Bear Market
In Micheal Herr's nightmare report from Vietnam, Dispatches, he writes: There was a famous story, some reporters asked a door gunner, "How can you shoot women and children?" and he answered, "It's...
View ArticleMaybe They Just Listen For Tone of Voice
The Washington Post reports today that only 33 out of 12000 FBI agents have even a glancing knowledge of Arabic. This is one of those yawn stories. Yeah, yeah, we all know that Americans are bad with...
View ArticleChristian Mistakes Marx for Jesus: Hilarity Ensues
Gerald Schoenewolf, a professional de-gayifyer, who tries to legitimize his bigotry as therapy, recently wrote an article in which he claimed that we should explore "other ways to look at race in...
View ArticleWillie Horton, We Hardly Knew Ye
In Kerry Healey's campaign for governor of Massachusetts, she asks this question of her opponent: "What kind of man would defend a rapist?" Um...the kind of man who is a defense attorney? The ad is...
View ArticleWar on Christmas? Bring it on!
A campus newspaper is accusing the university where I work of a "systematic attack on religious holidays" and of engaging in "political correctness" that "alienates...the majority." The author accuses...
View ArticleThe Eternal Return of the Shame: Oliver North Goes (Back) to Nicaragua
I think I have died and gone to irony heaven. Or maybe irony hell. That might explain the conversation going on in the corner. Soren Kierkegaard: It's infinite, absolute negativity. Alanis Morissette:...
View ArticleDavid Brooks Is a Moron
Proving that he loves nothing more than the status quo and rich people, Brooks takes time out from loving conservatives with inherited wealth to loving liberals with inherited wealth. Way to...
View ArticleWar Crimes
Apparently the logic of the Bush adminsitration is contagious. The logic that goes something like this: To fight brutality, we must become torturers; to protect our freedom, we must relinquish it....
View ArticleLet Him Dangle--New Death Penalty Decision
Florida and California have suspended execution by lethal injection after it took over half an hour to kill Angel Diaz. There's no painless way to kill people and we should stop pretending that there...
View ArticleBeheading Mohammed? I'm Against It
Did you ever see the movie version of Richard III with Ian McKellen? Brilliant! It was a heavily edited script set during WWII in a fascist-sympathizing England. The updated setting worked. The...
View ArticleWar on the Poor At Orange Alert (Still)
I'm shocked. By an increase in busfare. Which I realize sounds a teensy bit like overreacting. I mean, in light of all the ways this country finds to screw the poor, a rise in busfare doesn't really...
View ArticleHappy Birthday, Gitmo!
"Torture is a grotesque piece of compensatory drama," writes Elaine Scarry in The Body in Pain. Tomorrow marks a grim anniversary. Five years ago, the first detainees were transferred to the Guantanamo...
View ArticleThe Bell Curve Redux, Or Why We Should Give Up On Poor Kids
Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve, has been writing a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal Opinion page. Like The Bell Curve, they make me profoundly sad. And pissed off. The Bell...
View ArticleWar is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Elections are Democracy
We've all heard the story about the 1960 debates between the Presidential candidates and how those who listened on the radio thought that Nixon won, but those who watched on television thought that the...
View ArticleHey Poor People, You Suck!
In Ruby Payne's startlingly influential book on education, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, she writes: Low achievement is closely correlated with lack of resources, and numerous studies have...
View Article"I Don't Recall"--Some Thoughts on Political Memory
How many times did Alberto Gonzales say that he didn't remember? 70? That's a lot of not remembering. But to claim that one doesn't remember, no matter how transparently false the claim, is to invoke...
View ArticleThe New Bell Curve--Women in Science (Again)
Two years ago Larry Summers, then-president of Harvard University, attended conference at which he said that differences in "intrinsic aptitude" may explain why there are so few female scientists at...
View ArticleImmigration Reform: The Reagan Years Revisited
A Washington Post article about the new immigration bill says that many on the right "derided the agreement as a sellout of conservative principles," characterizing it as a form of amnesty. Not only...
View ArticleGeorge Bush, Master Ironist
President Bush had this to say about the new funding bill: As it provides vital funds for our troops, this bill also reflects a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return...
View ArticleBush Gives Memorial Day Speech: Black Hole of Irony Created
The Bush administration, which has been claiming for the past several weeks that it can't recall its own policies, is suddenly the champion of memory. In Bush's radio address on Saturday, he told the...
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