A video.
Starring Bloc Party.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
A Moment of Clarity.
For Your Consideration...
WORDS.
"Obama’s policies — on immigration, marriage equality, tax fairness, guns — are sound and have majority support. His opponents are holding back history, and the will of the people. If Obama gets immigration reform (doubtful, with House intransigence), he will have a terrific legacy, along with health care and saving the American economy from a recession that still cuts deep in Europe. It’s the way he runs the executive branch, his fear of taking the fight to Republicans, that is so maddening. Several governors now are trying to withhold expanded federal health care for the poor, just to spite Obama. He ought to be in those states, calling out the governors who are actively trying to hurt the governed. Instead, he’s defensive, forced to defend his presidency as still being alive and well. Obama doesn’t have to be Lyndon B. Johnson, twisting elbows to shape history. But maybe he can hire an L.B.J. Leaders find a way..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Up-in-the-Air President
WORDS.
"Obama’s policies — on immigration, marriage equality, tax fairness, guns — are sound and have majority support. His opponents are holding back history, and the will of the people. If Obama gets immigration reform (doubtful, with House intransigence), he will have a terrific legacy, along with health care and saving the American economy from a recession that still cuts deep in Europe. It’s the way he runs the executive branch, his fear of taking the fight to Republicans, that is so maddening. Several governors now are trying to withhold expanded federal health care for the poor, just to spite Obama. He ought to be in those states, calling out the governors who are actively trying to hurt the governed. Instead, he’s defensive, forced to defend his presidency as still being alive and well. Obama doesn’t have to be Lyndon B. Johnson, twisting elbows to shape history. But maybe he can hire an L.B.J. Leaders find a way..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Up-in-the-Air President
WORDS.
For Your Consideration...
"The implication of all the social media chatter and news coverage is clear: Rachel Jeantel was out of place in a courtroom. The flipside of that implication is clear, too: Rachel Jeantel should go back to the ghetto where she belongs. In fact, that’s the whole point of the Trayvon Martin case, which has become a referendum on how comfort and privilege deal with the unfamiliar. Before Martin died, he was dehumanized. No matter whose story you believe, it’s clear that George Zimmerman looked at a young black kid walking through a gated community and decided that he wasn’t supposed to be there. He responded by following him, approaching him, and … it’s up to you to decide what you think happened next..."
SLATE: Rachel Jeantel Gets the Trayvon Martin Treatment
"The implication of all the social media chatter and news coverage is clear: Rachel Jeantel was out of place in a courtroom. The flipside of that implication is clear, too: Rachel Jeantel should go back to the ghetto where she belongs. In fact, that’s the whole point of the Trayvon Martin case, which has become a referendum on how comfort and privilege deal with the unfamiliar. Before Martin died, he was dehumanized. No matter whose story you believe, it’s clear that George Zimmerman looked at a young black kid walking through a gated community and decided that he wasn’t supposed to be there. He responded by following him, approaching him, and … it’s up to you to decide what you think happened next..."
SLATE: Rachel Jeantel Gets the Trayvon Martin Treatment
Thursday, June 27, 2013
A Moment of Clarity.
WORDS.
"The president didn’t have the schmooze gene. Politics self-selects for certain traits, the most common of which is an essential neediness, an emotional hole many politicians are trying to fill that makes them crave attention, thrive on the artificial calories provided by superficial relationships, and make the personal sacrifices necessary for public life. Obama’s childhood in Hawaii was marked by a peculiar combination of abandonment and unconditional love. It bred self-reliance and security. By the time he left Chicago for Harvard in 1988, he had the ambition and willingness to sacrifice that is standard equipment in politicians, but he lacked the neediness that is usually part of the package..."
SLATE: The Schmoozing Gene: How Barack Obama’s unwillingness to play the game made America love him—and undercut his presidency.
"The president didn’t have the schmooze gene. Politics self-selects for certain traits, the most common of which is an essential neediness, an emotional hole many politicians are trying to fill that makes them crave attention, thrive on the artificial calories provided by superficial relationships, and make the personal sacrifices necessary for public life. Obama’s childhood in Hawaii was marked by a peculiar combination of abandonment and unconditional love. It bred self-reliance and security. By the time he left Chicago for Harvard in 1988, he had the ambition and willingness to sacrifice that is standard equipment in politicians, but he lacked the neediness that is usually part of the package..."
SLATE: The Schmoozing Gene: How Barack Obama’s unwillingness to play the game made America love him—and undercut his presidency.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Things that make you go 'Hmm...'
WORDS.
(For Your Consideration.)
SLATE: Stop Saying “Sexual Preference”: You may mean well, but it makes you sound ignorant.
(For Your Consideration.)
SLATE: Stop Saying “Sexual Preference”: You may mean well, but it makes you sound ignorant.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
WORDS.
For Your Consideration...
"...Republicans aren’t all racist. But the party actively cultivates racists as voters. Which means that some portion of the Republican electorate, as well as Republican officials, are racists. When a kid literally lives in that political environment, he has a greater chance of being caught up in the extreme end of it. If all of your friends are Republicans and even a small subgroup of Republicans are racist, homophobic bigots, then you’re more likely to associate with racist, homophobic bigots and become one yourself than if you’re hanging out with liberal, crunchy kids.
...If you’ve won the support of birthers, don’t be surprised when your son makes comments about Obama being a Kenyan spear-chucker. Likewise, if you’re so adamantly opposed to equal rights for gay people, you shouldn’t be shocked when your child is exposed as a raging homophobe. Those Twitter feeds did not read like they were written by kids who were rebelling against their parents’ Republicanism, but by kids who were embracing an extreme version of those Republican values."
SLATE: Hereditary Traits: Bigoted taunts by the children of GOP honchos have everything to do with politics.
"...Republicans aren’t all racist. But the party actively cultivates racists as voters. Which means that some portion of the Republican electorate, as well as Republican officials, are racists. When a kid literally lives in that political environment, he has a greater chance of being caught up in the extreme end of it. If all of your friends are Republicans and even a small subgroup of Republicans are racist, homophobic bigots, then you’re more likely to associate with racist, homophobic bigots and become one yourself than if you’re hanging out with liberal, crunchy kids.
...If you’ve won the support of birthers, don’t be surprised when your son makes comments about Obama being a Kenyan spear-chucker. Likewise, if you’re so adamantly opposed to equal rights for gay people, you shouldn’t be shocked when your child is exposed as a raging homophobe. Those Twitter feeds did not read like they were written by kids who were rebelling against their parents’ Republicanism, but by kids who were embracing an extreme version of those Republican values."
SLATE: Hereditary Traits: Bigoted taunts by the children of GOP honchos have everything to do with politics.
Mic Check.
An Ongoing Discussion.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Some on the right going too far in NSA criticism
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Five myths about privacy
THE WASHINGTON POST: Some on the right going too far in NSA criticism
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Five myths about privacy
GIRLS.
WORDS.
For Your Consideration...
FLAVORWIRE: The Narcissistic Postfeminist Millennial Supergirls of ‘The Bling Ring’ and ‘Spring Breakers’
For Your Consideration...
FLAVORWIRE: The Narcissistic Postfeminist Millennial Supergirls of ‘The Bling Ring’ and ‘Spring Breakers’
Thursday, June 13, 2013
F.U.B.U.
An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Finding the right balance between security and liberty
THE WASHINGTON POST: Finding the right balance between security and liberty
"CAN WE GET MUCH HIGHER?..."
A Moment of Clarity.
WORDS.
"The fact that the media has been only too happy to portray West as a caricature rather proves the validity of the entire exercise. His persona has worked as a fractured reflection of expectations, and if you look back over the way that this persona has evolved throughout his career, it’s almost performance art — compare and contrast the fresh-faced, Polo-shirt-wearing, backpack-toting preppy of The College Dropout to the moneyed hedonist of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the latter-day firebrand of his new work. It’s like Middle America’s nightmare made flesh, an articulate and angry black man first trying to live the American dream, then transcending it, then rejecting it. Rarely has a career followed such a compelling and coherent narrative arc, and if you think the guy following it is just a cashed-up egomaniac, well, you’re putting an awful lot of faith in providence..."
FLAVORWIRE: If You’re Laughing at Kanye West, the Joke’s on You
EARLIER:
Black Skinhead.
WORDS.
"The fact that the media has been only too happy to portray West as a caricature rather proves the validity of the entire exercise. His persona has worked as a fractured reflection of expectations, and if you look back over the way that this persona has evolved throughout his career, it’s almost performance art — compare and contrast the fresh-faced, Polo-shirt-wearing, backpack-toting preppy of The College Dropout to the moneyed hedonist of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the latter-day firebrand of his new work. It’s like Middle America’s nightmare made flesh, an articulate and angry black man first trying to live the American dream, then transcending it, then rejecting it. Rarely has a career followed such a compelling and coherent narrative arc, and if you think the guy following it is just a cashed-up egomaniac, well, you’re putting an awful lot of faith in providence..."
FLAVORWIRE: If You’re Laughing at Kanye West, the Joke’s on You
EARLIER:
Black Skinhead.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
A Moment of Clarity.
For Your Consideration...
WORDS.
"Yes, I worry about potential government abuse of privacy from a program designed to prevent another 9/11 — abuse that, so far, does not appear to have happened. But I worry even more about another 9/11. That is, I worry about something that’s already happened once — that was staggeringly costly — and that terrorists aspire to repeat.
I worry about that even more, not because I don’t care about civil liberties, but because what I cherish most about America is our open society, and I believe that if there is one more 9/11 — or worse, an attack involving nuclear material — it could lead to the end of the open society as we know it. If there were another 9/11, I fear that 99 percent of Americans would tell their members of Congress: “Do whatever you need to do to, privacy be damned, just make sure this does not happen again.” That is what I fear most.
...So I don’t believe that Edward Snowden, the leaker of all this secret material, is some heroic whistle-blower. No, I believe Snowden is someone who needed a whistle-blower. He needed someone to challenge him with the argument that we don’t live in a world any longer where our government can protect its citizens from real, not imagined, threats without using big data — where we still have an edge — under constant judicial review. It’s not ideal. But if one more 9/11-scale attack gets through, the cost to civil liberties will be so much greater..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Blowing a Whistle
WORDS.
"Yes, I worry about potential government abuse of privacy from a program designed to prevent another 9/11 — abuse that, so far, does not appear to have happened. But I worry even more about another 9/11. That is, I worry about something that’s already happened once — that was staggeringly costly — and that terrorists aspire to repeat.
I worry about that even more, not because I don’t care about civil liberties, but because what I cherish most about America is our open society, and I believe that if there is one more 9/11 — or worse, an attack involving nuclear material — it could lead to the end of the open society as we know it. If there were another 9/11, I fear that 99 percent of Americans would tell their members of Congress: “Do whatever you need to do to, privacy be damned, just make sure this does not happen again.” That is what I fear most.
...So I don’t believe that Edward Snowden, the leaker of all this secret material, is some heroic whistle-blower. No, I believe Snowden is someone who needed a whistle-blower. He needed someone to challenge him with the argument that we don’t live in a world any longer where our government can protect its citizens from real, not imagined, threats without using big data — where we still have an edge — under constant judicial review. It’s not ideal. But if one more 9/11-scale attack gets through, the cost to civil liberties will be so much greater..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Blowing a Whistle
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
Sunday, June 09, 2013
Working Overtime.
An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity. For Your Consideration...
THE WASHINGTON POST: Tweaking real life
THE WASHINGTON POST: Tweaking real life
No New Friends.
A video.
From DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross, & Lil Wayne.
DJ Khaled - No New Friends (feat... by Artyom_Vnukov
From DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross, & Lil Wayne.
DJ Khaled - No New Friends (feat... by Artyom_Vnukov
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Friday, June 07, 2013
A Moment of Clarity.
WORDS.
"...If Obamacare works (which it will), millions of middle-income voters — the kind of people who might support either party in future elections — will see major benefits, even in rejectionist states. So rejectionism won’t discredit health reform. What it might do, however, is drive home to lower-income voters — many of them nonwhite — just how little the G.O.P. cares about their well-being, and reinforce the already strong Democratic advantage among Latinos, in particular.
Rationally, in other words, Republicans should accept defeat on health care, at least for now, and move on. Instead, however, their spitefulness appears to override all other considerations. And millions of Americans will pay the price."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Spite Club
"...If Obamacare works (which it will), millions of middle-income voters — the kind of people who might support either party in future elections — will see major benefits, even in rejectionist states. So rejectionism won’t discredit health reform. What it might do, however, is drive home to lower-income voters — many of them nonwhite — just how little the G.O.P. cares about their well-being, and reinforce the already strong Democratic advantage among Latinos, in particular.
Rationally, in other words, Republicans should accept defeat on health care, at least for now, and move on. Instead, however, their spitefulness appears to override all other considerations. And millions of Americans will pay the price."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Spite Club
Thursday, June 06, 2013
The Nets.
A Moment of Clarity/For Your Consideration...
WORDS.
"...On Medicaid, education and many other issues, the map of the United States is becoming a patchwork of conscience and callousness. People on one side of a state line have access to health care, strong public schools and colleges, and good transportation systems, while those on the other side do not. The breakdown of a sense of national unity in Washington is now reflected across the country, as more than two dozen states begin to abandon traditions of responsible government.
This is not entirely a partisan issue;..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Split Between the States
WORDS.
"...On Medicaid, education and many other issues, the map of the United States is becoming a patchwork of conscience and callousness. People on one side of a state line have access to health care, strong public schools and colleges, and good transportation systems, while those on the other side do not. The breakdown of a sense of national unity in Washington is now reflected across the country, as more than two dozen states begin to abandon traditions of responsible government.
This is not entirely a partisan issue;..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Split Between the States
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
Words.
"...China has always played a weak hand brilliantly. When Mao Zedong and Zhou met with Nixon and Henry Kissinger, China was in the midst of economic, political and cultural chaos. Its per capita gross domestic product had fallen below that of Uganda and Sierra Leone. Yet Beijing negotiated as if from commanding heights. Today, it has tremendous assets — but it is not the world’s other superpower, and we should not treat it as such.
...The scholar David Shambaugh, who has always been well-disposed toward China, put it this way in a recent book: “China is, in essence, a very narrow-minded, self-interested, realist state, seeking only to maximize its own national interests and power. It cares little for global governance and enforcing global standards of behavior (except its much-vaunted doctrine of noninterference in the internal affairs of countries). Its economic policies are mercantilist and its diplomacy is passive. China is also a lonely strategic power, with no allies and experiencing distrust and strained relationships with much of the world.”..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: China is not the world’s other superpower
"...China has always played a weak hand brilliantly. When Mao Zedong and Zhou met with Nixon and Henry Kissinger, China was in the midst of economic, political and cultural chaos. Its per capita gross domestic product had fallen below that of Uganda and Sierra Leone. Yet Beijing negotiated as if from commanding heights. Today, it has tremendous assets — but it is not the world’s other superpower, and we should not treat it as such.
...The scholar David Shambaugh, who has always been well-disposed toward China, put it this way in a recent book: “China is, in essence, a very narrow-minded, self-interested, realist state, seeking only to maximize its own national interests and power. It cares little for global governance and enforcing global standards of behavior (except its much-vaunted doctrine of noninterference in the internal affairs of countries). Its economic policies are mercantilist and its diplomacy is passive. China is also a lonely strategic power, with no allies and experiencing distrust and strained relationships with much of the world.”..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: China is not the world’s other superpower
Came Back Haunted.
Starring Nine Inch Nails.
PITCHFORK: Nine Inch Nails Announce Massive Tour With Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
A Moment of Clarity.
WORDS.
Pitchfork: Speaking of maturity, you seem to be commenting on the gay marriage issue on "Spring Break Anthem"... in your own way.
Schaffer: We wanted to show just how ridiculous it is that spring break behavior is considered normal and gay marriage is insane when it's actually the opposite.
Samberg: That song ended up having multiple points. The original one was about how acceptable spring break has become, and how it's so terrible for young people, especially girls, to deal with it. But once we were actually watching the video, it became clear that there was another layer, and it was pointing out how so many of the macho, aggro dudes who have such a problem with gay marriage have no problems with acting like fucking animals on spring break. Meanwhile, gay marriage is about people who just want to be civilized and have rights and care for each other.
PITCHFORK: INTERVIEWS: The Lonely Island
Pitchfork: Speaking of maturity, you seem to be commenting on the gay marriage issue on "Spring Break Anthem"... in your own way.
Schaffer: We wanted to show just how ridiculous it is that spring break behavior is considered normal and gay marriage is insane when it's actually the opposite.
Samberg: That song ended up having multiple points. The original one was about how acceptable spring break has become, and how it's so terrible for young people, especially girls, to deal with it. But once we were actually watching the video, it became clear that there was another layer, and it was pointing out how so many of the macho, aggro dudes who have such a problem with gay marriage have no problems with acting like fucking animals on spring break. Meanwhile, gay marriage is about people who just want to be civilized and have rights and care for each other.
PITCHFORK: INTERVIEWS: The Lonely Island
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Monday, June 03, 2013
Sunday, June 02, 2013
"God Bless."
A Moment of Clarity.
WORDS.
"...One hot Sunday afternoon last season, I did not rise for “God Bless America.” In a beer-soaked tone of voice that wasn’t pleasant, a gentleman several rows behind me told me to stand up. I reminded him that I don’t have to.
This incident made me think more about the question: I love this country and don’t want to live anywhere else. But being pressured to stand up at a baseball game for a song that’s essentially a prayer seems, well, un-American. It feels like being pushed into the river for a baptism I didn’t choose. It’s an empty ritual, and one that I think doesn’t hold much theological water..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Why I sit out ‘God Bless America’
WORDS.
"...One hot Sunday afternoon last season, I did not rise for “God Bless America.” In a beer-soaked tone of voice that wasn’t pleasant, a gentleman several rows behind me told me to stand up. I reminded him that I don’t have to.
This incident made me think more about the question: I love this country and don’t want to live anywhere else. But being pressured to stand up at a baseball game for a song that’s essentially a prayer seems, well, un-American. It feels like being pushed into the river for a baptism I didn’t choose. It’s an empty ritual, and one that I think doesn’t hold much theological water..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Why I sit out ‘God Bless America’
Saturday, June 01, 2013
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