they don’t make any more albums. 2) Mirrors pretty much really can do magic. 3) MI6 has a...So they dropped bin Laden near a big wave kind of like that one…
A salvage diver wants to go find bin Laden’s body to see if he’s dead or if it’s all psy-ops. The ocean isn’t that big a place, so that should go pretty well. Dude says he’s never missed finding a ship he went after, which must mean he...An end to photo frustration?
How about a camera with focus that’s adjustable–later. Claims about the demise of conventional cameras are no doubt premature–all artistic tools remain viable far longer than mere marketers ever predict–but this is still remarkable and a...When government turns evil: the plot to take away your right to pay more for the same old thing just because you want to
Oh sure, we could phase out old light bulb technology in order to lower everyone’s electric bills, but that would be Big Brother influencing our lighting choices. Or something. I’m not quite sure how to follow this winding road. The effort to move to...Amish outlaw can't outrun cops
There’s something gallant about this young rebel. Use what you got, eh? He may be part of an international crime ring, however. If you’ve ever been to a German-speaking country, you’re likely familiar with rostbratwurst, basically a 2-foot sausage...But more importantly, are we still “the greatest nation on earth”?
Just in case anyone forgets who’s really behind the curtain: “The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we...Warren Buffet: Spotted Owl?
I often wonder if the Tea Partiers understand the current tax situation they defend with such vehemence. Perhaps more of them than we realize are billionaires for whom the payroll tax is inconsequential? If you haven’t seen it, it’s most certainly worth...Wind, rain, questionable lyrics, hurricanes: Oh the humanity
I truly hate to do it, but… here’s some lyrics seared into my brain by an over-earnest folk singer years ago: He wonders about the wind and the rain how they live so long how they stand the pain Source unknown, but my hat’s off to this scribe. What...Have a daughter?
Then you’ll no doubt have an opinion about the webkerfuffle that arrived yesterday in which people took great exception to a T-shirt for young girls, from JC Penney, emblazoned: “I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for...9/11, Devolution
I didn’t want to tune in to the long-winded televised reminders of the trauma of 9/11. The wake of that terrible event saw even the (ridiculously) maligned French declaring “We’re all Americans now,” a remarkable expression of the zeitgeist...The End® is Nigh™, oh ye Yurbans®
From the “Please can I move to another planet now” file, I give you the latest release to arrive in my Inbox: INSPIRATIONAL DUO MARY MARY HELPS PILLSBURY LAUNCH FROZEN GRANDS!® BISCUIT SANDWICHES AND EGG SCRAMBLES™ Multi-Grammy Award-Winning Duo...Tom Waits' Bad As Me ain't half bad
Granted, I go all wobbly-kneed at the mention of a new Tom Waits album, but the brand new Bad As Me is fantastic. Its ballads sound a lot like many another Waits ballad–never bad, but not really breaking new ground. Some of the upbeat pieces, though, astound...Killing an American without due process? Move along. Nothing to see here.
Anwar Al-Awlaki was a jihadist who clearly had to be dealt with. Al-Awlaki was also an American citizen, killed by his own government without due process. With his death, he gained a terrible victory: proving that we as a nation are not in fact a nation of laws, but...A Sky Full of Dark Stuff
When you look at the stars, you probably know what you’re seeing, or at least you think so. If your sky-gazing needs a bit of extra mystery, nature seems to have provided it: Oct 18, 2011: NASA’s Fermi team recently released the second catalog of gamma-ray...Liberté
Call them cheese-eating surrender monkeys if you must be a total tranche de merde–I love the French. (I also love cheese.) Long ago, I spent a couple of summers working in a massive trench full of Frenchmen, digging up Bronze Age house foundations. It may be...Errol Morris and the mysterious JFK assassination umbrella
What to make of a lone black umbrella in sun-drenched Dallas?At last! The columbarium of my congregation's dreams!
The best spam I have ever received. How did they know?: Hello, You may have noticed that cremation is on the rise. Our modular indoor columbarium allows you to meet the cremation needs of your membership while earning additional revenue for your church. Our system is...Return of the Boys from the Dwarf
I’ve been told by reliable sources that I’m not a geek, that I merely possess some geek lineage. Don’t know if it’s precisely the case, but I have only ever played Dungeons and Dragons for approximately 30 cumulative minutes. On the other hand,...Bogarted Poetry
Today my mailbox held a plastic bag emblazoned “under investigation” or somesuch. Inside was an envelope that should have contained a contributor’s copy of a literary journal that had the temerity to publish a poem of mine. Somebody, apparently...Un Santa Andalou
I didn’t know Guy Maddin was making a Christmas movie.We could indefinitely detain you just because we want to, but trust us, we won't, and we're not crossing our fingers behind our backs!
Talk about burying big news–this is what the administration did over the New Year’s weekend: Says the ACLU, “President Obama’s action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite...A delicious SOPA/PIPA replacement
All this talk of SOPA/PIPA got me thinking. I’m announcing SOPA/PILLA, requiring every household to stock supplies for at least five days’ worth of delicious sopapillas*. They taste divine, if a tad heavy, and don’t impede your rights. *I’ve...Metal Underwear, Telling the Future
In the recent past, I read The Beast with Nine Billion Feet, by Anil Menon, an affable fellow I met at Readercon. I also read Paolo Bacigalupi’s Windup Girl. Both are science fiction, both are set in Asia, and both are far more finely crafted than your average...How soon till someone makes an actual turducken?
Firstly: maybe it’s just that I’m tetchy on a Tuesday, the day the weekly cycle begins to revolve anew. But if I get another press release dubbed “_____ and _____ and _____, Oh My!” I may don sackcloth and ashes and run through the newsroom...A Visit from the Possum
George Jones didn’t have a lot of voice left Friday night. But the poor guy, now an octogenarian, apparently is on the upside of recovery from pneumonia. He occasionally put his hand to his chest as if he was hurting, and his upper range was a whisper. Nobody...French Frets
I only caught a very few minutes of the Oscars, but it was the right few minutes. I’m a devoted Djangophile, and when the strains of “Minor Swing” came blasting from the set, I realized I was hearing a proper, honest-to-goodness Selmer-style Gypsy...Another Take on Bill
Bill Clinton delivered a speech that did everything right at the DNC last night. I didn’t even plan to watch it, and I generally loathe all the self-congratulatory and aggrandizing nonsense of both parties’ conventions. But, think what you will of Bill, he...Here's your order of ribs–would you like the last rites with that, sir?
I suddenly find that I haven’t eaten meat for quite some time. It wasn’t planned, exactly. It just sort of happened. I think I have gone from ambivalent omnivore to accidental vegetarian. I guess it’s testament to how much my diet has changed from...Golfcarts, Mars, The Edge, 11 years
As U2’s The Edge wrote in an online chat some years ago, “Mars is a great idea. I’m all in favor of Mars.” And I’m thrilled that we’ve put a fancy golf cart on the surface of said planet. But back when Evel Knievel was plastering...Clouded thoughts
Like living in a Magritte painting! I want this in my house. Them Dutch is crazy. At least artist Berndnaut Smilde is.The Fancy Lad
The past few days have held two events dubbed “the day Romney lost the election.” First he lied and looked like a boor about the Middle East crisis, then we got the new video in which he misleadingly dubs the people who weren’t, at one point, paying...Here's 2U
Jason Mattera, right wing “bad boy,” asks tough questions of a surprised Bono. Only, yeah–that’s not Bono. Or an Irish accent. It is, however, Pavel Sfera, whose answers are scrupulously accurate. Now I’m wondering who I actually met back...A conference beneath the mizzenmast
The Internet has spawned some major irritants, but none so irritating as yesterday’s “International Talk Like A Pirate Day,” in which people who think they’re funny post things like “Yar, Matey!” and wait for you to do the same in...Down the Tubes
Back in the ’70s, my Holy Grail was no X-Wing fighter, though, like every young dude, I loved them Star Wars. The thing I wanted (and never got until 1996, incidentally) was this travesty of ’70s design and impractical technology: That would be the...Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders
Moving is like childbirth in, perhaps, just one respect: the results tend to make the traumatic difficulty of the event itself fade in memory. I’m speaking out of school, of course, as one who’s only watched childbirth, so take that for the half-baked...Poe Sox, or The Agony of the Feet
Poignant, homey, and extremely strange: the Poe Museum in Richmond has Edgar A. Poe’s actual socks. Guess he liked them tall. Go, Internet.Leave Big Bird Alone
If we can afford a war, we can spare a dime for a few good muppets. I stand with Big Bird. Mitt loves him, but would fire him. What is it with conservatives and going after PBS? Are they afraid Masterpiece is finally going to wither the mighty hand of the market with...E-Edition
Best Of 2024
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